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SINGAPORE – The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated many large-scale social, economic and technological trends, and this will have lasting effects on the way people live, work and interact with each other, said Education Minister Lawrence Wong.
To better prepare students for this rapidly changing environment, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will adopt four main strategies, it said on Thursday (December 3).
It will intensify efforts to maximize opportunities for disadvantaged students, create multiple pathways for students to hone their strengths, help them develop attitudes and skills beyond book knowledge, and focus more on interdisciplinary learning.
“There are major trends that are already underway and that will continue to accelerate, things like online shopping, digital entertainment, virtual communications, and even virtual presence … And these trends are sure to continue after Covid-19,” Wong said.
“There will be an uneven recovery across industries and countries, after the pandemic, and there will surely be long-lasting effects on the way we live, work and interact with each other for the foreseeable future.”
Mr. Wong spoke about the future of education in the first session of a series of webinars for the National University of Singapore (NUS) to celebrate its 115th anniversary.
The NUS115 Distinguished Speaker Series, with the theme “Shaping the Future”, will run until the middle or third quarter of next year, depending on the Covid-19 situation.
Mr. Wong said that the first strategy of the Ministry of Education is to redouble ongoing efforts to maximize opportunities for disadvantaged students. The Government will increase its investments in research and development in this area to guide these efforts.
“We want to invest more to level differences in early life and give children full access to appropriate support for health, learning and development,” he said.
The second strategy is to ensure that institutions have, and continue to build, multiple avenues for students to hone their strengths.
“We have long recognized that each child is unique and we need different approaches to help them learn and grow,” Wong said.
He noted that over the years, there has been a wide range of options for students.
For example, schools like NUS High School of Math and Science cater to people with specialized interests. For those who thrive in a more hands-on and hands-on learning environment, there are schools like Crest and Spectra Secondary.
But Singapore “should also be careful not to take this personalized approach too far,” he said.
For example, the broadcast, which was a personalized approach, led to stigmatization and labeling, and a self-limiting mindset among students of what they perceived as an “undercurrent,” he said.
That’s why the Ministry of Education decided to phase out streaming by 2024 and replace it with subject-based bands, where students can take subjects at a higher or lower level based on their strengths.
This multi-track approach should also extend beyond schools to tertiary education, Wong said.
He noted that there is now a range of varied and high-quality institutions here: comprehensive universities like NUS and Nanyang Technological University, more focused universities like Singapore University of Management and Singapore University of Technology and Design, and applied universities like the Singapore Institute of Technology and Singapore University of Social Sciences.
There are also specialized institutions like the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, as well as high skill and vocational paths anchored by the polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education.
“This diversity is an important strength, which we must continue to defend,” he said.
Third, students will need to develop attitudes and skills beyond the knowledge of books, Wong said.
“The way forward for us is to continue emphasizing our competitive advantage and our human strengths: the ability to build relationships with each other, to collaborate and work as a team, to be able to think creatively … to exchange ideas and challenge each other. .and then develop better solutions together. “
Students will learn to do this from elementary school, he said, noting that the ministry has freed them time and space by eliminating assessments and tests in certain years.
“And with that time, we are focusing on developing what our educators call 21st century competencies: core values like respect and resilience, socio-emotional competencies like responsible decision making, and skill sets like critical and inventive thinking.”
The fourth strategy is to promote more interdisciplinary learning to support professional mobility and “prepare Singaporeans for a more dynamic and uncertain future.”
But he cautioned that it is important to “strike the right balance.”
“We don’t want to go from one extreme to the other. Specialization in the field is still necessary and will continue to be important.
“But at the same time, we must think of individual disciplines as the different branches of the tree of knowledge; the branches are constantly growing and producing new twigs. But remember, ultimately, we are part of the same tree.
“So we need to foster the ability to see the broader connection of things and work seamlessly across different disciplines, because it is often at the boundaries or the gaps between disciplines that we find opportunities for new discoveries and we can move forward across the boundaries. of knowledge. . “
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