National Archivesof Singapore - 9 SEP 1997 Release No.: 39/AUG 06-l/97/08/14 97 --TCH-23 ADDRESS BY RADM TEO CHEE HEAN, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, AT THE SPECIAL ACADEMIC AWARDS PRESENTATION CEREMONY 1997 AT THE REGIONAL LANGUAGE CENTRE ON THURSDAY, 14 AUGUST 1997 AT 3.00 PM This afternoon, we present the Prime Minister’s Book Prize for excellence in bilingualism, the Lee Kuan Yew Award to those who excel in Mathematics and Science and the Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship for 1997. The Prime Minister’s Book Prize winners have mastered both English and the mother tongue. This is a great achievement. Many of the winners study the mother tongue not at second language level but at first l language level. They will help us maintain the position of the mother tongues in Singapore in the next generation. There should always be some among us ‘who speak and write Chinese, Malay and Tamil at a high level. They are standard-bearers in our multi-lingual society. The Lee Kuan Yew Award for Mathematics and Science encourage students to give attention to science and technology. Without natural resources, Singapore needs a strong scientific and technological base to maintain its competitive advantage in the next century. Education clearly is one of Singapore’s key priorities. It is the foundation of a sound education system that has helped to make possible Singapore’s economic and social progress over the past 32 years. Government, our educational institutions, teachers, parents and the students themselves value education and good performance. This wide consensus on the importance of education, and the willingness of all sectors of society to invest in a good education for our younger generation is the important factor that has enabled our students to do well. The government has sent a strong signal that education is a high priority. We will continue to invest in our young. Our policies must also l create a supportive and encouraging environment to motivate our pupils to do well. We will give recognition to outstanding pupils. And to maximise the potential of our pupils, we will also encourage as many as possible to make an effort to improve, and recognise their efforts when they do. Edusave awards are currently given to pupils to motivate them to do well in their studies. We now have the Edusave Entrance Scholarships for Independent Schools, the Edusave Scholarships, and the Edusave Merit Bursaries. The Edusave Entrance Scholarships for Independent Schools are awarded to the top 25 per cent of the pupils admitted into the independent schools each year. These scholarships and the generous financial assistance schemes offered by the Ministry of Education and the independent schools ensure that no deserving pupil will be deprived of a place in an independent school because his family is unable to pay the independent school fees. The Edusave Scholarships are given to the top 10 per cent of pupils in primary 5 and 6 and secondary schools, other than the independent schools. 3 The Edusave Merit Bursaries are awarded to the top 25 per cent of pupils, by level and stream, in all primary and secondary schools, including the independent schools, as well as junior colleges and centralised institutes and the Institute of Technical Education. The Edusave Merit Bursaries are for pupils who are not recipients of Edusave Entrance Scholarships for Independent Schools, Edusave Scholarships or Ministry of Education Scholarships and whose family income is less than $3,000 per month. To further reward diligent effort among pupils who have made significant improvements in their academic performance, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong announced a new category of awards in December last year: the Good Progress Award. My Ministry has now worked out the details of this award and will implement it from this year. The Good Progress Award will recognise and motivate those pupils who are not eligible for existing Edusave scholarships and bursaries but have nevertheless worked hard and shown good progress in their studies. With this new award scheme, we will recognise a larger number of deserving pupils, in this case those who have shown good progress and definite improvement from one year to the next. All Singaporean pupils in primary schools, secondary schools, junior colleges and centralised institutes and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) are eligible for the award. There will be no awards given to pupils in primary 1, because the award is based on improvement in performance, and for them there is no basis for comparison. 4 Those who receive the Edusave Scholarship or Edusave Merit Bursary are not eligible for the Good Progress Award. Family income will not be a consideration in deciding which pupils are eligible. We expect that the main recipients of this award will be the average and below average students, who make an above-averageeffort. Ten per cent of students, or an estimated 45,000 students per year will benefit from this award. This award will be given to a maximum of 10 per cent of pupils in each stream and at each level. On average, about 120 awards will be given in each primary school, 130 in each secondary school, 140 in each junior college and centralised institute and 80 in each of the ITE training institutes. With this scheme, a total of about 120,000 students from primary 2 to the Institute level would benefit from Edusave Scholarships, Edusave Merit Bursaries or Good Progress Awards. The amounts of the award are $50 for primary 2 and 3 pupils, and $100 for primary 4 to 6 pupils. For secondary pupils, the quantum is $150. For the junior colleges and centralised institutes, it is $200 and for the Institute of Technical Education, it is $300. It is not so much the value of the award that is important, but the symbolic recognition that it gives to the students who have put in hard work and made a significant improvement in their performance. The measurementof a pupil’s progress will be based on the scale of improvement he shows in his ranking within the standard. Pupils who have attained good improvement in their rankings within the standard will be short- listed for the award. Principals will establish the criteria for ranking within the standard. They will also have flexibility to distribute the awards across streams within a standard or to recognise pupils who have shown exceptional 5 improvements in specific subjects, provided the total number of awards is within 10 per cent of the school’s enrolment. The government will implement this award on a co-funding basis with t he Community Development Councils or CDCs. For constituencies without CDCs, the government will co-fund the award with the Citizens’ Consultative Committees. The funding is in the ratio 9: 1. In other words, for every dollar that is raised by the grassroots organisations towards this award, the government will provide another nine dollars. l With the three schemes in place - Edusave scholarships, Edusave Merit Bursaries, and the Good Progress Awards, 35 per cent of the pupil population will benefit from Edusave awards encouraging good performance. After two or three years, we intend to evaluate the various Edusave awards in order to gauge the effectiveness of these schemes and examine how they can be improved. Finally, I congratulate this year’s three groups of Special Academic Award winners - those who have achieved effective bilingualism at the various critical levels, those who have excelled in Mathematics and Science and the winners of the Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship Award. I wish you well in your endeavours and hope you will in time take your place in contributing to society. EDU(9)/Maugl4D. ‘97/Pgs. I-5 .