SINGAPORE: New Education Minister Heng Swee Keat says he will devote the coming weeks to better understand the student experience.
His ministry will embark on a detailed study to identify some schools across all levels and backgrounds and analyse their strengths.
This could lead to new prototypes being designed, which would then pave the way for policy reviews and organisational changes.
Mr
Heng said: "We want our education system to be student-centric. I want
to understand more deeply the experience of the students, the
interaction in schools, the experience of the teacher and student
leaders, and to hopefully begin to design the prototypes so that we can
look at where the experiments are, which ones have worked well."
On
Friday, Mr Heng made his first official address to students at the
closing ceremony of the pre-university seminar, amidst much cheer.
He surprised the crowd by going on stage spontaneously to sing the popular national song "Home".
After the event, he told reporters he was touched by the students' knowledge, passion and creativity.
Mr
Heng said his ministry will also engage more parents in dialogue by
reactivating COMPASS (COMmunity and PArents in Support of Schools), an
advisory council made up of parents and the community.
He identified his two Senior Parliamentary Secretaries, Hawazi Daipi and Sim Ann, who will be "reactivating COMPASS very soon".
- CNA/ir