MOE's Addendum to the President's Address

1. The Ministry of Education (MOE) strives to enable all Singaporeans to realise their potential. We have been engaging our stakeholders as part of the Forward Singapore exercise. We will strengthen our partnerships with families, communities, and industry to refresh our system of meritocracy, so that all can thrive and contribute to Singapore in their own ways. 

Pressing on with fundamental priorities

2. A MOE is committed to providing a quality education and a strong foundation for every child. In a complex and fast-changing world, our students will require diverse skillsets to stay resilient, and diverse perspectives to connect and collaborate with others in Singapore and elsewhere. MOE will thus continue to encourage holistic development and cultivate 21st Century Competencies. To meet the wider and more complex needs of our students, we will support our educators by giving them opportunities to broaden their perspectives and skillsets. We will also partner families and the community to provide holistic support for our children’s socio-emotional development.

3. We have moved away from a one-size-fits-all approach to education, and from using a single metric to evaluate the diverse dimensions of our students’ abilities. Full Subject-Based Banding will be fully implemented in secondary schools next year and will allow every student to learn subjects at a level that caters to their strengths and learning needs. Our schools are building partnerships with their stakeholders to offer niche areas of excellence to cater to students’ diverse interests. We will also continue to expand admission routes to schools and Institutes of Higher Learning to recognise the different strengths and abilities of our students.

4. Every child should have access to quality education, according to their needs, regardless of their starting point in life. We will continue to invest more in preschool education, especially for children from disadvantaged families. We will also step up our efforts to provide opportunities for learners of different backgrounds to interact, empathise with, and support one another.

Adapting to new challenges

5. At the same time, to adapt to a changing global landscape, we will need to break new ground.

6. First, amidst economic transformation and labour market disruptions, we must evolve our practices to create new value and stay ahead of the competition. To enable Singaporeans to seize new opportunities and stay employable, we will strengthen our SkillsFuture movement to better support continual upskilling and reskilling across an individual’s lifetime. This includes making training accessible for adult learners, developing new andragogical approaches, and working closely with companies, unions, and training institutions to tighten the nexus between business needs, workers’ skills and training. We will provide stronger support for mid-career workers, in particular, to reduce their opportunity cost for training should they require a substantial skills reboot. At the same time, our people will need to make full use of these opportunities by developing a growth mindset and passion for lifelong learning.

7. Second, we will strengthen support for students with Special Educational Needs (SEN). We will continue to strengthen the educational experience for students with SEN in mainstream and Special Education (SPED) schools. MOE will work with Social Service Agencies to improve remuneration and career progression in the SPED sector. This will improve the quality of SPED and better enable our students to lead independent and meaningful lives.

8. Third, we will leverage technology to better customise teaching and learning for students of different abilities. We will continue to invest in education technologies to bring out the best in each child. For example, adaptive learning platforms, powered by Artificial Intelligence, will allow more advanced learners to stretch themselves, while freeing up time for our teachers to focus on students with greater learning needs.

Fostering a culture of collective responsibility

9. All of us have a part to play in shaping and strengthening our social compact. Those who have done well in life should pay it forward, and support those who have less. Success must be defined not just by one’s achievements, but also by how we contribute to the common good. By moving beyond the pursuit of paper qualifications and embracing a broader definition of success, our education system can bring out the best in every child and strengthen our resilience as a nation through our diversity of strengths.