Mdm Wee Bee Hoon,

Chairman, Board of Directors,

Mdm Lee Siok Tuan,

Chairman, Nanyang Schools Alumni Association,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

My wife and I are happy to be here with you this evening.

Education will decide the future of Singaporeans.  Parents are right to take great pains over their children’s schooling.  A well-educated people is Singapore’s competitive edge.  To prepare our young for an ever-changing world, schools need to nurture in their students a set of values that will make them grow up into upright citizens, able to work harmoniously together in our multi-racial society, to progress and thrive by our joint endeavours and prosper by our individual efforts.  Most of all they must have strong emotional bonds with fellow Singaporeans and with Singapore and be proud to be Singaporeans.

Character building, inculcating moral values, self-discipline, good manners and courteous behaviour are unchanging tasks when educating and nurturing our young to be morally upright and socially responsible citizens. What I wrote in 1979 in my response to the report from Dr Goh Keng Swee then Minister of Education is still relevant today:

“The field [of education] was vast, the problems innumerable, the objective simple.  It was, and is, to educate a child to bring out his greatest potential, so that he will grow up into a good man and a useful citizen.”

“What kind of man or woman does a child grow up to be after 10-12 years of schooling?  Is he a worthy citizen, guided by decent moral precepts?  Have his teachers and principals set him good examples?  Imparting knowledge to pass examinations and later to do a job, these are important.  However, the litmus test of a good education is whether it nurtures citizens who can live, work, contend and co-operate in a civilised way. Is he loyal and patriotic?  Is he, when the need arises, a good soldier, ready to defend his country, and so protect his wife and children, and his fellow citizens? Is he filial, respectful to elders, law-abiding, humane and responsible?  Does he take care of his wife and children, and his parents?  Is he a good neighbour and a trustworthy friend?  Is he tolerant of Singaporeans of different races and religions?  Is he clear, neat, punctual, and well-mannered.”

However the knowledge content and the way we impart the knowledge will change with the need for teaching new knowledge and new skills, and as new tools, like IT, become affordable.  And we must use more interactive teaching methods in place of rote learning to encourage more thinking, innovative and creative minds.

That was the kind of education that my wife and I wanted for our two sons and a daughter.  We enrolled them in Nanyang Kindergarten, then Nanyang Primary School.  The two boys went on to Catholic High School, and the girl stayed on in Nanyang High.  They have not disappointed their schools or their parents.  Five of my seven grand children were also in Nanyang Kindergarten and Primary school.  But the language environment in their generation has become English dominant, with students speaking to each other in English because they come from English-speaking homes. So my grandchildren’s Mandarin is much weaker than their parents. This is not yet the case in some neighbourhood schools where many students still speak to each other in Mandarin.  However, our society now speaks English as the first language, so even the younger CL teachers had learnt English as their first language in school.  We must find ways to improve the teaching and learning of Mandarin.  Our SAP schools, especially the primary schools, have been given the discretion to give more time and emphasis on Mandarin either during or after school periods and to encourage students to use more Mandarin between themselves.

One reason why we chose Nanyang was the principal Mdm Liu Yuen Sien.  She was a great educator and a firm believer in proper conduct in studies.  Your longest serving principal Mdm Liu led the Nanyang family of schools from 1927 to 1966[1].  She raised academic and moral conduct standards in the school, and stressed the importance of service to society.  At her 40^th birthday in 1940, she said to the school: “The first 20 years of my life were spent entirely on myself; from the age of 20-40, it was spent half on myself and half on others; from now on, it will all be spent on others.”  That spirit became part of Nanyang’s tradition. 

The Nanyang family of schools has a long and illustrious history, going back to 1917.  Nanyang High is the oldest Chinese-medium secondary school in Singapore and has produced distinguished alumni in various fields.

Since the 1970s, Nanyang High has been a leading school that nurtured able students who studied both English and Chinese at the first language level.  It was selected to pioneer the Art Elective Programme in 1984.  It offered the Gifted Education Programme from 1999, and started Higher Music Programme from 2002.  Nanyang High is now an Independent School offering the Integrated Programme.  It has taken bilingual and bicultural education to a higher level, with the introduction of the Bicultural Studies Programme from 2005.

Both Nanyang Primary and Nanyang High have created a vibrant arts culture with pupils familiar with the art forms of the world, understanding the music, theatre, visual arts and literature of both the East and the West.  The school showcases its talent at major school events like the biannual Nanyang Arts Festival.

Nanyang High also offers a wide range of immersion and exchange programmes in Asia and Europe, as well as overseas service-learning projects in many regional countries. 

Lower secondary pupils in Nanyang High are offered an enrichment module on conversational Malay and an appreciation of Malay culture.  It also has community involvement programmes with Mendaki, Muhammadiyah Welfare Home, Jurong Special School and Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital.

Nanyang High is one of the top schools that made a successful transition from a totally Mandarin teaching to an English/Mandarin SAP system.  That was why I supported Mrs Ong Teng Cheong when she wanted to build the new school building on its present site opposite Hwa Chong.  Nanyang High now has boarding facilities that can accommodate students from the region, to live together with Singaporean students.  I am confident the Nanyang family of schools can build and achieve greater heights.       

I congratulate you for the successes you have attained and the contributions you have made to Singapore, and wish you a happy 90^th anniversary.

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