Ms Jennifer Chan
Director, Corporate Communications, Ministry of Education
Mr Chua Lew Kee BBM (L),
Chairman of the School Advisory Committee
Mrs Lysia Kee
Principal, Bukit Batok Secondary School
Distinguished Guests
Parents
Teachers and Students
It gives me great pleasure this evening to join you at the Opening Ceremony of the new campus of Bukit Batok Secondary School. I want to first extend my warmest congratulations to the school on the completion of its school building project. I also want to extend apologies from Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Finance, for not being able to officiate at this function. He is on official duties overseas. But, as an MP for Jurong GRC which covers Bukit Batok, I am pleased to be here and to have the opportunity to view this new inclusion to the Bukit Batok community.
Every year, the government invests money on the building of new schools as well as the expansion and upgrading of old school sites to better facilitate engaged learning; and as the Senior Minister of State for Education, I am of course pleased to be here to witness the finished product of one such endeavour – the brand new buildings you see here standing side by side with well refurbished old blocks.
I congratulate Bukit Batok Secondary School because today, she stands tall as an exemplary neighbourhood school. I understand thatBukit Batok Sec School is a popular school and has become a choice school because of the quality of education it offers, the educational outcomes and results it has achieved, and its students who have excelled in various fields.
The government has spent $25.48 million on the PRIME project for this school and I am told that the students, staff, School Advisory Committee, parents, alumni and the community have helped raise about $609,000 towards the building of non-standard facilities. This is commendable and is a good example of how the stakeholders and community work with the school to enhance the educational opportunities and experience for students. I am also pleased that Bukit Batok Secondary School has been able to garner such tremendous support from the community in the constituency.
Quality Education in BBSS
In its drive to provide quality holistic and dynamic education to every student, I am told that Bukit Batok Sec School has adopted a key programme to teach and inculcate Habits of Mind. It has not only made HOM a way of life in the school, but as the Centre of Learning for HOM in the cluster, it has shared its resources and expertise both locally and internationally. It has trained numerous teachers from schools across Singapore, and shared its resources and experience with local and overseas educators through various platforms including international conferences. Through this internationally acclaimed programme, students are enabled to be keenly aware of their own thinking and learning processes, and nurtured to become successful self-directed learners. This is how the school is helping its students to be ready to face unknown challenges.
Indeed, I notice that the buildings around the school are named for the values that the school is trying to promote. I am sure that these efforts will build the strengths and the resilience that all students need to weather the current global economic storm and to optimise opportunities in an uncertain future.
Bukit Batok Secondary School has many success stories to share.
A few of these have been highlighted to me:
Bukit Batok Secondary School has produced a national hero. Kok Khew Fai, who studied in the school from 2001 to 2004, was awarded the Medal of Distinguished Act in Sept 2008 by DPM Teo Chee Hean for his selfless act of valour during a critical moment when he saved an NS man during a training session. This was when he threw himself over the recruit to protect him as a hand grenade exploded nearby. Khew Fai is going on a SAF Merit Scholarship to Imperial College, London from Sept 2009.
Khew Fai acknowledged the pivotal role played by his Alma Mater (Bukit Batok Secondary School) in instilling the values of self-discipline and self-motivation. Instinctively, he knew what to do.
Students from the Normal Technical stream have also done well. Sri Ponirah, who graduated from Bukit Batok Sec School in 2002, is in
Perth pursuing a degree in early childhood and another student Ng Hock Lee, from the class of 2000, is now in his 3rd year at NTU doing his Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree. When I was given this last bit of information I was really pleased because this is indeed validation of our belief that there are many pathways to success. Most certainly, this is also the result of the school’s efforts to customize special programmes to help the NT students to engage better in their learning, with greater opportunities for practice-based learning and hands-on experiences.
I am also heartened to learn that 3 of this young school’s graduates, namely, Azhar bin Mohamad Ali, Nagulan s/o Tinagaran and Crystal Ho Ping Ping, have become teachers and have chosen to serve in their Alma Mater, Bukit Batok Secondary School.
From the past to the present, there is no lack of talent or of heart. The school has served the community in various ways.
I understand it has conducted Blood Donation Drives annually since 2003. The Blood Donation Drives have been very well-received and are strongly supported by the Bukit Batok Community and the Alumni. The drives have always exceeded the targets for units of blood donated. I am sure that the Red Cross appreciates Bukit Batok Secondary as one of its major sources of blood donation.
Still another example of the way the school has served the community is its participation, early this year, in Project RICE 2009. The students of BBSS went into the nearby housing estates at Toh Guan and Bukit Batok to publicise the event and source for donations of rice for the needy. I am told that, in both instances, the school exceeded the targets by close to 50%.
It is clear to me that the school works very closely with the local communities and I am therefore not surprised that the school has managed to garner so much support from the neighbourhood community organizations for its own fund-raising efforts.
We need only look at this school’s short 23 year old history and its remarkable achievements to realize that so long as there is faith and determination and self-belief, even a neighbourhood school can aspire to be a premier school. We can be proud of how our schools deliver a quality education to our young.
Conclusion
Bukit Batok Secondary School has come to another milestone. Your new campus is set to immerse you in a whole range of learning experiences, such as your new home-room system, and you are empowered by even more advanced technologies. This should strengthen your school’s mission to nurture each student to be a successful self-directed learner with a passion for life-long learning. Today’s employers and more so, those of tomorrow, will expect workers who are flexible, enterprising and able to create new value on their own as well as in teams.
With the continued strong support of the SAC, the Alumni and parents, coupled with the dedication of the BBSS staff and the exuberant passion of the students, I trust that BBSS will continue to provide a high quality and well-rounded education. I am confident that Bukit Batok Secondary, together with the community, will continue to produce more success stories for many years.
Congratulations once again to Bukit Batok Secondary School.
It gives me great pleasure now to declare the new campus of Bukit Batok Secondary School open.
I wish you all the very best.