Education News and Updates

Another 33 schools will receive trained Special Needs Officers (SNOs) to support students with mild to moderate dyslexia and Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) by mid-2009. This will bring the total number of schools that will be staffed with SNOs to 136 schools (105 primary schools and 31 secondary schools). MOE will continue to provide more schools with SNOs within the next few years.

MOE Press Release : http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/2008/05/moe-continues-to-boost-support.php

CHIJ St. Theresa’s Convent is hoping to field its hockey team at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games (YOG). 5 of its former students are currently in the National Women’s Hockey Team.

CHIJ St. Theresa’s Convent will be moving to a new campus in November, but the school said training sessions will not be affected.

According to the Manpower Ministry, Schools such as the Singapore Institute of Retail Studies (Sirs) are crucial in achieving the goal for Singapore to be recognised as a retail destination comparable to cities such as London, New York and Paris.

Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister of Manpower, posed a challenge to the retail industry — to be among the world’s top 3 cities.

Sirs was established in January 2007, as a collaboration between Nanyang Polytechnic and Workforce Development Agency.

Besides Sirs, training institutes for other industries are being developed by the WDA.

Voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) has criticised CIP as students are concerned more about the CIP points and how CIP could improve their resume. This, they believe, does not reflect the spirit of community service.

However, some forum participants believe that CIP is still needed because the programme is a way to introduce the young to volunteer work.

And even though there will be a number of students that are interested in the CIP points, there will be others that will develop an interest in community service. Hence, the programme is still needed despite some flaws.

Ministry of Education has taken a targeted approach to preschool education which includes aiding children from low-income families with financial schemes.

Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Education) Masagos Zulkifli stated that his Ministry will work with government agencies and self-help groups to reach out to the 5% of children who have not received preschool education.

Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) will offer financial assistance schemes.