Straits Times / Singapore Sep 23, 2010 More time to teach values By Jane Ng
IN THE next few years, schools will set aside two hours a week to make confident learners and active citizens out of their students. How this is done will be left to the schools, but teachers will have to find ways to engage their students in lessons that have little to do with reading, writing or counting. Education Minister Ng Eng Hen, addressing mostly school principals at his ministry's annual Work Plan seminar on Thursday, also announced plans to start two-year enhanced art and music programmes in three secondary schools. These schools will be eligible for Government funding to provide an enriched art and music learning environment to prepare their students to sit these subjects at the O-levels. These enriched art and music programmes are distinct from the more in-depth Art and Music Elective Programmes, the curricula for which go beyond the O-levels. Students in 17 schools now take these electives for grades in Higher Art and Higher Music. On the programme to provide a 'values-based' education, Dr Ng said: 'Only the right values can shape positive character and committed citizenship in moulding the future of our nation.' -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
