how to write a speech to the minister of education

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SPEECH READ BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, HONOURABLE DOUGLAS SYAKALIMA, MP, DURING THE LAUNCH OF THE GLOBAL ACTION WEEK FOR EDUCATION (GAWE) April 25, 2022 ZANEC News , Speeches Launch of GAWE Minister of Education Douglas Syakalima 2022 Global Action Week for Education 25th-29th April 2022i Speech Pledges Equality Education Emergencies

DEAR COUNTRY MEN AND WOMEN, YOUTH AND CHILDREN

IT IS A PRIVILEGE AND AN HONOUR TO LAUNCH THE 2022 GLOBAL ACTION WEEK FOR EDUCATION (GAWE).

THE GLOBAL ACTION WEEK FOR EDUCATION (GAWE) IS AN EVENT COORDINATED BY THE GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR EDUCATION (GCE) TO ENCOURAGE MILLIONS AROUND THE WORLD TO ORGANIZE ACTIVITIES IN THEIR COUNTRIES TO REFLECT ON THE PROGRESS THAT HAS BEEN MADE TOWARDS THE ACHIEVEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS IN EDUCATION SUCH AS THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL NUMBER 4 (SDG4). GAWE IS, THEREFORE, ONE OF THE MAJOR CAMPAIGNS FOR THE EDUCATION MOVEMENT.

THE 2022 GLOBAL ACTION WEEK FOR EDUCATION IS BEING COMMEMORATED UNDER THE THEME “ PROTECT EDUCATION IN EMERGENCIES NOW! ” .   INDEED, IT IS IMPORTANT TO PROTECT AND SAFE GUARD EDUCATION AT ALL TIMES, INCLUDING IN EMERGENCIES SUCH AS THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC WHICH HAS HIT THE WORLD AND HAS AFFECTED THE EDUCATION SECTOR IN AN UNMAGINABLE WAY. THIS IS BECAUSE LEARNING IS NO LONGER TAKING PLACE IN THE SAME WAY IT USED TO .

MY GOVERNMENT IS VERY MUCH AWARE THAT EDUCATION IS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT WHICH SHOULD BE ACCESSED BY EVERYONE EVEN DURING EMERGENCIES SUCH AS THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC. AS A MINISTRY, WE ARE COGNISANT OF THE FACT THAT THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC HAS WORSENED THE ALREADY EXISTING INEQUALITIES IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR.  THEREFORE, THE MINISTRY IS DOING EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO  MITIGATE THESE INEQUALITIES SO THAT NO ONE IS LEFT BEHIND.

COUNTRY MEN, WOMEN, YOUTH AND CHILDREN,

THE VISION OF MY GOVERNMENT IS TO ENSURE THAT EVERY CHILD IS PROVIDED WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO ACCESS EDUCATION FROM EARLY CHILDHOOD TO TERTIARY. THE ONSET OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC WAS AN EYE OPENER TO THE WORLD THAT INVESTMENT IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR IS A PRIORITY. THAT IS WHY MY GOVERNMENT IS DOING EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO ENSURE THAT THE ENVIRONMENT IN OUR SCHOOLS IS SAFE AND HEALTH FOR BOTH OUR LEARNERS AND TEACHERS.

IN ORDER TO IMPROVE ACCESS AND FOSTER EQUALITY IN THE ACCESS TO EDUCATION, THE NEW DAWN GOVERNMENT INTRODUCED FREE EDUCATION FROM EARLY CHILDHOOD TO SECONDARY SCHOOL LEVEL. FURTHERMORE, EQUITY IN THE ACCESS TO EDUCATION IS BEING FOSTERED THROUGH THE PROVISION OF BURSARIES UNDER THE CONSTITUENCY DEVELOPMENT FUND (CDF).  AS A GOVERNMENT, IT IS OUR DESIRE THAT THERE IS CONTINUITY OF LEARNING EVEN AMIDIST EMERGENCIES.

COUNTRY MEN, WOMEN, YOUTHS AND CHILDREN,

IT IS IMPORTANT TO MENTION THAT THE GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR EDUCATION (GCE) MOVEMENT HAS JOINTLY DEVELOPED POLICY REQUESTS FOR THE CAMPAIGN DURING THIS YEAR’S GAWE. THE FOLLOWING ARE THE DEMANDS WHICH MY GOVERNMENT PLEDGES TO ADDRESS.

• PROTECT AND GUARANTEE THE FULFILLMENT OF THE RIGHT TO PUBLIC QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL IN-AMIDST COVID 19, BY PROVIDING EMPOWERING, SAFE, RESPECTFUL, INCLUSIVE AND ACCESSIBLE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS FOR ALL LEARNERS, REGARDLESS OF THEIR LEGAL STATUS, AGE, GENDER, DISABILITY, SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS, ETHNICITY, RACE OR ANY OTHER FORM OF DISCRIMINATION AND EXCLUSION.
• DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT CRISIS-SENSITIVE NATIONAL EDUCATION PLANS AND BUDGETS, INTEGRATING EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS MEASURES INTO THE EDUCATION SECTOR PLANNING TO ENSURE THE FULFILLMENT OF THE RIGHT TO QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL.
• LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF THE PEOPLE AFFECTED AND THE LOCAL ACTORS (INCLUDING LOCAL CIVIL SOCIETY, TEACHER ORGANIZATIONS, CHILDREN AND YOUTH GROUPS, PARENTS AND COMMUNITIES), WHILE ACKNOWLEDGING THEIR CRUCIAL ROLE IN THE RESPONSE
• ENSURE SUFFICIENT, SUSTAINABLE AND PREDICTABLE FUNDING FOR EDUCATION AMIDST THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC, BY ALLOCATING AT LEAST 10% OF THE EDUCATION BUDGET TOWARDS MITIGATING THE IMPACT OF COVID 19, INCLUDING FULLY SUPPORTING THE GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR EDUCATION’S (GPE) EDUCATION CANNOT WAIT (ECW) REPLENISHMENT PROCESS
• ENSURE THAT GIRLS AND WOMEN HAVE EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES TO FULFILL THEIR RIGHT TO EDUCATION IN EMERGENCY CONTEXTS AND APPLY A GENDER PERSPECTIVE IN THE PLANNING, BUDGETING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLANS.
• ENSURE THAT LEARNERS WITH DISABILITIES HAVE EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES TO FULFILL THEIR RIGHT TO EDUCATION IN EMERGENCY CONTEXTS AND APPLY AN INCLUSIVE EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE IN THE PLANNING, BUDGETING, AND IMPLEMENTATION OF EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLANS;
• ENSURE THE AVAILABILITY OF ADEQUATELY TRAINED TEACHERS IN EMERGENCY CONTEXTS, BY IMPROVING THEIR REMUNERATION, INCENTIVES AND SUPPORT.
• ENDORSE AND IMPLEMENT THE SAFE SCHOOLS DECLARATION AND ENSURE THAT ALL LEARNERS AND EDUCATORS CAN LEARN AND TEACH IN SAFETY.

TAKING COGNISANCE OF THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION IN ANY SOCIETY, ZAMBIA, THROUGH THE LEADERSHIP OF HIS EXCELLENCY MR HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, HAS SHOWN COMMITMENT TO PROMOTING EDUCATION AS A KEY SECTOR FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. THIS IS BECAUSE EDUCATION IS KEY IN PROVIDING PRODUCTIVE HUMAN CAPITAL THAT CONTRIBUTES SIGNIFICANTLY TO THE COUNTRY’S GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP).

MY GOVERNMENT IS, HOWEVER, AWARE THAT THERE ARE STILL SOME CHALLENGES BEING FACED IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR. THESE INCLUDE INADEQUATE LEARNING AND TEACHING MATERIALS ESPECIALLY FOR LEARNERS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS AND INADEQUATE CLASSROOM SPACE, DESKS, AND BOARDING FACILITIES FOR OUR LEARNERS, ESPECIALLY IN RURAL AREAS. WORSE STILL, THE ADVENT OF THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC HAS ALSO ADDED MORE CHALLENGES TO THE SECTOR ESPECIALLY WITH REGARDS TO ACCESS TO ALTERNATIVE MODES OF EDUCATION PROVISION.

IN ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES THAT THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION IS FACING, THE NEW DAWN GOVERNMENT HAS DECENTRALISED ACCESS TO CDF AND FURTHER INCREASED IT FROM 1.6 MILLION TO 25.7 MILLION.  THE GOVERNMENT HAS ALSO GIVEN THE MANDATE TO COMMUNITIES TO MAKE DECISIONS ON DEVELOPMENTAL AGENDAS SUCH AS THE NUMBER OF SCHOOLS THEY WANT TO CONSTRUCT IN THEIR COMMUNITIES, AMONG OTHER THINGS.

FURTHERMORE, THE GOVERNMENT HAS SCALED UP THE PROCUREMENT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING MATERIALS, EXPANSION OF SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE AND FORMULATION OF PROGRESSIVE POLICIES THAT FAVOUR ACCESS TO QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL.  THE MINISTRY ALSO ENSURED THAT THE SCHOOL GRANTS WERE RECEIVED ON TIME IN OUR SCHOOLS TO FACILITATE FOR THE SMOOTH OPERATIONALISATION OF THE FREE EDUCATION POLICY AND THE PURCHASE OF COVID 19 PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENTS.

DESPITE THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF   THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC ON THE EDUCATION SECTOR, MY GOVERNMENT HAS COMMITTED TO ENSURING THAT LEARNING CONTINUES IN SCHOOLS. THIS HAS BEEN DONE BY ENCOURAGING OUR TEACHERS AND LEARNERS TO DILIGENTLY OBSERVE ALL THE COVID 19 PREVENTION PROTOCOLS INCLUDING TAKING UP THE VACCINES.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT, ZAMBIA IS ONE OF THE COUNTRIES THAT HAS MANAGED TO MAINTAIN THE SCHOOL CALENDAR INSPITE OF THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC. THIS IS BECAUSE AS GOVERNMENT, WE ARE AWARE THAT INDEED EDUCATION SHOULD CONTINUE EVEN AMIDST CALAMITIES. THE GOVERNMENT IS ALSO WORKING TOWARDS ENSURING THAT THE ALTERNATIVE MODES OF LEARNING ARE BEING ACCESSED BY EVERYONE ESPECIALLY FOR LEARNERS IN THE RURAL AREAS AND THOSE WITH SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS.

THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION IS PLEASED TO NOTE THAT IN ZAMBIA, THE ZAMBIA NATIONAL EDUCATION COALITION (ZANEC) TAKES THE LEAD TO COORDINATE THIS ANNUAL EVENT. THE COMMITMENT SHOWN BY ZANEC IN COORDINATING THIS GLOBAL EVENT WHILE WORKING TOGETHER WITH THE MINISTRY, DEPICTS A TRUE REFLECTION OF THE COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS BETWEEN CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS AND THE GOVERNMENT TOWARDS THE PROMOTION OF QUALITY EDUCATION FOR EVERY ZAMBIAN.

WE ARE GRATEFUL TO ALL OUR COOPERATING PARTNERS AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS SUCH AS THE GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR EDUCATION (GPE), DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (DFID), GIZ, IRISH AID, JICA, UNICEF, SAVE THE CHILDREN, WORLD BANK AND ZANEC TO NAME BUT A FEW, WHO ARE WORKING WITH THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION IN THE PROVISION AND PROMOTION OF QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL ZAMBIANS.

FINALLY, I URGE YOU ALL TO TAKE KEEN INTEREST AND PARTICIPATE IN THE VARIOUS MEDIA PROGRAMMES THAT WILL BE RUNNING DURING THE WEEK.

I HEREBY OFFICIALLY LAUNCH THE 2022 GLOBAL ACTION WEEK FOR EDUCATION, WHICH RUNS FROM MONDAY 25 TH APRIL TO FRIDAY 29 TH APIRL, 2022.

MAY GOD BLESS OUR BELOVED COUNTRY ZAMBIA.

I THANK YOU.

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Speech on Education and its Importance for Students

Speech on importance of education for students.

Good Morning to one and all present here! Today I am here to deliver a speech about education. It is usually a belief that education is the foundation for all-round development. Life is based on development and that developing and growing is life. If we describe this view into the perspective of education, we can sum up that education is the all-round development of the individual’s personality. Thus, education is nothing but all-round development of the individual’s personality. Education is a process of man-making. Hence, education is necessary for all.

Importance of Education

As per the report of the Kothari Commission, “the destiny of India is being shaped in its classrooms.” Education ingrain civic and social responsibility among everyone. India is a land of diversities. Therefore, in order to bring unity, education is a means for emotional integration. We cannot do without any kind of education. Education is an essential aspect of human development. Education is a means of achieving a world of peace, justice, freedom, and equality for all. Thus, education is extremely necessary for all. No good life is possible without education.

It indorses the intelligence of human beings, develops his skill, and enables him to be industrious. It ensures his progress. Education also channelizes the undeveloped capacities, attitude, interest, urges and needs of the individual into desirable channels. The individual can adjust and modify his environment with the help of education as per his need.

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Problems and Prospects

In a democratic country, education is necessary for all its citizens. Unless all the citizens get education, democratic machinery cannot work well. So we may emphasize that the problem of equality of educational opportunities in Indian. This situation is a very formidable one.

Our education system is at cross-roads. The Indian constitution enacted that there should be a universalization of primary education. In the order of the constitution, it was indicated that compulsory education must be for all children up to the age of 14. The universalization of elementary education has been implemented as a national goal. ‘Education for all’ is now an international goal.

The main problems are finances. Rural-urban disparity due to illiteracy. Women’s education, economic conditions of backward communities and non-availability of equipment are some other major problems.

Strategies and efforts at the national and international level

Universal elementary education has run the formulation of the project “education for all”. The provision of article 45 of the Indian constitution is a noble determination for the universalization of elementary education. Big efforts have been made to reach the goal of providing elementary education to every child of the country through, universal enrolment, universal provision, and universal retention.

Our constitution is making arrangements for free and compulsory education with the right of minorities to establish educational institutions. As well as there are education for weaker sections, secular education, women’s education, instruction in the mother-tongue at the primary stage, etc. These constitutional provisions are nothing but our effort to achieve the target of the project “Education for all”.

Thus, in the end, we find that education is a significant factor for achieving success, building characters, and for living a wholesome and happy life. True education always humanizes the person. In this reference, “Education for all” has become an international goal for both developed and developing countries.

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How To Write A Speech On Education (With Sample Speech)

Hrideep barot.

• Speech Writing

“Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world.” 

These words by Nelson Mandela pretty much sum up the importance of education in the life of human beings. Without education, human beings wouldn’t have arrived at the stage they are right now, and it is unlikely that we will be able to continue our missions to space progressively without education. 

And yet the truth remains that many, many people across the world do not have the right or ability to receive an education. Many of these people might be able to do great things if only they had the means to do so.

In such a scenario, it becomes important to spread awareness about education. Delivering speeches is one of the best ways to do so, as through speeches one can make a more personal connection with the people attending & make it more likely that they will actually do something about it.

However, it’s also true that education is a topic that many, many people have spoken about. In such a scenario, you might find yourself wondering what you can do to make your speech stand apart from all the ones that came before. 

Don’t worry, that’s what we’re here to help you with.

By keeping in mind a few things like finding a unique angle, incorporating stories and props, making sure to include concrete elements, and making your audience go beyond listening to feel something, you can easily deliver an unforgettable speech on education.

Tips To Keep In Mind While Writing A Speech About Education 

1. Find A Unique Angle 

Education is a topic that people have spoken about time and again. What this means is that if you deliver a speech about education without adding a different point of view to it, then the chances are your audience is going to find your speech bland or boring and not pay attention.

So, find a unique angle for the speech. Draw on your personal experiences and ask yourself: is there anything about this topic that I can see but others can’t?

2. Include Concrete Elements 

Concrete details or elements include things like facts, statistics, etc. 

If you don’t include concrete elements in your speech, then chances are that your speech will become abstract and hard to believe really fast.

So, make sure to back up your arguments with relevant information. 

Wondering how to add facts to your speech without making it drab? Check out our article on 11 Steps To Add Facts To A Speech Without Making It Boring.

3. Use Language & Concepts Familiar To The Audience

Often, speakers have this misconception that the bigger or more difficult words they use, the better or smarter they’re going to sound. This cannot be further from the truth.

While using complicated words or concepts might make you sound smarter, they also increase the chances that you won’t be able to formulate a connection with the audience. 

After all, if they can’t understand what they’re saying, how will they connect with it?

4. Incorporate Storytelling & Props 

Stories are a GREAT way to make your speech more personal and engaging. And props, if used alongside your story, can take it to the next level. 

So, make sure to incorporate appropriate personal stories and props in your speech. Make sure that your prop is relevant to the speech, and not merely an accessory. 

5. Make Them Feel, Not Just Hear 

If you truly want your audience to be impacted by your speech, then you need to make them feel more deeply about it. You need to make them go beyond hearing and actually feel for you and the topic. 

This can be done by sprinkling throughout your speech elements like humor, stories, props, videos, real-life testimonials, interacting with them…

The list goes on. 

What matters is going above and beyond. You want to make your words mean more than their meaning. 

6. Use Humor

Humor is a great way to take any speech to the next level. Like stories, jokes are a great way to form a connection with the audience and make your speech more memorable.

However, one thing to keep in mind here is to make sure that your humor is relevant to the topic at hand. Don’t just add jokes for the sake of adding them: make sure that they relate to your speech in some way.

7. Don’t Have Too Many Points

While it’s important to make sure that your speech covers all aspects that it needs to cover, you don’t have to include too many points in your speech. This will make it difficult for the audience to figure out what, exactly, is the central theme or main message that you want them to take away.

You can have one or two key takeaways and divide those main points into multiple individual points. This will allow for better structure of your speech, whilst also making it easier to view it from multiple angles.

Ways To Begin Your Speech On Education 

1. Open With A Story 

This is a tried and tested way to open your speech. As mentioned before, it’s imperative you incorporate stories into your speech if you wish to make a personal connection with the audience and make them feel for your speech.

And what better place to add a story than right at the opening of your speech? 

For example:  My parents spent their entire savings on my brother’s education, but for me, they wouldn’t even spare a…

For more ideas on how to incorporate stories in your speech, check out our article on 9 Storytelling Approaches For Your Next Speech Or Presentation.

2. Make Them Go ‘A-Ha’ 

Another awesome way to open your speech is by surprising your audience. This will awaken them, and snap their attention to where it needs to be: on you. 

This adds doubly to your credit if your speech is on a seemingly monotonous topic like education where the audience enters with certain expectations about the speech already in place. 

There are many ways to do this. Stories with a twist are one. Another would be incorporating a joke. Yet another way would be to pull out a prop. Or you could even say a surprising statement that seems to go against the topic when you first hear it.

For example:  I don’t think education is important. Unless…

3. Common-Ground Open 

A common ground opening is imperative if there is a gap between you and your audience. If, for example, you’re an aged professor from a reputed university and the audience is teenagers from a local high school, then there are going to be gaps in how you and the audience perceive the world. 

You can bridge this gap in a couple of ways. One would be making a personal connection or making them see that you are similar in certain aspects. This can be done by using humor, incorporating stories, or even making a pop culture reference. You can also open with a shared goal or interest. 

For example:  When I was in high school, all I wanted to do was get out of it.

4. Open With A Show Of Hands 

Another great way to open your speech is by asking questions–particularly show of hands questions. 

This works in two ways: asking the question piques your audience’s attention and gets their thoughts rolling. On the other hand, show-of-hands provides them with a chance to move their body, which aids in making them more aware of their surroundings i.e you. 

For example:  How many of you wish you could get out of this classroom right now?

5. Open With An Image Or Prop 

Images tell stories. And stories, as mentioned above, are one of the best ways to open your speech. 

You can open your speech by showing the audience an image of something and then asking them a question about it or presenting a startling fact about it. Alternatively, you could also open your speech by employing a relevant prop. 

For example:  Start off with an image of a refugee in a school.

Need more inspiration for how to open your speech? Check out our article on 10 Of The Best Things To Say In Opening Remarks.

Sample Speech On Education

Title: The Missing Ramp

On a school field trip in grade 3, I met my long lost twin. Or so I thought, anyway. The boy I met wasn’t actually my twin by blood. But he was my exact replica in every other aspect: from the color of our hair and eyes to the kind of jokes we liked to make and the cartoons we loved to watch and the fact that we both felt a little out of place in the big strange world. We were similar in more aspects than we could count, more than I can remember now. However, we were significantly different in one important aspect: While I was a ten year old, happy-go-lucky kid that hated going to school, he was a ten year old, happy go-lucky kid for whom school was a distant dream. You see, Andrew–the boy I thought was my twin–had a locomotor disability. He had to use a weelchair to be able to move around. However, there was only one school in our little town, and the school had no ramps or elevators, making it impossible for him to navigate by himself the five floors that it comprised. Not only this, but there were no washrooms available for him, either. His mother could not afford to lose her job in town, not with the already soaring cost of his treatement. Her meagre salary meant that a private tutor was out of question. Besides, she thought, what was the point of uprooting her entire life to move to another town or city when–according to her–there was no point in educating her child when he could not do anything with it? And so, despite the fact that he was perfectly capable of learning at par with the rest of us, Andrew never got an education. Imagine that. Imagine being unable to go to school when all the other kids around you are doing so because the school does not have a ramp. It sounds absurd, right? However strange or unreal it may sound, it’s the reality of the lives of many, many children with disabilities. It’s not that they’re unwilling to learn or their parents are unwilling to send them to school. It’s the lack of facilities–many of which the rest of us take for granted–which make it impossible for them to attend school. And even when the facilities are available. Even then, many, many children with disabilites are unable to achieve the education that is their basic right. An estimated one in three out-of-school children have a disability. There are between 93 million and 150 million children with disabilities worldwide. And yet, WHO estimates that in many, many countries across the world, having a disability more than doubles the chances of a child never attending school. While accessibility remains the key factor that inhibits children with disabilities from attending school, there are many, many other factors that come into play. Inflexible teacher training & support is another factor that comes into play. As does inflexible curriculum and poor structure and plan. However, another key factor that prevents children with disabilites from attending school has less to do with the physical elements of education, and more with the mindset and mentality of other people. That is, it has to do with the attitude of children and teachers in school towards children with disabilites. Often, children with disabilites are scorned and made fun of by their peers. And this is not limited to students alone. The teachers, too, might share a callous attitiude and be inflexible in their approach. I had a teacher in my school who refused to change her ‘ alphabetical seating plan’ to allow a deaf girl sit in the first bench so that she could lip-read her instructions. What this means is that many times, the children themseleves might not be willing to go to school from the fear of how their peers and teachers might react to or treat them. While delivering speeches about making education accessible to all or how it is the fundamental right of every person, we tend to make grand statements and all the big steps that we need to–or should–take in order to actually make education more accessible to people. And yet, while making all those grandoise proclamations, we often overlook the little steps that each and every single one of us needs to take. In seeing the ‘big picture’, we ignore the all the little snapshots that go into making it. And yet, it is this little things that make the most difference. A missing ramp–that’s all it took to make a child miss out on his dream of going to school. I don’t think any words sum up my words better than something Annie Campbell said: “We can teach our children to flap their wings, but conditions have to be just right for them to fly.” Our children are ready to take the leap and fly. Now it is upon us to determine what the sky will be like: full or rain or brimming with sunshine.

Different Angles To Cover Your Speech From

There are many different angles to cover your speech from. Some of them have been mentioned below.

• Accessibility Of Education
• The Digital Divide
• Peer Pressure
• Online Education vs. Offline Education
• Education Of Girl Child
• Education Schemes
• Mental Health Of Students
• Effectiveness Of Curriculum
• Classroom Learning vs. Real Life Experiences
• Teaching Strategies
• Education For People With Disabilities
• Bullying In Schools
• Importance Of Physical Education For Students
• Vocational Studies & Their Importance
• Rising Cost Of Education
• Privatization Of Education
• Factors Affecting Student Performance
• Importance Of Arts & Language Education
• Importance Of Field Trips
• Technology In The Classroom
• Importance Of Public Speaking For Students
• Different Learning Styles
• Impact Of Social Media On Learning

Sample Speech Topics On Education

Here are some examples of topics for your speech on education.

1 What affects the performance of kids in school? 2. Significance of compulsory attendance 3. Homeschooling: Benefits and drawbacks 4. How is literacy different from education? 5. What does the future of the education industry look like? 6. How does Switzerland have the best education system? 7. How to ace college application essays? 8. Guide to optimize daily planner: Your guiding light to lead a productive life 9. Use the power of storytelling to make history lessons ‘fun’ 10. How to unlock the potential of your subconscious mind to memorize things better? 11. Beating distractions: How to make the most of online classes? 12. Sleep deprivation is not ‘cool’: How to improve your grades through proper sleep? 13. A Step-by-Step Guide to writing a stellar research paper 14. Why periodic assessment of teachers is necessary 15. The need for psychologists and therapists in school 16. Why positive peer pressure can be a game-changer 17. Why sports should be a graded component in schools 18. The need for adequate sleep 19. Why application-based learning is necessary 20. Shorter school days for the win 21. Why recreational reading is also important 22. The need for sex education in school

To conclude, while writing a speech on education, you need to make sure that your speech isn’t bland or overused. By keeping in mind a few things like finding a unique angle, incorporating stories and props, making sure to include concrete elements, and making your audience go beyond listening to feel something, you can easily deliver an unforgettable speech on education.

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U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona’s Speech Outlining the Department of Education’s Priorities and Vision for Education

On January 27, 2022, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona delivered a speech outlining his priorities and vision for American education, including investing more in professional development and lifelong learning. Throughout his remarks, Secretary Cardona spoke about using the current moment as an opportunity to improve the American education system and address inequities from pre-K to adult education. He argued for the need to “level-up” the entire education system and called upon everyone to work toward making education the “great equalizer” so that opportunity and achievement gaps can be closed.

On the higher education side, Cardona talked about the need to transform education beyond high school, arguing that the current postsecondary system further separates the “haves” from the “have-nots.” He expanded by asserting that colleges and other higher education institutions must be more affordable, accountable, and accessible. On the accessibility side, Cardona argued for the need for better pathways to postsecondary opportunities through elementary and secondary school and stated that each high school should have at least one career counselor to help students navigate their futures. In addition, Cardona pledged that the Department of Education will partner with the Departments of Labor and Commerce to develop effective job training programs. The Secretary also briefly spoke about adult education, stating that it is never too late for any American to go back to school. Finally, Cardona emphasized the administration’s commitment to uplifting and supporting minority-serving institutions.

Secretary Cardona also spoke to steps that the Biden-Harris Administration has taken in the higher education realm thus far. He pointed to the newly revamped Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and the cancelation of over $15 billion of student loan debt. He also stated that Department of Education is committed to supporting each student borrower as they transition back to repayment in May 2022. Another priority he highlighted was the department’s commitment to enforcement. He emphasized the Department of Education’s newly reestablished enforcement office and stated that this unit will seek to protect students, and target career programs that are deemed predatory. In the same vein, Secretary Cardona pointed to the recently published gainful employment rule, declaring that it will be used as a mechanism to ensure that students are not being taken advantage of.

The Secretary spent a large portion of the speech discussing the state of and vision for K-12 education. Transitioning away from a narrative dominated by COVID-19 mitigation strategies, Cardona asserted that reopening schools and keeping them in-person was insufficient. He argued that the education community must make up for lost time and improve the system further than where it was before the pandemic and highlighted several priorities for elementary and secondary schools. He stated that the most important immediate actions that must be taken are – offering increased access to mental health resources, expanding meaningful and authentic parent and family engagement, and providing effective interventions for students who felt disproportionate impacts from the pandemic. Expanding further, Cardona argued that each high school student throughout the nation must be involved in one cocurricular activity, whether that is art, sports, theater, etc. The Secretary also said that American Rescue Plan targeted and intensive tutoring, after-school programs, summer learning programs, and expansion of mental health resources and support as effective uses of plan funds. Beyond those strategies, Cardona urged communities to engage parents, educators, and students to collaborate and brainstorm other productive uses of rescue plan funds. Secretary Cardona also committed to strengthen the Department of Education’s partnerships with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure that every student’s basic needs are met.

Cardona also spent time talking about educators and thanking them for their courageous work throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The Secretary stated that when the country invests in teachers, it also invests in students. He argued that educators must be treated with the respect and dignity they deserve, stating that it is necessary to invest more in professional development and lifelong learning, as well as increasing teacher and educator pay. He asserted the need to make jobs in education desirable for people from all backgrounds, as well as the dire need to retain educators. He then called upon states and districts to help, stating that increasing investment in educator pay and professional development cannot be accomplished at the federal level alone.

Secretary Cardona concluded his remarks by stating that road ahead for education is not going to be easy but argued that educational reform and improvement can lead the nation’s healing from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jon Bernstein

Jon Bernstein is the founder and president of Bernstein Strategy Group. He has over 25 years of experience in education, technology, privacy, appropriations, and telecommunications policy. Today, Jon works closely with many of the major K-12 education associations as co-chair of both the Education and Libraries Networks Coalition and the Homework Gap Big Tent Coalition and as executive director of the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training. He also helps lead the Principals Group, which focuses on professional development funding and related issues.

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GUEST OF HONOUR SPEECH - HON. MINISTER OF EDUCATION AT THE 30TH CBU GRADUATION CEREMONY APRIL 2022

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THE REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA

  ADDRESS BY

 THE GUEST OF HONOUR –  HON. DOUGLOUS M. SYAKALIMA, MP, MINISTER OF EDUCATION

  ON THE OCCASION OF THE SECOND SESSION OF THE 30 TH  GRADUATION CEREMONY OF THE COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH INNOVATION

      FRIDAY, 22 ND  APRIL 2022

• THE COPPERBELT PROVINCE - PROVINCIAL MINISTER, HONOURABLE ELISHA MATAMBO, MP
• COPPERBELT PROVINCE PERMANENT SECRETARY, MR AUGUSTINE KASONGO
• ACTING DIRECTOR – UNIVERISITY EDUCATION
• ALL MAYORS AND TOWN CLERKS PRESENT
• SENIOR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
• THE CHANCELLOR OF THE COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY, PROFESSOR MUYUNDA MWANALUSHI;
• ACTING VICE CHANCELLOR OF THE COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY, PROFESSOR PAUL CHISALE
• VICE – CHANCELLORS FROM OTHER UNIVERSITIES;
• THE REGISTRAR, COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY,
• PRINCIPAL OFFICERS OF THE COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY
• DEANS, DIRECTORS AND HEADS OF UNITS OF THE COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY PRESENT;
• ESTEEMED SPONSORS;
• MEMBERS OF THE PRESS;
• ALL GRADUANDS;

DISTINGUISHED,  LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

I AM DELIGHTED TO BE HERE WITH YOU AT THIS SECOND SESSION OF THE 30 TH  GRADUATION CEREMONY OF THE COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY. A FEW MONTHS AGO, I WITNESSED THE FIRST SESSION OF THIS 30 TH  GRADUATION CEREMONY AT THE MPIKA CAMPUS WHERE THE FIRST COHORT OF RAILWAY ENGINEERS UNDER THIS UNIVERSITY GRADUATED. LET ME, THEREFORE, BEGIN WITH CONGRATULATING THE UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT AND STAFF FOR WORKING TOWARDS SUPPLYING APPROPRIATELY QUALIFIED GRADUATES AND CONTRIBUTING TO THE COUNTRY’S POOL OF HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT.

WARM CONGRATULATIONS TO THE GRADUANDS WHO HAVE GATHERED HERE TODAY TO RECEIVE THEIR HARD-EARNED DIPLOMAS AND DEGREES IN SEVERAL DISCIPLINES. THE INDIVIDUAL ACCADEMIC JOURNEYS WHICH BEGAN SOME YEARS AGO, FOR MOST UNDERGRADUATES, IS FINALLY COMING TO A SUCCESSFUL END WHILE THE NEXT EXCITING WORKING LIFE BEGINS. FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS, YOU HAVE INVESTED A SIGINIFICANT PART OF YOUR LIVES TO THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE AND EXCELLENCE. THEREFORE, YOUR

GRADUATION TODAY IS NO SMALL ACHIEVEMENT AND DESERVES COMMENDATION. YOU HAVE ALL DEMONSTRATED A STRONG WILL, FOCUS AND DISCIPLINE THROUGHOUT YOUR TIME AT THE UNIVERSITY.   YOU HAVE PROVED THAT YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE IT IN WHATEVER CAREER PATHS YOU TAKE AS YOU LEAVE THIS UNIVERSITY.

DISTINGUISHED,   LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF RECONSTRUCTING THE ECONOMY. AS SUCH, WE NEED TO MOBILISE ALL THE SKILLS, TALENTS AND IDEAS FROM THE CITIZENRY ACROSS THE COUNTRY FOR US TO HARNESS THE INGINUITY OF EVERYONE IN FINDING SOLUTIONS THAT WILL NOT ONLY HELP US TRANSFORM THE ECONOMY, BUT PUT US ON A SUSTAINABLE PATH IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE OUR VISION 2030 TARGETS. TO ACHIEVE THAT, GRADUATES LIKE YOURSELVES, WHO ARE ARMED WITH FRESH AND NEW KNOWLEDGE WILL BE KEY AND I MAKE THIS CLARION CALL TO YOU ALL TO BE OF SERVICE TO YOUR COUNTRY THAT HAS GIVEN YOU SO MUCH UP TO THIS POINT.

DISTINGUISHED,  LADIES AND GENTLEMEN ,

THE THEME OF THIS GRADUATION CEREMONY SAYS  “SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH INNOVATION”.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT HAS BEEN A MUCH TALKED ABOUT PHRASE. WE CANNOT BE FATIGUED BY THIS CONCEPT BECAUSE AS IT WAS DEFINED IN THE BRUNDTLAND COMMISSION REPORT, IT IS A STEWARDSHIP CALL TO HUMANITY: THAT OUR PRESENT ACTIONS WILL, IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE, IMPACT ON THE UP COMING GENERATIONS. AS A RESULT, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT DEMANDS THAT WHILE DEVELOPMENT IS GOOD AND MUCH SOUGHT AFTER FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE CURRENT QUALITY OF LIFE, WE HAVE A DUTY TO ENSURE THAT SUCH DEVELOPMENT DOES NOT INJURE THE PROSPECTS OF FUTURE GENERATIONS TO ATTAIN THEIR HIGHEST GOD-GIVEN POTENTIAL IN THEIR TIME.

THE THEME OF THIS GRADUATION CEREMONY ALSO LINKS WHAT I HAVE JUST DESCRIBED AS THE HALLMARKS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, TO INNOVATION. INNOVATION AS THE MEANS FOR FINDING SOLUTIONS TO THE MANY CHALLENGES CONFRONTING HUMANITY. WHEN WE HAVE EMBRACED INNOVATION, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT WILL BE AN ACHIEVABLE GOAL RATHER THAN A PIPEDREAM. I MUST MAKE HASTE TO STATE THAT NOT EVERY INNOVATION CAN LEAD TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. IN FACT, SOME INNOVATIONS MAY EVEN EXACERBATE THE REVERSALS IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT WHICH WE HAVE MADE AS SOCIETY. I MUST THEREFORE ADD HERE, THAT AS WE STRIVE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, WE SHOULD FIND SOLUTIONS THOUGH INNOVATIONS THAT ARE THEMSELVES SUSTAINABLE.

DISTINGUISHED, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

THIS APPARENT TENSION BETWEEN THE QUEST FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ON THE ONE SIDE, AND INNOVATION ON THE OTHER, IS BEST HARMONIZED THROUGH QUALIFIED HUMAN CAPITAL. THAT IS WHY TODAY AS WE CELEBRATE THIS GRADUATING GROUP OF 2021, WE MUST RESTATE THAT INDIVIDUALLY, YOU HAVE BEEN THOROUGHLY EQUIPPED TO MAKE YOUR MARK. REPOSITION YOURSELVES TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CONDUCIVE ENVIRONMENT WHICH GOVERNMENT IS CREATING FOR THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE PROMOTION OF A CREATIVE MIND FOR INNOVATIONS. YOU, THE YOUNG PEOPLE, ARE NOT JUST THE FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY, THE PRESENT ALSO BELONGS TO YOU, IF YOU WILL CLAIM YOUR RIGHTFUL SPACE. CLAIM IT THROUGH IDEAS AND INNOVATIONS. MANY PEOPLE WHO HAVE MADE SIGNIFICANT INNOVATIONS IN OUR LIVES TODAY HAVE BEEN YOUNG PEOPLE. YOU TOO CAN DO IT.

LET ME TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO REMIND ALL OF US THAT PROVIDING QUALITY HIGHER EDUCATION IS NOT JUST A PRESERVE OF GOVERNMENT, BUT A COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY FOR BOTH POLICY MAKERS LIKE MYSELF, MANAGEMENT OF INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING AND LEACTURERS WHO TAKE UP THE NOBBLE RESPONSIBILITY TO TEACH. THEREFORE, WHEN WE ARE FACED WITH CHALLENGES THAT REQUIRE CONCERTED EFFORTS TO FIND SOLUTIONS, LET US AVOID A CONFRONTATIONAL APPROACH, RATHER, LET US EMBRACE THE SIPIRIT OF GENUINE AND HONEST ENGAGEMENT BASED ON UNDERSTANDING CURRENT CONDITIONS AND AVAILABLE RESOURCES.

ON THE PART OF GOVERNMENT, OUR DESIRE IS TO PROVIDE THE BEST ENVIRONMENT WHICH INCLUDES GIVING UNIVERSTIES ALL THE NECESSARY INFRASTRUCTURE, TOOLS AND RESOURCES REQUIRED TO PROVIDE QUALITY EDUCATION TO THE LEARNERS. EQUALLY, MEMBERS OF STAFF IN THESE INSTITUTIONS AT ALL LEVELS AND STUDENTS ALIKE SHOULD CARRY THE SAME ZEAL OF RESPONSIBILITY IN WORKING TOGETHER TO FIND LASTING SOLUTIONS TO OUR CHALLENGES.

IN THIS REGARD, I WISH TO ASSURE ALL THE PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN THIS COUNTRY THAT YOUR GOVERNMENT IS FULLY COMMITTED TO ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES YOU HAVE IN YOUR RESPECTIVE UNIVERSITIES RELATED TO INFRASTRUCTURE, FINANCING AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE. HOWEVER, FOR US TO MAKE PROGRESS ON ALL THESE, I REQUEST YOU ALL TO REMEMBER THAT WE HAVE A DUTY TO ENGAGE IN CONSTRUCTIVE AND GENUINE CONSULTATIONS WITH EACH OTHER SO THAT WE IMPLEMENT STRATEGIES THAT WILL NOT ONLY RESOLVE THE MANY CHALLENGES WE HAVE, BUT LAY A STRONG FOUNDATION FOR SUSTIANABLY RUNNING OUR UNIVERSITIES GOING INTO THE FUTURE.

  DISTINGUISHED, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

ALLOW ME TO USE THIS GRADUATION CEREMONY TO CHALLENGE NOT JUST THE GRADUATES OF TODAY, BUT THE PROFFESSORS, DOCTORS, RESEARCHERS AND ALL ACCADEMIC STAFF IN ALL OF OUR UNIVERSITIES TO POSITION THEMSELVES TO DRIVE THE RESEARCH AGENDA IN THIS COUNTRY THAT WILL USE EVIDENCE IN POLICY FORMULATION. AS YOU ALL KNOW, WE, THE CITIZENS ARE THE DIRECT BENEFICIARIES OF OUTPUTS OF GOVERNMENT POLICIES, THEREFORE, WE NEED EVIDENCE GENERATED BY RESEARCHERS IN OUR UNIVERSITIES WORKING CLOSELY WITH THE OTHER ECONOMIC ACTORS SUCH AS THE PRIVATE SECTOR. THEREFORE, MY MINISTRY IS DISCUSSING IDEAS OF LAUNCHING AN ANNUAL NATIONAL RESEARCH AND INNOVATION SYMPOSIUM THAT WILL SERVE AS A PLATFORM FOR RESEARCHERS, THINKTANKS, SECTOR SPECIFIC BODIES TO PRESENT AND DISCUSS VARIOUS ISSUES THAT AFFECT ALL SECTORS OF OUR ECONOMY IN ORDER FOR US TO TAKE THAT COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY IN FINDING SOLUTIONS THAT WILL TAKE OUR COUNTRY TO THE NEXT LEVEL. I THEREFORE CHALLENGE ALL OUR UNIVERSITIES TO BE FULLY ENGAGED AND TAKE THE LEAD IN SETTING THE RESEARCH AGENDA FOR THE COUNTRY.

IN CONCLUSION DEAR GRADUANDS, I WISH TO LEAVE YOU WITH DENIS WAITLEY’S THOUGHT FOR YOU TO REFLECT ON AS YOU CELEBRATE THIS MOMENTOUS ACHIEVEMENT OF GRADUATING:

LIFE IS INHERENTLY RISKY. THERE IS ONLY ONE BIG RISK YOU SHOULD AVOID AT ALL COSTS, AND THAT IS THE RISK OF DOING NOTHING.

GO OUT THERE AND DO SOMETHING

I THANK YOU AND MAY GOD OPEN UNLIMITED DOORS FOR YOUR FUTURES!

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• Education, training and skills
• Further and higher education, skills and vocational training
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Minister Halfon speech at the Times Education Summit

Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, Robert Halfon, delivered a speech to the Times Education Summit.

Good morning, and thank you for that introduction.

I was honoured to be asked to take part in the Times Education Commission in 2021, to consider questions such as the purpose of education, and how it should interact with social and economic institutions. I returned to government last autumn, to discover there was still quite a lot of work to be done! But it was also gratifying to see reforms from my first term as Skills Minister bearing fruit, some of which support elements of the Commission’s recommendations. As I will describe, we are now getting serious about technical education to 18, with the continuing roll-out of T Levels. And I am determined that pupils will have earlier and earlier opportunities to see industries and occupations up close. They need to understand the world of work as something to build towards, rather than encounter it abruptly at the end of their schooling.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a huge admirer of JRR Tolkien.

The best known Tolkien apprentice is of course Samwise Gamgee, an apprentice gardener in Lord of the Rings. I want to frame my thoughts using another Tolkien story that is less well known, Smith of Wootton Major.

It features a character called Alf, an apprentice who receives both good and bad training in the village of Wootton Major. Though he receives three years excellent training, when his master departs the villagers do not trust him to take over. ‘He had grown a bit taller, but still looked like a boy’ - and was not one of their own. Instead, an idle and incapable local man is appointed as Master Cook of the village, who spends his tenure taking credit for the apprentice’s work and talking down to him. Alf’s talent is wasted on absurd tasks like stoning raisins. I won’t tell the whole story, but eventually Alf assumes his rightful position and the older man has a comeuppance of sorts. Finally, Alf is revealed to have understood all along something fundamental to the nature of the office of the Master Cook, something that only the true master could have passed down to him.

What is the relevance of this story to today’s apprentices? Well, quite a lot actually. An appreciation of skills education, and how it’s perceived by those who haven’t acquired it. The skills required to become a Master Cook are underestimated by the villagers, who choose a bad trainer for Alf.

Examples of good and bad training – how an apprentice can be expertly trained in just three years, but side-lined and given little responsibility because of his obvious youth.

The tacit acknowledgement of his trainer that the apprentice has something to offer, but also reluctance that he should get the credit for their work.

It’s a good parable for modern times. For too long, the acquisition of vocational and technical skills has been undermined. It is not respected in the same way that academic education is.

I have always found this a false hierarchy. We will always want to know the names and types of fishes, how they spawn and miraculously breathe through gills. But in every generation, people must also be taught how to fish.

That’s why I’ve always argued we need more skills-based post-16 education. And that is what we’re now doing.

You may have heard about my Ladder of Opportunity. It is not just a slogan but a way of thinking about what we need as a country, to create a skills system that supports people of all backgrounds up the ladder into secure and well-paid employment.

The Ladder has 2 pillars:

Opportunities and social justice, and strengthening Higher and Further education.

These aren’t just two slogans slotted into a framework. They are fundamental and interconnected.

On the one side, Higher and Further education need to do a lot more collaboration.

The Lifelong Loan Entitlement, which I’ll come to later, will help to bind these strands together.

Both Higher and Further education cannot be said to be truly succeeding as a meritocratic endeavour, until the opportunities they bring are distributed widely, to everyone who can make use of them – but particularly to those who need them most.

When the most disadvantaged groups in our society are finally taking-up their fair share (or more) of university courses, apprenticeships and other technical education places, that is when the system will be at its strongest - nurturing talent wherever it is found, rather than just the talents of those who happen to find it. That is when Further and Higher education can truly be said to be serving social justice.

And that is the lens through which I see all the work we’re doing to bolster skills education in this country.

The first rung on the Ladder of Opportunity is careers guidance and information. We cannot hope to change attitudes about skills education unless it is seen as a route to progression. And it needs to be considered much earlier in school than the adolescence afterthought it’s been recently. Evidence shows that pupils start to develop stereotypes that can limit their educational and occupational aspirations at a very young age. That’s why we’re funding a £2.6 million programme to target 2,250 primary schools in the most disadvantaged areas. Running until March 2025, it will inspire pupils to consider the world of work, drawing positive role models from a range of industries and sectors. The aim is to raise aspirations, challenge stereotypes, and help children link their learning to future jobs and careers. Teachers will be supported with professional development and resources to continue delivery beyond the programme.

At the same time, our ASK programme is raising older pupils’ awareness of the benefits of apprenticeships and T-levels. And through the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022, we have strengthened the provider access legislation, known as the Baker Clause. We now stipulate that every school must provide pupils with a minimum of six education and training provider encounters. We are working with The Careers & Enterprise Company to support schools to comply, and will take tough action where there is persistent non-compliance.

Overall, we invested around £100 million in 2022-23 in careers provision for young people and adults. It’s money that I’m determined we will continue to spend in a focused, meaningful way.

The second rung on the Ladder of Opportunity is about championing apprenticeships and the skills employers need. Apprenticeships are at the heart of this government’s skills agenda. They are about widening the skills pipeline to drive economic growth, and bringing paid opportunities for progression to those who may not otherwise choose further training.

Our aim is that every occupation should have a quality apprenticeship attached to it. That is why we moved from apprenticeship frameworks to standards. These are carefully designed in partnership with industry, in order to truly serve their utility for the employer and their value for the apprentice. There are now accredited routes to over 660 occupations, from entry-level to expert.

To support the creation of more of these opportunities, we are increasing funding to £2.7 billion by 2024-25. In 2021-22, we spent 99.6% of the £2.5 billion apprenticeship budget handed down to us by Treasury. And despite what you may hear, it isn’t being spent on MBAs, which we removed from the Level 7 Senior Leader standard in 2021.

70% of all apprenticeship starts are at Levels 2 and 3 [2021/22 AY], and young people under the age of 25 make up more than half of all starts. But we still want older people to consider apprenticeships among their options to retrain or return to work. Hence our ‘returnerships’ initiative, announced in the Budget, to encourage adults over 50 to consider these routes back into training and employment.

Degree apprenticeships are the crown jewel within our offer. Or to Tolkien fans, the Faery star. They combine the best of vocational and academic education at some of our best universities. They hold particular value for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, giving them knowledge, training and industry insight in one complete package. That last point is particularly valuable if you lack personal connections in the area where you want to work - those invisible career foundations that you only notice if you don’t have them. Degree apprentices earn while they learn, but don’t pay tuition fees like other students. It is so important we promote these routes to those who could benefit most: young people whose social and financial position currently deters them from degree-level study.

There are now almost 160 apprenticeships offered at degree level. And contrary to what sometimes is misreported, they’re not all in management. Degree-level apprenticeships prepare students for careers in the Police, nursing, aerospace engineering - and, yes, even journalism. There have been over 185,000 starts on these prestigious courses since their introduction in 2014. They’ve made up 16% of all starts so far this year [August 2022 -Feb 2023], with numbers up 11% compared to the same period last year - building on year-on-year growth.

There is much more to do to meet rising demand - and to spread the word to build demand still further. We’re working with higher education institutions to increase both employer vacancies at degree apprenticeship level, and applications from young people. We’re providing an additional £40 million to support providers to expand degree apprenticeships over the next two years, and to help more applicants access these incredible opportunities.

While raising apprenticeship standards, we saw a gap at Level 3: a qualification to prepare students for skilled work at 18 that also provided a solid foundation for further study or training. The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education worked with employers, providers and industry experts to identify what such a qualification would look like, and the different progression routes that could follow-on from it.   In 2020 we introduced T Levels, a new gold standard in technical education. These courses have a rigour gives them parity with A levels, and include a meaningful 9 week placement in industry. This reflects my belief that students should be shown the workplace well before the age of 18, to build understanding of its expectations and their own aspirations. Oldham College has been among the first to offer Supporting Adult Nursing and Supporting Midwifery T Levels, providing an incredible pipeline for the future local healthcare workforce.

We will have made £1.6 billion of extra funding available for 16-19 education by the 2024-25 Financial Year [compared to 2021-22]. This includes up to £500 million for T Levels each year, once they’re fully rolled out in 2025.

The fourth rung of the Ladder of Opportunity is lifelong learning.

So far, my focus has been on young people, and those at the beginning of a career. But the latter can of course include people who want to switch careers later on, a move we want to encourage to help the working population keep pace with the shifting labour market. To support people to study and retrain for better employment, the Lifelong Loan Entitlement will unify Higher and Further education finance under a single system. From 2025, financial support equivalent to 4 years post-18 education (£37,000 in today’s fees) will be available to use over the whole course of a working life. Crucially, this can be drawn down in modular increments to build qualifications over time. This flexibility will enable older learners to fit their study around life events and daily commitments. Like getting on and off a train, they will be able to alight and board their post-school education when it suits them - building qualifications at their own pace, rather than being confined to a single ticket.

I want the Lifelong Loan Entitlement to signify an inclusive change in how we view skills education, and the pace at which we acquire education in general. The name suggests to me (as I hope it does to you) that education has no finish line. That your fate is not cast in stone by the age of 25. It may also encourage young people to get some experience of work that interests them, rather than go straight to university, in order to inform the use of their finance allowance.

And while I have great respect for the history, traditions, and academic excellence of Oxford and Cambridge, we need to get away from this obsession with using it as a benchmark for everything else. Instead of talking about the Oxbridge of skills education, people should be pointing to colleges like Loughborough, Oldham and universities like Staffordshire. They are serving students exceptionally well, fitting them for good jobs and great careers. Their degrees give students what they need to propel them up the Ladder of Opportunity. And yet they are not among the bywords for a ‘good’ education – the age-old establishments that served many of the people in this room. Those who value education on outcomes, rather than reputation, should seek to change this.

I’ll finish by returning to my favourite Oxford professor, who could write with insight about the misconceptions that surround skills education. His apprentice heroes defied low expectations.

Samwise Gamgee not only helped Frodo deliver the Ring to Mount Doom. He was eventually elected Mayor of the Shire seven times, and became an advisor to the King.

And Alf, the apprentice of Wootton Major, is finally revealed at the end of the tale be the Elven King of Faery himself.

Tolkien once said that true education is:

“A matter of continual beginnings, of habitual fresh starts, of persistent newness.”

We want more and more people to build the skills needed for good employment in this age of ‘persistent newness’ – skills for new and shifting industries, that business leaders are crying-out for.

Successfully matching high quality training with the talent found in all walks of life will not only enhance our country’s skills and economic profile. It will allow people to truly thrive at work and in their communities.

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Speech by Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Education, at the Teachers' Conference and Excel Fest 2023

Published Date: 30 May 2023 09:00 AM

News Speeches

1. Good morning to everyone.

2. We have an extremely large audience today. It's not just 1,005 of you who are physically here, but there are also 10,000 joining us online. First, let me congratulate all of you for being part of the team who have done so well for our students and our system throughout COVID-19.

3. I've always said that the reason why we have done so well during COVID-19, was not just because of the system that we have, or the technology that we have, but because of teachers like you. For us to have survived the worst of COVID-19, and done what we have done, teachers are the ones we should honour today!

4. Recently, we have yet another stunning result in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). What cheered me most was not that we topped the charts across the world, or that we were one of the three countries that managed to continue to make progress despite COVID-19. What cheered me most is that we are the country that has made consistent progress over the last 20 years. Just like we had taught our students, our job is not to surpass someone else in an exam, but to keep surpassing ourselves throughout life. Congratulations, and well done to all of you.

5. When it comes to Education Ministers, I have many predecessors in the Cabinet. A wise colleague once told me this, "Anything good that happened during my time as an Education Minister, I should give thanks to all my predecessors, and anything bad that happened after my time in education, I should quickly take responsibility." I remind myself that constantly, and it is something that I will remember for life, because that is what education is really about. We are not here for ourselves, we do things for the long terms, and we do things with conviction.

6. Despite doing well for PIRLS, we should continue to stay alert and not be complacent. We know that the joy of learning is decreasing. The younger generation now face many distractions competing for their attention, which begs the question, how can we keep reading fun, purposeful and meaningful? Even though we have done well for our reading and literacy test in English, we know that we don't aspire to be just good in English in Singapore, our higher goal is to continue to be stronger in our bilingual capabilities – English and Mother Tongue. We all know the challenges of how we need to step up our efforts to interest our students in Mother Tongue, given the many distractions and the macro environment largely in English.

7. There is one other thing that we should not be complacent about, notwithstanding the fact that we have done well in PIRLS - and that is the disruption caused by COVID-19. Indeed, by all short-term measures, we have done well compared to many other countries. We count our blessings that we have not incurred much learning losses as other countries.

8. The video shown earlier was a combination of five types of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, which had generated the script, subtitles, images, animations and the voice. All these technologies will become even cheaper, better, and faster as we speak. The question for us today is, what are we going to do about this? Should we pretend that all these will pass, or should we stand up to the challenge? How can we leverage on these technologies and take our profession to the next level so that we can teach better, and our students can learn better? That is what we want to discuss today.

9. There are a lot of possibilities, challenges and opportunities that comes with technology. How do we help our students to distil, discern and discover? We live in a world of information overload, and how do we help our people distil the abundance of information. In the past, a set of Encyclopedia seems to be the sum total of all the knowledge that we need to know. Today, there's new information being generated every other minute. So, how do we help our people discern information? Discernment is about equipping our next generation with the ability to show good judgment and values. Our job is not to train our students to answer yesterday's problems with yesterday's solutions, our challenge is how to help our students understand tomorrow's challenges and discover the solutions going forward.

10. How then do we equip our teachers to help our students do this? How do we organise ourselves to learn faster and better as a system, not just as an individual? Today, I will touch on how we can equip our teachers individually and how we intend to learn collectively as a system.

11. At the International Summit of Teaching Profession (ISTP) in Washington D.C. recently, I mentioned that technology is neutral and whoever masters it win. Today, I will update this statement. Whoever masters it with the right values, society wins. We need to bear this in mind, embrace technology, and help our people master it with the right values, so that no one will misuse it.

12. Today is an example of a blended format. We had a physical session pre-COVID-19, virtual session during COVID-19, and blended session post-COVID-19. This will be the likely format for us going forward, a blended format where we can engage thousands of people on-site and ten thousand more offsite virtually and asynchronously. When we discussed the concept for today's Teachers' Conference and ExCEL Fest, we wanted it to be a live demonstration of what we can achieve. What a thousand of you experienced physically here today, can be shared with 30,000 more online. Our teaching force in the service today is about 30,000 and about 40,000 if you include all the Institutes of Higher Learning. Let's think about it, if we can do this for 30,000 teachers in one morning, and we have about 40,000 students per cohort, what more can we achieve?

13. For the rest of today's session, we will also experience how we use data to enable what we teach using the analytics available. I attended the ISTP last month in Washington D.C. It is a by-invite-only forum for the top performing or rapidly improving education systems, to share their practices. It was a long flight to-and-fro, and I had a lot of time to reflect. There was one question on my mind: "Why are some systems more successful than the rest? Why have some systems progressed, and the others regressed?"

14. I believe it is the quality of teachers. Andreas Schleicher once said that the quality of our education system cannot exceed the quality of our teachers. But if that is the case, then what determines the quality of our teachers? How do we invite the best people to join us in the teaching professions? We count our blessings that we are able to recruit teachers from the top one-third of the cohort. But that is both a strength and a potential blind spot.

15. If the quality of our teachers is fundamental, then the reason behind their decision to join is important as well. I believe that the respect a teacher receives is even more important than the salary that they receive. In ISTP, I met colleagues from other countries. Some countries used to excel, but are facing teacher shortages of up to 30% today. Another country shared that only 10% of their teachers believe that the teaching profession is a profession worthy of respect by society. If that is the case, any society will be in deep trouble. If nobody wants to join the teaching profession, we can be quite sure that there will be no quality teaching force, and no quality education system. How then, can we earn and engender this respect?

16. There are also other enablers, such as good pedagogies. How do we keep evolving our pedagogies, or ensure there is a diversity of approaches to be student-centric and allow multiple pathways to cater to different needs? We need to change our mindset, as pedagogy is not something that can come down from just MOE, AST or NIE. A good, vibrant pedagogical ecosystem must come from all of us.

17. Besides pedagogies, we need to look at technologies as well. How do we embrace technology and focus on how we can value-add? I have visited many of you during my school visits, and I have never come across teachers who are afraid of hard work. Our teachers are only afraid of boring and meaningless work. It is not about working more or less, but how we can make our work more impactful and meaningful. This is why we have to constantly improve our pedagogies, technologies and system design, where we can mass customise.

18. In the past, it was all about mass access to education. Today, we have gone beyond the point of mass access. We need to mass customise, according to the needs and potential of each child, for them to fulfil their potential.

19. What are some of the key principles that makes up a successful education system? I have come to this conclusion – the 4Cs that makes a good education system and allows it to continue to progress.

20. First, Consistency of Commitment for resources and talent. In Singapore, we have been fortunate enough to have the political commitment to give the education service the budget requirements. Our education budget is one of the top three items for our budget since our independence, and this allows us to plan for the long term. Beyond money, the fact that we can commit a sizable proportion of the top one-third of every cohort to become teachers is a commitment on our part to the next generation. This may sound simple, but very few countries can do this. We should not be complacent that this will always be the case. My assurance to you is that this Government will continue this consistency of commitment of resources and talent. But this is not enough.

21. Next, we need Coherence and Continuity of policies. Many countries have very good ideas on what they can do. However, you cannot have education policies that change every few years. I remember at an international conference, I was asked what is it that makes Singapore's education so special. I shared that we simply focus on doing the simple things well, consistently, and together. There is no need to be overly sophisticated. But it is easier said than done.

22. Today, there is an avalanche of demand for us to teach more and do many more. We need to set clear priorities on what needs to be done instead of chasing the latest fads. Our students and teachers have finite bandwidth, and we need to judiciously guard this bandwidth. Ultimately, in an ever-evolving world, perhaps there is only one skill that we hope that all will be equipped with - and that is the ability to learn, learn fast and learn on their own. We will never be able to frontload what is necessary for our students in their life, but we can only hope that we give them the foundation to Learn for Life.

23. The third 'C', which is the most important to me, is Conviction of the professionals and policymakers. Policymakers are not evaluated on the short-term outcomes, or how well our students score for their PSLE, O' Level or A' Level. Our ultimate goal is that our students grow in the long term. We have to bear in mind that there are many important goals in life that cannot be measured. Examinations are short-term results. It is simply a feedback to our system and to our students, on how we can help them develop their potential. Examinations is not a rat race, or comparing with someone else incessantly. We should always encourage our students to surpass themselves throughout life than to surpass someone else in an exam. Our ultimate goal is developing a Confident Contributor and Lifelong Learner. It is about being confident in themselves and defining their success by their contributions, not just by their achievements and to be a lifelong learner.

24. Finally, 'Collaboration'. We need partners from industries, parents, alumni and unions. We must have the humility to accept that we don't have all the knowledge necessary to help our students. I mentioned earlier that there may be a blind spot, by our very strength that we can recruit the top one-third from every cohort. This also tells us that we might not be as diverse in our experience as we'd like. There is no way we can make the teaching force a microcosm of society. It is not possible to send out all of you out there to understand every industry. This is where we need to bring in the expertise of parents, alumni and the industry to complement that we teach in school, to be relevant and current for our students.

25. There are many challenges and demands today, beyond teaching the basic academic subjects. With the finite number of resources we have, especially in terms of time and bandwidth for our teachers and students, we need to achieve higher impact with a more focused effort. How can we leverage technology to help us do our work better?

26. Many of you have asked if we can reduce class sizes, so that the students can receive more attention. But realistically, we can only attract so many quality teachers. With the increasing load and finite workforce, how can we improve the quality to achieve greater impact and how do we leverage technology? Technologies will free us from the mundane work, help us to scale, and customise learning according to needs.

27. But we must first understand and appreciate one fundamental issue, and that is all our academic learning rests on the foundation of a strong social emotional development, or 'CCE' as we call them. These are necessary skills beyond academic subjects that must run parallel to our academic development. This is why while we have developed world class standards in our academic rigor, we must also have world class standards on how we develop students beyond academics. We need everyone to develop the right values and have a sense of society beyond themselves, and we need to inculcate the curiosity for lifelong learning to surpass themselves throughout life.

28. We will need to redouble our efforts to do more for CCE than just academics. When I visited Unity Secondary School previously, I learned that they have developed a unique curriculum. Despite having a five-day school week, they only have a four-day academic calendar. The fifth day of every week is dedicated to CCE and their CCA, where they learn about other important complementary life skills. When I was at the school, the school's National Police Cadet Corps showed me a discussion where they manage fake news during one of their sessions. They came to a conclusion that our elderly are more susceptible to fake news and scams, and they came up with a plan to partner with Feiyue Senior Activity Centre, and went out to the community to help them. Meanwhile, in Fengshan Primary School, they learn about supporting one another through teamwork. These are things that we want our students to learn, managing their own emotions. CCE will become a critical part in our curriculum and run in parallel with all our academic subjects.

29. This is why we are launching the Singapore Centre for CCE (SCCCE) in NIE today. Just as how we develop the pedagogy for academic practices, we want this Centre to focus on developing the pedagogies for CCE. I have three wishes for the new SCCCE.

30. First, I hope that this Centre will develop into a keynote of our education ecosystem where we have as strong pedagogies for CCE as we have for academic subjects. Second, from the research to how we work with NIE and AST to equip our educators with the best pedagogical practices for CCE, we also envision this Centre to work with partners beyond the education fraternity, and bring back best practices so as to improve ourselves. Third, we want to set a goal for this Centre to be a keynote in the region and the world in CCE education and research.

31. NIE has become a Centre of excellence for pedagogical approach for mainstream curriculum. Eight years back, we set up a new Centre to focus on early childhood education parallel to NIE, and that's how we developed NIEC. Today, NIEC focuses on the pedagogical approaches for the early years. More recently, we wanted to have a third limb – the Institute of Adult Learning (IAL), to make sure we put in resources and attention to develop the pedagogy and andragogy for our adult learners. This is much more challenging than NIE, because at NIE we can focus on a 10-year cohort of young children from seven to 17 years old, but the IAL must focus on the different learning needs of learners from 25 years old to 75 years old. Now, the SCCCE will help us focus our efforts on how we can uplift the CCE practices for our whole fraternity. This is how we can stay at the forefront, and this will also be one of the key elements of how we can continue to engender respect for our profession, which is constantly evolving.

32. I had a similar conversation with Andreas earlier, how can we engender respect in our profession if we do not keep improving. Professions such as doctors or accountants will set aside a certain amount of time each year to upgrade themselves. We, too, must do the same in our profession.

33. We need to embrace technology. Today, there are many tools that Aaron and his Educational Technology Division team has come up with. But I am not satisfied with that yet, because while we have all the tools, we are not using them as frequently as I would like. This is why we must fully utilise tools such as the Singapore Student Learning Space (SLS) to alleviate our teachers' workload.

34. First, teachers can make use of the auto-grading function to cut down the time on grading papers. It is more than just digitising papers, but redesigning the way we test. This is where we need to constantly upskill and reskill ourselves at speed. If we want to use the auto-grading system, we need to evolve the way we design our assessments. The auto-grading system can help with teachers' mundane workload. But there needs to be a balance because you will still need to provide feedback to the students. This tool can help teachers focus better on higher-needs students, and give value-added advice to students.

35. Second, the Learning Feedback Assistant will help to assess the students' essays on their grammar, vocabulary, spelling and so forth. However, the Learning Feedback Assistant will not replace teachers. We still need teachers' feedback, but this allows teachers more free time to do more value-added work rather than the mundane correction of spelling and grammar. This will be a useful tool for the English teachers.

36. Third, the Interactive Thinking Tool. With this tool, teachers would be able to find out the feedback and viewpoints of the quieter students in class, who will be able to key in their input. During my school visits, I see students utilising these tools, and even the quietest of the students can now participate in class activities. These are the tools that we need to learn to use, because they help to draw out the best in everyone.

37. Fourth, the Adaptive Learning System for mathematics and even oracy. Adaptive learning is something close to my heart, because it allows us to lift the bottom, enable the middle and stretch the top. With the same subject, the weaker students can continue to learn at their own pace and apply themselves at a different level. The higher-ability students can challenge themselves with more challenging math problems, and the system would be able to appraise this. This is not an earth-shattering idea, it is similar to the gamification of levels in most computer games now.

38. For those who are more able, you stretch yourself. For those who are less able, you practise at your own time. This is done for Mathematics, and should be done for more. This will free up our time to cater to the needs of the higher needs students.

39. What about support for oracy? This is a Chinese language lesson. Students can learn the pronunciation of unfamiliar words. You read the passage, the computer will score you. You can try that again to improve your pronunciation or score. Again, the high ability students can go on to read more difficult passages, the high needs students can continue to repeat this. We started this with the Mother Tongue, Malay, Tamil and Chinese. We are going to have this for English as well.

40. These are all the tools that are available for us to free up our time and resources to focus on the high needs students and allow the top to be stretched even more. Now, I'm going to show you something even more exciting that is already in our system and I hope that this will be progressively used by all of you, starting with the higher levels.

41. Five years ago, long before COVID-19, Singapore Polytechnic (SP) wanted to put all their lectures online. When they put up YouTube videos of their lectures, they started by digitising the analogue. That's not good enough. What do I mean by digitising analogue? The speakers spoke into the camera for one hour and expected people to pay attention. Even a live audience doesn't pay attention after 30 minutes. Over time, they have learnt to splice the video into quizzes, modules and break it up into smaller parts. But when they put the video onto the Internet and allow their students to access it asynchronously, they are able to track how many students access it, when, and what did they do. Some students watched the video and played it at the normal speed. Some students fast forwarded and played it at double the speed. Some students rewound that part and played it again. What does that tell us? The lecturers, the faculty know exactly which part of the lessons their students require more help, and they focus their attention and discussion on those aspects.

42. Look at this other example. The student did the quiz, and the lecturers broke it down to see which are the subtopics that the students need more help with. Again, they focused their attention on the class.

43. Of course, with SP having reached this stage, I have set a new goal for them. These are input indicators. What we are most interested in is not input indicators, but outcome indicators. As a next step for SP, they are going to evaluate which of these technologies and which of these pedagogies and methods are most effective for which subjects, and that's the ongoing work that we must do.

44. 84% of our students are using it monthly. Is that good or bad? 84% to me is not good enough yet. We have 12,000 resources available, and different modules for people to do self-directed learning. That is more than a whole Encyclopaedia Britannica put together. But that's what we have today. We have 7,500 lessons through our SLS community gallery for teachers. Is that good or bad? What do you think our numbers should be? I have a dream that soon it will be 75,000. And I'll tell you how we will get that. Today by using such shared resources, our teaching fraternity have collectively saved 640,000 hours. 641,000 to be exact.

45. But I'm not impressed yet. Why? I have 30,000 teachers. 640,000 hours equate to 21 hours of every teacher's time. That is not good enough. My aspiration is that through this sharing system, we will save 200 hours of every teacher's time. That will make a difference. I'll explain how we are going to get that done.

46. We will continue to equip our teachers adequately. How many of you have been equipped and know how to put your lectures onto YouTube? Or more interestingly, how many of you have used TikTok? How many of you in the live audience have used "TeachTok"? It's the education version of TikTok. 20% of TikTok is made up of learning modules. To put up a module and crunch it down to two minutes or one if possible, or even 30 seconds, is an art, science and a skill. So, we should expect NIE to have one lesson at least on TikTok for all new teachers and we should expect some of you to go for the refresher training quite soon on YouTube, TikTok and many other things.

47. How do we design the new feedback and assessment methods? How do we design lessons and leverage on the analytics? These are all the new skills required.

48. The next resource available is OPAL (One Portal, All Learners). Today, we have 1,800 active communities. What is interesting about OPAL is not just what is being shared there. I can see what is the most searched course that is of use to you, as well as what you have searched and have been unable to find. If I know what you have searched for and are unable to find, I will try to figure out how best to help you. So, this is not just about mass customisation for our students. It is also about customisation to help our fellow teachers. You may want some help, you may not know what to do, but guess what? Somebody out there amongst the 30,000, 40,000 of you will know and have a better idea, and if we can collectively harness the energies and ideas from everyone else, we'll be able to organise ourselves to move better and faster.

49. You should join the OPAL communities to learn, as well as share your EdTech knowledge with other teachers in the SG Learning Designers Circle or the EdTech Leaders Community. You are the content generators that will share and benefit from other people sharing as well. If we can do that, then we'll be able to progress much faster.

50. Going back to the SLS, an example of one of the most shared SLS resources is by Yio Chu Kang Secondary's Miss Xu Xiahong. She shared a Chinese language reading SLS lesson. Since last January, it has garnered more than 1,200 shares. That allows other teachers to benefit. So this year, we have initiated this – I will give out a Minister's Innovation Award for large scale projects with sustained impact on our education system. It will apply not just to MOE HQ, but also our statutory boards, and any other products that benefit our community.

51. Next year, I also want to recognise the ground-up contributors. Miss Xu from Yio Chu Kang Secondary will be a worthy recipient. I learned this idea from another country where they do not have such strong curriculum resources, but they have a mass of ground-up initiatives. When everybody puts in their ideas, how do we know which is the best? It is determined by the market, by the fraternity. Everybody downloads whatever they find most useful.

52. Now, a word of caution. Never be complacent that we are topping the charts on PISA or PIRLS or anything of that sort. Some other countries with much less resources, but much more creative thinking can overtake us, because they have a desire to learn and to share. There's no reason why our 30,000, 40,000 in the teaching fraternity cannot organise ourselves better to share faster, and to share more. So this year, I want to capitalise the ground-up sharing of practices for us to achieve this, at scale and speed.

53. I have a vision – that every teacher will be a tech-enabled smart user, pioneer, and collaborator. How are we going to achieve that? Three very simple ways. Firstly, every teacher learns one new thing every year. Secondly, every teacher contributes one good practice to SLS or OPAL every year. If every one of my teachers contributes one good idea every year, we all have 30,000 ideas to learn from. Thirdly, every school contributes one good, innovative idea every year. There are more than 300 schools, 182 primary schools, 148 secondary schools, 22 JCs, five polytechnics, three ITE campuses, six universities with many faculties. There will be many innovative ideas.

54. Now, I will round up with where I started with – societal respect. How do we get societal respect? I promise to have your back. This Government will continue to have this commitment towards you.

55. Promise me that no matter how busy you are, you will keep learning.

56. This is why despite your workload in the school, I want you to go out for your Teacher Work Attachment Plus (TWA+). This is why we will organise all the community networks, whether it's OPAL, SLS, to enable you to learn. I have a vision - one day, all my teachers can access and learn any subject, anytime, anywhere. If we can do this for the whole Singapore, there's no reason, why we can't do this for our own teaching fraternity, why our teachers cannot be the exemplars of lifelong learning.

57. So, I will walk the journey with you. Go for your learning journeys, form networks in the community. Be humble, invite people to come into the school to share their insights.

58. Last but not least, next year, we're going to host the ISTP in Singapore. 20, 30 countries will be coming here. I have one simple wish that when our guests come to Singapore, they will see the diversity of our school and practices, the confidence and competence of our students and most importantly, the dedication, drive and professionalism of our teachers.

59. On that note, thank you once again for all that you have done. I'm extremely proud of all of you. Your dedication during COVID-19, your innovation and speed of reaction to COVID-19. Your consistency over the years will allow us to achieve continuous progress. Without you, today, we will be talking about the learning loss for a generation as in some countries.

60. We will continue to take care of you, you take care of our students. They will take care of our future. Thank you very much.

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