1. I just returned from the International Summit on the Teaching Profession which was in Valencia, Spain.
1. I was there in my capacity as Minister of State for Education for Singapore, together with counterparts from 14 other countries including Finland, Sweden, United States, United Kingdom, Estonia and Lithuania.
2. We were invited there because we are considered a high performing education system and we were supposed to be talking about education systems and the teaching profession.
2. But when I went there, one of the first things that struck me was this publication “Well-being and the Education of the Whole Child” from OECD, one of the organisers of the International Summit. Very interestingly, the first word is “well-being”.
1. When you look into this report, it says: “The results from the OECD programme for international student assessment show that students differ greatly in how satisfied they are with their lives, their motivation to achieve, how anxious they feel about their schoolwork, their expectations for the future.
2. But when you look at the definition of students’ well-being, it says here that “students’ well-being is often described as the result of interactions among four inter-related domains. The four domains are cognitive, psychological, social and physical.”
3. In this report, it says students need cognitive well-being to participate fully in this society as lifelong learners, effective workers and engaged citizens.
4. Psychological well-being refers to self-esteem, motivation, resilience, self-efficacy, hope and optimism. It then talks about other key elements of their well-being: students’ relationship with their family, their peers, teachers and feelings about their social life.
3. Traditionally when you think about the education systems, Singapore ranks very well internationally. In fact, Singapore ranks number two behind China in terms of PISA scores, OECD’s assessment of reading, numeracy and science. We rank very high on these scores and all the countries which have been invited to this summit have very high PISA scores or high performing education systems.
4. But what are educators talking about when we go for this summit? Well-being and the education of the whole child.
5. I thought to share this with you because internationally what people are talking about is whether our young people are satisfied with their lives and whether they feel motivated.
1. So many things are happening around them and COVID-19 was just that impetus that turbocharged everyone and made us all, whether adults or children, assess what our motivations in lives are. What is it gives us happiness, what is it that anchors us, what is it that gives us happiness, assurance, comfort and so on.
6. I wanted to start with that before we come to the Total Wellness Initiative today because I think all that is inter-related.
1. I look at the people who are here with us today. I see young people who are here their parents, I also see slightly more senior people.
2. I understand that you have all come together because you have participated in the past 6 weeks of Total Wellness Initiative to put together decals to talk about self-care. I heard there were 90 entries and 350 decals that were printed and would be on show today.
7. What is important is that we are taking a close look and focused in our energies about how we promote self-care and wellness in our society.
1. I applaud the organisers, in partnership with Woodlands Regional Library for doing this.
8. I wanted to share this in the opening with you so that we know that we are not alone.
1. We are not the only country that is looking at wellness and mental well-being. Many countries across the world, high performing education systems are looking into this.
2. Because at the end of the day, what does education seek to achieve? You want to have knowledgeable, educated students, but you also want to have happy individuals who are resilient and who can meet whatever challenges that the future can bring.
9. The work to strengthen mental well-being has never been more crucial than now, especially for our youths who face pressures on many fronts.
1. We know that our young people have to balance their studies, co-curricular activities, and they have to deal with many challenges of adolescence, family and peer relationship issues. These are things I talked about earlier when I read from the OECD report.
2. In Singapore, we know and I hear this when I meet students when I go to schools and talk to young people, many of our students also have high expectations on themselves.
1. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with having high expectations as it motivates you to continue to work hard.
2. But it becomes distressing when you feel that you cannot meet those high expectations despite how hard you try and you actually beat yourself up when you cannot meet those expectations.
3. The problem is not so much about having high expectations, but what do you do and tell yourself when you are not able to meet those expectations?
4. Do you tell yourself “Don’t worry, live and fight another day”? If yes, then it’s great that you have expectations.
5. But if you tell yourself “I am not good enough, I am never going to be good enough”, you get depressed and it wears you down, then perhaps you need to change your perspective and think about this because you are only making yourself miserable.
3. We all know that nowadays when you are growing up for young people, even as adults, you are trying very hard to keep pace in a very complex and fast-moving environment.
1. Even as adults when we graduate from school, now everyone is saying to be a lifelong learner because jobs are constantly being transformed.
2. It is easy and common to hear people looking at changing jobs and industries every three to four years, sometimes it may be for a salary increment, sometimes it is because the scope of job is changing and the workers and employees have to keep up with the times.
10. On that basis, promoting resilience and strengthening well-being thus is a whole-of-nation effort. Each and every one of us is affected by that. When we look at this problem, we know that it is not a single government agency that will be able to solve everything. It requires coordination across schools, families, communities and various government agencies.
1. For MOE itself, we have enhanced our mental health education under the refreshed Character and Citizenship Education curriculum.
2. We know that we need to also work with our fellow students because oftentimes when a young person faces issues, it is in their peers that they confide in. It is important to MOE that we work with our schools and school leaders to roll out peer support in our schools so that students know that if they have problems and they want to talk to their friends, their friends are there with a listening ear and not to judge.
1. We also know that bullying can take place in schools and we need to have effective anti-bullying measures to make sure that our students feel protected and safe in the school environment.
3. We are working with Social Service Agencies in the community to provide holistic support for our youths to help them should they need counselling or face other issues that are happening in the family.
4. We are also working closely with parents through the COMmunity and Parents in Support of Schools (COMPASS) and the Parent Support Groups (PSGs).
1. Some of you may already be in PSGs, if not I encourage you to participate. If you are already in one, please provide feedback and suggestions on how the PSGs can work even more closely with the schools and students.
11. I am also very heartened today to meet many public-spirited people, such as Jonathan and Sharmain from Total Wellness Initiative Singapore, who have started ground-up initiatives to raise awareness of mental well-being issues.
12. About one-and-a-half years ago, close to 1,500 individuals joined the Youth Mental Well-Being Network, which was a call-to-action that the Government made to get young people to come together and come up with ground-up solutions to raise mental health awareness and increase understanding about help channels.
1. Many of these individuals have since come together to form support groups or other groups that young people may find solace in and like-minded individuals. I, together with a group of young people, started Project It’ll Be Alright.
1. The project had a call to action to ask members of the public to submit stories of how they have overcome mental health issues. We received more than 200 entries and published about 30 stories into a book which was shared with teachers and students.
2. What the book wanted to show was that when you read about stories of other individuals who have overcome mental health challenges, you realise that actually talking about mental health is not such a scary and bad thing. You can have chronic bad days and talking about it, whether it is with a trusted adult or a friend, can make things better.
3. If you need professional help, there are counselling channels or therapies that could be helpful to you. But the first step is to step forward and it is okay to reach out to get help.
13. At the larger society level, we have the Interagency Taskforce on Mental Health and Well-being.
1. This is something that MOH, MOE and MSF are working collectively on and I am a representative from MOE and MSF.
2. We are taking this very seriously. In the next month or so, you will see a consultation paper come out on some of the suggestions and thinking around mental health and we hope that members of the public will be able to provide your views and suggestions.
3. We are going to be developing a national plan around mental health and it will only work if it incorporates all your input and harnesses all your energies.
14. Today’s initiative is an example of how when people come together, they can really make a difference to our society and community. Thank you very much.
Source: Ministry of Education, Singapore