Education in Singapore

I thank Senior Minister of State (SMS) for her comprehensive responses yesterday on the use of IT and also on the education village.

I would like to ask Ministry to consider uploading lectures especially academic ones as well for all stakeholders, not just for teacher-resource sharing. In fact, Ivy League universities like Yale, Berkeley, and Stamford have already avail their lectures online through podcasts for sharing globally. I think we can try to model that - maybe do it at the primary and secondary schools' levels, where we are still upgrading teachers.

Secondly, I would like to clarify if SMS would consider also putting online - assessment papers and worksheets, so that parents and families do not have to pay for these at shopping centre lobbies where counters are set up to sell these papers. I think some of the parents would be very willing to pay for good quality and authentic examination papers.

On the education village, I thank SMS for the comprehensive reply on satellite partnerships examples that she has quoted. In fact, I am very, very appreciative of that because my schools are involved.

However, the Darlington Education Village is unlike any model that we have seen in Singapore. It is a federation of three schools - mainstream, primary, secondary and special schools. There is daily natural interaction all the time because of the way the schools are constructed. I urge Ministry to study this model in detail. I know it is easy to say to be bold, and as what Minister has said, we have of course to cautiously implement new models. But I urge the Ministry to study this model in detail. Perhaps pilot one or two education villages and let it morph to something that is more Singaporean, more Asian which will be even more powerful than the Darlington Education Village model.