Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Education,

Ms Gan Siow Huang, Minister of State, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Manpower,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Good evening. I am very pleased to join you for this year’s Teachers’ Day Reception to celebrate the achievements and contributions of our educators.  It is a pleasure to be able to meet all of you in-person to show appreciation to all our educators for their hard work in educating our young. 

This year marks an important milestone of the COVID-19 pandemic situation in Singapore. With the easing of the community Safe Management Measures in April this year, schools have resumed many school activities safely for our students, with appropriate safeguards. In line with the recent update to national guidelines, staff and students no longer need to wear masks in all school settings to better support teaching and learning. This is a hard-earned achievement through the collective effort of our educators and staff who have worked tirelessly to keep schools safe for the past two years, so that our students could continue learning. 

Over the last two years, our teachers have had to adapt very quickly to the changed circumstances due to Covid-19 when they could no longer conduct classes physically. They had to invest time and effort preparing teaching materials and communicating with students online with the attendant challenge of keeping students engaged and interested throughout the lessons.  This is no mean feat especially when many had never conducted online teaching before. The effort and dedication of our teachers have ensured that our students were not disrupted in their studies, and they did not lose valuable time in their education journey which we had seen happening in many countries. Let me thank all our educators and staff for your dedication and relentless efforts in our fight against the virus and in your service to our students. 

Teaching is a calling. Teachers have a great impact on society and their students’ life.  In a world that is constantly evolving, underpinned by key driving forces like globalisation, geopolitical changes, changing demographics and technological advancements, we want to equip our students with competencies to meet new challenges and be prepared for the future.

As an educator, you do more than teach your subjects. Beyond the pursuit of excellence in academics, you also focus on the socio-emotional and mental resilience foundations for our students, and help to positively mould their habits, traits, and character. In this way, you help each student to grow holistically and achieve their fullest potential.

Today, we are gathered to honour the educators who have been exemplary in their service towards moulding our future generations. This year, a total of eight educators will receive the President’s Award for Teachers. 

One of the recipients is Ms Tan Hui Min, a Senior Lecturer at the National Institute of Early Childhood Development. Ms Tan inculcates the belief in her early childhood diploma students that each child they teach in the future is deserving of their time and investment.  Hence, she has developed and implemented a Mentoring Programme with her colleague to support her students to be future-ready early childhood educators. When field experiences were restricted because of the pandemic, she developed a 360degree video of an infant bay so that her students could have more authentic learning experiences, albeit in a virtual environment.

Another recipient of the award today is Mr Nasrun Mizzy, Head of Department for Physical Education and Cocurricular Activities at Teck Whye Primary School. Growing up in difficult circumstances, he found confidence on the football field and encouragement from his teacher, Mr Jumari Sakom, who gave him the chance to be ViceCaptain. Hence, he too became a teacher who is motivated to help students, especially those from challenging backgrounds, learn sports whatever their aptitude. When COVID-19 Safe Management Measures restricted PE experiences for students, Mr Nasrun took the initiative to galvanise a group of PE HODs across different schools to pool their resources together on the Student Learning Space to support student learning.  

Ms Tan and Mr Nasrun exemplify the qualities of what we mean when we say teaching is a calling, and the huge impact teachers can have in the lives of their students. I extend my heartiest congratulations to all the eight award winners, as well as the 4000 over nominees. All of you have been an inspiration to your fellow teachers. 

I am glad to hear that there are now many new initiatives to support our teachers in doing their work.  Whilst teaching is not just a job but requires people with passion and drive to mould young lives, we should do our best to support them whether through lessening their administrative workload or having accessible mental health programmes or through other measures.  As a society, we entrust the well-being of our young to teachers, so it makes great sense for us to ensure that their well-being is taken care of.

Once again, thank you for your commitment to this noble mission. I am sure that your family members, colleagues and students are very proud of you.  I would like to also thank your family members for their strong support, which has been instrumental in allowing you to excel in your work. 

As we celebrate Teachers’ Day tomorrow, let me wish all educators a Happy Teachers’ Day in advance!

Thank you.