Closing Remarks by Minister for Education Chan Chun Sing at the International Summit on the Teaching Profession

1.Thank you for the active participation and candid sharing over this conference. We hope that this will be the start of our conversation and collaboration.

2.I have personally learnt a lot from all the delegates. As the New Zealand delegates have shared, while we might be different in our school systems, many of the challenges we face are similar, and our fundamental aim to support our students and teachers remains constant.

3.Let me share my reflections:

4.First, after hearing from everyone over the last few days, I am more convinced than ever of the urgency for us to upskill and even reskill our teachers for the challenges of tomorrow. The fundamental principle remains, we take care of our teachers, and our teachers will take care of our children. In Singapore we have a saying, one Education Minister will take care of 400 Principals, the 400 Principals take care of 40,000 teachers, and the 40,000 teachers take care of 400,000 students. But in order to really take care of our teachers, we must do the following:

1. We need to better understand the science of learning, teaching, and assessment. We need to enable our teachers to make the right decisions by giving them the best support and data available.
2. We will need to help our teachers evolve from didactic teaching to facilitative teaching, where they help our children learn to distil, discern, and discover.
3. We will need to help the new generation of teachers to acquire the skills to manage the socio-emotional challenges themselves and of the younger generation. For without a strong socio-emotional foundation, there cannot be lifelong learning.
4. We will have to help our teachers embrace Educational Technology to complement their capabilities and capacity to not only do things better, but to do better things. Having said that, we need not shy away from using technology to do things better for a start, because when we use technology to do things better, we will soon use technology to do better things.
5. As we talk about partnerships, we recognise the urgent need to help our schools build those capacities in order to leverage on these partnerships.
6. But this is a team effort.
   1. We should not expect all our teachers to have all the skillsets that we need. No one can do this alone. But we can do this together.
   2. When we talk about engendering trust and respect, we must put it in action by strengthening the professionalism of our teachers. When society sees the deep sense of professionalism in our teachers, they will then trust and respect our teachers.
   3. As the saying goes, trust cannot be demanded, trust must be earned. This is why we are committed to strengthening the professionalism of teachers to engender this sense of trust and respect. Trust begets trust, and respect begets respect. We must never allow it to go into a negative spiral where we lose the trust and respect of our society, which in turn will discourage the next generation of teachers. Instead, we must ensure that we are on a positive spiral, where we can inspire every generation of committed people to join the teaching service in service of our future. Trust and respect, and a deep sense of professionalism will then engender pride and confidence in the teaching profession.
7. In order to do these, we will need to make tough decisions, to set aside time for our teachers to develop professionally and cut down on things that are not useful and purposeful.
   1. Our teachers are not afraid of hard work, just not impactful work. When our teachers see the sparkle in the eyes of our students, they are inspired to work hard.
   2. Partnerships require us to have the humility to know that we can't do it alone. Partnerships also remind us that we need not feel inadequate that we cannot achieve everything on our own.

5.My second reflection is that educational technology is here to stay.

1. We are past the conversation on whether to use or not to use EdTech.
2. Instead, our conversations now centre on meaningful and appropriate use of EdTech to support our students and teachers.
   1. These include difficult but important questions such as what is age-appropriate access, not just quantity of access but the quality of access; not just about applying high tech to teaching, but applying the right balance of high tech and high touch for the diverse needs of our students, so that we can use technology for personalised, customised, differentiated teaching to stretch the top and lift the bottom.
3. Policy and implementation must complement each other in a positive cycle. With the speed of change, we do not have the luxury of time for the perfect to be the enemy of the good; neither should we seek perfection to irrelevance.

6.My third and final reflection is that a student's means cannot determine their destiny. Instead, the methods and focus of our education system can and instead should be the determinants of the outcome.

1. In Singapore, education is and will continue to be a critical enabler for social mobility. We must ensure that students in Singapore, regardless of background, are able to rise beyond their lack of family support. We believe that they will be able to do so with the right family support, teaching methods, and focus.
2. I stand before you as a child of a single-parent family. I went through the education system in Singapore not because my family was rich. I went through education in Singapore because my country was committed to developing each and every one of us. My community stepped forward to help all those who needed the extra bit of help. We were inculcated since young, that as long as you work hard, you will have the chance to be who you want to be.
3. Our brand of meritocracy is with Singapore characteristics which will allow each and every child to go as far as they need. This is demonstrated by the chart that Andreas showed us, where countries which use their resources in a focused way will be able to leapfrog over those with more experience and resources.
4. In Singapore, we must never be complacent to say that just because we have more resources today, that we will continue to succeed. This is as relevant for the individual as it is for the country.
5. This is the message that we must send to each and every individual. Your family resources will not determine the outcome of your child's education. Instead, every child in Singapore will have the best and most appropriate resources given to them, as long as they are determined and have a supportive family focused on the education of the child.
6. We will do all we can to democratise access of the best teaching materials using technologies available, and making them accessible to each and every child. This is so every child can continue to dream and dream big, so long as families are focused on improving the lives of our children, so long as our communities continue to step forward, and so long as our education system continues to attract the best people using the best teaching methods. We believe that every one of our children will have a better tomorrow.

7.On that note, thank you all for inspiring us and Singapore. We look forward to Iceland being the host for ISTP2025 and wish you all the best.

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