Opening Address by Ms Gan Siow Huang, Minister of State for Education, at the CDAC’s Tutors and School Partners Appreciation Dinner

1.CDAC is widely appreciated by many families for the tuition support that it provides to our low-income families. There is a lot of good work happening in the tuition classrooms. It is not about just imparting knowledge. It is about counselling, building relationships, giving confidence and building character in our students, who will be our future generation. So, to the tutors here, I want to thank you for your service to the nation and of course, Happy Teachers Day.

2.It is my honour to be among all of you, the tutors of CDAC, who dedicated your time and effort to teach our students. Your commitment to building relationships and fostering the joy of learning is commendable.

3.You not only build confidence and motivate our students, but you also played a key role in helping them develop a growth mindset. We know that our teachers in schools are doing very good work on the ground to shape and mould our students. I see the CDAC tutors complementing our teachers, because it is a journey right after the classrooms where our students continue to learn, continue to grow, and it is through you, we continue to mould our students.

4.I would like to express my thanks also to our Centre Supervisors, Assistant Centre Supervisors as well as the Caretakers, who have consistently ensured the Tuition Programme runs smoothly.

Importance of school partnerships with community partners

5.MOE and schools have been working hard to support the needs of our students, especially those who come from the disadvantaged backgrounds. Today, we have also among us school leaders and representatives with us here. We would like to give a special shout-out to all the schools for their strong partnership.

6.The Collaborative Tuition Programme, or otherwise known as C.T.P., is one such strong partnership that we have between schools and CDAC. We have with us today representatives from Yishun Secondary School, Rivervale Primary School, and Admiralty Primary School. These schools are CDAC's long-time C.T.P. partners for many years.

7.These schools support the programme by offering venues within the school compounds for the tuition to take place, supported by school personnel who are in-charge of overseeing the tuition sessions at these venues. Thank you to all the schools, the school leaders and the staff for the contributions towards this cause.

8.I would also like to thank the new C.T.P. partners who have joined the programme recently, and they are Gongshang Primary School and Manjusri Secondary School.

9.School partnerships have been growing over the years. We are very thankful for that. This year, new forms of such school partnerships took shape to enhance the C.T.P.. A new collaboration with Nanyang Girls' High School and Hwa Chong Institution allowed students in these 2 schools to work with CDAC as part of their character development programme for their students.

10.As part of their Value-In-Action (VIA) programme, the students of these two schools work directly with CDAC to plan activities for CDAC's tutees with the aim to educate the tutees through play. The students conducted experiments and engaged in activities for the Tuition Programme. The tutees enjoyed having an older sibling figure in the class to teach them through fun and play type of activities. Such collaboration is meaningful as it allows our students to be creative and execute their plans to contribute to the community. Of course, the younger tutees benefit from being able to learn in a fun and innovative environment. I know that our CDAC tuition centres are not just about tuition, but also about fun and play.

Beyond the academic support

11.Beyond supporting the students academically, CDAC aims to move towards fostering relationships and focusing on social-emotional learning (SEL). An example of this is the GEM, which stands for Go the Extra Mile. This is a Mentoring Programme and schools like Dazhong Primary School and Ang Mo Kio Primary School have been strong partners. Providing long-term support for children from their primary to post-secondary years, the GEM mentoring programme incorporates activities for CDAC staff to befriend these children. I'm heartened to hear that the children have benefited from the participation in the GEM Mentoring Programme, and that the partner schools have also noted positive changes in the students' behaviour.

12.CDAC has also developed a Student and Parent Engagement Team, which consists of educational therapists, counsellors, and educators. This team focuses on the social-emotional needs of the students. This team will work very closely with the CDAC tutors and school partners to identify students who require additional support and pull them out to form smaller groups. I know that the tutors here, you are doing great work in uplifting every student that comes to your class, but we know that sometimes there will be students that you recognise that might have certain learning barriers or special needs. So, we hope that this new team that has been formed can complement the work that you do, and we need your help to identify and pick out these students so that we can bring in the team to engage the parents and the students early.

13.CDAC, with the support of MOE and the schools, is committed to support our students' education journeys. The volunteers, corporate partners, and community partners are all instrumental in ensuring that our students are well supported. At the end of the day, it is not simply about individual programmes - there is so much more that can be done through partnership and to bring holistic development to our students.

14.Thank you all for staying the course. I know that some of you have been in this programme for 10, 15, 20 years. It is remarkable how many students you have helped and supported through their learning journeys. So, congratulations and thank you. I hope that you will grow as well, as you help our students grow, to be our future leaders of tomorrow. Thank you.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.