SPED and mainstream school student interaction partnership extended

By Sharon See, Channel NewsAsia, 19 Mar 2012

More special education students will be able to interact with students from mainstream schools when the education ministry's satellite partnership programme is extended to all Special Education (SPED) schools.

Education Minister Heng Swee Keat made the announcement during a visit to Townsville Primary School on Monday.

Under the programme, groups of students visit each others' schools during recess on school days and spend about half an hour interacting.

Townsville Primary School has such an arrangement with neighbouring Pathlight School.

After 15 minutes of recess, the students spend another 15 minutes playing games together.

Townsville Primary student Puneet Bhaskar said: "They are not different from us. They just don't have the skills to socialize but they have very good talents (in music and arts)."

Students from Townsville Primary and Pathlight School spend about 10 to 20 weeks per year on the integration programme.

Pathlight School said the programme allows its students to practise their social skills while allowing them to play in a natural environment.

Mr Heng said the partnership is an excellent programme for students from both mainstream and SPED schools to get to know one another.

Commending the programme, Mr Heng said he plans to expand the partnership to all SPED schools.

Currently, eight SPED schools and 11 mainstream schools are participating in the programme.

But one key consideration is the proximity of schools.

Mr Heng said: "If it's too far away, it's difficult to have this integration so that would be one key factor. And once that is settled, we can look at the other areas where it will be beneficial to the students. If you look at the way that it's being done here (Townsville Primary School), it is not just during recess and during sports. They also organise special events during Racial Harmony Day and Total Defence Day. There's a range of programmes to bring about greater integration between the students with special needs and our mainstream students."

He also visited the Student Care Centre at Townsville Primary School, which has 118 pupils.

The centre supervises latchkey children who lack home support before and after school.

He said six more school-based Student Care Centres (SCCs) will be set up over the next two years as they are important to level up the students.

Mr Heng said: "It is a very important way for us to level up all our students and the very good coordination between the school and the student care centre is what makes it work well. It allows both sides to work together to provide a good integrated programme for the students to learn, to do their homework and also to play."



East View Primary, Fuhua Primary and Da Qiao Primary will start their school-based SCCs this year, while Queenstown Primary, Opera Estate Primary and Balestier Hill Primary will open theirs in 2013.

Mr Heng said: "(These) are schools where there is a stronger demand because in some schools, they do have quite a high number of students who may need such a service. In others, several schools can come together and make use of a community-based student care centre."

Mr Heng also responded to questions about the new Edusave Character Award, which was announced at the ministry's Committee of Supply debate earlier this month.

Doubts had been raised on whether the awards for "good character" should have a monetary value.

Mr Heng explained: "The whole idea is to ensure that we recognise our award scheme in Edusave for academic achievements, non-academic achievements and character development, and to highlight a few exemplary cases which can serve as an inspiration to other students.

"The monetary value part of it is up to parents to decide how they want to use it. Some may need it for the students' expenses whether it's to buy textbooks and stationary and other things that they need for school. Some may save it while some may donate it, so it's entirely up to parents on how they want to use it but there's no reason why we should treat it very differently from the usual Edusave Awards."

Mr Heng said as Singapore moves towards a holistic education, it's important to shift the focus of the awards to include development of values and character.