Singapore, Singapore
"One child, one teacher, one pen, and one book can change the world." These words echoed by Malala Yousafzai resonated with me. A teacher possesses the ability to spark profound impact on a child's development throughout his/her educational journey. Since young, I have always believed that success is not predetermined by one's background. But rather, it is the commitment to continuously seek opportunities for growth and demonstrating resilience will lead to tomorrow's success even in the face of adversities. This belief fuelled my aspiration to instill grit and perseverance into the lives of my students as a teacher. Failure is not final but rather is a checkpoint in the journey to attain success. To better understand how values such as grit are embedded into our education system, I pursued an internship at the Ministry of Education (MOE) at the Character and Citizenship Education Branch (CCEB). There, I gained firsthand insight into the intricate process of how the Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) curriculum is developed and carefully crafted to ensure they remain relevant in our rapidly evolving world. The most challenging yet rewarding aspect of this internship was contributing to the redesign of lesson activities for International Friendship Day. During meetings, my colleagues and I had to think critically to propose ways to align the lesson objectives to the themes of Openness shared by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong during his National Day Rally (NDR) Speech last year. Through this experience, it taught me the rigour of policymaking, and it is far from straightforward. If education is the cornerstone of fostering a more resilient and forward-looking society, then we must also recognize that educators must be willing to be lifelong learners, ready to learn, unlearn and relearn. With the growing prevalence of Artificial Intelligence, students need their teachers now more than ever. Because a teacher doesn't just teach, they inspire. They inspire the next generation to take risks. They inspire the next generation to dare. They inspire the next generation to dream. As I continue on my journey, I am committed to not only teach content but also cultivate character within my students. Empowering them to believe and realize their potential, regardless of where they come from.
During my one-week attachment, I attended numerous meetings to understand how lessons are planned for International Friendship Day. Throughout these meetings, I witnessed firsthand the complexities when it comes to policymaking as well as lesson planning for the Character and Citizenship Curriculum. Moreover, I attended the branch meetings as well to understand how training CCE Officers are like especially tackling the issue of how to conduct difficult conversations in lessons itself.