Mr V T Arasu, Chairman,
Organising Committee,
Indian Community
33rd National Day Celebration,
Members of Parliament,
Ladies and Gentlemen.

Good Evening

I am happy to join all of you tody to celebrate Singapore's 33rd National Day.

More than 15 different Indian Organisations, representing Indian Singaporeans of diverse sub-ethnic, linguistic and religious groups, have come together to organise this event. This is commendable as it reflects our community's spirit of unity in diversity.

As Prime Minister stated in his National Day Rally Speech, the regional economic crisis has brought about an air of uncertainty. Singapore has been somewhat cushioned because of our strong fundamentals. We had put in place policies, institutions and programmes to meet long-term challenges.

The current economic crisis has two lessons for Singaporeans : First, we cannot take economic growth for granted. Second, there is no substitute for preparedness.

If that is true for the nation as a whole, it is alo true for our community. Are we prepared to meet the challenges and opportunities of a fast-paced, knowledge-based, skills-driven economy?

COMMUNITY'S ACHIEVEMENTS

The fundamental challenge facing the Indian community has not changed: it still is that of raising our educational standards. When we look back at the last five years of SINDA's efforts, the community has done very well in a number of areas. Many of the targets set by the Action Committee on Indian Education (ACIE) have been met, some even comfortably. For instance:

AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT

Clearly, Indian students' performance has been commendable in some areas. But we need to do much more. Only those who have the learning and ability to perform complex tasks will succeed in the economy of the future. We must ensure that young Indian-Singaporeans are equal to this challenge.

First, it is important to have more Indian students going into Special and Express streams. Students who make it to the Special and Express streams have a higher chance of making it to post-secondary institutions and the University. Given our current rate of performance, only 1 in 10 Indian students from Primary One cohort will make it to the University as against the national average of 2 in 10. We must increase this proportion if we want to see a significant number of Indians holding key positions in the private and public sectors.

Secondly, we must reduce the number of Indian students who are leaving the education system without a marketable skill. Four out of ten Indian students drop out of the education system armed with only secondary education. They do not choose to go to ITE or Poly because they are more attracted by the idea of securing immediate employment. ITE has become an integral part of our post secondary education. Indian parents and students must not shun ITE but instead acquire a skill through an ITE education. Those who cannot make it to the University or Polytechnics can still do so through ITE.

VISION AND TARGETS

We cannot be complacent. We must press on. As a community, we must first achieve the following targets in the next five years:

(a) Indian students must get into the better streams from Primary School onwards.

In 1997, 90% of the Primary One cohort of Indian students were streamed into EM1/EM2 in Primary 5. We must aspire to increase the number of Indian students in EM1/Em2 to 92% by the next five years: and

In 1997, 42% of the Primary One cohort of Indian students made it to the Special and Express streams. We need to increase this to 51% by 2002.

(b) In 1997, 95% of the Primary One cohort of Indian students qualified for Secondary School. Let's target to have 97% of Indian students moving on to Secondary Schools by the year 2002; and

(c) 67% of the Primary One cohort of Indian students should acquire a Post-Secondary Education at ITE, Polytechnics or Pre-University in the next five years as compared to only 57% in 1997.

These are challenging targets. The key to achieving them is, to invest in our children early and to work together as a community. We need the help and assistance of all of you individually, and as organisations. This is why SINDA, based on the recommendation of its Strategic Review Committee - which I shall talk about further later - decided on the following Vision Statement : "To Build a Strong and Vibrant Indian-Singaporean Community Together".

NEED TO FINE-TUNE CURRENT STRATEGIES

Our strategies and programmes for the last five years have, no doubt, been effective. Our focus on education, has succeeded in boosting the overall performance of Indian students. In particular, the main weakness - passing rate in Mathematics - that was identified as bringing down the overall performance of Indian students in the ACIE report has been tackled effectively. But looking ahead we need to do more to move the community to the next phase of development.

To map out the strategies for the next phase of development, SINDA commissioned a Strategic Review Committee in September 1997. The Committee met over a period of six months and canvassed the views of many people - parents, teachers, principals, businessmen, social workers and students - before making its recommendations that were approved by the SINDA Executive Committee and Board of Trustees.

The thrust of the Strategic Review Committee's recommendation is : To progress to the next phase of development. Indian students should not only pass but pass well enough to make it to the better streams and leave the schools with a marketable skill. To achieve this goal, the Committee recommends that SINDA should focus on three strategies:

i) Start early with children
ii) Work hand in hand with other organisations in the community and
iii) Promote knowledge and skills-based education

I will touch on starting early with children and working hand in hand with other organisations in the community today.

STARTING EARLY WITH CHILDREN

If Indian children are to do well in the school, they must be adequately prepared to face the rigours of the education system. This preparation cannot be done when they are already in school, it has to be started before they enter Primary One and reinforced while they are in school.

What are the skills and values that are needed for a child to do well in school? The most fundamental is basic reading skills. Some of you may find this difficult to believe, but there are Indian children in Primary One and Two who have difficulty in reading. This is evident in every SINDA STEP Centre. Without proper reading skills, these children cannot do well in their studies. We cannot rely on tuition centres to teach the children how to read; their focus is and must be on the school cirriculum so that our children do well in the exams. Skills like reading must be cultivated at home, at a young age, before the children start school. Indian parents must teach their children early how to read.

To assist parents in cultivating reading to the child, SINDA has started reading workshops and sessions at the neighbourhood level. It is good that these reading workshops are well attended by Indain parents. I have asked SINDA to further expand this useful programme. But, there are parents who, for one reason or another, find it difficult to send their children to these reading sessions. This is the case especially for families from the lower income group where both parents have to work to make ends meet. To assist children from these families, SINDA will introduce a Home Reading Programme. Volunteers will be used to visit the homes to read to the children.

This programme can only succeed if individual Indian-Singaporeans are prepared to volunteer their services. SINDA estimates that it needs at least 300 volunteers for this programme. Any one, young and old, who has the desire to help the community, who can spare one or two hours a week and who has the ability to read to children, can be a volunteer in this programme. Come forward and give a helping hand to your community.

WORKING HAND IN HAND WITH THE COMMUNITY

As for working hand in hand with other organisations in the community, in the last 5 years SIDNA and the community progressed because we worked together with other grassroots and language-based organisations in the Indian community. This healty and fruitful partnership must be further strengthened. We need to have more regular interaction, networking and dialogue so that we can identify areas to co-operate and run programmes for the benefit of the community. To facilitate more active networking and dialogue among Indian Organisations, SINDA will launch a Consultative platform. This will be a forum for all Indian Organisations who are keen to work for the betterment of Indian Singaporeans to come together, exchange ideas and launch new initiatives to meet the challenges facing the community. I urge all Indian Organisations keen to do their part for the upliftment of the community to come forward and join the forum.

Let us resolve this evening that, we will strive to excel and build a Strong and Vibrant Indian-Singaporean Community Together!