Singapore Government Press Release
Media Division, Ministry of Information and The Arts,
MITA Building, 140 Hill Street, 2^nd Storey, Singapore 179369
Tel: 837-9666

Mrs Ang Ju Lang, Principal

Miss Tay Poey Noy, Chairman, School Advisory Committee

Staff, pupils and guests of Coral Secondary School

It is my pleasure to join you today at the Official Opening of Coral Secondary School.

Coral Secondary started serving the Pasir Ris community in January 1999. As a new school in a relatively young estate, you face many challenges. You need to provide quality programmes for your pupils and raise the profile of your school in the neighbourhood so that it may become one of the preferred options for PSLE leavers. Parents and their children will want to know if Coral Secondary has put in place good internal processes and practices to bring about the desired pupil outcomes.

The success of a school begins with quality school management. Let me share with you three key ingredients of quality school management.

First, leadership with mission, vision and goals. Through well-defined mission, vision and goals, school leaders define the school's role with respect to the community and the nation, set its strategic direction and unite all stakeholders with a common purpose. Ultimately, schools should provide broad-based, holistic education to every child, while developing each to his fullest potential and imbuing him with a sense of belonging to Singapore.

However, goals are useless without the concerted effort of the schools� stakeholders - pupils, staff, parents, and external partners. The second ingredient for success is action planning � translating school goals into targets and action for each and every work unit and each and every stakeholder, so that everyone is inspired, mobilised and empowered to act together towards achieving school goals.

The third ingredient is a review mechanism with a feedback loop into the planning process. Apart from regularly monitoring and evaluating the processes and results, schools should also take stock of their strengths, identify the priority areas for improvement, and feed them back into the school planning process. This continuous cycle of planning and refinement will bring about continuous improvement, enabling the school to grow from strength to strength.

I am pleased to find that in Coral Secondary, the school mission, vision and goals are not only clearly articulated but also vividly displayed on the school walls to serve as constant visual reminders. You have rolled out many imaginative programmes to develop pupils holistically. I would like to commend you for the many opportunities you have provided for pupil enrichment, the achievements of your pupils in web page design competitions and cultural group presentations, your teamwork with external partners and also for having completed a full-scale self-appraisal last year.

While you have got off to a good start, and achieved commendable successes for a young school, much more needs to be done to ensure that your success is sustainable in the future. Let me touch on 3 key challenges.

First, in keeping with your forward-looking mission and vision statements, let me challenge you to play a key role in preparing your pupils and staff for the knowledge-based economy. Equip your pupils with information processing skills to help them cope with the information explosion. Pupils should not only know where to look for information but also how to sieve out genuine information and evaluate the reliability of the information. To do this effectively, pupils need critical skills.

The Chinese saying:

learning should not cease, even as one grows old - is especially relevant to every one of us in the new economy, where the knowledge frontier is advancing more rapidly than before. Inspire staff and pupils to always keep the lamp of learning burning. Set a good example for your pupils by being lifelong learners yourselves, keep in touch with the latest research in pedagogy, school management and other educational matters and share with one another from the teaching fraternity, locally and abroad.

Second, let me challenge you to take the lead to innovate and initiate change, going beyond adopting the best practices of others. By generating innovative ideas, you will add value to the education that you provide, thereby fulfilling part of your mission. Being a new school, you have the distinct advantage of starting from a clean slate, free from the shackles of outmoded practices. Therefore, seek innovation in whatever you do, whether in teaching and learning or school management. Encourage creative ideas both from your staff and pupils, and give these ideas a try, no matter how wild they may seem. Even if you do not achieve all that you set out to do, valuable lessons can be learnt. Only then will you have thinking staff and thinking pupils, as envisioned in your mission and vision.

Finally, let me challenge you to play a bigger role in nation building by being a school that places a premium on National Education. Singaporeans will become more mobile than before, particularly those armed with good language and IT skills. Many would be studying and eventually choosing to work overseas. There is nothing wrong in having a global outlook; indeed we should encourage it. The challenge is how we can ensure that Singaporeans will continue to regard Singapore as home and contribute to her well being even during those periods when they are not physically here.

You have a part to play in fostering this sense of rootedness among Singaporeans. Since pupils spend much of their time in school, schools could create an understanding and compassionate learning environment, where pupils develop fond memories, forge life-long friendships and form an emotional association with their alma mater. Through their relationships with their peers and institutions, we can foster a stronger sense of belonging to Singapore.

Corals are colourful creatures formed from the exoskeleton of small sea animals. From these small living things, corals are capable of growing into enormous coral reefs. As you grow into a learning organisation, draw inspiration from these beautiful living creatures. The learning experiences offered to pupils and staff serve to provide the strong cement for national bonding and a concrete foundation for thinking and expression. Like the corals which respond to constantly changing environments, constantly challenge your ability to grow and to learn amid changes, and you will achieve success beyond your imagination.

Let me wish all the stakeholders of Coral Secondary School � the Principal, SAC, staff, pupils, parents and the surrounding community, every success in achieving your mission to develop thinking individuals within a learning and caring community.

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