Singapore schools to place more focus on mental health, cyber wellness

SINGAPORE — A revised Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) curriculum will place greater focus on mental health and cyber wellness, both of which are “closely related”, said Minister for Education Ong Ye Kung in Parliament on Wednesday (4 March).

“We will devote more time, and develop more (teaching) materials... so that students will learn to critically evaluate what they read online, be able to tell genuine news from falsehoods, and not rely on social media ‘likes’ for validation,” he said during his ministry’s Committee of Supply debate.

“They need to be able to say no to bad influences, and protect themselves from cyber bullies and predators,” he added. The new CCE curriculum will be progressively implemented from 2021 at all primary and secondary schools.

Ong noted that the curriculum is being piloted at 11 secondary schools, including New Town Secondary, which he visited to observe a lesson on cyber bullying. Conducted via a video case study, students taking the class were asked to vote and decide on how the story would develop.

“They could see how their decisions led to different outcomes. I could tell the situation resonated with them, and they were very engaged,” he said.

Ong noted that the use of “authentic scenarios, immersive modalities, and giving students’ more voice and agency” were a means of bringing the CCE curriculum “to life”.

“This is not just for cyber wellness, but for all aspects of CCE,” he added.

Mental health education, building peer support

Mental health education will also be included in the revised CCE curriculum for secondary schools to help students understand mental health issues, recognise their symptoms, know when to seek help, and to develop empathy for those facing difficulties in this area, said Second Minister for Education Indranee Rajah.

“Similarly, the polytechnics and ITE have worked with the Health Promotion Board to develop mental health resources for their students,” she added. The move would complement the ministry’s earlier efforts to help students develop a “resilience mindset” and “foster peer support cultures”, said Indranee.

Noting how schools should provide a positive learning environment for students, she said MOE would also be developing – through its SkillsFuture for Educators scheme – teachers’ competencies in establishing strong teacher-student relationships as well as providing a caring and enabling environment.

Conversely, schools will take a “serious view” of teachers who act unprofessionally, such as by deliberately attacking a student’s self-esteem, and will intervene when necessary to safeguard students’ wellbeing.

MOE is also aiming to establish peer support structures in every school by 2022.

“Our vision is for every student to be a peer supporter, forming a strong network of support in their class, CCA or peer group, where they can look out for each other, and seek guidance from teachers or counsellors where necessary.”

The Institutes of Higher Learning, or IHLs, have also put in place peer support programmes similar to those in schools, Indranee added.

More support will also be given to students with mental health issues.

Students who require help will be referred to counselling professionals in schools, while those assessed to have more serious issues will be referred to external parties for further clinical assessment and intervention. These external resources include the REACH (Response, Early Intervention and Assessment in Community mental Health) teams at hospitals, and the Institute of Mental Health’s Community Health Assessment Team.

Responding to a suggestion Nominated Member of Parliament Anthea Ong to raise the number of counsellors, Indranee said that MOE will review the issue regularly.

“For example, (institutions) with higher needs will be able to hire additional counsellors and are given the funding and manpower provisions to do so,” she said, noting that counsellors are just one part of a wider mental wellbeing support ecosystem in schools and IHLs.

On the issue of universal mental health screening, Indranee said that mass screening could also raise complex issues such as over-medicalising of behaviours in young persons, or negative labelling effects.

“We also need to evaluate the age appropriateness and effectiveness in the school context,” she added.

Focus on moral values, contemporary issues

Ong also said that the new CCE curriculum will place an emphasis on the teaching of moral values with the bulk of CCE lessons for Primary 1 to 3 pupils being devoted to this subject.

He added that many of these lessons would be taught in mother tongue languages for pupils from Primary 1 to 6. “We will therefore better align the CCE and MTL lessons to ensure the standard of the language is appropriate, and engage students in more interesting ways,” said Ong.

The Form Teacher Guidance Period for pupils from Primary 4 to 6 will also be broadened to include National Education and citizenship issues. He noted that for these topics, it would be “more meaningful to have a diverse class with students from all communities” and to have such classes conducted in English.

More effort will also be put into getting secondary school students engaged with contemporary issues – such as climate change, race, religion and social inequality – through CCE lessons. Ong said that the frequency of such classes will be increased to “at least once a fortnight”.

While some of the topics may be sensitive, they are also important to help students better understand the “complexities of our country and of life”, he added.

Ong said that the Ministry of Education (MOE) would develop the resources and methodologies for addressing such topics, and that teachers will “guide students to listen actively, converse respectfully, and be open to differing perspectives”.

Noting that the expanded CCE curriculum would also require more time to teach it, he said CCE would be further integrated into school lessons and activities such as co-curricular activities, camps and cohort learning journeys.

“With these changes, every school experience can be a CCE lesson, and every teacher a CCE teacher. It should become a whole-school approach,” said Ong, who added that the aim was to make learning “intentional rather than incidental”.

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