Parents play critical role in teaching values, habits to children: Maliki
Parents play a key role in ensuring their children get strong foundations in learning and values, said Second Minister for Education Maliki Osman on Friday (Jan 14).
He was speaking after a virtual engagement session with partners of Uplift, a multi-agency task force set up in 2018 to support vulnerable students and their families. Uplift stands for Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families Taskforce.
To date, partners from more than 50 organisations, including public agencies, social service agencies and volunteer groups, have contributed funding and volunteers to engage students.
Said Dr Maliki: "One key theme that emerged and was mentioned by most of the partners was the critical role played by parents in the development of a child through the home environment, the values they impart and the habits that they inculcate."
He said the Government will scale up Uplift initiatives to better support students from disadvantaged backgrounds as announced in November last year.
This year, 24 more primary and secondary schools will join the Uplift Enhanced School Resourcing programme.
On Nov 10 last year, the Education Ministry said each of these school will get an additional four to five teachers to put in place structures that support disadvantaged and at-risk students.
The programme is set to expand to about 100 primary and secondary schools in the next few years.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced earlier in November last year that about 13,000 students will benefit from the added resources that schools will receive.
Under the nationwide Uplift Community Network, disadvantaged students living in eight more towns including Bedok, Choa Chu Kang and Sengkang will also get additional help to attend school more regularly from this year.
On Friday, Dr Maliki thanked partners for their support and highlighted their role in parent outreach and support.
He said: "I look forward to working hand in hand with our partners to support more students and their families so that every child has a good start in life."
Among the partners at the engagement session was Singapore Management University's (SMU) Centre for Social Responsibility representative Pam Wan.
The manager, 40, helps oversee the partnership between the university and primary schools to conduct programmes with children from lower-income families.
By the end of this year, 60 SMU student volunteers from its sports union are expected to mentor about 180 pupils in Gan Eng Seng Primary, Naval Base Primary and Stamford Primary.
Ms Wan said: "It is good for parents to expose children to varied experiences such that they may be able to discover their interests through them."
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