Future School

Singapore schools are becoming more sophisticated with high tech labs and instant access to the Net. How will this change the future of your children‘s education? ERI AKBAR finds out.

INSTEAD of textbooks, Gauhrie Yogarrajah, a secondary 3 student at Crescent Girls’ School, carries her tablet PC to school every day. She gets to use the portable device to surf for the latest findings on cells research for biology subject, download notes and upload homework, as well as discuss schoolwork with her teachers and peers via web chat.


Gauhrie and her schoolmates from Crescent Girls are wired to do so, as their school has been selected as one of the five pioneer Future Schools by the Ministry of Education, an initiative kickstarted in 2008. The number will increase to 15 by 2015. With extra funding from the Ministry, this cluster of schools, including Canberra and Beacon Primary, Jurong Secondary and Hwa Chong Institution, serves as pathfinders in the incorporation of infocommunications technology in daily lessons. They work with partners such as Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard to customise tech-driven programmes that enhance students’ learning.

Niche Labs

Apart from tablet PCs, Crescent Girls’ students get a chance to expand on their learning by utilising the facilities and resources provided in the school’s various niche labobratories. For instance, the Faraday Lab equipped with Interactive Immersive Virtual Reality allows students to view simulations through 3D glasses. The Monet Lab, on the other hand, lets students enjoy composing digital music and sketching a finer piece of art work on a specialised software. There’s also a Video Production Lab, complete with video editing consoles, and the Communicative Arts Room which is equipped with a chroma key screen (where you can superimpose backdrops like a war zone or a Venetian villa) to produce news clips or record a literary skit. These laboratories are decked out with industry-standard equipment which is as close as the students can get to a real-life working experience.

Learning By Discovery

Infocomm technology is interwoven in their daily lessons across all the subjects.  For instance, for a Geography lesson on coastal erosion, students get to ‘place’ a breakwater at different positions to learn how the process is sped up or slowed down through a simulation game. Crescent Girls’ principal, Mrs Eugenia Lim, said: “It helps students to gain a deeper understanding on the subject matter. They are able to retain the information better when they discover it for themselves, rather than simply learning from teachers and textbooks what the right answer is. They also learn collaboratively.”

Innovative Methods

Lessons are highly interactive and exciting at this school. For one of her Tamil lessons, Gauhrie played newsreader by recording herself reading a news bite in her Mother Tongue. Using this example to explain the link between technology and learning,

Mrs Lim said: “It’s another way of promoting oral communication in learning a language. It has an advantage over the usual speaking up and discussing in class, as students get to play it back and review their speech, while teachers and classmates can give their critique.” The innovative learning methods has made Gauhrie a self-motivated student who takes ownership over her schoolwork. “I feel like a professional. It has made me more serious towards my schoolwork,” declared the 15-year-old girl who aims to become a paediatrician. She also gets to clear her doubts on mind-boggling topics with easy access to Internet. In Math, for instance, she said: “I was unclear about trigonometry but after watching a video on a website during lesson, I understood it better.”

Student Portal

Crescent Girls has also developed a student portal, where students can make use of applications that are similar to Facebook, YouTube and MSN Messenger to make announcements, watch or upload videos and chat with their peers. Mrs Lim pointed out: “It’s beyond lessons and involves their whole school life. It keeps them connectedwithin the school community.”

Virtual Lessons

Technology is also making it possible for learning to be ongoing as students need not be physically present in the classroom to catch up with their studies should a situation like an outbreak of H1N1 virus arise. Crescent Girls recently held a three-day e-learning event where students log on to their tablet PCs from home and attend lessons by simply watching their teachers’ video presentations, discussing the topics via online messaging and uploading their homework. While the students were able to access the content at any time of the day during that period, Mrs Lim observed that a great number of students log on early in the morning, around the same time school hours would have begun. She added: “It‘s amazing how disciplined the students have shown themselves to be. It shows they are keen on e-learning.” Safety features like firewalls blocking undesirable websites and a function that allows teachers to check on every student’s computer screen, are in place. Cyber wellness workshops have also been conducted.

Finding The Balance

Despite being tech-centric, Crescent Girls’ is not doing away with textbooks and writing completely. The students get a hard copy as well as the digital version of their textbooks which can be read as an e-book - the bundled package doesn‘t cost much more, according to Mrs Lim. The students still write on worksheets at times, while writing their assignments using a stylus on their tablet PCs at other times. Mrs Lim pointed out: “At the end of the day, students have to sit for their ‘O’ levels, so they need practice with pen and paper, too.“

Some of the students’ assignments completed with the aid of technology are graded, though it makes up a small percentage of the students’ overall grade for now, according to Mrs Lim. For instance, the students have built websites to present their projects, and marks awarded are factored in their year-end assessment. 

Mentor School

In future, Crescent Girls’ students will be able to hold discussions with their teachers and peers, and even their overseas counterparts via video conferencing. The school has also been chosen as a Microsoft Mentor School to help schools at home and in other countries like Sri Lanka to innovate through the use of technology. One of the challenges for other schools who want to track in their footsteps is having a “dedicated team of staff who, at times, have to do extra work” to come up with innovative programmes for the students, said Mrs Lim.

Parents welcome the innovative learning methods in their children’s education. Stay-at-home mum Anne Teo, 47, whose daughter is in secondary 1 at Crescent Girls, shared: “Before she joined the school, she hardly ever touched the computer. She was more interested in reading books and playing with toys. Now, she spends time on her tablet PC to do her schoolwork and has become tech-savvy in other areas, too, so much so I consult her when I have questions. It helps to prepare her for her future working life, where technology will play an important role.”