On the morning of November 9th, the first Guangdong-Singapore Principals of Primary and Secondary Schools Exchange Event with the theme of "Creating the Future with One Heart-Developing High Quality Education" was held in SCA online and offline.
The event was hosted by the Department of Education of Guangdong Province and Ministry of Education of Singapore (MOE), co-organized by the People's Government of Huangpu District of Guangzhou, Guangzhou Education Bureau and North District of School Department of Singapore Ministry of Education, and was undertaken by Huangpu District Education Bureau of Guangzhou. In addition, the event was strongly supported by the Singaporean Consulate General in Guangzhou, Guangzhou Institute of Educational Research, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area National Nanotechnology Innovation Base, and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area Principals Association. It was also reported by People's Daily, CCTV, Zaobao and many other media one after another.
Guangdong and Singapore Jointly Build a New Platform for Educational Opening Up to the Outside World
At the beginning of the activity, accompanied by piano music, the students of SCA brought a chorus named "Fare Forth" to the educators from Guangdong and Singapore. They warmed the atmosphere with melodious singing, opening the prelude of the event. As the video of the SCA history shows, this new school, with the high-quality education genes of Guangdong and Singapore, has demonstrated the charm of the integrated education between China and Singapore. We are also looking forward to seeing this educational exchange event co organized by Guangdong and Singapore starting a new journey, just like the lyrics of this song, "Opening your wings, riding the wind and flying to the sky".
Talking about Sino-Singapore educational cooperation, Mr. Loh Tuck Keat, Consul General of Singapore in Guangzhou, and Chen Minsheng, Party Committee member and Deputy Director of Guangzhou Education Bureau, mentioned SCA many times during the event, and expressed their great expectations and encouragement to the school.
"As a representative school in education cooperation between Singapore and Guangdong, I hope that SCA will continue to take the lead in contributing to the development of Sino-Singapore education cooperation and Sino-Singapore Knowledge City."--Loh Tuck Keat, Consul General of Singapore in Guangzhou
Chen Minsheng, the member of the Party Committee of Guangzhou Education Bureau and Deputy Director, also mentioned SCA in his video speech, and showed high expectations and encouragement to the school.
"In May 2020, Consul General Loh Tuck Keat visited Guangzhou Education Bureau as soon as he took up his new post. We had an in-depth exchange on accelerating the construction of SCA and further deepening exchanges and cooperation in education between Guangzhou and Singapore. Since then, the Guangzhou Education Bureau, together with Huangpu District Government, has accelerated the construction of SCA and the examination and approval of school licenses.
At that moment, I was deeply touched. In 1919, a Chinese middle school with Kah Kee Spirit was established in Singapore. In the following years, "Hwa Chong" became famous around the world. In 2021, after more than 100 years of development, "Kah Kee Spirit" was brought to and developed in Guangzhou, and took root in the Sino-Singapore Knowledge City. In the days to come, I hope that the SCA will grow stronger and become an important window for exchanges and cooperation between Guangzhou and Singapore, and serve as a good example of Guangzhou's fruits of opening up to the outside world in education."--Video speech by member of the Party Committee of Guangzhou Education Bureau and Deputy Director Chen Minsheng
In their speeches, Mr. Loh Tuck Keat and Deputy Director Chen Minsheng also mentioned that Singapore and Guangdong Province reached the Memorandum of Understanding on Educational Cooperation and Exchange between Guangdong Education Department and Singapore Education Department (hereinafter referred to as the Memorandum) this year. The Guangdong-Singapore “Principals of Primary and Secondary Schools Exchange Event”, as the first project of the Memorandum, will open a new chapter for deepening cooperation between the two sides.
Principals from Guangdong and Singapore Talked about What is "Quality Education"
All the front-line educators and education administrators are committed to promoting the development of high quality education. On this topic, four principals from Guangdong and Singapore shared their fruits and experiences.
Yao Xunqi, president of the Affiliated High School of South China Normal University, introduced the effective methods of promoting the transformation of teachers' teaching methods and students' learning methods and building a new ecology of "future-oriented quality education" from three dimensions of personalized education, science and technology empowerment education and community education.
Li Yuexin, principal of No.2 Primary School in Guangzhou Development Zone, said that the essence of high quality education is personality education, which includes developing school brands, respecting teachers' teaching style and students' learning style.
Chen Guoqiang, the headmaster of Xinmin Secondary School, said that the future of education lies in cultivating "benevolent contributors, tireless learners and confident leaders". Bai Weihao, the headmaster of Admiralty Primary School, mentioned that, based on the skills and learning achievements needed in the 21st century, we should ensure that high quality education should conclude the basic values and skills that are necessary for every child, which is to cultivate them into "citizens that are confident and eager to acquire new knowledge, can actively make contributions, and care for the motherland".
Teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and contributing to society are ideas mentioned frequently and key words in their speeches.
Teaching students in accordance with their aptitude: the talent cultivation mode of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude means providing assistance for different students. Only when students are full of curiosity and thirst for knowledge can they stimulate their internal motivation and keep lifelong learning.
Making contribution to society: application-oriented learning emphasizes advocating and putting forward thoughts and suggestions on social phenomena such as neighborhood relations and social cohesion.
This also requires schools to use "general concepts" and "core issues" to carry out instructional design in making educational plans. It is important to transform priorities from knowledge to learning methods and thinking analysis.
Example of "Sixth Grade Art-Indirect Self-Portrait" at Admiralty Primary School
Under the background of the digital age, the potential of "metaverse + Education" is being taped constantly. In this theme lecture, the professional team of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area National Nanotechnology Innovation Base (hereinafter referred to as "CANNANO") led by Academician Zhao Yuliang of Chinese Academy of Sciences was invited to share opinions on the topic of "Metaverse's Empowerment of Education". Hu Xiangang, Executive Deputy Director of CANNANO Zimi Laboratory, shares with you a forward-looking view on how technology empowers education through metaverse.
Director Hu Xiangang said that metaverse will be a revolutionary tool and a great development opportunity for education. In the future, by using metaverse, we can create teaching scenes online, such as self-designed exhibition halls, Mars bases, future cities, etc., create immersive training classrooms offline, Remote meeting, and carry out holographic distance teaching, etc.
The roundtable forum is the second key agenda of this event. Principals made lively discussions on topics such as curriculum concept, teacher training and student evaluation, and shared and discussed their experiences and achievements in these areas.
Zhang Xianlong, the headmaster of Guangzhou No.2 Middle School, said that it is necessary to re-understand and re-take Chinese culture, endow it with modern significance, eliminate the coarseness and save the essence, improve the conceptual system, adjust the behavior mode, change the evaluation rules and innovate the thinking mode according to educational reality.
Ouyang Guofang, the headmaster of Guangzhou No.86 Middle School, said in the theme salon, "to guide students to carry out independent research, we should guide students to study and learn through research in courses, topic research, projects and activities, so as to improve education quality and the performance of our students."
Xiao Fanghui, the headmaster of Nan Chiau High School, shared how the school combines its own cultural characteristics with the cultural nutrients of other countries in education. She said that as a Chinese school in Singapore, the school adopts English teaching while retaining profound Chinese culture. Since its establishment, the school has trained a large number of talents who are fluent in Chinese and English. They not only know the traditional Chinese culture very well, but also are familiar with Western culture. In addition, the school also offers Malay language courses, inter-school assistance and community activities, hoping to promote exchange of multi-ethnic students, so that they can learn to respect others in a multicultural society.
Li Baibin, the headmaster of Edgefield Secondary School, shared how Singapore schools follow the national policies while building a "centralized-decentralized" mode, and how they take into consideration students' individuation and autonomy in curriculum design and teaching.
High quality education featuring cultural heritage, scientific spirit and global vision, reflects the characteristics of the times. It emphasizes the importance of following the great trend of changes in the world and cultivating students’ patriotism from the perspective of globalization. By holding the salon discussion, we further promoted mutual learning in education and exchange in culture between Guangdong and Singapore, so that education can play a better role in promoting people-to-people exchange and educational cooperation between the two sides to a new level!
In recent years, Sino-Singapore Knowledge City has developed vigorously and achieved fruitful results. The successful holding of the first Guangdong-Singapore Principals of Primary and Secondary Schools Exchange Event means that a new communication bridge for Guangdong-Singapore education cooperation was built, which will make the two sides more closely linked in education.
SCA, as one part of Hwa Chong Family of Schools, shoulders the responsibility of carrying forward the Kah Kee Spirit, and the duty of developing high quality education of Sino-Singapore integration. As a landmark project of Guangdong-Singapore basic education cooperation and a model school of Sino-Singapore integration, SCA will continue to take the lead in opening an important window for exchanges and cooperation between Guangzhou and Singapore, and contributing to the basic education exchanges between the two sides, Sino-Singapore educational cooperation and the development of Sino-Singapore Knowledge City.
