Deputy Prime Minister Mr Heng Swee Keat
Brigadier-General Edward Chen, Member of ITE Board
ITE Colleagues and Student Leaders
Ladies and gentlemen
It is now my pleasure to share some closing remarks, observations and thoughts. This year’s Student Leaders Forum is special and spectacular. You have ‘slayed’ the forum. You have done exceptionally well in ‘reimagining the heartware and hardware of Singapore’.
To illustrate the immense effort, thinking and heart you have put into your various projects, let me highlight the work you have done in the past 5 months:
- You went to the ground to listen and understand the needs and wishes of various groups of people – children, elderly, people with disabilities and special needs, residents.
- You ideated as a group on potential actions to be taken.
- You solicited the inputs of experts e.g. LTA, URA, SUTD, CHAT (youth outreach arm of IMH), ITE counsellors and attended workshops by Allkin Singapore, Touch Community Services.
- You participated in VIASTA community engagement activities under Simei MRT viaduct and went on learning journeys to Katong-Joo Chiat, SG Mobility Gallery, Singapore Rail Discovery Centre and volunteered at Rainbow Centre.
- You developed and implemented your practical impactful programmes with elderly at Silver Fiesta in Ang Mo Kio, the children at The Hut and the students of APSN Delta Senior School.
- You constructed special spaces such as Community Connect at ITE CC (build excitement among children to use MRT), prototyped VibeBox at ITE CW (time-out space to de-stress) and recorded a vlog of heritage and cultural spaces at Joo Chiat to reach online viewers.
- You obtained feedback and soundbites.
- You set up the exhibition booths and prepared the presentation skits.
I am truly impressed. You are ‘simply the best’ - the adults from my generation will recognise this phrase as the title of one of Tina Turner’s song. I should compliment you by using a teenage slang – you are really the ‘GOAT’ (greatest of all times).
Yesterday, you had an engaging session with the two keynote speakers, SPS Eric Chua and CEO/NParks Ms Huang Yu-Ning. SPS Eric summarised the needs of disadvantaged families in terms of 3Ss (stability, Self-Reliance, Social Mobility) and urged you to volunteer in the community by sharing 3Ts (Talent, Time, Treasure). Ms Huang’s images of green Singapore spaces, trails and parks left such a deep impression that you might have missed her other message on Singapore’s long-term planning. Gardens by the Bay was conceptualised in 2005 (yes, before you are even born), Marina Bay was envisioned in 1971 and plans for MRT was conceived in 1967.
I was fascinated by the range of questions you posed to the two speakers. You raised issues like:
- Concrete heat and urban heat island
- Stakeholder consultation for land planning and development
- Inter-generational communication and bonding
- Reducing SES biasness for talent identification and development (sports, arts etc)
- Dealing with mental health of the older generation (SPS Eric asked the student to speak/counsel his parents and he said he did but was scolded)
- Made a pitch that ITE talents and skills in AI, cloud computing, 3D modelling are useful for land and urban planning
Students, your eloquence, wit and vocabulary were impressive. I am particularly impressed when one of the students in his presentation skit said, “We must make the VibeBox ubiquitous.’‘ Wow! He used the word ‘ubiquitous’!
Today, you have continued to engage DPM in your candid, pragmatic and thought-provoking style.
In a nutshell, you have slayed the Forum! My congratulations to all 180 of you.
Before I conclude, I would like us to express our appreciation to the following groups of people:
- Lifeskills lecturers who journeyed with the students over the last 5 months, providing guidance, resources, and encouragement to enable the projects to come to fruition.
- National Youth Council for partnering us to groom future leaders. Our students have benefitted tremendously from the NYC Leaders Course and have applied their learnings to this Forum and in their personal lives.
- The Organising Committee led by Mr Chong Leong Fatt and Mr Soh Sze-Wei
- Student emcees, moderator and performers (concert band yesterday and acapella group later)
Finally, my deepest appreciation to DPM Heng for generously sharing your experience, insights, perspectives and words of hope and encouragement to the students.
When Singapore celebrated SG50, you were only 8 years old. Singapore will celebrate SG75 in 2040 (you are in your 30s) and SG100 in 2065 (you are in your 50s). We count on you to carry the torch for Singapore, ensuring and enabling Singapore to continue to be a bright red dot, punching above our weight in the world.
Thank you.