SPEECH BY MR TEO SER LUCK, MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY, AT THE STAMFORD AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL CAMPUS OPENING CEREMONY ON FRIDAY, 19 OCTOBER 2012, 4:30 PM AT SAIS CAMPUS
His Excellency Mr David Adelman, Ambassador of the United States to Singapore,
Mr Rees Withers, Chief Executive Officer, Cognita Group
Mr Brian Rogove, Asia Pacific Chief Executive Officer, Cognita Asia Pacific
Mr Malcolm Kay, Superintendent, Stamford American International School,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon.
Introduction
I am honoured to join you here today to celebrate the official opening of Stamford American International School’s (Stamford) new campus. To start off, I would like to talk about the role that international schools play in Singapore.
Singapore provides sufficient high-quality international school places as key infrastructure to remain business-friendly
Singapore continues to grow as a Global-Asia hub, connecting global companies to Asia, and Asian enterprises to the world. Today, many MNCs and Asian enterprises have set up their regional and global headquarters in Singapore. These companies choose to locate their strategic activities in Singapore as we provide the necessary support for the companies’ talent pool. At the same time, key executives who are relocated to Singapore complement the work force and enable Singapore to anchor and build up capabilities for new growth sectors.
Many of these executives are accompanied by their spouses and children and the community of international schools plays a role in providing educational support for the children of expatriates. According to the 2011 Global Relocation Trends Survey Report, children’s education was identified by executives as a critical factor driving decisions on overseas assignments. Good international schools are thus a necessary part of the infrastructure required for Singapore to remain an attractive place for MNCs and Asian enterprises to do business.
With this in mind, the Singapore Government established and implemented the first Request-For-Interest (“RFI”) exercise in 2008. It was through this exercise that Stamford was selected, based on the quality of its proposed education plans. I am happy to say that Stamford is the first international school to be set up through this exercise.
Stamford has grown significantly from its original enrolment of 76 students at its interim campus1. Today, Stamford has reached an enrolment of more than 1,000 Nursery to Grade 9 students from over 40 nationalities. By 2014, Stamford expects to provide for 3,300 students from Nursery to Grade 12, thus allowing more students to benefit from the education that Stamford offers.
The Singapore Government will continue to use the RFI process to source for, and select good international education providers, like Stamford, who are able to build and operate international schools offering high-quality education programmes.
Stamford is an example of an international school committed to providing quality education to its students
We believe Stamford’s strong growth reflects the quality of its education programmes. In preparing its students for success in the workplace of tomorrow, Stamford has made a deliberate effort to incorporate new ways to educate its students and provide quality education.
One example is Stamford’s efforts to integrate technology into the students’ learning environment. Stamford’s Interactive Learning Environment, Cognita iLEarn™, is the first of its kind in a K-12 school in Asia. Here, students in Singapore can interact in real-time with guest lecturers and teachers from all over the world. I also understand that this year, Stamford students will learn about the culture of Ancient Egypt from a guest lecturer giving the lecture in real-time from the base of the Great Pyramid of Cheops.
Second, to prepare its students for the future, Stamford has made Spanish and Mandarin lessons a part of its curriculum. Stamford students take daily Spanish or Mandarin lessons, starting from Nursery. These lessons will prepare students for a future where companies look to emerging Spanish-speaking markets in South America and Mandarin-speaking markets in Asia, to expand and internationalise their businesses. This gives Stamford’s students a competitive edge over their peers.
Third, to ensure the quality of the education it offers, Stamford maintains extremely high quality standards of the teaching staff it recruits. Among the Middle School faculty, 100% of the teachers have a Master’s Degree. In fact, the Educational Team at Stamford has guided in excess of 5,000 students into some of the world’s most prestigious universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale and UCLA.
I understand that Stamford also has exciting plans for Phase 2 of its development. Earlier, Brian announced Stamford’s plans to create the world’s first Innovation Center in a K-12 school as part of its Phase 2 development. The Innovation Centre will serve as a platform for research projects and partnerships between Stamford’s students and business corporations, to find unique and creative business solutions that are applicable to businesses. The Center will also include a fully fitted-out and functioning trading floor so that the students of Stamford will get to learn about the power of economics through active participation in a simulated setting. This reinforces Stamford’s belief that education must be relevant to the real world – students cannot prosper on theories alone in the absence of a sound understanding of how the commercial world works. Stamford’s decision to develop the Innovation Center will take the interaction between the commercial world and education sector to a new level.
Stamford’s activities benefit the community
Finally, Stamford believes in developing its students not just through its rigorous curriculum but through its community projects. I understand that one popular initiative amongst the Stamford kids is the “Birthday from the Heart” where each month, the children at Stamford throw birthday parties for children at various welfare homes. The student body is also able to forge links and friendships with neighbouring schools and community organisations. Through such activities, children from different backgrounds, cultures and circumstances come, play and learn together, hopefully building meaningful inter-cultural friendships along the way. This is a good example of an international school doing its part to enhance the social and community bonds with its surrounding community.
Conclusion
Today, I want to extend my heartiest congratulations and best wishes to Stamford on the opening of its permanent campus. In addition, I thank the school for its contributions to Singapore and commend its efforts in integrating with the Singapore community.
I wish the school, its students, staff and parents all the very best and we look forward to many great things to come from your school. It is my pleasure to now declare Stamford American International School officially open and to announce the commencement of Phase Two of the development.
1 In 2009, Stamford began classes at its interim campus in Lorong Chuan.