Week 8 - ONE YEAR

For this post, I would like to talk about this year's Poly Forum and how it has varied so much from last year's Poly Forum which I had attended. I did not get the opportunity to go for Poly Forum this year (would have loved to though!) but my good friend's sister attended it and spoke a great deal on the exciting line up they had planned for them throughout the two weeks of this tertiary event.

Image from www.polyforum.edu.sg

The theme for Poly Forum 2011 was Our Singapore Dream, and the sub themes were the new revised 5Cs for Singapore -  Career, Comfort, Children, Culture and Charity. There is greater emphasis on what a Singaporean should be like, with the new 5Cs being a response to the changing trends of this century in Singapore. They are to replace the original 5Cs of Cash, Car, Credit Card, Condominium and Country Club that used to be the popular conventional aspirations of a Singaporean in the past.

This was a part of an article written by Mark Lim, one of the facilitators for the subtheme of Children; "we discussed at length the importance of building character in our children. The discussion was sparked by the Education Minister, who in a major speech, called for the education system to be re-examined. He is now pushing for values and character education to take centrestage in the education of our young. At the closing ceremony, Mr Heng shared passionately why civics and moral education should not be sidelined in favour of mathematics and other "core" subjects.

He instead spelt out his own version of the 5Cs - Creativity, Collaboration, Conviction, Character and Contribution. The Minister's comments are indeed one of the most refreshing in recent times. I agree with him that values and character should constitute the bedrock of a child's education. Without such a firm foundation, the house of cards will crumble. So many of the youths-at-risk whom I've had the opportunity to meet fall under this category, young people who were brought up not by principles but by pragmatics. I truly hope Minister Heng's policy is implemented well" (Lim, 2011, para.6).

I love how Minister Heng Swee Keat is trying to make such great changes in the Singapore education system here. It will groom such wonderful human beings and leaders of Singapore's future. While that was what formed the basis for the whole two weeks of discussions and plenary sessions of Poly Forum during my time, the overall theme for Poly Forum 2012 was My Singapore - Our Story. The subthemes included Economy, Education, Environment, Identity, Security & Stability. It suddenly moved towards the issues that Singapore as a whole faced as an emerging global city.

Image from www.polyforum.edu.sg

So, one might ask how this relates back to social entrepreneurship. Well, so much has changed in just a year for Singapore, and for us at BZSE. Just imagine how different life could be a couple of years down the road... Life could change for the better, or for the worst. It is truly up to us, to work together - we as BZSE students have the chance to be changemakers for the betterment of the future.

 

"The new 5Cs of a Singaporean - Creativity, Collaboration, Conviction, Character and Contribution." - Minister Heng Swee Keat

References

Lim, M. (2011, September 27). A dream for the future of our children. Parenting on purpose. Retrieved on 1st December 2012, from http://parenting-on-purpose.blogspot.sg/2011_09_01_archive.html