The education arms race cannot be solved by MOE alone (10 July 2026)
"When Education Minister Desmond Lee announced his ministry's Education Conversations recently, one phrase gave the exercise its real weight: the education “arms race”.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) can review examinations, admissions and pathways. Yet an education arms race is sustained by social behaviour as much as by policy, and policy alone cannot fix it.
MOE has recognised this directly. At this year's debate on his ministry's budget, Mr Lee warned that the fixation on grades and achievements “diminishes the joy of learning”, “takes away time from character building”, and “pits our children against one another”. He also said MOE is prepared to review milestone examinations, Direct School Admission (DSA), and secondary school posting.
That is a significant opening. The harder question sits with all of us.
Stress Over PSLE
A 2017 study by the Institute of Policy Studies found that while many parents valued character education and believed every school is a good school, they still placed weight on academic results. Some 70.8 per cent cited helping children with tests and exams as a source of stress or anxiety, and close to three in four saw high Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) scores as an achievement- centred indicator of a good school.
More recent data points in the same direction. A 2024 CNA survey of 1,000 parents of Primary 5 and 6 pupils found that 99 per cent said good PSLE scores were important, 85 per cent said their children were stressed about the PSLE, and 64 per cent said they themselves were stressed. It also found that 60 per cent sent their children to tuition classes. Among them, 65 per cent sent their children to three or four classes.
Each family may feel it is acting responsibly. Collectively, these choices intensify pressure for all children.
This is not irrational. Parents compete because the stakes feel real. Popular schools are oversubscribed and balloted. Property listings and housing fliers routinely advertise proximity to sought-after schools as a selling point. Many parents believe that doing well early keeps more doors open later, from school placement and subject choices to future admissions pathways.
A recent National Institute of Education study reported how advantage can compound: even among students with similar PSLE scores, those from better-resourced families made greater academic gains later. This is how meritocracy risks hardening into what then Education Minister Chan Chun Sing has called an ‘inheritocracy’ of privilege: when inherited resources shape who can convert effort and ability into recognised achievement. A family that eases off alone may worry that it is disadvantaging its own child. The arms race endures because stepping back feels risky unless others do so too.
The Pressure Can Return
MOE has already seen how policy changes can be blunted by social behaviour. When mid-year examinations were removed to reduce the overemphasis on grades and create space for more engaging learning, some parents turned to tuition centres that offered mock mid-year examinations. While the formal pressure point was removed, competitive behaviour reappeared elsewhere.
The same culture is reinforced beyond the home. Relatives shape what children hear. Alumni networks influence how schools are spoken about. Employers signal which credentials count. If society professes support for multiple pathways while treating some schools as clearly superior, policy change will be quietly undone.
The real question for the Education Conversations, then, is not only what MOE should change. If they are to embody a We First approach, they must also ask what schools, families, employers and the wider community are prepared to do differently. How can Singapore keep high standards while giving children more room to develop the curiosity, character, creativity and confidence they will need beyond school?"
Why AI summaries pose a danger to learning (10 July 2026)
"More than 60 percent of Google searches in the United States now end without the user clicking on a link. We type a question, read an artificial intelligence-generated summary of the results and leave with our answer.
Google is hardly alone. Claude, ChatGPT and upstart competitors like Perplexity do roughly the same thing: They take a question and swiftly return an answer, compressing what used to be a meandering journey through the internet into an immediate arrival at your destination. The explorative phase of searches — clicking through links, stumbling onto unexpected pages, following a reference that leads to somewhere unplanned - is disappearing.
For anyone who publishes on the internet, this is a troubling development, since it lowers website traffic and makes it hard to protect and profit from your intellectual property. But you might think it is good news for internet users. Could there be anything wrong with getting a reliable answer more quickly?
There is. By shortening the time between asking a question and getting an answer, these tools are actually undermining curiosity - and paradoxically threatening our ability to understand the world.
I used to work at Google, about a decade ago. When I was there, we often measured the value of internet content based on factors that indicated user engagement, like clicks and scroll depth. The metric Google seemed to reward — people exploring — is precisely what its AI products are now designed to eliminate.
I left Google to study neuroscience, and what I found in the research literature helps explain why the AI summary poses a danger to learning. Curiosity, it turns out, is not just an individual’s desire to find out discrete facts; it’s also a feature of our biology designed to help us learn more broadly. And it requires a specific condition: a gap between what you want to know and what you find out.
Researchers have found that people in a state of curiosity, while waiting for an answer to an intriguing question, remember unrelated information they encounter during that time far better than they otherwise would.
In that same study, the researchers also placed those people in brain scanners. They found that waiting for an answer activates reward circuits in the brain and readies the hippocampus to help form new memories. Similar findings have been reported by other researchers in studies involving infants, older children and adults.
In short, curiosity puts the entire brain into a mode of heightened receptivity - not just for the specific thing you want to know, but also for everything around it. Curiosity opens a window, and while the window is open, learning deepens across the board.
But the window stays open only as long as the question remains unanswered. When an AI answers your search query in three seconds, the window closes before curiosity can deepen. You got what you came for, but you also lost what would have turned curiosity into learning: the adjacent article you might have read, the resulting tangent you might have followed, the connection between two ideas with no obvious relationship.
Researchers call this incidental learning, and it’s the mechanism behind many serendipitous discoveries. Scientific breakthroughs, artistic leaps, technological innovation - these rarely emerge from efficient retrieval of known information. They emerge from periods of undirected exploration, when people follow questions further than they need to and find things they weren’t expecting.
When the physicists Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson detected a persistent hiss in their radio antenna in 1964, they could have written it off as equipment noise; instead, they kept asking what it might be, and they ended up discovering the radiation left over from the Big Bang.
Our technology is increasingly treating the territory between the query and the answer as dead space to be eliminated, when that territory is where most of the learning actually happens. The danger is not that people will stop asking questions. It is that questions will become endpoints. The loss is not serious in any single case. But fewer detours and fewer unexpected discoveries will have a cumulative effect. Over time, people trained this way become better at extracting ready-made conclusions than building connections of their own."
What’s The News? assembly programme heads to Swiss Cottage Secondary School (10 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – While other students in school read the news to stay informed, 15-year-old Rueven Chia follows current affairs to guide his investment choices.
The Swiss Cottage Secondary 3 student gets his daily dose of current affairs through social media, using what he learns to choose which stocks to buy through his father’s brokerage account.
Although he is wary about the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, Rueven is not overly concerned about the dangers, such as people being replaced by AI.
“I think there is quite a bit of distinction between AI-generated texts and those written by a human,” he said.
“I still don’t think we need to be fearful of AI. It is best if we can incorporate both of these elements together.”
Rueven was one of approximately 1,000 Swiss Cottage students who attended the What’s The News? (WTN) assembly programme on July 9.
WTN, launched in 2025 as part of The Straits Times’ 180th anniversary celebrations, is an interactive current affairs initiative that encourages young people to stay informed about issues shaping Singapore and the world.
Besides a current affairs competition for students, the initiative also includes assembly programmes in selected schools and a travelling showcase.
The assembly programmes, which focus on current affairs and media literacy, will be held at six schools. The event at Swiss Cottage Secondary School was the second stop, after East Spring Secondary School."
What’s The News? assembly programme heads to Swiss Cottage Secondary School (10 July 2026)
"Synopsis: Join us for a five-part series on working motherhood from July 3-31 with episodes out every Friday.
For many mothers, every day is a balancing act: work emails, school messages, and trying to be fully present with their children while an endless mental checklist runs in the background.
In this episode, we unpack the feeling of never being enough at work or at home, the invisible mental load of being the “default parent”, and why some things in life are rubber balls that bounce back when they are dropped.
We also talk about burnout, sharing the load with your partner, and how becoming a mother reshapes what ambition and success looks like.
Host Vanessa Chelvan is joined by Jacinth Liew, parenting coach and founder of Our Little Play Nest."
Several S’pore universities increase hostel fees by up to $80 a month (10 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – Students at local universities can expect to pay up to $80 more each month to stay on campus in the new academic year, which starts in August.
According to the latest figures from the websites of the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, hostel prices have been rising over the last few years.
The increase applies to various room types, Chinese-language daily Lianhe Zaobao first reported on July 10.
For example, at NTU’s Hall of Residence 1 built in 1955, students last year paid $558 a month for a non-air-conditioned single en-suite room, where facilities are shared with another room. For the upcoming academic year, fees have gone up by almost $50 to $602.
Non-air-conditioned double en-suite rooms will see a similar 8 per cent increase, rising from $381 to $412 per person per month.
Fees for air-conditioned single room units at Hall of Residence 14, built in 2001, will similarly increase from $593 to $642 over the same period, while those for air-conditioned double rooms will rise from $436 to $472.
At NUS, weekly fees for on-campus accommodation are determined by the students’ year of matriculation.
Four years ago, first-year students residing at NUS’ oldest student hostel, King Edward VII Hall, which was built in 1916, would have paid $86 a week for a non-air-conditioned double room. In the new academic year, students will pay $114, an increase of $28 a week. In the previous year, the fee was $104 a week.
At Eusoff Hall, which opened in 1988, fees for a non-air-conditioned single room have gone up from $151 a week to $165 in the last year – an increase of about 9 per cent.
Meanwhile, an air-conditioned double room at NUS’ UTown Residence will cost $275.50 per week, up from $255 last year. This translates to a monthly increase of more than $80, or about 8 per cent."
Woman taken to hospital after accident involving van in Bishan (10 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – A woman was taken to the hospital following an accident involving a van in Bishan in the afternoon of July 10.
Responding to queries, the Singapore Civil Defence Force said that it was alerted to the accident at Bishan St 13 at about 1.10pm, and took one person to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
The accident happened in front of the Bishan Ridges Housing Board estate beside Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School.
Hours later, police were seen putting the driver in handcuffs and escorting him to a police car.
An eyewitness, who gave his name as Ty Tan, told ST that he was heading home at about 1.10pm when he saw the accident.
The 50-year-old stopped at a traffic light near the school and saw the van travelling in mid-air. It hit the roof of a pedestrian crossing before crashing into a woman, he said.
Tan then went to help the woman, who was lying on the ground.
“She had blood on her and I could see her leg was twisted. I tried to calm her down but she was crying badly. She said she needed to pick up her employer’s child from school,” he said.
Tan added that he helped the driver out of the van and divert nearby students away from the scene.
“They had just been released from school, and if the crash happened 30 seconds later, I think the impact of the accident would have been far worse,” he said.
A resident, who lives opposite the accident site, said she was working on her laptop in the living room when she suddenly heard a loud crash.
“It was a very loud bang. After that, I heard sounds of metal falling to the ground. My brother went out of our flat to check what happened and he saw a van turned to its side on the pedestrian walk,” said the 30-year-old, who works in tech and wanted to be known only by her surname Yip.
“He didn’t see anyone get injured but it could be because his view was blocked by the trees. But he did see a young boy helping pedestrians pick their things up from the ground,” she added."
More fathers take paternity leave; access to flexible work options remains high despite slight dip (10 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – More fathers in Singapore made use of their government-paid paternity leave in 2024, continuing an encouraging trend in recent years of men becoming more involved in caring for their children.
The proportion of fathers who took paternity leave increased from 47 per cent for children born in 2016 to 61 per cent for those born in 2024, according to a new report on family trends by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) released on July 10.
Data for 2025 is not yet available as parents have up to one year after their child’s birth to use their leave, while employers have a further three months to submit claims.
The 61 per cent take-up rate for fathers of children born in 2024 is a five percentage point increase from the 56 per cent recorded for those with children born in 2023.
The number of mothers who used their government-paid maternity leave has remained above 70 per cent since 2016. It increased from 74 per cent for children born in 2023 to 77 per cent for those born in 2024.
In response to queries from The Straits Times, MSF said about 80 per cent of parents who take paternity, maternity or childcare leave fully utilise their entitlements, based on data for the 2022 to 2024 birth cohorts.
The Government increased shared parental leave provisions from six weeks to 10 weeks from April 1.
Fathers of Singaporean children born from April 2025 are also entitled to four weeks of mandatory government-paid paternity leave, up from two weeks previously. In the past, they could get another two weeks of leave only if their companies agreed to offer it.
The take-up rate of childcare leave among fathers increased slightly from 53 per cent in 2023 to 54 per cent in 2024. The rate for mothers was 59 per cent for both 2023 and 2024."
16-year-olds among 550 under probe for scam and unlicensed moneylending activities (10 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – The police are investigating 550 people – including teenagers as young as 16 – for their suspected roles in more than 1,800 scam and unlicensed moneylending cases.
The Bedok Police Division arrested 46 people during a 10-day operation between June 29 and July 8, the police said in a statement on July 10.
A total of 341 men and 209 women, aged between 16 and 83, are being investigated.
Of these, 418 people are believed to be involved in scam-related activities – including e-commerce, investment, job, rental, phishing and loan-related scams – as money mules. Victims reportedly lost more than $14.8 million.
They are being investigated for cheating, assisting another to retain proceeds from criminal conduct, and the unauthorised disclosure of Singpass access code, according to the police.
The remaining 132 people are being investigated for their suspected roles in unlicensed moneylending activities involving transactions amounting to more than $2.3 million.
The police advised the public to reject money-making opportunities that promise fast and easy payouts, including those that require them to allow others to use their Singpass or bank accounts to receive or transfer money.
The public is also advised to stay away from scammers and unlicensed moneylenders and avoid working with or assisting them in any way.
E-commerce scams were the most common type of scam in 2025, with 6,703 cases reported and losses of $16.7 million."
Is youth hub *Scape still cool? (11 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – It is Saturday evening in the city, and the place to be – if you still have the stomach for finger food and the back for backless benches – is the white-and-orange building at the intersection of Grange Road and Orchard Link.
Drawn by the bright melodies of next-generation pop stars like Gracie Abrams and Chappell Roan, as well as the promise of a seat with no strings attached, gaggles of young people flock over in their slouchy calf boots.
Some gravitate towards the outdoor swings clustered on the space nicknamed the “camping ground”, filming, live-streaming, snacking and just hanging out.
On the third floor are the studious crowd, hunched diligently over their work or art on one of several free benches. Ascend another floor and meet the dancers and lightsaber duellers, battling it out before full-length mirrors.
In some ways, *Scape looks like it always has, a melting pot of youth from all over Singapore, parking their passions in different corners of the shopping centre. The building was launched in 2010 as a retail-cum-community space to nurture the talents of the young.
The 16-year-old building reopened to the public in November 2025 after a two-year revamp to make it “bigger, better and bolder than ever before”, in the words of Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo.
So, what does its Gen Z target audience think of the new and improved *Scape?
A Light Touch
At 41, *Scape’s acting executive director Ethen Ong does not claim to be able to read the minds of the young. And he has no intention of doing so. Gone are the days of top-down planning and – as invariably follows – scrambling for answers when the response does not pan out as expected.
“That was the old *Scape,” he says. “In the new *Scape, you tell me what you want. Which programmes are able to draw a crowd? Which programmes can form communities? Let me know and I will provide you with spaces, with funding.”
In short, the new management’s approach is “no longer deterministic”. Even the infrastructure of the space – from the profusion of mirrors to the power sockets tucked behind benches – is shaped by requests from young people.
Concerts like Viva and Aurelia have materialised from e-mails Ong’s team received from enterprising teenagers. On-site festivals such as Konbini, a craft and fashion fair, have been conceptualised and executed with minimal input from *Scape. Even security guards have been told to step out of the way where possible.
In the past, sleeping on a bench or charging your phone in public might have earned you a warning, but no more. “We told the security guards to let the youth do what they want, as long as it’s not against the law, as long as no one is being harmed,” says Ong.
Even skateboarders are welcome, as long as appropriate safety precautions are taken, he adds. “To trust our youth means you need to be able to empower them for them to learn. It also means that our risk appetite must increase.”
17 Singapore books to look forward to for the rest of 2026 (11 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – From a children’s novel about a scammed grandmother to poetry about “HDB Gothic”, here are 17 books by Singapore-based publishers to look forward to in the rest of 2026. Most in the list are likely to be Culture Pass-eligible when they hit bookstores, so save your credits for these books.
1. Mind The Gap By Ratna Damayanti Taha (August 2026, $27)
2. A Strange Case Of Erasure By Jaclyn Lim (July 2026, $27)
Readers of sociologist Teo You Yenn's best-selling books This Is What Inequality Looks Like (2018) and Unease: Life In Singapore Families (2026) will find these two Singapore novels published under the 2026 Epigram Books Fiction Prize series particularly resonant.
Ratna Damayanti Taha's Mind The Gap - which won the top prize - is a coming-of-age novel which follows Nora, a data-loving Malay girl, as she explores Singapore's expanding MRT lines and narrowing social expectations from the 1990s to the present.
Jaclyn Lim's A Strange Case Of Erasure follows a literal case of Invisible Mother Syndrome. Stay-at- home mum Seok Lin discovers a toe missing and then another body part, in this surrealist take on motherhood and its deleterious side effects.
3. A People Of Salt And Light By O Thiam Chin (October 2026)
Set in 1915, prolific writer O Thiam Chin's epic work of historical fiction is a story of love and friendship that unfolds across four perspectives, including those of a labourer on the docks of the Singapore River and a traditional Chinese medicine doctor.
Children's books And Graphic Novels
4. Anton And The Scammers By Ken Kwek (October 2026, $18)
Scammers abound in film-maker Ken Kwek's third children's novel for upper-primary readers, and "tweenfluencer" Anton has to save his frenemy of a grandmother, who is about to fall for a dangerous dupe. Illustrated by Lolita Chiong, the humorous title is Kwek's follow-up to the best-selling Timothy And The Phubbers and Kelly And The Krumps.
5. Snakes Of Singapore: A Slightly Unhinged Field Guide by Juliette Yu-Ming Lizeray (August 2026, $35)
Adult or child, toss away the conventional field guide in favour of this zany and colourful alternative, and discover the more than 60 species of snakes that are native to Singapore. Artist Juliette Yu-Ming Lizeray's illustrated guide is full of delightful facts. Did you know, for example, that snakes have only one lung?
6. Crazy Colonisers by Ng Yi-Sheng (July 2026, $17)
In Twisted Temasek, his historical romp for upper-primary readers, writer Ng Yi-Sheng tackled the wild and weird in pre-colonial Singapore. He is now back with the second book in the Haywire Histories series - think Singapore's version of British series Horrible Histories - as Crazy Colonisers talks about the mad antics of familiar figures like Stamford Raffles and less familiar ones."
Focus on concept, reasoning to tackle science papers: Ex-PSLE examiner at ST PSLE Companion (11 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – Reading exam questions aloud and going over the questions with a finger or ruler are some of the ways to build focus and ensure that science exam questions are read and understood correctly, said a former PSLE chief examiner.
Jolene Ang, who is also the co-founder of BlueTree Education, added that markers mark based on concept and reasoning rather than grammar or spelling. This is why she believes learning science keywords matters less for scoring and more for helping pupils find the right words to form their own answers.
She was speaking at The Straits Times PSLE Companion event on July 11, attended by more than 250 people.
“Our children do not read any more...they scan,” she said.
“However, keywords are not just for the markers, but they are really for your child,” she said, adding that these help pupils find the right words to come up with their answers.
Parents should also keep an “error book” tracking keywords and topics their children tend to get wrong, Ang said, adding that they can go over the keywords verbally to help the children master them.
The event was held at the SPH Media auditorium in Toa Payoh, with Eu Yan Sang as the presenting sponsor.
Some 40 pupils also attended an English workshop by Soo Kim Bee, a former gifted education senior specialist and master teacher at the English Language Institute of Singapore. She taught them how to use ST as a resource, and understand semantic fields and text cohesion.
The PSLE Companion was the third of four events that ST is running in 2026, as part of a broader push to extend the support it has offered parents through its PSLE Prep Forum over the past five years."
About 15,000 P5 pupils catch first National Education show (11 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – About 15,000 Primary 5 pupils caught their first glimpse of National Day festivities on July 11.
A buzz of excitement rose as they streamed into the National Stadium from 4pm for the National Education show, where the pupils caught a sneak peek of the National Day Parade (NDP).
Dressed in red and white, pupils from 68 different primary schools blended together in the stands. Among the crowd was Hashvin Ram, 11, from De La Salle School, who liked seeing everyone waving their national flags.
“It feels like we’re united and we’re doing the same thing,” he said.
Amber Zarafyna Abdul Hakim, 11, from Hougang Primary School, looked forward to seeing the contingents march into the 42,000-seater stadium, as she wants to do national service in the future.
One of the three NDP 2026 songs, Giants, an indie-pop anthem performed by singer Iman Fandi, has already won young fans like Amber, who said: “It reminds me that there are people who can help me even when I’m alone.”
Pupils from 11 special education schools such as Rainbow Centre and Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore (CPAS) also joined the celebration."
From wiggly toys to wellness bags: Meet the children turning creativity into cash (11 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE - During family holidays to Australia and London, eight-year-old Lee Rui Qi was captivated by 3D animal miniatures but found their $20 to $40 price tag too expensive.
That hurdle sparked an entrepreneurial idea. “I want to make toys for kids with low budgets,” explained the Primary 3 pupil from Yio Chu Kang Primary School.
Determined to make them affordable, Rui Qi launched a venture using a 3D printer his father gave him to print his own collection of articulated, wiggly animal toys—including self-designed axolotls, whale sharks, and snakes—priced at a modest $2 to $15.
He brought those creations to HarbourFront Centre over the July 11 and 12 weekend, joining 60 other resourceful children and teenagers showcasing their micro-businesses.
The event marked the second run of Singapore Kidpreneurs, a platform where young entrepreneurs aged five to 14 manage their own booths to sell items they have personally made or curated.
Other products on sale included Pop Mart figurines, DIY crafts, bracelets, embroidered badges, board games and even a jello-making kit.
Beyond managing their booths, the young participants also faced a panel of experienced entrepreneurs to pitch their business ideas on stage.
This hands-on exposure is what Singapore Kidpreneurs founder Jolene Ang envisioned when she started the programme to build confidence and soft skills outside the classroom.
“By pricing products, speaking to customers, and experiencing the realities of selling, children begin to understand the value of money and the effort behind earning it,” said Ang, 46.
She added that the experience also instills crucial life skills like communication, adaptability, and resilience.
To prepare for the sales weekend, the participants attended free workshops covering financial literacy and basic business skills during the June school holidays."
14-year-old cyclist taken to hospital after accident with car in Jurong East (11 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – A 14-year-old cyclist was taken to hospital on July 11 after an accident with a car in Jurong East.
A video on social media appears to show the boy trapped under the vehicle.
A 48-year-old male car driver is assisting with police investigations.
The police and the Singapore Civil Defence Force, which were alerted to the accident in Jurong Gateway Road towards Jurong East Street 13 at about 1.25pm that day, said the cyclist was taken conscious to National University Hospital.
In a video posted by Facebook user Toto Momz, several bystanders could be seen rushing towards a black car that had stopped in the left-most lane of the road.
About a dozen people, including elderly passers-by and motorcyclists, were seen working together to lift the vehicle from the front, middle and rear to free the teenager.
One man was seen lying on his stomach and reaching under the car to pull the cyclist to safety.
After the boy was freed, a few men were seen carrying him to the side of the road while others gathered around to assist."
Lessons for life from World Cup 2026 (12 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE - I don't consider myself a diehard football fan. Staying up late to watch the English Premier League or Bundesliga final is not a must for me.
The only time our local football scene got me all riled up was when the Dream Team captained by Fandi Ahmad brought home the Malaysia Cup in 1994.
That night, the Kallang Wave reached fever pitch at Shah Alam Stadium in Selangor. That much-anticipated win rejuvenated Singapore's passion for the game.
For me, the only thing that comes close to the 1994 Malaysia Cup is the World Cup. There is just something deeply galvanising and inspiring when the best players of every club around the world fight for their home country. And when their scorer smiles with a goal, the whole nation smiles with him.
The four-year wait also builds excitement. And every game played at that level carries with it the promise of glory and greatness for the team left standing.
I therefore find myself being drawn to the pitch frenzy, willingly sacrificing sleep and daytime attentiveness for games involving football giants like Brazil, England and France. It is difficult to resist sitting through to the end to find out who will be crowned the next World Cup champion.
To add to the excitement, I invited my son to join me in the early morning games. We sat through one of the matches where second-place France played 34th-place Sweden.
The final whistle came in close to 7am, and one moment in the game stayed with me.
After 27-year-old French striker Kylian Mbappe scored his first goal, he rushed over to embrace his coach Didier Deschamps. The rest of his teammates joined in.
That collective huddle not only showed their hunger for the trophy, but also the unity of the team. France would go on to win with an impressive score of 3-0.
I later read in the papers that their coach Deschamps had returned four days earlier after attending his mother's funeral. It must have been a difficult time for him.
I believe the embrace was not just to celebrate the game's opening goal for France, but also to show solidarity with their coach. For me, that moment felt like family.
Those who are family look out for one another. They show concern and care. It is all for one, one for all, and what affects one affects all. The team was telling Deschamps: We are here for you.
Football is about teamwork. Like a family, the team defends and advances together to secure the winning goal. Individual talent on the pitch can only take the game so far. It is just physically impossible to dribble past a team of 10 coming at you for the ball.
You don't win on talent alone. You win because you trust one another like brothers. The team members may have their own differences, but they are always united as one against a common opponent on the pitch.
The patriarch of the team is their coach. They look to him to inspire and unite them. He is the father figure who guides and supports them. Deschamps has been quoted as saying: “They are on a mission, and I'm on a mission with them.”
8 common science exam mistakes even high achievers make (12 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE - A student, who was consistently scoring above 85 per cent in science exams, floundered during his preliminary exams and scored just over 50 marks, to his teachers' shock.
It turned out that he had missed shading one multiple-choice question on the Optical Answer Sheet (OAS). As a result, the subsequent answers were moved by one row, costing him a significant number of marks.
His tutor, Jayce Or, founder and principal of Germinate Learning, a primary school science enrichment provider, says the boy was confident in answering the paper. But he was careless when it came to a simple but crucial part of the examination process: shading the OAS.
“His content knowledge was never the problem. Overconfidence led him to focus only on the ‘big’ task of solving the questions,” he says.
After that experience, the student learnt to give every step - no matter how small - the same level of attention, and did well for his PSLE.
“He learnt that every mark is earned through disciplined execution, not just strong knowledge,” says Or, who has more than 20 years of experience teaching and training in Ministry of Education primary schools and tuition centres, and is the author of Marshall Cavendish's assessment series P5 & 6 Science Tests Xtra.
Ee Jia Ying, who teaches science at Qihua Primary School, agrees. She adds that students are still developing the habit of being conscientious, and sometimes the tendency to move quickly through work means they gloss over details.
“While confidence is a good thing, sometimes students feel so assured about a concept that they don't read carefully enough to appreciate that the context is a little different,” says Ee. She is also Qihua Primary's school staff developer, who looks after the professional growth of her fellow teachers.
Or says one of the biggest misconceptions about PSLE Science is that careless mistakes happen only to weaker students. In reality, they often happen to stronger students, too.
To minimise such mistakes during exams, students need to develop careful observation skills, scientific precision and disciplined answering habits, he says.
Common Mistakes That Can Be Avoided
1. Misreading Data In Tables Or Graphs
Students often get confused between increasing and decreasing trends or interpret results too quickly without analysing the data carefully.
For example, if the temperature of one container decreases more slowly than another, some students may wrongly conclude that it is a better conductor of heat, when in fact, it is the poorer conductor that loses heat more slowly, says Or.
To avoid this, he advises pupils to annotate graphs and tables by circling trends, highlighting key values and comparing results systematically before drawing conclusions.
2. Confusing Cause And Effect
Students sometimes reverse relationships between variables.
For example, “The plant wilted because it did not receive enough water” may be wrongly interpreted as “The plant did not receive enough water because it wilted.”
To avoid this, students should identify the sequence clearly by asking themselves what caused the change and what was the observed result, he adds.
3. Failing To Make Comparisons
Ryan Woo, deputy director of enrichment at The Eton Academy by EtonHouse, says pupils may provide a response that only partially answers the question.
For example, if the question asks why the water in beaker A evaporated faster than water in beaker B, a weak answer would be: “Water gains heat and evaporates”.
That may be true, but it does not compare the two beakers, says Woo, who has over 20 years of experience in classroom teaching, curriculum development and educational leadership.
A stronger answer would be: “Beaker A had a larger exposed surface area than beaker B; this causes more water to be exposed to the surrounding air, so water evaporated faster from beaker A”.
He advises pupils to look out for comparison words such as “faster than”, “more than” or “lower than”."
There are many SkillsFuture courses out there. Which are the right ones to take? (13 July 2026)
"Paul is a marketing executive at a small boutique digital firm in Singapore. He hopes to move into a regional role at a global bank or fintech firm, where customer acquisition and digital campaigns are increasingly data-driven. To bridge this gap, he wants to pursue training in his free time to acquire the skills needed for the role.
In preparation, he considers using his SkillsFuture Credit to take courses in prompt engineering, digital advertising and data analytics. All these courses are readily available.
The difficulty is not in finding courses. It is knowing which one will actually improve his chances of getting hired.
Does the multinational value a prompt engineering certificate? Would data analytics matter more? Or is practical experience still far more important than either qualification?
These are tough questions for any worker to answer.
Employers themselves face similarly challenging questions around business decisions. The recent Economic Strategy Review report highlights how new technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, are reshaping jobs, while firms face growing competitive pressures.
For working professionals, career paths have become less predictable. Workers increasingly see job tasks evolve with technology, move across occupations during their careers, and repeatedly update their skills even within the same profession.
Against this uncertain backdrop, workers constantly need to adapt and remain transition-ready. But before they can do so, they need to know which investments in skills are worth making.
Training is one of the most effective ways to prepare workers for these transitions and gain valuable skill sets.
Yet, as Paul’s example shows, the challenge facing workers isn’t so much a lack of options in the market. Rather, it is deciding which training is worth taking.
A Crowded Training Landscape
Singapore has made significant progress in expanding access to training and building a national system for lifelong learning.
Through SkillsFuture Credit, employer-supported programmes and partnerships with training providers and industry, adult learning has become substantially more accessible than a decade ago before the establishment of the SkillsFuture scheme.
Today, workers can choose from thousands of SkillsFuture-supported courses in a wide array of areas such as digital technologies, sustainability, healthcare, business and advanced manufacturing.
The expansion of choice is an important achievement. But more choice also creates a more crowded and complex marketplace.
Training is an investment whose returns are difficult to observe beforehand. Workers rarely know the value of a course before taking it.
Instead, they rely on a confusing, inconsistent mix of signals. Employers advertise desired skills in job postings. Training providers highlight completion rates or testimonials. Friends recommend courses based on their personal experience. Online discussions suggest which skills are “hot” or “future-proof”.
But a skill that is highly valued in one industry may have limited value in another. Depending on the training curriculum and how it's designed, a data visualisation course may be useful for someone moving into consulting, finance or business analytics, but much less relevant for a worker applying for a front-line sales role. A cybersecurity certification may be critical for an IT security specialist, but may carry little weight for someone hoping to move into healthcare administration.
Information becomes useful only when workers can judge whether it applies to their own circumstances.
For example, a mid-career operations manager hoping to move into data analytics needs to know whether his existing experience is transferable, whether he would have to start again in a junior role and which skills would actually help with the transition.
Without these answers, even highly motivated workers may postpone training, choose familiar courses instead of more suitable ones, or avoid career transitions altogether.
The greatest risk, therefore, is not that workers fail to train. It is that they invest substantial time, money and effort in courses that have limited value for their intended career path. Such mismatches reduce confidence in lifelong learning and delay successful career transitions."
Why the birth rate panic has a blind spot (13 July 2026)
"The resilience of the global economy in coming decades will hinge on geopolitics, the evolution of supply chains, technology — and demographics. Contrary to some troubling depictions, the slide in birthrates doesn’t mean permanently lower growth. Nor does it have to lead to an inexorable erosion in standards of living or the end of innovation. Some high-profile academics are offering a refreshingly upbeat perspective.
Fertility rates are coming down dramatically in many countries. The retreat is particularly notable in Asia, where the most dynamic economies have tried – and mostly failed – to encourage larger families. Rates have fallen to record lows in Japan and Singapore in recent months. The number of newborns in Taiwan is plummeting, while China’s population experienced its steepest annual drop since a major famine in 1960.
All have rolled out an array of incentives designed to make parenting more attractive and to ease the burdens that new arrivals place on household budgets. None has made significant headway. Cultural barriers play a role: Women need to be assured that they can reap the financial rewards from having a career - and raising children - and that men will back them.
But panic is counterproductive. A welcome corrective to gloomy narratives comes from a quartet of academics, including Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and David Autor, renowned for his work a decade ago that chronicled the hollowing out of US industrial regions after imports from China surged.
Far from being a harbinger of economic collapse, their paper found that output per employee increased between 1970 and 2020. “Our findings challenge the prevailing pessimism: Lower birth rates, and the ageing and shrinking populations they have produced, have raised, rather than lowered, GDP per worker during these decades.”
Thinning ranks of workers may be an ingredient in the success. Under their model, scarcity spurs the quick adoption of labour-saving technology that can lead to gains in gross domestic product per employee and even overall GDP. Across countries, a one percentage point drop in birth rates is associated with an increase of around 27 per cent in worker output. Investment in technology is key. That's positive for export powerhouses like South Korea, whose fertility rate is among the lowest in the world. Labour-saving technologies will comprise a more important share of overseas shipments.
New thinking is overdue. Policy has proven adept at curtailing births. For much of the post-World War II era, headcount management was considered a key plank of development for newly independent nations. Reversing it is far more difficult.
Singapore isn't giving up, but Prime Minister Lawrence Wong added some valuable perspective in June. “We should have some humility,” he said. “It's happening everywhere in the world. No one has the answers for now.” Incentives have a role, but the objective should be a better life for the families that do exist.
To say that the paper disputes the dominant negative narrative on demographic change is an understatement. The authors are careful not to extrapolate too far into the future and acknowledge that the pace of demographic change is likely to accelerate and pose fresh challenges.
But it's nice to hear an alternative analysis to the pessimism that greets each new measure of fertility or fresh milestones on the way as societies are becoming super-aged. It's understandable that policymakers look at the numbers and see school closures, and strains on healthcare and pension systems."
$500 Child LifeSG Credits for Singaporean kids aged 12 and below to be given out from July 14 (13 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – Families with Singaporean children aged 12 years old and below will receive $500 for each child in Child LifeSG Credits from July 14.
The credits can be used to defray household expenses such as groceries, utilities and pharmacy items, said the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) in a statement on July 13.
Families with children born between 2014 and 2025 will receive the credits from July 14, while the credits for children born in 2026 will be disbursed in April 2027.
The $500 credits had been announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at Budget 2026 in February as part of measures to help families with the cost of raising children.
These come on top of the $500 Child LifeSG Credits top-up that was disbursed to more than 450,000 children in 2025.
The latest credits can be used at physical and online merchants that accept payments via PayNow UEN QR and NETS QR.
They will be automatically credited to the eligible child’s Child Development Account (CDA) trustee based on MSF’s records as at the eligibility assessment date of June 1.
No application is required. Trustees can access the credits through the LifeSG app.
Recipients will be notified via SMS after the credits have been added to their digital wallet in the LifeSG app.
As a precaution against scams, SMS notifications sent to parents will be from gov.sg and contain only information on the disbursement status and related terms and conditions, said MSF."
How growing up in Singapore shapes young people: New $150m study aims to find out (13 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – A new $150 million national research programme will track 5,000 young people in Singapore over the next five years to better understand how factors such as digital media use and urban spaces shape adolescence.
Led by the A*STAR Institute for Human Development and Potential (IHDP), the longitudinal research will study those aged 10 to 24. Funded by Singapore’s National Research Foundation, the work began in April and comes amid growing concerns over the mental health, lifestyle and digital habits of youth.
Announcing the initiative on July 13 at a briefing, A*STAR said it will work closely with the Ministry of Education (MOE) and more than 1,000 researchers across disciplines and other partners.
Rhea Tan, one of the A*STAR scientists involved in the project, said the adolescent period is a second critical window in child development, apart from early childhood which has been studied extensively here.
One example of early childhood research is Singapore’s largest pre-birth cohort study – Growing Up In Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) – which tracked more than 1,200 mothers and their children since 2008 to understand how conditions during pregnancy and early childhood affect their health and development.
Comparable longitudinal studies on adolescence are limited, Tan said, particularly in the Asian context.
“A lot of what we understand comes from cross-sectional studies, so it tells us what’s happening at that point in time. But it doesn’t really tell us how young people develop,” she said.
Following people from childhood to adulthood helps researchers get a clearer picture of how resilience is developed, for instance, and what drives risk, said Tan, to understand when intervention makes the most impact.
As such, the initiative will build on and connect several existing Singapore birth and youth cohorts, including GUSTO and iAdoRe, a study of about 1,200 secondary school students that aims to better understand child health during adolescence.
Tan said the initiative addresses an over-reliance on Western data, which may not fully reflect Asian and Singaporean social and cultural contexts.
“Our household compositions and structures are different. Our children are also raised really differently...I can’t translate findings from another population and say this is definitely applicable to someone here,” said Tan."
Teen who licked iJooz straw: Case adjourned as ICA reviews student pass status (13 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – The prosecution has sought an adjournment in the case of the teen who filmed himself licking a straw from an iJooz vending machine.
State Prosecuting Officer Sukhdev Kaur told the court on July 13 that the prosecution was checking with the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority on whether French national Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien’s student pass would be cancelled if he is convicted.
The 19-year-old had initially been scheduled to plead guilty on July 13.
He was handed two charges of mischief and being a public nuisance after he allegedly filmed himself licking a straw from the iJooz vending machine before placing it back inside the straw dispenser.
Court documents stated that he allegedly committed the offence at Goldhill Centre in Thomson Road on March 12.
He then posted the clip on social media, sparking shock and concern among netizens.
As a result of his stunt, the company had to replace all 500 straws in the dispenser.
He is expected to plead guilty on July 30."
Construction firm founder donates $3 million to ST School Pocket Money Fund (14 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – The founder of prominent local steelworks firm TTJ Design and Engineering has pledged $3 million over the next three years to The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund (STSPMF) to commemorate the company’s 45th anniversary on July 14.
TTJ and Teo Hock Chwee have been donors since 2011, with total contributions from then to 2025 crossing $960,000, said STSPMF in a media statement.
In a statement, Teo said he chose to support STSPMF beneficiaries over three years as he sees “the meaningful impact it has on them”.
“I hope that this can strengthen the long-term support for the needy students and encourage others to contribute too,” he added.
Teo will donate $1 million each year from 2026 to 2028.
TTJ’s structural steel solutions have been used in several iconic structures, including the Supertrees and OCBC Skyway at Gardens by the Bay, The Helix at Marina Bay, The Pinnacle@Duxton, Henderson Waves and Changi Airport’s terminals 2 and 3.
Recently, the company also completed the Sensoryscape at Sentosa and the viaduct aesthetic features for the upcoming Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System Link.
The firm is involved in the manufacturing of steel for commercial building construction, as well as for the offshore oil and gas industry.
STSPMF said the firm’s generous commitment “will go a long way in supporting students from low-income families with their educational expenses”.
It added: “STSPMF is deeply grateful to TTJ for its longstanding partnership and dedication to empowering children through education and congratulates the company on its 45th anniversary milestone.”
STSPMF started in 2000 as a community project that provided pocket money to children from low-income families. Since its inception, it has helped more than 230,000 children and youth and disbursed more than $110 million."
Three in five S’pore PMETs not confident in identifying AI-generated misinformation: Poll (14 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – A national year-long reading initiative to boost critical evaluation skills has been launched to help Singaporeans better distinguish between facts and AI-generated misinformation.
This comes after a poll of 1,150 professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) in Singapore revealed that only two in five expressed confidence in telling AI-generated misinformation apart from truths.
The poll was conducted in June and July by the National Library Board and professional services firm KPMG.
The same poll also found that only two in five respondents would check the original source of a statistic cited by AI-generated summaries in search engines or in news articles, before forming an opinion on a topic.
These findings are a reminder that Singaporeans may still accept content too readily, even with the knowledge that it might be incomplete or generated by artificial intelligence, said Rahayu Mahzam, Minister of State for Digital Development and Information, at the launch of Read To Lead: Building An AI-Ready Mind on July 14.
The event, held at the public foyer of Asia Square in Shenton Way, featured pop-up carts of mystery books, each wrapped to hide the cover, author and synopsis.
Passers-by and office workers picked up these books during their lunch break on July 14, and are allowed to borrow the physical copies, or digital copies via the NLB app.
“The year-long initiative by KPMG and NLB promotes the culture of reading in the workplace, and strengthens PMETs’ capabilities in AI, information literacy and digital literacy,” said Rahayu, adding that reading helps workers to slow down when overwhelmed by information.
“It helps us gain knowledge, widen our perspectives, and train our minds to focus.”
Panel discussions and interactive quizzes will also be held at Asia Square, KPMG Clubhouse and the National Library Building between July 14 and 16.
As part of the initiative, KPMG and NLB will also co-develop an educational toolkit on AI and strategies to counter misinformation to help PMETs and businesses.
Talks by experts on AI literacy and trusted practices will also be held across NLB libraries, with more information expected at a later date."
2027 school year to begin on Jan 4 for MOE kindergarten, primary, secondary students (14 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – Pupils entering Kindergarten 1 and Primary 1 in Ministry of Education (MOE) schools in 2027 will start their school year on Jan 4, along with secondary school students, the ministry said on July 14.
Pupils who are in Kindergarten 2, or Primary 2 to 6, in 2027 will report to school a day later, on Jan 5.
The final day of the school year for MOE kindergartens and primary and secondary schools will be Nov 19. However, schools serving as venues for the Singapore-Cambridge Secondary Education Certificate written examinations will end earlier, on Oct 29.
Students starting their first years at a junior college (JC) or Millennia Institute (MI) will start school on Feb 3, with students at these institutions starting on Jan 11 otherwise.
Those who are not taking their A-level examinations will start their year-end school holidays on Nov 27, while those sitting the national exams will do so after their last paper."
Pony rides, farm visits, baby spas: What to spend your $500 Child LifeSG Credits on (14 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – Thinking about what to spend your Child LifeSG Credits on?
From July 14, families with Singaporean children under 12 are getting a welcome boost – $500 in Child LifeSG Credits for each child to help offset the rising costs of child-raising.
Whether you are eyeing a weekend of adventure or simply need to stock up on essentials, the options are aplenty – the credits are accepted wherever you see the PayNow UEN QR or NETS QR sign.
Grocery Runs And Comfort Eats
Every parent knows the grocery bill is non-negotiable. The good news? Local supermarkets such as FairPrice, Sheng Siong, Giant and Cold Storage accept the credits.
For a fuss-free meal, head to one of Botak Porridge’s outlets in Punggol, Bedok or Tampines – a fantastic, soothing option for toddlers transitioning to solids.
Or, for a crowd-pleaser that elevates the family dinner, Wild Olives in Pasir Ris Central offers western classics that even the pickiest young gourmand will enjoy.
For a small indulgence for the little one, head over to Udders – a popular local dessert parlour offering a variety of handcrafted ice cream flavours.
Fuel Their Imaginations
Whether hunting for storybooks, school supplies or activity workbooks to keep the kids occupied, you can use your credits at major bookstore chains such as Kinokuniya and Popular – the perfect excuse to refresh the home library."
Supportive workplaces key to fathers taking full paternity leave, as uptake in Singapore rises (14 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – When his daughter was born in January, technology professional Imdadulla Syed Shahid logged off from work for nearly two months.
The 38-year-old took four weeks of government-paid paternity leave and three weeks of shared parental leave, allowing him to be fully present for his wife as she recovered from unexpected complications after childbirth and to care for their newborn daughter.
For Shahid, having a supportive employer made all the difference. He works in a global technology company.
“My workplace did not make me feel like I was lowering my commitment to work because of this. I didn’t have to worry that when I got back to work, I would still have a role, or whether this would be a factor in terms of future promotions,” he told The Straits Times.
More fathers have been using their paternity leave in recent years. The latest figures released on July 10 showed that the proportion of fathers who took paternity leave rose from 56 per cent for those with children born in 2023 to 61 per cent for those born in 2024.
The share of mothers who used their government-paid maternity leave also grew, from 74 per cent for children born in 2023 to 77 per cent for those born in 2024.
About 80 per cent of parents who take paternity, maternity or childcare leave fully utilise their entitlements, based on data for the 2022 to 2024 birth cohorts.
The figures reflect leave taken before mandatory paternity leave was doubled from two weeks to four weeks in April 2025.
Human resource professionals and employer groups told ST that the increase suggests more than just the impact of government policy. It also points to a gradual shift in workplace culture, with fathers feeling more comfortable taking leave and employers becoming more prepared to support them, they said.
Sally Lee, head of people and administration at the Institute for Human Resource Professionals, said organisations increasingly recognise caregiving as a shared responsibility between both parents.
“Policies are important, but culture ultimately determines whether employees feel confident using them,” she said.
Compared with five years ago, organisations are placing greater emphasis on employee well-being and work-life harmony."
Endless advice? When parenting becomes an optimisation exercise (15 July 2026)
"As parents, we are almost always receiving a steady stream of urgent advice that is individually reasonable but collectively difficult to reconcile: Screen time is harmful, but educational content may be beneficial. Let children struggle, but protect them from stress. Set firm boundaries, but be responsive.
None of these statements is inherently wrong. But do they help at 7pm on a weekday when your child is cranky, you are exhausted and dinner still needs to happen?
Scientific insights are meant to help us understand broad patterns of risk and protection at a population level, but in a culture of optimisation, they can become a checklist of behaviours to optimise.
The result is not greater confidence in parenting abilities, but greater anxiety.
As Singapore's total fertility rate fell to a record low of 0.87 in 2025, it intensified a national conversation about parenthood. Much of this discussion has focused, understandably, on the cost of living, housing and caregiving support.
But for those who become parents, or are considering becoming parents, another less visible pressure emerges: the sense that raising a child has become a high-stakes exercise in optimisation. Sleep routines, screen exposure and enrichment and childcare choices can start to feel like variables to be calibrated.
This pressure is sustained by a broader ecosystem of educational incentives, commercial interests and public health messaging that can make parenting feel like a continual exercise in managing risks and maximising outcomes.
As a parent of two young children and child development researcher (Huang), and as a practitioner guided by child development checklists in clinical care (Tan), we have often wondered how science shapes the experience of parenting.
Science has certainly transformed our understanding of child development and empowered parents with access to information.
However, science rarely reaches families in its original form. Research findings are synthesised into guidelines, headlines and algorithm-driven content, losing nuance in the process.
An Ecosystem Thriving On Parental Anxiety
Parenting anxiety does not arise in a vacuum. It emerges from a culture that values metrics and success, and is further amplified by a commercial ecosystem that benefits from uncertainty about whether parents are doing enough.
Social media platforms are built on engagement, and parenting content engagement specifically is amplified when it taps into insecurity – highlighting mistakes, risks, and critical development windows. The algorithms do not discriminate between evidence-based guidance and content designed to provoke reactions by targeting parental anxiety.
The industry of enrichment providers, tuition centres, developmental applications and parenting coaches has grown substantially. These businesses have a commercial incentive to emphasise unmet needs: another skill to build, another gap to close, another advantage to secure.
Science has great value in guiding healthcare policy. In the parenting marketplace, however, the language of child development science has also been recruited to lend authority to commercial claims. For example, we have seen advertisements claiming that a child's right brain stops developing after a certain age. Scientific language gives such claims unwarranted authority, turning a questionable premise into urgency: act now, or risk allowing your child to fall behind.
This is especially potent in Singapore, where parents are well socialised to the concept of early achievements leading to opportunities. Schemes such as Direct School Admission, while well- intentioned, can inadvertently reinforce the belief that portfolio building should begin early. Enrichment providers ride on this to sell their services as a way to get a leg up.
Kiasu parenting may therefore be less an individual pathology than a rational response to signals and incentives embedded within our educational and commercial systems."
Man gets over 9 years’ jail, 12 strokes of cane for raping two 13-year-old girls (15 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – While chatting with a 13-year-old girl online, a 20-year-old man lied that he was 18 and asked her to be his girlfriend.
He later had sex with her at a staircase landing near her home.
While under investigation for the offence, he met another 13-year-old girl and had sex with her when her grandmother was sleeping in the same room.
The man, now 22, was sentenced to nine years and seven months’ jail, and 12 strokes of the cane, and fined $3,000. He pleaded guilty to two charges of statutory rape and one charge for a scam-related offence.
Another 14 charges for offences such as harassment, trespass and scams were considered for sentencing.
The man cannot be named due to a court-imposed gag order to protect the identities of the victims.
The court heard that the man responded to the first victim’s Instagram Story in November 2023, and began chatting with her on the platform.
During their conversation, he asked how old she was, and she said she was 13. The man, who was then 20, told her that he was 18. He later revealed his real age to her.
While chatting on Instagram in December 2023, he asked the victim to be his girlfriend and she agreed. They met for the first time at Jurong Point on Dec 4, 2023, and continued to chat thereafter. They also exchanged nude photographs of themselves on multiple occasions.
On Dec 14, 2023, they met for breakfast near Jurong Point at about 9am. After the meal, the man offered to send the girl home.
At around 10am, they took a bus from Jurong Point to the girl’s residence. During the trip, they began kissing each other.
When they arrived at the girl’s block, they went to a staircase landing and continued to kiss each other. The man asked the girl if she wanted to have sex, and she agreed. The pair then engaged in various sex acts.
On Dec 19, 2023, the man told the girl he wanted to break up as he was too busy with work.
A few days later, he sent her threatening messages as he thought she had gossiped about him to other girls. Afraid that he would go to her home, the girl made a police report on Dec 28, 2023.
While he was under investigation, the man met another 13-year-old girl in March 2024 at a gathering. He told the second victim that he was 17 years old, and they exchanged phone numbers. They communicated via WhatsApp daily and met on several occasions."
Singapore Night Festival returns for 17th edition with myths and legends (15 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – The Singapore Night Festival (SNF), one of the country’s largest nocturnal events, is set to return for its 17th edition across three weekends from Aug 21 to Sept 5.
Themed Myths And Legends, the festival invites visitors to uncover the stories, folklore and traditions that have shaped communities in Singapore and across South-east Asia, with free admission for most of the programmes.
Visitors will be able to explore the wider Bras Basah.Bugis precinct through a line-up of projection mapping, artworks, experiential programmes, performances and festival villages with food and retail offerings.
Presented by HeritageSG, a subsidiary of the National Heritage Board, SNF 2026 also introduces a new Museum Zone as its key festival hub. Located around the National Museum of Singapore, the Children’s Museum Singapore and surrounding heritage spaces, the hub will bring the theme to life through experiences and programmes inspired by the precinct’s heritage.
The festival will also span three other zones, with Zone 1 stretching from Funan to CHIJMES, Zone 2 spanning Cathay Green to Waterloo Centre and Zone 3 anchored by partners at Bras Basah Complex and Stamford Arts Centre.
A major festival highlight during the launch weekend is Tales Of Earth And Sea, a facade projection at National Museum of Singapore by The Fox, The Folks, a multimedia artist team based in Bandung, Indonesia.
The work reinterprets local folklore, set to an original cross-border soundtrack by Singapore’s multi-ethnic music collective Artusik and UiTM Malaysia.
Sharing the spotlight for the festival’s opening week is the South-east Asian debut of Birdmen by Dutch group Close-Act Theatre. Visitors can get up close with luminous stilt walkers dressed as fantastical, pterodactyl-like creatures as they roam alongside the visuals.
A second highlight is The Lost Legacy Of Fort Canning: The Forbidden Hill, a 70-minute nocturnal walking trail through Fort Canning Park that uncovers the ancient secrets and myths of Bukit Larangan. Featuring atmospheric soundscapes and live traditional Malay dance, the immersive journey transports visitors to the 14th-century world of early Singapura.
The MALAM Projection Mapping Competition is the third festival highlight. It brings together emerging artists across South-east Asia to showcase their works, with the top 20 entries projected onto Cathay Building during the first week of the festival.
Festival director Qazim Karim said in a press statement that SNF has always been more than light installations, and added: “It is about creating shared experiences that bring people together after dark, while showcasing the best of creative talent from Singapore and South-east Asia.
“This is reflected in the strong response to our inaugural MALAM Projection Mapping Competition, which signals a clear appetite among regional creatives to be part of Singapore’s premier night festival.”
Primary 1 registration: 31 schools to conduct balloting in Phase 2A (15 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE - Parents hoping to secure spots for their children at 31 primary schools will face a ballot during Phase 2A of the Primary 1 registration exercise in 2026.
The most oversubscribed school during the second phase of the exercise is Red Swastika School in Bedok, with 88 applicants vying for 24 spots.
It is followed by Princess Elizabeth Primary School in Bukit Batok, with 137 applicants applying for 47 spots, and Shuqun Primary in Jurong West, with 93 applicants for 32 spots.
The three schools will be conducting balloting for children who are Singapore citizens and residing within 1km of the school.
The results for all schools undergoing balloting will be out on July 17.
Phase 2A of the Primary 1 registration exercise took place from 9am on July 9, to 4.30pm on July 10, and is reserved for children with a parent or sibling who is a former pupil, or those with a parent who is a member of the school advisory or management committee, or is a staff member.
Children from Ministry of Education (MOE) kindergartens under the primary school of their choice also qualify for this phase.
At this stage in 2025, 38 primary schools went through a ballot. The top three most oversubscribed schools then were Gongshang Primary in Tampines, South View Primary in Choa Chu Kang, and Princess Elizabeth Primary in Bukit Batok.
MOE said on its website on July 15 that 143 schools, or 80.3 per cent of schools with vacancies for Phase 2A, will not be conducting balloting and have enough vacancies to admit all Phase 2A applicants."
Teens who died from consuming drugs made methamphetamine pills, inhaled drug: Coroner (15 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – The two teenagers who died after using Ice, or methamphetamine, had made their own meth pills and also inhaled the drug.
Both were found to have fatal levels of methamphetamine in their bodies, State Coroner Adam Nakhoda said in his findings on July 15.
The ages of the teens cannot be reported, as a gag order has been imposed on all details that could identify them, including their names and any addresses involved.
The court heard that the two teens had been communicating on Telegram about illicit substances since Jan 29, 2025, two days before their deaths.
It was unclear how the two became acquainted, but they were not in a relationship, said the state coroner.
The young man, who smoked and vaped, told the young woman that he had previously consumed Kpods. The young woman said she had tried Ecstasy before.
They made plans to smoke weed together, and the young man said he would buy it from a friend."
Is a contract job the starting point for new graduates in Singapore? (16 July 2026)
"Should young job seekers start their careers with contract roles?
With stiff competition for full-time roles, a tight job market and employers being more selective about new permanent hires, perhaps contract roles shouldn’t be off the table.
In Singapore, such roles have become more common over the past few years. What can young people do to build their careers? Also, is contract work truly the ‘lesser cousin’ of permanent work?
In this episode, I speak with:
• Francois Lancon, the regional president of Asia Pacific and Middle East for ManpowerGroup, a global expert on labour market and employment trends,
• Tyrina Toh, a contract content creator for businesses, who has worked only contract or freelance jobs since she graduated from university in 2022, and
• Seth Ng, a fresh university graduate who is currently looking for a job."
Watch parties, late starts: Schools in Singapore gear up for World Cup final (16 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – Eateries, bars and community spaces all over the island are gearing up for the World Cup final between Spain and defending champions Argentina on July 19 (3am on July 20 Singapore time), and schools are joining in on the fun too.
At least four schools are hosting a watch party or allowing students to report later on July 20, The Straits Times has learnt.
St Joseph’s Institution (SJI) students will be allowed to report to school an hour later at 8.30am on July 20, according to a circular addressed to parents, guardians and students, and seen by ST.
An hour-long lesson that was scheduled to begin at 7.50am will be postponed to July 22.
In a media reply, an SJI spokesperson said on July 16 that the school recognises that many of its students may want to catch the final with their families, and wanted to give such students more time to rest before they attend school on July 20, so that their learning would not be compromised.
She added that the school views the occasion as an opportunity for students to appreciate values that resonate with its school spirit. These include teamwork, perseverance, resilience and respect.
“Schools play an important role not only in academic learning, but also in helping young people engage meaningfully with significant moments beyond the classroom,” the spokesperson added.
For ACS (Independent), school will start almost an hour later at 8.30am on July 20, according to a principal’s letter to parents and guardians dated July 16, as seen by ST.
The chapel session on July 20 will be rescheduled to July 22, with students expected to report by 7.45am for the session.
Its principal, Kevin Pang, said in the letter that the move was to “support our families in creating meaningful memories together, with adequate time for rest, while also safeguarding something that lies at the heart of our identity”, with the latter referring to the chapel session.
ST also understands that Hwa Chong Institution is allowing students to report to school almost two hours later, at 9.30am, on July 20.
Separately, Victoria School (VS) is hosting an overnight watch party for a maximum of 350 students, but the school day on July 20 will begin at 7.30am as scheduled.
Students who sign up for this optional event are to arrive between 9.30pm and 10.30pm on July 19 for registration before a pre-match “sleep period”.
After the final, which is estimated to end at 5am, they will have more time to rest before reporting for class at 7.30am.
More than 10 teachers will be present during the event, according to Chinese media outlet Lianhe Zaobao."
MSF explores using tech to keep closer watch on abused children after they return home (16 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE - The authorities are exploring the use of technology to keep a closer watch on abused children after they return home to their parents’ care, with the aim of intervening earlier if they are at risk of being harmed again.
A tender put up on July 6 by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) is seeking technological solutions to detect physiological and environmental indicators signalling a child may be at higher risk of harm, and alert trusted adults to intervene quickly.
Environmental indicators include sounds such as loud arguments, hitting and crying, while physiological ones include higher heart rates and changes in vital signs.
An MSF spokesperson told The Straits Times that the ministry is “exploring how technology can enhance safety oversight and provide greater assurance during the reunification of children with their families”.
In some severe or high-risk abuse cases, the MSF’s Protective Service (PSV) removes the child from his or her parent’s care to keep the child safe.
The child may be placed in alternative care, such as with foster parents or in a children’s home, while the MSF and its partners work with the parents to address the abusive behaviour.
Children will be returned home only when the PSV deems it is safe for the child to do so.
The MSF spokesperson said its protection officers currently keep a close watch on these children and their families through home visits, regular engagement and co-ordinated efforts with relevant stakeholders.
She added: “In situations where there is uncertainty about whether a child can remain safe at home, we often err on the side of caution by keeping the child in alternative care arrangements for a longer period, while protection officers continue close monitoring and conduct regular family check-ins.
“We want to explore whether technology can strengthen and complement these efforts by providing officers and families with greater assurance and visibility of a child’s safety and well-being during this critical transition and between engagements by professionals.”
The intent is not to replace professional judgment, but to complement it by providing additional information to support more informed and timely decision making, the spokesperson added."
Live podcast, tea appreciation and flea market among highlights at SG Youth Forum 2026 (16 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – A live podcast on navigating careers, a tea appreciation session and a flea market showcasing local brands are among the activities young people can look forward to at the upcoming SG Youth Forum.
The annual event, organised by the National Youth Council (NYC), will be held at Suntec convention centre on July 25 from 10.30am to 5pm. It brings together youth, the Government and community partners to discuss issues that matter to young Singaporeans.
A highlight at the 2026 edition is the launch of the SG Youth Plan, a five-year road map to help young people meet their needs and aspirations. More details of the plan will be announced at the forum.
The forum will be attended by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo, and Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Culture, Community and Youth Goh Hanyan. Goh will also join a panel dialogue.
Beyond the discussions, participants can take part in a range of interactive activities.
A live podcast hosted by local content creators will explore topics such as navigating careers, while a mindfulness session will introduce participants to tea appreciation under the guidance of a tea master.
Visitors can also browse a flea market featuring local merchandise and visit about 30 booths run by organisations from the public, private and people sectors.
At Tata Consultancy Services’ booth, participants can learn how artificial intelligence and emerging technologies are changing the workplace. They can also speak to early-career professionals about their work and career journeys.
The Happiness Initiative, a social enterprise focused on well-being, will introduce its flagship Well-being Circles programme, which aims to help young people build stronger relationships through simple games and activities.
A focus group discussion with the youth will be held at the forum to identify issues they can work on with the Government in the future. Participants will also get to vote on which youth projects deserve funding at a Youth Action Zone. They will get actual chips to vote on projects, allowing them a hands-on experience of how communities allocate resources."
Are social media algorithms feeding our parenting anxieties? (17 July 2026)
"Synopsis: Join us for a five-part series on working motherhood from July 3-31 with episodes out every Friday.
Social media has become a lifeline for many mothers - offering advice, reassurance and community at the tap of a screen. But what happens when the endless parenting tips and constant comparison start to undermine our confidence instead?
In this episode, host Vanessa Chelvan sits down with Huda Rasid, founder of The Mum Collective, and Minister of State Rahayu Mahzam to talk candidly about the pressures of raising children in the digital age.
From information overload to screen time guilt and the pressures of competitive parenting, they unpack why so many mothers feel like they’re constantly falling short - even when they’re doing their best.
The conversation also explores practical ways to build a healthier relationship with social media, trust your own instincts again and find real support beyond the screen - reminding parents that no algorithm knows their child better than they do."
Youth under probe for 2 fires in Bukit Panjang HDB block; 3 total reported in 2 months (17 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – A youth is assisting with police investigations following two fires in a Housing Board block in Bukit Panjang on July 15, with the area’s MP saying there has been another reported incident there in the past two months.
In response to queries, the police and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said on July 17 that they were alerted to the incidents at Block 501 Jelapang Road at about 8.10pm on July 15.
The fire at the common corridor on the 10th floor of the block involved a personal mobility aid, and SCDF extinguished the fire with a water jet.
There was another fire at the common corridor on the fourth floor of the same block, involving a bicycle cover, and it was put out by members of the public with a dry powder fire extinguisher.
Three people were assessed for smoke inhalation and declined to be taken to hospital.
SCDF said its preliminary findings indicate that the fires were deliberately set, while the police said a male youth had been identified for mischief by fire.
Investigations are ongoing.
Chinese-language news publication Lianhe Zaobao said that the walls and ceiling at the common corridor on the 10th floor were blackened by smoke, and there was a lingering burnt smell when it visited the area on July 16.
Holland-Bukit Timah GRC MP Edward Chia visited the affected residents on the night of July 16.
He said in a social media post later on the same day that there had been three reported fire incidents at Block 501 in the past two months, with the fires on July 15 the two most recent incidents.
No injuries were reported, and he said the residents were concerned about the possibility of mischief or foul play.
“During the investigations, we uncovered additional unreported incidents,” he wrote. “The police are thoroughly investigating all the cases.”
Double amputee jailed for sexually assaulting boy, 12, whom he gave cash and cigarettes (17 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE – A double amputee who performed sexual acts on a 12-year-old boy in exchange for giving him cash and cigarettes was sentenced to 12 years and 11 months’ jail on July 17.
Abdul Rahim Sa’ad, 66, who uses a wheelchair as both his legs have been amputated below the knee, had sexually abused the victim between 2020 and 2023, until the boy was 16.
He pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual assault by penetration.
Another 14 charges, mostly for sexual offences against the same victim, were considered during sentencing.
Rahim’s sentence included four months’ jail in lieu of caning. He cannot be caned as he is above 50 years old.
High Court Judge Audrey Lim agreed with the prosecution that additional jail time should be imposed to compensate for the lost deterrent effect of caning, given the abhorrent acts and repeated offences over a long period of time.
At the time of the offences, Rahim regularly spent time at his sister’s home.
He befriended the victim in April 2020 after striking up a conversation with the boy, who was passing by his sister’s flat to visit a friend.
On April 29, 2020, the boy visited Rahim and asked him for a cigarette.
Rahim asked the victim to show him his underwear and genitals, and to let him take photographs.
The boy agreed and received cash and a cigarette for allowing Rahim to take photographs of him.
After this incident, the victim occasionally asked for cigarettes and cash, which Rahim would provide in exchange for sexual favours.
When Rahim asked to perform a sex act on the boy, the victim suggested going to the handicap toilet at a nearby community centre.
After the acts, Rahim would buy cigarettes for the boy and sometimes give him cash.
Rahim was arrested on Jan 4, 2024, after his niece lodged a police report alleging he was obtaining sexual services from young boys.
He has been in remand since."
The first day of primary school: What parents hope for most (13 January 2026)
"The first day of Primary One isn’t just about lessons and routines. For many parents, it’s about trust, reassurance, and the small moments that matter.
By Sabrina Lee
The first day of Primary One is a milestone that brings excitement, nerves, and hope for what lies ahead. At Sembawang Primary School, we spoke to three parents about what went through their mind, seeing their children enter a new environment. We also asked a teacher how the school staff help students settle in and reassures parents on the first day.
Mum celebrates small steps to independence
“As Vihaan starts Primary One, my hope is for him to learn to adapt, enjoy learning, and grow in confidence as he finds his way.
Today really brought those hopes to life. I stood next to him during recess as he carefully put his plate away after eating. It was a small thing, but it meant a lot to me. I could see that he was nervous and unsure, so I told him it was okay and gave him a bit of encouragement. Watching him find the courage to do it on his own was both comforting and emotional.
What’s been reassuring, from the school briefings and today’s experience, is seeing the school’s focus on students’ well-being and character, alongside learning. The nurturing environment, clear support, and attention to social and emotional growth give me confidence that Vihaan will be well supported as he settles in, becomes more independent, and finds his footing at this important stage of his life.”
Leading with heart: How three principals shape lives with care and clarity (14 January 2026)
"Good leadership keeps the heart of our schools beating strongly every day. Three principals — Mr Michael de Silva, Mr Kevin Pang and Mdm Goh Meei Yunn — share how they draw the best from various leadership approaches to create sustainable excellence in schools.
Innovation that comes through trust and collaboration
Among educators, it is common lingo to say that teaching and running schools take a lot of hard work AND heart work.
Everything that happens to their students – from grazed knees and friendship hurts, to academic strides, family relationships, and triumphs big and small – are all in a day’s work for principals and their staff. This can also make schools more complex to lead than the average organisation.
In his nearly 40 years of service at the Ministry of Education, Mr Michael de Silva had taken on various leadership positions at HQ and schools, the latest being Principal of Yishun Innova Junior College before his retirement last year.
School principals are appointed through discerning selection and advancement processes, and well-trained and mentored for the task, he says. Added to that is how well the teaching fraternity looks after its own.
“It is simply practical,” he says. “If we want good outcomes for students, the people doing the work – our teachers – need to be supported, respected, and well.”
As care and trust is established, innovation and collaboration come more easily.
“I try to bring out the best in my staff by creating sustainable systems, structures, and a culture that allow them to do their best work.” When forming teams, for example, he creates what he calls “collaborative leadership” where educators support one another’s growth while serving students more effectively."
7 leadership tips from the Principal’s Office: On forging culture (14 January 2026)
"School culture acts like an invisible force that brings teachers and students together, and shapes good values and habits. Schoolbag speaks to Mr Kevin Pang, who takes over as Principal of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) this year, on how he forges a strong culture – starting with how it’s defined.
How does one build a culture where people feel they truly belong? How does one lead culture change without losing trust? How do we turn shared values from wall posters into daily practice? These are enduring questions for both new and seasoned leaders.
Mr Kevin Pang successfully guided Yuhua Secondary School through its post-merger transition towards a renewed culture and identity. He has also led across a wide spectrum of school settings, from junior college, to special needs institution, and now ACS (Independent), a specialised independent school with a long and storied heritage.
He offers strategies to forge a stronger culture that resonates.
1. Define culture as lived experience, not stated aspiration.
“To me, school culture is the daily lived expression of what we believe, value, and practise together,” says Mr Pang. “It is reflected not just in policies but in the ‘soft culture’ of everyday interactions between students, staff and stakeholders — how decisions are made, how we treat one another, and most tellingly, how we respond to difficulties.”
At Yuhua Secondary, the mission “Care, Connect, Contribute” shaped decisions large and small – from looking after every student and staff’s well-being (caring), why Town Halls with students and dialogues sessions with staff mattered (connecting), to making courageous actions to transform school programmes and infrastructure (contributing).
When the culture is strong, he says, “people sense alignment, belonging and meaning — they know why what we do matters and how they can contribute to it”.
Leaders need to translate aspirations and purpose into lived practices. Vision and mission statements must come alive and be lived out as identity.
“Each school should have something proud and distinctive that defines itself,” says Mr Pang. That identity becomes the invisible force that guides behaviour even when no one is watching."
7 leadership tips from the Principals’ Office: On navigating change (14 January 2026)
"With change as a constant, the steady hand of leadership keeps schools running and students learning every day. Schoolbag asks Mdm Goh Meei Yunn, a seasoned principal who takes over the reins of School of the Arts (SOTA) this year, how she steers staff, students and parents through various education phases and tough situations too.
How do we lead when the ground beneath us is shifting? How do we stay true to our values while adapting to new realities? How do we guide our team through change when we’re still grappling with it myself?
These are some questions that leaders grapple with especially in an era where unpredictability is promised and social media is there to amplify every misstep.
Mdm Goh Meei Yunn has navigated schools through different phases of Singapore’s education landscape for the past 25 years.
Before SOTA, she assumed leadership appointments including Principalship at two primary schools and stints at the MOE Schools Division’s former Educational Leadership Development Centre. Mdm Goh, who has a degree in Music, started her career as a teacher in the Music Elective Programme at Dunman High School.
She shares some practical strategies from her experience that’s useful for navigating change in any group or organisation.
1. Work on the personal impact before leading others through change
When dealing with change, Mdm Goh typically doesn’t start with strategy or policy. She starts with herself.
When Singapore’s education system was evolving in the 2000s towards more holistic education and a reduced emphasis on grades, she felt unsettled.
“I grew up in the older system,” she explains. “So as a beginning teacher in the 1980s and 90s, I prided myself on improving on my students’ academic performance every year. But as our education philosophy shifted away from celebrating straight As, I was caught between two worlds.”
Then a young parent of two, it was doubly hard for Mdm Goh to imbibe the shift in approach to teaching and learning – she could understand why parents would continue to prioritise good grades or preferred schools for their children, as that was the benchmark they were brought up on; “I believe all parents of my generation went through that,” she says.
After working on her inner conflicts, she found it easier to lead empathetic conversations with her colleagues and students’ parents facing similar struggles. As a parent herself, she found it easier to connect with other parents, as she was able to articulate their inner parenting insecurities."
7 leadership tips from the Principal’s Office: On people management (14 January 2026)
"Strong leadership can bring out the best in us – what more in schools where our students are being nurtured and cared for every day? Schoolbag speaks to Mr Michael de Silva, a veteran educator who led schools and shaped leaders across nearly four decades. He talks about how to build sustainable teams, navigate complexity, and keep care and performance working hand in hand.
How do I manage a diverse team of colleagues? How can I get consensus rather than compliance? What makes teams and performance sustainable? These are questions even experienced leaders revisit from time to time.
People management is about developing individuals into their best selves at work or in school — something Mr Michael de Silva practised with commitment and distinction across almost four decades as an educator and leader.
Beyond his roles at MOE HQ as a cluster superintendent and head of the Educational Leadership Development Centre, he served as Principal of Innova Junior College from 2013 until its merger with Yishun Junior College. He then helmed the newly formed Yishun Innova Junior College from 2019 until his retirement last year.
“In schools, many of us spend more time with our colleagues than with our own families. Because so much of our lives is lived in the workplace, people management isn’t a separate leadership function — it is the work. As we teach and support students, we also grow as individuals, and we grow the people around us.”
Drawing on decades of leadership while delivering measurable outcomes for students, he offers field-tested practices that strengthen teams in schools and workplaces alike.
1. Care is the work
On balancing leading with care and with efficiency, Mr de Silva makes a simple assertion: the two are not separate. “They are actually the same work,” he says. If we want good outcomes for students, the people doing the work — our teachers — must be supported, respected, and well. This is not a soft idea. It is simply practical.
“Even if someone takes a very instrumental view and sees teachers as a means to an end, the conclusion is the same: if you rely on a tool to get good results, you make sure that tool is in good condition and sharpened. People are obviously not tools, but the principle still applies.” When teachers feel valued and supported, they do better work. Care is not a distraction from performance; it is what makes performance sustainable.
Leading with heart begins with acknowledging what is already felt. At the start of a new term, he might tell his staff that he, too, wished the holidays were longer — “you know what’s in their hearts, because that’s in your heart too,” he explains. Such small acts of honesty build connection, trust, and emotional safety.
Care does not mean lowering expectations. “In practice, I try to understand the real pressures teachers face and give support or clarity where needed, while still holding clear expectations and timelines.”
Pro-tech-ting kids in the age of AI (16 January 2026)
"Artificial intelligence is taking the world by storm, and parents must start thinking about what it means to raise children in an era of humanlike chatbots and capable image generators. A parent working in tech shares her take on this.
By Rafidah A Razak
AI. LLMs. These acronyms are so commonplace one would have to be living under a rock to not know what they stand for: artificial intelligence and Large Language Models. They are also touted to be technologies we need to learn and use to thrive in future. So, it would make sense for parents to expose their kids to these tech tools as soon as possible, right?
Ms T, who prefers to stay anonymous, begs to differ. The mum of two boys aged five and seven wants to teach them the art of slow living – a mindset that focuses on doing things mindfully and with intention. And it includes life without AI and generative AI (GenAI) in their early years.
As an AI consultant and UX (user experience) designer, Ms T’s day-to-day job is to recognise and keep up with worldwide technological developments, such as how China’s Cyberspace Administration has recently released regulations around the use of AI. These directives are intended to protect their children and elderly as the government has recognised how quickly human-like AI technologies are being integrated into society.
“AI and technology are going to be everywhere around them as they grow up. Learning how to use AI is so easy, because the outputs are just there for them to consume,” she says. The hard part, she reckons, will be teaching children how to be more human. How to think critically, be creative and authentic, and understand the invisible processes that underlie the fast outputs that we have come to expect from technology."
In pictures: First day of school moments (19 January 2026)
"Being back at school is giving fresh-start energy − new things to learn, new friends to meet, and moments that will shape the year ahead.
By Sabrina Lee
Every first day looks a little different − in MOE Kindergarten @ Sembawang, to Sembawang Primary, and in Bukit Batok Secondary. As a new school year begins, students step into new classrooms, make new friends, and experience many firsts, supported by their parents, teachers and school staff.
Why the teaching profession cannot be a revolving door (21 January 2026)
"Its strength lies in experienced teachers who bring maturity, insight and confidence built over years.
By Liew Wei Li
Mr Ahmad Arif Bin Ibrahim did Singapore proud recently, bagging a bronze medal together with his Duathlon Mixed Relay team at the 2025 SEA Games. Away from the track, he is also a maestro at Maha Bodhi School where he teaches Physical Education.
He masterfully engages students, and knows how to adapt lessons on the fly. These are not skills learnt overnight.
This raises an important question: Will he still be teaching in 2035?
The Ministry of Education (MOE) has said that it will actively hire more new educators from 2026 to strengthen our teaching workforce. But recruitment alone is not enough. Teaching must remain an attractive long-term career, and not a revolving door.
After over 20 years in education, I have witnessed teachers transform from “sages on stages” to something far more sophisticated. Experienced teachers are like concert maestros: instinctive, precise and deeply attuned to their students.
Why the experience matters
Take a disengaged student who shows little interest in the concepts taught.
An experienced teacher like Mr Arif knows how to draw him in with simple personalised applications of real-world learning, the psychological safety of established classroom routines, or interesting and appropriately challenging tasks to spark the joy of learning.
The same instinct shows up when a student is underperforming academically.
An expert educator like Mdm Usha d/o Krishnasamy, a 23-year veteran and Lead Teacher at North View Primary School will scan the class, assess their needs, and provide inclusive, yet differentiated instruction to her learners, including those with Special Educational Needs. She knows how to pitch appropriate challenges to them for confidence building, and give timely feedback so they can improve.
What students gain from experienced teachers is precious. Research tells us that they are more likely to attend school, engage constructively, and learn more."
Students on the teachers who shaped their secondary school journey (22 January 2026)
"Four Evergreen Secondary School students share the small moments – from words of encouragement to questions that made them think – that will stay with them long after they graduate.
By Sabrina Lee
“Mr Anan pointed out my strengths before I could see them myself.” – Garrett Lim
When Garrett was nominated to take on the role of Discipline Head of the prefectorial board in Secondary 3, it felt daunting. “I honestly didn’t think I had the guts for it,” he says.
But Mr Anan, who leads the Student Leadership Development Committee, reassured Garrett. Mr Anan pointed out moments he had observed from as early as Secondary 1, such as when Garrett stepped up to make announcements to classmates about proper attire or haircuts.
“To me, it was very basic actions., I didn’t even think of it as ‘leadership’ at that time,” Garrett says. But that conversation with Mr Anan helped Garrett reframe his thinking and boosted his confidence.
“Mr Anan is someone I feel comfortable turning to for guidance. He’s firm when needed, but always encouraging. He’ll tell me, ‘You’ve got this.’”
What performing arts CCAs really teach students (26 January 2026)
"How do performing arts develop resilience and transform students into confident performers who dream bigger? Schoolbag gets them to tell us.
By Sabrina Lee
Performing arts CCAs place students in situations that ask more of them: to listen closely, respond to feedback and keep going when practice gets demanding. For Ashley Tham and Graeden Dispo, dance and music became avenues to test themselves, steady their focus and discover what effort over time can achieve.
Ashley Tham learns to move with confidence
When Ashley steps onto the stage, her movements are steady and assured. That assurance did not come overnight – it was shaped through practice and a deep commitment to dance.
Ashley first joined Fusionz Dance at APSN Tanglin School in Secondary 1 to explore a CCA she already felt drawn to. She had begun dancing earlier, starting in Primary 2 at Chaoyang School. “Dance makes me feel happy and strong,” she shares. While she was comfortable being on stage, remembering choreography, staying in sync with others and staying attentive through long rehearsals were challenging at first. There were moments of fatigue, but she kept showing up.
What helped her persist was a supportive CCA environment. Her teachers focused on building up her self-confidence. “We checked in with Ashley regularly and set small, achievable goals,” says co-teacher-in-charge Ms Syafiqah Binte Mohamed Salleh. “Celebrating small wins helped her keep going.”
Rehearsals became a space where Ashley learnt to respond to feedback, adapt when routines were demanding, and stay committed even when progress felt slow. By participating in numerous in-school and public performances, she learnt to stay composed under pressure.
“Dance teaches students how to manage pressure and perform with clarity,” says Ashley’s dance instructor, Mr Mohammad Ridzwan Bin Rashid, known to students as Mr Ewan.
Those skills carried into her sporting pursuits as well. A competitive swimmer, Ashley recently represented Team Singapore at the 2025 Dubai Asian Youth Para Games, winning two silver and two bronze medals."
Discovering the joy of serving together (5 February 2026)
"These Parent Support Groups are inspiring parents and children to step out and lend a hand to those in need, proving that volunteering as a family doesn’t have to be complicated.
By Ai Lei
Parent Support Groups (PSGs) in schools are showing that giving back can be a family affair. Through school-led initiatives, both parents and children are involved in serving others – from distributing food to families in need to bringing help and joy to seniors. Find out how PSGs from these four schools provide opportunities for parents and children to bond through volunteering.
Punggol Green Primary School: Partnering parents to inculcate values
Punggol Green Primary School’s collaboration with Food from the Heartbegan as a Values-in-Action project led by its Primary 5 students. These students rallied their peers to contribute non-perishable food items for families in need. These food items were also displayed on shelves for beneficiaries to redeem at Food from the Heart’s Community Shop @ Punggol.
Now in its fifth year, the initiative has expanded, with participation from the school’s PSG. Parents saw the shared acts of service as a meaningful way to give back while strengthening bonds with their children. Together, they went door-to-door to distribute food packs to 50 households in Punggol and Hougang.
Ms Norhidayana Jabar, Lead Teacher/Malay Language, reflects, “This initiative shows how learning goes beyond the classroom, as students learn to be kind, caring and responsible members of the community.”
For the community, the effort provided not just essential groceries but also a sense of warmth and connection. In particular, a resident had shared how the food packs helped ease her family’s worries when they were going through a difficult month.
The students experienced the joy of service firsthand, with many taking the initiative to prepare personalized greetings to introduce themselves to the residents. Parents too were deeply moved. PSG chairperson Ms Claire Zhang shares, “The smiles you see from the residents and from your own children are truly priceless.” Creating these shared experiences allowed parents to actively participate in their child’s holistic development, reinforcing the values taught in school."
What students learn when they perform together (13 February 2026)
"From school rehearsals to public performances, students reflect on how performing arts CCAs teach them to pay attention to others and work together.
By Sabrina Lee
Across a guitar ensemble and an angklung group, four students share how performing arts CCAs shape the way they listen, adapt, and pull their own weight during performances.
Zi Ling and Maya learn it takes a team to carry a melody on the angklung
When St. Anthony’s Canossian Secondary School’s Angklung Ensemble plays, no one carries the melody alone.
“Everybody only controls one note,” says Secondary 4 student Hiew Zi Ling. “So, to play a song, we must listen to each other, watch the conductor, and shake our instruments at the right moment.”
As a student leader, Zi Ling looks out for juniors who are still adjusting. “Everyone has their own way of learning,” she says. “And I’ve learnt to be patient and to encourage them.”
For Zi Ling, the Angklung Ensemble stood out when she was in Secondary 1 because she and a close friend did not share classes and wanted to join a CCA that gave them time to bond. “I stumbled across an angklung performance during the Singapore Youth Festival,” she says. “The bamboo instrument looked so unique, and I found it fascinating how such a simple instrument could make such clear, resonant sounds.”
With little to no musical background, she thought the angklung would be easy to learn at first. “Playing the angklung in an ensemble means keeping time, working as a team, and paying close attention to everyone else’s cues,” she says."
Empowering everyone during Total Defence Day (13 February 2026)
"Through fun and educational activities, White Sands Primary School and Pasir Ris Crest Secondary School come together every year to let their students learn about how everyone has a role to play when it comes to Total Defence.
Learning how to perform CPR on a CPR dummy from a St. John Brigade cadet. Colouring scenes of playground interactions while National Police Cadet Corp cadets explain how Social Defence is built over time. Identifying signs and emergency numbers that will be useful during an emergency from a group of Girl Guides.
These are just some of the activities that White Sands Primary School (WSPS) students engaged in during their recess, facilitated by 51 students from uniformed groups from Pasir Ris Crest Secondary School (PRCSS). The initiative, which arose from a partnership between the two schools, is part of Total Defence Day commemoration.
“We were already partnering with WSPS in Values in Action, so it was a natural step to take when we were looking to extend our outreach and advocacy initiatives,” says Ms Candice Soh, Subject Head of Student Involvement and Agency at PRCSS. “It is a meaningful event that also empowers our students, as they impart their knowledge of Total Defence to younger students.”
Now in its fourth year, these Total Defence Day recess activities have become something that the WSPS students look forward to annually."
Where Play Sparks Growth - How MOE Kindergartens are developing our preschoolers (26 February 2026)
"School today is no longer just about worksheets and tests.
At MOE Kindergartens (MK), “purposeful play” is an important part of its curriculum. Sneak a peek into what this looks like in the different learning spaces at MK@Casuarina!"
Hot take: How these 3 parent influencers keep their kids off their devices (26 February 2026)
"Influencers are all about attracting eyeballs to their accounts. So we posed three parent influencers this tough question: How do you limit screen use for your own kids? They share what methods work for them and what don’t.
Fifteen hours. That’s Runner Kao’s daily screen time report. The social worker turned content creator admits that the number is staggering – it’s nearly all of his waking hours! But it’s hard to bring it down when his livelihood depends on it.
Parent influencers face a daunting task: Limit their kids’ screen time while building careers online. Mummy influencer Fizah Nizam often works on the go, with device stuck to her hand. When she tells her daughter to put her iPad down, she gets this reply: “You tell me, ‘don’t use the iPad’, but then why are you on the iPad?”
For influencer Tommy Wong, it’s also about reconciling his online career with values he wants to instil.
All three parents’ homes have become living labs for digital parenting, testing grounds for strategies every modern parent needs in the fight against extended screen times. The result? Hard-won wisdom from the front lines.
What failed: Don’t try this at home
1. Loose warnings and flexi boundaries
Like many well-meaning parents, Ms Fizah tried to set boundaries around screen use. But she was fuzzy about the number of hours she would allow, and she might also let devices babysit her kids when she was busy.
Tight deadlines characterise the content creator and film producer’s life. “I admit there were days when I was weak, and I’d tell the kids, ‘Sorry, I really need to get this done. Take the iPad,” says Ms Fizah.
She might throw in words of caution like “don’t play for too long”, which were ineffective. When she stepped in depended on her resolve for the day, which depended on her work schedule. Ms Fizah’s daughter, aged 10, would get “lost in her own world for hours” on the screen. And even when the device was switched off, Ms Fizah noticed her girl perpetually zoning out. “It was like she was floating in water. The after-effects linger.”
The wake-up call came – literally – from her daughter’s school. “I think Sahara has some issues with her eyesight,” the teacher said. After the school health screening a few weeks later, their fears were confirmed. “It shocked me. Her degree was really high!” Ms Fizah exclaims."
How do teachers learn? By creating (27 February 2026)
"Our art teachers don’t just teach art – they make it too. Here, four of them reflect on how creating and exhibiting their own work shapes the way they guide students.
By Sabrina Lee
Art teachers guide students through creative work where uncertainty is part of the process. They know that feeling firsthand as artists themselves. But it is not often that we see their work being showcased and get a rare glimpse into their own creative processes.
So, Schoolbag popped by the 13th Biennial Art Teachers’ Exhibition, to speak to four teacher-artists whose works are being exhibited. This edition of the event required participating teachers, for the first time, to create new works in response to a theme instead of submitting existing pieces. This meant starting from scratch – testing ideas, experimenting with materials, and deciding what to keep, change or discard as the work developed. They reflect on what it means to sit with that uncertainty, and how the experience shapes the way they guide their students.
“Making art keeps me grounded as a teacher.”
Mdm Jessica Lai, Art Teacher, Peirce Secondary School
“My artwork is a watercolour piece made up of an accordion-style book that loops into a circle, with collaged mushrooms placed at the centre. It draws on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, especially the moment when Alice is asked, ‘Who are you?’ and must decide whether to take a bite of the mushroom. That in-between state – questioning identity and deciding whether to act – stayed with me. Working through that sense of being ‘in between’ made me more aware of how often students sit in that same space when they are learning.”
“When I make art for myself, the process feels intuitive. I move easily from one idea to the next.
Taking part in this exhibition made me slow down and look more closely at my own thinking. Starting a new artwork meant breaking ideas into smaller parts and paying attention to each decision as it unfolded.
Sitting with that uncertainty reminded me what learning feels like, and why it’s important for students to see that thinking doesn’t always come neatly or quickly – even if that means learning alongside my students.
When students understand that feeling unsure is part of learning, they become more willing to try, trust their ideas, and find their own way forward.”
Here’s what MOE announced at Committee of Supply 2026 (4 March 2026)
"At the 2026 Committee of Supply Debate, MOE announced initiatives to enable Singaporeans to learn together and be equipped for an AI-transformed future. What can our learners look forward to?"
More than just design: Inside the Da Vinci Programme (5 March 2026)
"At West View Primary School, selected academically strong students attend after-school activities that develop 21st Century Competencies like empathy, teamwork and communication skills.
By Arielene Wee
On the day that Primary 6 students Daisy Ma and Aarnik Mahajan were supposed to present their group’s prototype to a panel of judges, the prototype broke.
The students from West View Primary School had spent weeks interviewing friends and family members to understand the challenges they face in growing plants, brainstormed for sustainable solutions, and designed a prototype of an auto-watering device to help water plants.
With the help of their teachers from the Design Thinking Capstone Project, Daisy and Aarnik’s group quickly rebuilt their prototype from scratch, and even improved on the original design.
“We were very sad when our first prototype failed, but then we tried again,” says Daisy. “We even came up with a new idea of placing a camera on the device to check when the plant is dry and needs more water.”
Aarnik adds, “At the end of the presentation, we were really proud of what we made. I learnt to see things differently and not give up, even when we face challenges that seem difficult to overcome.”
That act of failing, then trying again and succeeding, is exactly what the Design Thinking Capstone Project aims to instil in students.
Learning to solve problems with empathy
Working on capstone projects around sustainability is one of three components of the Da Vinci Programme at West View Primary, a two-year programme for Primary 4 and 5 students who are selected based on academic strengths and teacher recommendations. The other components are the Brain programme, which focuses on developing communication and presentation skills, and Excellence 2000 (E2K) Mathematics, which develops mathematical reasoning.
In 2024, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced in his National Day Rally speech, that the Gifted Education Programme (GEP), in its current form, would be discontinued. Instead, students with strengths and talents in the academic domain would be stretched through a different approach.
Under the current GEP, students transfer to one of nine designated primary schools that host the programme in Primary 4. With the revised approach, these students would remain in their schools, which are all equipped with school-based provisions to develop them in English, Maths and Science – beyond the normal curriculum.
Students who are assessed to benefit from even further stretch can choose to attend centre-based advanced modules after school at designated schools nearby. The modules will start running from 2027 for Primary 4 students.
At West View Primary School, students with strengths and talents in the academic domain attend the Da Vinci Programme, which is held after school. What distinguishes it from other school-based programmes is its strong emphasis on design thinking, which Principal Mr Eugene Lee introduced when he joined the school in 2024."
More than just numbers: Inside the Mathematics Expert @ Work programme (5 March 2026)
"At Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School, the programme helps students strong in Mathematics to discover how it connects to real-world problems. They get better at problem-solving too.
By Arielene Wee
As part of the Mathematics Expert @ Work (MEW) programme at Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School, students get to build popcorn containers to learn about volume, and calculate optimal lift travel times to learn about rates and speed.
Mrs Sharon Wang, MEW teacher at Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary, shares that such activities are designed to “stretch them beyond what is taught in the classroom”.
In 2024, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced in his National Day Rally speech, that the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) would discontinue in its current form. Instead, students with strengths and talents in the academic domain would be stretched through a different approach.
Under the current GEP, students transfer to one of nine designated primary schools that host the programme in Primary 4. With the revised approach, these students would remain in their schools, which are all equipped with school-based provisions to develop them in English, Maths and Science – beyond the normal curriculum.
Students who are assessed to benefit from even further stretch are invited to attend centre-based advanced modules after school at designated schools nearby. The modules will start running from 2027 for Primary 4 students.
For students with strengths and talent in Mathematics, primary schools can offer school-based provisions that are supported by MOE’s Gifted Education Branch and the Academy of Singapore Teachers. These are the MEW programme, Excellence 2000 (E2K) Mathematics Programme, and Primary Mathematics Project Competition.
At Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School, all three provisions are offered to Primary 4 and 5 students, who are selected based on their academic strengths in Mathematics and teacher recommendations.
Beyond structured steps and fast answers
MEW lessons are designed to make connections between abstract mathematical concepts and their practical applications. Additionally, students are trained to clearly articulate their reasoning and decision-making process.
“Unlike normal Mathematics lessons, where students solve equations and present calculations in a systematic manner, MEW involves a deeper conceptual understanding. Students have to explain the steps they take, and justify their reasoning,” says Mrs Wang.
The result of this is that students are less answer-driven and more process-focused, she observes. When one method fails, they try another. When they encounter difficulty, they persevere. Sometimes, they think out of the box too.
“As humans, we always want to solve things in the quickest way. But we teach our students to explore different ways to solve problems. In life, we never have just one method to solve things,” she adds.
“It doesn’t matter which way you take, as long as you get to the answer. The attempt to try, and then bounce back when you fail, is what we want to see.”
More than a love of books: Inside the Reading Circles programme (5 March 2026)
"At Seng Kang Primary School, students strong in the English language take part in activities that help them enjoy the books they read, while developing a greater understanding of the world around them.
By Arielene Wee
“I used to take a whole month to finish reading a Percy Jackson book, but now I can finish it in one and a half weeks,” says Jayden Wong, a Primary 6 student at Seng Kang Primary School.
For fellow Primary 6 student Syuhada Puteri Muhammad Iskandar, reading sometimes felt like a chore. Today, she says proudly that she reads every single day.
Both students credit this shift in their reading habits to the school’s Reading Circles programme.
“Reading Circles has allowed me to discover different books and genres, and I’ve realised that reading is not always boring,” Syuhada says.
Beyond reading more frequently, Jayden and Syuhada are also reading differently than before. Through Reading Circles, they have learnt to see from different characters’ perspectives, and draw connections between the stories they read to the world around them.
Fostering students’ love for the English language
In 2024, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced in his National Day Rally speech, that the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) would discontinue in its current form. Instead, students with strengths and talents in the academic domain would be stretched through a different approach.
Under the current GEP, students transfer to one of nine designated primary schools that host the programme in Primary 4. With the revised approach, these students would remain in their schools, which offer school-based provisions to develop them in English, Maths and Science – beyond the normal curriculum.
Students who are assessed to benefit from even further stretch are invited to attend centre-based advanced modules after school at designated schools nearby. The modules will start running from 2027 for Primary 4 students.
For students with strengths and talent in the English Language, three school-based programmes are offered by primary schools, supported by MOE’s Gifted Education Branch. These are the Reading Circles, Creative Writing programme, and Wits & Words debate programme.
At Seng Kang Primary, Reading Circles is an after-school programme for selected Primary 4 and 5 students, i.e., those who display strong interest in reading and demonstrate critical thinking and creative responses in class. It is conducted over eight sessions in the school year."
Junior College gave them opportunities they never expected (6 March 2026)
"The Junior College years aren’t just about studying for the A Levels – it’s also a time to discover new interests and pathways. We caught up with three recent graduates from St Andrew’s Junior College to hear about their experience at school.
By Arielene Wee
“I didn’t expect to go for work attachments, given the rigorous JC curriculum. But the school provided me with such opportunities, which were stepping stones for me to explore my interests.” - Cherianne Cheng
While Cherianne had always been interested in the Sciences, she wasn’t sure of what she wanted to pursue as a career when she first stepped foot in JC.
Through the school, Cherianne found out about work shadowing opportunities at St Hilda’s Community Services and St Andrew’s Community Hospital. She participated in them and saw firsthand what it was like to look after elderly patients in healthcare settings.
Cherianne also joined the “Saints Advocate” CCA in school, which focuses on community service. She planned befriending services for the elderly with the Lions Befrienders and Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital.
“I’m now very clear that I want to pursue a career in healthcare, because of all these opportunities I had in JC,” she says. “It’s a field that allows me to combine both my passions in Biology and in serving the community.”
Does your child seem stressed? Let’s chat...in the kitchen (9 March 2026)
"How do we help our children cope with everything from friendship troubles to social media pressures? Psychiatrist Dr Jared Ng offers 7 practical strategies and the importance of open communication – anytime, anywhere.
In today’s digital age, children have many more ways to spend their time, but they also face more pressures that extend far beyond the classroom. From friendship woes to social media comparisons, young people are navigating complex emotional landscapes and sources of stress that require more parental support than before, not less.
Dr Jared Ng, a father to three teens and a psychiatrist in private practice who previously worked with children in hospitals, explains that understanding stress begins with recognising its dual nature.
Is it eustress or distress?
“Stress is really any event or situation that puts a strain on somebody’s coping resources,” he says. When it comes in the form of “good” stress, it is called eustress, “for example, an exam, a sports competition, or even coming onto a podcast, right? It makes someone want to do better”.
However, when stress becomes chronic and overwhelming, it transforms from eustress to distress, says Dr Ng – the harmful type that “wears the person down” and leads to physical, emotional, and psychological problems.
What can parents do?
1. Watch for symptoms of distress and academic struggles.
Telltale signs include persistent headaches and abdominal discomfort with no medical cause, or difficulty falling asleep or frequent nightmares. There are also emotional indicators such as increased crying, irritability, and social withdrawal from activities, family gatherings, or friends.
Then there are kids who “are really trying very hard in class, but they just can’t seem to focus or concentrate”, Dr Ng observes. “And despite trying, they start to do worse and worse in school.” What may compound the stress is when this gives rise to even more scrutiny from their parents and educators, so a lighter touch may be needed when investigating the problem."
Taking a whole-of-school approach to Project Work (13 March 2026)
"When Project Work became a pass/fail subject in 2024, Mr Benzie Dio, Head of Department of English & Project Work at National Junior College, seized the opportunity to rethink how it was taught. Getting the whole school on board, he made it the driver of the 21st Century Competencies.
Anyone who has done group work can attest to this: when roles are assigned based on your teammates’ strengths and interests, the group is halfway to achieving its goals.
Now, imagine scaling it to the school level, where each subject department is tapped on to contribute their teachers’ expertise to Project Work (PW), an interdisciplinary subject. Then, pair PW groups and teachers with similar interests.
While this sounds like a scenario where dream teams are created, putting it into practice when you have 500 students and 40 teachers can turn it into a logistical nightmare. Yet, Mr Benzie Dio, Head of Department of English and PW at National Junior College (NJC), who came up with the idea, didn’t flinch at the mountainous task. Instead, he saw it as an opportunity to better drive home the 21st Century Competencies that PW aims to develop in students.
A change that came about due to the 2024 Project Work syllabus revision
The trigger to develop this whole-of-school approach to teaching PW came about when MOE refreshed the syllabus and made it a pass/fail subject in 2024.
“I looked at the objectives, the disposition and values that we want to see in our students with this revised syllabus,” says Mr Dio, who has been teaching for more than 30 years and saw the introduction of PW as a subject back in 2003.
From the learning outcomes of the revised syllabus, he picked up keywords and terms such as:
• Interdisciplinary
• Collaboration
• Focus on real-world issues; and
• Effective communication
There was also a lot of focus on Emerging 21st Century Competencies (E21CC) – namely critical, adaptive, and inventive thinking, and collaboration and communication skills. So, Mr Dio thought it will be a good opportunity to rethink the school’s approach to teaching PW, to get it to be the driver of these competencies."
A teacher who overcomes hurdles by taking charge (13 March 2026)
"Creating your own opportunities for learning and growing isn’t always the easiest. But Mr Kassidy’s can-do attitude has not only helped him steer his career, but also created a more inclusive environment for his students to grow more holistically.
When Mr Kassidy began his teaching journey at NIE in 1999, he was trained to teach English, Mathematics and Social Studies. But a few years into his career as an educator he felt that he could make a greater impact on his students by pivoting to teaching physical education (PE).
“I’ve always been quite outdoorsy, and I enjoy seeing children grow not just in skill, but in character,” sharesd Mr Kassidy, who is now the Head of Department (HOD) for PE and Co-Curricular Activities (CCA) at Rosyth School.
There was just one big hurdle standing in Mr Kassidy’s way then: the low enrolment number for NIE’s PE in-service diploma, which he had to take to make the switch to becoming a PE teacher. So, he and a group of like-minded friends started gathering other teachers with similar inclinations. Eventually, they got a group of 30 teachers together, so classes could commence.
Nearly two decades after his move, Mr Kassidy faced a similar challenge when he joined Rosyth School in January 2025. “We have a lot of students in each CCA, but not everybody can take part in competitions at the national level. I can sense the students’ disappointment when they’re unable to,” he said. So, he wanted to expand the N1 Cluster Invitational Games, which schools in his area had been hosting until it was put on pause due to the pandemic.
Reopening and expanding the games
Launched in 2017 for primary and secondary school students in the N1 Cluster, the games gave students who did not take part in the National School Games (NSG) – either because they were not selected or the numbers were too small to form a team for the NSG – a chance to compete. However, post-Covid, only the primary school basketball and football girls competitions were revived and organised by Rosyth School due to resource and manpower constraints.
Mr Kassidy thought about bringing the games back because he has seen firsthand how sports and CCAs build resilience, and knows competitions offer students the character-building experience of failing and bouncing back. “Whether it’s the NSG or cluster games, we want the kids to have the experience of competing; to learn about being humble in victory and gracious in defeat,” he elaborated.
With a fresh pair of eyes, since he was new to the school, he started asking: why not let more students join the games by expanding it to include both boys and girls from the basketball, football, and badminton CCAs?"
These teachers are trying, learning, and teaching AI to their students (13 March 2026)
"At one junior college, educators are proving that artificial intelligence doesn’t have to be scary if you’re trying it out with friends.
By Lee Qing Ping
English teachers everywhere know this experience: You want to give your students meaningful feedback on their essays, but a lot of time is spent correcting typical grammar errors. You have the usual suspects: “Fewer” books, not “less”. “Better”, not “more better”. Ms Shermin Chee, a Language Arts teacher, knows this well.
But with a little encouragement from colleagues to try using tech in her teaching, she found a way forward. What if AI could help pinpoint these commonly made mistakes instead, and free her up to work on higher-order feedback?
She discovered she could use optical character recognition tools to turn her students’ handwriting into typed text (but not if it’s too messy, so write neatly, kids).
Then, with AI’s support, she tweaks and tailors feedback to her students. Her students later make corrections themselves, writing their edits in green ink so she can see they’d actually engaged with the suggestions.
“Now, they’re more careful not to make the same mistakes,” she says. “And I can use the time to teach higher-order thinking, like strengthening their essay arguments.”
Ms Chee’s transformation is part of a growing movement happening at Temasek Junior College (TJC), where teachers are on to something: How to use AI to transform classrooms for the better.
Beyond the hype: What teachers are actually using AI for
The reality of AI in TJC’s classrooms is practical: thoughtful solutions to everyday challenges that have plagued educators for decades.
Mr Tan Seng Kwang, Senior Teacher of Physics in the school, has been leading the way in this.
“If there’s a better way to do work, we should try it, and share it,” says Mr Tan.
When his students roll virtual dice on their tablets, watching atoms “decay” with each roll of the die that shows six, they’re experiencing concepts that would typically rely on their imagination. Mr Tan taught himself to code these simulations using AI, describing what he wants in plain English and letting the technology build it.
“I used to spend hours writing JavaScript,” he explains, scrolling through interactive experiments. “Now I just tell the AI what I need, and it creates the simulation. Then I share the prompts with other teachers so they can make their own.”
This way, educators can focus on what humans do best: Inspiring curiosity, facilitating meaningful discussions, and building genuine connections with students."
Open House for Primary Schools 2026 (23 March 2026)
"What do you need to know before visiting open houses with your child? Read on for more details on how you can support your child in choosing primary schools!
Getting a peek into the school grounds, meeting the teachers and students, experiencing each school’s culture – open houses provide opportunities for you and your child to choose a primary school most suitable for them. Here are some points to keep in mind as your child embarks on this exciting new chapter.
While attending the virtual/physical open houses for primary schools, consider the following:
1. Your child’s strengths and interests
Talk to your child about what they enjoy doing, be it playing sports, making music, creating art, or gaming. Have conversations about their kindergarten experiences to understand which subjects and activities they like or dislike. In preparation for new learning opportunities in primary school years, ask them what else they would like to learn and try. Then, find out more about the primary schools that can potentially nurture their strengths and interests or offer new areas of interest.
2. Distance between home and school
The daily journey to and from school is an important consideration. Consider the means of transport your child will be using. Regardless of the mode of transport, be it by car, school bus, or public transport, what is the fastest and safest way for them to commute to and from school? A long commute can affect your child’s energy level and readiness to learn and participate in school activities, which can impact their overall school experience."
Open House for Secondary Schools 2026 (23 March 2026)
"What do you need to know before visiting open houses with your child? Read on for more details on how you can support your child in choosing secondary schools!
Getting a peek into the school grounds, meeting the teachers and students, experiencing each school’s culture – open houses provide opportunities for you and your child to choose a secondary school most suitable for him/her. Here are some points to keep in mind as your child embarks on this exciting new chapter.
1. Have a conversation with your child about their strengths and interests
Talk to your child about what they look forward to in secondary school and what worries them most about secondary school life. Have them share their favourite lessons and activities in primary school and what they think their strengths and interests are.
In your conversations with them, you can also have them rank what they enjoy about their school experiences. This can range from the learning environment to academic programmes to CCAs and even socialisation spaces in school! Their insights will give you a better understanding of what matters to them and identify schools that align with their strengths and interests.
2. Think of different aspects of the school experience
When discussing secondary school options with your child, consider the school’s distinctive electives and programmes, culture and ethos, subjects and CCAs offered, as well as the distance from home. These will all impact your child’s school experience."
4 strategies to help your child navigate bullying situations (6 April 2026)
"Hurtful behaviours and bullying often occur when teachers and parents are not watching. So, children benefit from having strategies they can use when they face such situations. Here are four approaches schools teach students that parents can reinforce at home, and tips on how to initiate discussions.
#1: Stay calm.
“Staying calm in the face of students who engaged in hurtful behaviour is important. Bullies often thrive on the emotional reactions of the targeted students. Giving neutral and steady responses will diminish their intended effort and extinguish their excitement and motivation to continue with the hurtful behaviour,” says Bendemeer Secondary School’s (BDMS) Senior School Counsellor Ms Nicole Choong.
The lesson here is to be in control and remain calm. Choose to ignore the comments and not take them personally. Report immediately to a trusted adult like a parent or teacher.
Tip: Staying calm is sometimes easier said than done. Role play this with your children. Practise taking deep breaths, counting slowly to five, and responding in a measured manner.
#2: Be assertive. Then walk away.
In Punggol Green Primary School (PGPS), students are guided on how to express their feelings clearly. Mdm Cai Aimei, Head of Department of Character and Citizenship Education, says, “We teach our students to say, ‘Stop, I feel (emotion) when you (action)’. in a polite and assertive tone, then walk away and seek help from a trusted adult.”
By learning how to recognise hurtful behaviours and respond appropriately during the Form Teacher Guidance Period and assembly talks, students are better equipped to handle difficult situations confidently.
The school also prepares students for similar situations that happen outside school grounds. “We want our students to know where to go for safety, whether it is safer to return to school, go home, or seek immediate help from a nearby adult,” says Mdm Cai.
Tip: Give your children the vocabulary to say “stop”. Try out the different tones of voice and phrases together so they are confident of saying them. Also discuss with your children where are the different places they can safely walk away to based on the locations they are usually at, such as if they encounter these situations in school, at the playground, or at the bus stop."
From fixed to fluid: Mobile workbenches spark fresh energy in Science labs (6 April 2026)
"Some shape-shifting has been taking place in Unity Secondary School, which is piloting redesigned workbenches with mobile segments. The segments on heavy-duty castors can be configured to accommodate different experiment set-ups and learning activities.
There has been a burst of fresh energy coming from the Science labs in Unity Secondary School lately.
The catalyst? Redesigned mobile workbenches with mobile segments that expand the possibilities of how lab layouts could be configured.
Since their implementation in January 2026, the Science Department has experienced greater flexibility in how it designs the learning environment, to better support practical investigations, collaboration, and varied teaching approaches.
Will it be a U, a T, or L shape today?
During a demonstration on the use the mobile workbench segments, Ms Sumitha Poonia Murthy, Level Head for Science, showed how the mobile segments could be rearranged to provide extended worktops for larger experimental setups.
By joining two mobile segments lengthwise, for example, she can now use a longer frictionless board to conduct experiment on measurement of distance, speed and force of a moving object. The longer board allowed students to roll objects over a longer distance, thus allowing her students to collect more data points, which improves the accuracy of the experiments.
Ms Sumitha also demonstrated how the mobile workbench segments can be configured into a U-shape configuration. This configuration allows her to better monitor and guide her students when using microscopes and making biology sketches.
For wet experiments involving liquids, chemicals or biological materials, L-shape configuration can be adopted to separate practical apparatus from learning materials, thus keeping laptops and worksheets away from wet area.
“This clear zoning enhances safety and space organisation, enabling students to be task focus and move seamlessly between the design, construction, and testing phases of the activity,” she explains.
Watch as Ms Sumitha claps her way to different workbench configurations in this reel:
How parents and schools bring the working world to students (10 April 2026)
"From giving engaging presentations in school to offering job shadowing opportunities, Parent Support Groups and their professional networks have been key to the success of career guidance programmes in these three schools.
By Ng Mei Yan
For most students, career guidance begins long before they ever set foot in their first job interview. Events like Careers Day, learning journeys and job shadowing have allowed students (even those in primary school) to be exposed to a wide range of jobs and the many skills needed to thrive in them.
These initiatives are the result of a strong partnership between schools and Parent Support Groups (PSGs). Working together, they have been instrumental to the growth and success of Education and Career Guidance (ECG) programmes for students.
Find out how three schools and their PSGs are collaborating to give students their first look into the working world, inspiring them to dream big for the future.
At Hougang Secondary School, Careers Day plays out like a mini convention
At Hougang Secondary School, the annual Careers Day plays out like an industry symposium. Students attend small-group sessions to engage with professionals across various fields ranging from media and human resources to technology and design.
The approach is a hit with students, but it also actively involves parents from the PSG, along with alumni and other partners, who step in to help in any way.
“Our PSG members have not only participated directly but also used their professional networks to bring in more speakers,” says Mrs Tan Wei Jing, Subject Head of Partnership & Outreach.
More than simply filling up speaking slots and creating authentic learning moments, parental involvement goes a long way towards inspiring young minds. “Parents are primary influencers in their children's career decisions and possess valuable real-world insights that can bridge the gap between academic learning and industry realities,” Mrs Tan shares.
Beyond school-based sharing, PSG members also joined students in a customised learning journey to Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) School of Engineering to better understand the courses offered and different career pathways in engineering. Since 2024, some 140 students from the school have benefitted from the tour.
PSG member Goh Yu Ling who accompanied her son on one such learning journey in 2024 shares, “I wanted to support my child’s’ post-secondary education and career exploration by learning with him,” she says.
The experience was transformative for Yu Ling’s son, who has always been fascinated by automobiles. The tour broadened his understanding of engineering applications, and led to deeper career discussions between the pair. “He’s now working hard towards pursuing engineering studies,” she adds.
The impact made on Yu Ling’s family is exactly what Mrs Tan and her colleagues hope to achieve with the ECG programme. Says Mrs Tan, “When parents are informed about career options and pathways, they can better support their children’s exploration and decisions, creating a stronger support system at home.”
Designed for well-being: How staff collaboration shaped a better workplace (10 April 2026)
"Staff satisfaction levels are up at Hillgrove Secondary School, where a comprehensive renovation of staff spaces has created brighter, more flexible environments that better support educator well-being and collaboration.
These days, Ms Valerie Wong doesn’t take her lunch at her workstation. She prefers to step away to the sunlit pantry for her meal. If her colleagues are there, she lingers for a breather and bit of chitchat.
"I don't even bring my phone there,” says Ms Wong, Lead Teacher, Mathematics at Hillgrove Secondary School.
Renovations to staff facilities at the school have created spaces that feature abundant natural lighting, higher ceilings, better spatial flow, and areas that encourage collaborative work done in comfort.
A room with a view – and much more
A key highlight is the new staff lounge and pantry, strategically positioned to offer a 270-degree view of the greenery outside.
It replaces the area where the Mother Tongue Language department used to sit. Mr Lim Joon Ling, Senior Teacher, Chinese Language, recalls how he and his colleagues worked amid tall cubicle partitions and teaching materials. They happily gave the space up for the greater good during design consultations, to move towards the centre of the staff room.
Mr Chiang Hock Yee, Vice-Principal (Admin), explained that during the co-creation and design-thinking process with MOE’s Infrastructure & Facility Services Division (IFSD), votes were cast by teachers to decide on the best use for this prime location.
This increased buy-in and ultimately ensured its popularity and success. Now, all can enjoy the brightness and the greenery, he says.
Staff are protective of the intended use of the inviting new lounge area. Everyone consciously avoids using the space for meetings, preferring to reserve it for chilling, notes Ms Wong. Administrative Executive Nurul Batrisyia describes the new environment as “more relaxed and calming”, with an “openness” that wasn't there before.
To Mr Lim, the most gratifying part of the upgrade was how users were being consulted for their views. It spoke to the school’s collaborative spirit, which the upgrade further fosters.
Mr Chiang concurs. “We could see that the collaborative spaces encourage more sharing and bonding among staff. The more conducive physical working environment also enhances staff well-being.”
Real mums from Lion Mums get tips in this parenting vodcast (14 April 2026)
"You’ve seen them on screen, now hear what parenting in real life is like for actresses Nurul Aini and Lina Ng. They speak with experts, educators, and fellow parents for perspectives in four new episodes of MOE’s vodcast series, Canteen Chats with Lion Mums.
If you’re a parent, take a moment to acknowledge how much you’re doing.
Parenting today comes with challenges that previous generations never faced – whether it’s navigating school issues, understanding AI’s impact on learning, or keeping up with growing expectations.
MOE’s vodcast series Canteen Chats with Lion Mums explores these realities in four new episodes. Lina Ng and Nurul Aini, from the drama series Lion Mums, continue their conversations with educators, experts, and fellow parents. Together, they discuss parenting issues ranging from dealing with conflicts at home to mismatched expectations between parents and children. Most importantly, these episodes serve as a reminder that you’re not facing these challenges alone.
Here’s what each episode covers, and why you should add them to your watchlist.
Episode 5: Is AI helping or hurting your child’s learning?
This episode takes a balanced look at parenting in the age of artificial intelligence. Actress Nurul Aini joins parents and experts to make sense of this rapidly changing landscape and its impact on children’s learning.
Watch this if: You’re concerned about AI misuse in your child’s homework or feeling overwhelmed by the pace of technological change.
Watch for:
• How Singapore schools are teaching students to use AI as a thinking tool rather than a shortcut to answers
• A sandwich approach you can use to guide your child’s AI use at home
• Warning signs that indicate when children might be becoming too dependent on AI assistance
Cyber bullying: What parents need to know (15 April 2026)
"Cyber bullying may often occur in spaces that are not easily visible or accessible to parents and other adults. We ask teachers and counsellors to break down the three common types of cyber bullying, and how parents can have open discussions with their children.
Cyber bullying is a complex issue, but bullying someone online is not unlike bullying in person. In fact, it can be worse as it is easier to carry out away from view and may be harder to detect and prevent. Yet, the effects can be very public. The negative messages can spread fast and wide, and very quickly, the damage could be more hurtful and more lasting.
Here are three main forms of cyber bullying: revealing secrets, making fun of others, and exclusion. Note that the list is not exhaustive – there’s also flaming, harassment, denigration, and more – nor mutually exclusive, as one or more of these forms of hurtful behaviours could take place at the same time.
1. Revealing secrets
Friends confide in each other and keep each other’s secrets… until they fall out. Ms Nicole Choong, Senior School Counsellor at Bendemeer Secondary School, shares that when things go south, students who lack maturity might resort to posting personal things about their friends that were shared with them in confidence.
Such acts could result in students feeling unsafe or upset. It is therefore essential that students learn respectful behaviour, strong social skills and proper cyber etiquette.
2. Making fun of others
Bullies are often emboldened by the cloak of anonymity that social media provides. The actions taken and comments made may be harsher than what a person might say to another in person. An observable trend on the rise suggests that some students create anonymous social media accounts just to post negative comments about their classmates.
Appearance, for example, is often a common topic, says Ms Choong. Younger students tend to be a bit more blunt when they talk about their peers. At this developmental stage, students can be more sensitive towards criticism, especially about their appearance, and such words can hurt, she cautions. “It is crucial to consider how the person on the receiving end feels. Simple habits such as pausing to ask if what they are about to say is helpful, necessary, or kind can make a big difference.”
3. Exclusion
Like school hallways and playgrounds, chat groups have become a place online where children jostle with one another for social status.
Mdm Nur Rakeezah Bte Abdul Rahim, Head of Department (Student Management) at Westwood Secondary School shared that online rumours can also lead to students being ostracised, affecting their sense of belonging. She notes that even close friends can fall out and be excluded by their peers. In such situations, it is important to have conversations with students and help them understand that such behaviour constitutes social bullying. It is also important to repair strained relationships.
“Circle Time is one strategy that can help students reconcile. That said, some students affected may not feel ready to resume the friendship. We need to recognize that friendships cannot be forced, so guide students to be respectful of one another’s boundaries and differences, as everyone deserves to feel safe and respected,” adds Mdm Rakeezah."
“What can I do if my child is a victim of hurtful behaviours and bullying?” (22 April 2026)
"Children may have various reasons why they don’t tell their parents when they have encountered hurtful behaviour and bullying. We ask experts what parents can do if they suspect their children are being bullied.
Hurtful behaviours are actions that undermine a student’s sense of safety, and hinder effective learning and healthy development. They can be physical, verbal, social, or virtual in nature – and may or may not be intentional. However, when the actions carry hostile intent, an imbalance of power, and are repeated, persistent and done on purpose, it will be classified as bullying.
Take, for example, a group discussion or group work scenario. A student repeatedly interrupts and dismisses their teammate’s ideas, leading to the latter feeling excluded and unheard. Is it hurtful behaviour? The answer is, yes. But is it bullying? That will depend on whether the student did it unintentionally, because he or she does not have the best communication skills, or on purpose, because he or she knows that doing so will hurt their teammate.
As parents, it is natural to be concerned about any hurt your child receives, especially when you are not around. You may ask: What happens to my child when I’m not there beside them? Are they dealing with something they cannot handle? How can I help?
“How would I know if my child is being hurt or bullied? And what can I do?”
A good start is to maintain channels of honest and open communication with your child and to take a regular interest in their lives. This will make it easier for them to approach you and share any kinds of experiences when they arise, without fear of how you would react, says Ms Nicole Choong, Senior School Counsellor at Bendemeer Secondary School.
As hurtful behaviours and bullying can happen in and out of school, a strong school-parent partnership could also help to surface and manage these incidents more easily.
“What are some signs I should look out for?”
Hurtful behaviours or bullying that are of a physical nature may be the easiest to spot. Unexpected bruises, cuts or bumps are visible signs that something might be amiss. Your child might also report lost or damaged clothing, books, or stationery.
It can be more challenging to detect bullying that is verbal, social or cyber in nature. However, there are still warning signs that parents can watch out for.
“The most important warning sign of bullying is when you notice a sudden change in your child's behaviour,” says Ms Shirley Sim, Lead School Counsellor at MOE. “For example, if your normally cheerful child becomes unusually quiet for no apparent reason, this should raise concerns.”
Other signs to watch for include changes in eating or sleeping patterns, or if you notice you’re your child is suddenly losing friends, or refusing to go to school. You might also notice them becoming more sensitive than usual, such as getting easily upset by things that wouldn't normally bother them. This increased sensitivity often stems from the insecurity and helplessness that bullying creates.
“How should I respond?”
Ms Sim sets out the five things parents can do to support your child, if you suspect they are at the receiving end of hurtful behaviours or bullying.
1. Start with presence and connection
Create a space for them to share their experience with you. Children are often hesitant to share difficult school experiences with parents, particularly when they are concerned about how you might react.
Being mindful of your initial responses allows you to put our child’s experience, feelings and needs at the centre. Set aside distractions, sit at their level, and listen without immediately jumping to solutions. Your presence as their safe harbour is the first intervention."
Is AI Taking Over Schools? (29 April 2026)
"MOE schools and teachers have kept an eye on AI developments even before large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT gained mainstream popularity.
When it comes to using AI in education, it’s not about racing to a yet-to-be-determined finish line. It’s about evaluating AI tool’s capabilities, as well as potential pitfalls, so our students acquire the essential skills to succeed in an AI-transformed world.
What kind of a tool is AI like?
Like a calculator, but you're still the one pushing the buttons
A calculator has preprogrammed functions to help with complicated sums.
But you still need a strong foundation in Maths, so you know which formula and concepts to use to solve Maths questions. And have the intuition to know when the numbers are off!
Like a GPS, but you're still the driver
A GPS (Global Positioning System) helps you plan your route.
But you, the driver, still need to look out for unexpected dangers. Blindly following the GPS is like offloading your agency to AI. You still need to know how to navigate and read maps, so you won't be helpless if you lose your way.
Like a multi-cooker, but you're still the chef
A cooker has many modes for different dishes.
But you're the one who decides which dish to cook, what ingredients to use and which mode to use. And you taste the dish to know if it's yummy!"
From silence to synergy: New school library spells new ways to learn (29 April 2026)
"At Queenstown Secondary School, the traditional library has evolved into Learning Commons @ Quest – a vibrant hub where students engage in everything from quiet reading to animated group discussions, reflecting a broader shift in how school libraries support 21st-Century learning.
Of late, you're more likely to hear the buzz of quiet collaboration than the traditional "shhhhh" at Queenstown Secondary School's library.
The space that goes by the catchy new name of Learning Commons @ Quest has become a magnet for students who come not just to borrow books, but to engage, create, and connect.
"More students come in, to read, revise, do their homework, have discussions in one of the meeting rooms, or just stay a little longer than they usually would," says Ms Park Han Na, Head of Department for English Language at Queenstown Secondary School, who oversees the library space.
The renovation of the library, which reopened last year, represents a reimagining of how libraries can support modern use and learning. Gone are the tall, stationary ranks of metal bookshelves, limited seating and heavy atmosphere. The space now has mobile bookshelves in wood, and flexible-use spaces, all bathed in natural light and designed with calming earthy tones.
Secondary 3 student Mohamed Noh bin Mohd Norhisam has been spending more time there; he likes the “clean look”, compared to the previous space which had “weird colour combinations”. He also appreciates the library’s different zones for different group sizes — “it creates a conducive environment for everyone to learn and study”.
Secondary 4 student Chloe Pang is also a fan. "The revamped library has really changed how I study in school. It’s now a space I choose to go to, whether it’s to revise, finish up work, or just read quietly,” she says. “The environment feels more comfortable and less stressful, which helps me stay focused for longer."
Three zones, endless possibilities
The new Learning Commons borrows design guidelines from MOE’s English Language and Literature Branch (ELLB) for the School Library of the Future, where curriculum can be experienced, the love for reading catalysed, and students supported to explore and initiate inquiry and research.
This experience starts from the moment the visitor enters the Welcome Area, which draws students in with bright and engaging displays curated by the Library Assistant according to monthly themes such as subject focus and festive occasions.
Further in, each of the three zones serves distinct learning needs whilst maintaining the flexibility to adapt as students' requirements change throughout the day."
Why do schools “take so long” to investigate cases of hurtful behaviour and bullying? (8 May 2026)
"Schools constantly emphasise that hurtful behaviours and bullying are not tolerated. So, why can’t investigations be expedited? A principal shares with Schoolbag why schools need time to get to the root of the issue, and why it’s crucial to engage students with restorative practices before meting out any disciplinary measures.
Having worked with students across the different levels – primary, secondary and junior college – Ms Winnie Tan is no stranger to dealing with cases of hurtful behaviours and bullying. The Principal of CHIJ St. Nicholas Girl School says investigating these cases have gotten increasingly complex over the years due to a number of factors.
“Children are exposed to a lot more things, and they may have different perspectives on a topic,” elaborates Ms Tan. “Parents are also more involved in the education of their children, which is a positive thing.” This results in many different perspectives, be it from the alleged perpetrator or the victim, that the school has to consolidate and consider during investigations. “Bringing everyone together to see the different perspectives – that takes time.”
Children of different age ranges present different challenges for investigations
Unwelcome words or actions are not immediately labelled as bullying, as children, especially younger ones, may not be able to fully comprehend that what they are doing is causing hurt to others. That is why investigating intentions matter.
Ms Tan cites an example of a child who might want things to be done in a certain way. “Some children like people to follow their instructions and may unknowingly put someone else in an awkward or uncomfortable position where they feel hurt. We need to help them realise that their action or words have hurt someone else, and resolve and mend the relationship from there. Having said that, if investigations reveal that there was a clear intention to cause hurt from the onset, disciplinary actions could be carried out to help the child learn that his or her behaviour has consequences, so that they will think twice before doing the same thing again in future.”
Teenagers present a different set of challenges as they are more mature and their emotions are more complex. They may also be able to conceal intention, making it difficult for educators to determine if they really meant to hurt the other party – especially if there is no concrete evidence, such as physical assault.
Ms Tan recalls a case that couldn’t be resolved, because the perpetrator refused to admit that he/she was deliberately hurting the victim and there was no definitive evidence. “While the school and friends continued to support the victim, we were unable to come to a resolution. But years after the students graduated, the perpetrator confessed to the teacher during a gathering he/she was not ready to admit to their hurtful actions then, and that he/she felt very bad to have caused so much pain for the teacher and the other student.”
Each reported case of hurtful behaviour or bullying presents its own set of challenges for the educators and staff who are involved in investigating it. Thus, investigation time differs with the complexity of the case."
“My 8th choice of polytechnic course turned out to be my best one” (8 May 2026)
"Shallini Siva Kuma was in shock when she found out that she didn’t get into her dream course in 2022, but it opened doors she never imagined.
By Joyce Yang
When Shallini Siva Kuma received her Joint Admissions Exercise (JAE) posting results on a sleepy January morning in 2022, the words on her computer screen jolted her wide awake. She had been posted to her eighth choice: a Diploma in Interaction Design (now known as Diploma in Experience Design) at Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP).
“I stared at my laptop and thought: When did I even list this as one of my choices? What is this course about? I started crying because I was so, so scared. I didn’t know if it would bring me closer to my dream of becoming an art teacher,” recalls the 22-year-old.
Inspired by her mother, a teacher of over 30 years and her love for the subject, Shallini has always seen art as her one true passion. She had pinned her hopes on her top three choices – all animation courses – believing they were her ticket to teaching art. After all, her own art teacher, Mr Chua Wei Qiang from Yishun Town Secondary School, comes from an animation background.
Little did she know, the course she hadn’t planned on would help her discover new strengths and expand her career paths, with her mom and teachers cheering her on.
Seeking reassurance
That very morning when she got her posting results, Shallini reached out to Mr Chua, who patiently unpacked the field of Interaction Design to calm her nerves. What stuck with her wasn’t the details of web, app, and installation design, but a single line of reassurance from her teacher.
“He said, ‘No matter what you do, I know that you will excel.’ I felt more motivated hearing that, and it gave me hope that I will figure it out,” says Shallini.
Shallini’s time in NYP got off to a rough start. She was already uneasy about committing to a three-year course she hadn’t wanted, and adapting to tertiary life only added to the pressure.
“I told my friends and family that I was so scared and lost, and I really didn’t know what I was doing,” she recalls.
The turning point
But Shallini didn’t suffer in silence for long. Seeing her struggle in class, her NYP lecturers reached out and reassured her that no question was out of bounds. When she cried, they comforted her, promising that they would get through it together.
“My lecturers became my reason to keep going and see what’s at the end of this tunnel,” says Shallini.
Gradually, as she found her footing in the modules, she also uncovered her own reasons to persist. Chief among them was a newfound openness to other career paths sparked by a conversation with her mother. “My mum said, ‘Don’t limit yourself to just one path. There are so many things in the world you can pursue with your creativity.’ That encouraged me to venture out of the box I’d put myself in.”
This shift in mindset set the stage for Shallini to flourish in her final year. What ultimately transformed her perspective was a project she co-led with her best friend, turning an empty classroom into an Alice in Wonderland-themed experience for NYP’s Open House in 2024.
From crafting whimsical installations to designing an interactive touchscreen, Shallini and her team poured everything they learnt over the past three years into the project – to great success. “The students who visited went, ‘Wow, this is so cool,’ and were very amazed. A few even came up to ask if they’d get to create something like this in the course.”
Growing cacao trees yielded not only chocolates, but also work opportunities for this school’s students (11 May 2026)
"It started as a casual offer from a neighbour to grow cacao trees on the school grounds. Since then, this sustainability initiative has led to partnerships with local businesses that enable Serangoon Garden Secondary School’s students to gain work experience too.
By Joyce Yang
When Mr Michael Tan, a resident living near Serangoon Garden Secondary School (SGS), ran out of space to plant cacao trees in his garden, the determined plant parent had to think out of the box. That was when the school’s backyard caught his eye.
The retiree, who was operating a cacao post-harvest facility in the Philippines in 2019, thought the sloping, shaded plot of land was ideal as cacao trees thrive with good drainage and indirect sunlight. So, he met with the then-principal Mdm Valerie Goh and Vice Principal (Admin) Mr Zainal Abidin Mahmood. Mdm Goh gave the go-ahead and the 1.5-year-old seedlings were transplanted in July 2021.
A timely partnership that coincided with the Ministry of Education’s sustainability programme
While the onset of the pandemic caused the delay in SGS’s partnership plans with Mr Tan, it also resulted in it serendipitously taking root in the same year that MOE introduced the Eco-Stewardship Programme. The initiative prompts schools to use their green spaces more intentionally.
For SGS, it meant turning their green spaces into vegetable, herb and spice gardens maintained by the Earth Club, a newly-formed co-curricular activity (CCA) then. Naturally, its members were the first to get wind of Mr Tan’s proposition.
“The students’ first question was: You can grow cacao trees in Singapore? They didn’t believe us when we said we could turn the pods into chocolate bars,” recalls Ms Wee Lip Hui, Subject Head of Social Studies who oversees the eco-stewardship programme. She also wanted to set realistic expectations for the students, so she told them, “For that to happen, everyone has to do their part to care for the trees and get a good harvest.”
As the club knew nothing about cacao trees then, they got Mr Tan to impart his knowledge through workshops and hands-on demonstrations, showing the students the ropes until they could care for the trees independently. For Mr Tan, the takeaway he wants for students is simple: “I hope it enriches their learning journey.”
“The entire process aligns to SGS’s ‘I know, I do, I advocate’ approach for eco-stewardship, which encourages students to learn, practise, and contribute to building a sustainable Singapore,” Ms Wee adds."
“I am, I can, I have!” How SDR nurtures students’ confidence and growth (19 May 2026)
"Hao Tian and Jing Wen, both former students of the School-based Dyslexia Remediation (SDR) programme, have grown from struggling readers into confident learners and leaders. Their stories show how teacher support, resilience, learned strategies and self-belief shaped not just their literacy skills, but their wider journey in school and in life.
For 12-year-old Chan Hao Tian, reading and spelling never came easily – sounding out words and making sense of written text felt like an uphill battle. However, after two years in the SDR programme, he has gained the skills and confidence to tackle these challenges head on.
“I am proud of myself for answering questions in class,” says Hao Tian, when reflecting on his personal growth and the confidence he has been building over time.
The Primary 6 student at Changkat Primary School now reads aloud comfortably and approaches unfamiliar words using strategies acquired through the two-year SDR programme, which supports Primary 3 and 4 students with dyslexia in reading and spelling (check out the programme here).
In the SDR programme’s small-group setting, Hao Tian was surrounded by peers who faced similar reading challenges. Realising he was not alone helped him feel more at ease in class. He says, “I feel better knowing that there are others like me.” Over time, he gained greater confidence to make friends and seek support when he needed help – something he takes pride in. As he puts it, “I have friends who help me in my schoolwork.”
Hao Tian’s SDR teacher, Ms Loy Hin Jong, played a key role by encouraging him to begin with words he could read confidently before moving to more challenging ones. This approach did more than improve his reading skills. It helped him cultivate his own inner voice of encouragement, developing a personal mantra: “Don’t be afraid. You can do it.”
That growing self-belief did not stay within the SDR classroom. It also shaped how Hao Tian approached challenges in his regular lessons.
He now confidently seeks help when needed: “I can ask my teacher how to spell difficult words.” He credits his English Language teacher, Mrs Maybelline Low, for regularly reminding him to apply Word Attack strategies he had learnt when he comes across unfamiliar words in regular English class. For example, when he encountered the word ‘uncontrollably’, Hao Tian used the strategy of looking for smaller words to identify the base word ‘control’.
Hao Tian’s story shows how confidence can grow when children are encouraged and empowered."
To use AI or not, that’s the question (19 May 2026)
"For the Social Studies team at Edgefield Secondary School, the use of AI tools has to align with teaching objectives. And when not using AI helps students think more deeply, the teachers do not hesitate to keep it out of classrooms.
It is an undeniable fact that artificial intelligence (AI) tools are improving rapidly. But the decision on when and how to use it in teaching is something that educators approach with care and thought constantly.
Take the Social Studies team at Edgefield Secondary School (EFSS), for example. When AI tools first became widespread a few years ago, their potential for augmenting teaching and learning obvious, the team experimented with them. But when the tools’ limitations at that point quickly became clear, the teachers took a step back.
Here’s a look into the team’s thoughtful adoption of AI tools, and how they are moving forward intentionally as technology continues to advance rapidly.
Learning Objectives As The North Star
Social Studies is built on critical thinking and perspective-taking, shares Mr Darren Woo, Subject Head (Value-In-Action) at EFSS, who also teaches Social Studies. Through assignments and essays, students learn to strengthen their communication and collaboration skills, as well as hone civic, global and cross-cultural literacy.
“But handing back marked assignments didn’t always lead to growth,” says Mr Lim Mingxun, who taught Social Studies at the school, and is currently with MOE’s SkillsFuture Division.
Students often focused on their marks rather than their thinking. And while traditional feedback written in the margins of scripts had its strengths, some skipped the feedback entirely, while others read the comments but were unsure how to act on them.
AI tools, which can give personalised feedback, seemed to be a potential solution.
Experimenting, Failing, Evaluating
When the launch of ChatGPT made waves, the Social Studies team got themselves up to speed with prompt engineering. They came up with guidelines and scaffolds so that students can learn better and deeper with these AI chatbots.
“But we found students picking answers without processing the why. The metacognition aspect – where they understand their own thinking – was lacking,” says Mr Woo.
“Also, there isn’t just one right answer for Social Studies,” explains Mr Lim. “We want to see how students think and argue. But at that point, AI wasn’t great at giving meaningful feedback in the way that we wanted students to learn. They need space for conversations and feedback – to clarify ideas, ask questions, and reflect on how to improve.”
Mr Woo adds, “Even if we fed every possible answer into an AI tool, it could never capture the nuances and human emotions. Context is everything in the humanities. That’s where the human touch comes in.”
A caring village for caregivers themselves (21 May 2026)
"Through peer support and bonding activities, Springfield Secondary School is partnering its Parent Support Group (PSG) to build the “village” to help support parents in raising children with special education needs.
By Joyce Yang
When Ms Poonam Pal’s son, Rishi, started Secondary 1 at Springfield Secondary School, he was the first student from Pathlight School (Primary) that the school had welcomed. He was also one of a few students with special educational needs (SEN) in his class.
Naturally, Ms Poonam felt anxious.
“As a parent of a child on the spectrum, we’re a bit more worried that they won’t feel accepted by other kids, because we’ve seen that happen at the playground,” she says.
Today, those fears have proven to be unfounded. Rishi has graduated from secondary school, progressing through school much like his peers and making friends along the way. He has also performed in a play and even read a book aloud in front of the entire school. When he finished his recital, the crowd had erupted in cheers.
Given Rishi’s speech delays, these milestones would’ve seemed unimaginable four years ago, if not for the school’s belief in him.
“As a parent, I’m very protective of him and it’s hard to step back. But I’m thankful that the school had more faith in Rishi than I did,” Ms Poonam adds.
Parents Helping Parents
Today, Ms Poonam proudly shares Rishi’s journey with fellow parents of students with SEN during the school’s Coffee Talk sessions. Facilitated by members of the Parent Support Group (PSG) and supported by the school’s SEN officers, these sessions provide a safe space for parents to come together in an informal setting and share their reflections.
Coffee Talks began when former principal Mrs Mabel Leong recognised that while much support was available for students, caregivers were often overlooked. She approached then-chairperson of the PSG, Ms Siti Aishah Bte Abdullah, to help make it happen.
“Peer support is one of the best tools, because parents tend to open up more when they are among parents with similar problems,” Ms Aishah says. It is especially helpful for parents who have just discovered that their child has SEN, as their diagnosis is often followed by a period of reckoning.
When Ms June Lim’s daughter was diagnosed with ADHD and ASD, another parent helped her make sense of her emotions by sharing about Kübler-Ross’s grief cycle.
“We have to grieve the news before we can accept it, and this cycle of grieving doesn’t just happen once,” says Ms Lim. “Even when parents have come to terms with it, there may be family members who do not agree with the diagnosis. There’s a lot of emotional turmoil that parents face.”
Conflict resolution as a combined effort (28 May 2026)
"Behind every class chat group and parent query at Hong Wen School, there's a quiet but vital force keeping the peace: the Parent Support Group. Chairman Mr Jorwe Lee shares how respectful communication supports the school in maintaining a positive and constructive environment for the students.
By Karen Fong
Mr Jorwe Lee jokes that his wife “saboed” him when she asked him to join Hong Wen School’s Parent Support Group (PSG). But in reality, the father-of-two was more than happy to take part as it was a way for him to be more present for his son, who is in Primary 5; his daughter will enrol in the school next year.
“I realised that because of work commitments earlier in my career, I did not get to spend as much time with my son when he was younger,” Mr Lee, who is now Chairman of the PSG recalls. “When I moved into a new role, it allowed for better work-family balance. I’m also very blessed to have supportive line managers who value community involvement.”
As head of the EXCO for the PSG group, Mr Lee and his team work with over 1,500 parents across the various primary levels. They moderate around 70 chat groups that range from level chats to class chats, fielding queries that range from settling new Primary 1 students to resolving conflicts.
“What I really value is the strong partnership between the school and parents. When we work together, we can create a supportive environment for the children,” he says, adding that working with the PSG and Hong Wen’s school leaders has reinforced the importance of community when it comes to raising children.
School-Home Partnership And Adult Role-Modelling matter
“Through the PSG, I have had the opportunity to interact with many parents, teachers and school leaders, and it has given me a deeper appreciation of the effort that goes into nurturing students,” he says. “The school guides students in their learning and character development, while parents support and reinforce these values at home.”
Seeing adults work together harmoniously and communicate well is something that benefits the children, especially in cases of conflict. Mr Lee believes showing students how parents and the school work to solve problems is very beneficial to their growth.
“Ultimately, the PSG’s role is to encourage respectful communication and support the school in maintaining a positive and constructive environment for the students,” he says. He believes the most important thing to do for all involved when a conflict occurs is to listen carefully and understand the concerns from different perspectives. “Often, people simply want to feel heard and understood.”
He recalls an incident where students got into a physical altercation. Naturally, parents were protective of their children, but in the process of fact-finding, it soon came to light that both parties contributed to the escalation of the conflict.
“Situations like this can cause a lot of emotions. Parents can get very agitated,” he says. But by communicating and understanding the whole situation, parents were able to calmly act to resolve the issue. “In this case, both students were in the wrong, and their parents were able to work through this with them afterwards.”
How special education educators help students grow with confidence (29 May 2026)
"From classroom routines to life after school and hands-on vocational learning, three MOE-SG Enable award recipients show how students in Special Education schools grow when support is thoughtful, patient and centred on their strengths.
By Sabrina Lee
In special education, progress can be easy to miss if one is only looking for big milestones. It is, in fact, in the small moments, such as a student asking for a break instead of walking out of class, sharing what kind of future they hope for, or noticing that the fish tank water looks different from the day before, that growth shows.
When Support Is Slowly Lifted, Confidence Steps Forward
Ms Kaminee Ramakrishnan was a psychology graduate training to become a counsellor when she first walked into Eden School. She had taken on the teaching role to broaden her experience before moving into psychology or counselling-related work, but once she stepped into the classroom, she realised teaching was what she wanted to do.
There, she worked with young students on the autism spectrum, many of whom were non-verbal and easily affected by changes or sensory overload. One boy, who rarely spoke, was struggling to regulate himself. Ms Ramakrishnan, overwhelmed herself, picked up a bubble toy nearby – less as an intervention than as something to do with her hands.
The boy stopped to watch the bubbles and eventually calmed down.
“I remember standing there thinking: they’re really not that different from us,” she says. “He didn’t need someone to control him. He needed support to regulate himself. And strangely enough, bubbles worked for both of us that day.”
Today, Ms Ramakrishnan is a Senior Teacher at Grace Orchard School which serves students diagnosed with Mild Intellectual Disability and those with co-occurring Mild Autism Spectrum Disorders. When a 15-year-old student with autism entered her class, transitions were difficult; changes in routine could trigger distress, and he relied heavily on school staff through the day.
Rather than focusing only on stopping behaviours, Ms Ramakrishnan and the school team – including co-teachers, the occupational therapist, psychologist and social worker – asked what those behaviours were communicating. They considered whether he was overwhelmed, unsure of what was expected, or needed a safer way to ask for a break.
Together, they built predictability into his day through structured routines, visual schedules and personalised checklists, helping him better understand what to expect and what was expected of him.
It took close to a year before he could sit through a lesson without leaving, or ask for a break instead of walking out of class. There were setbacks. After school holidays, behaviours that had seemed to settle would resurface. One difficult week left the team wondering if they had pushed for his independence too quickly. Then one afternoon, he picked up his Maths worksheet and completed it without being prompted.
“It may seem like a small thing,” Ms Ramakrishnan says. “But for us, it meant he was beginning to internalise the routines again.”
The clearer shift came in the student’s second year. Ms Ramakrishnan watched him walk into class, take out his materials, and calmly ask if he could go for his scheduled walk. A few months later, he could participate in a larger group setting with minimal support.
“Once students begin believing, ‘I know what to do,’ you often see anxiety decrease as well,” she says.
Ms Ramakrishnan tells parents that stepping back is not the same as leaving a child to cope alone. It means teaching the child, gradually and safely, to trust his own abilities.
“Different does not mean less,” she says. “Independence is possible, growth is possible, and every child deserves the chance to be seen beyond their diagnosis.”
Ms Kaminee D/O Ramakrishnan, Grace Orchard School, is a recipient of the MOE-SG Enable Promising SPED Teacher Award (PSTA) 2025."
“We picked different schools for our two boys based on their personalities” (5 June 2026)
"This is just one of the unconventional decisions Mr Norman Suon and his wife made, so their kids could grow on their own terms. What is their parenting philosophy that made them accept this inconvenience? Schoolbag finds out.
By Ng Mei Yan
Each night, before everyone retreats to bed, Mr Norman Suon and his two sons – Christian and Joseph, now 13 and eight, respectively – perform an elaborate “NBA handshake”. Think a string of hand-claps, finger waves and elbow bumps. “The sequence has grown longer over the years. It is our love language. We feel odd if we forget to do it, no matter how old they get,” he shares.
This playful ritual is one of the results of Mr Suon, a country manager with a technology firm, and his stay-at-home spouse Wendy’s parenting approach. An approach that has taken shape through trial and error, crystallised into key pillars: consistent discipline and love, expressed through respect for individuality and open communication.
It is also the reason why he and his wife decided to send their boys to different schools and trusted Christian to choose his own secondary school, among other things. Though, Mr Suon admits, they weren’t always this certain about their parenting.
A Rocky Start Meant Learning To Set Boundaries
When the Suons decided to start a family in their late-20s, they were unprepared to say the least. “We were the first among our peers and the family to have a child, so we had no guidance and no plan,” he recalls with a laugh.
But the couple stuck by a simple goal: to raise their children to be better versions of themselves. That was how they first came up with three simple rules for their boys:
1. Respect the parents and the elderly
2. Practise gratitude
3. Never take what isn’t theirs
“These are the non-negotiables that are easy enough to understand, and lead towards our parenting goal,” he explains.
Structure applies to screentime too. Long before official guidelines from the government were released, the family instilled a no-screens rule from Monday to Thursday and limited use from Friday to Sunday. Even then, sessions were broken into small chunks of 30 minutes. On the weekends, the family prioritised time for outdoor activities like running and cycling. This is still the case now.
“Of course, children being children will ask for more screentime. We give them a few more minutes from time to time,” says Mr Suon.
Discipline Followed By Reconnection
While the Suon household may seem strict, it is not short on warmth. For Mr and Mrs Suon, discipline never ends with punishment but with a tight hug. “It is important that the child knows the love is still there,” says Mr Suon.
This has been part of the family’s practice since their older child Christian was a toddler.
When mistakes happen, Mr Suon and his wife guide the boys through what went wrong and what could be done better. Christian has even started initiating such discussions on his own, suggesting how he might have handled certain situations differently."
A simple change that led to great impact (12 June 2026)
"At Blangah Rise Primary School, architect-turned-teacher Mdm Uuchi Mashaida Virtucio has boosted student engagement and peer learning by simply reimagining classroom layouts.
By Joyce Yang
In a Primary 3 English class at Blangah Rise Primary School (BRPS), a single cue from the teacher sets the room in motion. Students swivel their fan-shaped tables to form circles, and the groups huddle over a debate topic to discuss their talking points.
Ten minutes later, the tables are rearranged again, this time into a U-shaped debate arena. One by one, the groups send out their first speakers to make their arguments as the rest lean in to listen intently.
“This arrangement makes the experience of a debate feel more authentic,” says Mdm Uuchi Mashaida Virtucio, an English and Social Studies teacher at BRPS. “When students are put in this kind of environment, they start to wear a different hat and take the work more seriously.”
From Moodboards To White Boards
Launched in 2023, this pilot to redesign learning spaces in the school was spearheaded by Mdm Uuchi and her colleagues. Having spent years in architecture and graphic design before becoming a teacher in 2019, Mdm Uuchi brought a creative lens to the process and was especially attuned to how built environments can make or break learning experiences.
“I never thought that these two worlds of mine would ever meet each other, but I’m glad they did,” she says.
This wasn’t the first time Mdm Uuchi found herself wearing two hats as both teacher and designer. One of her earliest projects when she first joined BRPS was redesigning the school’s collateral. She recalls, “The school asked how I’d feel about doing something I’d supposedly ‘left behind’. But I told them that being a designer is a natural extension of who I am.”
Ironically, the simple act of putting a stylus to her tablet gave her a sense of confidence during her mid-career switch, especially as she was still getting used to a new working environment and trying to build rapport with students. “It was like I’m suddenly this other person who knows what I’m doing. I thought: Hey, I can contribute to this school through utilising my prior industry experience.”
When the time came to turn an underutilised Physical Education (PE) equipment room into a mini library, Mdm Uuchi took to it like a fish in water. She paid attention to details that the untrained eye might miss: Where would a librarian naturally need power points? How can shelves be mounted so students of different ages can reach them? How do we arrange the space so it invites students to linger?
“You can’t separate designing a space from designing an experience, because the way we arrange things in the room can shape user behaviours,” she explains.
A Classroom For Every Learner
This same thinking guided the pilot project in 2023, which is sparked by the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) funding to refresh learning environments across schools in Singapore to keep pace with evolving educational needs.
BRPS saw it as an opportunity to double down on its commitment to active learning. But instead of simply telling teachers to “do more group work”, the school introduced modular tables on wheels to make collaboration easier. And when it was time to bring everyone back together, technology helped. To share a student’s work with the rest of the class, for instance, teachers could simply snap a photo and cast it onto an interactive panel – yet another feature of the pilot.
The benefits quickly became obvious once the pilot rolled out. Time saved on moving furniture at the start and end of lessons aside, teachers circulating between groups also shifted their dynamic with students, nudging lesson designs to be more student-centred.
“When I discuss a student’s work with them, being right beside them creates the sense that we are going on this learning journey together,” she explains."
Watch: Shaping future thinkers with arts education (25 June 2026)
"What makes arts education essential? Four Master Teachers with years of experience in arts education share how it shapes students into better collaborators, as well as builds the resilience and confidence they need in an increasingly complex world.
Ms Seow Ai Wee, Principal Master Teacher (Art), explains what a culture of care in the art classroom is, how to create it, and how it helps foster belonging and safety. This, in turn, allows students to explore the complexities of the human experience – both the positives and negatives – so they learn to better manage ambiguities.
Mdm Ira Wati Sukaimi, Master Teacher (Art), speaks about the role art plays in helping students draw the connection between cultures, appreciating both differences and shared values. Learning not just to blend the traditions, but also taking the environment into consideration, students practise inventive thinking, collaboration, and cross-cultural skills."
A culture of care in the art classroom (25 June 2026)
"Ms Seow Ai Wee, Principal Master Teacher (Art), explains what a culture of care in the art classroom is, and how it allows students to better manage ambiguities.
The art classroom is more than a place for students to create paintings, make sculptures, or learn art techniques and skills. It is a space for meaning-making, through creative expression that draws from students’ lived experiences.
Recently, an art teacher and I were planning a Primary 4 unit where students would explore family relationships by manipulating paper in different ways to create abstract sculptures.
That experience got me wondering if we were oversimplifying the learning experiences by asking students to only present the positives rather than exploring the complex nature of relationships through their abstract sculpture.
It also raised another important question for me, that even if we want students to experience their authentic experiences, what would help them feel safe to share with us and with their peers?
So, a culture of care in the art classroom is essentially a learning environment where relationships between students and the art teacher, and among peers as well, are built on trust and mutual respect and empathy.
This kind of culture fosters belonging and safety, which naturally enhances student engagement during art lesson.
An art classroom with a culture of care is essential when students engage in art-making and art discussion that explores the complexity of the human experience. Themes such as identity and relationships and topics that revolve around contemporary issues are often complex and figuring this out through creative processes are often layered. They’re emotional, and they can get personal. So, we need to open the space for reflection, for meaning-making and authentic expression.
When students engage in experimentation of materials and ideas as part of the creative process, they’re essentially managing ambiguities. When we cultivate a culture of care where students feel safe to take risks, to make mistakes, and also to explore multiple possibilities, we create the conditions necessary for authentic learning, for artistic growth, as well as for personal growth."
When art shapes minds and hearts for a changing world (25 June 2026)
"Mdm Ira Wati Sukaimi, Master Teacher (Art), speaks about the role art plays in helping students practise inventive thinking, collaboration, and cross-cultural skills.
In a world of shifting dynamics and evolving technologies, what role can art play in preparing our students not just to create but to connect and respond to our complex world?
Art lessons go beyond aesthetics. They are dynamic spaces where students develop curiosity, creativity, empathy, resilience, and critical thinking while learning to connect across cultures. These are essential skills for our changing world.
Imagine this: the art studio buzzes with curiosity as students gather around three water vessels – each a masterpiece from Chinese, Malay and Indian artistic traditions. With sketchbooks in their hands, they observe the forms, they examine the materials, they sketch the flowing curves, compare the patterns, discuss the colour symbolism, and uncover the stories that each vessel holds.
In groups, they discuss, they listen, and appreciate both differences and shared values. Then comes the creative challenge: design a vessel that blends these traditions whilst caring for our planet. Through this, watch the sketchbooks fill with experimental sketches, as students mix and match patterns, play with materials, and transform recycled materials into prototypes.
Through this hands-on experience, students are not just creating art, but they are also practising inventive thinking, collaboration, and cross-cultural skills while learning to respect the environment and each other.
The visual arts are not a luxury, but a necessity in education, where learning goes far beyond techniques or aesthetics.
Art teachers intentionally weave opportunities for students to instil 21st century competencies within their lessons. This ensures that students develop the capacity to navigate complexity and respond with empathy. In the process, students don’t just create art. They evolve into inventive, socially aware, and confident learners, ready to contribute meaningfully to the world."
Wonder, wander, and awe: making art learning magical (25 June 2026)
"Learners are explorers, and teachers are guides, says Mr Chia Wei Hou, Master Teacher (Art). So, how do teachers bring that sense of wonder into art lessons to make every lesson magical and see the world afresh?
If I am to trace back to my very first encounter with awe and wonder, it’ll be the one when I was still an art student, spending time printing black and white photographs in the dark room, seeing the image slowly emerge out of the blank piece of paper. That moment truly filled me with wonder. It pushed me to go out there in the world to capture more images of beauty.
I always remember a quote by the author of The Little Prince, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood, and don’t assign them tasks. Instead, teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
I believe learning is a magical journey where learners are explorers, venturing into the unknown territories, getting lost, and gaining new vistas, seeing the world afresh. And we as teachers are like guides, constantly inspiring our students to yearn for the mysterious, to see the beauty and marvel at the achievements of the world.
I recall an outdoor art lesson with my class. We woke up before dawn, sat quietly by the shore, fighting off sleepiness until suddenly the horizon lit up, the sun broke through the clouds and all of us sat in silent awe. No photographs or science could possibly capture what we felt.
In another art lesson, my students were given something small. A peanut. A raisin. They were to spend time with it, to talk to it, to explore it, to examine it under a microscope. Then draw a super huge drawing of this tiny, little object. Looking at it through 50 different ways in order to uncover its beauty and its magic. So, what if we, as teachers, could bring that sense of wonder in every lesson?
Picture a classroom where curiosity takes centre stage, where each lesson is an adventure waiting to unfold. Imagine students marvelling at the existence of things, appreciating the world not at what it can give them, but at what it simply is. In this magical realm of learning, we cultivate and engage our senses, encouraging students to question how things came to be, and marvel at their very existence. We infuse learning with playfulness, transforming moments of confusion into adventures. We ground our teaching in humanity and humility, showing that true learning reveals our beautiful vulnerability and connect us more deeply to the world around us."
Art that asks bigger questions (25 June 2026)
"The bell rings. Art class ends. But what if students left with more than a project? What if they walk away with a new way of seeing the world? Ms Vivian Loh, Master Teacher (Art), breaks down concept-based teaching.
Let’s imagine I’m a student tasked to paint a sunset. I focus on blending the perfect orange, learning through trial and error. But what if I pause to reflect? A sunset could mean the end of the day. It could also mean sadness when something ends. But it could also mean hope, and the beginning of something new. I might say, this reminds me of when my best friend moved away. It was sad, but it also felt like a fresh start for her. In that moment, I left with more than just technique. I left with a deeper way of making sense of the world.
That’s the heart of concept-based teaching championed by Lynne Erickson. It’s a shift from only learning techniques to exploring ideas like connection, identity, and perspective. It’s what Lynne Erickson calls “teaching for transfer” – giving students mental tools they can use in art, in school, and in life. Why is our art classroom the perfect place for this?
Because art is conceptual, emotional, and personal. It gives students a language to find and express their voices. Concept-based teaching gives that voice direction and depth. Instead of asking, “draw a house”, we can ask, “what makes a space feel like home?” It’s not just about lines and shapes. It’s about memory, feeling and storytelling.
How does this look in practice? Take the concept of perspective. Instead of teaching just about vanishing points and technical drawing rules, we might ask, “How can art show someone else’s viewpoint?” Students might draw the same scene as scene as seen by a child, a bird, or a pet. What begins as a drawing exercise becomes a lesson in empathy and perspective-taking."
Students band together to shape the Singapore they want (2 July 2026)
"Some of the freshest ideas for Singapore's future are coming from the people who'll actually inherit it. At this year's Pre-University Seminar, four students and their teammates spent months turning theirs into real proposals.
By Sabrina Lee
Around 550 students from 30 junior colleges, polytechnics and other pre-university institutions gathered at this year's Pre-University Seminar, where they pitched proposals at a closing exhibition toured by Education Minister Desmond Lee. Their ideas took aim at vanishing hawker trades, disconnected HDB neighbours, students from JC, poly and ITE who rarely mix, and loneliness that spans generations. Behind each proposal was a personal story: an early-morning trip to the fishery port, a chat with a neighbour in the lift, and friendships with students from different backgrounds.
He's Been To Jurong Fishery Port At 3am. Now, He Wants To Save The Hawker Trade
Dave Gan has followed his father on supply runs to hawker clients. He has been to Jurong Fishery Port at 3am. He has packed fried carrot cake at a stall that went viral over a single social media reel. "I was really amazed at how much skill is required just to make one bowl of bak chor mee or a plate of fried carrot cake,” he says.
So when it comes to talking about hawker heritage, Dave thinks of the hawker who wakes before dawn, learns every step of the trade, and builds a business with no formal education. He also knows most young people don't see that picture. His group's proposal, Hawker Hub, tries to change that in three steps, depending on how ready you are to step into the trade.
Not sure yet? A Dish Dictionary walks you through the story and craft behind local dishes. Getting serious? A forum connects you with veteran hawkers who are ready to pass on what they know. Ready to try? An eight-week Hawker Tryout Programme trains you, puts you behind a real pop-up stall, and gives you feedback before you commit to anything. “The point is to make hawker work feel possible, and to make sure the skills don't disappear with the generation that built them,” says Dave.
These Students Proposed An App To Tackle Loneliness
When Sri visited Foundry, a non-profit social impact hub, as part of the seminar's learning journey, she found that both seniors and youths were lonely, and for similar reasons. "Both groups felt lonely because of rapid digitalisation," she shares. Youths craved real friendships but were stuck behind screens. Seniors, meanwhile, withdrew quietly – not wanting to become a burden to their loved ones.
Sri and her group responded with Kampung Connect, an app that pairs seniors and youths based on shared interests – so an elderly mahjong enthusiast might teach a youth to play, while the youth teaches them to navigate a smartphone. “The approach is deliberately strength-based. Everyone contributes, no one is reduced to just their needs,” says Sri.
For Sri, the issue is personal. Her grandparents live in India, and she admits she never quite built a close bond with them. So now, she makes a point of greeting the elderly neighbours in her block – smiling in the lift, asking how their day went. “Finding that one common ground can be the starting point to a genuine relationship," she says."
It took a village to help this 13-year-old find his confidence – now, he’s a Changemaker (6 July 2026)
"Firash Faiq Bin Abdullah started Primary 1 unable to read or write. But thanks to a network of support, he graduated from North Vista Primary School with newfound confidence.
By Eveline Gan
When 13-year-old Firash Faiq Bin Abdullah walked across the stage to receive the Changemaker Award last year, it marked a milestone for how much he had progressed. The award, given out twice a year at North Vista Primary School, recognises students for their efforts in positive change and learning attitude.
This was the same boy who once struggled to hold a pencil, write his own name, and whose home circumstances made regular school attendance difficult, shares Mrs Christine Er, the school’s Senior Special Educational Needs (SEN) Officer. She is among the staff who supported Firash during his primary school years.
“He’s really a pearl in an oyster shell,” she says. “His true potential is inside. When we discover it, it’s beautiful.”
Firash’s journey shows how much a child’s path can shift when the right support rallies around him.
An Unsteady Start
Setbacks marked Firash’s early years, even before he entered primary school. He did not attend kindergarten, so while his classmates were reading simple storybooks and forming sentences on paper, Firash was still learning to grip a pencil and write his name. He knew the alphabet and numbers, but words, sentences and basic Maths concepts confused him.
When he finally secured a place in Primary 1 amidst family challenges, it was already halfway through the school year, and in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Recalling his early struggles in Primary school, Firash, who was diagnosed with dyslexia at around age 10, says, “I couldn’t read words. I felt left out of everything.”
As he entered school late, Firash also missed early screening programmes typically used to identify students who may need learning support. Even so, it was clear to his teachers that he needed help, both academically and beyond the classroom. His family faced difficulties providing basic school necessities, such as books and uniforms.
It Takes A Village
The school moved quickly to rally around Firash. Working alongside a Ministry of Education Roving Senior Student Welfare Officer (SWO), Ms Joyce Gan, they provided dedicated and specialised support to Firash and his family throughout his primary school years. This included working with Family Service Centres and the Housing & Development Board to ensure Firash had a safe and conducive environment to grow and learn.
Within the classroom, Firash received structured support tailored to his needs. SEN Officers conducted regular one-on-one sessions, while his form teachers offered close guidance and encouragement.
At first, much of the focus was on building foundational skills. For example, a SEN officer Mr Sharizal Chandrayana worked on refining Firash’s fine motor skills, such as how to grip a pencil, trace letters, doing the basics of the alphabet, sounds and just writing words – just like what kindergarten students learn.
Firash was also referred for occupational therapy to support his motor skills, though attending appointments consistently was a challenge for the family.
To better support his learning pace, he was placed in foundation-level classes, where the smaller class size meant more individual attention. Even then, progress did not come easily. But his teachers never gave up.
Mrs Er recalls how one of Firash’s English teachers saw beyond his struggles and pushed gently but consistently. Drawing on learning approaches such as the “zone of proximal development”, which refers to the range of tasks a learner cannot yet complete independently but can potentially accomplish with guidance from a more knowledgeable other, such as a teacher or peer, the teacher helped Firash build confidence in his writing skills.
For Maths, teachers used approaches such as the Concrete–Pictorial–Abstract method, to help Firash better understand abstract concepts through hands-on objects and visuals. Even small adjustments like drawing lines on his Maths worksheets to guide writing, breaking down instruction into manageable, bite-sized steps helped.
Beyond the classroom, the school staff also ensured that Firash had the practical support he needed – clean uniforms, textbooks, and meals – recognising that learning happens best when basic needs are met.
Firash’s school attendance from Primary 1 to 4 was patchy. The school stepped up, with Mrs Er calling him at 6.30am every morning to remind him to come to school “no matter how late” he was. She also stocked up on snacks in the classroom, knowing that he might need breakfast to start the day.
Their efforts paid off, and over time, Firash’s school attendance improved drastically. By Primary 6 last year, he achieved full attendance, says Mrs Er."
Primary 1 prep is more than reading, writing and counting. Here's what matters more (8 July 2026)
"Academics shouldn't be the focus of the transition from K2 to P1, say experts.
When his eldest child entered Primary 1 five years ago, Mr Kelvin Soh admits feeling “a bit blur”. He recalls, “I thought I had to focus on whether my daughter could keep up academically – reading, writing, counting.” But he later realised that what really mattered was whether she felt ready to face a completely new environment.
“The biggest hurdles weren’t spelling tests or problem sums, especially when there is no exam in lower primary, but rather everyday tasks such as buying her own food in the canteen and packing her schoolbag,” he notes. In hindsight, Mr Soh believes the transition from preschool to primary school is less about books and more about building confidence.
This lesson comes in handy now that Mr Soh’s younger child is in K2 and preparing for that same move. He also chairs the Parent Support Group at Queenstown Primary School – a role that sees him welcoming new families to the school community and sharing advice to help their children settle in.
Mr Soh’s advice, drawn from personal experience, mirrors what early childhood experts say on the matter.
Academics Can Come Later
“The transition to primary school isn’t a simple move to a new building,” explains Dr Mercy Karuniah Jesuvadian, Senior Lecturer, Psychology and Child & Human Development, National Institute of Education. “It’s a deep-seated change as children must adjust to a whole new environment, with new routines, authority figures and social demands. If children are anxious, insecure or emotionally unsettled, even the best teaching won’t make an impact.”
Her advice to parents is not to overemphasise academics for primary school readiness. Most children will eventually catch up with lessons, but the stress of an unsupported transition can erode their confidence and love of learning. Instead, focus on supporting your child’s social and emotional adjustment, as this lays the groundwork for future academic success.
"Research has shown that children who experience smoother transitions adapt faster to classroom routines and are better able to engage in lessons – and this often translates into stronger academic performance later on." – Dr Mercy Karuniah Jesuvadian
Mrs Sharon Siew, Principal of Jing Shan Primary School, who has welcomed many cohorts of P1 students, echoes this sentiment. “I want parents to know that primary schools are ready to meet children where they are,” she says, hoping to ease the anxiety of parents who fear their child may fall behind in school.
In fact, she discourages overloading children with academic preparation. “This may deprive your child of the joy of learning new things together with classmates. Without the anticipation and excitement of discovery in the classroom, learning will become a bore and a chore.”
Does your preschooler need to know how to add and subtract before Primary 1? (8 July 2026)
"It is natural to worry about whether your child is ready for primary school. Read on to find out what numeracy skills your child is expected to achieve in preschool, and how to support their development at home.
Your child is entering primary school next year, and they are still unable to do addition and subtraction. Should you be worried?
The short answer is no. At six years old, not knowing 2 + 2 is not a problem at all, especially when understanding symbols at this age is challenging. In fact, rushing children into learning skills before they are developmentally ready can become an issue.
“Gaps in foundational understanding of numeracy concepts and skills can be masked when children are pushed too quickly into applying mathematical symbols like ‘+’ and ‘-’ or rote recitation of multiplication tables,” says Dr Yong Foong Ling, Senior Manager of Faculty and Leadership Development at the National Institute of Early Childhood Development.
Every child’s learning journey is unique. Beanstalk spoke to Dr Yong to find out what milestones to look out for, and how you can support your child along the way.
So, What Are Our Preschoolers Ready To Learn?
While every child develops at their own pace, the Nurturing Early Learners Framework highlights the numeracy concepts and skills that children aged four to six are generally ready to learn and use:
• Sorting and comparing: Noticing similarities, differences and relationships between objects (e.g. sorting and comparing size and colour)
• Number identification: Identifying and using numbers in daily life
• Reliable counting: Counting accurately up to 10 objects
• Quantity relationships: Understanding relationships between numbers and quantities (e.g. knowing “more”, “less” and “the same”)
• Patterning: Recognising, extending, and creating simple patterns
• Spatial awareness: Recognising basic shapes and developing an awareness of spatial concepts (e.g. using words like “far” and “near”)
• Subitising: Identifying small quantities without counting them one by one (e.g. like dots on a dice)
What your child is learning in preschool is also aligned to the learning goals for children at the end of preschool education, illustrated in the Nurturing Early Learners Framework.
Progress in development may also depend on exposure. “Children who regularly encounter numbers through daily routines may develop a stronger number sense,” said Dr Yong."
Confidence before counting – what P1 readiness really looks like (8 July 2026)
"Resilience and independence are stronger predictors of school success than early drilling.
Every year, early childhood (EC) educators witness a momentous milestone: their K2 children taking that big step to Primary 1. Contrary to what many might think, the most important factor in this transition is not how well-drilled children are in letters, numbers or other academic skills – but how ready they feel socially and emotionally for the changes ahead.
“The biggest challenge in entering formal schooling isn’t whether a child can read or write,” says Ms Stacey Toh, ECDA Fellow and Deputy Head, Preschools, Star Learners Group. “It’s whether they can find their footing in a completely new environment and feel confident enough to learn.”
So, what can educators do to set children – and their families – up for success? Ms Toh shares her insights, alongside two other experts: Dr Mercy Karuniah Jesuvadian, Senior Lecturer, Psychology and Child & Human Development, National Institute of Education (NIE); and Mrs Sharon Siew, Principal, Jing Shan Primary School.
In The Classroom
The best preparation is not a one-off programme at the end of K2, but small consistent steps woven into everyday routines starting as early as possible. “At our preschool, we mirror primary school expectations by having children serve their own meals, clear up after themselves and role-play queuing at a canteen,” says Ms Toh. These small routines build independence and help children feel capable of handling the demands of a primary school.
For many EC educators, K2 is already a busy academic year. They juggle the curriculum, assessments, and parents eager to see visible progress in reading and numeracy.
But preparing for transition does not need to be an extra burden. Instead, educators can integrate it into the curriculum itself. For example, a writing activity can double as practice for labelling personal belongings, while group projects give children a chance to rehearse turn-taking and asking for help. In this way, academic learning and social-emotional development go hand in hand, each reinforcing the other.
Educators can also ease the transition by gradually introducing structural elements that reflect the primary school learning environment. While play remains central to preschool pedagogy, children can get a gentle taste of routine in developmentally appropriate ways – such as following a simple timetable, sitting together for a larger group discussion, or completing short tasks independently. These experiences build confidence and give children a sense of what lies ahead, without taking away play.
As Ms Toh puts it, “The goal is to help children find their footing. When EC educators see the K2-to-P1 transition as part of everyday practice, rather than a competing priority, we can cover the curriculum while preparing children for this next phase of life.”
How primary schools are developing students into discerning, responsible users of AI (10 July 2026)
"From evaluating AI-generated responses to building robots, students are learning to use AI intentionally as they prepare for an AI-enabled future.
By Joyce Yang
Applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are vast, as it is a rapidly evolving technology. But how exactly are primary schools in Singapore incorporating AI into classes, and how are they teaching AI literacy? Schoolbag finds out it’s a delicate task, carefully designed and carried out with close supervision from teachers.
Northoaks Primary School’s Purpose-driven Use of AI
The Science department integrates AI features in the Student Learning Space (SLS) to enrich students’ learning experiences. One such tool is the Learning Assistant (LEA), known as SALiS. Students interact with SALiS to ask questions, clarify scientific ideas, and receive timely guidance as they work through scientific concepts and tasks.
For instance, in a Primary 5 lesson on Plant Reproduction, students used SALiS to design a “super crop” that could withstand environmental challenges while continuing to reproduce. Through this task, students explored how plant structures, functions and reproductive processes could be applied in a real-world scenario.
“Students are guided throughout the task, to think critically, analyse the constraints, and propose creative solutions that extend beyond ‘textbook’ answers. The activity encouraged them to understand the scientific concepts more deeply,” says English Language teacher Ms Thuhaila Sainy, who is also the Head of Department (HOD) of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
Since many AI tools employ a chatbot-style interface, the school is intentional about teaching students to use AI-enabled tools within SLS, such as SALiS, in a discerning and purposeful manner. Teachers also help students recognise that AI-generated responses may not always be accurate. To encourage thoughtful use, teachers limit the number of interactions students have with the LEA, and design tasks where AI prompts further thinking rather than providing direct answers.
Additionally, students are guided to evaluate AI output critically, such as by cross-referencing with other sources to verify credibility.
“It is important for students to develop strong habits of critical thinking and sound judgement especially as they move into secondary school, where AI-enabled tools may be used more independently and in more complex tasks,” says Vice-Principal Mr John Ow.
The school’s Cyber Wellness education also touches on the safe use of AI, reminding students not to share sensitive information. For upper primary students, part of the content also includes how to communicate respectfully when using SALiS.
“The AI tools in SLS have built-in safeguards, so that our students learn to use AI safely and responsibly in a controlled environment,” adds Ms Thuhaila."
She came back for band years after graduation because what stayed was more than any performance (10 July 2026)
"What makes someone return to their school band years after graduating? For band alumni Yu Syuen, it is the moments between performances: sweaty rehearsals, shared snacks and the friendships that grew along the way.
By Sabrina Lee
The seaweed was split four ways. That is what Liang Yu Syuen remembers most about being in the Maha Bodhi School Band – not the trophies, not the stage, but four girls tearing a snack apart in the canteen between rehearsals, laughing at nothing in particular.
"It may seem like nothing much," she says. "But it was everything to me back then."
Yu Syuen, 21, graduated from Maha Bodhi School in 2017 and is now studying broadcast media at LASALLE. She still returns to play with the Alumni Band when her schedule allows. This year, the Singapore Youth Festival set piece happens to be the same one she played as a student – which means she now finds herself standing in the same school hall, guiding a younger girl through the same notes she once struggled with herself.
"Today, I'm guiding this batch of juniors to play something I played 10 years ago."
There was a time, of course, when none of this felt easy. Back in 2016, stepping onto the stage for the Arts Presentation for the first time, Yu Syuen was terrified. "It would be my first big competition at such a young age. My heart was beating non-stop." The nerves lifted almost as soon as the band played its first note – and that, she says, taught her something she has carried since. "The hardest part about anything is always starting it."
But the stage was never really the point. What stayed with her was the bus ride back from the concert hall – the chatter, the giggling, the feeling that something difficult had been achieved together. The seaweed. The sweaty rehearsals. The ordinary in-between bits that don't make it into any programme booklet.
What Grows Between Rehearsals
One of the juniors Yu Syuen now guides is Primary 6 student Juli Tan, who is preparing for the Arts Presentation herself. Juli joined the school band in Primary 3, drawn in after experiencing music through the school's LEAP programme the year before. She chose the euphonium because it "looked cool and interesting" – and then discovered, as most beginners do, that looking cool and sounding good are very different things.
"When I first joined the band, I felt like giving up because it was hard to remember the notes," she says.
She didn't quit. Gradually, band became less about getting the notes right and more about learning how to keep going when things felt difficult. Now a Band Leader, Juli says the toughest part of preparing for Arts Presentation is keeping up with all the practices. What carried her through was not just grit, but the people around her. "When I struggled to remember my parts, my section mates helped me through it."
That dynamic – of struggling together, of being held up by the person next to you – is exactly what Yu Syuen means when she pushes back against the idea that band is primarily about performance. "Band students are extremely disciplined," she says.
"Learning an instrument, reading notes and eventually playing together takes far more self-discipline, awareness and teamwork than people realise – especially for young children."
Ms Ng Mui Ling, the band’s teacher-in-charge, puts it plainly, "Children get a lot more than just musical skill from playing in an ensemble. The 'hidden benefits' like learning teamwork and a sense of shared responsibility are just as important."
Full charge ahead: Turn better sleep into a family game (16 July 2026)
"There's a reason eight is the magic number when it comes to hours of sleep clocked. Try this Sleep Bingo to make reaching it fun for the whole family.
From the moment your child wakes up, pressure accumulates in the brain, and only sleep can clear it fully. Researchers at Duke-NUS Medical School recommend lights out by 11.20pm, and we’ve come up with a Sleep Bingo to make clocking eight hours fun for you and your children. Each square holds one small challenge for the family; print it out, stick it on the fridge and play along as a family, starting tonight. First to BINGO wins bragging rights.
Psst: the accompanying infographic explaining why eight hours of sleep is best may just give your kids a little, much-needed bedtime nudge."
Catholic Junior College to Be Relocated to Punggol Under Junior College Rejuvenation Programme (16 January 2026)
"Catholic Junior College (CJC) will be relocating to a new campus near Punggol Digital District. CJC's move, which is part of Phase 2 of the Junior College (JC) Rejuvenation Programme, will facilitate collaborative and interactive learning to support future educational needs and allow for greater synergies with neighbouring institutions."
Grow Well SG Health Plan Expanded to More Children (21 January 2026)
"As part of the Grow Well SG national health promotion strategy, the Ministry of Health (MOH), together with the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), has expanded the Health Plan initiative to more children. The expansion will further strengthen the development of healthy habits from an early age by covering all Kindergarten 1 (K1) and Kindergarten 2 (K2) preschoolers as well as Primary 4 to 5 students from January 2026. Primary 6 students will continue to be supported through the school curriculum, enabling them to learn about lifestyle choices to sustain healthy habits."
2026 Joint Admissions Exercise Posting Results (27 January 2026)
"The posting results for the 2026 Joint Admissions Exercise (JAE) will be released on Tuesday, 3 February 2026, 9am."
Around 69,000 Student-Athletes to Participate at National School Games 2026 (27 January 2026)
"The National School Games (NSG) 2026 will see its highest participation to date, with around 69,000 student-athletes from more than 300 schools competing across 29 sports. Minister for Education Mr Desmond Lee officiated the NSG Opening Ceremony at The Kallang OCBC Arena today.
The NSG, which runs from January to September this year, is Singapore's largest and most extensive annual youth sports event with more than 250 divisional competitions for boys and girls. Organised by the Singapore Primary Schools Sports Council and the Singapore Schools Sports Council, the NSG aims to provide opportunities for students to participate in inter-school competitions and encourage character-building among student-athletes as they pursue sporting excellence."
Open for Nominations: Most Inspiring Tamil Teachers' Award 2026 (2 February 2026)
"From 2 February to 13 March 2026, students, educators, parents, and members of the public are invited to nominate Tamil Language (TL) teachers for the Most Inspiring Tamil Teachers' (MITT) Award 2026.
Jointly presented by Tamil Murasu, the Tamil Language Learning and Promotion Committee, and the Singapore Tamil Teachers' Union (STTU), the MITT Award recognises TL teachers in primary and secondary schools, junior colleges and Millennia Institute who have made significant contributions to the teaching and learning of TL."
Nominations Open for Arif Budiman Malay Language Teacher Award 2026 (2 February 2026)
"From 2 February to 13 March 2026, students, educators, parents, and members of the public are invited to nominate outstanding Malay Language teachers for the Arif Budiman Malay Language Teacher Award (AGAB) 2026.
Jointly organised by the Malay Language Council, the Malay Language Teachers Association, Berita Harian and the Malay Language Learning and Promotion Committee, the award recognises outstanding Malay Language teachers in primary and secondary schools, junior colleges and the Millennia Institute who have made exceptional contributions to the teaching of the Malay Language."
Joint MOM-MOE Statement on Merger of WSG and SSG (12 February 2026)
"Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Mr Lawrence Wong announced at Budget 2026 that Workforce Singapore (WSG) and SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) would merge into a new statutory board jointly overseen by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the Ministry of Education (MOE). This merger will strengthen the integration of Singapore's jobs-skills ecosystem.
Through this new agency, we will be better positioned to align future skills with future job needs, delivering more seamless end-to-end career and employment services for Singaporean workers. A single agency overseeing jobs and skills will also allow us to respond faster and more effectively to changes in the fast-evolving economy and labour market."
Release of 2025 Singapore-Cambridge GCE A-Level Examination Results on 27 February 2026 (20 February 2026)
"The results of the 2025 Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (GCE A-Level) examination will be released on Friday, 27 February 2026, 2.30pm."
$556 Million Set Aside to Boost the Social Science and Humanities Research Ecosystem in Singapore (26 February 2026)
"At the 2026 Social Science and Humanities Ideas Festival launch held at the Singapore Management University (SMU) today, Minister for Education, Mr Desmond Lee, announced that $556 million will be set aside to further strengthen the local social science and humanities (SSH) research ecosystem over the next five years (FY2026 to FY2030). This is an increase of 21%, or $99 million, from the $457 million that was set aside for FY2021 to FY2025.
The new tranche of funding will continue to support the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) in growing Singapore's thought leadership in locally relevant research, as well as strengthening efforts to expand the pool of promising Singaporean researchers. Key initiatives launched under the aegis of the SSRC include the Social Science Research Thematic Grant (SSHR-TG), the Social Science and Humanities Research Fellowship (SSHRF), and the SSRC Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF). To date, the SSRC has awarded funding to 54 research projects under the SSHR-TG, 21 early career researchers under the SSHRF, and 48 projects under the SSRC GRF. The research projects span a variety of topics, including evolving geopolitics amidst a changing world order, public housing in Singapore, and insights on ageing in Singapore. For more information on the SSRC and the various research projects supported, please visit https://www.ssrc.edu.sg."
Release of the 2025 Singapore-Cambridge GCE A-Level Examination Results (27 February 2026)
"Candidates who sat for the 2025 Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (GCE A-Level) examination received their results from their schools today.
A total of 10,977 candidates sat for the examination, with 10,393 (94.7%) attaining at least 3 H2 passes, with a pass in General Paper (GP).
This is the first cohort to sit for the GCE A-Level examination under the revised computation method of the University Admission Score (UAS). Under the revised system, the fourth content-based subject is included only if it improves the candidate's final UAS. Project Work is excluded from this computation as it is now a Pass/Fail subject."
Growing Together Through Lifelong Learning (3 March 2026)
"Enhancements to ITE's Work-Study Diploma Employer Incentives
The Institute of Technical Education (ITE) Work-Study Diploma is a key diploma upgrading pathway for ITE Nitec and Higher Nitec graduates. Employers deliver about 70 to 80 per cent of the curriculum through on-the-job training (OJT), and ITE delivers the remaining 20 to 30 per cent through classroom learning. This programme allows trainees to earn and learn while working towards a diploma qualification. Since its launch in 2018, ITE has expanded the pathway significantly, from 4 courses and 100 trainees to 45 courses and 1,600 trainees in 2025. Graduate employment outcomes have been positive, with graduates earning a median starting salary of $2,975.
As part of MOE's ongoing efforts to expand the SkillsFuture Work-Study Programme, and to support our ITE students to upgrade to a Diploma and strengthen their employment outcomes, MOE and SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) will enhance the employer incentive for the ITE Work-Study Diploma.For new cohorts from April 2026, ITE will:
a. Increase the incentive quantum from $15,000 to $20,000 per eligible trainee whom employers hire and train; and
b. Simplify the incentive disbursement. Currently, the $15,000 incentive is paid out based on employers' claims upon completion of specific qualifying activities. Depending on the amount claimed, employers might not access the full $15,000. In contrast, the new $20,000 incentive will be disbursed at several milestones over the course duration. This means an employer who sponsors an eligible trainee through the full Work-Study Programme will receive $20,000 through a streamlined administrative process."
We Learn for Life Together: Building a "We First" Society Through Education (3 March 2026)
"At the 2026 Committee of Supply Debate, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced initiatives to enable Singaporeans to learn together and be equipped for an AI-transformed future. These initiatives reflect MOE's commitment to support the learning needs and aspirations of Singaporeans of all ages, as we build a "We First" society together."
Learning Together with Different Strengths and Needs (3 March 2026)
"Refreshed Approach to Support Primary School Students with Academic Strengths and Talents
From 2027, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will implement a refreshed approach to support primary school students with academic strengths and talents, and discontinue the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) in its current form.
School-Based Provisions
MOE will support more students in accessing existing school-based provisions to develop them in their domains of strength. These provisions, which include in-curriculum extensions and after-school programmes (e.g. Excellence 2000 (E2K) Mathematics and Science), were introduced since 2007, and they are provided in every primary school today. Around 10% of the cohort will be able to benefit, up from around 7% today."
Centre-Based Advanced Modules
Students assessed to benefit from further stretch beyond school-based provisions can choose to attend weekly advanced modules after school at a nearby designated centre. These students will no longer need to transfer to one of the nine primary schools that currently host the GEP.
The centre-based advanced modules are designed to stretch students intellectually and further cultivate their curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking. They are different from the academic curriculum in schools, and are not designed to prepare students for examinations. Beyond nurturing cognitive strengths, these modules will also develop students' psychosocial skills, and build communities of like-minded peers."
Minister for Education to Attend the 16th International Summit on the Teaching Profession in Tallinn, Estonia (8 March 2026)
"Minister for Education, Desmond Lee, will attend the 16th International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) in Tallinn, Estonia, from 9 to 11 March 2026.
The ISTP is a by-invitation annual meeting for leaders of top-performing or rapidly improving education systems to discuss effective practices and policies in education. The Summit this year, themed "Switching Gears: Teachers and Learners in the Future Learning Environment", will explore the pivotal roles teachers play in shaping future-ready education systems. It will examine the evolving teaching profession amid rapid technological advancements and global challenges, professional autonomy for teachers and school leaders, and the integration of new technologies into teaching and learning, such as Artificial Intelligence."
Salary Adjustments to MOE Schemes of Service (16 March 2026)
"Salary Adjustments for Officers on MOE Schemes from 1 October 2026
Three groups of MOE staff – Education Officers (EOs), Allied Educators (AEDs) and MOE Kindergarten Educators (MKEs) – will receive salary adjustments from 1 October 2026. This is to ensure that their overall salary packages remain competitive, and for MOE to continue attracting and retaining good educators.
About 33,000 serving EOs, 1,700 AEDs and 1,100 MKEs will receive a 2% to 9% increase in their monthly salaries. Salaries for EOs, AEDs and MKES were last reviewed in 2022."
Singapore Youth Festival Celebrates 60 Years with Enriched ArtsXPerience for Students (26 March 2026)
"New Drama Category for Primary School Students to Build Communication Skills
The Singapore Youth Festival (SYF), Singapore's longest-running youth arts festival, will celebrate 60 years of inspiring young artists, connecting them with audiences and mentors, and empowering them to develop their creative voices this year.
Themed 'SYF60: The ArtsXPerience — Inspire, Connect, Empower', SYF60 will build on the festival's signature showcases and introduce new elements to deepen creative collaborations and inspire students to grow through the arts. These include a new Arts Presentation Drama category for primary school students, an 'XP' card journey for participants and audiences, and cultural exchange opportunities with young artists across ASEAN."
MOE to Expand UPLIFT Scholarship to EAGLES Recipients (27 March 2026)
"The Ministry of Education (MOE) will expand the UPLIFT Scholarship to include students who receive the Edusave Award for Achievement, Good Leadership and Service (EAGLES) from the 2026 Edusave award cycle>
This expansion is part of wider efforts to recognise students' non-academic achievements, and builds on MOE's ongoing commitment to develop our students holistically.
With the expansion of the UPLIFT Scholarship, a total of about 700 students from lower-income families are expected to benefit from the scholarship every year.
About the UPLIFT Scholarship
Introduced in 2019, the UPLIFT Scholarship recognises the achievements of students in Independent Schools (IS) and Specialised Independent Schools (SIS) who have performed well academically or in specific talent areas, and are from lower-income families. Students who are awarded the UPLIFT Scholarship receive $1,200 in cash per year.
To be eligible for the scholarship, students must be Singapore Citizens from families with gross monthly household income of $5,500 or below, or gross monthly per capita income of $1,375 or below. Students must also be recipients of the Edusave Scholarship for Independent Schools (ESIS), or enter the IS/SIS through the Direct School Admission (DSA) process. Students awarded the UPLIFT Scholarship via the ESIS (Tenured) at Secondary 1, Secondary 3, or Pre-University 1, as well as DSA, will have their scholarships renewed as long as they meet the renewal criteria, for the duration of their course of study. Students may also receive the UPLIFT Scholarship for a tenure of one year, if they are awarded the ESIS (Yearly Award)."
Celebrating 20 Years of Tamil Language Learning and Promotion (29 March 2026)
"The Tamil Language Learning and Promotion Committee (TLLPC) marks its 20th anniversary this year. Over the past two decades, TLLPC has been dedicated to promoting the Tamil language, fostering cultural literacy, and engaging schools and the community. To commemorate this milestone and reflect its enhanced role of promoting Tamil language learning through greater digital engagement and youth and family involvement, TLLPC will be rebranded as the "Tamil Promotion Committee" (TPC), accompanied by a new logo.
Chairman of TLLPC and Minister of State in the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and the Ministry of Manpower, Mr Dinesh Vasu Dash, unveiled the refreshed name and logo at the launch of this year's Tamil Language Festival on 29 March 2026, at MediaCorp Campus.
Two Decades of Tamil Language Learning and Promotion
Since its establishment by the Ministry of Education in 2006, TLLPC has actively promoted the Tamil language by partnering schools, community organisations and cultural partners. Over the years, its programmes have inspired a love for the Tamil language among students through literature, performing arts, and community-based activities, fostering the active use of the language in everyday interactions, and an appreciation of Tamil heritage and culture."
Temporary Support for Transport Service Providers (9 April 2026)
"To ensure that access to transport services is not disrupted for school students, seniors, patients, and persons with disabilities, the Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) and Ministry of Health (MOH) will provide temporary support measures to Government contracted or subsidised transport service providers for services rendered in the months of April to June 2026. This move is to help these transport service providers to continue operating without disruption in the near term, given the cost pressures caused by the increase in fuel prices arising from the Middle East conflict.
MOE, MSF and MOH will provide support equivalent to 13% of transport fare revenues. In general, the support would help defray the increase in operational costs arising from higher fuel prices incurred by operators providing regular transport services to primary schools, special education (SPED) schools, disability services, and patients receiving long-term care and Community Dialysis services. With the support, operators should keep fares stable during this period.
Subsequently, transport fares may have to rise if fuel prices remain elevated. There are existing subsidies to support students, seniors, patients and persons with disabilities if they are not able to afford their transport."
Honouring Special Education Teachers and Schools (14 April 2026)
"In celebration of their contributions to the education of students with moderate-to-severe special educational needs (SEN), Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education, Dr Syed Harun Alhabsyi, presented the MOE-SG Enable Awards to recognise four Special Education (SPED) teachers and four projects from SPED schools at the SPED A.C.E (Affirmation·Celebration·Engagement) Day today. Two SPED teachers were also awarded the MOE Master's Scholarship in Special Education (MSSPED) at the event.
The MOE-SG Enable Awards are a joint initiative between the Ministry of Education and SG Enable and comprise the Outstanding SPED Teacher Award (OSTA), the Promising SPED Teacher Award (PSTA), and the Innovation Award (IA).
The OSTA and PSTA celebrate SPED teachers' excellence in supporting their students' development and learning. The OSTA is awarded to experienced teachers with at least six years of teaching experience, while the PSTA recognises teachers with three to five years of experience. This year, the OSTA and PSTA recipients were selected from a total of 179 nominations from colleagues, parents, students and members of the public."
Recommendations from MOE's Comprehensive Action Review Against Bullying (15 April 2026)
"Strengthening our collective response to tackle bullying through a stronger partnership between schools, families, and the community.
The Ministry of Education (MOE), with the support of the COMmunity and PArents in Support of Schools (COMPASS) Council, has completed the Comprehensive Action Review against Bullying, aimed at strengthening existing efforts to better address hurtful behaviours and bullying in schools.
Bullying is a complex and serious issue that calls for a sustained, collective response. Building on existing efforts, MOE conducted internal reviews, and also engaged over 2,000 educators, parents, students, professionals and members of the public since August 2025. The majority agreed that addressing bullying holistically requires multiple parties working together – involving collective action from schools, families, and the wider community through strengthened systems and processes in schools, positive culture-building, and coordinated society-wide efforts.
Review Recommendations
Following the review and feedback received, MOE, with the support of COMPASS, has developed nine comprehensive recommendations across four key areas.
First, we will continue to inculcate the right values in our students. We will enhance values education in the curriculum and co-curriculum to develop students' character and social-emotional skills such as empathy, resilience, and conflict management. For example, more role-play and authentic scenarios will be incorporated to allow students to practise perspective-taking, conflict management and resolution, and learn how they can be upstanders. Schools will further empower students to lead and foster a pro-social peer culture where they look out for one another, stand together against hurtful behaviours, and support students who are affected by such hurtful behaviours.
We recognise that schools play a central role in creating a safe, caring and enabling environment for our students. Many schools have established processes to prevent and respond to bullying while fostering a culture of care, trust and mutual respect. We will continue to deepen a culture of kindness and respect in all our schools. We will also strengthen schools' management of hurtful behaviours and bullying, including cyber-related incidents. Schools will be provided with clearer guidelines on case management processes, including communication timelines, safety planning, disciplinary measures, counselling and restorative actions, to address hurtful behaviours and bullying in a timely and consistent manner. We will increase the availability and accessibility of reporting channels and support for affected students. Schools will also address hurtful behaviours and bullying more proactively in schools through early identification, intervention, and support, with stricter disciplinary measures for all serious offences, including bullying.
Third, MOE will provide additional needs-based funding for schools to hire additional manpower, which will support schools in student management whilst managing teacher workload. Schools may engage youth workers, pastoral care officers, and/or parent liaison officers to support school staff in student management work. We will tap on technology to improve case management processes and facilitate timely communication and intervention. To deepen educator capacity in student management and parent engagement, MOE and schools will also enhance professional development for educators, including skills for investigation, conflict resolution, and parent engagement."
World Book Day 2026 Promotes Culture of Reading with Inaugural Singapore Chinese Book Fair (18 April 2026)
"共同推广阅读文化：2026年世界书香日首次同时举办新加坡华文书展
More than 800 secondary and pre-university students participated in this year's World Book Day Opening Ceremony at Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) on Saturday, 18 April 2026. Jointly organised by the Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning (CPCLL), National Library Board (NLB) and HCI, the annual event aims to promote a culture of reading in Singapore.
Guest-of-Honour Mr Xie Yao Quan, who is Group Leader of CPCLL, Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Member of Parliament for Jurong Central SMC, launched the student publication《清醒地梦着》— a compilation of outstanding essays written by students in the Author-in-Residence Programme . Mr Xie also presented the Chinese Language Elective Programme (CLEP) Best Improvement Award to 28 secondary and pre-university students."
2026 Primary One Registration Exercise (29 April 2026)
"The registration period for children's admission to Primary One (P1) in 2027 will be from Tuesday, 30 June 2026 to Friday, 30 October 2026.
Information on the P1 Registration process, registration phases, eligibility criteria, and user guides can be found at www.moe.gov.sg/primary/p1-registration.
As announced during the Ministry of Education's (MOE) Committee of Supply speech in March 2026, MOE is currently reviewing the P1 Registration Framework. However, this year's P1 Registration Exercise will not be affected. We will announce details of the review when ready."
Close to 190 Students Showcase Language and Reasoning Skills at the 5th National Chinese Riddle Competition (2 May 2026)
"189 students from 25 secondary schools participated in the fifth National Chinese Riddle Competition (全国中学生灯谜比赛) on Saturday, 2 May 2026, at Hwa Chong Institution (HCI). Jointly organised by the Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning (CPCLL), Tung Ann District Guild, Riddle Association (Singapore) and HCI, the competition aims to foster students' appreciation and love for Chinese language and culture through the traditional art of riddle-solving.
Minister of State for Education and Chairperson of the CPCLL, Ms Jasmin Lau, delivered a speech and presented awards to the winners. At the competition, participants took part in a preliminary pen-and-paper quiz, with the top 10 teams in both the Chinese and Higher Chinese categories advancing to the Finals to compete in a live fast-paced buzzer round."
Start of 2026 Direct School Admission Exercises & ITE and Polytechnic Early Admissions Exercise (5 May 2026)
"The Direct School Admission (DSA) Exercise for admission to secondary schools and junior colleges (JCs) in 2027 will open for application from Wednesday, 6 May 2026. Separately, applications for early admission to the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and polytechnics based on course-specific aptitude and interests will start from Wednesday, 20 May and Monday, 1 June 2026 respectively.
DSA Exercise
DSA provides a pathway for students to gain admission to secondary schools or JCs based on their interests, aptitude, and potential, beyond their performance at the national examinations. Upon admission, students can further develop their talent in their secondary schools or JCs. Secondary schools and JCs can take up to 20% of their non-Integrated Programme Secondary 1 (S1) / Junior College 1 intake via the DSA Exercise."
Student Dancers Bring "Positivity" to Life at Chinese Street Dance Competition 2026 (23 May 2026)
"46 students from six secondary schools and pre-university institutions competed in the Finals of the seventh Chinese Street Dance Competition, where they introduced the story behind their choreography in Mandarin and expressed their interpretation of this year's competition theme "Positivity 正能量" through energetic dance routines.
Jointly organised by the Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning (CPCLL) and local media content company MCC, this annual competition aims to promote the learning of Chinese language and culture through music and dance.
Minister of State for Education and Chairperson of the CPCLL, Ms Jasmin Lau, delivered a speech and presented awards to the winning teams at the Finals and Awards Ceremony held at Our Tampines Hub's Festive Plaza today."
Singapore's Young Research Talents Clinch 7 Awards at International Science and Engineering Fair 2026 (25 May 2026)
"Eight Singapore students competed against more than 1,700 students from about 60 countries, regions, and territories at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2026, where they clinched a total of seven awards. Singapore has participated in ISEF annually since 2001.
In total, four individual projects and two team projects were submitted to the ISEF, which was held in Phoenix, Arizona, USA from 9 to 15 May 2026. Through the competition, our students exchanged insights with young scientists from around the world and gained valuable learning experiences."
Education Conversations (28 May 2026)
"The Ministry of Education (MOE) has launched the Education Conversations, a series of outreach efforts that invites Singaporeans to share their views and help shape education policies that strengthen students' holistic development and prepare them for the future.
The Conversations began in April 2026 with focused group discussions involving education professionals, parents and youths. MOE will continue them through 2026 and into 2027, both in person and through the Education Conversations microsite, on topics including:
a. Moderating examination stakes, such as the use of the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) for Secondary 1 posting
b. Reviewing the Direct School Admission (DSA) scheme to strengthen student development, improve selection, and enhance accessibility
c. Strengthening the education experience, including Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) and Co-Curricular Activities (CCA), to nurture values and life skills"
Students Showcase Creativity and Language Skills at the 5th Young Reporter News Challenge (29 May 2026)
"This year, 491 students from 52 secondary schools participated in the fifth edition of the Young Reporter News Challenge (《我来报新闻》挑战赛). Jointly organised by the Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning (CPCLL), MediaCorp 8world and Speak Mandarin Campaign, with support from the Singapore Centre for Chinese Language, the competition aims to develop students' interest and ability to communicate and present in Mandarin, as well as their media literacy skills.
Ms Jasmin Lau, Minister of State for Education and Chairperson of the CPCLL, delivered a speech and presented awards to 28 winning teams at the Awards Ceremony."
Pre-University Seminar 2026 – WE: With Everyone (5 June 2026)
"Around 550 students from 30 pre-university institutions participated in the Pre-University Seminar 2026 Closing Ceremony held at the National University of Singapore. Into its 57th edition, the annual seminar was co-organised by the Ministry of Education with Temasek Junior College this year. Themed 'WE: With Everyone', the seminar explores what it means to build an inclusive nation where every voice matters, every contribution counts, and every citizen shares in our collective success. Students explored the future of Singapore across three sub-themes and gained insights into a range of issues, policies, and perspectives to build a more united Singapore, through rich discussions and interactions at the event. The three sub-themes were "Our People, One Heartbeat", "Our Places, One Home", and "Our Purpose, Infinite Possibilities".
Minister for Education Mr Desmond Lee attended the Closing Ceremony on 5 June, where he delivered the keynote address and interacted with students in an engaging dialogue. Minister Lee also addressed questions about Singapore's current challenges and future directions surrounding the theme."
Quiz Competition Challenges Secondary School Students' Knowledge of Malay Language and Culture (24 June 2026)
"220 students from 44 secondary schools participated in the inaugural Kuiz Cepat Tepat 2.0, testing their knowledge and understanding of the Malay language and culture through a series of quizzes. Adapted from the original Cepat Tepat for primary school students, the competition saw 40 students from eight secondary schools advancing to the semi-finals.
Organised by the Malay Language Learning and Promotion Committee (MLLPC) in collaboration with Mediacorp, Kuiz Cepat Tepat 2.0 aims to encourage students to think creatively and critically, while igniting their interest in the Malay language and culture beyond the classroom.
The semi-finals will be livestreamed on Mediacorp's YouTube account and MeWATCH on 27 June 2026, from 11am to 3pm. The top four schools will then compete in the finals, which will air on Suria and MeWATCH on 30 August at 8.30pm. Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Chairman of the MLLPC, Dr Syed Harun, will attend the finals as the Guest-of-Honour and present awards to the finalists."
2026 School Placement Exercise for Returning Singaporeans (1 July 2026)
"The Ministry of Education (MOE) welcomes Singaporean students who are overseas to join our primary and secondary schools, junior colleges (JC) and Millennia Institute (MI) upon their return.
Assured School Placement (ASP) Service
Returning Singaporeans (RS) who are seeking a place in a primary or secondary school near their Singapore residence are encouraged to apply for the ASP service. It is a convenient admission route which guarantees RS a place in a school with vacancies as near to their residence as possible, even before their return to Singapore. Through the ASP service, RS need not sit for any centralised tests. Instead, the school conducts school-based tests and/or interview to determine the appropriate level and class for the child. For more information about the ASP service, please visit https://www.moe.gov.sg/returning-singaporeans/assured-school-placement.
School Placement Exercise for Returning Singaporeans (SPERS)
Apart from the ASP option, RS may choose to participate in the 2026 SPERS for those who wish to join our secondary schools, JCs or MI at the start of academic year 2027. SPERS is a centralised merit-based placement exercise held towards the end of each year for RS who have lived and studied overseas and now want to seek admission to a local school. Under SPERS, RS will sit for one set of centralised tests and receive a list of schools they are eligible to apply for, based on their performance. RS may visit the following websites to apply for the SPERS tests:
SPERS-Sec: https://www.moe.gov.sg/returning-singaporeans/secondary/spers
SPERS-JC/MI: https://www.moe.gov.sg/returning-singaporeans/post-secondary/spers
The application for admission to Secondary 1 to 3 will open from 8 July (Wednesday) till 17 July (Friday) 2026, and the SPERS-Sec tests will be held between 1 September (Tuesday) and 3 September (Thursday) 2026. The application for Pre-University 1 will open from 9 July (Thursday) till 16 October (Friday) 2026, and the SPERS-JC/MI tests will be held on 6 November (Friday) 2026. As Secondary 4 and Pre-University 2 are national examination years, RS generally do not enter the school system at these levels. SPERS applicants will receive their school posting results in December 2026, and will join our secondary schools and JC/MI at the start of the school term in 2027."
Six Young Educators Recognised for Passion and Dedication in Nurturing Students (1 July 2026)
"In recognition of their unwavering dedication and impactful contributions to nurturing students, six teachers received the Outstanding Youth in Education Award (OYEA) from Minister for Education, Mr Desmond Lee, at the National Institute of Education (NIE) Teachers' Investiture Ceremony on Wednesday, 1 July 2026. The recipients are (in alphabetical order):
• Mdm Faridah Binte Mohamed Ali, 33, Fuhua Primary School
• Ms Lena Teo Ying Hui, 35, Zhonghua Secondary School
• Mr Ng Jun Kian, Eugene, 35, Springfield Secondary School
• Mr Rishvinder Singh, 33, Changkat Changi Secondary School
• Mr Yeo Rong Yao Jeremy, 35, Yishun Innova Junior College
• Miss Yip Joo Yee, 32, New Town Primary School
Introduced in 1999, OYEA is a national award that recognises young teachers aged 35 and below for their passion for teaching, enthusiasm, creativity, and active involvement in their students' holistic development. Beyond honouring the achievements of young educators, OYEA also aims to inspire youths to pursue teaching as a purposeful and fulfilling profession.
The six recipients have demonstrated a strong belief that education is not just about academic achievement, but about developing students holistically and instilling in them a joy for lifelong learning. The recipients are also committed to nurturing future-ready students who are resilient, empathetic, adaptable and equipped with strong problem-solving, critical, and creative thinking skills."
"Script It Right" Chinese Radio Drama Script Writing Competition Draws Record Student Participants and Entries (3 July 2026)
"The annual "Script it Right" Chinese Radio Drama Script Writing Competition ("与声剧来"中文广播剧创作比赛) drew a record 1,058 participants who submitted 401 entries, the highest figures in the competition's history. Minister of State for Education and Chairperson of the Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning (CPCLL), Ms Jasmin Lau, was the Guest-of-Honour at the Awards Ceremony, which recognised students for their outstanding narrative skills and proficiency in the Chinese Language. Jointly organised by the CPCLL, local radio station UFM100.3 and Holy Innocents' High School, the competition aims to promote Chinese Language learning through storytelling.
Now in its 12th edition, the competition this year drew inspiration from the unit "With Your Companionship" (有你做伴), in the secondary school Chinese textbook "Hua Wen Ban Wo Xing" (华文伴我行). As in past editions, students were challenged to push their creative boundaries to craft narratives that were both original and contemporary. For example, students had to weave one of three given elements into their scripts — the theme (特定主题：有你做伴), the dialogue "A longer route is fine; maybe you'll encounter different landscapes" (预设对白：绕点远路没关系，也许能看到不一样的风景), and the sound effect of coughing (特选音效：咳嗽声).
Five teams from the Primary School category (Category A) earned the Merit Awards for their outstanding scripts, while seven teams from the Secondary School, Junior College/Millennia Institute, and Polytechnic category (Category B) clinched the Top 3 and Merit Awards. As an additional highlight, UFM100.3 will bring the winning Category B scripts to life as radio dramas, to be broadcast between July and August on the radio station."
National Chinese Reading Competition Cultivates Students' Joy of Reading (4 July 2026)
"A total of 1,909 students from 254 primary and secondary schools came together to celebrate Chinese reading culture at the second edition of the National Chinese Reading Competition. Among them, 150 students across the primary and secondary school categories advanced to the competition finals today.
Jointly organised by the Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning (CPCLL), Xin Zhi Reading Club and the Association for Research on AI in Learning and Leadership, with support from local publishers and companies, the competition aims to foster a love for reading, promote a vibrant Chinese reading culture, and cultivate good reading habits among students. Guest-of-Honour Ms Jasmin Lau, Minister of State for Education and Chairperson of the CPCLL, delivered a speech and presented awards to the winners at the award ceremony."
Mother Tongue Languages Symposium to Cultivate Children's Joyful Discovery in Mother Tongue Language Learning (13 July 2026)
"The Ministry of Education (MOE) and the three Mother Tongue Language Learning and Promotion Committees (MTLLPCs) will hold the flagship Mother Tongue Languages Symposium on Saturday, 1 August 2026. This year, the symposium makes its debut at the Singapore EXPO, bringing together more participants and a richer programme than before.
Now in its 14th year, the theme of this year's symposium, "A Garden for Joyful Discovery", symbolises a vibrant and joyful learning environment for children to learn and appreciate their Mother Tongue Languages (MTLs). Through storytelling, role-play and creative expression, young participants can explore fun and creative ways to learn and use their MTL in their daily lives alongside four mascots: Xiao Tao, the collaborative flower; Sani, the confident adventurer; Kavin, the creative garden whiz; and Peppy, the caring bee.
This year's symposium will feature 42 sharing sessions and interactive workshops, as well as 41 exhibitors from schools and community partners on ways to promote MTL learning and appreciation. The sharing sessions and interactive workshops will draw insights from academics, educators, curriculum specialists, early childhood advocates, and media personalities. For example, parents can learn how Mediacorp Chinese news presenter Zhao Quanyin draws on her experience as both an anchor and a mother to explore ways to incorporate play in joyful Chinese learning at home. They can also hear from celebrity entrepreneur and early childhood advocate Syah Ibrahim, who will share how everyday play moments can be transformed into rich Malay Language experiences. Mediacorp Oli 968 presenter Nithiyia Rao will also share how her journey in Tamil radio broadcasting has shaped her approach to keeping Tamil alive and meaningful at home through stories, music, and cultural experiences.
In addition, curriculum specialists from MOE will share about the MTL curricula, how digital resources can support home-based learning, and practical strategies for parents to raise confident bilingual children."
School Terms and Holidays for 2027 (14 July 2026)
"The school year for 2027 for all MOE primary schools (including MOE Kindergartens) and secondary schools will start on Monday, 4 January 2027 and end on Friday, 19 November 2027."
Steps Taken by the Ministry of Education on Observations Made by the Auditor-General's Office in Its Report for FY2025/2026 (15 July 2026)
"During the Auditor-General's Office (AGO) audit, the Ministry of Education (MOE) identified possible falsified approval emails relating to the appointment of new officers. MOE takes this matter very seriously. We have made a Police report, and the officer responsible has been dismissed from service.
Robust and transparent hiring processes are essential to maintaining integrity and fairness in public service recruitment. In MOE, candidates are assessed through formal recruitment processes, including recruitment panels. Before an appointment can be offered, it must be approved by the appropriate authority. These steps help to ensure that hiring decisions are properly reviewed and authorised.
Following the issues identified during the audit, MOE has strengthened its processes. We have introduced independent checks to verify that all appointments have received the required approvals. We are also working towards automating staff appointment processes to reduce reliance on manual workflows and further strengthen governance."
Education platform Canvas hit by cyberattack; CSA offering assistance to affected organisations (9 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) said on Friday (May 8) that it had contacted affected organisations to provide support and guidance on mitigation steps, after education platform Canvas was hit by a cyberattack.
Canvas, used by schools, colleges and universities for grades and course materials, and owned by US edtech company Instructure, went down on Thursday, blocking student access.
"We have reached out to affected organisations to offer assistance and provide advice on mitigation measures," said CSA, adding that it was "monitoring the situation".
The Singapore Institute of Management (SIM), in response to CNA’s queries, confirmed it was affected by the Canvas breach, causing “inconvenience and concern” to its students and faculty.
"We are aware of the ongoing disruption affecting access to the Canvas learning platform, which is impacting academic institutions globally," SIM said.
"The incident occurred within the environment of Instructure, and we understand the inconvenience and concern this has caused our students and faculty."
In the meantime, SIM said it will put in place temporary arrangements. These include sending of Zoom lesson links directly to students, while deadlines for quizzes and assignments due during this period may be extended.
SIM added that keeping classes running and protecting its community’s information remained its top priorities.
CNA has contacted the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), NTUC Learning Hub, the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Kaplan to ask if they have been similarly affected by Canvas breach.
In a statement on its website, Instructure confirmed on Friday that the system was "fully back online and available for use"."
Singapore universities assessing impact after global cyberattack on educational tool Canvas (9 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Educational institutions in Singapore are assessing the impact of a recent cyberattack that knocked down learning tool Canvas, even as the platform has since been restored.
The hacking group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach, saying in a May 3 post on its website that it had stolen data related to nearly 9,000 schools worldwide that included student names, email addresses and private messages between students, teachers and other staff.
Canvas, developed by US-based education technology firm Instructure, is widely used by universities and schools to manage coursework, assignments and communication.
The National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) and the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) were among those affected by the outage.
In a statement, NUS said it is working with Instructure to assess the impact of the data breach.
"Operational impact is assessed to be minimal as the current semester has concluded and all examinations have ended," an NUS spokesperson told CNA on Saturday (May 9).
"We have in place backup and business continuity processes to ensure downstream activities such as marking and grading proceed unaffected."
NUS said it has also reminded students to stay vigilant to any suspicious messages, and not to disclose any personal information or login details if contacted by suspicious people on various channels.
SUSS similarly said it is working closely with Instructure to assess the impact. Access to Canvas has been restored, and there has been no significant disruption to SUSS’ overall operations, the university said on Saturday.
As a precaution, SUSS has advised users to remain vigilant against phishing attempts and to strengthen account security, including changing passwords and enabling multi-factor authentication where available.
“We are also reviewing relevant access controls and security configurations in line with recommended security measures,” it added."
Teen arrested over alleged assault on Amos Yee at Suntec City (9 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A teenager has been arrested after allegedly assaulting Amos Yee at Suntec City Convention Centre on Saturday (May 9).
In response to CNA's queries, police said they received a call for assistance at about 2.15pm.
"Upon arrival, officers established that a 27-year-old male subject was assaulted by a 18-year-old male subject," they added.
"The 27-year-old male subject sustained minor injuries and the 18-year-old male subject was subsequently arrested for causing public nuisance."
Police investigations are ongoing.
Videos of the incident, which took place outside the Doujin Market anime convention, showed a cosplayer raining punches, kicks and elbows on Yee as he crouched on the floor.
The pair then back away from each other, before the teen rushed at Yee, tackling him to the ground from behind.
The altercation ended after a bystander intervened."
From baby carriers to Tamil books: How 4 Singapore mums built businesses for children (10 May 2026)
"Inspiration for businesses comes from many sources. For these four mums in Singapore, it was their children and motherhood journeys that sparked ideas for their foray into entrepreneurship.
Meet the women who are making a difference in children’s lives – and are doing it all for their own kids.
Soulslings Singapore: Babywearing
Nurjanna Ng’s oldest child was a year old when she was retrenched from her marketing job in 2015. To support her family, she started an online store selling baby carriers from international brands.
Soulslings, a babywearing brand from India, was one of those brands.
Ng was impressed by its thoughtful designs and how it suited Asian body types. “Many carriers designed for Western markets do not always translate seamlessly to the region, often falling short in terms of suitability for humid climates and Asian body types,” the 42-year-old told CNA Women.
In 2017, she founded Soulslings Singapore to sell its products exclusively.
The baby carriers and slings are made using 100 per cent natural fabrics; the handpicked materials are lightweight and breathable, yet supportive and durable.
The brand is proudly size-inclusive, catering to a wide spectrum of body types. Carriers and slings are available in a range of colours and designs for newborns to five-year-olds, costing from S$79 to S$379.
The products are available online and through Shopee and TikTok. The brand also offers in-person visits at its warehouse in Yishun, by appointment.
Ng is now a mother of five children aged 13, 11, four, two, and one month, and her journey has taught her the power of delegation, trust and empowering like-minded mothers to grow alongside her and support the business operations.
Her Soulslings team is made up of Singaporean mums – two full-time staff and several part-timers – and the work culture is “designed to be flexible and empathetic”. Each team member decides on a rhythm that works best for her, while also respecting other team members’ boundaries and responsibilities."
Teenager charged after allegedly assaulting Amos Yee at Suntec City anime convention (11 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A teenager was charged on Monday (May 11) after allegedly assaulting Amos Yee over the weekend at an anime convention.
Bosco Chun Ho Wang, an 18-year-old Chinese national and Singapore permanent resident, was given one charge each of public nuisance and voluntarily causing hurt.
The incident occurred at about 2.10pm on Saturday (May 9) at level 4 of Suntec City Convention Centre.
Chun is accused of punching and kicking Yee. These acts, along with shouting, allegedly caused annoyance to the public.
If convicted of voluntarily causing hurt, Chun could be jailed for up to three years, fined up to S$5,000, or both.
If found guilty of committing public nuisance, he could be fined up to S$2,000.
After the incident, Yee posted a photo online showing a bloodied lip.
The 27-year-old Singaporean faces charges of his own relating to National Service obligations.
He is set for a pre-trial conference in relation to these charges on May 22."
Commentary: What is still missing from Singapore's debate on falling birth rates (12 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: In conversations about marriage, parenthood and ways to raise fertility rates described as an “existential challenge” in Singapore, one aspect is often missing – pregnancy loss.
In Singapore, about 20 to 25 per cent of pregnancies end up in miscarriages. Pregnancy loss also encompasses stillbirth, infant loss, in-vitro fertilisation-related (IVF) loss, as well as terminations for medical reasons. In every single one of them, there are two people whose worlds have been upended.
Yet, these are often swept aside as “dark secrets”, taboo subjects and uncomfortable conversations to be had.
Not just A Single Moment
Pregnancy loss is not a single moment. It is a process, as I learned from losing three pregnancies.
Physically, miscarriage can be prolonged and brutal, involving intense cramping, heavy bleeding and hormonal shifts that last for weeks. For women undergoing IVF, the contrast can be even sharper after weeks of injections. The body does not simply reset after a loss.
Emotionally, the impact is similarly complex. Many can experience depression, grief and anxiety but not everyone seeks support or has access to it.
When grief goes unprocessed, the body stays in a physiological state of unsafety. For couples hoping to conceive again, this can become another barrier. Research has shown that bereaved mothers who receive specialised support experience a significant reduction in depression, anxiety and stress. Those who don't may carry the weight of it into their next pregnancy.
Layered onto this is often feelings of guilt - was it something I ate or did I exercise too much? This self-blame is almost always unfounded, yet without someone clearly and repeatedly saying “This is not your fault," many women can carry that guilt for years."
‘They feel disconnected from who they used to be’: Why becoming a mother can affect a woman’s sense of self (12 May 2026)
"When a woman becomes a mother, she becomes a completely different person in many ways – physically, emotionally and socially. This phase of becoming a mother is known as matrescence.
The term was coined in the 1970s by American medical anthropologist Dana Louise Raphael, who described it as “the time of mother-becoming”.
To put it simply, when a baby is born, a mother is born too. And while support is usually at hand in terms of looking after a child, women tend to be left to their own devices to deal with this big life change.
“Matrescence is often described as the motherhood equivalent of adolescence,” said Elle Cheng, a psychotherapist and matrescence coach in Singapore.
“It is the developmental phase where a woman undergoes a profound psychological, emotional and identity transformation as she moves from thinking about conception, through pregnancy and into motherhood.”
To help with this life transition, some women are getting guidance from a matrescence coach.
Sara Pantry is a matrescence practitioner in Singapore who founded Return Ready, a peer-to-peer mentorship programme designed to help women navigate the complexities of returning to work after parental leave.
Pantry describes matrescence coaching as a much softer, deeper process than traditional coaching, where it’s not about goals, performance or ‘what’s next’. Instead, it’s about slowing down, recentring and reconnecting with yourself so you can redefine who you are now in the present moment.
“It’s also very different from parenting coaching. That focuses on the baby,” Pantry, who works full-time as Senior Workplace Leader, APAC, at LinkedIn, explained. “This focuses on the mother because becoming a mother isn’t just a life event, it’s a full identity transformation. And women need space to process that, not just push through it.”
Increasing Awareness Around Mums' Mental Health
Matrescence as a concept has been revived by various experts over the years in Western countries. In this part of the world, women are becoming more aware of the need to better understand the changes they’re going through when they become mothers.
Cheng, who shares her work through Relating Authentic Women, a platform that supports women through fertility, motherhood and identity transitions, said she’s not necessarily seeing a rise in the term itself, but a clear rise in the struggles it describes.
“I often work with women who return to work after maternity leave and find that while they are functioning on the outside, internally they feel disconnected from who they used to be – as a professional, partner and individual,” she told CNA Women.
“There is increasing awareness around mental health and motherhood but many women still lack a framework or language to understand the identity shift they are going through,” Cheng added. “When they are introduced to matrescence, there is often immediate resonance.”
Man appeals against attempted rape sentence, says he was in 'state of confusion' when pleading guilty (12 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A man who attempted to rape his former housemate in 2023 appealed against his sentence on Tuesday (May 12) and suggested that he wanted a re-trial, claiming that he was in a "state of confusion" when he pleaded guilty previously.
Gao Xiong, a 32-year-old Chinese national who was a PhD student at the time of his offence, was sentenced to six years, six months and six weeks' jail in December 2025. He was also ordered to receive three strokes of the cane. He had pleaded guilty to four charges which included attempted rape and criminal trespass.
The appeal on Tuesday was heard at the Court of Appeal, by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justices Tay Yong Kwang and Hri Kumar Nair.
In a hearing that lasted for almost two hours, Gao, who spoke through a Mandarin interpreter, claimed that the facts of the case read out to him in court were not a reflection of what actually happened and that he accepted them then due to "personal reasons".
Gao also interrupted the court proceedings at least three times when it was not his turn to speak yet, prompting Chief Justice Menon to ask that he not speak without permission.
Gao, who had a defence lawyer during his sentencing in December last year, was unrepresented during the appeal.
Background
Gao was completing his PhD studies in Singapore at the time of the offences, while the victim who was 21 then was also finishing up her tertiary education. Her identity is protected by a gag order.
The two of them were housemates until Gao left in end-August 2023. In early October 2023, Gao began pursuing her romantically but she repeatedly rejected him and told him to stop bothering her.
Gao would go to the unit to look for her, leading to the victim staying with her friend for a few days as a result of the harassment.
In October 2023, Gao looked for her at the unit again and went to her room. The victim spoke to him briefly and refused to engage, saying she would call the police. Both the victim and the tenancy agent had already told Gao not to go to the unit, and reported the trespass.
Gao left when the police arrived but continued harassing the victim. He returned another day and was led into the unit by one of the tenants.
He knocked on the victim's door while she was speaking to her parents, saying that he had left his bank card and wanted to apologise for the angry messages he had sent.
The victim rejected his apology, reiterating that he was trespassing and that she would call the police. Gao then stopped the victim as she tried to close the door, forcibly entered the room before molesting her and attempting to rape her."
Only boys are caned in schools – but what does that teach our daughters? (13 May 2026)
"The Ministry of Education’s recent disciplinary guidelines, including caning for serious and repeat offences like vaping and bullying, have struck a nerve with me.
Full disclosure: I’m Gen X. I grew up with the cane – at home and in school. It was feared and sometimes, deserved. The cane’s effect was swift and painful. You did not forget it, and you also didn’t repeat the mistake – at least not in the same way.
It took me years to discern the difference and now, as a parent, it’s clear to me: Stopping behaviour is not the same as changing it.
To me, the cane taught compliance. It stopped the “bad” behaviour immediately. It taught me that authority had the final word. On the flipside, it also taught me how not to get caught.
My friend, Elena Ng, 46, shared how boys in her school who were disciplined by the cane got more creative instead – like smoking in secret spots or picking fights off campus.
“Sure, the caning stopped them that week,” she said. “But they just got sneakier.”
And that is the problem. Caning gets you immediate obedience, but it doesn’t produce accountability for the action.
It also skips this deeper understanding that we want from discipline: awareness of harm, ownership of actions, repairing skills and empathy.
And that gap matters more now than before. Because today, bullying has changed. It is not limited to fights or name-calling. It can be social exclusion, harassment, online doxxing and like the 2024 case at Singapore Sports School, the sharing of humiliating fake pictures.
Male students had generated and circulated deepfake nude images of their female schoolmates – harm that was digital, humiliating and potentially permanent.
The boys involved had their mobile phones confiscated and turned over to the police. They faced suspension, removal from boarding, bans from sports trips that affected their performance, and even caning.
It drives a hard question: Is physical punishment enough to create change?
My Real Question Is: Why Only Cane The Boys?
This part keeps bothering me. In Singapore, caning applies only to boys in schools. In our criminal courts, it’s a punitive measure only for men. Women are exempt – a legacy of our inherited colonial-era laws, shaped by traditional views of gender and physical punishment.
But if the offence is serious enough to warrant caning, why does gender determine who receives it?
My 17-year-old daughter put it plainly: “Girls can vape too. Girls can also be bullies, so shouldn’t they also be caned? But caning a bully doesn’t do anything.”
She’s right to question it. And as a mother, I have questions too."
MOE raises school bus operator support to 20% of fare revenue amid continued high fuel prices (15 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Education (MOE) said on Friday (May 15) it will increase temporary support for operators of regular school bus services for May and June, citing continued high fuel prices.
The support will rise from the equivalent of 13 per cent to 20 per cent of transport fare revenue.
"This will help transport operators continue operating without disruption," MOE said.
The ministry previously announced in April it would provide temporary support to such operators to help them cope with rising fuel costs.
Acting Minister for Transport Jeffrey Siow also said in parliament last month that the government will temporarily co-fund cost increases for certain essential bus services to cushion the impact of the Middle East conflict on Singaporeans.
Should fuel prices remain elevated, MOE said transport operators will, from July, be allowed to offset higher operating costs through a "time-bound" fuel surcharge.
"MOE will set a maximum fuel surcharge that operators may charge, and operators may increase the school bus fares up to this surcharge," it added.
The ministry will update transport operators on the surcharge cap in June, and parents will then be informed of the revised school bus fares from July - if any - so they can plan their transport arrangements after the June school holidays."
Waitress caught with Kpods twice at club she worked at, gets reformative training (15 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A 21-year-old woman was ordered on Friday (May 15) to undergo reformative training for a minimum of 12 months after she was caught twice with etomidate-laced vapes, known as Kpods, at a nightclub where she worked as a waitress.
According to charge sheets, Tan Xin Yi, a Singaporean, was caught at Club Poseidon in Excelsior Shopping Centre on Coleman Street.
Tan pleaded guilty to two counts of knowingly having in her possession a Kpod on two separate occasions in August and September 2025.
Authorities have warned that inhaling etomidate directly into the lungs can cause side effects such as spasms, breathing issues and seizures.
The Case
Tan had reported to work at 11.30pm on Aug 15, 2025, when an unidentified colleague introduced her to a new vape flavour.
Tan proceeded to use a vape belonging to her colleague's customer which had an etomidate-laced pod attached to it, court documents read.
Officers from the Health Sciences Authority (HSA), who were conducting a joint operation at various entertainment outlets, subsequently entered the room she was in.
Tan's colleague asked her to hide the Kpod under her long sleeves, but officers eventually discovered it.
In her statement to the authorities, Tan said she knew the pod contained etomidate as her colleague did not smoke "normal vape pods".
She was detained at the club shortly before 1am on Aug 16, 2025.
Tan was caught with a Kpod a second time during a raid at the same club on Sep 28, 2025. This time, they found the device in her bag."
'Museum-style memoir' unveiled on Goh Keng Swee's interactions with China leaders (15 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: To many, Dr Goh Keng Swee is regarded as one of Singapore's founding fathers and a key architect of the nation's transformation in its early decades.
What is perhaps less well known is the role the former Deputy Prime Minister played after he left politics – he became an economic adviser to China between 1985 and 1990, during its early drive for reform.
On Friday (May 15), a "museum-style memoir" – a 244-page book curated from a private archive – was launched to preserve for posterity Dr Goh's interactions with China's leaders during this period.
Titled Dr Goh Keng Swee and China's Economic Renaissance, the book was put together by Dr Goh's wife, Dr Phua Swee Liang, based on photographs, gifts, travel itineraries and personal records from Dr Goh's stint. Two hundred copies of the book were given out to guests including former Cabinet ministers Khaw Boon Wan and George Yeo, and former top civil servant Philip Yeo at the launch at Four Seasons Hotel.
Dr Phua noted in the book's preface that the true turning points in history "often happen quietly". "It is these moments that I feel compelled to preserve, for without them the larger narrative remains incomplete," she wrote.
Following Dr Goh's retirement from politics in 1984, then China President Deng Xiaoping sent to Singapore a high-level delegation to invite Dr Goh to become an adviser to China's newly created special economic zones.
Dr Goh, who died in 2010 at the age of 91, had close ties with Mr Deng and several other senior Chinese leaders of his time, including Zhao Ziyang and Gu Mu – and these are vividly captured in the book. Among the photographs in the book is one of Dr Goh with current China President Xi Jinping, who was then serving in a provincial leadership role in Fuzhou."
I knew beating cancer would be tough. What I didn't expect was the crippling loss of identity as I returned to work (15 May 2026)
"In November 2024, after more than a year of fighting leukaemia, my oncologist gave me the all clear to return to work.
I knew the first thing I should have felt was relief, but instead, another unsettling feeling crept up and took me by surprise: fear.
I had spent months in hospitals and treatment wards, fighting to survive. Now I was stepping back into a world that had, in my absence, come to feel unfamiliar.
Many questions weighed heavily on me: Could I still do the work I once did confidently? Would colleagues see me the same way?
After everything my body had been through, did I still belong there?
The Diagnosis That Changed My Life
In October 2023, when I was 47, I was diagnosed with high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome that was transforming into acute myeloid leukaemia.
Doctors told me I might have nine months or less to live without a bone marrow transplant.
The news was surreal. One moment I was living an ordinary life – exercising regularly, keeping fit, going about my daily routine – and the next I was confronting the possibility that my life might soon end.
My mind went straight to my family. My wife and I had been planning for early retirement at 55. Could that still proceed as planned?
My sons were 16 and 18 then, both at the point of making major academic decisions. Would I still be around to guide them? Had I shaped enough of their moral compass?
That same evening, I broke the news to my family over dinner. Everyone was incredulous.
I had been fit and strong right up to that point. I went running with my boys twice a week, taking them to the gym for strength training afterwards. None of us had seen it coming.
What followed were months of hospital stays, treatment and preparation for a bone marrow transplant at Singapore General Hospital (SGH), where its haematology wards became a strange kind of "home" to me over time.
Against the odds, a fully matched, unrelated donor was found locally through the bone marrow donor programme, and the transplant saved my life.
A Crippling Sense of Identity Loss
By October 2024, exactly one year after my diagnosis, I was in remission. However, physically and psychologically, recovery took much longer.
The intensive chemotherapy that I had before the transplant, followed by two years of maintenance chemo, left me with neuropathy and made rebuilding my strength and stamina a slow, grinding process.
Neuropathy is a condition caused by nerve damage that leads to pain, weakness, numbness or tingling in one or more parts of your body. In my case, I felt it acutely in my limbs.
Even as my body slowly healed, my confidence did not immediately return.
The next month, I was given the green light to return to work. However, I found that the idea of stepping back into professional life filled me with uncertainty – the kind that has more to do with my identity than with my capabilities.
Before cancer, I had been a physics teacher and head of department at Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), or ACS(I). But after months away from work, I found myself wondering whether the person who once carried those responsibilities still existed.
Psychologically, I was dealing with a sense of identity loss that was unexpectedly crippling, one that came from no longer being sure about who I was, or whether my work in education had defined me more than I knew.
Could I still operate at the same level I used to? Did I even want to do it? How would my colleagues see me?"
When one of my 5 kids calls me out, I choose to own my mistake, not defend myself (16 May 2026)
"It was a work-from-home day, and I was alone with my two toddlers – Truett was three years old, and Kirsten, two years. While I took a long phone call in the living room, they played in the kitchen nearby, where my laptop was. I kept gesturing for them to keep it down.
But at their tender ages, they couldn't take the hint. Then suddenly, I heard a crash.
I walked into the kitchen to find my laptop on the floor, its screen cracked clean across.
Money was tight then, and I immediately knew that forking out a few hundred dollars just to repair my laptop was something we couldn't afford. I felt panic, then anger, and then both at once.
And so I yelled. Really yelled. I don't think I ever had before.
I still remember the looks on their faces. It was the mixture of devastation and terror that only very young children can show – the kind that tells you they don't fully understand what they did wrong, only that the person they love most in the world is furious with them.
I picked them up, held them close and apologised properly, with tears and no qualification.
It was not to teach them forgiveness, but to be accountable for what I had just done. Losing my temper like that is not who I want to be, or what I want to model. I haven't done it since.
But I've never forgotten it. I don't think I'm supposed to.
Children Will Notice Everything
Our five children are now aged 10 to 18. Between my husband and I, we have accumulated many years of parenting experience, and with it, a running catalogue of mistakes we've made – in parenting and in life.
Like any other parents, we often talk to our kids about right and wrong. But after nearly two decades of raising kids, I've come to believe that what they observe us doing is a much more influential teacher.
It's easy to say the right words, but children are always watching our actions to see whether they match what we say.
And they notice everything from the good to the bad.
The "urgent" phone call we take after telling them to put their phones away. The harsh words or tone we use with them, after telling them to be kind.
When there's a gap between what we expect of them and what we hold ourselves to, they track all of it quietly, and they draw their own conclusions about whether we do what they say.
So when they call us out – and they do quite often – we can choose to either defend ourselves or own it.
For us, it has to be the latter. We admit our mistakes and say we're sorry because we want them to understand that admitting to a failure is the beginning of growth, not the end of it.
And more importantly, we learn from those mistakes. We genuinely try to do better each time, and show them that it is possible to become better versions of ourselves as we grow."
Man raped his sister during seven years of sexual abuse, gets jail and caning (18 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A boy began sexually abusing his younger sister from when she was five and he was 12, continuing the assault for seven years and raping her repeatedly.
At times when she resisted, the boy punched her, slapped her and pinched her.
The offender, now 26, was sentenced on Monday (May 18) to 18 years' jail and 24 strokes of the cane.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual assault and one count of statutory rape, with another eight charges taken into consideration.
The Case
The offender cannot be named due to gag orders protecting the identity of his biological sister, who is now 19.
The siblings were close and lived with their parents and two older siblings in a one-room flat.
Sometime in 2012, the offender began molesting his sister when she was between five and six.
This escalated into penetrative acts when the girl was six or seven. On one occasion, the girl hesitated and her brother slapped her.
He later warned her not to tell anyone what happened. He would target her when nobody else was in the flat, or when the rest of the family was asleep.
Sometime in 2018, the victim and the offender were playing with their phones in the living room while the rest of the family slept.
The offender, who was 17 or 18, asked his sister to go to the toilet with him.
Inside, he instructed her to perform a sex act on him until they both heard noises from the living room.
They hurriedly dressed up and headed out, with the victim going to the bedroom to sleep.
Court documents detailed an occasion in 2019, when the victim was 12, when the offender raped her. This was the last such occasion, as the 19-year-old boy told his sister that he was "too old to continue doing such things to her".
He had started raping her when she was seven to eight.
In March 2022, the victim told her school counsellor that she had been sexually abused by her brother, and the counsellor reported this to the police immediately.
The brother was arrested two days later."
Court grants personal protection order against mother who repeatedly cursed at daughter during writing exercise (18 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A woman who repeatedly cursed at her daughter while correcting her writing, calling her "stupid" and threatening to stab her in the eye, is now subject to a personal protection order (PPO).
The father of the girl, whose age was not revealed in a judgment made available on Friday (May 15), had applied for the PPO and provided an audio recording.
The magistrate said it was clear that the girl was tormented and distressed by her mother's "verbal lashings" and that the mother's actions had crossed the line and amounted to emotional and psychological abuse.
Newly expanded laws include emotional or psychological abuse under the definition of domestic violence. Before January 2025, such violence was limited mostly to physical harm, with no express reference to emotional or psychological abuse.
At the same time, the magistrate declined to grant the mother PPOs she sought for herself and her two children against her husband. He said there were no risk factors that made such an order necessary for the children and that the mother was not "the battered wife that she sought to portray herself to be".
The Case
Magistrate Soh Kian Peng said the audio recordings bore out the "excruciating nature of the verbal abuse" endured by the daughter, who could be heard sobbing in some clips.
In one recording made in February 2025, the mother asked her daughter, who was around seven years old, to write a capital S in a sentence.
As the child wrote, there was a sound of something dropping and the mother spoke in a louder voice: "Do not f***ing drop your pencil. Pick it up! Every time you drop it, you break the lead."
She later said: "God, I'm f***ing going to stab you in the eye with this. Alright. I'm so f***ing (sic) with your s***. Just get it right. Everything is f***ing wrong."
The mother then asked her daughter how she spelt "Singapore", and when the girl replied wrongly, the woman said: "Wrong! Say it again."
The audio captured her making a "frustrated sound", and the woman said: "Who write like that. For God's sake...why, you f***ing c***-eyed, is it?...What the f***!"
She continued to call the girl "f***ing stupid", saying this was "un-f***ing believable" and "you are wasting my time".
The woman then asked the girl to write: "Her birthday is in June."
She berated her daughter, asking her how many "f***ing birthdays" she had gone for and that she was not going to let her go for them anymore unless she could finish "birthday".
"You went to how many f***ing happy birthday parties. You still don't know how to spell birthday," says the mother.
The woman is heard shouting louder and louder: "BIRTHDAY. Now write it. You so f***ing gundu (a term used to call someone an idiot). How many f***ing birthdays have you been to? You still can't f***ing get it right."
The woman screamed louder in the audio while cursing, and the audio ends with the woman shrieking vulgarities in succession and a sound of slapping while the child began to cry.
The magistrate said the audio recordings spoke volumes as to the intensity and duration of the mother's tirades against the daughter.
"It must also be remembered that (she) is a young girl - at her tender age, the views and opinions of her parents must weigh greatly in her mind," said Mr Soh.
"One can therefore only imagine the torment and distress that she must have felt at being labelled 'useless', and at the vulgarities hurled at her, in her mother's relentless scoldings."
He found that the mother had committed family violence against her daughter and that it was necessary to order a PPO for the daughter's personal safety or protection."
CNA's Steven Chia quit the evening news shift to spend more time with his children (19 May 2026)
"Most parents talk about wanting more “quality time” with their kids. But for CNA’s Steven Chia, quantity matters too.
In the latest episode of DNA, hosted by Rebecca Lim, Steven Chia, accompanied by his 16-year-old son Joshua Chia, reflects on family, work, and the reality of raising kids while juggling a demanding media career.
The Talking Point presenter and his wife, Tania, also have a 20-year-old daughter, Lucy.
When Lim brings up Steven Chia’s long-held belief in “quantity time”, he doesn’t hesitate to explain it.
“People think quality time, but I’m like, 'What do you mean by quality time?' Any time you spend with your child is quality time,” he said. “My view is that the more time you can spend with your children, the better.”
Science Centre Singapore to debut immersive ocean exhibition One Ocean: Every Action Ripples (19 May 2026)
"Science Centre Singapore will debut a new immersive ocean exhibition, One Ocean: Every Action Ripples, on May 30.
Billed as a world-first experience, the exhibition marks the global premiere of a multi-sensory showcase that transforms two decades of research by the Tara Ocean Foundation into an interactive public experience.
Presented in partnership with the foundation and produced by Ride FX, the exhibition will run until Jan 3, 2027 at Science Centre Singapore.
Spanning 10 zones, the exhibition combines 360-degree projections, free-roaming virtual reality, spatial soundscapes and interactive installations to explore the ocean as a system that connects us all and highlights how human actions can create ripple effects across marine ecosystems.
Among its key displays is a replica of the Tara Polar Station, a drifting observatory designed to study the Arctic environment across ten expeditions, offering visitors a glimpse into how scientists study one of the world’s most extreme environments.
Another highlight is 7 Wonders of the Ocean, a 360-degree projection experience that takes visitors through marine environments including the abyss, whale migration routes, the Great Barrier Reef, ice floes and bioluminescent waters.
The exhibition will also feature Symphonies of the Ocean, an audio experience built from authentic underwater and above-water recordings, as well as Legends of the Ocean, which explores cultural myths and stories inspired by the sea."
Asian philanthropy urged to play bigger role in education, development funding (19 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Philanthropic organisations in Asia can play a bigger role in financing education and development projects, amid funding pressures and a decline in traditional sources of aid, said speakers at the Philanthropy Asia Summit on Monday (May 18).
The philanthropic sector could also help attract private investment into long-term initiatives, they told CNA on the sidelines of the event.
Currently in its sixth edition, the summit brings together leaders from philanthropy, business, government and civil society to discuss issues including climate change, healthcare and inclusive development.
Teachers “The Beating Heart of Education”
Pia Rebello Britto, global director of education and adolescent development at UNICEF – the United Nations children’s agency – said philanthropic organisations are uniquely positioned to take more risks in educational innovation.
“Globally, we are seeing a lot of shift in traditional official development assistance. So, there is a moment now for philanthropy to make a big catalytic change,” she said.
Catalytic financing refers to early-stage funding that absorbs the risks of unproven projects, helping attract larger investors later on.
Such financing can “enable the sort of innovation aspect in really testing out models, taking some risks, that then the public sector and domestic resources can scale up”, Britto added.
But major funding gaps remain. Globally, there is a US$97 billion funding shortfall for education, she noted.
Britto said the focus should be on strengthening education systems.
“Teachers are there ready to work, but are we providing them the right training, the right support, the right empowerment, so that they can have the effect that's needed? They’re the beating heart of education,” she said.
“When you support one teacher, you support many children.”
She added that while governments typically fund teacher salaries, philanthropy could help uplift the teaching profession through training, upskilling and support systems."
SG Culture Pass expands access to Sing Lit with over 1,100 new titles and six additional bookstores (19 May 2026)
"Singaporeans looking to spend their SG Culture Pass credits on local books now have more options with over 1,100 additional titles and six new bookstores added to the scheme.
Announced by Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY), the expansion now includes six newly onboarded stores: Basheer Graphic Books and Book Point Pte Ltd at Bras Basah Complex, along with Littered With Books, Nurul Anwar Bookstore, TCZ Studio and The Zall Bookstore.
Eligible titles can be identified by an official SG Culture Pass sticker on the cover.
Local literary works were first included under the SG Culture Pass in March 2026. Eligible titles span across fiction – including comics and graphic novels – poetry, plays and literary short essays in English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil languages, written by a Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident at the time of publishing."
Commentary: Optimising education shouldn’t be the goal of introducing AI to primary school students (20 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: The announcement that artificial intelligence will be introduced to primary school students has stirred debate among parents and educators.
Earlier this year, Minister for Education Mr Desmond Lee said that from Primary 4, students may use AI tools under close supervision. The goal is for AI to function like a teacher and ask students questions, rather than spoon-feed them answers.
In theory, a child having an AI tutor may not seem like a bad idea, especially if this can help with understanding difficult concepts.
But as a parent of two, I wonder if accelerating children’s learning should really be the goal of education at such an early age. At an age where kids are still developing their critical thinking, resilience and character, isn’t productive struggle more important than productivity itself?
Game-Changing Speed And Simplicity
An AI leader I interviewed shared a parenting and teaching hack: She lets her child speak to an AI chatbot with child-safe settings in place. It can answer complex questions and random trivia that would baffle many adults.
Intrigued, I tried it with my own kids. When they asked about war, scoliosis, strange bugs – I allowed AI to field a few questions in a child-friendly way. Its speed and simplicity were game-changing.
After a couple of brief sessions, I realised my kids seemed to enjoy asking AI more than the people around me.
When we were unsure about a Chinese question, my daughter asked if we should check with AI. Even when we ordered a printer online and could not instantly understand the manual, my kids’ first instinct was to ask AI.
The problem is, learning in the real world rarely works like this."
Man gets 14 years' jail for brutally abusing infant nephew in 'grave affront to human dignity' case (20 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A man who repeatedly abused a toddler under a year old in horrific ways, because of his grudge against the child's father, was sentenced to 14 years' jail on Wednesday (May 20).
Over the span of three months, the 32-year-old man pushed his nephew-in-law's head into a pail of water, pressed a pillow onto his face and choked him repeatedly until he foamed at the mouth.
The abuse ended only after a woman observed him choking the child at the void deck of a public housing block. She confronted him before calling the police.
Investigations uncovered multiple videos of the man abusing the child, aged nine to 11 months, during the assault. The offender admitted to abusing the boy because he held a grudge against his brother-in-law, who is the child's father.
All parties in this case cannot be named due to gag orders protecting the victim.
When the case was last heard in April, the prosecution had sought 12 to 15 years' jail for the Singaporean man, while the defence had asked for eight to 10 years' jail instead.
In meting out the sentence, District Judge Koo Zhi Xuan described the man's behaviour as heinous acts that were a "grave affront to human dignity".
It was deeply distressing to read about the abuse, and the heavy sentence reflects the retribution and general deterrence needed in this case, he said.
The man inflicted severe and lasting harm on the victim, trampling on a moral obligation not to commit harm against an infant who could not speak or defend himself, the judge added.
Noting that the acts were committed while the boy was under his care, the judge said that the man also betrayed the trust placed in him by his wife's family.
The way the man planned all his abusive acts – engineering occasions to be alone with the child and taking advantage of those instances – was an aggravating factor."
Snow City is closing. Here are 5 other attractions gone forever (20 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Snow City, the country's first indoor snow centre offering activities and entertainment for visitors, will be closing after 26 years.
The attraction's owner, Science Centre Singapore, announced on Tuesday (May 19) that the facility will end operations on Sep 30.
Its closure, which has sparked an outpouring of sadness online, marks another loss in Singapore's tourism landscape.
From water theme parks with towering slides to the country's first public aquarium, CNA looks at five iconic attractions that have come and gone.
Big Splash
Best known for its multicoloured five-lane slide, Big Splash was a sprawling water theme park that opened in East Coast Park in 1976.
The park claimed that its slides, which were up to seven storeys high, were the highest and longest in the world when the theme park opened.
It was Singapore's first seawater aquatic complex and featured pools with sand bottoms to simulate a visit to the beach for visitors.
Besides its water facilities, Big Splash also had an open-air theatre, food kiosks and an arcade.
Although it remained popular for years, Big Splash faced increasing competition from new water theme parks such as Sentosa's Fantasy Island and Wild Wild Wet in Pasir Ris.
The original water park closed in 2006 and reopened in 2008 as a lifestyle and dining hub named Playground@Big Splash.
It shut its doors after 40 years of operations in October 2016, after its lease expired. The site was returned to the government for redevelopment and is now occupied by Coastal PlayGrove, a play area with features that pay tribute to its iconic predecessor."
Man pleads guilty to making 9-year-old stepdaughter perform sex act, outraging her modesty (20 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A 55-year-old man was found guilty on Wednesday (May 20) of outraging the modesty of his stepdaughter, then eight or nine years old, and making her perform a sex act.
The case came to light after the girl confided in her babysitter about the acts in 2021, years after they had taken place. The babysitter told the girl's mother, who took her to file a police report.
The parties involved cannot be named due to a court order protecting the victim.
At the time of the offences, the man was married to the victim's mother, who also had another son – the victim's half-brother. The family lived in a one-room flat when the man moved in with them.
Eventually, the couple had six children together, and the family moved to a larger flat on the same floor in 2016 or 2017, the court heard. The man and the girl's mother divorced in 2022.
One night in 2016 or 2017, when the family was in the midst of moving to the new flat, the man asked the victim, then in Primary 3, to follow him so that they could perform prayers for the new house.
Armed with a book and a carrot, he took her to the new public housing unit and locked the gate. No one else was with them.
The man told his stepdaughter to sit on a stool in the corner of the room and asked if she wanted to see a ghost.
The victim replied that she did not want to see a ghost, so he blindfolded her and tied her hands together with two pieces of cloth, the court heard.
Using the carrot, he tricked her into performing a sex act.
After a while, she started to suspect that he had tricked her. She told him that she needed to go to the toilet, and the man untied her hands and removed the blindfold.
The girl ran back home and told her mother what had happened. After asking for more details, her mother immediately confronted the accused about the incident.
The girl did not disclose the man's sexual abuse because she felt uncomfortable doing so and did not want to trouble others. Her stepfather was verbally abusive and she was scared of him.
She felt safe to disclose the incidents only in 2021 when the man no longer lived with them, the court heard."
All university, polytechnic and ITE students to learn AI skills from 2027 (21 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: From 2027, all students in institutes of higher learning (IHLs) will learn artificial intelligence skills that are tailored to their fields of study, said Education Minister Desmond Lee on Thursday (May 21).
The AI skills taught will be guided by "baseline AI competency frameworks" developed by IHLs.
Speaking at the National University of Singapore's (NUS) 120 Distinguished Speaker Series, Mr Lee said the frameworks - one for the autonomous universities and the other for polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) - aim to "establish a common baseline across our IHLs, so that every student in Singapore, regardless of which institution they attend, receives a consistent and strong foundation in AI competencies".
Students from the 2027 academic year will have compulsory modules incorporating those baseline AI competencies, while those already enrolled will have their existing curriculum "enhanced" to build AI skills.
All IHL students, including adults in Continuing Education and Training (CET), will get to develop AI competencies within their discipline as part of their full qualification programmes, said Mr Lee.
The competency frameworks are designed as a "deliberate step-up" from the AI exposure students receive in secondary schools and junior colleges, so that there will be a "coherent as well as cumulative learning journey" all the way into the workforce.
They will aim to help all IHL students develop skills such as:
• Understanding what AI can and cannot do, as well as should and should not do
• Learning with AI in ways that deepen understanding rather than replace thinking
• Using AI to analyse problems, generate insights and come up with better solutions
• Critically evaluating AI, including its ethical, social and legal implications
Citing how students in the Product Design and Innovation module at NUS’ College of Design and Engineering use AI tools to boost productivity, Mr Lee noted that they are still taught the fundamentals, including deep disciplinary knowledge and design judgment.
AI will be increasingly integrated into courses, but pedagogy must continue to guide how it is used, and the technology "should never replace deep, human learning" in schools and IHLs, said Mr Lee.
He pointed out that the "struggle of learning", such as researching, questioning and grappling, was a fundamental part of education, and that students must continue to experience such struggles - even though "AI can shortcut or short-circuit this process"."
Researchers working on White Paper on fertility as Singapore pushes to reverse birth rate decline (21 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Researchers are working on a White Paper with policy recommendations on fertility and child development to be shared with the government as it seeks to reverse Singapore's falling birth rates.
The paper will be jointly developed by the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and the Population Association of Singapore, and submitted to the newly formed Marriage and Parenthood Reset Workgroup when ready, the university announced on Thursday (May 21).
The workgroup, which will examine factors affecting marriage and parenthood in Singapore, is expected to release its findings in early 2027.
Singapore's total fertility rate hit a record low of 0.87 in 2025, down from 0.97 the year before.
Speaking at the association's annual conference, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Indranee Rajah, who heads the workgroup, said policymakers are focused on three issues: financial support, the perceived stress of raising children and time scarcity.
The workgroup is examining the costs families face at different stages of raising children, she said.
On the growing sentiment that Singapore is not a conducive environment for raising children, Ms Indranee said addressing perceived stress would require a more holistic approach. The government plans to engage students, parents, teachers and academics to explore ways to ease the education "arms race", she added.
Time scarcity, she said, is the hardest issue to tackle because it involves "the tension between two good things".
“On one hand, Singaporeans work hard and strive for excellence, and this has helped us progress as a society and country,” said Ms Indranee. “But the pursuit of achievement can sometimes come at the expense of rest, well-being, and having ample time and space to pursue life goals beyond work including marriage and parenthood.”
The challenge, she said, is not choosing one over the other but managing the tension between them."
Kim Lim says her nine-year-old son is ‘too kind’, worries he may be easily taken advantage of (24 May 2026)
"In the latest episode of DNA, hosted by Rebecca Lim, billionaire heiress and entrepreneur Kim Lim, joined by her nine-year-old son Kyden, talks about balancing motherhood with building a beauty empire, her relationship with him, and how she’s raising him to carry himself well despite being born into privilege.
Kim Lim, the daughter of billionaire Peter Lim, was raised to work hard for what she wants from a young age, with her father placing strong emphasis on character and on being a good person – values she now hopes to pass on to Kyden and her younger child, who turns two later this year.
She shares Kyden with her first husband, businessman Kho Bin Kai. The couple divorced in 2020 after more than three years of marriage but have remained on good terms and co-parent Kyden together.
At nine, Kyden has already made her proud, with Kim Lim saying he is patient, kind, respectful, and very tolerant towards his younger cousins as the eldest grandchild.
However, she admitted there were moments when she worried he may be “too kind”.
Kim Lim said she doesn’t place heavy emphasis on academics when raising Kyden, adding: “I’m not strict at all. But okay lah, at least must pass. I don’t expect [him to get] A1.
“Most important for me is character – the character building and the respect he gives people. I think this will follow him long-term. I can be crazy, I can be loud, but I respect people and we show people respect. I think that’s very important,” she explained."
After 9 years battling a relapsing blood cancer, this educator discovered a sense of gratitude through art (25 May 2026)
"With an ink pen, 58-year-old Wong Ching Yee sketched her childhood home in Tiong Bahru, tracing the rounded corners, curved balconies, and Art Deco-inspired elements.
As a child, Wong had climbed up three storeys of the low-rise block to the warmth of her parents’ study lamp flooding the room and the laughter of her brother and cousins filling the air.
More than five decades on, her parents and aunt, now in their 80s, still live there. But much else has changed.
In 2017, Wong was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that begins in the plasma cells in the bone marrow. She went through treatment, remission, relapse, a second round of treatment, and is now in her second remission.
During her long cancer battle, her husband was also diagnosed with colon cancer. He succumbed within 10 months.
It was in this season of loss that Wong, an educator, picked up art, first experimenting with card-making in 2019, then moving on to sketching, calligraphy and painting. She was then in her early 50s.
She wanted to capture the fleeting moments and anchor herself in gratitude.
“Mortality is very real. It’s staring at me in the face,” reflected Wong, who has three adult sons aged 30, 28 and 21.
An Illness She Had Never Heard of
It began in 2015 with persistent joint pain in her shoulder, back and knees, as well as chronic fatigue.
Wong was diagnosed with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), a usually benign condition where the body makes an abnormal protein in the blood. However, MGUS patients have about a 1 per cent yearly risk of developing multiple myeloma.
She was scheduled for regular blood tests to monitor her condition, and put on painkillers.
Two years later, however, she started to have daily nose bleeds, which led to a bone marrow biopsy to check if her MGUS had progressed into multiple myeloma or other plasma-cell disorders.
The call from the hospital came just as she boarded a cruise to Hong Kong. She went to the hospital after the trip.
“I was expecting bad news but I did not expect cancer,” she told CNA Women. “In fact, when they told me I had multiple myeloma, I asked them what it was. Could they spell it out for me?”
“When they told me it was cancer, I broke down,” said Wong, who was 49 then."
Man sentenced to nearly 15 years' jail over death of teen who was starved, beaten and chained in toilet (25 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A 66-year-old man who was among three people who fatally abused a 19-year-old woman who was starved, beaten and chained in a toilet in a Clementi flat was sentenced to 14 years and 11 months’ jail on Monday (May 25).
Lim Peng Tiong admitted to his role in months of abuse that led to Huang Baoying’s death in May 2021. She had lost about 43 per cent of her body weight and died from severe malnutrition and blunt force trauma.
The cases of the two co-accused - her 34-year-old brother Huang Bocan and 46-year-old Chee Mei Wan - are pending before the courts.
When Lim pleaded guilty in February to one count of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, the prosecution urged the court to impose 20 years’ jail, while his lawyers argued for 11 years in prison.
Explaining his decision, Justice Pang Khang Chau imposed an initial sentence of 14 years and five months in prison, with an additional six months in lieu of caning, since Lim is above 50 years old and cannot be caned.
The prosecution had submitted that the case fell within the category of the worst type of culpable homicide, but the judge disagreed, noting that Lim’s involvement was the least of the three.
His sentence would depend on his own conduct and culpability, Judge Pang said on Monday.
Adding that the prosecution tried to “shoehorn” Lim’s case into this particular category, the judge said they only considered the totality of all the acts committed, without paying attention to Lim’s individual acts.
For example, they submitted that Lim abused his close relationship with the victim. But the victim was the biological sister of the co-accused, and there was no familial relationship between Lim and the girl, the judge noted.
It would be wrong to punish Lim accordingly because of her totally different relationship with her brother, Judge Pang added.
While he agreed that the facts of the case were very egregious, the judge said he did not think Lim’s conduct met the standard for the sentence the prosecution asked for."
More Singapore residents identifying with English or Singlish, as mother tongue affinity falls: IPS survey (25 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Nearly half of Singapore residents now identify most with English or Singlish, a sharp rise over the past decade as identification with mother tongue and heritage languages has declined, according to a survey by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS).
The 2024 survey of 4,000 residents found that 47.6 per cent identified most with English or Singlish, up from 33.8 per cent in 2013. The share identifying most with a mother tongue or heritage language fell from 65.1 per cent to 50.4 per cent over the same period.
Researchers attributed the shift in part to generational change. When a similar study was conducted in 2013, a larger proportion of respondents had been born before 1965 and were exposed to different language policies.
Research fellow Dr Melvin Tay said this group has since decreased significantly, representative of Singapore's current population spread.
Growing exposure to English through work and the global sphere has also played a role, said principal research fellow Dr Mathew Mathews. As more Singapore residents communicate and work with others in English, he added, their affinity with the language would be expected to increase.
A Singlish Identity
More respondents in 2024 agreed that Singlish gives Singaporeans a sense of identity, compared with a similar survey in 2018, rising from 50 per cent to 57.8 per cent.
The majority also agreed that Singlish is an important part of culture that should not be lost, with that figure rising from 44.4 per cent in 2018 to 50.6 per cent in 2024.
But the sentiment was not uniform across racial groups. Indian respondents were notably less likely to agree that Singlish gives Singaporeans a sense of identity – 49.8 per cent, compared with 58.7 per cent of Chinese respondents and 56.9 per cent of Malay respondents."
Foster parents of children with disabilities struggle to get access to health records, medical appointments (26 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: For the last four years, Claire has been a foster mother to two children with special needs.
Both children have been diagnosed with global developmental delay and require numerous medical appointments, including speech therapy, paediatrician follow-ups, and dental visits.
However, unlike most parents who can book such appointments via the HealthHub mobile app, Claire is unable to do so.
Claire told CNA that she had access to the children’s HealthHub accounts until about the end of 2024, but no longer does.
Over the past year, she had to visit the hospital in person or call the hotline to make appointments, sometimes waiting close to 30 minutes on the phone before securing a slot.
“We used to be able to access their information online, and then somehow it was cancelled and we lost all the information about all the appointments,” she said.
“Everything started coming through SMS, which was very difficult because if you don’t really check in, you’ll miss the appointments.”
Claire is not the only foster parent who faces this issue.
During a parliamentary sitting in April, Nominated Member of Parliament Neo Kok Beng said foster parents did not have access to book medical appointments online and that some do not have access to other information, such as the child’s education. He asked about foster parents’ rights to do so.
Minister of State for Social and Family Development (MSF) Goh Pei Ming said foster parents are issued a letter from MSF that identifies them as the child’s caregiver under the ministry’s fostering scheme.
“This letter facilitates communications between the foster parents and the healthcare professionals to ensure that the medical needs are addressed.
“It also allows them to communicate through the school system to take care of the schooling and educational needs.”
Mr Goh acknowledged Dr Neo’s feedback and said it was consistent with what the ministry had heard from other foster parents.
He added that the ministry is working to provide foster parents with access to foster children’s education and healthcare information through HealthHub and Parents Gateway."
Dad fails in bid for court order compelling ex-wife to take their 2 kids to church camp (26 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A man has failed in a family court bid to compel his ex-wife to ensure their two children to attend a church camp, with the court stressing that it should not pass judgment on which parent's religious preference for their children should prevail.
In a judgment published on Tuesday (May 26), District Judge Kow Keng Siong added that it was not appropriate for a parent to use the coercive powers of the court to compel his children's participation in a religious activity over the other parent's objection.
"In family disputes touching on religion, identity and conscience, judicial restraint is often the wiser choice," said Judge Kow.
He said, however, that nothing in his judgment prevented the father from sharing his faith with his two children during his own access time, subject as always to their welfare, their wishes and emotional well-being.
The Case
The former couple obtained an interim judgment for divorce in January 2025.
They share a son born in 2016 and a daughter born a year later. Both children are baptised and enrolled in Christian schools, and their mother has care and control over them.
The father sought a court order compelling his ex-wife to ensure that their two children attend a four-day camp, transport them to and from the camp daily and bear half the registration fees and camp costs.
The mother opposed this application.
The father argued that his kids would benefit from the camp for reasons including providing support for their religious development and providing "wholesome activities that benefit their creative and physical development".
He claimed that his ex-wife had demonstrated "a consistent pattern of obstructing the formation of the Christian faith" in their children since May 2024 by failing to take them to various Christian activities.
The man said his ex-wife felt "entitled to decide" whether their kids should take part in such activities, and he said he had "reasonable grounds to apprehend" that she would not allow the kids to join the camp unless the court had made a specific order.
The man also said he had already paid S$370 (US$290) in registration fees for the camp.
The mother denied obstructing the formation of Christian faith in the children, saying she did not take them for some activities because of their school schedule.
She also argued that the attendance at the camp involves a scheduling decision that fell within her authority as the parent with care and control.
A court order compelling her to personally transport the children to and from the camp each day would be "oppressive and unreasonable", she argued.
She also said that her agreement was required before the children could be enrolled in the camp, since she had joint custody rights, and the father could not unilaterally decide on the issue and compel her to take them there."
I tell my son he is perfect as he is – so what does he see when he looks at my bleached-blonde hair and makeup? (27 May 2026)
"Every year, at the parents’ briefing at my son’s primary school, I hear the same reminder.
Students must stick to certain hairstyles, and coloured hair isn’t allowed. The idea behind this is good: children should learn to feel comfortable in their own skin and be proud of who they are.
The parents around me nod in agreement. I do too, even though I have had bleached-blonde hair for about 10 years.
It started as an experiment back when I was a magazine beauty editor, but I ended up loving it, especially since my white roots blended in better with blonde hair than with black.
Each year, I find myself feeling self-conscious. I glance around the school hall, looking for other parents with coloured hair to prove I’m not the only one. There are usually a handful. But I am always the only blonde.
In those moments, I wonder what my son thinks about the difference between what he’s taught and what he sees in me.
Sometimes, I think about bringing it up myself: “School says you can’t colour your hair, but Mummy’s blonde. Do you want to know why?”
But I tell myself there’s time to explain it properly later – once I’ve figured out how to explain it to myself first."
Teen to be charged over multiple traffic offences; police say he drove at 174kmh on ECP (27 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A 17-year-old boy will be charged in court on Thursday (May 28) over a string of traffic-related offences, including dangerous driving causing hurt, driving while underage and using deregistered vehicles with false licence plates.
Police said on Wednesday that the teenager is linked to three separate incidents between January 2025 and January 2026.
One of the cases involved a police chase at about 10.50pm on Jan 16 from Paya Lebar to Marine Parade, with the footage going viral on social media.
Investigations revealed that during the chase, the teen allegedly drove at speeds of up to 174kmh on the East Coast Parkway (ECP), where the speed limit is 90kmh, and 96kmh along Guillemard Road, where the limit is 40kmh.
He also allegedly ran multiple red lights and drove against the flow of traffic along several roads, including Ubi Avenue 2 and Lorong 28 Geylang.
During the pursuit, the car collided with five stationary vehicles along Paya Lebar Road and Guillemard Road before coming to a stop after crashing into a sixth car at the junction of Marine Parade Road and Still Road South.
The driver of the sixth car and his 15-year-old passenger suffered injuries.
Police said the teen fled on foot after the crash but was later arrested by traffic police officers.
Investigations further revealed that the car involved was a deregistered vehicle bearing a false licence plate. A vape and pod were also found in the car, although the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) took no further action following investigations due to insufficient evidence.
For the Jan 16 incident, the teen faces 10 charges, including dangerous driving causing hurt, driving while underage, using a vehicle without insurance, using a deregistered vehicle, using a vehicle without a vehicle licence, displaying a false licence plate, failing to stop after an accident, failing to render assistance, failing to stop when ordered by a police officer and providing false information."
Teen in high-speed police chase who collided with 6 cars handed 18 charges (28 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A teenager who allegedly drove multiple cars, including his grandmother's, while underage and uninsured was handed 18 charges on Thursday (May 28).
The 17-year-old had been arrested after a high-speed police chase in which he collided with six vehicles before fleeing on foot.
The teen cannot be named under the Children and Young Persons Act as he was under the age of 18 at the time of the alleged offences.
According to a police statement, the teen was involved in three separate cases of underage driving.
The first was on Jan 30, 2025, when the then-sixteen-year-old allegedly took his grandmother's car without her knowledge, as the ignition key was in the unlocked vehicle.
He drove for about one hour before returning the vehicle, the police said.
His grandmother called for police assistance after discovering her car missing."
Teo Siong Seng expands leave of absence to roles at NUS, shipping company PIL after US indictment (28 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Shipping executive Teo Siong Seng has expanded his leave of absence to his roles in the National University of Singapore (NUS) and shipping firm Pacific International Lines (PIL), following accusations in the US of conspiring to restrict the output and fix prices of dry containers.
In a statement on Thursday (May 28), Mr Teo also said he does not intend to seek re-election as chairman of the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) when his term ends on Jun 24.
It was previously announced that the industry veteran would take a leave of absence from his roles as SBF chairman, member of the Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce (SERT) and board member at Enterprise Singapore.
These will take effect from Jun 1, along with his leave of absence as Pro-Chancellor of NUS.
Mr Teo's duties will be covered by other members of NUS' chancellery, the university said in response to queries from CNA.
He has also applied for a leave of absence from his role as executive chairman and director of PIL with effect from Jun 8.
"I have proactively decided to take these leaves of absence to afford myself sufficient time to attend to this matter, and for the best interests of the aforementioned organisations," Mr Teo said in the statement.
SBF told CNA on May 22 that Mr Teo’s duties as chairman would be assumed by vice-chairman and treasurer Mark Lee.
Mr Teo, who is the CEO and chairman of Hong Kong company Singamas Container Holdings, is one of seven executives from shipping container manufacturing companies that the US Department of Justice named in the price-fixing conspiracy.
The alleged conspiracy went on for over four years, from November 2019 to at least January 2024.
The US Justice Department said that as a result of the conspiracy, the prices of standard shipping containers doubled between 2019 and 2021, increasing container manufacturers’ profits by about 100-fold during the COVID-19 pandemic and global supply chain crisis."
Nearly 2,000 speeding violations detected at school zones in first 3 months of 2026 since new rules (28 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A total of 1,918 speeding violations were detected in school zones in the first three months of 2026, following the implementation of a full-day speed limit at the start of the year.
The figures, covering the period from Jan 1 to Mar 31, come as authorities step up efforts to improve road safety in areas frequented by children.
The 40kmh speed limit at school zones near primary schools was previously in effect only during specific periods, such as during school arrival and dismissal times.
Since January, however, the speed limit has been extended to cover all hours of the day.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced the enhanced rules in 2025, noting that with more varied school schedules, the measure would create a safer environment for students, regardless of the time of day.
The Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in response to CNA's queries that the enforcement beyond traditional school hours is part of broader efforts to shape motorists’ behaviour and reinforce compliance with enhanced safety measures.
"School zones are areas where vulnerable children frequent and it is important to positively shape motorists' behaviour and reinforce the Enhanced School Zones to reduce risk of accidents," the police said."
Singapore should start youth on entrepreneurship earlier, says Dinesh Vasu Dash (28 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Singapore is looking to spark the startup instinct earlier, with plans to give secondary school and junior college students more chances to explore entrepreneurship.
This comes as the environment for young founders changes, with lower entry barriers, stronger support structures and artificial intelligence making it easier to begin, says Minister of State for Manpower Dinesh Vasu Dash.
Speaking to CNA in a wide-ranging interview, Mr Dinesh said Singapore should also build a culture where people are willing to take risks, learn from failure and think beyond the local market.
He added that the government’s approach is to support promising ideas across different industries, not just the hottest sectors like AI and biotech, while giving startups more pathways to scale locally and overseas.
Mr Dinesh co-chairs the Entrepreneurship committee, one of five looking at Singapore’s long-term competitiveness under the country’s Economic Strategy Review. Its mandate includes nurturing entrepreneurship and enhancing the competitiveness of Singapore’s startup ecosystem.
Barriers To Entrepreneurship Are “Much Lower”
Singapore has a vibrant startup network. Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) – the lead government agency championing enterprise development – said its ecosystem includes more than 4,500 tech startups, 400 venture capital firms and 220 incubators and accelerators.
Many startups operate from spaces such as LaunchPad @ one-north, run by JTC Corporation. The development offers 56,000 sq m of modular space for startups in sectors including biomedical sciences, infocomm, media and engineering.
JTC is also expanding LaunchPad into the Punggol Digital District, which focuses on digital industries and innovation.
Such spaces offer startups an ecosystem built for collaboration, said Mr Dinesh, who added that the path into business is easier today than before.
“What it means for a young person...is that the barriers to entry (are) much lower. So today, with the ability to start a company, it's actually very, very easy, with many of the grants that are available with EnterpriseSG and so forth,” he said.
EnterpriseSG currently offers schemes such as the Startup SG Founder programme, which provides mentorship and startup capital for first-time entrepreneurs, along with programmes that support overseas expansion, innovation and capability-building."
Pokemon Center Singapore to reopen on Jul 1 with refreshed interior and special-edition merchandise (29 May 2026)
"Following its temporary closure in April, the popular Pokemon Center Singapore will finally reopen on Jul 1 with a refreshed interior reflecting Singapore's heritage as well as special-edition merchandise.
The Legendary Pokemon Solgaleo has been chosen as the new symbol of the place, appearing on the store's refreshed logo and facade.
Fans visiting the store will also be greeted by a massive Solgaleo statue at the entrance. In addition, the revamped store now features a dedicated event space equipped with a large-format monitor, allowing it to host many events centred on the likes of video games, trading cards and more.
To commemorate the opening, Pokemon Center Singapore will have a slew of special-edition merchandise featuring artwork of Pokemon living in a Singapore-inspired cityscape.
The first wave of merchandise comprises 12 items and will go on sale at the reopening itself. These include a logo pin (S$10), a plush of Pikachu with durian (S$34), a metal plate (S$198) and more.
The second wave of products will be launched in August, which includes a bag charm depicting the beloved Pikachu and a cup of coffee."
Jail, caning for ex-police officer who posed as woman to molest teen boy and film others (29 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: An ex-police officer who disguised himself as a woman to sexually prey on teenage boys was sentenced on Friday (May 29) to three years' jail and four strokes of the cane.
While dressed in a dress and headscarf, Sharizal Shafi'ee, 40, approached three boys, asking them to help adjust his bra.
The first two declined. The third agreed, believing Sharizal was genuinely a woman in need of assistance, but was later molested by him.
Sharizal was a police officer at the time of the offences but has since lost his job.
He earlier pleaded guilty to five charges, all involving sexual offences against three teen boys, then aged 15 years old. These are for procuring the commission of obscene acts, molest and producing child abuse material by recording two of the teens in sexual acts.
Another ten charges of a similar nature were taken into consideration for sentencing. These include one amalgamated charge of voyeurism, as he had recorded videos of 32 men engaged in sexual acts for around six months.
His victims cannot be named due to a gag order protecting their identities.
Approached Victim As A Woman
On Apr 18, 2024, Sharizal left his flat wearing a long blue dress, a brown headscarf and makeup. He went to the back gate of a secondary school, where he approached a 14-year-old boy.
Claiming that he needed help adjusting his bra, he asked the boy to follow him. When the boy declined, Sharizal approached another youth, then aged 18. This boy also declined to help him.
About 10 minutes later, Sharizal approached a third teen — a 15-year-old boy who agreed to help, believing Sharizal was a woman in need of assistance. The boy followed Sharizal to a nearby staircase landing, where Sharizal gave him instructions on how to help.
As the teen stood behind Sharizal and tried to follow his instructions, the man molested him.
The teen filed a police report later that day, and Sharizal was tracked down and arrested on Apr 28, 2024.
A forensic examination of Sharizal's mobile phone uncovered numerous obscene voyeuristic videos."
Singer Frances Tan swapped law for music, now represents Singapore in Commonwealth Song Contest finals (29 May 2026)
"At 25, Frances Tan Si Min has already lived two very different lives. The Singaporean singer-songwriter graduated with a law degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science, interned at top local firms, then walked away from it all to pursue her dream of making music.
Now, her original song Just Me is one of seven finalists at the ongoing Commonwealth Song Contest 2026, up against entries from Australia, India, Nigeria, United Kingdom, Saint Lucia and South Africa. Public voting closes on Sunday (May 31).
The pivot to music wasn’t random. Tan wrote her first song at 13, too afraid to tell anyone about her secret love for the craft. "Growing up, I always loved music and dreamed of pursuing it one day," Tan told CNA Lifestyle.
Awestruck from her first-ever concert at 11 – Justin Bieber’s My World 2.0 concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium – Tan told her parents she wanted to pursue music, only to be laughed at as they said, “music should only ever be a hobby”. Embarrassed, she silenced her dream, vowed to "never bring this up to anyone ever again" and went on to law school.
"In my last year of law school, as I reflected on what I wanted to do after graduation, I realised that the little voice inside me, which I had ignored for 10 years, never went away," she said. "For the first time, I wondered: what if it is not a figment of my imagination, but actually a part of me?"
The realisation led her to New York University (NYU) where she completed a master’s in songwriting last year. The beginning of this journey led to the birth of Just Me. "I was so excited at the thought of living alone in [New York City] in my early twenties, finally pursuing music, which I had dreamed about my whole life, that a melody and lyric popped into my head while daydreaming," Tan says. "I ended up writing this song in one sitting."
It went on to win the UK Songwriting Contest's singer-songwriter category in 2024, before landing her a spot in the Commonwealth Song Contest finals.
The contest was open to 2.5 billion people across 56 Commonwealth nations. “To be chosen as one of the seven Grand Finalists this year, representing Singapore against six other countries on the global stage, is truly such an honour,” Tan said."
NTU student who tried to film women in hall toilet to be assessed for mandatory treatment order (29 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A Nanyang Technological University (NTU) student struggling to pay for his accommodation decided to obtain voyeuristic recordings for money after coming across an online advertisement offering payment for such material.
How Zhong Ting, 25, who was a third-year undergraduate at the time, then entered the female-only sections of a residential hall in an attempt to film such recordings.
He did not succeed in capturing any videos and was eventually caught after complaints were lodged against him.
How pleaded guilty to one count each of criminal trespass and attempted voyeurism on Friday (May 29), with another count of criminal trespass to be taken into consideration when he is sentenced.
At the close of the hearing, District Judge Terence Tay ordered that How be assessed for a mandatory treatment order (MTO), which directs offenders suffering from certain treatable psychiatric conditions to undergo treatment in place of other forms of punishment.
The court heard that How was a third-year aerospace engineering undergraduate at NTU and was staying at its Hall of Residence 14 at the time of the offences in 2025."
Singapore security employee union says it stands by officers involved in Hong Kong school principal incident (29 May 2026)
"SINGAPORE: The Union of Security Employees (USE) said on Thursday (May 28) that it "stands firmly behind" the security guards involved in a confrontation with a Hong Kong school principal in which he swore at them.
The secondary school principal, Mr Lee Cheuk‑hing, who was on a trip to Singapore with a group of students, was seen arguing with the guards over a parking matter at SAFRA Jurong in a video widely circulated on social media.
Mr Lee has since tendered his resignation from San Wui Commercial Society Secondary School in Tuen Mun and apologised for his failure to "lead by example".
The school had earlier suspended him from his post, with the school's manager saying: "Though he said he wanted to protect the students, his actions did not meet what the public expects of a school principal."
Providing its account of the incident, USE said that a chartered tour bus carrying 34 students from Hong Kong had stopped on the public main road directly outside the gates of SAFRA Jurong, along unbroken double yellow lines, on May 22 at about 5.30pm.
"The parked vehicle completely blocked the traffic entering SAFRA", and as this timing coincided with peak childcare dismissal hours, it caused a severe traffic bottleneck and prevented parents from driving into the compound to pick up their children, the union said in a Facebook post.
Frontline security officers then stepped outside and instructed the bus driver to either move into the premises to a designated rear drop-off area, or move so as not to obstruct incoming traffic.
"Instead of cooperation, their instructions were rejected. They were told to 'shut up', and received an aggressive verbal tirade of profanities and taunts," said USE.
"The tense situation dissipated when parents of the school children who were trying to go in to pick up their children stepped in to request the driver to move."
The union said that the principal "immediately altered his demeanour" and cooperated, telling one of the parents that she was "very polite".
"This incident created intense, unnecessary friction for a whole ecosystem of ground-level workers, including our frontline security officers who faced significant hostility while executing their public safety duties, and the local bus driver caught in an operational bottleneck between passenger demands and traffic regulations," the union said.
It added that one of the security officers had made an official police report over the verbal abuse and obstruction.
In response to a query from CNA on Friday, the police confirmed that a report had been lodged over the incident."
Spare the rod, spoil the child? Adults who were caned as children disagree (29 May 2026)
"When Ms Joline Lim's mother was spring-cleaning her family home a few years ago, she discovered a dusty stash of canes in different lengths and thicknesses, strategically hidden behind a large wardrobe.
As a child, Ms Lim was caned by her mother for being naughty. To avoid being punished, she would hide the canes behind the cupboard or lock herself in a room.
Her mother did not catch on to the graveyard of canes, but she did remove the locks on every room in the house – bathrooms included – so that her daughter could not hide in a locked room.
To Ms Lim's mother, caning as a disciplinary tool was only the "natural" course of action because she herself was caned as a child.
Ms Lim recounted: "I remember thinking we were like Tom and Jerry, as she chased me around the dining table with a cane in hand." She was only spared the rod when she turned nine years old.
Now 40 years old, Ms Lim is the director of social enterprise Chapter Zero, and she can look back and laugh at these memories today.
However, the tears she shed while being caned and the fear she felt were enough for her to decide that she would never use the same tool on her son, aged 10, and daughter, seven.
The debate around corporal punishment for children has returned to the public spotlight, after the Ministry of Education (MOE) last month announced stricter disciplinary measures to tackle bullying and serious student misconduct.
First-time offenders of serious misconduct face one to three days of detention or suspension, or both, as well as an adjusted conduct grade.
Older boys may receive one stroke of the cane if aggravating factors are present.
In parliament earlier this month, Education Minister Desmond Lee said that caning is used alongside a suite of restorative and disciplinary measures.
The move has divided some parents in Singapore, with some viewing caning as an effective deterrent to bad behaviour, and others worrying about its effects on a child's development."
Heng Swee Keat named first chancellor of Singapore Institute of Technology (3 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education Heng Swee Keat has been appointed the inaugural chancellor of the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), the university said on Wednesday (Jun 3).
The appointment took effect on Monday and will last for a five-year term, ending on May 31, 2031.
As chancellor, Mr Heng will serve as SIT’s highest-ranking ceremonial office holder and ambassador.
He will preside over key university ceremonies, including convocations, and represent the university at major institutional and external engagements.
Mr Heng will also support SIT in strengthening partnerships and advancing strategic priorities, such as industry and philanthropic engagement.
"The establishment of the role of chancellor reflects SIT’s continued evolution and commitment to advancing its mission of nurturing industry-ready graduates and driving innovation through applied learning, industry collaboration, and research," said SIT.
Mr Heng said he was honoured to be appointed SIT's inaugural chancellor.
"SIT occupies a distinctive and important role in Singapore’s higher education landscape, preparing graduates with applied skills, industry experience and the confidence to contribute meaningfully to society and the economy.
"I share SIT’s conviction that applied research and deep industry partnership are not complementary to education — they are central to it," he added.
Chairman of SIT’s board of trustees Bill Chang said Mr Heng is "widely respected for his distinguished service, visionary leadership and steadfast commitment to Singapore’s development", particularly in education, innovation and economic transformation.
"In fact, SIT was gazetted as Singapore’s fifth autonomous university while Mr Heng was Education Minister, to provide more opportunities for industry-relevant upskilling and lifelong learning," Mr Chang added."
Hong Kong principal fired for swearing at security guards on Singapore school trip (4 June 2026)
"A Hong Kong school principal has been fired after he swore at security guards during a student trip to Singapore last month, the institution has announced.
The management committee of San Wui Commercial Society Secondary School in Tuen Mun announced on Wednesday (Jun 3) the immediate dismissal of principal Lee Cheuk-hing and its refusal to accept his resignation, submitted about a week after the confrontation.
The committee received Lee’s resignation letter on May 28, with his requested last day to be Aug 31.
“If he were to remain in office as principal before Aug 31, it would gravely disrupt the operation of the school and prevent the school’s teachers and students from moving forward as soon as possible,” the management committee said.
“This constitutes the immediate dismissal of Mr Lee and the removal of all his duties at the school.”
The statement added that the school confirmed Lee’s “vulgar” behaviour during the exchange tour violated the professional code of conduct for teaching staff, especially guidelines stipulated by the Education Bureau.
The committee emphasised that as the head of the institution, Lee was held to a higher standard by parents and the public to set a positive example.
Edmund Wong Chun-sek, a former lawmaker and currently a manager of the school, said the one-off incident would not affect the hiring of Lee’s replacement.
“I believe an isolated incident will not discourage dedicated, capable and aspiring educators from applying for this principalship,” Wong said."
He added that the decision to fire Lee was guided by the best interests and well-being of students."
Commentary: If your child’s myopia keeps getting worse, having new spectacles isn’t enough (5 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: When I tell parents that their young child’s spectacle prescription has increased again within a year, they are sometimes almost too calm about it. They see it as simply “updating glasses” annually and making the child sit farther from the television or reducing screen time.
This reaction is understandable in Singapore, where myopia is so common that it is seen as an ordinary part of childhood for many, harmless besides the need to wear spectacles. But this normalisation is a concern.”
Nearly 60 per cent of 12-year-olds and 80 per cent of teenagers in Singapore are short-sighted. Although the rate of myopia in Primary 1 children has recently dropped to 26 per cent, there is still a significant number of children between 7 and 17 years with high myopia coming in for professional consultations.
We experience myopia as blurred vision, but there is actually a structural change happening: The eye is elongating abnormally. Earlier onset of myopia gives the eye more time for the eye to continue elongating abnormally.
This increases the risk of a more severe version, called high myopia. In my practice, I have seen young patients with mild myopia develop high myopia within just a year or two. Families may assume this is simply growing up, until they learn how this also increases their risks of serious eye diseases later in life, including retinal detachment and glaucoma, which can lead to vision loss. A stronger prescription may sharpen vision, but it does not address the underlying progression.
Myopia Is A Chronic Condition
Myopia care has evolved in the past decade, from simply correcting vision to actively managing its progression. This may seem small, but it is an important nuance.
It doesn’t stop at making a pair of spectacles. Treatment needs to be tailored to the child’s age, rate of progression, lifestyle, eye condition and needs. This requires monitoring over time, identifying risk factors and measuring axial length (the length of the eye from front to back).
Axial length reflects how the eye itself is growing. Two children may have similar spectacle prescriptions, but very different patterns of eye growth and long-term risk profiles.
That’s why myopia should be managed over time, like any other chronic condition, with regular follow-ups and early intervention to help improve outcomes."
Fresh graduates may need to adjust salary expectations amid economic uncertainty: Analysts (5 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Fresh university graduates may need to moderate their salary expectations as wage growth this year is expected to vary across sectors amid global economic uncertainty, said analysts.
This comes after findings from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM)’s School-to-Work Transition Study showed that graduates across most disciplines earn less than they had expected when entering the workforce.
The survey, conducted in 2025, polled about 2,500 Singapore resident graduates aged 22 to 28 who held at least a bachelor's degree.
It examined employment outcomes and early career experiences, including salary expectations, to better understand how graduates transition from education to employment.
According to the study, the most common reason university graduates turned down a job offer was low pay, with 30.6 per cent of respondents saying so.
Meanwhile, about a quarter – or 26.7 per cent – said they were waiting for a better offer.
Other reasons included a lack of interest in the role, an unsuitable work environment, and limited opportunities for career advancement."
Mother jailed for giving 15-year-old son methamphetamine, leaving drug utensils in living room (5 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A woman was sentenced to four years’ jail on Friday (Jun 5) for giving her then 15-year-old son methamphetamine and the utensils he needed to smoke it.
The 52-year-old woman and her husband, the boy’s stepfather, provided drugs to him from January 2025 to June 2025.
They also left various drug utensils in the living room where he could access them, and admitted to giving him another utensil on another occasion.
All parties cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim.
In January 2025, the boy chanced upon some drug utensils in the sink at home. He was curious and asked his mother what they were for, the court heard.
His mother, who pleaded guilty to two charges under the Misuse of Drugs Act on Friday, told him that they were utensils for smoking methamphetamine, which caused the boy to consider doing so.
Over the next few months, her 15-year-old son went on to smoke methamphetamine once every two to three days, using the various drug utensils left in the open.
The couple were both arrested at their home in June 2025, and officers found improvised drug utensils after searching the unit. The man’s case is still before the courts."
An all-nighter, six articles and an NTU campus newspaper born again (5 June 2026)
"In the wee hours of the morning on Apr 8, the lights remained on in a small room at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
As most of their peers lay sound asleep in bed, a group of about 13 students, with the help of a few alumni and faculty advisers from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI) were still up working for a common purpose: they had a campus newspaper to bring back to life.
It had been around six years since the last time an article was published in The Nanyang Chronicle, a student-run publication dating back to July 1994.
The paper had put up a notice on its website that it was undergoing a "transformation" to adapt to a new media landscape and how audiences consume news, with a new online version promised by August 2020.
That, however, never materialised – until now.
That early morning on Apr 8 this year, the Media co-Lab at NTU buzzed with activity as students hopped from desk to desk and screen to screen, poring over stories with the closest scrutiny, their makeshift newsroom thrumming with energy.
At the break of dawn, once every word and photo had been quadruple-checked, they hit "publish" on their brand new website. Just like that, The Nanyang Chronicle was alive again.
"The articles weren't perfect, but publishing everything that night gave us a lot of satisfaction," said Ms Eunice Chin, a second-year student at NTU and chief editor at the Chronicle.
"It's a blur in my memory now, but it was also really fun."
That evening was the culmination of an effort led by NTU WKWSCI students Ms Sharon Tay, 20, and Ms Nooraishah Karim, 23, who had initially approached the school to start a new student-run newspaper to practise the journalistic skills they were learning in class.
The administration counter-offered: Instead of birthing a new beast, why not resurrect the sleeping giant?
A slate of six articles were put out that morning to kick off the Chronicle's new era.
Among the stories was a piece examining students' backlash behind NTU's renaming of The Hive (its world-famous "dim-sum" building), an article digging into concerns over the school's halal food variety, and a human-interest feature on students saving fallen bats on campus.
The stories received considerable interest among former NTU students – especially those once affiliated with the Chronicle. An article on campus-specific indie matchmaking platforms also made the rounds on social media sites such as Reddit, garnering about 1,000 views in a single weekend.
It was a victory for the group who did not have any expectations of how the articles would perform.
Yet the paper's six-year hiatus that preceded that hectic all-nighter is indicative of the odds stacked against student publications today.
In a media landscape inundated with content and shaped by shrinking attention spans and news fatigue, what is a student newspaper actually for?"
I was raised to say 'I love you' to my parents. Now I understand why others don't (5 June 2026)
"Growing up, my brother and I were trained to greet our father the same way every day.
"Daddy, good morning. I love you."
My mother always made sure we said it once in the mornings, and again in the evenings when he came home from work.
"Daddy, good night. I love you."
We kids said it without thinking. My parents said it back in the same way. No big deal; just part of the everyday routine.
Part of it came from church where, at Sunday school, we were taught to honour our parents in our daily life, which can come in the form of greetings, the way we spoke to them, and how we expressed care and appreciation for them.
Saying "I love you" felt natural in that setting.
For a long time, I assumed this was the norm.
Then as I grew older, going from primary school to secondary school, I started to notice that not everyone seemed to share the same norms.
Must Affection Be Spoken Aloud?
You do not need statistics and surveys to see how affection works in Singapore. You just have to pay attention.
At a coffee shop, a parent tells her adult child not to order too much food, but digs into the extra dish with gusto anyway, savouring the thought that the child wants her to be well-fed.
On the bus, someone receives a text message: "Going to rain. Bring umbrella." No greeting, no emoji, nothing else.
At the void deck of a public housing block, a father waits longer than necessary, then when his child arrives, says he was just there to pass time.
Nothing here sounds like "I love you". But it's there, beneath the curt words and brusque delivery.
This way of expressing care is often described as practical. It can take the form of reminders, corrections, or what feels like unnecessary scolding.
A child does well on a test but, instead of receiving praise, is asked where the missing marks went. A teenager gets home late and is censured for breaking curfew before being given the opportunity to explain.
Viewed on their own, these moments of "tough love" can feel tiring.
For many parents of my own dad and mum's generation, love was not about making their children feel good – it was about providing them with stability and making sure they were taken care of in concrete ways such as food, shelter and education.
In that context, saying the words "I love you" was not always necessary.
It was more important to do all the things that testified "I love you"."
How a boy and his eagle in Mongolia helped a grieving Singaporean son to let go – and create the book he needed (6 June 2026)
"The first time Siyuan Aw met Bekku, the 17-year-old was standing on top of his family’s hut somewhere in Mongolia’s Altai Mountains, phone raised skywards trying to catch a signal and frustrated by the choppy connection.
And then he called out to his golden eagle, which emerged from the clouds and landed on his outstretched arm. It was a bond unlike anything Aw had witnessed.
That encounter would eventually become the seed of a seven-year book journey, which resulted in Our Wings As One, a debut picture book that was recently shortlisted for the Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award 2026.
When The World Got Too Loud
Back in 2018, Aw had arrived in Mongolia dealing with burnout and grief. The 43-year-old Singaporean had been working as the chief strategy officer of a leading advertising agency in Shanghai, where he was consumed by the relentless pace of agency life.
“Everyone seemed to have something to say about everything,” Aw recalled. “My world was getting louder, noisier,” he said. “My phone was a prison. I lived inside it – small, pixelated, trapped.”
The noise surrounding Aw felt impossible to escape – and the grief he had already been dealing with finally dismantled it all. The quick death of his mother from cancer a few years ago had marked a profound rupture inside him.
“Despite my profession as a brand strategist, I never successfully strategised myself out of my grief,” he recalled.
Gradually, something inside him shifted and not long after, Aw decided to leave the high-octane city of Shanghai and head towards the high-altitude wilderness of West Mongolia.
“It was not about escape,” he said. “I went there to listen again. To remember the language of silence.”
The Boy And The Eagle
In Ulaanbaatar, a chance encounter with local English teachers led Aw deep into the Altai Mountains, where he stayed with a local family – the first foreigner to have done so, he was told. They were a tribe of eagle hunters, whose lives remained closely tied to the rhythms of the mountains.
Bekku was one of them.
Aw’s early interactions with his new young friend were awkward, bridged eventually by his Canon 5D camera. The two slowly bonded over photography, with Bekku taking Aw on adventures through the mountains.
Despite his age, Bekku sometimes surprised Aw with moments of unexpected insight, what he called “wild wisdoms.”
"Why do you close your eyes when you're connecting with your eagle in the sky?" Aw had asked him once. "Because the language of our heart needs silence," Bekku replied. "When we close our eyes, we amplify the inaudible whispers of our soul."
In another instance, Bekku told him: "My eagle guides me everywhere I go. When I call my eagle, I connect with her spirit. When we fly in the sky, we fly as one."
Aw was mesmerised by their bond. "We became chasers of twilight, dreamers on rooftops. We would lie beneath the clouds and let our imagination run free. We would chase sunsets not to catch them, but to remember they existed,” he wrote in his journal."
'Never poorer for helping': The first Singaporean high sheriff in Wales wants to make volunteerism a norm (6 June 2026)
"These days when the high sheriff of Gwent in southeast Wales attends formal events she shows up dressed in a kebaya.
Unlike her predecessors, current office holder Mrs Shereen Aziz Williams is Singaporean and wants to pay homage to her birth country and cultural identity, even though she has set roots in her adopted home for the last two decades.
During our interview over Zoom this week, Mrs Williams, switched between English and her mother tongue Malay with as much ease as you'd expect of a typical Singaporean ordering food at a hawker centre.
We even spent a good part of our 90-minute conversation exchanging jokes in Malay.
"I speak more Malay when I'm in Singapore because I have some relatives, especially the elderly, who are more comfortable conversing in Malay," said the 44-year-old mother of three, whose parents still live in Singapore in Tampines.
"And I also try to find as many opportunities to speak it there, because there's very little opportunity to do so here."
Another typical Singaporean quirk emerged during our conversation. The self-professed tiger parent let slip that before our interview, she told her 16-year-old son to sit quietly nearby and do revision for his mathematics exams.
When her children try to ask her to be less stressed about their school examinations because they are not national exams or the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), her response is always: "It doesn't matter. It's an exam, you still need to study."
If they continue whining, she usually adds: "This is the Welsh side of you. No self-respecting Singaporean will ever say these exams don't matter."
I found it particularly interesting how strongly her Singaporean identity came through, given that she has not only been living in Wales for 21 years, but has also been an active member of the community there.
Almost from the get go after arriving in Swansea, she started work in non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community spaces that looked at helping to foster cohesion and helping victims of domestic violence, among other things.
Over the years, she has received multiple awards and appointments recognising her outstanding contributions to the community.
The latest feather in her cap – being appointed high sheriff of Gwent, and being the first Muslim to hold the appointment there and reportedly the first Singaporean too.
There are 55 high sheriffs appointed in England and Wales each year, one for each county and metropolitan area, with individuals fulfilling the role for a year. Since Apr 9, she has been representing the county of Gwent, which has a population of about 600,000."
Why ballet may prepare my daughter for the AI age better than tuition (6 June 2026)
"The average Singaporean primary schooler spends three hours a week in tuition.
My nine-year-old daughter Claire spends double that time in a dance studio.
At 8pm on a Friday night, she's volunteering to stay behind after her ballet class. Not to practise her dance moves, but to be a teaching apprentice instead.
Shadowing her teacher, Claire helps younger dancers correct their posture and maintain their ballet poses, among other things.
In a society built on efficiency, risk aversion and ROI (return on investment), backing my daughter to spend that much time developing an interest or a potential career outside the typical Singaporean aspiration list of doctors and lawyers raises plenty of eyebrows.
This is especially evident during family dinners and gatherings, when questions about her apprenticeship focus on how it'll affect her job prospects in adulthood.
"But what's she really going to do in the future?"
"I hope you're not neglecting her schoolwork."
"You should shift some of your budget to enrichment classes instead."
Although these are well-meaning critiques, we're holding fast to our belief that this decision to let her spend more time at her ballet school rather than in a tuition class will serve her well in an uncertain future.
Our belief isn't based on blind idealism or the "follow your passion" cliche.
In a future where analytical reports, illustrations, videos and mathematical problems can be generated with artificial intelligence (AI) and solved in a matter of seconds, a pertinent question is whether current curricula are adequate or even relevant for her future.
And so, will surviving, or even thriving, in the current system really deliver education's implicit promise?
What I See In The Education Realm
To be clear, I'm definitely not neglecting my daughter's education. She attends weekly Chinese tuition classes with her eight-year-old brother.
Every day, I see the value of a strong academic foundation, as my wife and I run an online education centre helping students who struggle with their science subjects.
When our students first enrol, we notice that they are often unsure about the subject and have little confidence in engaging in discussions about science. Then, as they learn and gradually build their mastery of the subject, they begin to speak up, share their opinions and carry themselves with confidence.
But from my vantage point, I also see the cracks.
In an uncertain future, the advantage people will have won't be from memorising a textbook or just academics.
Rather, what will give my daughter a leg up is to specialise in something that is difficult to replicate – perhaps a skill set like being able to communicate well with different audiences – paired with interpersonal intelligence and the values required to lead a room."
Hong Kong principal fired over Singapore row says he will seek legal advice (8 June 2026)
"A Hong Kong school principal who was sacked after he swore at security guards during a student trip to Singapore has expressed “shock and regret” over his immediate dismissal, saying he will seek legal advice on his employment rights.
Lee Cheuk-hing, former principal of San Wui Commercial Society Secondary School in Tuen Mun, said on Friday (Jun 5) that he had appointed legal representatives to review his dismissal, after the school board rejected his resignation and terminated his contract with immediate effect on Jun 3 without compensation.
Edmund Wong Chun-sek, a former lawmaker and the school manager, said the board had not received any formal statement from Lee, and that it would take its own legal steps should he bring in representatives to challenge his dismissal.
Lee was filmed swearing at security guards during a May 22 school trip in Singapore, prompting his suspension and an Education Bureau investigation.
"I offer my sincere and utmost apology to all affected parties," Lee said in a statement, adding that he had "severely condemned" himself for the lapse in emotional management and would "take it as a lifelong lesson".
This was his second apology over the incident.
On May 28, he released a tearful video apologising to Hongkongers and "all sectors" in Singapore, bowing to the camera and urging students not to follow his example.
Lee said in the statement that the dispute arose when a bus driver and security guards, who were speaking in English, failed to communicate effectively over where to unload passengers.
He added that he intervened to protect the minors in his care and to defuse the confrontation.
Lee highlighted his track record since taking up the post in 2022, noting that enrolment had surged from about 330 to roughly 540 students, a more than 60 per cent increase, while the school grew from 17 to 18 classes.
He also credited his leadership with improving teaching quality and community outreach.
Lee said that he had already submitted his resignation on May 28 to protect the school's overall interests and allow for a smooth handover, providing enough notice as required by his employment contract.
While Lee had requested that his last day be Aug 31, the board stated that his remaining there would "gravely disrupt the operation of the school and prevent the school's teachers and students from moving forward as soon as possible".
In a statement issued on Jun 3, the school board said that it dismissed Lee with immediate effect in accordance with the sponsoring body's direction and the Employment Ordinance, which allows employers to terminate a contract without notice or payment in lieu on certain grounds."
Omura's whale carcass found in Singapore can help scientists unlock mysteries of little-known species (8 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: The whale found floating off Singapore's coast last September is helping scientists uncover new insights into one of the world's least understood baleen whale species.
After months of preservation work involving defleshing, cleaning and degreasing, researchers at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (LKCNHM) have reduced the carcass to its skeleton.
Now, its preserved skull and ribcage will help tell the story of the rare visitor to Singapore waters, and the risks marine life faces in some of the world’s busiest seas.
The animal has since been identified as a male Omura's whale, which marine biologists believe reached its late teens before its death.
It measured about 10.6m from nose to tail, while its preserved skull alone measures 2.64m, making it one of the most significant marine specimens ever recovered in Singapore waters.
A Rare Discovery
For LKCNHM researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS), the find was both unexpected and invaluable. They received news of the carcass while attending a scientific symposium and quickly mobilised to investigate.
"It was a moment of shock...Seeing the whale for the first time was amazing – sad but amazing," recalled Ms Natasha Tay, a specialist associate at the museum.
The whale was already heavily decomposed when it was found drifting near a wharf off Tanjong Pagar.
“In Singapore, it's quite difficult to encounter large marine life. It's unfortunate that the animal died. But it's something we get to keep – it's part of Singapore's natural heritage,” said Alex Figueroa, a LKCNHM research fellow."
Declining fertility a global challenge that no one has answers to, but efforts still worth it: PM Wong (8 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Declining fertility is a challenge facing countries all over the world, with no ready solution to address it, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Monday (Jun 8). However, efforts to deal with the issue are still worth pursuing, he said.
“It's a global challenge. It's happening everywhere in the world. No one has the answers for now,” said Mr Wong, during a session of the Singapore Press Club’s Eminent Speaker Series.
He noted that people once thought declining birth rates happen only when a country reaches a certain level of income, which is why it was believed it happened more with affluent societies.
“But nowadays you look around the world, even developing countries are having declining birth rates below replacement levels,” he said.
Mr Wong said that countries have put in “a lot of resources to try and stop the decline and to encourage marriage and parenthood, but there has been no enduring success”. Some countries have temporarily succeeded in boosting birth rates, but the numbers eventually come back down, he said.
Singapore’s total fertility rate had dropped to a new low of 0.87 last year.
Mr Wong said that the Singapore government has not given up and is still trying to work on the issue, with a new workgroup led by Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Indranee Rajah.
The approach is to think about it “less as a procreation incentive, less of a baby bonus” for couples, and instead look at what more can be done to create a family-friendly environment in Singapore, such as addressing young parents’ concerns around education, childcare and housing, he said.
“At the end of the day after doing that, I may not get more babies, but it's still worth doing,” he said.
“That's our approach: Try to make things better for families in Singapore. Because families are a key pillar of our society, and we want Singapore to be a place that's friendly and conducive for families to thrive and flourish.”
Why these MOE teachers left familiar classrooms to teach the Singapore curriculum overseas (10 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: When he first moved to Hong Kong for work, Mr Lim Wei Yi felt homesick for three months. After a decade teaching in Gan Eng Seng School, the 37-year-old had successfully applied for a posting at the Singapore International School in Hong Kong (SISHK), trading the familiar for the foreign.
Now into his second year, Mr Lim has adjusted to life in the city. But he is candid about the early days.
“I won't lie and say that I wasn't homesick, because Singapore is still at least about four hours away,” he said. “We are far away from our friends and family, and naturally, I'd be a bit homesick because my loved ones are all in Singapore.”
The language barrier also took some getting used to. While English is the main language within the school, outside is a different picture, with Cantonese and Mandarin used frequently.
Mr Lim's spoken Mandarin is "fine", but he has been picking up Cantonese from colleagues over lunch. Two years in, he has mastered a handful of phrases that have made daily life a little easier. "Siu siu," he said with a laugh – "a little bit" in Cantonese.
Mr Lim is among about 30 Ministry of Education (MOE) teachers currently posted overseas, teaching at SISHK and various overseas Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) locations. The ministry has about 33,000 teachers in total.
Hong Kong is home to one of the largest Singaporean expatriate communities in Asia, with over 20,000 residents.
“Generally, teachers would have served in MOE for at least three years and possess the necessary expertise and knowledge to be considered for such secondments,” an MOE spokesperson told CNA.
Beyond providing development opportunities for teachers, the arrangement also helps ensure that Singaporean students overseas can “integrate seamlessly into the Singapore education system upon their return”, said the spokesperson.
SISHK arranges induction sessions to support seconded teachers, who cover subjects including English, mathematics, science and humanities at the primary and secondary levels.
For teachers posted to SAF locations, a two-week understudy period forms part of the onboarding process, said a Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) spokesperson. The SAF has detachments in France, the United States and Australia.
Teachers are also briefed on administrative matters such as parent engagement, teaching resources and timetabling. “This will ensure the teachers are adequately prepared for their roles in SAF locations,” MINDEF said."
Boy, 3, drowned in condo pool while unsupervised; coroner's court finds nanny 'not forthcoming' (11 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A three-year-old boy who was at the playground of his condominium with his nanny rode off on his kick-scooter and fell into a pool, where he drowned.
While the nanny initially "insisted" that she had paid full attention to him and lost sight of him only while turning to place a water bottle on a bench, her account was contradicted by closed-circuit television footage and her subsequent admission.
In her findings on Thursday (Jun 11), Coroner Brenda Chua returned a verdict of death by accidental drowning and emphasised the importance of close supervision of young children.
This is especially when they are playing near swimming pools, she said.
The Case
The identities of the boy, his parents and the name of the condominium are protected by a gag order. The name of the nanny was not revealed in open court.
The court heard that the 60-year-old nanny had looked after the boy since he was eight months old and had a "very good" relationship with him.
The boy called her "nai nai", meaning grandmother.
He lived in a condominium unit with his parents, who employed the nanny to care for him.
On Mar 5, 2025, the boy went downstairs to the playground with his nanny, as was his routine after dinner. He brought along his kick-scooter, which he had used for one to two years.
The nanny claimed that she did not bring her phone to the playground that day as she wanted to pay "full attention" to the boy, and that she had not talked to anyone else.
She said she lost sight of him after she turned around to place a water bottle on a bench at the playground.
The boy sped towards the main pool and tried to turn left. However, he was too close to the edge of the pool, which had a downward-sloping edge, and fell into the water with his scooter.
There was no physical barrier around the 1.2m-deep main pool. The boy was 1m tall.
At 6.15pm, a resident spotted the boy and his scooter in the pool from her unit and called the police.
When officers arrived about 10 minutes later, the boy had been rescued from the pool. Paramedics attempted to resuscitate him but to no avail.
He was taken to hospital and declared dead that same evening. An autopsy found the cause of death to be drowning."
Authorities investigating cyberattack on Singapore-based Global Schools Foundation (17 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Authorities are looking into a cyberattack on the Singapore-based Global Schools Foundation, which operates private schools through Global Schools Group in multiple countries, including Singapore.
The Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC), Singapore's main data protection regulator, told CNA on Wednesday (Jun 17) that it is investigating the case.
In addition, the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) said on Jun 15 that its Singapore Cyber Emergency Response Team (SingCERT) had reached out to Global Schools to offer advice on securing its servers.
Cybersecurity news websites BreachNews and DataBreaches.net have reported on the matter - with the first article appearing on Jun 11 - saying that students' personal information such as addresses and passport numbers was compromised in the incident, as well as email correspondence between staff and parents and salary records. Around 4.8TB of data was stolen, according to reports.
According to cybersecurity firm Moxfive, FulcrumSec emerged in September 2025. Ransomware tracking sites have attributed more than 20 victims to the group, including Australian fintech firm youX, legal information provider LexisNexis, engineering consultancy Arup Group and environmental services company Interzero.
The group claimed this week that it had hacked pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk and said it was exploring selling parts of the data after unsuccessfully demanding US$25 million from the Ozempic maker.
In a statement to CNA on Jun 17, a spokesperson for Global Schools Group said it had recently experienced a cybersecurity incident and was assessing its impact.
The spokesperson said the cyberattack had been "promptly addressed" with the support of external specialists, that the affected systems had been restored, and that relevant regulatory and law enforcement authorities had been notified.
The group added it had "contained" the incident but did not address FulcrumSec's specific claims about the scope of the data breach or the types of data accessed.
"We take all such incidents seriously and the security and privacy of our students, parents, staff, and stakeholders remain our highest priority," the group said."
Driver who crashed into school bus carrying ACS kids to be charged with dangerous driving, drink driving (17 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A 29-year-old man who crashed his car into a school bus while speeding in 2024 will be charged on Thursday (Jun 18) with a slew of offences, including drink driving.
The police said they were alerted on Mar 6, 2024, at about 6am that a black car had driven and stopped against the flow of traffic along Cavenagh Road.
“When police officers arrived and approached the car, the driver sped off,” said the Singapore Police Force (SPF) in a press release on Wednesday.
About 15 minutes later, officers spotted the car speeding along Bukit Timah Road towards Upper Bukit Timah Road.
It weaved dangerously through traffic between Coronation Road and Anamalai Avenue, reaching an average speed of at least 114 kmh, said the police.
This exceeded the speed limit along that stretch of the road, they added.
The car ran a red light at the traffic junction of Bukit Timah Road and Sixth Avenue, and collided with a school bus making a U-turn there.
Four students from Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) were on the bus at that time, the school told CNA then.
The car veered to the left, collided with a lamp post, and came to a stop on a grass verge where it caught fire.
The school bus was badly damaged, losing both its front wheels due to the crash. Its windscreen was also smashed.
The car’s driver and his three passengers escaped from the burning vehicle, said the police.
The four of them, along with two boys on the bus, then aged 8 and 9, were taken to hospital. The car driver was arrested afterwards.
Investigations revealed that he had consumed alcohol before driving.
“He is a repeat offender and was previously convicted in 2019 for drink driving and inconsiderate driving,” said the police."
Inclusive playground opens in Tampines, featuring Singapore's first slide for wheelchair users (17 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A slide designed with wheelchair users in mind – the first of its kind in Singapore – is among the inclusive features of a new playground at Sun Plaza Park in Tampines.
The Magical Bridge Playground, opened by the National Parks Board (NParks) on Wednesday (Jun 17), offers wheelchair-accessible equipment, barrier-free routes, as well as amenities for people with autism.
It is open to visitors of all ages and abilities.
The slide was developed by the United States-based non-profit Magical Bridge Foundation, with what it terms as a "slide-and-sit landing".
Wheelchair users, aided by their caregivers, will start their play at the top of the slide. When they reach the bottom, there is a flat bench-style landing next to the slide.
This allows them to move to the side landing while waiting for their caregiver to attend to them or for their wheelchair to reach them. It also allows other people to use the slide in the meantime.
The Magical Bridge Foundation deals with innovative and inclusive playground designs, with 14 such playgrounds around the world.
The playground at Sun Plaza Park is its first collaboration with NParks and its second project in Singapore. The first is located near the front lawn of the National Museum of Singapore.
To better support visitors with low vision, contrasting colours are used for the playground equipment and surfaces."
Driver who crashed into school bus charged with dangerous driving injuring bus driver and 2 boys (18 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A man who crashed his car into a school bus in 2024 was charged on Thursday (Jun 18) with dangerous driving, drink driving and driving against traffic, among other offences.
The incident along Bukit Timah Road in the early morning of Mar 6, 2024 left a burning car on the road and injured the bus driver, two school boys and the man's own passengers.
Tan Yao Cong, a 29-year-old Singaporean, was handed five charges on Thursday: Drink driving, dangerous driving causing hurt, driving against traffic, failing to provide a breath specimen and allowing his vehicle to remain at rest, causing danger to others.
According to a police statement, the police were alerted to a black car driving against the flow of traffic along Cavenagh Road at about 6am on Mar 6, 2024.
When approached by the police, the driver sped off.
Police officers spotted the car zooming along Bukit Timah Road towards Upper Bukit Timah Road, weaving dangerously through traffic and beating a red light before colliding with a private bus making a U-turn.
The car collided with a lamp post and stopped on a grass verge before bursting into flames.
The driver and his three passengers escaped from the burning car. The passengers, along with two boys from the bus, were taken to hospital and the driver was arrested.
For dangerous driving causing hurt, a repeat offender can be jailed for up to four years, fined up to S$20,000, or both. He can also be banned from driving for five years."
Repeat offender with diarrhoea fetish jailed for targeting boys in secondary school (18 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Over roughly five years, a man with a fetish for watching teenage boys having diarrhoea and stomach cramps targeted school boys by posing as a schoolmate conducting a survey for a purported project or experiment.
He then asked the victims to describe their experiences with food poisoning or diarrhoea, sometimes asking for videos or asking the boys to consume substances that gave them diarrhoea in order to obtain videos.
Chew Jun Yang, Sean, a 36-year-old Singaporean, was sentenced to jail for six years and one month on Thursday (Jun 18).
He pleaded guilty to 11 charges, which include cheating by personation, sexual communication for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification, causing hurt by an unwholesome drug and deceiving a person into creating intimate recordings by false representation.
Another 17 charges were taken into consideration.
The Case
The court heard that Chew contacted a total of at least 30 potential or actual victims from 2018 to 2023.
He asked many of them for personal information such as their name, gender, age, race, height, weight, school and co-curricular activity.
At least 19 of them provided some or all of the requested information to him. At least 10 of them provided one or more personal photos to Chew at his request.
According to a July 2025 report from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), Chew suffers from a fetishistic disorder.
His fetish involves hearing and seeing videos of prepubescent males aged 13 to 15 having stomach cramps and diarrhoea.
Chew has had this fetish since he was 17 to 18.
At the time, his disorder had no contributory link to the offences, and he was aware of the legal and moral wrongfulness of his actions."
From rehab to recovery: The journey out of vape addiction - and why it's rarely a straight road (19 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: The first thing Emily (not her real name) did every morning was reach for her vape - a habit she picked up after friends pressured her to try it at school when she was 13.
By 15, Emily had started to use Kpods, which are vapes laced with etomidate. The addiction left her struggling with brain fog and frequently skipping school and work.
“I started to vape because of stress, but after a while, it became a habit,” said the now 19-year-old.
"The hardest part was convincing myself I didn't need to vape."
Her turning point came during a six-month stint at the Reformative Training Centre (RTC) last year for an unrelated offence. There, she attended a rehabilitation programme that included weekly counselling sessions.
The sessions taught her to better manage stress, which in turn helped with her vaping addiction.
"I found out that I bottled my feelings up too much," Emily said. “I would let it build and build until my breaking point.”
While Emily underwent rehabilitation through a general programme, her experience reflects some of the challenges counsellors encounter when working with vape users trying to break free from addiction.
Ms Nicolina Ng, a counsellor at the National Addictions Management Service (NAMS), said that many participants develop greater self-awareness over the course of rehabilitation.
They become better able to identify the situations, emotions and people that trigger their cravings, while learning healthier coping strategies to manage them.
Since anti-vaping enforcement was stepped up in September last year, 520 offenders have been placed on vape rehabilitation programmes as of Mar 31, according to the Health Sciences Authority (HSA).
Of these, 123 have completed their rehabilitation, while 10 have reoffended.
Research shows that outcomes among participants of mandatory rehabilitation programmes can be comparable to those who engage voluntarily, provided the therapeutic approach is appropriately tailored, said Ms Eliza Yong, a senior counsellor at NAMS."
Exchange student gets jail for stalking ex-friends, accessing their Telegram accounts to find out why they cut him off (19 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: To find out why two girls stopped being friends with him, a 23-year-old man hired a hacker from the dark web to get access to their Telegram accounts and read their conversations.
Kevin Gao, an American exchange student, was sentenced to 20 weeks' jail on Friday (Jun 19) for his actions. He also stalked one of them and another former friend - both girls were 17 at the time.
He had gotten to know all three of his victims online through communication platform Discord and gaming platform Roblox.
Deputy public prosecutor Ashley Chin asked for seven to nine months’ jail for Gao, emphasising his “egregious and escalating” conduct, and noting that all of his victims were under the age of 18 at the time.
Gao’s lawyers, Mr Victor Lau and Ms Ong Hui Wen from Drew and Napier, argued for a two-month jail sentence.
Both the private psychiatrist and the one with the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) agreed that the man suffered from major depressive disorder with anxious distress, his lawyers said in their mitigation plea.
The IMH doctor found that his condition may have contributed to his crimes – his feelings of worthlessness and heightened anxiety significantly compromised his judgment and reasoning capacity, resulting in poor decision-making, Mr Lau noted in court on Friday.
Gao also engaged in self-harm on two occasions, cutting himself with glass in August 2024 and attempting suicide while in remand in January 2025, he added.
The abrupt termination of his friendships with his victims triggered his actions and affected his decision-making, Mr Lau said, adding that Gao’s behaviour was “erratic, subnormal and demonstrates a lack of control”.
He also stressed that Gao was a young university student isolated in a foreign country, and that the age gap between him and his victims was not that significant, calling for the judge to place more importance on rehabilitation than deterrence.
In considering the need to deter him from reoffending, Mr Lau highlighted that Gao will be deported immediately after his sentence concludes.
“Both doctors opined that once Kevin is back in his home country with the requisite familial and social support, his risk of reoffending is low,” he added.
Responding to the defence, Ms Chin disagreed with their characterisation of Gao’s behaviour as “erratic”, given that he hired Russian hackers to hack into Telegram accounts, and tried to call his third victim at least 1,000 times.
The IMH report also notes that Gao was not completely deprived of his ability to control his actions, and he could understand that his actions were wrong, she added.
Noting Gao’s mental condition, District Judge Ong Hian Sun nonetheless agreed with the prosecution that he must still be held responsible for the harm caused to the three young victims and sentenced him to 20 weeks in jail.
Telegram Hacking
Gao got to know his first two victims in 2020 on Discord and they became online friends. In 2022, one of the girls started distancing herself from him because she no longer wanted to be his friend.
He stayed friends with the other girl, the court heard. According to his lawyers, Gao travelled to Singapore twice a year to visit her – they hung out and went sightseeing at tourist attractions, sometimes with her mother present.
Gao came to Singapore in August 2024 for an exchange programme at Nanyang Technological University ending in December 2024. That month, when he was in Singapore, the second girl stopped responding to him because she also no longer wanted to be friends with him.
Desperate for an explanation, he went to her house multiple times between Aug 1 and Aug 12 to confront her about why she had cut off contact. He also sought out her mother, but her mother could not offer him any closure and advised him to see a therapist, his lawyers said.
Her last message to him on Aug 12, 2024 read: “Hello. We cannot be friends anymore. You have caused me a lot of mental distress over the years. Please move on with your life, do stop contacting me or my mom.”
The girl eventually filed a police report against him and Gao received a stern warning for unlawful stalking a month later.
Upset that she had reported him to the police and still curious about why she had cut him off, he decided to search for “hacking services” on Telegram.
He intended to access the Telegram accounts of both girls because he believed that by reading their messages, he could find out why the second girl had cut him off, the court heard.
Gao’s search led him to a Russian hacker forum on the dark web, where he found one named “Wracker” advertising his services for US$1,500 in Bitcoin.
He contacted Wracker on Telegram and asked if they could help him gain live access to the two girls’ Telegram accounts. The hacker said they could make it happen for a total fee of US$3,000, and Gao hired them, providing them with the two girls’ Telegram usernames."
These stay-at-home dads started a workshop to help fathers style their daughters' hair (20 June 2026)
"A group of fathers are gathered together, laughing and chatting over pizza, drinks and other snacks.
But that's not all they're doing.
Some are concentrating intensely. Others are exchanging tips. Some are fiddling with hair ties while a few are struggling to keep three thick strands of synthetic hair from slipping through their fingers.
This is not a Friday night out. This is Dads and Braids.
Founded by longtime friends and stay-at-home dads Jeggan Rajendram, and Rukshan Chiththananda, it's a hands-on workshop where fathers learn how to style young girls’ hair.
Dads and Braids, which had its first run in April this year, was inspired by similar initiatives overseas, including Pints and Ponytails, and Braids and Beers.
Each session lasts for about 1.5 hours. There, Rajendram and Rukshan guide fellow fathers as they practice on mannequin heads and learn simple hairstyles for girls. These include basic ponytails, twin braids, criss-cross ponytails and styles accessorised with colourful hair ties, ribbons and clips.
The first few sessions took place in the cosy function room of the condominium estate where Rajendram and his family live, with about a dozen fathers turning up. Food is provided and lounge chairs are also available in case anyone needs a break.
Dad Can Do It Too
The idea for Dads and Braids began after Rajendram left his high-ranking role at Meta in January, following a period of burnout.
The 41-year-old Singaporean father of two girls, aged four and two, said he had been exhausted and mentally consumed by work, even on weekends when he was physically with his family.
“To let go and relax, I took a trip to Sri Lanka with my elder daughter to bond and spend quality time with her, while my wife and younger daughter stayed at home,” he said.
During that trip, however, he realised something both embarrassing and sobering: He had no idea how to do his daughter’s hair.
“Throughout the trip, all I could manage was a messy ponytail,” Rajendram said. “I could sense my daughter, who’s used to showing off beautiful hairstyles done by my wife and our helper, was slightly disappointed.”
When they returned, Rajendram was determined not to make his daughter feel that way again. More than that, he wanted to prove to himself and his family that he was just as capable of styling his daughters’ hair, even though he never had to manage long hair himself.
Luckily, he could turn to his friend Rukshan, who had also left his role in health tech product management at the end of 2024 to be more present for his own four-year-old daughter.
Rukshan had started learning how to style his daughter’s hair after becoming a stay-at-home dad and taking charge of her daycare drop-offs and pick-ups.
“I would drop her off with just combed hair,” the 38-year-old said, laughing. “I remember her daycare teacher would give me the side-eye. When I picked her up later in the day, her hair would be beautifully done up, as if the teacher was trying to tell me in the best yet subtle way: This is how you do your girl’s hair.”
He wasn't 'smart enough' for studies. Now, he owns five drum schools and holds a Guinness World Record (20 June 2026)
"Three glass doors barely muffled the beats thundering from Mr Er Chow Kiat's studio in a quiet corner of Katong Shopping Centre.
Inside, there was just a drum kit and recording gear, but the wall outside the little glass cave told a different story. It was lined with framed media reports, accolades and, most recently, a Guinness World Records certificate.
In May, Mr Er set the record for the most spin-and-strike drumbeats in one minute – 233 beats in 60 seconds, to be exact – a feat that drew in this journalist, whose jaw slightly dropped as he demonstrated it live.
The 36-year-old's hands seemed to blur as he deftly performed the flashy, crowd-pleasing drumstick flourish.
Mr Er, known to others in his circle as CK or Chow, has become known for this trick, having performed it while drumming for the likes of Taiwanese singers Angela Zhang and WeiBird, guitarist Paul Wong from Hong Kong rock band Beyond, and Brazilian guitarist Mateus Asato who used to play for pop singer Bruno Mars.
Besides an illustrious career as a live performer, he has spent the past decade running Drum Tutor Singapore, a drum school he founded in 2016.
What first started as a home-based outfit where he taught about 30 students out of his parents' four-room flat in a public housing block has since grown to a school with 20 staff members and five outlets across Singapore that have seen more than 1,000 students.
But drum prodigy Mr Er was not. He picked up his first drumsticks only at 14 years old, at a time when he was struggling with schoolwork and felt directionless in life.
"I wasn't a particularly great student...I'm not the studious kind," he said. "My Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) result wasn't the best, and my parents were really concerned."
He remembered the shock of receiving his PSLE result: 159 out of 300 points.
He later sat his O-Levels as a private candidate – after not being able to progress to Secondary 5 with his N-Level results – but did not meet the polytechnic admission threshold.
"For a long time, I thought I wasn't smart enough," he said.
As a teenager, he would not have envisioned the opportunities that opened up for him later – including a full-ride scholarship to one of the top modern music schools in the United States, a year of performing on cruise ships while travelling around the Caribbean and, now, running a business that teaches others to love playing the instrument that sustained him."
World Cup sparks enrolment surge at football academies in Singapore (22 June 2026)
"The World Cup is fuelling a surge in football interest among kids across Singapore, with some youth academies seeing their usual enrolments double in June. Retailers are also scoring wins, with sales of youth jerseys and football boots soaring.
Industry players say the tournament is inspiring more children to take up the sport and pursue football development pathways. Alxis Thng finds out more."
Trafficking fears and red flags: Singapore couples caught up in botched overseas adoption attempts (22 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Singapore adoptive parents Sarah and Adam were in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, waiting nervously at a fast-food restaurant to meet a baby they were looking to adopt when a woman walked in with the newborn in her arms.
After a brief conversation, the woman told the couple to “take now...bring this baby back now”.
The couple was shocked – their adoption agent did not turn up, there was no paperwork and almost no information about the child.
They left without taking the baby.
That was in July last year. They then learnt that the circumstances of their case bore similarities to a baby-trafficking case spanning Indonesia and Singapore.
Eighteen women and one man are currently on trial in Indonesia for their alleged roles in a baby-trafficking syndicate that has links to adoption “agents” in Singapore.
CNA reported earlier this month that the court in Indonesia was told that at least four people in Singapore were allegedly involved in the trafficking of about a dozen babies, under the guise of adoption.
According to court records seen by CNA, Lie Siu Luan, also known as Lily, 70, confessed in a May 26 trial session to trafficking babies to Singapore and receiving anywhere between S$17,000 (US$13,200) and S$21,600 per child.
Those on trial are accused of selling at least 34 babies between 2022 and 2025. Prosecutors allege that Lie was the mastermind and ringleader of the group.
The court was told that the four people in Singapore who were in contact with Lily were known as “John”, “Petter”, “Mr Tan” and “Mr Chew”.
Lily described them as “adoption agents from Singapore” who had existing clients.
CNA has contacted the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF) for more information on whether any person in Singapore has been arrested or charged in connection with the case.
In January, MHA and MSF said in a joint statement that they were aware of the allegations. The ministries said then that the Singapore government was working closely with its Indonesian counterparts to review these allegations."
A mother’s awkward first period talk with her daughter: What she learnt from fumbling through it (22 June 2026)
"I was 12 years old when I got my first period – in school. Although I had a vague idea of what it was, nothing prepared me for it. I did not know what to do and was embarrassed by my stained skirt.
When I became a mother, I imagined the “period talk” as one calm, reassuring conversation where I would have all the right words. But motherhood has a way of humbling you, no matter how many parenting books you read or experts you interview.
That moment arrived at the supermarket, when one of my daughters – around six or seven years old then – asked why I was buying “diapers”. I was picking up sanitary pads.
I took that as a sign the conversation did not need to happen in a single scripted moment. So, I said, nonchalantly, that girls bleed every month when they grow up and need pads. In hindsight, this was probably not an ideal first introduction to menstruation. Certainly not in the middle of a supermarket aisle.
“What? Every month?! Why?!” she exclaimed, horrified. I awkwardly explained in simple terms how menstruation occurs. After fumbling over the correct anatomical terms (the gold-standard approach experts recommend), I eventually shushed her increasingly animated questions.
It was not the calm “period talk” I had envisioned. But that moment also taught me that it was less about explaining everything perfectly and more about getting over my own discomfort.
Dr Yeong Huiqing, resident physician at DTAP, pointed out that the awkwardness often comes more from the parent than the child. “Children often take cues from adults, so when we stay calm and open, they tend to feel comfortable too,” she said.
Rather than a one-off “big talk” about periods, Dr Yeong advised treating it like a normal conversation about another health topic.
“The goal is to normalise it, not dismiss it, helping her see it as a natural part of growing up,” she said.
“You do not need to go into too much detail at once, as that can feel overwhelming or confusing. Keep it simple and gradually layer in more information over time as they are ready.”
When Should Parents Start The Period Talk?
Experts agreed that earlier conversations about menstruation are generally better. Do not wait till the first period, known as menarche, before broaching the topic.
“The average age of menarche is around 12 years of age, with breast development occurring approximately two years earlier,” said Dr Judith Ong, a consultant with the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at National University Hospital’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
That said, anything from ages nine to 15 is still considered “normal”, added Dr Yeong.
“A good time for parents to have a conversation about periods would be when they notice their daughter has started to, or is going through puberty (breast development, pubic or underarm hair growth, or a growth spurt),” said Dr Ong."
Degree holders may need to rethink job security assumptions as retrenchment patterns shift, say experts (23 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: For 46-year-old Steven Neo, losing his job as a senior programme manager at a global tech giant was more than a financial shock – it was a profound loss of an identity that he tied to his work.
“As a dad in an Asian community, I think there are a lot of societal expectations of what a guy and a dad should be as a breadwinner,” he said, adding that he got through the initial grief at his retrenchment with the help of his wife and young daughter.
Like most Singaporeans, he had been conditioned to follow a traditional script.
“The traditional route that Singaporeans are being educated on is you study hard, get a good degree, and then you are able to get a job,” said Mr Neo, who has a bachelor’s degree in information systems and a master's degree in business administration.
So when told in mid-2025 that he was being laid off, Mr Neo was stunned because of the lifetime of education and effort that had gone into his 25-year career.
Mr Neo’s experience embodies a shift observed in retrenchment trends in recent years that is challenging long-held expectations about what gives a worker job security, said experts speaking to CNA.
In the latest quarterly market data, degree holders experienced a sharply higher retrenchment incidence, rising from 2.6 to 3.1 retrenched per 1,000 resident employees – higher than those with lower educational qualifications.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said this figure from the first quarter of 2026 suggests that company restructuring remains concentrated among higher-educated workers, reflecting ongoing restructuring in professional and knowledge-intensive sectors."
NLB unveils timeline for upgrades to Queenstown, Ang Mo Kio libraries (23 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Ang Mo Kio Library will close on Aug 1 ahead of its relocation, while Queenstown Library will close temporarily from Aug 31 for a revamp, the National Library Board (NLB) said on Monday (Jun 22).
Ang Mo Kio Library is due to reopen at its new location at AMK Hub on Nov 20, NLB said in a Facebook post. Its last day of operation at its current location is Jul 31.
During the relocation period, patrons can visit the self-service Browse-n-Borrow kiosk and Sit-n-Read Node located on level 4 of AMK Hub.
Patrons may also visit nearby libraries in Bishan, Yishun and Toa Payoh to continue accessing library resources, NLB said.
“Patrons can look forward to greater connectivity and a refreshed library experience inspired by the green spaces and landmarks iconic to the neighbourhood,” added NLB.
Queenstown Library, which is a gazetted conserved building, will be temporarily closed for revamp “following extensive preparatory work due to its status as a gazetted conserved building”.
It will have its last day of operations on Aug 30, and is scheduled to reopen in late 2028.
“As Singapore’s oldest public library, its iconic facade will be preserved,” said NLB.
Patrons will have to wait for more details on alternative services available during the closure."
Two teens to be charged over roadblock evasion, crash that injured police and LTA officers (23 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Two teenagers will be charged in court on Wednesday (Jun 24) over separate incidents involving the evasion of a police roadblock, including one case in which a rider allegedly crashed into officers and caused serious injuries.
In that incident, a 16-year-old boy is accused of riding an unregistered vehicle at high speed as he approached the roadblock along Commonwealth Avenue West on the night of Mar 21, 2025.
He collided with a traffic police officer and a Land Transport Authority (LTA) officer.
The 44-year-old LTA officer suffered severe injuries, including a brain injury, a fracture to his knee, a muscle tear and a sprained ligament, the police said in a media release on Tuesday.
The 28-year-old traffic police officer suffered a head haematoma, abrasions and hip pain. A haematoma is a closed wound where blood collects because it cannot flow or drain out.
Both officers and the teenager were taken conscious to hospital, the police said.
The teenager will be charged with reckless driving causing grievous hurt, reckless driving causing hurt, evading a police roadblock, underage driving, using a motor vehicle without insurance coverage and using an unregistered vehicle.
If convicted of dangerous driving causing grievous hurt, which carries the highest penalty among his charges, he could face between one and five years’ jail if this is his first conviction.
He could also be disqualified from driving all classes of vehicles.
15-Year-Old To Be Charged With Evading Roadblock
The other case took place at the same roadblock.
A 15-year-old boy was allegedly riding an unregistered personal mobility device (PMD) on the road when he spotted enforcement officers.
“He mounted the pavement, abandoned the personal mobility device and fled on foot together with his male pillion rider,” said the police.
“Both were subsequently detained by traffic police officers.”
The teenager will be charged on Wednesday with evading a police roadblock, riding a personal mobility device on a public road, riding a personal mobility device on a footpath and riding an unregistered registrable personal mobility device on a footpath."
Commentary: Dear You shows it’s time to rethink Singapore’s dialect ban in public media (24 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: The commercial release of Dear You has become about so much more than just one Chinese movie.
After Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) initially permitted only the Mandarin-dubbed version for general release, there was a steady outcry for more audiences to be allowed to watch it in its original Teochew language, beyond festivals or niche events.
The authorities have since said they were open to more Teochew screenings of the movie and said it would take a “more flexible approach” in considering applications for screenings of dialect films in cinemas.
This development is welcome. But this episode has reopened a broader discussion that keeps coming back: How should Singapore update how it manages dialect content today?
Singapore Has Changed
The Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) reiterated the government’s stance of promoting Mandarin as an official language with a unifying role among Chinese community, while acknowledging the connection between dialects and Singapore’s cultural heritage.
This has been a consistent position since Singapore’s independence in 1965. The initial intentions of the Bilingual Policy were intertwined with the aims of nation building. English was framed as a tool for economic development, racial equality and national unity, while the three official Mother Tongues – Malay, Tamil and Mandarin – rooted Singaporeans to their cultural heritage.
Only 0.1 per cent of Singapore’s population spoke Mandarin most frequently at home, according to the 1957 census. The promotion of Mandarin was also meant to improve communication and help achieve social cohesion across the diverse Chinese linguistic groupings.
After more than 60 years of the Bilingual Policy and 47 years since the launch of the Speak Mandarin Campaign, Singapore’s sociolinguistic milieu and circumstances have drastically changed.
Dialects Do Not Impede Learning of Mandarin
I believe that the broad policy objectives are themselves sound, but we are long overdue a review of how these policies are implemented. This is especially regarding the restrictions on dialects in media such as film, radio and free-to-air TV, where dialects only exist in news bulletins and specifically approved programmes.
It has to be emphasised from a linguistic perspective that there is no empirical evidence that being exposed to Chinese dialects will impede one’s learning of Mandarin, more so than any other language that the individual is already aware of.
Any suggestion that this is the case is borne of ideological belief rather than actual linguistic study. Language interference effects when learning a new language do exist, but these effects are due to pre-existing languages in an individual’s repertoire, and interference can be from any language, not just dialects deemed to be culturally more similar.
In the case of young Singaporeans today, English is more likely to interfere with their learning of Mandarin, not dialects."
Two Singaporeans dealt with under ISA; teen subscribed to 'salad bar' mix of extremist ideologies (24 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Two self-radicalised male Singaporeans were dealt with under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in March, including a 19-year-old influenced by what the Internal Security Department (ISD) has called "salad bar" extremism.
Both cases of radicalisation were triggered by the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ISD said on Wednesday (Jun 24).
Cyrus Dzulqarnain Al-Shahriar, a 19-year-old student, was issued a restriction order under the ISA.
He was self-radicalised online by Composite Violent Extremism (CoVE) and subscribed to pro-Hamas, anti-LGBTQ, anti-Western beliefs and violent incel ideologies, said ISD.
In the other case, 30-year-old customer service officer Tarmizi bin Mohd Taha was issued with an order of detention under ISA.
ISD said that Tarmizi was a staunch supporter of Hamas and aspired to travel to the Palestinian territories to join the group. He indicated that he would be willing to undertake armed violence against Israel or conduct attacks in Singapore, if instructed by Hamas, said ISD.
Both cases are unrelated.
"Salad Bar" Extremism
Cyrus' case highlights CoVE, which ISD has previously referred to as "salad bar" extremism.
In 2022, Cyrus joined several online religious discussion groups to learn more about Islam, where he was exposed to anti-Western and anti-LGBTQ content. He later made online posts inciting violence against the LGBTQ community.
Following the Hamas attacks against Israel on Oct 7, 2023, Cyrus was exposed to a proliferation of pro-Hamas narratives online.
"He came to support Hamas and their violent actions, including their killing of civilians, which he viewed as a form of jihad," said ISD.
In 2024, Cyrus had considered travelling to Gaza to join the group and take up arms against Israelis on the front lines of the conflict. However, he did not make preparations to do so, as he lacked the resources to travel overseas and was fearful of engaging in physical violence.
In mid-2024, Cyrus encountered social media posts by members of a niche online Islamist extremist group which subscribed to violent accelerationist ideas.
The group advocated creating “chaos” through violence to establish a future with Islam as the leading global civilisation, said ISD.
"They believed that they needed to destroy the current 'world order', where first world countries, including Singapore, were considered an extension of the United States, and under the control of Zionists," the agency said.
After joining the group's private chat group in early 2025, Cyrus' support for extremist violence deepened.
According to ISD, he was influenced by the group’s support for Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) offensive against then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, before its collapse in December 2024, as well as the Oct 7, 2023, attacks.
He began glorifying terrorist attacks that targeted Westerners, including Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks in 2001 and the 2002 Bali bombings, and made online posts glorifying these attacks.
At the request of one member, Cyrus went to the Esplanade area twice to take photos of an e-publication authored by members of the group, with Marina Bay Sands in the background.
As part of a pledge of allegiance to the group, Cyrus uploaded these photos to his social media account in November 2025.
He then saw himself as a member of the group and began participating in “digital jihad” efforts, which involved harassing users online who were deemed to be anti-Islam so as to “combat American and Zionist movements”, said ISD."
Preschool director charged with cheating ECDA into disbursing S$14,000 in childcare subsidies (24 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A director of a preschool allegedly deceived the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) into disbursing more than S$14,000 (US$10,800) in childcare subsidies and falsified the enrolment and attendance information of several children.
Hoo Sian Chin, a 46-year-old Malaysian and Singapore permanent resident, was charged on Wednesday (Jun 24) with six counts of cheating and four counts in relation to the falsification of records.
Hoo was the director of Lighthouse Educare during the alleged offences committed between November 2017 and January 2020.
He is accused of deceiving ECDA into delivering childcare subsidies to Lighthouse Educare – ranging from S$300 to S$7,400 – for children purportedly enrolled at the school.
He is also accused of instigating someone named Gu Wenhui to make false entries by falsely recording a child's attendance in the preschool's records for the period between July 2018 and October 2018.
In March 2019 and February 2020, Hoo allegedly made false entries on his own while recording the attendance of children in the company records.
He did not indicate how he would plead, but asked for time to seek legal advice.
The case was adjourned to July."
Deep Dive - Is the stay-at-home dad becoming Singapore's new normal? (25 June 2026)
"More Singaporean fathers are leaving the workforce to become stay-at-home dads and take on more caregiving responsibilities. Amid concerns about lower household income, slower career progression and higher cost of living, is this a realistic choice for most families? How should couples decide who stays home and who goes to work?
In this week’s Deep Dive, Steven Chia and Tiffany Ang sit down with Eugene Lim and Ryan Kong, two stay-at-home dads on the challenges and rewards of their decisions and what advice they would give to other dads who are thinking of making the switch."
Commentary: Why Dear You hit us so hard – and what it says about our feelings toward ‘dialects’ (25 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Why did a film from China, shot almost entirely in Teochew language on a modest budget with mostly non-professional actors, create such a storm in Singapore?
Tickets for the initial eight screenings of Dear You in Teochew were reportedly snapped up in under two hours. Days later, all 4,800 tickets to eight additional screenings were sold out about an hour after they became available on Monday (Jun 22). Some declared online that they would cross the Causeway to Johor Bahru just to watch the film in its original language.
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) had earlier decided that a Mandarin-dubbed version would be used for general release, with the Teochew version only allowed for festival and niche screenings. This has sparked swift and passionate debate about Singapore's language policies.
Local filmmakers Eric Khoo and Jack Neo wrote a forum letter, calling the policy “outdated”. My colleague Luke Lu penned a CNA commentary questioning whether it is time to rethink restrictions on Chinese “dialects” in mainstream media. But is this really all about the policy?
Buzz Over Films With Dialect
It seems that every time a film uses a Chinese “dialect”, it creates a buzz disproportionate to the occasion.
Two years ago, How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, a Thai film with only a handful of lines in Teochew, touched a raw nerve across Singapore, mine included. Over two decades ago, Jack Neo's Money No Enough, with its generous portions of Hokkien, was a home run at the local box office. Other films have drawn similar, if quieter, public fascination.
What is it about films with “dialect” in them?
Everyone has been quick to point to the Speak Mandarin Campaign. Launched in 1979, it aimed to make Mandarin the unifying language for Singaporean Chinese, sacrificing in the process Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese and other non-Mandarin Chinese languages. (They are not actually “dialects”, which are variants of a single language.)
In fact, the campaign was so successful that these languages no longer threaten Mandarin. It is English that does. The conditions that justified restricting “dialect” media in 1979 do not describe Singapore in 2026.
The policies speak of the ghost of a past anxiety. But the ghosts alone cannot explain how passionate the response has been.
A Grief For What's No Longer Spoken
And here is what I think is really going on: People are responding to loss.
The fervour around Dear You is not, at its heart, disagreement with a policy. It is grief. It is grief for a language that is dying.
According to the 2020 census, only 1.4 per cent of Singaporean Chinese aged 5 to 34 used a Chinese “dialect” as their most frequent language at home. Among those aged 60 and above, that figure was 31.6 per cent.
The people buying those tickets are not, by and large, fluent Teochew speakers seeking to improve their vocabulary. Many of them are probably not even Teochew themselves.
They are people who may have once heard this language and have since lost access to it. People buy the tickets also because the film promises them something increasingly rare: A few hours of hearing a language that has become, in their own lifetimes, a kind of novelty.
What Dear You does, and what How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies did before it, is give that language loss a narrative shape. These films do not romanticise the loss. We do.
And we do so precisely because the Singapore outside the cinema is no longer speaking the language. The Teochew in these films is not incidental. It is part of what gives them their emotional force.
Remove the Teochew, and you have a family drama. Keep it, and the story becomes an elegy that speaks of memory, inheritance and disappearance."
Nearly 4 in 5 Singapore adults with anxiety or depression don't seek professional help: Duke-NUS study (25 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Nearly four in five adults in Singapore living with anxiety or depression have not sought professional help, a study by Duke-NUS Medical School has found.
However, most are open to receiving support from peers, highlighting that informal, community-based support could help address unmet mental health needs, according to the findings published in the Singapore Medical Journal last month.
The study drew on data from an online survey of 350 adults experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression, conducted as part of a broader initiative examining the economic impact of these mental health conditions, Duke-NUS said on Tuesday (Jun 23).
Why Many Stay Silent
Researchers from Duke-NUS and its collaborators, including the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), found that 77 per cent of respondents had not sought care from mental health professionals such as psychiatrists, psychologists or social workers.
Associate Professor Daniel Fung, senior consultant at IMH’s department of developmental psychiatry, told CNA that concerns about privacy and confidentiality remain major barriers to seeking help.
“There is still a fair bit of stigma and fear of judgement in regards to mental illnesses, because it's perceived as a kind of a weakness in the individual,” added Assoc Prof Fung, a co-author of the study.
“Particularly in workplaces, people are a bit more cautious about letting their colleagues or their employers know, because they feel that their jobs might be affected. Sometimes, people also normalise the symptoms of a disorder.”
He noted that generally, many people in Asian cultures tend to be more reserved about sharing personal and emotional struggles, viewing such matters as "very personal and private" rather than something to be openly discussed.
Despite the reluctance to seek professional help, 62 per cent of respondents said they would be willing to receive support from peers with similar backgrounds or lived experiences.
The study also found that 51 per cent preferred one-on-one peer support over group-based interactions, while 43 per cent would be more comfortable receiving help virtually."
School bus operators allowed to raise fares by up to 20% in July and August: MOE (26 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: School bus operators will be allowed to impose a temporary fuel surcharge of up to 20 per cent on fares for July and August, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said on Friday (Jun 26), citing elevated fuel prices.
“Operators are discussing any fare adjustments with schools and communicating these to parents during the June school holidays, so that parents can plan their transport arrangements when the school term starts,” the ministry added.
The government previously announced temporary support measures for school bus operators, covering services provided from April to June, after fuel prices surged during the conflict in the Middle East.
In May, the support was increased from the equivalent of 13 per cent to 20 per cent of transport fare revenue.
At the time, MOE said that operators would be able to impose a “time-bound” fuel surcharge to offset higher operating costs from July, should fuel prices remain elevated. It also advised schools to "reasonably consider" requests from contracted transport operators to raise bus fares for off-site activities.
The ministry said on Friday that it will “continue to track the shifting fuel price situation closely and review the fuel surcharge cap where appropriate”.
Students on the MOE financial assistance scheme will not see any increase in fares paid out of pocket, as they will receive additional school bus subsidies to cover any increases in their school bus fares.
Those who require additional support or who do not qualify for the financial assistance scheme can approach their schools for school-based assistance."
World Cup fever drives surge in youth football enrolment in Singapore (26 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: The FIFA World Cup may be taking place thousands of kilometres away, but its impact is being felt on football pitches across Singapore.
Youth football academies told CNA that interest in the sport has surged since the tournament began earlier this month, with more children being enrolled in training programmes after watching their heroes compete on the world stage.
TRetailers are also benefiting from the football frenzy, reporting strong growth in sales of youth jerseys, football boots and World Cup collectibles.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is the biggest in the tournament's history, with 48 teams playing 104 matches across Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Young Footballers Inspired By World Cup Stars
At Foundation Football Club, enrolment for its June holiday camp exceeded 60 participants, more than double the turnout for a similar camp held during the March school holidays.
Founder Leanne Teo said the World Cup has helped put football at the forefront of conversations among young players.
“They're discussing what happens during matches, all the highlights. They're talking about it, they're mimicking it, they're copying some of the moves. They are also getting a bit competitive with each other,” she added.
Training sessions also incorporate elements of the tournament.
"We do World Cup-themed matches, and they pick the teams, or they fight over...what team they want to represent this time, depending on the performance of the country."
Founded earlier this year, the academy hopes to create more development pathways for young footballers, including opportunities for them to progress into higher-level competitions and potentially connect with international scouting programmes.
Growing Interest In Football Pathways
At Get GungHo FC Celtic Soccer Academy, chairman Paul Adamberry said the World Cup is encouraging more young players to take football seriously.
He said that the number of parents signing their children up for free football trials has risen by about 40 to 50 per cent in recent weeks.
More notably, the conversion rate from trial sessions to paid training programmes has increased by about 80 per cent compared with normal levels.
“For children watching their favourite soccer star or national team compete in the World Cup, (it) definitely encourages them to want to play more, participate, get involved in tournaments, train harder,” Mr Adamberry said.
The academy caters to both recreational and competitive players. Mr Adamberry said about 70 per cent train recreationally, while around 30 per cent choose to join its competitive teams, including those that compete in the Singapore Youth League."
Teen in iJooz straw-licking case set to plead guilty in July (26 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A French teenager facing criminal charges in Singapore for a straw-licking stunt will enter a plea next month in a case that went viral on social media, a court heard on Friday (Jun 26).
Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, who turned 19 on Thursday, is accused of posting to social media a video of himself putting a straw he had licked back into the dispenser on an iJooz vending machine.
His clip went viral and triggered a backlash that led to his arrest in Singapore.
His lawyer told a district court on Friday that his client - who was not present at the hearing - would enter a plea on the afternoon of Jul 13. Court documents indicate the case has been fixed for a guilty plea.
Maximilien, who is studying in Singapore, is out on bail. The court had, in late April, allowed him to leave Singapore for a three-week internship in Manila, a requirement for him to graduate. He has since returned.
The teen had uploaded the video on Instagram knowing that it "would or would probably cause annoyance to the public", according to court documents detailing the charges.
A second charge of committing mischief said Maximilien knew that he was "likely to cause wrongful loss or damage" to iJooz. The orange juice vending company had to replace all 500 straws in the dispenser.
Both offences were allegedly committed on Mar 12."
As a doctor, I see patients with fertility issues, but can't decide if I want kids (26 June 2026)
"As Singapore grapples with a historically low birth rate, I find myself paying more attention to public discussions on the subject than I did in my twenties – not least because I am turning 33 soon. This means I'm reaching a stage of life where the question of whether or not to have children starts becoming difficult to delay.
When I was younger, the issue felt distant. There were other priorities competing for my attention: education, career progression, financial stability, travel and relationships.
Having children or not was a decision I assumed I would eventually arrive at – when the time was right.
Yet here I am, rapidly approaching my mid-30s – and still none the wiser about whether children are right for me.
Among friends my age, more than half are still figuring out if they want children, regardless of whether they are single, engaged or married. Across the board, many are fearful of making this decision too hastily, in view of the commitment and responsibility involved.
The Pros And Cons of Parenthood
While many decisions in life can be deferred, fertility is one of those that comes with a deadline.
When it comes to parenthood, some individuals have always envisioned themselves as parents, while others have long known that children are not part of their plans.
Others, like myself, are simply at the crossroads.
When I imagine having children, I can see the appeal. I think about family structure, the unique experience of bringing up and caring for a new life, and the intimacy of a parent-child bond. I imagine the sense of purpose and connection that many parents, such as my friends and colleagues, have described.
At the same time, I am aware of the many sacrifices involved.
Parenthood drastically changes one’s schedule, budget, career and personal goals. I shudder to think about the loss of freedom, drained finances and never-ending caregiving responsibilities – from bathing and diaper-changing with toddlers to dealing with hormonal mood-swings from pre-teens.
Women feel these concerns particularly significantly, as the demands of domestic work and child care are often borne disproportionately by mothers.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2023 found that in Southeast Asia, women spend 4.2 times as long as men doing unpaid care work, compared to the global average of 2.2 times as long. During the COVID-19 pandemic years, for instance, women were more likely to shoulder the burden of extra duties associated with homeschooling and childcare while schools were closed.
However, at this point of my life, the bigger fear still is that one day, I may realise that I wanted children after all – only to discover that I have missed the boat entirely."
I thought my daughter was learning spelling for school – but she was also learning gender stereotypes (27 June 2026)
"Weeks into starting formal education last year, my youngest daughter brought home her Primary 1 spelling booklet, its corners still perfectly crisp and the pages pristine.
She proudly showed me the cover, on which she had haphazardly written her name and class. She was excited to challenge herself, first on a weekly list of words, then a combination of words and sentences as the year progressed.
Curious about what she and her classmates would be tested on, I flipped through the booklet. For each word, there was an accompanying “sample” sentence illustrating how to use the word. How helpful, I thought, no more learning words in a vacuum.
But as I scanned the pages, I thought perhaps it would have been better to omit the sample sentences entirely – there were numerous instances of gender stereotyping throughout the year-long list.
In the world of this spelling booklet, women and men were expected to behave in certain ways – a woman's place was in the home while the man did everything else.
“Father reads the newspaper” while “Mother bakes a cake”. In one of the weeks, “Grandmother sews a dress for me”; she also takes out butter from the fridge to soften.
Grandfathers, on the other hand, tell stories. Mothers, too, add salt to soup while fathers come home late from work each day.
And then there was the sentence that particularly rankled: “Mother screams when she sees a lizard.”
I put aside the booklet, feeling uncomfortable and worried. Coaching my daughter through each week's list would be easy enough. The bigger challenge, and one I wasn't sure I would succeed at, was offsetting the assumptions these sentences reinforced.
Subtle Messages About Gender
What troubled me most was the thought of my children – both girls and boys – growing up with such narrow ideas of what women and men should be.
I know they will inevitably encounter more overt forms of gender stereotyping as they grow up and may even be affected by them deeply. What I did not expect was to find those messages embedded in something as innocuous as a weekly spelling list.
I felt bad for the men too. My husband happens to be an excellent cook and, yes, he adds salt to soup, too.
And surely mums work, and work late. When they get home, the family can eat. My children know this well – they wait for me each night before we start dinner.
It’s the same with the worksheets my children brought home when they were in kindergarten, where nurses are women, mothers wear aprons, and doctors and police officers are men. If there is any floor-sweeping done, it’s likely a woman doing it. And the person holding a hammer would be a man.
Some might say I’m making a mountain of a molehill – what’s the harm in one tiny sentence in a spelling list? They’re exposed to worse on television and social media. But it’s from little unforeseen things that giant, immovable stereotypes eventually build."
I thought I was 'helping' my wife after childbirth. Truth is, I was missing out on being a father (27 June 2026)
"When my first child was born in 2023, I was over the moon. I was also completely lost.
As an expectant father, I prepared for childbirth by learning how to support my wife during her pregnancy and labour. I knew what to say and the small things that might bring her comfort – though how well I did is another matter.
Yet, nothing in the books I read or the prenatal classes I attended prepared me for my new identity as a father.
The reality of parenthood hit me when I held my son for the first time. I felt overwhelming love, but I did not know how to be a father.
My child was born at 37 weeks, three weeks before the estimated 40-week due date. At that point, we were still renovating our flat, so for his first night, I hurriedly bought a Moses basket – a woven basket without legs for newborns to sleep.
Then came a steep learning curve as I tried to figure out how to soothe a crying newborn while navigating conflicting advice from family, friends and parenting books.
Sleep deprivation clouded my mind. Before long, I was approaching caregiving like a checklist, focusing on helping my wife through early motherhood.
When I realised our son was more easily soothed by my wife, I instinctively stepped aside. What mattered to me was the outcome: that he was fed, comforted and healthy.
However, I soon realised I was missing something important.
I was not building a relationship with my child.
The Traditional Expectations of A Father
Growing up, my father was present in the way that many fathers in his generation were. He was a provider and disciplinarian, somewhat distant but dependable.
Men were expected to be breadwinners, while women were caregivers. These expectations emerged in an era when most families had a single income and mothers often had support from extended family.
Today, families look different – with dual-income streams and little help beyond hiring a domestic worker or what the couple can arrange themselves.
In this environment, it is increasingly important for fathers to embrace caregiving as part of their role.
Research has consistently shown that children thrive with strong father-child bonds – one that differs from a mother-child bond.
A 2024 review of more than 180 studies, published in a leading psychology journal, found that paternal sensitivity – which is a father's ability to notice, interpret and respond to his child's needs – is linked to a more secure father-child attachment.
Children who feel securely attached to their parents tend to be better able to regulate their emotions, build trusting relationships and face the world with confidence.
Although many of us are influenced by how we were raised, we do not have to stick to being traditional father figures.
We simply need to set our own expectations of what kind of dads we want to be.
My father once admitted that he did not know how to carry a baby when my son was born, but he learnt how to be involved as a grandfather, and today, he enjoys carrying and playing with his grandchildren.
For me, I wanted to be a "present" father in my child's life. But being present means more than simply being in the room while my wife cares for him."
Man, 71, gets jail for molesting daughter more than 20 years ago (29 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A 71-year-old man was sentenced to 16 months' jail on Monday (Jun 29) for molesting his daughter more than 20 years ago when she was between five and seven years old.
The man cannot be named to protect the identity of his daughter, now aged 32. He had contested two charges of molestation but was convicted of outraging his daughter's modesty twice.
The defence had sought judicial mercy, referring to the wheelchair-bound man's various medical conditions including end-stage renal failure.
However, the judge noted the abuse of trust, the fact that the victim was vulnerable and evidence that she had suffered psychological harm.
She said that the prisons had an adequate system of healthcare delivery in place and the need for retribution, punishment and deterrence is strong in this case.
The Case
The man had been convicted in July last year of molesting his daughter twice between 1999 and 2001.
The victim testified that her father had molested her while she was unwell and napping on the living room couch.
He also molested her in the living room on a second occasion when her mother walked past them and told him to stop what he was doing.
No one else witnessed the acts. The mother denied what happened, and the victim testified at trial that the molestation occurred often, estimating that she was molested 50 to 100 times.
The victim confided in two boyfriends about being molested by her father and finally moved out in August 2015 after she "snapped" during a family trip when she found it frustrating and difficult to be around her father.
The victim studied overseas and later returned to Singapore, filing a police report when she was an adult.
She explained at trial that she had been in denial at the time of the offences and did not want to confront the fact that her own father had been molesting her.
Even as she matured and recognised that she had been abused, she did not want others to find out because she felt it was an "extremely shameful thing".
The prosecution had argued that the delay in the victim's disclosure of the incidents should not have a negative impact on her credibility."
More seniors level up with esports pro training aimed at boosting reflexes, digital skills (29 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: About 200 seniors in Singapore are set to undergo 12 weeks of professional esports coaching under a new programme aimed at keeping older adults mentally active, socially connected and digitally savvy.
The initiative, organised by social service agency Lions Befrienders and supported by OCBC, will see coaches from the Singapore Cybersports and Online Gaming Association (SCOGA) train participants in games such as Counter-Strike, Street Fighter and Just Dance.
The games were chosen for their ability to improve reaction time, hand-eye coordination and communication.
Retiree Neelathevi Chenpathayan, 68, welcomed the programme, saying it offers seniors a fun way to stay mentally engaged. She tried several games during Saturday's (Jun 27) launch and said Just Dance quickly became her favourite.
"It's good for seniors to enjoy these types of games to keep our minds alert. So (we can) be happy and can learn the game and enjoy," she told CNA.
Another retiree Lim Beng Hong regularly plays Street Fighter and Ring Fit Adventure with his wife. The 65-year-old said such activities present an opportunity to connect with younger generations.
"These esports are mainly played by youngsters, but now it's introduced to the elderly," he said. "In future, we can play these esports together with the youngsters, so we have better interaction with them. I can play with my children or even my grandchildren."
OCBC will contribute S$100,000 (US$80,000) over two years to fund 2,400 coaching sessions, which will be conducted at gaming facilities in Bishan, Pasir Ris and Jurong West.
"Flower-arranging, mahjong or painting are the kinds of activities often cited as ways to promote active ageing'. But why not deploy technology?" Said the bank's group CEO Tan Teck Long.
"The likes of Counter Strike 2 or Nintendo-based fitness titles blend gaming technology, physical activity, cognitive engagement, and social interaction in one attractive package."
An inaugural cohort of 100 seniors will kick off the programme, with another 100 joining in the following year. Coaching will be conducted in groups of eight to 10 participants, and up to 40 per cent of seniors from the first cohort will return to mentor new participants.
"We will be training our seniors on all the various games. This is not only fun...this also helps with their eyes and hands coordination. It's also a way to create a competitive (aspect) to encourage them and motivate them to pick up esports," said Mr Phil Loh, head of the charity’s integrated community case provider.
Beyond recreation, Mr Loh said esports can help seniors become more comfortable with technology. He said: "It's a gateway to introduce them into the digital world."
Lions Befrienders plans to hold an esports and exercise-gaming competition among its active ageing centres in November. Selected participants will go on to represent the organisation at this year's Silver Showdown, Singapore's senior esports tournament, in December."
Indonesia seeks up to 10 years' jail for 19 members of syndicate that sold babies to Singapore (30 June 2026)
"JAKARTA/BANDUNG: Indonesian prosecutors are demanding prison sentences of between five and 10 years for members of an alleged syndicate accused of selling babies under the guise of adoption to couples in Indonesia and Singapore.
Eighteen women and one man are currently on trial at the Bandung City District Court accused of selling at least 34 babies between 2022 and 2025, some of whom were taken to Singapore and sold for thousands of dollars for each child.
The harshest sentence of 10 years was sought for five defendants including Lie Siu Luan - also known as Lily - whom prosecutors believe is the brains and ringleader behind the operation.
Another defendant whom prosecutors are seeking a 10-year prison sentence is Astri Fitrinika, who is believed to be responsible for recruiting nearly all of the babies sold by the syndicate.
The three other defendants recommended for a 10-year sentence were Djaka Hamdani and Elin Marlina who allegedly helped recruit babies for the syndicate as well as Lai Siu Ha who is accused of forging documents to obscure the babies’ origins.
“The defendants’ actions have disturbed the public. The defendants’ actions are contrary to religious principles and accepted standards of morality,” prosecutor Billie Andrian told the Bandung City District Court on Tuesday (Jun 30) on the reasons why the five should get the 10-year jail terms."
Two boys, 11 and 12, given conditional warnings after 'forcefully' opening train cabin door (30 June 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Two boys who were seen opening a restricted cabin partition door on an MRT train in videos circulating on social media have been given conditional warnings.
In response to CNA queries, train operator SMRT said on Tuesday (Jun 30) that the incident occurred on Feb 21 on a train along the North-South Line and that it was aware of the video, which went viral over the weekend.
The nine-second clip appears to show the two boys using a tool to open the cabin partition door, before entering the restricted area and pressing what appears to be a white button on a panel several times.
The police confirmed on Tuesday that a report was lodged on the same day of the incident.
"Upon completion of investigations and after careful consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case, the Police, in consultation with the Attorney-General’s Chambers, administered conditional warnings to the two male subjects, aged 11 and 12, for offences under the Rapid Transit System Regulations."
SMRT said the boys were seen "forcefully opening" a cabin partition door at the back of the train, triggering an onboard alarm.
The train captain, who was in the front cabin, immediately informed the Operations Control Centre, said SMRT Trains president Lam Sheau Kai.
Station staff at the next station were alerted to investigate, while the boys alighted at that station, he added."
Ngee Ann Kongsi sponsors 900 tickets to Dear You screenings in Teochew (1 July 2026)
"Ngee Ann Kongsi has sponsored 900 tickets to the Teochew screenings of the Chinese film Dear You for its members and affiliated Teochew clan associations, the philanthropic organisation announced on Wed (Jul 1).
The sponsored tickets are for commercial screenings at Golden Village VivoCity, including sessions held on Jun 20 and 21, as well as additional screenings scheduled for Jul 4 and 5.
Of the 900 tickets, 800 are for the organisation's members and Teochew clan associations such as Teo Yeonh Huai Kuan and Teochew Federation, as well as partners including staff from Ngee Ann Primary School and Ngee Ann Secondary School. The tickets are not available for public purchase.
The remaining 100 are set aside for seniors, caregivers and their family members through the Ngee Ann Kongsi Social Impact Hub, an initiative with the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) that supports programmes related to ageing and eldercare.
Among the beneficiaries attending this weekend's screenings is Mr Liew, who will be attending the screening with his wheelchair-bound Teochew mother-in-law, and Ms Suan, who plans to watch the film with her 93-year-old mother, Madam Tan Gek Yong.
Born in Puning, China, Madam Tan moved to Singapore as a child and later built her life here with her late husband, who was from Jieyang, China. According to Ngee Ann Kongsi, she has not watched a Teochew film in about 40 years.
The sponsorship comes amid strong public interest in Dear You, whose Teochew screenings have repeatedly sold out and sparked broader conversations about dialects, heritage, Chinese cultural identity and surrounding language policies in Singapore."
NTU provost Christian Wolfrum appointed to lead Singapore's national AI programme (1 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Nanyang Technology University's (NTU) provost Christian Wolfrum has been appointed to lead Singapore's national artificial intelligence initiative as executive chairman of AI Singapore (AISG) from Wednesday (Jul 1).
Professor Wolfrum takes over from Professor Ho Teck Hua, who stepped down on Tuesday, the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) said in a press release.
AISG brings together Singapore-based research institutions and the broader ecosystem of AI start-ups and companies to support Singapore’s AI efforts.
The programme is driven by MDDI, NRF and the Infocomm Media Development Authority.
As AISG's new executive chairman, Prof Wolfrum will work with MDDI, NRF and relevant stakeholders to lead AISG's next phase of growth. This includes advancing Singapore's priorities under the National AI Strategy 2.0 and supporting Singapore's ambitions to be a leading global hub for trusted and impactful AI, MDDI and NRF said.
Prof Wolfrum "has a deep familiarity with Singapore’s research, innovation and enterprise ecosystem, and has been a consistent supporter and advocate for our national initiatives and cross-institutional collaboration", they said.
Prof Wolfrum currently serves as deputy president and provost of NTU, and has significant experience in shaping AI research ecosystems, they added.
As the former vice president for research at ETH Zurich, he played a key role in defining the university’s strategic research direction and was closely involved in the establishment of major Swiss national AI efforts, including the Swiss national AI institute and the Swiss AI initiative.
Prof Wolfrum said that he was "honoured" to take on the role as AISG executive chairman.
"AISG's unique strength is its position at the interface of academia and industry, and that is exactly where AI champions are built: Companies that embed AI into the core of their products and operations, not as an add-on but as a fundamental capability, backed by a workforce that understands AI deeply enough to build with it.
"Research without industry impact is incomplete, and industry without deep research is short-sighted. Singapore's AI ecosystem can close that gap, and AISG will be the engine to get there."
Mother fails in court bid to get ex-husband to foot half their daughter's Australia university bill (2 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A woman turned to court to get her ex-husband to pay for expenses including half of their daughter's Australian university bill, as a previous maintenance order required him to bear 50 per cent of their daughter's educational expenses.
However, a Family Court ruled largely in favour of the father, saying it would be wrong to legally compel the father to financially support the mother's personal choice, which was made despite his objection.
The father had raised concerns about his daughter attending an overseas university rather than a local one because of the financial commitment.
District Judge Kow Keng Siong said in a judgment made available on Wednesday (Jul 1) that the financial commitment was substantial at more than S$401,000 (US$310,000) for a six-year medicine course.
Footing half of it means the father would have to contribute about S$2,789 per month, which is about 30 per cent of his S$9,500 monthly income.
The Case
The parents were divorced over a decade ago, and have a daughter who is turning 22 this year.
She is a third-year medical student in Australia. Her mother has been paying for her overseas education but wants her ex-husband to shoulder some of the expenses.
The father objected, as he never agreed to bear these overseas education expenses.
As part of the divorce arrangement, orders were made for the father to pay S$650 per month for his daughter's maintenance, and 50 per cent of her educational and medical expenses.
The mother lodged an application to enforce these orders, claiming her ex-husband had defaulted on the maintenance as well as the educational and medical expenses.
She also applied to increase the father's contribution towards their daughter's general maintenance, citing the higher costs of her studies in Australia.
The father, on the other hand, sought to reduce his contributions.
The mother said her ex-husband had increased monthly payments to S$1,450 per month from around March 2018 and again to S$1,500 per month from February 2021 at their daughter's request.
Using these higher figures, the mother said the father did not always pay these amounts in full, and that he had reverted to paying only S$$650 from November 2025. She sought arrears of about S$10,000 using the higher figures.
The father said he had made the increased payments voluntarily for needs as they arose but these did not vary the court's order for S$650. He said he was not in arrears at all but had instead overpaid by more than S$81,000 using the S$650 figure.
Judge Kow found the higher figures were not enforceable."
Commentary: Why turning off screens is so hard for children (3 July 2026)
"OXFORD, England: The challenges and consequences surrounding children’s screen use are a leading concern for UK families.
One especially difficult challenge is the resistance, arguments and emotional battles - “techno-tantrums” - that can follow when parents ask children to end a screen-based activity or refuse children’s requests to start one. Most families with young children experience these at least occasionally and, for some, frequently.
It’s especially hard for children to move away from a screen because digital content is designed to be engaging. Content developers’ monetisation models usually require this to justify the expense to develop that content. At a minimum, this typically involves using bright colours and fast-paced content with quick and unpredictable transitions, as well as other cues to capture and hold attention. Algorithms ensure you mostly see what would be most interesting to you.
More contentiously, many examples of digital content for children include features that, in the most generous interpretation, persuade children to make choices they might not otherwise have made and may not be in their interests.
Examples include a beloved character encouraging the child to select a particular in-app option, exploiting the child’s emotional attachment with that character. Limited-time pay-to-play offers are presented to compel a quick decision, when slower deliberation may have led to a different choice.
A consequence is that children’s digital activity no longer unfolds solely based on their preferences and interests. Instead, digital design features aim to capture and hold children’s attention, motivate certain decisions over others, and, after digital activity has ended, hasten their return.
This battle between the gratification of continuing screen use or putting down the device when it is required or in one’s best interest is not unique to children. Parents report high rates of technoference - when their own digital activity impedes, interrupts or worsens interactions with their child. Children have even less ability to resist these lures and tactics to engage and sustain their attention.
This does not mean families should resign to a losing battle, or that all digital activity is inherently bad. There are things we can do to help, and at the same time establish foundations for children to better self-regulate their own digital activity and prepare for the digital demands in their future.
Tips For Parents
First, give slower-paced options. Provide children with digital options that have slower paced, educational content and more active engagement. Be wary of apps, platforms and programs high in persuasive design features.
This will ensure children engage with digital content better aligned in content, pace and design to their developmental needs. Some reputable sources offer expert reviews and ratings of digital content for children.
Second, join in with children's screen use. One of the largest reviews of research to date found a small association between children’s screen time and negative outcomes. Notably, though, some effects flipped positive when adults were engaged alongside children. Using a screen together helps families understand what their children are viewing and doing on digital devices. It also allows for shared interests, experiences and conversations during and after digital activity.
Third, be careful using screens as a distraction. Try to limit giving children digital devices to keep them occupied or calm them down.
Children’s ability to deal with boredom, frustration, excitement or other emotions at times that might be especially undesirable to parents - in a doctor’s office, at a restaurant or on a long car ride - requires that they encounter and learn to manage these emotions. Children won’t learn to manage challenges they haven’t encountered."
Motherhood isn’t a competition or exam – so why do we judge other mums like we’re grading them? (3 July 2026)
"Two years ago, before I gave birth to my son, I joined my first WhatsApp group for mothers.
I was nervous, but also excited at the prospect of meeting other mums and bonding over the struggles that came with caring for a baby.
“A group can make you feel less lonely about pregnancy and new motherhood,” my friend, who was also pregnant, said.
Well, less lonely was one way to describe the experience.
The group, with over 700 members, was based on our estimated delivery date. But that was about the only thing we had in common.
Everything else, from socioeconomic background to our opinions on diaper brands, confinement practices and how we dealt with hunger pangs, was different.
At first, this seemed interesting and I did learn a few things. After all, here were hundreds of women going through roughly the same stage of pregnancy, asking various questions at odd hours of the day. Was this discharge normal? Which breast pump was worth buying? Who else is unable to sleep?
But I realised that a community built around shared uncertainty could also become one where judgement is rampant.
Barely a week after I joined, a few mums had an intense argument about babymoons. One mum in her final trimester had asked for destination suggestions and some mums commented that she was being extremely irresponsible for holidaying during that period.
When the disagreement got ugly – condescending remarks flew thick and fast and there were intense debates about what made a “good mother” – I left the group.
I could not escape the mentality, however. The atmosphere of judgement among mums followed me everywhere, from pregnancy to birth and beyond.
When I opened up about my son not sleeping unless my husband or I were close by, one friend remarked: “Oh, but did you know if you keep doing that, he’ll never learn independence?”
When he turned one, and I shared my struggles with trying to stop breastfeeding or getting him to eat more, another mum said: “It’s probably because you’re not resilient enough and you give in every time he cries.”
I see this on social media too, where loud voices hide behind anonymity and parade around on their high horses. And there, it’s worse.
Commenters who watched a video of a mum sleep training her one-year-old son said she was “heartless” and “selfish”. A post by another mum about low-stimulation forms of screen time for toddlers was flooded with comments that she was “lazy” and “not creative enough in engaging kids”.
Rather than responding with curiosity or empathy, or giving constructive advice, it seems there are always mums ready to turn someone else’s parenting choice into a moral test.
The Rulebook Mentality In Motherhood
There is a term for this. Some call it a rulebook mentality, which refers to a mindset where all mums must follow a certain set of rules – and if they don’t, they will be judged.
In motherhood, this manifests as the belief that there is a One and Only Correct Way to Mother, and that anyone doing it differently must be careless, selfish, ignorant – or just a bad mother.
I am guilty of this, too. I catch myself giving the side-eye when I see a mum using a digital device to calm her toddler’s tantrum. I feel taken aback if a mum goes on frequent long holidays without her young children. And don’t get me started on mums who push all the playtime to their helpers.
I have watched another mum choose differently from me and felt that small, ugly spark of superiority.
I do not like admitting this. It makes me come across as petty and self-righteous – and I know that, in those moments, I am.
So why are mums so rigid with their rulebooks? And why do we judge others when we hate being judged?"
Winning at what cost? More children getting hurt amid growing pressure to excel in youth sports (3 July 2026)
"Gwenaelle Mak was just five years old when she fell in love with artistic gymnastics.
At age six, when most of her kindergarten peers were learning how to ride a bicycle, Gwenaelle was doing cartwheels with ease and preparing for competitions.
From Primary 5, she began representing her school at the National School Games (NSG) and competed in other competitions such as the National Championships and Singapore Open.
From training once a week, the frequency of her sessions increased to eight hours weekly, three times a week when she started to compete for her school and a club.
She continued to love her sport, but the intensity of the training caught up with her body.
Gwenaelle, who is now 16, said that as the frequency of training increased, the risk of injury was higher.
In Secondary 2, she experienced heavy swelling in her knee that would not go away despite lighter training. An MRI scan confirmed that she had a torn meniscus, a condition that could have been caused by too much training or a bad landing.
Her doctor recommended surgery, because it is hard for the meniscus to heal by itself. And at her age, she had a good chance of making a full recovery.
She went ahead with the operation, which required just an overnight stay in the hospital but nine months of physiotherapy. Six months after her surgery, she was able to return to a scaled-down training routine.
Gwenaelle is one of a growing number of young athletes seeking treatment for sports-related injuries.
Both KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) and the National University Hospital (NUH), which are the only two public hospitals in Singapore that admit paediatric orthopaedic cases, said that they have observed a growing number of such cases. They were, however, unable to provide any figures.
As children here increasingly take part in sports and competitive sports from a young age, health experts are concerned that such injuries among young athletes will only continue to grow and have a lasting effect on their health as adults.
Injuries Prevalent Among Young Athletes
Doctors who spoke to CNA TODAY said that the age when young athletes are most affected is between eight and 15 years, because this is a period of rapid growth.
Children and teenagers have growth plates, also known as epiphyseal plates, which are specialised areas of cartilage located near the ends of long bones, where new cartilage continually forms. Once puberty ends, these plates harden into solid bone, allowing bones to lengthen.
In the meantime, the growth plates with the softer cartilage are vulnerable to repetitive loading, because they are weaker than the surrounding bones.
In contact sports such as football and rugby, high-impact collisions could cause trauma-related growth plate fractures.
Doctors said that the common injuries they see in young athletes are acute ones such as fractures, sprained ankles, kneecap dislocations, as well as injuries linked to the meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) at the knee.
At NUH, up to 50 per cent of teenagers treated for the first time by the orthopaedic department suffer from acute injuries or chronic complaints related to sports."
Team Singapore athlete charged with sex offences (6 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A Team Singapore athlete has been charged with sexual offences against a 12-year-old girl when he was 17.
As the alleged offences occurred when the accused was below 18, he cannot be identified under the Children and Young Persons Act.
The accused faces two charges of rape and one charge of committing an indecent act with a child by kissing her lips.
The three charges arise from one incident at a housing block in Bukit Batok.
According to court records, he got to know the alleged victim online.
A gag order has been issued protecting her identity.
In response to queries from CNA, the associations linked to the sport the accused engages in said they learnt of the charges on Jul 2.
This was when the accused returned to court for a further mention of his case.
“Pending the outcome of the court proceedings and our own review into the matter, we have suspended his carding support with immediate effect,” said the associations.
“We take such matters seriously. Team Singapore athletes are expected to uphold high standards of conduct. Where athletes are found to have fallen short of these standards, we will not hesitate to take the appropriate disciplinary actions.”
Former infant care teacher jailed for force-feeding toddler until she vomited (8 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A former infant care teacher was sentenced to 14 months' jail on Wednesday (Jul 8) for force-feeding a toddler until she vomited.
When an informant reported that child abuse was taking place at the preschool, a review of closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage revealed that the same teacher had been rough towards two babies.
The 37-year-old Singaporean woman pleaded guilty to one charge of ill-treating a child in her care, with another two similar charges taken into consideration.
The woman cannot be named as the court imposed gag orders on her identity and the identity of the victim, which covers the name of the preschool.
The Case
The court heard that the woman was an infant care teacher at the preschool from 2022 to Oct 2, 2024.
She was tasked with caring for about 10 infants who were aged between two and 18 months. Her duties included changing diapers, feeding and conducting activities and lessons.
A couple enrolled their daughter at the school from February 2024.
On Sep 23, 2024, the woman was caring for the girl, who was then 12 months old, along with three other infants.
At about 11.50am that day, the woman took the four children into the preschool's nap room to drink milk and sleep.
Each child was placed on a mattress and given a milk bottle to drink from.
At about 11.56am, the victim stopped drinking but left milk in her bottle.
The teacher noticed this and put the bottle back in the girl's mouth. The girl turned her head away and refused to drink.
The teacher took the child into her lap and tried to feed her again, but the girl would not drink. Instead, she began to cry.
The teacher held the bottle to the girl's mouth a few times but the toddler refused to drink. She struggled, turning her head around and kicking.
The teacher then placed the child back on her mattress and patted her back a few times to calm her down so that she could finish her milk.
After trying a few more times, the teacher used her hand to hold the child's head while pushing the bottle into her mouth.
She also pressed down on her head and force-fed the child by squeezing milk into her mouth.
The toddler spat the milk out. When she later struggled, the teacher hit her body with her hand.
The teacher then force-fed the victim for two minutes, causing the child to kick her legs and swing her arms.
The child vomited over the mattress and floor after the teacher briefly removed the bottle.
In response, the teacher hit the child's head with her hand, pulled her upwards by her hands and carried her off the mattress in order to remove the bedsheet.
The woman hit the victim's back three times before taking the child out of the room.
She later admitted to doing these acts as she was upset that the toddler was crying a lot."
Over 850 fewer spots in Phase 2A of 2026 Primary 1 registration exercise (8 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: One primary school will not be accepting any children of alumni in this year’s Primary 1 registration exercise – Canossa Catholic Primary School.
According to data released by the Ministry of Education (MOE) on Wednesday (Jul 8), there are 867 fewer spots in Phase 2A across all primary schools.
MOE cut the Primary 1 intake for most schools earlier this year in view of significantly falling student cohort sizes in 2027 and the coming years.
At the time, MOE said the cuts would minimise the need for school mergers or relocations and maintain a good geographical spread of primary schools for students across Singapore.
Canossa Catholic Primary School, which has 120 spaces in total, saw 61 students apply in Phase 1, which is for students whose siblings are currently in the school.
With 60 spaces reserved for Phases 2B and 2C, it means there is no open spot in Phase 2A, which is predominantly for children of alumni.
Children whose parents are staff members at the school, or members of the school advisory or management committee, also come under this phase.
Those who attended an MOE kindergarten under the purview of and located within the primary school can also apply under Phase 2A.
The school combined with Canossian School in 2025 to become a mainstream primary school designated to support pupils with moderate to significant hearing loss who can go through the national primary curriculum and use the oral approach.
Last year, it had 19 open spots in Phase 2A.
Compared to 2025, there were 1,460 fewer spots available in 2026 overall. Of the 179 primary schools in Singapore, 61 cut their intake but 12 schools increased the number of spaces."
From The Awakening to Unbeatables: An exhibition tracing the history of Mandarin TV in Singapore (9 July 2026)
"TV buffs can trace the history of local Mandarin television dramas in a new special exhibition jointly presented by the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre (SCCC) and Mediacorp.
Singapore TV: From Local to Global – taking place from now until Jan 26, 2027 – brings together original costumes, artefacts, photographs, magazines and multimedia installations from drama productions from the 1960s to the present day.
The exhibition has five zones, each covering a different era in the history of television dramas.
Look out for personal artefacts on loan from artistes, like Aileen Tan’s Star Search trophy from 1988 and Fann Wong’s Most Popular Newcomer trophy from Star Search 1995 (what else should she win next?).
There’s also a display of iconic costumes from memorable dramas, including Xie Shaoguang’s monk costume from The Legend Of Ji-Gong, Zoe Tay and Li Nanxing’s evening wear from The Unbeatables and the robes worn by Christopher Lee and Fann Wong in The Return Of The Condor Heroes.
Even the Golden Pillow makes an appearance, mounted on its very own pedestal. Put your ear close to it and you’ll hear a whispered message.
The exhibition’s other interactive experiences include a “dubbing booth” where you can test out your own talents at voicing lines from Good Morning, Sir!; a podium where you can give your own Star Awards acceptance speech and make it however long you want it; and photo opportunities with props like playing cards a la The Unbeatables, and Ah Shui and Ah Mei’s umbrella and bag from The Awakening."
From The Awakening to Unbeatables: An exhibition tracing the history of Mandarin TV in Singapore (9 July 2026)
"TV buffs can trace the history of local Mandarin television dramas in a new special exhibition jointly presented by the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre (SCCC) and Mediacorp.
Singapore TV: From Local to Global – taking place from now until Jan 26, 2027 – brings together original costumes, artefacts, photographs, magazines and multimedia installations from drama productions from the 1960s to the present day.
The exhibition has five zones, each covering a different era in the history of television dramas.
Look out for personal artefacts on loan from artistes, like Aileen Tan’s Star Search trophy from 1988 and Fann Wong’s Most Popular Newcomer trophy from Star Search 1995 (what else should she win next?).
There’s also a display of iconic costumes from memorable dramas, including Xie Shaoguang’s monk costume from The Legend Of Ji-Gong, Zoe Tay and Li Nanxing’s evening wear from The Unbeatables and the robes worn by Christopher Lee and Fann Wong in The Return Of The Condor Heroes.
Even the Golden Pillow makes an appearance, mounted on its very own pedestal. Put your ear close to it and you’ll hear a whispered message.
The exhibition’s other interactive experiences include a “dubbing booth” where you can test out your own talents at voicing lines from Good Morning, Sir!; a podium where you can give your own Star Awards acceptance speech and make it however long you want it; and photo opportunities with props like playing cards a la The Unbeatables, and Ah Shui and Ah Mei’s umbrella and bag from The Awakening."
‘Not discipline, but torment’: Accommodations manager pleads guilty to abusing 6-year-old boy (9 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A man who looked after primary school students pleaded guilty on Thursday (Jul 9) to beating a six-year-old boy with a hanger more than 600 times, forcing him to hold a push-up position for hours and making him sleep in the toilet and drink his own urine.
The boy suffered severe injuries as a result, including to his ribs, lungs and kidneys, and was hospitalised for 46 days.
The man also pleaded guilty to abusing two other victims, aged 10 and 11.
The 31-year-old Singaporean, who cannot be named to protect the identities of his victims, took care of young foreign students who lived in accommodation provided by the company he worked for, which was owned by his aunt.
He was responsible for managing the accommodation and teaching the primary school students Mathematics and English, despite having no teaching or childcare qualifications.
In one incident, after noticing that the 10-year-old boy did not do his homework, the man demanded an explanation. Upon failing to get one, he punched and slapped the boy in the face at least five times, the court heard.
He punched the boy in the face multiple times again when he could not answer one of the questions while doing his homework.
The next day, the boy’s teachers observed the bruise on his cheek and the school counsellor lodged a police report.
The man also made the two older boys hold a push-up position and hit them with a hanger multiple times.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Timotheus Koh and Cheronne Lim asked for between nine years and six weeks' to 10 years and eight weeks' jail for the man, on top of six strokes of the cane.
Most of the man’s actions were captured on CCTV, and the videos “really show the extent of the depravity” of his actions and the cruelty he inflicted on his young victims, said Mr Koh, adding that the videos are very difficult to watch.
The prolonged nature of making the boys hold a push-up position and using a hanger, which the prosecution considered dangerous equipment, are aggravating factors, he said.
The 10-year-old boy even suffered a hanger-shaped bruise on his back, a testament to how much force the man used, he noted.
As for his abuse of the six-year-old boy, Mr Koh highlighted that the man, who performed caregiving duties, breached the trust the boy and the boy’s parents had in him when he subjected the boy to “not discipline, but torment”."
Marriages in Singapore dip by 6.2% in 2025, couples having children later (9 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: The number of marriages in Singapore fell by 6.2 per cent to 24,688 in 2025 from 26,328 the year before, according to the family trends report released by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) on Friday (Jul 10)."
The last time there were fewer marriages was in the COVID-19 year of 2020, when 22,651 marriages were registered. This is the third straight year that the number of marriages has dipped."
Of the marriages last year, 19,682 were civil marriages, down from 21,144 in 2024."
The number of civil marriages fell across all age groups last year, with a larger decrease in marriages involving grooms and brides aged 25 to 34, relative to other age groups.
Muslim marriages fell to 5,006 last year from 5,184 in 2024. This was also mainly due to the decrease in marriages among grooms and brides aged 25 to 34, relative to other age groups."
Responding to queries from CNA on why this age group saw the biggest drop, an MSF spokesperson said that similar to many advanced societies, Singapore has seen a gradual shift towards later marriage due to changing societal norms and shifting personal priorities."
About 27.3 per cent of citizen marriages last year were between a Singaporean and a non-resident."
Among such marriages, 70.9 per cent were between a Singaporean groom and a non-resident bride."
The report also showed that the median age at first marriage has increased over the past decade."
For grooms, it rose to 31.1 years last year, from 30.3 years in 2015. For brides, it increased to 29.6 years last year, from 28.2 years in 2015."
This is the third year MSF is releasing a family trends report."
Besides marriage trends, the 2025 report also looked at the resilience of families."
“Resilience is the ability to cope with and adapt to challenges and adversity and bounce back from difficult life events,” said MSF."
“A resilient family makes for better individual well-being and stronger communities. It is important that we continue our efforts in nurturing resilient families.”"
A 2025 MSF survey on families found that 90.7 per cent of families reported moderate to high family resilience scores, an increase from 85.9 per cent in 2023."
The survey also found that nearly 95 per cent of married respondents were happy with their marriage."
About 92.8 per cent felt their relationship was going well, and about 78.3 per cent said they would frequently confide in their spouse."
The survey also found that 88.3 per cent said they rarely or never considered ending their marriage."
Speaking at the National Family Festival appreciation event at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli said the ministry will continue to partner with the community to strengthen family resilience across generations."
"Family begins with each one of us – in the everyday interactions we share with our loved ones, and in our collective commitment to Singapore’s families," he added."
The findings on marital quality are derived from the MSF survey on families, which is a face-to-face survey conducted every two years. The marital quality findings are from the survey conducted in 2025."
The survey sample consists of about 3,000 Singaporeans and permanent residents aged 15 and above. The sample is generally representative of Singapore’s population after weighting by gender, age group, housing type, and race."
Family resilience was measured using the 32-item Walsh Family Resilience Questionnaire. Respondents rated each indicator on a 5-point scale ranging from rarely/never to almost always. A composite score is then derived based on the average score of the 32 items."
Dissolutions
The report also examined marriage dissolution trends. The dissolution of a marriage is the legal process of ending a marriage, either through divorce or annulment."
Last year, a total of 7,242 marriages ended in a divorce or an annulment, a 1.9 per cent decrease from the 7,382 dissolutions in 2024."
The median age at divorce rose over the last 10 years, from 42.9 years in 2015 to 44.3 years in 2025 for men, and from 38.8 years to 41.2 years for women."
Couples who married from 2006 to 2014 had lower dissolution rates before their 10th anniversary than those in the 2005 marriage cohort."
The cumulative proportion of marriages that dissolved before the 10th anniversary fell from 17 per cent for the 2005 marriage cohort to 13.5 per cent for the 2014 marriage cohort."
“The most significant improvement was seen in the fall in dissolution rates for Muslim marriages,” MSF said."
“While the rate for Muslim marriages remained higher than that of civil marriages across all cohorts, the gap has narrowed significantly for more recent marriage cohorts.”
Among dissolved marriages, the highest proportion occurred between the fifth and 10th anniversaries. After the 10th anniversary, increases in dissolution rates at each subsequent five-year interval were smaller."
For example, 7 per cent of the 2004 resident marriage cohort had dissolved before the fifth anniversary. Another 9.3 per cent of this marriage cohort ended their marriage before the 10th anniversary, bringing the total proportion dissolved by then to 16.3 per cent."
Subsequent increases were smaller, bringing the total proportion of dissolved marriages in the 2004 cohort to 21.5 per cent before the 15th anniversary and 24.7 per cent before the 20th anniversary."
“This suggests that it is crucial to support marriages in the early years to build a strong foundation to withstand future challenges,” MSF said."
Based on dissolution rates before the 10th anniversary, dissolution rates for marriages involving men who married at ages 20 to 24 years are consistently the highest.
Parenthood
The report showed that Singapore residents are also becoming parents later in life."
Last year, the median age of first-time fathers increased to 33.8 years from 32.9 years in 2015."
Similarly, the median age for first-time mothers increased to 32.1 years from 30.5 years in 2015."
Singapore’s total fertility rate remained at a record low of 0.87 in 2025, marking the third consecutive year it has remained below 1."
Having two children remained the most common among ever-married resident women in Singapore."
Among ever-married women aged 40 to 49, those with two children made up the largest group, accounting for 40.5 per cent in 2025. This is a decrease from 42.4 per cent in 2015."
Over the same period, the proportion of women with no children increased to 16.1 per cent from 11.6 per cent."
The proportion of women with one child rose to 25.5 per cent from 22.3 per cent."
The report also showed that 61 per cent of fathers with children born in 2024 took government-paid paternity leave, up from 56 per cent in 2023."
His parents sold their home to fund his education. Now this Singaporean has a Harvard PhD (10 July 2026)
"When Dr Joel Tan, 37, took the stage at the Harvard Medical School-Affiliated PhD Programs Hooding Ceremony on May 28, going viral was the last thing on his mind.
To an audience that included 167 of his fellow doctoral students and his beaming parents, he opened up about being rejected from two of Singapore's public universities before making it to the world-renowned Harvard's doctorate programme.
In a matter of days, his speech amassed more than 23,000 views on YouTube and made headlines in Singapore media outlets. Clips from his address were reshared endlessly on social media, particularly the moment where he earnestly proclaimed: "Talent is everywhere; opportunity is not." One LinkedIn think piece quipped: "C's and D's to PhDs".
It's a compelling comeback story: the late bloomer seemingly stifled in Singapore's demanding education system eventually makes it to one of the top universities not just in the United States, but the world.
To date, it's been about 15 years since Dr Tan has been in Singapore. However, his viral speech prompted hundreds of people from his homeland – acquaintances, long-lost friends and even strangers – to reach out to him to congratulate him and also share their own stories.
"That has probably been the most meaningful part of the whole experience,” he told me over a Zoom call from his home in Boston.
For Dr Tan, the experience has been tuning him into the dialogues sparked among Singaporeans on whether all types of learners can thrive in Singapore's carefully structured, high-pressure education system.
It has also taken him on several trips down memory lane, helping him put his past academic struggles into perspective.
"I used to think that my educational path was unusual, but so many people have told me that...they were also late bloomers. They also struggled in school and felt like they were falling behind in Singapore," he said.
"I think (these people) and I are part of a small but important minority for whom the system really didn't work as well as intended."
In Dr Tan's view, however, there's nothing inherently wrong with Singapore’s merit-based system. In fact, he credits a lot of his later success in university to the academic foundation and training he received in Singapore.
"My path was not straightforward, but it definitely taught me a lot of discipline and perseverance, and that no one really gets anywhere by themselves."
A Childhood Shaped By Curiosity
By most measures, Dr Tan is successful in his field – he has a PhD in biological and biomedical sciences, been published in the prestigious journal Nature and has now even managed to achieve some level of internet renown.
Yet, Dr Tan remains humble, almost to the point of self-deprecation. More than a few times, he apologised for rambling during our chat despite my assurances that I did indeed want to hear all about his life.
As we talked about the elements that paved the way for his perhaps unlikely success, he enthused about the people who had given him opportunities: his parents, mentors, and the educational institutions that opened doors to him.
While the bespectacled scholar was more reticent when it came to discussing his own part in his achievements, he admitted to feeling vindicated.
"None of the things that I've accomplished, especially in Harvard, were easy. I was only able to do these things by putting in a lot of time and a lot of hard work.”
And his vindication is perhaps warranted. After all, there was a time when many – including Dr Tan himself – had felt that he might not be cut out for higher education, let alone a successful career in academia.
According to Dr Tan's old report books, his teachers at Fairfield Methodist School (Primary) all noted that he was an outgoing and friendly child. He excelled in home economics and was good enough at badminton to make the school team.
Even as a boy, he already had an innate curiosity in the world around him. Seeing tree leaves fluttering around the playground would have him wondering how photosynthesis worked. Watching fish dart around under the surface of a lake, he'd puzzle over how fish breathed underwater.
He broke into an easy smile as he recalled his "very active" primary school years. "I just wanted to know everything, and I wanted to talk to everyone."
The youngest of three children, he recalled little academic pressure from his parents. Even though his Malaysian-born father and Taiwanese mother had chosen to settle in Singapore due to its strong education system and economic prospects, they insisted that he find and follow his passions.
Whenever his homemaker mother needed to run errands, she would often drop him off at public libraries, where he frequently gravitated towards the science section.
“I was probably looking at books that were far too advanced for me at the time," he said, grinning, "but I remember loving the feeling that there were answers in those pages.”
They shut themselves away for years. Now these hidden youth are trying to return to the world (11 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: The first time Danzel Panniachelvam tried to disappear, he was a primary school pupil hiding under his bed. He had told his mother he was being bullied in school.
By Secondary 1, he had stopped attending classes. By age 19, his world had shrunk almost entirely to his family’s flat as he slept the days away, gamed through the night and avoided almost all contact with the outside world.
“He doesn’t want to see anybody,” said his mother, Aludia Cabigunda Panniachelvam. “The doctor’s diagnosis is extreme depression. He’s afraid to go out.”
The years of inactivity has also weakened his legs and affected his balance, leaving him in need of physiotherapy. But even leaving home for medical appointments can overwhelm him.
To reach him, case worker Tan Yang Hong had to start small and consistently show up once every fortnight for six months.
“A lot of what I did with Danzel was to...try and engage him as much as possible,” Tan said.
Such is the slow, often invisible work involved in helping Singapore’s hidden youth — young people whose withdrawal is not simply shyness, defiance or a preference for staying at home.
For many of them, retreating from the world becomes a way to cope with their fears until it hardens into a way of life over the months and years.
Better known by the Japanese term, hikikomori, hidden youth isolate themselves from school or work and social life for at least six months. Some never leave their bedrooms. Others can venture outside but only with trusted companions by their side.
While the phenomenon was first recognised in Japan, social workers in Singapore say they are now seeing more young people retreat from education, friendships and, in severe cases, their own families."
The parenting mistake many of us make when our child is left out (11 July 2026)
"Last Christmas, my daughter was almost banished from a kingdom.
She and my friend's daughter, both under seven years old, were happily playing make-believe at my new friend's home when, suddenly, the game changed.
My friend's child crowned herself queen in their imaginary world and brusquely told my daughter that she couldn't be queen, too.
My instinct was to dethrone the tiny sovereign. But I decided not to get into any disagreement with her parents, so I held my tongue and redirected their play instead.
Other parents I spoke to had similar stories about exclusion.
One friend's five-year-old didn't get to attend a kindergarten classmate's birthday party after the host rescinded the invitation sent to the whole class, claiming the response from my friend was late – even though there was no deadline stated.
One parenting expert recalled how her six-year-old son was shooed away when he asked to join a football kickaround at the playground, with boys shouting, "Go play with the girls". He left the playground in tears.
Another friend said her bright, bookish son was repeatedly left out of game and movie nights throughout his upper primary and secondary school days, because his schoolmates assumed that he "would not enjoy such activities".
At 17, he still struggles with self-doubt and finds it difficult to form new friendships, she added.
While occasional rejection is an inevitable part of growing up, parenting experts and counsellors cautioned that deliberate and repeated exclusion can leave children questioning their self-worth – and that how parents respond in those moments may matter more than the exclusion itself.
Early brain development specialist Patricia Zoey Tan, 54, from The Early Brain Academy, which offers mentorship programmes for parents with children under three, said that the effects of exclusion are generally felt more acutely in the teenage years, because adolescents are more emotionally sensitive and self-aware.
They are also likelier to see social media posts about events they are left out of, making exclusion feel even more acute.
Parenting educator Jacinth Liew, 40, said brain scans show that exclusion activates the same part of the prefrontal cortex that feels physical pain – especially when it is sustained and involves a clear imbalance of power.
The founder of Our Little Play Nest, which provides teaching resources as well as courses for parents, added: "If it's a chronic case of exclusion and bullying, the challenge is that the child is going to feel that it is about them. This could affect their confidence and their ability to make new friends."
So how should parents respond when their children are being excluded? And can these experiences build resilience?
Support, Don't Rescue
Experts generally cautioned parents against jumping in to defend their children too quickly.
Doing so may signal to the children that they are powerless to manage difficult situations on their own.
Behavioural therapist and parenting coach Claire Chong said a parent's role is to provide emotional safety, not instant solutions.
Ms Chong, 37, who has two children aged six and two, added: "Many parents understandably feel intense protective instincts when their children are excluded.
"Sometimes, our own childhood wounds get activated, too. We remember what it felt like not to belong."
Rather than removing obstacles, parents should first sit with their children's hurt, frustration or confusion, and reassure them that their feelings make sense.
When children feel emotionally understood, their nervous systems settle down and they can begin to problem-solve, she added.
Once children are in the problem-solving mode, parents can guide them towards agency."
The real cost of having children is not diapers, childcare and tuition (11 July 2026)
"Before the Child LifeSG credits expired on Jul 6, I posted a well-meaning reminder on my Instagram account.
I assumed only a handful of parents needed this reminder, and that most would have already used the credits to offset their expenses. However, to my surprise, I was mistaken.
Many parents around me suddenly realised they were "richer". Some had forgotten about the credits entirely, while others knew vaguely that they had received something, but had not figured out how to use them before the deadline.
These Child LifeSG credits were introduced by the government last year to families with Singaporean children aged 12 and below to help defray household expenses. Eligible families received S$500 (US$387) per child via the LifeSG mobile app.
For a family like mine with two children, S$1,000 covers groceries, diapers, school supplies, enrichment classes or a month of childcare-related expenses.
Yet the fact that many parents had not spent or claimed the credits struck me as surprising, because I often hear fellow parents say the same thing: raising a child in Singapore is expensive.
When my husband and I contemplated having kids, we considered the obvious financial expenses like pregnancy check-ups, delivery fees, infant care and milk powder, among other things.
But now as a mother of two, I've realised that when questioning whether a couple can afford a child, the answer isn't a simple mathematical calculation of tallying the long laundry list of expenses.
Sure, necessities and enrichment costs do add up. But there's also the potential cost of trying to sustain our pre-parenthood lifestyle with a child in the mix.
How willing are we to adjust our regular routines? Can we still save, invest and afford a holiday or two alongside a baby?
The Hidden Costs
When people discuss the cost of having children, we often focus on the obvious financial expenses.
Diapers. Medical bills. Childcare. Birthday parties. Family holidays. Domestic help. The list goes on and on.
Beyond that, there's also the cost of wanting our children to have the opportunity to be their better selves, such as signing them up for enrichment classes to broaden their horizons or tuition classes to help them keep up with the academic rigour of our education system.
These are real costs, but they are only part of the picture.
The bigger adjustment is that the arrival of a child changes the financial structure and rhythm of a household.
Before having children, a couple may be able to survive comfortably on two incomes. They can eat out, travel, save, invest and recover from financial mistakes more easily. If one person loses a job, the other person’s income can help cushion the blow.
After having children, the same household may suddenly have higher fixed expenses and less flexibility. A couple who previously felt financially comfortable may start to feel stretched because the disposable income they could once set aside for a rainy day is now needed for childcare expenses. The margin of safety they once had has disappeared.
One parent might also opt to put their career on hold to focus on parenting for a few years.
This is where many couples underestimate the real cost of parenthood. It isn't just simply affording to pay the bills, but also whether one’s household can still function well when life becomes less predictable."
Eligible Singaporean children to receive S$500 in Child LifeSG credits from Jul 14 (13 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Eligible families will receive S$500 (US$386) in Child LifeSG Credits for each Singaporean child aged 12 and below, with disbursements starting from Tuesday (Jul 14).
Singaporean children born between 2014 and 2025 will receive the credits from Jul 14, 2026.
Those born in 2026 will receive the payout in April 2027, said the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF).
Announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at Budget 2026, the payout adds to a similar S$500 top-up disbursed to more than 450,000 children in 2025, as part of continued government support for child-raising expenses.
The credits can be used at physical and online merchants that accept PayNow UEN QR and NETS QR payments. Families can use them to offset household expenses such as groceries, utilities and pharmacy items.
The Child LifeSG Credits will be automatically credited to the Child Development Account (CDA) trustee of eligible children, based on MSF records as at Jun 1, 2026. No application is required.
Trustees can access the credits via the LifeSG application and will be notified by SMS once the credits have been credited to their digital wallet in the app.
To safeguard against scams, MSF said the SMS notifications will only be sent from “gov.sg”.
"The SMS notifications will only contain information on the disbursement status and related terms and conditions. Trustees will not be asked to reply to the SMS or provide personal information," the ministry added."
A*STAR launches S$150m study on adolescent health and development (13 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) will launch a five-year, S$150 million (US$115.9 million) initiative to study youths aged 10 to 24, covering sleep, early childhood development and digital media use.
Announcing the initiative on Monday (Jul 13), the agency said it would work with the Ministry of Education (MOE) and other partners to study about 5,000 adolescents to generate Singapore-specific evidence on youth development.
Most existing research on adolescence is based on Western populations, limiting its relevance to Asian societies where cultural norms shape youth experiences differently, said researchers from A*STAR's Institute for Human Development and Potential.
While the first 1,000 days of life are a critical window for development of the body, brain and immune system, adolescence marks a crucial "second window of opportunity", they said.
Adolescents experience rapid physical growth during this period, said Professor Johan Eriksson, the institute's executive director.
"The brain is developing really rapidly, and there are a lot of things happening otherwise, hormone-wise. And there's also a change in social, family relationships," he added.
"This is a period that we need to research much more. To be really honest, very little has been done in this research before, so I would say that what we are going to do now is novel."
The study comes amid growing public concerns over youth mental health, lifestyle and digital habits, A*STAR said on Monday. “It seeks to address the lack of longitudinal evidence in Singapore and Asia to guide policies, programmes and interventions.”
Gaps remain in understanding adolescent development, particularly how early life experiences and social changes shape outcomes over time, the researchers said.
Other studies, such as the Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes study, have looked at specific aspects of child development here, but this initiative aims to harmonise data across studies and "put everything together", said Prof Eriksson.
Most previous studies in Singapore and elsewhere focused on a single aspect of adolescent health, such as mental well-being, he added.
Singapore's population also has a slightly different genetic background compared with Western populations, as well as distinct cultural differences, Prof Eriksson said.
"The family means much more and in a different way to Singaporeans than it means to many Western populations. Schooling and the stress sometimes associated with achievements in school are different compared to many Western populations," he added."
SingPost to release National Day stamps inspired by historic 1966 design (13 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: At a glance, the two sets of stamps look similar - four characters from different walks of life against a backdrop of buildings.
Take a closer look and the advancements Singapore has made in the past 61 years shine in the background of the 2026 commemorative stamp set for National Day.
The collection, which will be released on Aug 7, pays tribute to the nation's very first independence anniversary stamps, Singapore Post said in a media release on Monday (Jul 13).
The commemorative issue reimagines the 1966 set of stamps that carried the theme Surviving in a Challenging Future in a Multi-Racial Society.
Depicting workers from diverse communities, the stamps featured housing blocks and industrial infrastructure in the background.
The 1966 stamps also hold a singular place in Singapore’s philatelic record, said SingPost.
"Issued to mark the first anniversary of independence, they remain the only Singapore stamps ever to bear the full formal name Republic of Singapore. Every issue since, beginning with the Masks and Dances definitive series in 1968, has carried simply Singapore."
"The original 1966 stamp series was a purposeful declaration of our new statehood, capturing the sense of optimism, vision and progress for the nation,” said former Chairman of the Stamp Advisory Committee, Lim Chong Jin, who oversaw the selection of this year’s National Day stamp.
In a move to reflect the shift from nation-building to global connectivity and sustainability, the 2026 version offers three landscapes - the changed Singapore central business district skyline, blocks of flats alongside an MRT train and high-rise buildings decked in greenery alongside the Gardens by the Bay Supertree and drones.
"When the suggestion of remaking the iconic 1966 series was first mooted, the committee saw a historic milestone to celebrate exactly how far we have travelled as a nation," said Mr Lim."
Prosecution to check if teen who licked iJooz straw will have student pass cancelled; case adjourned (13 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A teenager who posted a video of himself licking a straw and returning it to an iJooz vending machine was meant to plead guilty on Monday (Jul 13), but the case was adjourned at the prosecution's request.
The prosecutor said she was checking with the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on whether 19-year-old French national Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien would have his student pass cancelled upon conviction.
This may have an impact on his sentencing, said State Prosecuting Officer Sukhdev Kaur.
Maximilien faces one charge each of public nuisance and mischief over the incident at Goldhill Centre on Mar 12. He is accused of licking a straw, placing it back into the straw dispenser of an iJooz machine and posting a video of the act on his Instagram Story.
The act caused iJooz to replace all 500 straws in the dispenser, worth S$5 (US$3.90) in total, the charge states.
Probation Probability?
Maximilien is represented by Mr Kalidass Murugaiyan and Mr Kanthan Raghavendra.
When asked by District Judge Kelly Ho, Mr Murugaiyan explained that his client was not in Singapore on an exchange programme, but as a student-pass holder.
Part of Maximilien's programme requires him to have a stint in France from September to the end of this year, said the lawyer.
When the judge asked how probation as sought by the defence would work in that situation, Mr Murugaiyan said the feasibility of probation could be assessed if a probation suitability report is called for.
He said he was in the process of working with Maximilien to see if he can come back for interviews at certain periods.
If he does not make the trip to France, he cannot complete the programme, said the lawyer.
Maximilien's school, ESSEC Business School, earlier said it was aware of the incident and that internal investigations were underway.
In response, Ms Kaur said the prosecution was checking with ICA on whether Maximilien's student pass would be cancelled upon conviction.
This may have an impact on his sentencing, and the prosecution will review its sentencing position pending ICA's reply, she said.
She asked for an adjournment of four to six weeks but did not object to a shorter adjournment of three weeks.
The guilty plea was fixed for Jul 30."
Commentary: AI has changed the way my students write and that worries me (14 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: In recent semesters, something has changed in the way some students in my ethics and communications classes write.
In the past, students who wrote well often wrote differently, some more direct, some conversational. Some took risks with unusual examples or arguments. Even weaker writers tended to have recognisable habits or ways of framing ideas.
Increasingly, however, I find myself reading submissions that feel polished but interchangeable. Arguments arrive neatly packaged: a balanced introduction, three structured points, a counterargument followed by a conclusion that sounds thoughtful without saying very much. The same phrases emerge even when discussing entirely different topics.
The answer, unsurprisingly, has been generative AI.
To be clear, this is not an extensive issue. But even a handful of such cases worries me, especially given the recent announcement that students across Singapore’s institutes of higher learning will learn AI skills tailored to their fields of study from 2027.
Students now have access to powerful tools. When they begin to believe that having access to well-phrased answers is the same as developing genuine knowledge and understanding, that will be the problem.
Take the example of my student who submitted a piece with the terms “social responsibility” and “ethical implications”. When I asked what those terms meant in relation to his example, the student could only repeat the phrase rather than explain his reasoning.
In the end, the student admitted to using AI to generate ideas and structure the piece, because “I didn’t know how to start”.
Students sometimes submit carefully balanced arguments on controversial issues, but struggle when asked which side they personally find more convincing or why. Other times, they stumble when asked why they chose a particular example or source, before admitting that it was because it “fit the argument” rather than because they fully understood it.
In the past, these would have been revealed with weak writing. The argument might be underdeveloped or students might struggle to connect the evidence to the claim. These showed us educators where the thinking had broken down. Now, AI can cover over some of those cracks.
Why Original Writing Matters
In many cases, students are not trying to deceive anyone. Perhaps they are unsure how to begin, or they use it to improve their language or organise ideas they already have. Used thoughtfully, AI can be a valuable learning aid.
But has the student made a genuine choice in the argument? Can they defend their claim when challenged? Can they restate their argument in their own words?
These questions matter because a piece of writing is not the final product. In higher education, writing is one of the ways students learn to think, notice what is important, organise complexity, weigh competing ideas and develop judgment.
Students need to experience the discomfort of thinking without immediate assistance, a process educational psychologists call the productive struggle. Because that discomfort is often where learning begins.
Already, research suggests that while AI can improve writing fluency and efficiency of written outputs, heavy reliance on these tools may also reduce opportunities for deeper engagement with ideas, independent problem-solving and the kind of cognitive effort that supports deeper learning. This has implications beyond the classroom when students graduate into the workforce."
2027 school year to start on Jan 4 and end on Nov 19 (14 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: The 2027 school year for all Ministry of Education (MOE) kindergartens, primary and secondary schools will begin on Jan 4 and end on Nov 19.
Primary 1 and Kindergarten 1 pupils will start school on Jan 4, while students in Kindergarten 2 and Primary 2 to 6 will report to school a day later on Jan 5.
For schools used as venues for the Singapore-Cambridge Secondary Education (SEC) written examinations, the final school term will end earlier on Oct 29, the ministry said on Tuesday (Jul 14).
Those entering their first year in junior colleges (JCs) and Millennia Institute (MI) will start on Feb 3, with the rest of the JC and MI students starting earlier, on Jan 11.
Vacations In 2027
The March holidays for all schools will run from Mar 13 to 21, while the June holidays will start on May 29 and end on Jun 27.
September holidays are scheduled from Sep 4 to 12.
MOE Kindergartens, primary and secondary schools will begin their year-end vacations on Nov 20, while JC and MI students not taking the GCE A-Level examinations will start their break on Nov 27.
Those taking the A-Level examinations will have their break after their assessments end."
35 schools oversubscribed in Phase 2A of Primary 1 registration exercise (15 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: A total of 35 schools were oversubscribed in Phase 2A of the Primary 1 registration exercise this year, a drop from last year, based on data released by the Ministry of Education (MOE) on Wednesday (Jul 15).
The most oversubscribed school in Phase 2A this year was Red Swastika School in Bedok, with 88 applicants for 24 spaces.
Applications under Phase 2A started at 9am on Jul 9 and concluded at 4.30pm on Jul 10. One school – Canossa Catholic Primary – will not take in any children in this phase of the exercise.
With 120 spaces in total, 61 students applied to the school in Phase 1, which is for students whose siblings are currently in the school. 60 spaces are typically reserved for Phases 2B and 2C.
According to MOE’s website, all eligible Phase 1 applicants will be offered a place in the school they applied to. This is why Canossa Catholic Primary has 59 spaces available for Phases 2B and 2C, and no open spots for Phase 2A.
The next two most oversubscribed schools were Princess Elizabeth Primary School in Bukit Batok, with 137 applicants for 47 spaces and Shuqun Primary School in Jurong West, with 93 applicants for 32 spaces, the data showed.
Princess Elizabeth Primary was also among the top three most oversubscribed schools last year."
Some fresh grads endure tough job hunts, even with thousands of entry-level PMET job openings (16 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: When he was a junior college student, Mr Ng Rui Jie did not put much effort into getting a scholarship that would bind him to a government job, because he simply did not expect a difficult job search after university.
Today, the 25-year-old National University of Singapore (NUS) computer science graduate wishes he had a scholarship bond to serve. It would have meant a guaranteed job.
“I do feel a bit regretful,” Mr Ng told CNA. Despite submitting more than 120 job applications since last October – before he graduated this year – he has yet to secure a full-time role.
“I do consider, if I had chosen a different path, how would that turn out?” Mr Ng said.
On paper, Mr Ng’s jobseeking struggles stand in stark contrast to a seemingly buoyant job market.
According to recent Ministry of Manpower (MOM) data, there were 32,800 entry-level vacancies for professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) in March, accounting for 43.6 per cent of all PMET job openings.
These entry-level jobs have a minimum salary between S$2,300 and S$5,000, are considered suitable for fresh graduates, and are advertised on job portals to recruit locals.
The data on job openings, which came from surveys conducted by the ministry and online job portals, has remained steady over time – there were 32,500 entry-level PMET vacancies in December 2025, and 34,600 in December 2024.
Yet on the ground, the experiences of eight young jobseekers from the graduating classes of 2025 and 2026 paint a different picture.
While a majority eventually managed to secure full-time job offers, several told CNA they endured a difficult job search that involved compromise.
For some, the prolonged uncertainty of getting hired meant having to rethink their career timelines or choosing a safer, stabler entry into the workforce.
Managing Expectations
Earlier this year, a study by MOM found that fresh graduates across most disciplines earned less than they expected when they started work. Low pay and waiting for a better offer were top reasons for turning down job offers.
Asked about this, the fresh graduates told CNA they did not feel that they were being picky.
Instead, they maintain that they want to expand their horizons, trading generous work-life balance and immediate financial rewards for career-building roles that offer a foot in the door.
Mr Ng, the computer science graduate, had already tempered his expectations when he started his job search last year.
His job search was not limited to Big Tech and the private sector. He hoped for a collaborative company culture and work-life balance, but was prepared to accept “996” hours – working from 9am to 9pm, six days a week.
He also moderated his expected salary to S$5,000 from S$6,000, on par with the S$5,500 median monthly salary for information and digital technology graduates in 2025.
“I think that we are very open-minded. A lot of us have a growth mindset,” said fellow jobseeker Afsheen Jae, a 22-year-old business graduate from Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
“We want to be given more opportunities, and we want to be in an environment where there is opportunity for career progression over a high salary from the start.”
Ms Jae had applied to about 120 jobs since the start of the year, an experience she described as eye-opening because of a lack of responses from employers. She came close to settling for an internship, but has since received a full-time offer."
Singapore Night Festival returns in August with new Museum Zone and larger-than-life light shows (16 July 2026)
"If you're already planning your weekend outings for August, here's one to add to your list.
The Singapore Night Festival (SNF) is back for its 17th edition from Aug 21 to Sep 5, turning the Bras Basah-Bugis precinct into a lively after-dark destination with light projections, immersive installations, performances and food.
This year's theme, Myths And Legends, draws inspiration from the folklore, traditions and stories that have shaped Singapore and Southeast Asia.
One of the biggest changes this year is the introduction of a new Museum Zone, centred around the National Museum of Singapore, the Children's Museum Singapore and nearby heritage spaces.
The festival also has three zones: Zone 1 that stretches from Funan to CHIJMES, and has a craft market at Capitol Singapore as well as interactive programmes and installations in CHIJMES.
Zone 2 spans Cathay Green to Waterloo Centre and offers performances, exhibitions and participatory experiences.
Zone 3 at Bras Basah Complex and Stamford Arts Centre showcases cultural experiences, from xinyao performances and traditional arts to community-led activations celebrating Singapore’s living heritage.
Among the headline attractions is Tales Of Earth And Sea, a projection mapping show by The Fox, The Folks that will light up the facade of the National Museum of Singapore.
Those looking for something more immersive can check out The Lost Legacy Of Fort Canning: The Forbidden Hill, a 70-minute night walking trail through Fort Canning Park that uncovers the myths and mysteries surrounding Bukit Larangan or Forbidden Hill.
This year's edition also sees the debut of the MALAM Projection Mapping Competition, which brings together artists, students and creative collectives from around Southeast Asia to showcase original projection mapping works. The new competition aims to spotlight emerging regional talent while giving creatives a platform to experiment with the medium.
"Singapore Night Festival has always been more than light installations. It is about creating shared experiences that bring people together after dark, while showcasing the best of creative talent from Singapore and Southeast Asia," said festival director Qazim Karim from HeritageSG."
Schools embrace World Cup final fever with live screenings, later starts and jersey days (16 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Instead of telling students to turn in early and miss football's biggest spectacle, some schools are finding ways to help them celebrate the upcoming World Cup final while ensuring that they are well-rested enough for classes.
From overnight watch parties and later school start times to national team jersey days, some schools in Singapore are making special arrangements, recognising that many students will be staying up to watch the 3am kickoff between Spain and reigning champions Argentina on Monday (Jul 20).
Among the schools embracing the World Cup fever is Victoria School, which is organising an overnight watch party for up to 350 Secondary 1 to 4 students.
This is a voluntary event to foster school spirit and camaraderie among students, said Principal Low Chun Meng in a letter seen by CNA.
Students will report to school on Sunday night before turning in for a few hours' sleep in the hall. They will then watch the final together before resting again, showering and heading to lessons, which will begin at 7.30am.
A minimum of five to eight teachers will be at the event.
"It’s a good idea, especially for the students to bond," said 15-year-old Lucas Augustin, a Secondary 3 student at Victoria School.
"But it’ll be even better if school was cancelled the next day. After all, it’s unlikely that the students can concentrate in class given the adrenaline and lack of sleep."
Another school is expecting a watch party of more than 300, comprising students, staff and parents.
Singapore Sports School said the idea of a live screening was proposed by its student council.
Students will organise games and activities during half-time, while parents will support the event by providing snacks.
Lessons will start later at 10am, with non-boarding students allowed to stay overnight in the auditorium before having breakfast on campus ahead of lessons.
Principal Ong Kim Soon said the initiative has been well-received and that he hopes students will look back on it as a time when the school community came together to do something different.
"Beyond enjoying the match, we hope the experience of lobbying and organising will strengthen the student leaders’ confidence and sense of agency," Mr Ong said.
"We also hope that the match will showcase the best of football and sporting excellence that our student-athletes can aspire to."
Later Start Times
Other schools are making it a little easier for students to recover after the early-morning final.
Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) is starting classes later than usual, at 8.30am, while Monday's chapel will be rescheduled to Wednesday instead.
Principal Kevin Pang said he wanted to support families in creating "meaningful memories together, with adequate time for rest" while preserving a key part of the school's identity.
"If your family chooses to watch the FIFA World Cup final together, I hope you enjoy the occasion and create lasting memories," Mr Pang said.
"I also ask every ACSian to get sufficient rest, return ready to learn and honour our rescheduled Chapel on Wednesday by arriving punctually and participating wholeheartedly," he added.
Hwa Chong Institution is starting classes even later on Monday, at 9.30am, while the dismissal time remains unchanged.
In a message to parents, the school said: "We hope the later start will provide our students and staff with a little more time to rest before the school day begins, while also acknowledging a sporting occasion that brings people around the world together."
Singapore may block under-18s from social media platforms that fail child safety standards: Josephine Teo (17 July 2026)
"SINGAPORE: Social media platforms that fail to meet child safety standards could be blocked for users under 18, while those that do could continue offering access to young users, Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo said on Friday (Jul 17).
Speaking at a forum on child online safety organised by the Ministry of Digital Development and Information and the Institute of Policy Studies, Mrs Teo said discussions pointed towards a "differentiated landscape" where access hinges on whether platforms can provide a safe environment for children.
“It is potentially a differentiated landscape where some services, some platforms have made it possible for child-safe access, and they continue to offer access to those under 18,” she said in her closing remarks.
“But there may be some other services that either have not been willing or able to do it, then as a society, we think that it is probably better to block access for under-18s to these kinds of services.”
Restricting access is "not the starting point" and "not the preferred outcome", she stressed. The government's priority remains working with platforms to strengthen safety features so children can keep accessing digital services more safely.
Her remarks build on an earlier proposal for tiered or age-based access, under which younger children could be barred from certain platforms while older teenagers gain access gradually as they develop the maturity to navigate online spaces.
Singapore already has several age-related safeguards in place. These include Codes of Practice for Online Safety, age assurance requirements for apps and annual reporting obligations for social media platforms.
"The idea that we can kick them off (social media) completely is not a very realistic one," Teo said, noting that children today grow up without a clear separation between online and offline life.
Protecting children from harm is "only part of it", she added. Preparing them to navigate digital spaces responsibly matters just as much, if not more, in the long run.
Tiered Access To Social Media
Summing up the discussions at the forum, Mrs Teo said there was broad support for tiered access and stronger expectations that tech companies take responsibility for designing safer platforms.
She said safety should extend beyond moderating harmful content to features that shape user behaviour, such as recommendation algorithms, design elements that encourage constant use and the ability to interact with strangers.
"If we really want to create a child-safe environment, making sure it doesn't stop at the border called content but instead goes into considerations that define the features, the design of these services, is something that has also come across very loudly and clearly.”