Transcription
MOS go pay me. Mr. Speaker, sir, I rise in support of the motion.
As one of the younger new political office holders in this house, allow me first to share my thanks for what my generation has received. Then, Mr. Speaker, amidst the many challenges that Singapore faces, I would like to speak about our children and their childhoods and offer some suggestions on how we can help our next generation thrive.
I grew up in the 80s and 90s in a simple HTB flat in Bedok. Studying was important, but my fondest memories were from playing football during recess, going to the nearby playground, and wandering around Bedok Town Centre shops and the library. A simple childhood, a heartland experience like most Singaporeans. And I'm grateful for what I had, for it shaped me into who I am today.
My generation grew up proud of Singapore. Proud that our small country was able to punch above her weight as one of the four Asian tigers. Proud that we stayed principled and resisted external pressures. Proud that we were bold and planned long term. We owe gratitude to our grandparents and our parents whose hard work and strong values enabled them to overcome tough cycles of retrenchment, global conflicts and the SARS epidemic so that we all can have a much better life than they ever did.
Now it is our turn to take on the mantle to navigate through the dark clouds, to support and take care of our seniors, and to raise our children well to become future leaders of Singapore. And if I may add on a more personal note, it is precisely my heartland upbringing and my pride in Singapore that's kept me committed to serving the Singapore Armed Forces for many years, as well as in the community as a grassroots leader through the past two decades, and now to do even more as I take the step into politics.
Just as our pioneers had their challenges, my generation, our generation will have ours to confront as well. As a nation, we have no lack of issues to think about in our next lap. In a world of rapid change, geopolitical situations, climate change, intense economic competition, the opportunities and challenges that AI brings, the dominance of tech and mobile devices, the explosion of choices that face us all will be even more daunting for young minds. It is therefore our responsibility to help them thrive, and we have to do as well as we possibly can.
Singapore is already one of the best places for our children to grow up in. With a high quality of life, safe and secure environment, excellent health care, schools. But with new uncertainties ahead of us, we need to ensure our next generation is ready to brave it and resilient enough to stay ahead. We must help our young people develop in the right way, to shift from what to think and do, to how to think and do, so that they have the confidence and curiosity to navigate those winds of change. So that they develop the critical thinking for them to discern what's right and what's wrong. For them to possess the grit and perseverance to keep pushing when the going gets tough, and to have the resilience to get up when they fall.
To do so, we as a nation need to change the way we raise our children. And that begins with changing our mindsets. Amongst all the shifts that we need to make, sometimes changing mindsets is the hardest. But just like how our grandfathers and fathers have prepared us well for today's challenges, it's now for us, our generation, to prepare our children for their future.
We all want our children to get the best possible start in life. And the good thing is many parents today already send their children to preschool. Although starting ages differ, our data shows that children who start preschool at 3 years old do better in primary school, and in fact, the benefits continue long afterwards. Children develop better and learn better with preschool. So, I strongly encourage all parents to start your children in preschool early.
Of course, parents need to be able to identify and secure a good preschool, and especially if both parents are at work. As a parent myself, I cared deeply about my children's education. Eight years ago, when choosing a preschool for my first born, there was no vacancy in any of the nearby government-supported preschools. Fast forward to today, as the Minister of State overseeing the preschool sector, I'm glad to learn that our government-supported centers can meet 80% of our population's needs. And this leaves options for some Singaporeans to pursue private centers. Furthermore, our early childhood educators, our teachers are well-qualified and committed. Preschool fees have also come down, and we must continue to do better, and we will.
I had a chat recently with a young couple. Marine Parade is a mature estate, but we do have our fair share of young parents. They grew up in the East like myself. They are happy living and starting a family in Marine Parade. Even though they did start the conversation by telling me they were disappointed they didn't get to vote in the recent GE, but it was a good reminder to me to never take our residents' trust for granted. They subsequently went on to share their concerns about the academic pressures that their young child already faces.
I want to make the point that the best start in life is not about pushing learning earlier. It is not about studying ahead of the school curriculum, and it is not about outdoing their peers academically. Growing up, I recall having friends around me being drilled in Abacus classes to help with their math, and there are many more examples like that. Don't get me wrong, our children must develop and must have good numeracy and literacy skills because it's important in life to go on. But I think Singapore as a country, we are already doing well in these areas.
The way to give our children the best start in life is to build them up well, to make sure they have a proper childhood. A childhood rich with opportunities to develop important values that help them to become inventive, resilient, and flexible. A childhood where they truly learn to be a good person, as opposed to just being academically clever.
When you're a young child, the most powerful lessons, the most powerful learning comes not from books, not from tuition centers, but from experiences. Our children need a childhood where they can enjoy the freedom to explore and learn from their own experiences because that's how they learn best. I learned about a butterfly's life cycle from keeping a caterpillar. I was pretty good at playing marbles, and that helped me quickly understand Newton's laws on action and reaction many years later. It was my own experimentation and playful experience that taught me these powerful lessons and more. Our children need such experiences to grow their curiosity for a lifetime of learning. Bring them out to our parks and our playgrounds. They need to learn through doing and experiencing for themselves. Let the world be the classroom.
But child development is not just about intentional learning experiences. There is much to learn through play, unstructured play. Increasingly, research shows that play enhances our children's brain development. New neural pathways are formed when children play. These lay important foundations for problem-solving, creativity, and emotional regulation. There are important lessons from play that every child deserves.
From playing five stones and zero point, my generation honed our hand-eye coordination and learned how to focus and persevere. From falling from a swing, we learned about resilience. It is not how we fall, but how we get up and swing faster and higher. From the pain of blisters that came from playing football barefoot, we learned about consequences and how to keep ourselves safe in the future. Yet, in our effort to want to keep our children safe, we sometimes deprive them of these lessons. And while we ironically overprotect in the real world, we may have underprotected in the virtual world, allowing our children to indulge in their devices.
After MOE's advice on screen time for young children, parents are anxious. Parents say it's not easy to pull back on those devices. My own child will also argue with me that digital play is also a form of play. While that's true, the constant sensory stimulation releases dopamine, not a bad thing in controlled quantities, but when done in excess, its effects are no different from gambling and substance abuse.
So, what can we do? We can do more to support our families to dial back on screen use. Not sudden total withdrawal, but progressive changes. For a start, one simple change is to devote more time and energy to interacting with our children face to face and listening to them. We balance away from tuition centers, away from devices, and cater more time for play. Yes, it might mean sacrificing some peace and rest for us caregivers, but nothing beats spending quality family time together. And for those of us who need to work long hours to make ends meet, our communities and our schools can do more to engage our children meaningfully.
Finally, our children need to learn from and interact with other children. And from there, they can grow to become more communicative, more caring, and more emotionally balanced. Growing up, I recall playing many variations of catching at the playground in the void decks. What the catcher can and cannot do. We made up our own rules and played by them. We learned to convince, to negotiate, to compromise. We learned how to share. We can be playing football and basketball on opposite ends of the same court. And through it all, more importantly, we found ourselves friends, best friends, friends that we can reliably call upon later in life, friends that ChatGPT can never replace. An article I read on World Suicide Prevention Day a couple of weeks ago emphasized how important friends are in helping us navigate the stresses and storms of life. Through supporting one another, our children can learn about care, about compassion, about empathy, and these are important in building a "we first" society.
So let us help families rebalance. More real time, less screen time, more play, less pressure, more emotional intelligence, not just artificial intelligence, and give space for our children to learn how to learn. Because when learning is fun, it becomes its own destination rather than a means to live up to an adult's expectations.
As parents, our children look to us, and what we emphasize and define as success influences them too. Is a child successful only because of straight A's and a delightful CCA record? As adults, how do we measure our own success? Is it only about our job titles and salaries? Is it about what vacations we take and what car we drive, if we drive? Comparison is the thief of joy. And in this age of social media, it is easy to feel that we pale in comparison to others. But social media is not an accurate reflection of most people's lives. Many of us will curate and share only the best and the most positive aspects of our lives while filtering out the mundane or the natural realities of every day.
So I want to encourage Singaporeans with this. Let us define our own success, our own sense of meaning, of purpose. And this is how we can pursue our own dreams and passions. Perhaps the "kiasu" spirit is ingrained in all of us. Perhaps this sense of exceptionalism is what got us this far in the first place. But let us channel this sense of competitiveness more positively, away from rigid definitions of success, towards self-improvement. Not for the purpose of outdoing others, but to become better versions of ourselves.
Mr. Speaker, amidst the many challenges that Singapore faces, I chose to speak about our children and their childhoods. Let me cite a quote that sums this up quite nicely. "I will give wings to children, but I'll leave it to them to learn how to fly by themselves."
I'd like to leave this house with one final image. The world sometimes calls parents "tiger moms." It is my hope that we become better known as "mummy bears" instead. I use "moms" and "mommy" carefully because that's how these phrases are coined, but it includes all the fathers who are out there, myself included. Now, why "mummy bears"? Mummy bears are nurturing and warm and very cuddly, too. Mummy bears raise their cubs to be independent, to be able to survive, to hunt, and to be able to explore on their own. Mummy bears allow the cubs to stumble because that's how they learn and become more resilient. But when danger comes, mummy bears will defend their cubs ferociously. This is the mindset change that we need from tiger parents to bear parents, or if I may call them, "bear parents." If we do this, then our next generation will not only be able to face the future but also shape it with confidence, resilience, and heart.
Mr. Speaker, sir, in Mandarin please.
Fore speech. Singapore. Foreign. Fore speech. Fore speech. Fore speech. For one. Mr. Speaker, sir, I support the motion. Thank you.