1. When St John Baptist de La Salle founded the mission more than three hundred years ago, it created a revolution in mass education. Before that, while the children of kings, feudal lords and merchants were always educated, those born of poor families often grew up illiterate. By imbuing young children with a strong sense of values and maintaining a strong discipline in the classroom, the De La Salle schools were able to bring education to everyone. Other missions and organisations adopted similar methods and also succeeded. Eventually, the State also moved into mass education, but sometimes with patchy results because teachers who saw teaching as merely another job and not a vocation were less effective.

2. In some ways, schools have not changed much in a hundred years. If the founder of the De La Salle mission were to be miraculously transported from 1706 to 2006, he would still recognise much of what he pioneered going on in our classrooms – teachers teaching, students drilled and regular testing and examination.

3. In sharp contrast, the world outside the classroom has changed dramatically. A student from a hundred years ago would not be able to cope in the modern world with jet travel, television, computers, mobile phones and the Internet.

4. Some aspects of teaching cannot change because the biological and spiritual nature of man has not changed. However fast computers and communication have become, the capacity of the human brain and the bandwidth of information entering the brain through our eyes and ears have not changed. All over the world, despite constant experimentation, Primary One starts at about the age of six. Puberty may have started a little earlier because of good nutrition but the stages of physical growth and mental development are largely determined by our biological nature. But, whatever the education system, a good teacher can make a big difference to the child, giving him confidence, encouraging him on, inspiring him and opening new windows in his mind.

5. Because the world today is so different, the content of education has to keep up and prepare the child for the society he will live in. The syllabus which St John Baptist de La Salle put together would be woefully inadequate for the 21st century.

6. The actual knowledge imparted to the child must take into account the latest developments in science and technology and equip him to be a productive citizen. In addition to the 3Rs, the child today must learn information technology and have some understanding of the revolution in the biological sciences and nanotechnology. We have to equip him for the global economy through the teaching of subjects like history, geography, culture and economics, and with the right language skills. All this is necessary so that, when the child becomes an adult, he is able to find a good job and earn a good living. He must also be conscious of the need to keep learning throughout life.

7. Many of the jobs that children currently in school will do when they graduate probably does not even exist yet. This makes it hard for teachers and parents to draw from their own direct experiences when they prepare children for the future. We are caught in the dilemma of preparing children for a world we ourselves cannot possibly know.

8. There is another aspect of modern education we must be concerned with. That concerns the values we teach our children. We face new moral challenges which religious leaders and moral philosophers in the past could not have foreseen. For example, the revolution in the biological sciences has changed the way we look at individual human beings. When life begins and when it ends have become less clear. We have to expect human beings wanting more and more to tinker with our genetic make-up. Philosophically, we can draw a line between genetic engineering which disdains existing life and genetic surgery which seeks to make it whole. But what this means in practical terms is arguable.

9. Another example is globalisation which brings people of different religions and cultures in close contact within the same economy.
While most societies would protect the right of believers to propagate their faith, active proselytization can create severe social discord.

10. Information technology presents yet another moral challenge.
With easy access to different sources of information, censorship can at best be symbolic. Last weekend’s Financial Times had a thoughtful article on the easy access to pornographic material on the Internet and the growing demand for it. This will have long-term effects on human relationships. With ubiquitous, real time communication, and virtually unlimited storage capacity, privacy will become much harder to maintain.
The mobile phone tracks us in real time. Every email we generate is stored in multiple servers and may be recorded forever.

11. Another problem of globalisation is the protection of our fragile environment. To a greater or lesser degree, all of us have become Green. To continue despoiling the environment in the face of what we now know is not only irresponsible, it is immoral.

12. These are huge moral challenges to which we have no clear answers. How then do we teach our children in this brave new world?

13. We have to strike a balance between tradition and transformation. Every school has somehow to teach the child, on the one hand, to treasure continuity and, on the other, to cope with change. No one has a monopoly of wisdom. An age of rapid change is also an age of great experimentation. We are increasingly building experimentation into our education system. In a sense, every school has become an experiment in educating the child for a world changing at a speed never seen before.

14. Not to be left behind, we are embarking on a major experiment in SJI. SJI is well-placed among the schools in Singapore because of our long history and strong tradition. Drawing from the deep wells of Catholic faith and values, and our strong sense of community, we have a solid core from which to grow and innovate.

15. Tonight, I am happy to unveil a comprehensive and carefully thought-out SJI response to the challenges of our times - the Josephian Programme, which the school will launch next year to transform the method of education school-wide. In this exercise of renewal, SJI must remain true to its founding values.

16. The Josephian Programme will see SJI focus on equipping each and every Josephian with skills for the real world. Strong values, effective communication, command of languages and good inter-personal skills will be the hallmarks of the programme. SJI also aims to nurture young people with deep passions, by helping each SJI boy discover, and develop, in his area of interest or talent, through talent development and individualised enrichment programmes.

17. Under the Josephian Programme, SJI and St Michael’s School will be brought closer together. The aim is to create continuity of learning from Primary 1 to Secondary 4 through the alignment of curriculum and a common pedagogy. This will help teachers develop a more intimate understanding of each boy’s strengths beyond examination results, in order to better guide his development. Of course, the needs of other feeder schools will also be taken into consideration.

18. To facilitate closer collaboration, St Michael’s School has proposed to MOE for it to be renamed St Joseph’s Institution (Junior) or SJI (Junior). There was a primary section of SJI called St Joseph’s Junior School in the past, which was transferred to St Michael’s soon after it was founded in 1954. The proposal to rename the School was only made after long discussions and has received overwhelming support from the various stakeholders.

19. There is another proposal to establish a new school called SJI International. This is in response to an invitation from the Economic Development Board for SJI to set up a private school providing international education and drawing on the best of SJI’s traditions and strengths. The intention is to have SJI International catering to both Singaporeans and foreigners. If approved, the school will offer an alternative education pathway within a Catholic-Lasallian school environment, with an international curriculum based on the IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) for secondary school students and the IB (International Baccalaureate) Diploma for pre-university students. SJI International will also serve other constituencies currently not catered for by SJI such as girls from our Lasallian primary schools and talented students who for one reason or another do not thrive in the mainstream school system.

20. The SJI Old Boys’ Association has pledged to work closely with the school authorities to raise funds for scholarships so that all SJI students with high ability regardless of family background can pursue the IB Diploma at SJI International.

21. What we are attempting under the Josephian Programme is not without risks. We must be prepared to address unexpected side-effects and make adjustments as we go along. But our objective is clear, which is for SJI to nurture good citizens and future leaders in our society - in industry, government, academia, both profit and non-profit sectors and of course, the Church. We want them to be upright individuals and grow to become responsible fathers and husbands. This is an experiment of the greatest importance and one deserving of our wholehearted support. To recall our school song, we are invited to ‘promptly respond to our Mater’s sweet call’.

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