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HEARTWARMING LAUNCH OF EDEN SCHOOL
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3 April 2009
EDEN SCHOOL LAUNCH, 3 APRIL 2009
OPENING SPEECH BY DENISE PHUA
President of Autism Resource Centre (Singapore) and
Supervisor, Eden School and Pathlight School Boards
Ms Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Education and National Development
Ms Ho Ching, Advisor to Eden and Pathlight Schools and their parent charity bodies, Autism Resource Centre (S) and Autism Association Singapore
Mr Ho Swee Huat, President of AAS, Parent of Eden School
Our very valued partners from MOE, MCYS, NCSS Board Members
Friends from the special education community
INTRODUCTION
Good morning everyone. I recalled it was exactly 1 year ago when SMS Grace Fu was given the additional portfolio in education and her first public appearance in MOE was an autism event. It was to witness the donation of $2 million to another autism school, the Pathlight School for its new building.
One year later, SMS Grace is now gracing the launch of another autism school, the Eden School. Next year this time, she may again be with us in yet another autism event since we are building 2 new sites, so I think I should block her time in advance!
April each year is usually also the time for cabinet change announcements and I wish her all the very best in her road to the top.
Thank you so much, Grace for coming. Thank you, Ho Ching too, who despite your being a ‘big-time corporate honcho’ and your busyness, have agreed to join us when I mentioned Eden School’s launch to you.
WHY EDEN
On behalf of Eden School Board, I also want to welcome every single one of you to Eden School, which used to be known as the Singapore Autism School.
Why the new name ‘Eden’ must be the question on your mind.
Besides the fact that almost all our school board meetings are held at Swee Huat’s office in the “House of Eden” building at Robinson Road, the school’s new name is also derived from the classic Garden of Eden – a loving, nurturing and fruitful environment in which mankind is meant to live and grow happily ever after in.
You will see the new logo of the school featuring a tree - a tree that is lustrous and fruit-bearing and that is what we aspire for the lives of our students in Eden – that they will always be nurtured, evergreen, and in turn bear fruits so others can also benefit from their lives.
ABOUT AUTISM
The month of April has been labeled as Autism Awareness Month worldwide. 2nd April in fact is Autism Awareness Day and many autism-related activities are happening worldwide even at this moment.
Later on, during ‘recess’ time of this morning’s programme, please do take a look at the Autism Awareness Gym that has been set up for you to help uncover the myths and facts about autism.
Although conveniently referred to as ‘autism’, the term ‘autism” really refers to a spectrum of conditions that vary extensively in severity and scope. It is a condition that manifests in 3 core difficulties. People with autism are weak in (1) social skills; (2) communication skills (some are verbal and some are not). Many of them are also rigid in behaviour and can be very affected by changes.
As a result, autism is one of the most difficult developmental disorders to understand and to master. From our experience, it takes 3 to 5 years to train an autism specialist.
About 24,000 Singaporeans are estimated to have an autism spectrum disorder, some mild and others more severe. Once diagnosed, early and effective intervention and education can make a huge difference in the development of children with autism.
ADVANCES IN THE AUTISM SCENE IN THE LAST 5 YEARS
Thanks to the efforts of MOE, NCSS and charities, much advances in the Singapore autism scene have been witnessed in especially the last 5 years:
Within the mainstream school system, the model of Special Needs Officers to support students with autism has taken off in more than 100 mainstream schools;
Within special education, 3 out of the 20 special schools, namely the Pathlight School, St Andrew’s Autism Centre and Eden School; focus primarily on students with autism. 13 other special schools offer classes for students with autism. More than 1,300 students with autism now receive education within these 16 special schools;
An innovative Satellite School Model was also experimented successfully in the special education system by Pathlight School. Students with autism from the special school study in classrooms rented in a mainstream school and integrate daily with mainstream students socially and academically within the same physical compound;
The Autism Resource Centre (Singapore) offers close to 2,000 seats to train mainstream teachers, special education teachers, parents and other family caregivers each year so that they can be more equipped to identify, teach and support people with autism.
ARC autism consultants have also commissioned by MOE, NCSS and reputable schools to train Special Needs Officers and teachers in autism locally and regionally;
Indeed, as mentioned by my global counterparts in autism, Singapore was and is on a fast track in racing toward supporting people with autism. We want to ensure that as many of them as possible can be properly educated, employed and be integrated in mainstream Singapore.
Key challenges of course remain. They are mostly found in the post formal-schooling years; in the areas of employment support, residential living and continuous lifelong education.One key gap is the need to improve the employability and employment support of people with autism.
Schemes such as the Open Door fund to incentivize companies to hire them have not exactly taken off due to the dismal number of candidates who can qualify or sustain. Besides adopting more effective supported employment model, one critical strategy is to raise the bar and enhance the quality of education and outcomes for the students exiting from the school system. I believe MOE’s Mrs Doreen Tan is looking into this with several of us.
EDEN SCHOOL: 3 LESSONS FROM THE ROAD TO EDEN
I am personally very encouraged by the transformation of Eden School within the last one year. Principal Mrs Jenny Lai will share with you the specifics of the transformation.
But what really excites me are 2 significant developments:
- With Eden School now a very intimate sister school of Pathlight School, there is now a full spectrum of education offering from mainstream education to vocational training for students with autism;
- 2 charity bodies, the Autism Association Singapore (AAS) and the Autism Resource Centre (ARC), successfully joined forces for a bigger cause, adopting a ‘shared services model’, to serve the autism community. No egos. No turfs. No personal agendas.
The lessons I took away from the road to Eden are several.
LESSON 1: IT IS NOT ABOUT US
I learnt that miraculous outcomes can happen when people sincerely focus on the vision and do not bother about the credits (or the media).
I thank AAS President, Ho Swee Huat, for patiently approaching me till I was psychologically ready to also help operate Eden School.
I thank Eden School Chairman, Eddy Koh, for dreaming with me of the potential of a private-sector best practice – the ‘shared services model’ beyond simply accounting services. He together with Swee Huat and the school board gave me and the Principal space and trust to make this dream a reality.
I thank the many autism consultants and staff from ARC and Pathlight School who are convicted that students like those in Eden, who may not be suitable to chase the national exams such as the PSLE and GCE, still deserve a solid quality education so they can go places upon exit.
Lesson No. 1: When we realize that it is not about us when we serve, great things happen.
LESSON 2: HEART ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH. THERE IS A NEED TO RAISE THE BAR.
As a management consultant and the parent of a special needs child myself, I know deep in my heart that kindness, passion and even money are not enough to make a real difference to a child’s learning. One critical input must be the technical and management expertise of both school teachers and school leaders.
Within Pathlight and now in Eden School, without apologies, we have adopted or adapted best practices from mainstream education, special education, private sector, consultants, local and overseas.
We adopted process mapping from Motorola 6-sigma trainings; rigorous behavioral interviewing and assessments in teacher recruitment; service level agreements; KPIs or key performance indicators; curricula adaptations from early intervention, MOE schools, ITE systesms – all practices that we know will help us further our core mission of providing a good education for our students.
We know that like a woman yearning for a child and feeling her biological clock ticking, the life clock of every student in our charge is also ticking away. There is an urgency to learn and develop as much as we can, so we can improve their prognosis when they leave school.
We learnt that in the charity and special needs world where expectations can be low, we must raise the bar in our expectations of (1) what we as providers can do for them; and (2) what the students themselves can achieve.
Lesson No. 2: Heart alone is not enough to make the difference. There is a need to raise the bar.
LESSON 3: BE PREPARED TO DO IT EVEN IF NO ONE ELSE WOULD
The final lesson I learnt from the road to Eden is to do with the notion of ‘Finder’s Keeper’. The idea of ‘Finder’s Keeper’ seems like a good thing to many of us. But what if the thing we find is not a gold coin? What if the thing we find is a problem like an autistic child who may or may not be able to respond to our affection or efforts to help them, like the typical child? In that case, many finders are often eager to give it up.
I recall the story of Gary Haugen and would like to share it with you.
While conducting a worldwide study for his employer, the US Justice Department, in the 1990s, Gary Haugen found big problems. He thought, "Someone needs to do something about this". He looked around for someone who could take on the extensive injustices and abuses of authority he had uncovered. But then he realized no one was willing to do it.
In 1997, Gary Haugen founded the International Justice Mission or the IJM to provide legal aid and advocacy for victims of violence, sexual exploitation, slavery and oppression around the world. IJM now employs more than 250 individuals on five continents.
In 2007, Haugen was awarded the Wilberforce Forum Award, an annual award that recognizes an individual who has made a difference in the face of formidable societal problems and injustices.
When asked why he did what he did, Haugen said, “God does not have a Plan B. His plan is you. You are the answer.”
Lesson No. 3 : Be Prepared to do it yourself if no one else would, especially when you know it is the right thing to do.
CONCLUSION
Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you today for all the things you have done to make the difference to the lives of people with autism and other special needs.
Thank you for doing it even when no else would.
Thank you for not walking away.
Denise Phua
Launch of Eden School
3 April 2009
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