S'pore school teaches 'angklung' and computers

S'pore school teaches 'angklung' and computers

By Endy M. Bayuni

SINGAPORE (JP): The distinct sound of bamboo being shaken from
angklung hailed our arrival at the school yard. As the 20 or so
fourth graders played Somewhere Over the Rainbow and Eidelweiss
with the traditional Indonesian bamboo musical instruments, the
principle of Yio Chu Kang Primary School and members of her
teaching staff greeted the visitors from Indonesia.

The school visit actually was intended to showcase Singapore's
incorporation of IT (information technology) into its education
system. But the angklung reception illustrates the importance
Singapore schools place on the arts, including traditional music,
even as the government pushes schools to make computers part and
parcel of the teaching and learning process from as early as the
first grade.

This particular case shows tradition, an Indonesian one at
that, can blend with even the most modern technology in schools.

"Angklung is very popular here," Toh Boon Keng, the proud
principle, said.

Taught as a cocurricular subject, not every pupil is allowed
to study angklung. Like the choir, those who performed during the
visit were selected through auditions.

The angklung orchestra at the school has played for various
local events and organizations. "Their next performance will be
for the upcoming APEC meeting," Toh said, referring to the
meeting of education ministers of the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation next month.

Toh takes particular pride in teaching the arts, which she
says is part of the creative thinking process for children.

The school also teaches the performing arts, including dance
and drama, and visual arts. And Toh is looking into organizing
Chinese orchestra classes.

And the school also can be proud of the superb physical
education it offers pupil.

"Fandi Ahmad was one of our students," she said, referring to
the famed Singapore soccer star who played in Indonesia in the
1980s.

But while art lessons are optional, computer classes are
compulsory for all pupils. Not only that. Students also are
increasingly using computers as tools in their studies.

Marking its 50th anniversary this year, Yio Chu Kang Primary
School was selected by the Ministry of Information and the Arts
to showcase the government's Master Plan for IT in Education for
the group of visiting Indonesian journalists.

Launched in 1997 at a cost of some S$2 billion in the first
five years, the government's plan calls for increasing the use of
computers in the learning and teaching process in schools. By
2002, the government hopes that all schools will be fully
networked. More specifically, the goal is to have one computer
for every two teachers, and one computer for every two students
at all primary and secondary schools.

Schools also have been told to ensure that students spend
about 30 percent of their entire curriculum time using or working
with computers. And there is even talk of a laptop scheme by
which portable PCs would become part of a pupil's school
supplies.

Yio Chu Kang is already well on its way to meeting the targets
of the master plan, thanks in no small measure to generous
government grants to help the school buy the computers.

The school has "three-and-a-half" computer laboratories with
40 PCs each. With class sizes limited to a maximum of 40
students, that means each pupil has a computer to themselves
during the lab.

Beginning in the fifth grade, students also are given access
to the Internet.

Many pupils, however, have already mastered the basics of the
computer and the Internet before receiving formal lessons at
school. Most households in Singapore have two PCs, and the cost
of access to the Internet through home phones has been cut to
affordable levels.

The early part of the master plan has been geared toward
educating teachers, rather than students, about how to use
computer.

"It has not been easy," Toh admitted, noting that children are
much more adaptable to information technology than adults.

Besides learning various computer application programs,
teachers are taught about the uses and advantages of the
Internet, which offers them abundant resources to tap from.

Singapore certainly looks the most prepared in Asia, if not
the world, for the advent of e-business, which many believe will
revolutionize not only the way people conduct business, but also
eventually how they run their lives.

As if to confirm its lead, the city-state this month hosts
eFestival Asia 2000, the chief attraction of which is the
eLearning showcase.

The interactive sessions, which the Raffles Institution and
the Raffles Girls School -- two of Singapore's top secondary
schools -- are intended to show students that Internet learning
can be rewarding and fun.

And in keeping with the official motto that Every Singaporean
Matters, the poor and "technophobes" will be assisted in
mastering computers and the Internet. Earlier this month, the
government announced it would spend S$25 million over the next
three years to bridge the "digital divide", according to the
Straits Times newspaper.

The Master Plan for IT in Education is part of the
government's program to implement its mission statement in
education, which is to Mold the Future of the Nation.

"IT literacy will be a basic competency in tomorrow's
workplace," states a Ministry of Education book which outlines
its vision of Learning to Think, Thinking to Learn.

Rear Admiral Teo Chee Hean, Singapore's minister of education
and second minister for defense, said the rapid development of
the Internet and multimedia technology had opened up new
possibilities for making learning interesting.

Teo recalled that in his primary school days, his whole world
was the school yard, including the soccer field, which seemed
very large at that time.

"If I go back there now, of course, it looks so small. But now
with the Internet entering schools, a child's world is a lot
larger. You can go beyond the school compound.

"You can communicate with students from other parts of the
world," the former Singapore navy chief of staff said.