SM Goh Chok Tong at CHIJ Katong Convent’s 80th Anniversary Dinner

Friends and fellow Singaporeans,

80 years is a significant milestone in a person’s life. It is also a significant milestone for a school as it would have educated 3 to 4 generations of students. Its students would have gone on to pursue their own careers and raise their families. I was told that there are at least two students in our midst, whose mothers and grandmothers are members of the CHIJ Katong alumni. All three generations are here tonight to celebrate this very special occasion. It warms my heart to see different generations of students from CHIJ (Katong) Primary and CHIJ Katong Convent (KC) gathered here tonight as one large, happy family to celebrate the school’s achievements. It reflects the deep pride and strong emotional ties your students, both past and present, have for their alma mater.

80 Years of Achievements & Contributions

CHIJ Katong has maintained consistent high standards in educating its students, not just academically, but more importantly, also in imparting strong values to them. Many of your old girls have gone on to contribute to the larger community and the country. I will just cite three examples of your alumni whom I know personally.

The first is Ambassador Chan Heng Chee. She was in the same year as me in the then University of Singapore. We graduated in 1964, she in Political Science and I in Economics. She went on to hold many important appointments, including the Head of the Department of Political Science in the National University of Singapore, Director of the Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Executive Director of the Singapore International Foundation and Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. In 1996, she was appointed Singapore’s Ambassador to the United States. Ambassador Chan has contributed immensely to the strengthening of US-Singapore relations. Five years ago, she was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal by the President for her invaluable and outstanding service to Singapore in diplomacy.

Another distinguished KC alumnus whom I have met a few times is Dr Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Before joining ESCAP, she was the Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women. Dr Heyzer is currently the Singaporean who holds the most senior position in the United Nations. She has won many prestigious international awards, especially for her work in improving the rights of women, and was one of the nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

My third example is someone who is active in volunteer work. She is Dr Fatimah Lateef, my fellow MP for Marine Parade GRC. As an undergraduate, she was a youth activist in my constituency. Now she uses her training as a doctor in Emergency Medicine to lead many humanitarian and disaster relief missions to countries such as China, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ambassador Chan, Dr Heyzer and Dr Fatimah are proud products of CHIJ Katong. They are illustrious examples of the school’s commitment to nurture students to lead and serve the wider community, regardless of race or religion.

CHIJ Katong is also known to train its students to be articulate and confident, with a love for the literary arts. So you also have, among your alumni, literary luminaries like writer Suchen Christine Lim. She won the inaugural Singapore Literature Prize in 1992 with her novel “Fistful of Colours”. The novel is one of the set literature texts for the A levels in Singapore.

Sharing Our Common Space

CHIJ Katong may be a mission school grounded in strong Catholic values and teaching, but it has always been a school for all Singaporeans regardless of their race and religion. The school seeks to inculcate in its students tolerance, which is a core value of Singapore. Students are expected to embrace cultural and religious differences and build strong friendships with their peers from other races and religions. This contributes to the strengthening of our social fabric and harmony. This acceptance of diversity is even more important now because we are bringing in more skilled and talented immigrants to boost our economy and population. Schools provide a common space for our youths from different races and religions to interact and forge friendships. The trust and understanding the students build in schools will develop into strong pillars for our nation.

Community Service

CHIJ Katong also has a strong tradition of valuing its students’ involvement in community service. The school motto, “Simple in Virtue, Steadfast in Duty”, emphasises both the sense of individual responsibility and the importance of serving others. Students are taught to look beyond themselves and at the interests and needs of others in the community. CHIJ Katong has established long-term partnerships with Southeast CDC, Marine Parade CC, Marine Parade Family Service Centre and other organisations to give its students opportunities to serve the community in meaningful ways. Through such exposure, your students learn the importance of showing love and compassion to fellow Singaporeans, especially those who may be less fortunate. I encourage all CHIJ Katong students to continue to lead others, to love and to serve the community even after you graduate. Your acts of kindness and love will go a long way to help make Singapore a more gracious and caring society.

Marine Parade Leadership Foundation Awards

Singapore is blessed with good leadership at the school, community and national levels. This did not come by chance but is carefully planned for. The Ministry of Education systematically identifies teachers with potential and grooms them to take leadership positions in schools. The government is even more meticulous in scouring for good and able people to step forward to serve the country as Members of Parliament and Ministers. The public sector annually recruits Administrative Officers of high intellect and integrity to provide continuing leadership in the civil service. The private sector also has its own means to identify future corporate leaders. But for the community and social work sector, we depend on volunteers. While most of the volunteers are able and dedicated, the flow of such people into the volunteer stream is not guaranteed. I believe that if we start at the students’ level, we have a better chance of producing a steady stream of future leaders for the community, grassroots organisations and voluntary welfare organizations. It is for this reason that my fellow MPs in Marine Parade GRC and MacPherson launched the Marine Parade Leadership Foundation last year. The purpose is to groom a new generation of community leaders. The Foundation has a range of programmes, including the NextGen Leadership Programme and the NextGen Youth Seminar, to achieve its objectives.

Today, I am pleased to announce that the Foundation will be launching two new leadership awards. The first, which is targeted at schools, is the NextGen Outstanding Student Leader Award. The Foundation has named the award after me, believing that it may inspire the students to serve the nation in future. The other, which is targeted at volunteers in grassroots organisations, is the NextGen Young Community Leader Award. The details will be announced by the Marine Parade Leadership Foundation, but in a nutshell, what differentiates these two awards from many other awards is our emphasis on leadership and community service. Most awards go to those who excel academically. However, for the NextGen Awards, we give more weight to leadership attributes and active involvement in community service. Of course, good academic results count, but the students need not be the top academic achievers.

For the NextGen Outstanding Student Leader Award, we invited secondary schools, junior colleges, and ITE colleges in Marine Parade GRC and MacPherson to each nominate one student who best exemplified the qualities of service leadership and community service to receive the award. Later tonight, I will give out the first of these awards to Sarah Binte Sulaiman, a Secondary 4 student from KC. The other winners will receive their awards from their respective schools.

Let me tell you a bit about Sarah. When Sarah first joined KC in 2007, she was not a typical A-lister. She was in the Normal academic stream but she worked hard and was transferred to the Express stream in 2009.

Sarah is a Student Councillor and spends much of her time serving her school, fellow schoolmates and the wider community, even though she is sitting for her GCE “O” levels this year. She organises community involvement activities, forms study groups and leads her class in school activities. I was told that Sarah has done more than 200 hours of community service. Last year, during the year-end holidays, she volunteered at the Sunlove Dementia Day Care Centre where she organised various activities, including a Christmas party for the seniors. She also helped out at the Kaki Bukit Senior Activity Centre. Sarah exemplifies the model of a young, compassionate servant leader.

Conclusion

Before I end, I want to pay tribute to the Infant Jesus Sisters, the IJ Board of Management, and the principals and staff of CHIJ Katong, both past and present, for their dedicated service to the school. They have shaped the lives of those who passed through their hands. They have done their job well. I congratulate CHIJ Katong once again for its 80 years of achievements and contributions in moulding the daughters of our nation. May you continue to strive for, and achieve, greater heights.