Prof Tan Oon Seng speaks at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development High Level Ministerial Meeting and Forum for World Education Conference

Prof Tan Oon Seng, Centre Director of the Centre for Research in Child Development (CRCD), was invited to speak at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) High Level Ministerial Meeting held on 7 to 8 December 2022 at OECD’s HQ In Paris. The meeting was held to provide guidance on how OECD can best support countries to build more effective education systems, and leverage synergies with other policy fields so that education can contribute to better and more equitable economic outcomes, greater social participation and better-functioning democracies. The Ministerial Meeting co-chaired by Korea, Norway and Finland and Vice-chaired by Estonia, Finland, Greece and Japan was attended by over 30 countries with some 200 delegates. The sessions began with a keynote by Thomas Friedman, the well-known New York Times columnist. The meetings were led by moderator Ms Hekia Parata, former Minister of Education of New Zealand who facilitated the addresses by expert panellists invited to address the ministerial delegations. The panellist included professors from top universities such as Prof Tan Oon Seng, Professor Susan Dynarski (Professor of Economics from Harvard University), and Professor Geoff Mulgan (from University College London).  

In Prof Tan’s address to Ministers of Education and Skills, he shared on importance of values, character, and global citizenship for equipping the next generation. Prof Tan emphasised that education should be student-centric and values driven. The primary mission of education is character building - having dispositions to climb steep learning curve with resilience. Prof Tan also shared that curriculum need to be re-organised in thematic ways to give big picture and show interconnection and multiple perspectives. For example, in Singapore, the Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) revamp emphasise key themes such as development of self-identity as precursor to student agency as well as connecting to others for pro-social and caring humanity. Prof Tan summarised his talk with the word HOPE. H - for giving Hope of opportunities to enable our next generation to flourish their potentials. O - for giving optimism to the young by re-building trust, positiveness and growth mindset. P - for giving purpose and meaning to the next generation in terms of their personal agency as well as career aspirations. E - for giving the Earth back to the next generation by working diligently for environment and ecological restoration.  
 
Prof Tan was also invited to attend the Forum for World Education (FWE) Conference themed “Shaping the Future of Education to Match Global Economic Trends”, which was held at the C.P. Leadership Institute in Bangkok, Thailand from 1 to 2 December 2022. The conference was attended by some 500 delegates onsite and 9000 participants online. 

Dr Cheng Davis, President of Forum for World Education, and Mr Dhanin Chearavanont, Senior Chairman of Charoen Pokphand Group, gave the welcome address. The opening remarks titled “Importance of education in preparing our workforce for the future” was presented online by Dr Tan See Leng, Singapore’s Minister of Manpower and Second Minister for Trade and Industry. Mr Andreas Schleicher, Director of OECD Education, gave the first keynote titled “Learnings from OECD data and research”.  

After which, Prof Tan led the keynote panel titled “Strategies for shaping the future of education to match global economics.” Prof Tan’s panel included Mr Vikram Rao, Head of Enterprise at Amazon Web Services, Dr Inoue Mitsuteru, Senior Executive Director of National Institute of Technology, KOSEN, Japan, and Mr Colin Marson, Asia-Pacific Director of Google for Education. The keynote panel highlighted the impact and opportunities of digitization and technology and how education must adapt where learning equals work and re-skilling is a norm of lifelong mindset. Prof Tan also moderated a panel on future skills and entrepreneurship comprising Vice Chancellor Dr May Al Taee from Emirates of Advanced Education, Ms Glory Wu, former NTU student union President and now Senior Associate of Fraud Operation at a leading e-commerce company, Ng Aik Yang, NUS-Yale graduating student and entrepreneur, and Shermaine Kho, graduate of Teaching Scholars Program at the National Institute of Education (NIE). Professor Low Ee Ling, Dean of Office of Academic & Faculty Affairs, NIE spoke on the keynote panel titled “Skill gaps around the world: Lessons from international data from OECD” which was moderated by Mr Andreas Schleicher. Prof Low also moderated the panel on internationalization comprising Vice Chancellor Dr May Al Taee, Ms Dawn Teo, CEO of Ed Tech Shine, Ms Sue-Wei Chung, IBDP graduate and legal counsel, and Ms Jallene Chua, Research Associate at NIE International.