Singapore: Celebrating Literacy

with a

Learning Nation

Rajendra Munoo

National Library Board

Singapore

July 2000

Greetings from Singapore. Let me begin firstly by saying that Singapore too, has a lot to learn from both developed and developing countries and that is why I am here.

Singapore became an independent island city-state in 1965. It has since progressed into a dynamic society which has found its place in the global milieu. Singapore has almost no natural resources. The only resource being its almost 4 million multiracial and multicultural population. The government acknowledges its successes and duly attributes it to all Singaporeans.

The economic crisis of 1997-98 brought to the fore the vulnerabilities and unpredictability of the global economy. The government has in the last five years revisited its position not only in Asia but also in the global context. Singapore is a knowledge based economy whose backbone is propped by information technology. This knowledge based economy is supported by a workforce of thinking, inquiring workers who embrace the idea of life-long learning. The literacy of Singapore is that of information technology (IT). The government’s IT Masterplan focuses on "preparing younger Singaporeans for a world which will be technology driven, at home, at work and at play. IT literacy will be a basic skill of future jobs." (Senior Minister of State for Health and Education, Dr Aline Wong, 21^st May 1999) My presentation is an exposition of the new economy initiatives by government ministries and agencies, including the National Library Board. For the purpose of this presentation and due to time constraints, I will highlight initiatives by the Education Ministry, Manpower Ministry and the Ministry of Information and the Arts with specific reference to the National Library Board.

Thinking Schools, Learning Nation documents the efforts of the education ministry which amongst others highlights eight core skills for students:

1 Character and Development

2 Literacy and Numeracy

3 Social and Co-operative Skills

4 Self-Management

5 Communication Skills

6 Information

7 Knowledge Application and Thinking

The Thinking Skills Programme has helped to enhance students ability to think rationally about issues, to approach problems creatively, and to make decisions confidently based on sound judgement.

The ministry also introduced Inter-disciplinary Project Work to all schools to help students learn problem solving, communication skills and how to work in teams.

Leading the initiatives in creating a workforce who are to remain relevant and competitive. Various projects have been implemented. Significant ones worthy of mention includes:

Launched in as early as 1998, this project targets to skill develop about 800,000 workforce from manager and supervisors to workers over 5 years. Training in 7 core skills:

1 Learning to Learn

2 Literacy

3 Listening and Oral Communication

4 Problem-Solving and Creativity

5 Personal Effectiveness

6 Group Effectiveness

7 Organisational Effectiveness and Leadership

Established in February 1999, it offers a supportive and responsive system for workers and re-skilling by lowering major barriers to training such as making information on employment and training opportunities readily available giving recognition to on-the-job training and providing incentives and tools. Through SoLL our workforce can upgrade and update their knowledge and skills continuously to maintain their employability and create new value for companies and our economies.

2 Employer-based and individual based incentives ensured

3 A ready supply of learning providers will be ensured

SLF is a collaborative effort from the public, private and people sectors and led by the ministry. It strives to bring home the message of lifelong learning to our people in an experiential and enjoyable manner so as to encourage Singaporeans to take their first step on the path to lifelong learning or to continue their learning efforts.

The National Library Board (NLB) set up in September 1995, is a statutory board under the Ministry of Information and the Arts (MITA).

The following is an excerpt from a speech by Mr Lee Yock Suan, minister for Information and the Arts and minister for the Environment, at the opening of the World Book Fair, on 9^th June 2000.

"Statistics on book loans and the book trade in Singapore show that the reading habit is healthy and growing at a steady pace, despite increasing competition from other media. Between April 1995 and March 2000, the number of loans from our public libraries increased in 2.5 times, from 10 million to 24.7 million. Vistorship to public libraries grew even faster, an increase of almost four times, from 5.7 million to 19.7 million during the same period. This is a remarkable growth rate. The 19.7 million visitors to our public libraries is higher than the 16.5 million cinema-goers last year."

"The increase in the use of public libraries can be attributed to the rise in the general level of education, the increased awareness of the value of information and knowledge, and the government’s programme to develop a comprehensive network of public libraries".

There are 59 public libraries in Singapore. These are the National Reference Library, one Regional Library, 16 community libraries, and 41 community children’s libraries. NLB will open two more community libraries in August and October of this year. Four community children’s libraries will also be set up by April 2001. Another regional library is expected to be ready in mid-2001. By 2003, when the Board’s eight-year Development Plan is completed, there will be about 120 public libraries.

The library alone is unable to accomplish the task of creating a learning nation. Thus when one of the branch libraries were renovated, there was discussion with the InfoComm Development Authority (IDA) to set up an IT learning laboratory together with 1-Net and other infocomms agencies. The One Learning Place at the Toa Payoh Library has 150 computers connected to Singapore One, which is a broadband network. And provides affordable Internet training targeted at beginners and advanced users. The public are taught web page design and creation. Since it’s launch in 10^th May 1999, over 55,000 people were trained. There are courses for Senior Citizens and courses in Mandarin and Malay too.

e-station has over 403 computers where customers can surf the net, monitor their stocks, play games or take up IT courses. Government is reaching out to low-income workers at their workplaces to expose them to IT, and has set up clubs at community centres to bring broadband Internet to the grassroots.

e-library a service that allows customers to access the board’s network of research databases, CD-ROMs, videos and other online library services.

The NLB engages in an annual Corporate Planning Exercise (CPE) where Areas of Focus (AOFs) is established. In 1999, one of the AOFs was Information Literacy. During 1999 an Information Literacy Team was established to serve corporate clients (mostly government officers), the general public and adults needing retraining. With such a diverse portfolio, it was imperative to segmentise the user groups. The first year was an interesting and challenging year setting up shop. With a staff of three librarians we developed, designed and delivered courses for targeted clients. A total of over 1,522 people were trained. With such success information literacy became the WOW factor in NLB. Information Literacy became higher on the agenda of top management. We have now set up an Information Literacy Programme (ILP) team which looks at information literacy needs across the NLB. Working from this FY, the target is to train 10,000 people.

The ILP team came up with an Information Literacy Model for NLB. With three programmes, rolling them out to all branches is our first challenge. We have been developing courseware and materials for the branch libraries to offer to its customers. The ILP team has also produced a CD-ROM on Search Strategies to experiment with computer-based learning. The ILP team has also developed a branding.

Information Literacy is a key component for NLB and is one of its major deliverables. The National Library Board also has an Institute called the NLBI which co-ordinates internal and external training from training providers.

Literacy is about lifelong learning. Literacy is also evolving. What happens when literacy matures? Or does it? Literacy has also become tangible and measurable… it has social, cultural, political and economic impacts. Embracing these is the challenge.

Investing in one’s nation is Singapore’s example of sustaining a relevant population from ‘cradle to grave’. From the above, it can be noted that Singapore has a clear agenda for literacy beyond basic reading and writing. Moving more specifically towards IT literacy. The common denominator in nearly all government ministries is training and maintaining a relevant workforce for lifelong learning of which literacy is a key factor. The National Library Board too, is an example of an agency committed to literacy programmes and more significantly IT literacy. The library has traditionally been associated with reading and learning but now libraries must move beyond print- to pixels. In the age of the Internet we move towards:

Getting there, measuring it and sustaining it is where the challenge lies.