08 December 2018
Second Education Minister Indranee Rajah is heading a task force to assist students from disadvantaged families meet their full potential.
Called Uplift, short for Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families Taskforce, the panel will focus on three areas: improving students’ motivation; tackling long-term absenteeism and drop-out rates; and stepping up parent outreach programmes.
Ms Indranee said, “We will be looking at the bottom 20 per cent, but we will also include children from the lower 30 per cent, even 40 per cent… These students have the potential to do so much better, and we want to help them achieve that potential.”
Ms Indranee said that while there are various ongoing government and community efforts to support disadvantaged students, “the challenges they face are multi-faceted, and this requires us to delve even deeper to identify the gaps and reach out to them more effectively”.
The task force will consult those on the front line of working with disadvantaged students, and brainstorm solutions with the community.