Relentless Curiosity and a Different Intellectual Ethos - Transcript of Remarks by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam at NUS High School of Maths and Science 20th Anniversary Speech Day

Professor Tan Eng Chye, Chairman, Board of Directors,

Mr Seah Moon Ming, Chairman, Board of Governors,

Ms Soh Lai Leng, Principal,

And everyone who is here – parents, teachers, students, everyone who has made NUS High an institution that we can take pride in.

Listening to Principal Soh Lai Leng’s account of what you’ve all accomplished in these 20 years, it really gives pride to all of us, as citizens of Singapore, that you’ve created a different institution, nurtured cohorts of students who have the ability to break boundaries and forge paths that help take Singapore forward.

Special thanks to our pioneer principals of NUS High. Dr Lai Yee Hing who led the institution initially; Dr Hang Kim Hoo, who is here this morning, who led the institution through a critical period when it was still building up its reputation - he led the school for several years; Mrs Lee Bee Yann who is also here with us; and Ms Magdalen Soh Lai Leng who has been leading the school for about five years now.

Thank you very much also to all the teachers, and all the parents, for your commitment to this very different path of education in Singapore.

The formation of the school was a statement in its own right. It was a statement that Singapore was willing to have very different paths within our education system for those with exceptional talents – different paths that enable them to push themselves in ways that went beyond what was possible within the mainstream. And if you look at how the alumni have gone about their journeys of discovery, of blazing their own paths, it has been different. Being in NUS High has meant being part of a different culture – a different intellectual culture. That was really a large part of the motivation for establishing the school.

Because it wasn’t just that we were setting up specialised schools for sports, for the arts, for maths and science, and later also for science and technology. It wasn't just about the specialisation. It was about a different ethos.

For NUS High, it was a different intellectual ethos that we were encouraging and making possible. What was that intellectual ethos? It was first and foremost about intellectual courage and humility. Whatever you're doing – it may be science and maths because that’s what you are talented in – but it goes deeper than that. It's about intellectual courage in whatever you do. And while you're blessed to be bright intellectually, no matter how bright you are, you need the humility – to keep learning, keep exploring, to know what you do not know, and above all, to always keep to the discipline of respecting truth.

Some say we live in a post-truth era. I don't believe that's true. But there's truth and there's denial of truth. There is always, of course, uncertainty as to what the truth is, but that’s not about there being alternative truths. We only have the search for truth and the denial of truth. And it is on everyone, be it in the sciences or any other discipline, to persevere in discovering truth and helping the understanding of truth to be out there in society. That's a very important task in today’s world. We must never end up in a post-truth world, or a world where you think it is alright to have alternative truths.

The second part of the culture at the heart of the school is curiosity. Relentless curiosity. It’s obviously what drives you in science, but there's a broadness of the spirit of curiosity that we all need – artistic and cultural curiosity, and curiosity about others in society. Curiosity is one of your set of values in the school, but this too is more critical than ever. Curiosity is the beginning of respect for each other in society.

I encourage you to keep that spirit of curiosity as you learn. It’s not just about yourself, it's not just about the very particular discipline you might be in. It's curiosity about the world and curiosity about each other that is the bedrock of a society where we all respect each other regardless of our varied paths.

And finally, also part of this culture that you are cultivating, the whole idea behind NUS High was about grooming students who will have that dedication within them to a larger cause. I was struck by Ms Soh Lai Leng’s recounting of what Cheng Herng Yi, Class of 2011, described as his ethos – to bring disparate strands of human knowledge and experience together to attack the most difficult problems in society. Think about it – to bring disparate strands of human knowledge and experience together to attack the most difficult problems in society. No matter how good we are in what we are doing, it requires disparate and different experiences, different areas of knowledge, to be brought together, forming new amalgam of knowledge and creativity that help us solve the most difficult problems we face, for our own country and for the world.

I think Herng Yi’s statement epitomises the culture that we're trying to create. I'm very happy that you’ve embarked on developing it with gusto. A lot of thanks to NUS, for having taken on this project, taken ownership of NUS High, and having your faculty so involved in the teaching and research that goes on in this school. It would not have been possible for us to create this intellectual path, markedly different from the rest of the system, without NUS’s deep involvement.

Once again, I thank all of you. I thank the parents for your conviction, for the small risk each of you took in sending your children to NUS High. To all the students, stay curious, have that humility of knowing what we don't know, keep learning, keep pushing the boundaries, and never forget the larger causes that will give you the most meaning in your lives. Thank you very much.