Speech By President Halimah Yacob at The Official Opening of AWWA School @ Bedok

Ms Beatrice Chen, Chairperson of the School Management Committee, AWWA

Mrs Ruby Seah, Principal, AWWA School @ Bedok

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good morning. I am delighted to join you today to witness another milestone of AWWA with the opening of AWWA School @ Bedok. The new campus will allow more students with autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, to access quality and affordable special education.

Our Special Education schools, or SPED schools, are safe spaces where important life skills are taught by teachers and trained professionals, who play pivotal roles in equipping students with skills to be active in the community, and valued in society. For over four decades, AWWA has contributed to this work, starting in the child’s early childhood years, continuing through the schooling years and strengthening their transition into post-school years. Through its early intervention programmes, AWWA helps equip their students with the capabilities to lead independent and meaningful lives. It is with this in mind that AWWA has taken up the challenge of setting up a second school, serving to ensure access to quality education by meeting the growing demand for SPED school places for students with autism.

AWWA School @ Bedok will serve 300 students with ASD, aged 7-18 years old, with a school curriculum that focuses on ‘Functional Academics and Communication’, with ‘Information and Communication Technologies’, or ICT, as an enabler. Presently, the school has started with 65 students, aged 12 years old and below, spread across the Junior 1 and Junior 2 levels. The formative years of any child are critical as they serve as building blocks for their adult life. The school environment can therefore provide many opportunities for learning, understanding, and applying core areas of knowledge. One example is how the school makes use of the digital art wall to provide an interactive learning environment that would support teaching and learning.

The success of these opportunities does not depend solely on the programmes and activities experienced within the school walls. The success is very much reliant on the eco-system that the child is in, where different interconnected parts move and work in sync to allow the individual with special needs to grow and thrive. Parents, siblings, extended family and friends as well as neighbours, businesses, community, and government agencies, are all a part of that eco-system. Together, they enable the child to flourish in different settings. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to visit a few of AWWA’s centres and am heartened to see how the centres have helped to empower the disadvantaged in our society. To this end, President’s Challenge has also funded various AWWA programmes over the years to help AWWA better serve its clients within the community.

By creating a strong and supportive community, not only do students benefit, parents and caregivers are empowered by programmes offered by social service agencies such as AWWA. For example, AWWA’s Kopi Chat session helps to prepare caregivers to engage in hands-on activities that can be generalised in a home setting with their children. Caregivers often carry with them the invisible load of worrying and caring for their loved ones with special needs. Through consistent communication between them and the professionals caring for their loved ones, we hope to better inform and equip caregivers physically, mentally and emotionally to persevere through the demands of caregiving. To this end, President’s Challenge 2023 will focus on “Caregiving for Caregivers” and will fund good programmes for caregivers from Social Service Agencies such as AWWA. Through our collective efforts of acceptance, we can send a strong message that they are not alone on this journey.

When encountering persons with special needs in our community, be it at school, at work or in our neighbourhood, we can all play our part in different ways – being patient and kind, treating them and their caregivers with respect, or simply offering a helping hand. Persons with special needs, or their parents and caregivers, can also continue to advocate for themselves, and educate those around them who want to know them better. To fully support and integrate persons with special needs and their caregivers in society, we must continue to create opportunities for communication and interaction between them and the community and welcome them in our midst.

We can choose to send a strong signal to support employers who employ people with special needs by patronising their shops, encouraging others to do the same and by showing greater understanding to the people with disabilities who serve us. Our lack of tolerance, impatience and sometimes outright rudeness can act as a disincentive to employers wanting to employ people with special needs as businesses too need to survive. I hope that we can all do our part to create a culture of acceptance for people with special needs in the different sectors so that more employment opportunities can open for them. It doesn’t cost us much, but it will make a world of difference with those with special needs and their caregivers.

On that note, I wish to congratulate AWWA on the opening of AWWA School @ Bedok and expanding your reach in supporting more students and their families. I hope to see these students grow into individuals, with colourful stories to share in the future, just like the Rainbow Gum Tree we planted earlier.

Thank you for empowering our children, as well as their families and caregivers, to maximise their potential to lead dignified and independent lives.