 Hi, my name is Marie Hebert from the Southeast Asia Program here at CSIS. Our guest today is Education Minister Heng Swee Kiet. It's a delight to have you here. Thank you. Could I just ask you, in general terms, how do you see the state of U.S.-Singapore education cooperation and particularly, could you also tell us a little bit about the MOU you signed with Secretary Duncan yesterday? Well, we have always had a very close educational collaboration between the U.S. and Singapore. Many of our students study here, and many of the students in the U.S. also go to Singapore for exchange programs with the American School in Singapore. And this particular MOU builds on an earlier collaboration in the teaching and learning of mathematics and science, and it extends it into two areas. One is on educational research and benchmarking, and the other one on the leadership development and teacher development. Tell us a little bit about the U.S. educational initiatives in Singapore. Many U.S. colleges and universities actually have campuses now in Singapore? Yes, indeed. I think the U.S. has many peaks of excellence, especially in higher education, and I'm very pleased that so many of our – so many of the universities have collaborations with Singapore universities. In fact, more than 60 MOUs have been signed, and specifically there are a number which has set up campuses and joint programs in Singapore. So for example, MIT is setting up together with Singapore, a university of technology and design, and also with Tso Chiang University from China as one of the partners. And what they do is to bring together science, technology, and design into one campus, and an opportunity to design a university course from ground up. Now the other major collaboration will be between the Duke University and the National University of Singapore to set up and graduate the medical school that trains both medical practitioners as well as researchers. Then of course we have this collaboration between Columbia University, the Teachers College, and our National Institute of Education, offering a master's in leadership, educational leadership, and changed. Now these are just some examples, and in fact there are many others which have been progressing very well. Singapore also has some presence in the United States with its math and science curriculum. Do you know about how many U.S. schools use the Singapore math and science curriculum, and why is it that they do this? Well I understand that a number of schools in the U.S. are using the curriculum and the teaching methods in mathematics and science. I think we have always had strong emphasis in the teaching of mathematics and science and we have sort of developed a systematic approach to helping students of all ability levels to have a grasp of mathematics and science, and I'm happy that it is being used in some of these schools, but we learn a lot from the U.S. In fact for instance we set up a specialised school of science and maths and science in Singapore after learning from the U.S. The U.S. has a very diverse system, so there are many interesting innovations that are happening all the time and we learn a great deal. Now there were last year and last school year about 4,300 Singaporeans studying in the United States. That's up about 6% or so from the previous year. Do you expect this trend of Singaporeans continue to study here and the numbers continuing to grow, to continue? I think many students from all over the world, and especially from Asia, come and study in the U.S. Singapore students come here to do their PhDs, master's and the first degree. At the same time we see also many students from other parts of the world studying in Asia and in Singapore. I think this is a good trend in a more globalised world. It is important for our students to learn about other cultures, to learn different perspectives and to make friends and in the long run they will be able to collaborate better and to build a better world. When you started talking a few minutes ago you talked about increasing cooperation between the U.S. and Singapore and teacher development and school leadership as well as education, research and benchmarking studies. Can you tell us a little bit of how you see that cooperation developing over the years to come? Yes. Well the MOU that we have signed provides a good umbrella for the different institutions and for our educators to come together to explore areas of collaboration, building on each other's strengths. I see many possibilities, so just to give a few examples, I think the area of educational benchmarking and research, it allows us to do joint work particularly in areas of how we maintain rigours and standards in the design of curriculum in the assessment methods and also looking into the future into developing teaching and learning methods for new competencies, new competencies which are important in the 21st century, skills like critical thinking, creativity, collaborations and global awareness. Now in the area of teacher training and educational leadership, we can build on the complementary strengths of the two systems. The U.S. has a very diverse educational system, so you see interesting variations and innovations all over and we are very keen to learn from that and to see what might be relevant to Singapore. In our case, in the area of teacher development and training for instance, we run a more integrated system from recruitment to training to deployment. There are strengths and weaknesses in both approaches and by sharing ideas, by looking at the practical results of this, we can look to learning the best aspects of each of these different systems and for us to then take this forward. I think it's very important for us to put education at the centre of all that we do because it is critical to the future of our children, it is critical to how we provide opportunities for them. So that you raised a very interesting point. Singapore is well known for preparing students for future, for jobs, for entering the job market. Can you tell us a little bit about your priorities in doing this? Well, a few areas, one is that we need to enable our children to access a new future. The future is going to be different from the past and from today and part of that effort is to ensure that what we do in education is aligned with the needs in our economy and in our society. So whether it is in aligning it with the sort of jobs that will be created in the future and with the demands of those jobs. The second area is to develop each and every one to the fullest potential and that means taking a student centric approach in education, looking at harnessing the strengths of each individual and developing the strengths in ways that enable them to fulfil those potential. And the third area is that because the world is unpredictable, we don't know what the future will bring. It is important for each individual to have enduring values and skills and enduring values and skills, particularly in the development of character, in the development of competencies that will enable everyone to be adaptable for the future, to be resilient, will be important part of our focus. Thank you very much for talking with us today. Thank you.