PM Lee at the SUSS Ministerial Forum: "The biggest challenge we have is to make our education fit for purpose for continuing education"

While speaking at a ministerial forum with students from the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) on Wednesday evening (4 September), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong answered several questions from the audience, video of which were uploaded into a playlist on the Prime Minister’s Office Youtube Channel.
Expanding on the issue of education, PM Lee noted that the biggest challenge for the future of education in Singapore is adapting the system to be fit for the purposes of continuing education.
“I think the biggest challenge we have, I don’t say worry, but the biggest challenge we have is to make our education fit for purpose for continuing education,” he said.
He explained that “we know what to do” for the phase of pre-employment education: schools, colleges, universities, ITE. These will be kept updated with courses changing as necessary and the teaching is improved.
However, the challenge is in creating a system that is effective for adults in their 50s, 60s or even 70s who want to go back to school for a refresher or who want to pick up new skills.
“How do we run a course, run an education system which can meet their needs and suit their style of learning?” asked PM Lee.
“It is not easy. It is not just a matter of money of running the courses, having the course. I must have the people with the experience and I must have a whole support system for them,” he says.
The PM explained that also important is ensuring that employers understand and are able to adapt to their employees going back to school, as “all the employees will have to go through this at some stage in their life.”
“And that is a very big challenge. We will do it. We’ve got SkillsSG but we are still early on the journey.”