Since the tragic alleged murder of a 13-year-old student by a fellow 16-year-old with an axe in River Valley High School, about 540 students and staff members have sought support from the Caring Action in Response to Emergencies (CARE) Post set up at the school, said Minister of Education Chan Chun Sing.

Delivering a ministerial statement in Parliament on Tuesday (27 July) about the incident, Mr Chan said: “It will take time for the River Valley High School community to recover. Where needed, students and staff will be referred to healthcare agencies for professional assistance.”

“Most heartening, within the school community, the students initiated their own small acts of kindness. Some distributed small gifts and snack packs; others sent encouraging notes and sweet treats. Students are looking out not just for themselves but also for their teachers, and urging them to seek help where needed.”

In his statement, Mr Chan stated that the CARE Post was set up on 20 July, the day after the incident, in order to support students and staff who might need immediate help when they return to school.

Noting that the programme was carried out on their first day back – providing students with a safe place to share their thoughts and feelings on the incident as well as process what happened – Mr Chan said that students could return home if they wished.

“Teachers called those who were not in school to check on how they were doing. Students and teachers who needed time off were granted leave,” he added.

Additional support was also provided in the form of 98 Ministry of Education (MOE) CARE officers and school counsellors trained in psychological first aid and trauma management. They “put aside their regular duties” to offer support to affected students and teachers, said Mr Chan.

More than 1,000 teacher-counsellors to be deployed

Speaking on the measures that the MOE is taking in the wake of the incident to further strengthen the mental health support within the education system, Mr Chan announced that more than 1,000 teacher-counsellors will be deployed across the country in the next few years.

This is an increase from the roughly 700 teacher-counsellors currently deployed in MOE schools.

Beyond that, Mr Chan also announced that all teachers will receive “enhanced professional development on mental health literacy” as a baseline to strengthen the support network across MOE schools, which would increase the teachers’ ability to better identify and support students in need.

Currently, most MOE schools have just one or two school counsellors. As such, the Ministry aims to recruit more school counsellors or assign suitable teachers to provide additional support to strengthen the network.

Additionally, teachers will spend more time and attention towards checking in on the well-being of students more regularly.

“Schools currently have orientation programs for new students at the start of every school year. Henceforth, teachers will devote time at the start of every school term to check in on the well-being of their students, and guide them to know how, where and when to get help,” said Mr Chan.

Balancing security with “homeliness” of a school environment

On the matter of security at schools, Mr Chan highlighted the need to balance security without losing the sense of “trust and homeliness” at schools.

The Minister shared that school leaders have agreed unanimously that schools are like a “second home” for students.

“It is a safe place where values are cultivated; life-long relationships built, and a shared identity forged. It is a warm and supportive environment that allows students with different learning needs and aspirations to discover their passions and develop their strengths. And, above all, it is a trusted space,” he remarked.

While he understands the concerns parents have for the safety of their children, Mr Chan asserted that the MOE does not want to compromise the quality of the school experience for its students or staff.

He went on to detail the various prevailing security measures in place at schools – from physical barriers to cameras, security officers, and the School Emergency Structure which deals with how to respond to emergencies, recover, and restore.

Beyond that, Mr Chan stated that teachers will been trained to respond to various situations while regular emergency training exercises are carried out to allow leaders, staff, and students to practice handling different emergency scenarios.

He continued, “I’ve asked myself this difficult question – what would it feel like if I must empty my pockets, be frisked, and have my bag checked before stepping through my house door or school gate? Also, how would my fellow family members and students feel?

“How would we relate to one another in such an environment? Will it still be ‘home’? Or will it create in me a siege mentality? None of us wish to return (to a) home with metal scanners and bag checks.”

To this, Mr Chan stressed that the key to keeping schools safe lies in prevention and enhanced community vigilance instead of intrusive security measures such as bag checks and metal detectors.

“We do not want to turn our schools into fortresses, which will create unease and stress among our staff and students,” he asserted.

“We also do not wish to paradoxically engender a siege mentality among students and staff, causing them to take extreme measures to protect themselves, at the expense of a shared sense of security.”

Mr Chan also emphasised the need for a collective role in looking out for potentially deviant or worrying behaviour and also for reporting possible threats.

He noted how critical the well-being and security of students and staff are to the MOE, adding that schools should continue to be a safe place for students to learn, grow, and play.

“MOE will continue to update our security measures in a targeted manner and apply them sensitively to balance the security needs without losing our sense of safety, trust and homeliness of the school environment,” said Mr Chan.

Strengthening security preparedness at schools via drills & cross-training for teachers

When asked by Member of Parliament (MP) for Jalan Besar GRC Wan Rizal Wan Zakariah on what sort of security preparedness drills and initiatives that schools are prepared with and whether teachers are ready to handle major incidents, Mr Chan explained that the current drills are based on the scenario of a terrorist incident.

However, he stated that the principles behind the drills have been applicable to the recent incident as “students and the teachers all showed the presence of mind to be able to apply their drills, albeit of a different scenario, into this scenario to safeguard one another”.

Earlier in his statement when recounting the events of the incident, Mr Chan said that the River Valley High School students had applied the emergency “Run-Hide-Tell” drill – which they had learnt as part of a response to a terrorist threat – when they encountered their fellow student holding an axe.

The Minister went on to say that discussions with schools leaders have shown that there is a demand for more teachers to be “cross-trained” in security incident management.

“Going forward, we will want to expand the group of people who are trained in such incident management so that every school can have the confidence to respond adequately should such an incident happen,” Mr Chan remarked.