1918 - 2010 Goh Keng Swee - People's Action Party - PAP
1918 - 2010 Goh Keng Swee - People's Action Party - PAP
1918 - 2010 Goh Keng Swee - People's Action Party - PAP
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
(1) creative imagination, (2) character,<br />
(3) moral values.”<br />
To address the appalling dropout<br />
rate, he introduced streaming. Children<br />
were assessed as early as Primary<br />
3 and grouped according to their<br />
learning ability. Those who needed a<br />
slower pace could take seven to eight<br />
years for primary school, and five for<br />
secondary school. They could also enter<br />
a monolingual stream.<br />
Dropout rates fell, and children’s<br />
academic results improved.<br />
To cater to the brightest children,<br />
he introduced the Gifted Education<br />
Programme, where the top 1 per cent<br />
of each cohort’s learning path is accelerated.<br />
He went on to deal with raising<br />
the professionalism, working conditions<br />
and the pay of teachers, and gave<br />
school heads more autonomy. Teachers<br />
were sent abroad to train, and the<br />
Curriculum Development Institute set<br />
up to produce quality instructional material.<br />
OTHERS<br />
Co-operative ventures<br />
At the historic seminar to modernise<br />
the labour movement in 1969, <strong>Goh</strong><br />
<strong>Keng</strong> <strong>Swee</strong>, ever on the lookout for the<br />
welfare of the poor, proposed cooperatives<br />
be formed to take care of ordinary<br />
workers. NTUC Income, for life insurance,<br />
and NTUC Welcome (now Fair<br />
Price) for groceries, led the list set up.<br />
For the birds<br />
A visit to the famed Rio de Janeiro<br />
Aviary in Brazil so impressed him, <strong>Goh</strong><br />
pushed for having something similar<br />
here. In arguing for it, he noted: “It is<br />
well to concede at the outset that the<br />
bird park will not make our society<br />
more rugged. It will have negligible effect<br />
on the productivity of workers. Its<br />
efficacy as a means of tightening social<br />
cohesion is also in doubt, as is its contribution<br />
to raising cultural or education<br />
standards of the population. But<br />
it will add to the enjoyment of our citizens,<br />
especially our children.” In 1971,<br />
one was set up in Jurong.<br />
His visit to an underwater world in<br />
the Bahamas, led to a similar attraction<br />
at Sentosa.<br />
Culture vulture<br />
Despite his remarks on the dangers<br />
of asking the government to feed<br />
the soul, <strong>Goh</strong> did his bit for culture. In<br />
1969, he provided his constituency with<br />
a permanent stage for performances.<br />
The Kreta Ayer People’s Theatre for<br />
Cantonese operas opened in 1969. Best<br />
of all, it was funded by private donations.<br />
The classical music fan also pushed<br />
for a national orchestra, declaring it<br />
was a scandal that Singapore did not<br />
have one. When an initial request for<br />
funds to do so was turned down by the<br />
Finance Ministry, he looked abroad<br />
to worldrenowned conductor Shalom<br />
RonlyRiklis to hatch a plan to change<br />
that, and involved his Cabinet colleagues.<br />
It worked, and in January 1979, the<br />
41man Singapore Symphony Orchestra<br />
gave its first performance. <strong>Goh</strong> was<br />
not able to make it to that debut concert,<br />
but managed the next night’s.<br />
SEA studies<br />
<strong>Goh</strong> believed that it is vital for policy<br />
makers and scholars here to have<br />
a good understanding of Singapore’s<br />
neighbours. It led to his submitting a<br />
stepbystep plan for the setting up of a<br />
research body.<br />
In 1968, Parliament approved having<br />
the Institute of Southeast Asian<br />
Studies to study the stability and security,<br />
economic development, and political<br />
and social developments in the area.<br />
CREDITS<br />
<strong>Goh</strong> <strong>Keng</strong> <strong>Swee</strong> also<br />
played a role in the<br />
development of:<br />
Institutions/Organisations<br />
• Housing Board<br />
• Port of Singapore Authority,<br />
now PSA Corp<br />
• Singapore Institute for<br />
Standards and Industrial<br />
Research<br />
• Singapore Tourist Promotion<br />
Board, now Singapore Tourism<br />
Board<br />
• Temasek Holdings<br />
• Institute of Molecular and<br />
Cell Biology<br />
• Intraco<br />
• Neptune Orient Lines<br />
• Jurong Shipyard, now Sembcorp<br />
Marine, Sembawang Shipyard<br />
• National Iron and Steel Mills,<br />
now NatSteel<br />
• Keppel Shipyard<br />
Recreational tourist sites<br />
• Chinese Garden<br />
• Japanese Garden<br />
• Singapore Zoological Gardens<br />
• Golf courses Tanah Merah<br />
Country Club, Jurong Country<br />
Club, Sentosa Country Club<br />
Societies<br />
• Pyramid Club<br />
• Economic Society of Singapore<br />
Others<br />
• Singapore Pools<br />
• Singapore Totalisator Board<br />
• Corrupt Practices Investigation<br />
Bureau<br />
• Commercial Affairs Department<br />
• Asian Dollar Market<br />
• Oral History Centre under the<br />
National Archives<br />
• Singapore Labour Foundation<br />
• National Safety Council of<br />
Singapore<br />
• Public Service Commission<br />
PETIR MAY / JUNE 10<br />
27