STATEMENT BY MR TAN ZHONG MING DELEGATE TO THE 77TH SESSION OF THE UITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON AGENDA ITEM 65, ON THE PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN, THIRD COMMITTEE 7 OCTOBER 2022

Mr Chair,

1 Singapore aligns itself with the statement made by Indonesia on behalf of ASEAN.

2 Children are our hope for the future. It is incumbent on all of us to enable them to reach their full potential, and to remove obstacles to their development. The international community has recognised this in various instances, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which to date remains the single most widely ratified human rights treaty in the world. More recently, the UN Secretary-General’s milestone report on “Our Common Agenda” dedicated sections to improving education and social protection systems for children.

3 As in most areas, the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a hammer blow to the promotion and protection of the rights of children, and its repercussions threaten to permanently set back the improvements made over the decades. For example, some 1.8 trillion hours of schooling were lost between March 2020 and September 2021. The convening of the Transforming Education Summit last month was therefore especially timely, with its spotlight on the need for quality learning that supports the development of the individual learner throughout his or her life. Singapore is delighted to have contributed actively and continuously to the process in our role as co-lead of Action Track 4 on Digital Learning with Greece.

Mr Chair,

4 As a small city state with no natural endowments, people are Singapore’s only resource. We have therefore prioritised the protecting, nurturing, and educating of our children in our development journey. Singapore has one of the lowest child mortality rates in the world and is a safe city for children to grow up in. Singapore students have also consistently performed well educationally, For example, in the 2018 OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment or PISA, Singapore students came in second across the reading, mathematics, and science tests.

5 However, Singapore recognises that more could be done, to ensure that “no child is left behind”. First, we must strengthen support for early childhood education for young children, and particularly those in low income and disadvantaged families. Under the KidSTART programme started by the Singapore government, young children aged 6 and below who are from low income or disadvantaged families are proactively identified. KidSTART then provides them early access to health, learning, and development support. KidSTART is on track to support 5,000 vulnerable children by 2023.

6 Second, we must protect children from troubled homes, such as those who suffer the consequences of broken families and family disputes. Over the last three years, an inter-agency taskforce named UPLIFT has been providing selected “pilot” schools additional teachers and resources, so that they can better identify and support these children on their schooling journeys. For example, the schools developed programmes to keep these children engaged after school or during the school holidays. Having achieved promising results thus far, the programme will soon be expanded to benefit over 13,000 students.

7 Third, to ensure that children are “future-ready”, we are investing significantly in programmes to improve our students’ digital literacy, especially as COVID-19 has pushed our world into a much more digital one. At the primary level, we have rolled out the “Code for Fun” programme so that every student aged 10 to 12 years will undergo a 10-hour enrichment programme on computational thinking and coding. At the secondary level, we will be equipping every 13 year-old student with a personal learning device by 2024, to equip our students for digital learning regardless of socio-economic background.

Mr Chair,

8 We are at an inflection point. As the world emerges from COVID-19, we cannot simply return to status quo ante. Singapore remains committed to providing the best opportunities to our children to enable them to realise their full potential and to ensure that no child is left behind. Children are our hope for the future, and we must not let them down.

9 Thank you.

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