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| Does
MOE provide facilities to help parents assess if their children
are gifted at Primary One and Two? What measures are in place
to teach students how to manage expectations? What more is MOE
doing to meet the needs of “special kids”? |
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| Trainer
Evelyn Ho sharing tips on crafting replies. |
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THESE ARE JUST a few examples of the types of questions that MOE receives from the public, the media and Parliament. Each query demands a satisfactory yet sensitive reply.
On 19 January, about 30 officers from Education Programmes Division (EPD) spent an afternoon learning how to craft appropriate replies to these questions. Conducted by officers from the Public Affairs Division (now Corporate Communications Division) and Planning Division, the training workshop was designed to equip a core team of officers with the necessary skills to respond to queries from the public and the media.
Says Mrs Tan-Kek Lee Yong, Deputy Director of Psychological and Guidance Services Branch (PGSB), who initiated the workshop, "Our branch has been receiving a lot of queries from the media and sometimes the public. For a long time, we have been working within the management team to craft replies. With the sheer number of queries coming in, and with more of us specialising in our areas of work, we wanted to equip our officers to handle these replies as well."
Also present were officers from the Gifted Education Branch, Preschool Education Unit, Special Education Branch and Co-Curricular Activities Branch (CCAB).
Explains Mrs Tan, "One thing we hoped to learn from this session
was how to present MOE's position in a way that is objective
and brings out clearly our key messages, and yet at the same
time be sensitive to the needs and concerns of our public."
Participants got a good dose of theory and practice at the workshop. Working in groups, they were tasked to craft appropriate replies to various public and media queries. This proved to be a challenging task as they tussled with what to say and how to say it. Besides gaining a better understanding of the writing process, they also gleaned many practical tips on crafting replies.
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| EPD staff
discussing how best to reply to a sample question. |
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"I learnt that drafting replies is a many faceted thing, so
we need to consider a lot of different angles and approaches
before we can come up with a suitable answer," says CCAB officer
Hoo Cher Liek.
"I learnt how to communicate effectively with the public, and especially how to address their concerns at the emotional level as well," adds Mdm Lian Payamal, an Educational Psychologist from PGSB. "I thought the civil service reply was always very cold, but here I learnt that I can actually give that personal touch to show my concern."
It looks like these officers are off to a good start. Says Mrs
Tan, "I think this is very important training that more departments
should send their officers for." |
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