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My Way, Tan Wei Keong, 2002 commission: Ministry of Education location: outside of the Ministry of Education, Buena Vista Rd « go previous go to next » go back to list

Article in the Straits Times, May 28, 2002: Schools get the teaching down to fine art Enhanced arts education programme in schools is boosting student interest in the arts, with tangible results too

By M. Nirmala

TAN Wei Keong is a science student who has an eye for the arts.

One of the 18-year-old's sculptures was so good that it now stands outside the new Ministry of Education (MOE) headquarters at North Buona Vista Drive.

He first made a three-dimensional figure of a child walking on an outstretched palm with aluminium foil two years ago, when he was studying at Bukit Panjang Government High School. Now, it is a large metal sculpture which sits at the ministry's premises. He said: 'I titled it My Way. I just wanted to create something cute and I was so shocked when I learnt that the ministry was going to use it.'

He has visited the MOE building twice to view the sculpture and gets a kick out of it. 'I feel quite honoured,' said the teen, who lives in a four-room Housing Board flat in Bukit Panjang with his father, a construction worker, his housewife mother and two siblings. And to think, Wei Keong, who is now doing his A levels at National Junior College, said he knew nothing about art until his secondary school introduced sculpture as an enrichment programme.

Art has taken off in a big way at Bukit Panjang Government High since it brought in professional sculptor Baet Yoke Kuan, a lecturer with the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, two years ago.

This was done under an enhanced arts education programme, which allows schools to have an artist or theatre groups in school, teaching classes or supervising projects. Students used sculptures to depict the eight desired outcomes of education and these art pieces are now displayed in the school's garden at Choa Chu Kang. Some of the outcomes, or qualities, a student should have include moral integrity, teamwork and faith in Singapore.

Ms Tan Lay Choo, the school principal, said that when the project was started, about 30 students worked on the sculptures. 'But, over time, we lost track of the number of students involved as many joined in, spending their afternoons and school holidays on the project,' she said. 'They really enjoyed themselves.'

Grace Ong, a Secondary 3 science student at the school, is so hooked on the arts that she wants to take it as an O-level subject next year. She now takes afternoon painting lessons at school. Said the daughter of a remisier and a nurse: 'Art helps me express my creativity. To me, it is as important as physics.'

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