With the belief that “every pupil has the desire and potential to excel”, Unity Primary School has always sought to ensure that their students are learning the most updated life skills.

Riding on the new MOE initiative: Media Literacy Programme When MOE launched the “Media Literacy Programme (MLP) for MOE schools” in July 2010, Unity Primary School saw the importance of the MLP as a means “to introduce and equip their students with the necessary media literacy skills so as to prepare them for a future where social and work literacy and competencies are increasingly being re-configured in web-based and media-centric environments”.

When asked how this course is good for the students, Mrs Florence Tan, ICT HOD of Unity Primary School shared with us, “The prevalent use of ICT for the digital generation has been at the top of the list of our concerns for the students. Whilst we recognise that ICT has revolutionised the ways of learning, we have also witnessed several incidents where students are influenced adversely due to their lack of skills to process the overwhelming amount of information bombarding them. Therefore, we want our students to be astute – being able to sieve out and utilise the good information, and being able to exercise their wisdom and values when encountering bad information.”

In Unity Primary School: “Every student matters and every student can be a good communicator.” In the MOE C2015 report, the competencies and mindsets required of citizens and workers of the 21st century span four domains. The first relates to the confidence of the individual and includes abilities such as being able to communicate effectively, think independently and collaborate effectively with others; the second relates to the self-directedness of learners. They question, reflect, persevere, and are able to use technology adeptly, while taking responsibility for their own learning. The third domain relates to the disposition of being a concerned citizen, one who actively participates in classroom activities, is informed about the world and local affairs, and emphasises respect for other individuals. In the last domain, individuals are adaptable, innovative and resilient; they also exercise initiative and take risks, setting high standards for themselves.

Unity Primary School sees the MLP as a bridge to strengthen the quality of education in the school. It has always been Unity Primary School’s aim to develop their students “from good to great”. Riding on the direction of Curriculum 2015, Unity Primary School wants every student to be equipped with the competencies and life skills which are essential for their future working life.

“We find that ACP’s approach to the media literacy programme fulfils the objectives of self-directed and collaborative learning. Students get to learn how to work as a team, extracting information from the media, thereby creating their own media end products. I also like that the students get to present their own works, reinforcing the C2015 vision to groom our students to be good communicators. In Unity Primary School, every student matters and every student can be a good communicator. That is what we hope this media literacy programme will achieve – helping us to kick start the learning process for all our students.” quipped Mrs Tan.

Education is no longer limited to the passing of knowledge from teachers to students. Media literacy aims to nurture media-literate students who can critically evaluate and create media on their own, preparing them to be astute and holistic youths.