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On Wednesday (Mar. 24), Secondary 2 students at Riverside Secondary School each received their own iPad, which will serve as a personal learning device.

The programme to provide students with personal learning devices is part of the Ministry of Education's (MOE) plan to encourage more blended and self-directed learning.

Unboxing the iPads

Here are some photos of what the unboxing and set-up experience was like for the students, from a Facebook post by Riverside Secondary School on Wednesday (Mar. 24):

According to the Facebook post, Riverside Secondary 1 and Secondary 3 students will receive their iPads in one week.

Implementing Blended Learning

MOE plans to implement Blended Learning in all secondary schools, junior colleges, and the Millennia Institute starting in Term 3 of 2021.

In a speech on Dec. 29, Education Minister Lawrence Wong said:

"We all want our students to be adaptable and nimble, and to keep learning and picking up new skills.

We want our students to have a positive attitude towards learning, and be more self-directed and intrinsically motivated."

Wong said that educators saw that home-based learning during the Covid-19 pandemic helped to instil such attitudes in students.

Thus, home-based learning will be part of the new Blended Learning initiative, and will be conducted on a "regular basis" throughout the school year, with regularly-scheduled home-based learning (HBL) days.

However, not every student has access to a computer or other device to allow them to study at home.

Providing personal learning devices

To alleviate this, MOE will make personal learning devices available for all secondary school students, such that all secondary school students will have one by the end of 2021, said MOE.

Singaporean students can use their Edusave Account to pay for the device that has been selected by their school.

Together with a one-off S$200 Edusave top-up that was provided in April 2020 to all eligible Singaporean primary and secondary school students, most students will have sufficient Edusave funds to pay for the device, MOE stated.

The ministry added that MOE and schools are committed to work with families to ensure that no secondary school student who should have a personal learning device will be unable to access one due to financial reasons.

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Top photo via Facebook / Riverside Secondary School.