The coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Ministry of Education's (MOE) Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) curriculum is not meant to be a history lesson, according to Education Minister Chan Chun Sing.

It is also not an exercise to apportion blame on one party or another, he added in an interview with CNA.

The interview followed the release of a statement by MOE in response to parents who were upset by how the issue was framed during CCE lessons.

Four aims of CCE lessons

The objectives of the CCE lessons are fourfold, according to the minister.

These are: for students to understand their own emotions and empathise with others, to reflect on how they can safeguard harmony in a multiracial society, to verify information sources before sharing them responsibly, and to appreciate a diversity of views, as well as conduct conversations respectfully.

Chan conceded that such objectives are not easily achievable. However, it does not mean that the government should not try.

"Do we let them grapple with external influences on their own? Should we risk letting them be misguided by biased sources on social media?" he asked.

On using an evolving topic

When asked if this topic is made even more challenging because it is constantly evolving, Chan said that the "CCE curriculum and teaching do not depend on it being a running commentary because we are not teaching history or current affairs".

Rather, MOE wants to extract the relevant news that students should aware of.

He elaborated:

"For the primary school students, they know that the conflict has started. They may not be aware of the latest happening yesterday, but they need to wrestle with the emotions. And that set of emotions may not be contingent on what happened yesterday.

Likewise with the older students, we encourage them as a habit, to verify their facts, read from multiple sources to get a broader appreciation of the issues. These are again not contingent on the day-to-day happenings."

On using a complex topic

The minister also explained why MOE chose to include a topic with complexity that even adults find difficult to understand.

He mentioned that on a national level, Singapore has been vocal in its calls for a ceasefire, provision of humanitarian support, and in the long term, a two-state solution.

"There are also renewed efforts by the international community, and Singapore will do whatever we can to help bring this about. So, this is the background of why we are teaching this," he said.

Chan went on to say that the conflict has affected Singaporeans emotionally although Singapore community leaders "have taken the lead to guide our community and collective responses".

"Though this conflict may be geographically further away, we work very hard to not let this divide us, nor allow it to fragment our social fabric and hard-earned harmony," Chan said, citing examples of heated conversations among younger Singaporeans and the circulation of unverified information, images and misinformation on social media.

"We also have people telling us what we should or should not teach our children on this issue. So, we have to be very careful not to let the seeds of hatred and distrust be planted in our younger generations."

Purpose of CCE lesson is to instill empathy: Chan Chun Sing

Chan noted that some might have seen part of the teaching material and came to the "wrong" conclusion — that one side is good and the other is evil.

However, the aim of the lesson is to avoid such an outcome, he said.

Rather, its purpose is to instill knowledge, understanding and empathy for all "human beings" regardless of race or creed.

Hence, it is the ministry's hope that the conversations generated by the lessons will help students to focus their energies on "constructive and positive" dialogues, and more importantly, to provide them with a sense of urgency in taking positive action such as contributing to humanitarian aid.

Materials were curated with the help of MFA, among others

The minister also said that the lesson materials were curated with the help of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and other agencies.

The first tranche of materials was updated until December 2023, and these materials will continue to be updated as events unfold.

CHan said that MOE discussed with principals and CCE teachers about how best to produce lesson materials for students of different levels.

"Both myself and Dr Maliki have had sessions with educators to carefully discuss how to do this. School leaders in turn helped to prepare and select teachers to teach the material and facilitate the discussions," he said.

Teachers are also provided with additional background information where necessary.

"Mentally prepared" for adverse reaction from public

When asked about the general adverse reaction from the public, Chan replied that MOE was "mentally prepared" for such a reaction.

"Whether is it this issue or even the Russian-Ukraine conflict, whenever it comes to CCE, we fully expect that there will be issues that will elicit different reactions from different people," he said.

Principals and teachers also have their personal beliefs and convictions.

He added:

"But I think what we have come together and agreed upon is that we also share a common objective to build a shared ethos of how we respond as Singaporeans to not just this conflict, but to possibly other issues with a sense of solidarity, of how we can come together and focus on what is common amongst us rather than to let our differences divide us."

CCE lesson slides criticised and scrutinised online

Apart from parents of school-going kids, the slides were also scrutinised by Darren Mak, one of the hosts of Plan B, a Singapore-based podcast, and Walid Jumblatt Abdullah, an associate professor at the Nanyang Technological University School of Social Sciences.

Mak noted that while the slides briefly mentioned the conflict is complex with a history behind it, the bulk of the presentation focused on the Oct. 7, 2023, attack and the events that followed after.

Walid also highlighted the need for factual accuracy, adding that omitting history prior to Oct. 7 would be "intellectually dishonest".

"Laying out the established facts of what happened on Oct. 7 would be clearly needed. So would mentioning the occupation of Palestine since 1967, which Singapore opposes, and surrounding events, including the fact that the ICJ is hearing a case on genocide against Israel."

Another of Mak's criticisms was that the slides did not mention Singapore's stance on the issue more clearly, such as the fact that Singapore has opposed the expansion of Israelis settlements in the West Bank.

The biggest point of his criticism however, pertained to a slide titled "Let's apply what we have learnt" which used a scenario of two friends fighting after a football match.

"We are talking about a conflict where thousands of civilians have died and we are reducing this to a spat between primary school kids...are you surprised that people are upset about how you're treating this issue?" he said.

Top screenshot via CNA/YouTube