Harmony In A Virtual Village

When it comes to Racial Harmony Day, we’re familiar with the usual slate of activities: performances celebrating racial unity, short skits and a nice speech from the school principal.

This year, Admiralty Primary School did things a little differently, beginning with a little bang of smoke. Then hundreds of little Addy dolls came tumbling down along with a large 9-metre banner as it unfurled, to welcome the guest of honour, Minister for Education Dr Ng Eng Hen, to the launch of the school’s “virtual” National Education Village.

But what’s a “virtual” National Education Village?

A village for learning

Almost five years in the making, it’s the online version of the school’s National Education Village, which has four large “trails” snaking through different areas of the school, each with its own theme: ethnic culture, science, the arts and traditional games.

Every “trail” has elements of National Education related to its theme. A Science lesson about tubers might go on to include lessons on World War II and scarce resources – a neat way of linking the humble vegetable to the experience of Singaporeans during the Japanese Occupation. At another trail, pupils could take a stab at the Chinese martial art wushu, during PE lessons, or make batik samples during Art class.

“Our aim is to let our pupils gain a broad-based experience,” says principal Mrs Lim Soh Lian. “With the National Education Village, we find that they become very engaged in learning about our country’s history and culture.”

The efforts seem to have paid off. Of all the events that took place on Racial Harmony Day, one area of the Village stood out the most: where young storytellers were captivating their peers with short yet down-to-earth tales of their heritage and culture.

The Village goes virtual

But why limit the village to the physical space of a school campus? With demand for such learning spaces coming from other schools, Admiralty Primary School decided to develop a virtual version of the National Education Village, boasting 28 virtual “trails” with offline activities themed on the arts, science and games. For example, an arts activity might challenge pupils to come up with an original design for a Chinese seal using symbols representing Singapore, while a games activity suggests that they develop their own game inspired by the strategies of playing congkak.

Vice-principal Mr Ong Hong Ghee observes, “Young people are quite media-savvy nowadays, so we decided to create a platform for them to work on that’s accessible by pupils both within and outside our school community.” Visitors to the virtual National Education Village who are interested in exploring the trails further can then make bookings online to visit the actual Village in Admiralty Primary School.

Mr Ong adds that the school will have pupil ambassadors, trained by the teachers, to facilitate these tours. Within a half-day tour, visitors can probably cover about seven trails, so that they will pick up an in-depth understanding of certain National Education topics.

The virtual Village may not be the end of the project, either. The school has been in talks with external vendors, exploring the possibility of digitising the entire Village. One approach might be to adopt digital “talkie” guides, similar to the electronic devices you’d find in museums.

It sounds ambitious, but there’s no shortage of ideas at Admiralty Primary School on how to make National Education come alive for pupils. Whether in person or online, pupils have the opportunity to learn – hands-on and in heartfelt ways – a little more about the nation’s history and cultures.