Analysing Mental Health Issues Faced by Students

13 Mr Vikram Nair asked the Minister for Education (a) whether any studies have been conducted to analyse the mental health issues faced by students; and (b) whether more measures are needed to deal with these mental health issues, in light of reports that suicide remains the leading cause of death amongst youths.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education (Dr Syed Harun Alhabsyi) (for the Minister for Education): Sir, the Ministry of Education (MOE) closely monitors the state of mental health of our students using internal data and through research studies. Two of the latest research studies are the 2020 Youth Epidemiology and Resilience Study with the National University of Singapore and the 2024 National Youth Mental Health Study by the Institute of Mental Health.

These research insights and data are used to improve the full suite of measures on student mental health. For example, we regularly refresh the Mental Health Education lessons within the Character and Citizenship Education Curriculum to address emerging issues. MOE also provides parents with up-to-date information packages to enable them to better support their child's mental well-being.

MOE also collaborates with other Government agencies, such as the Ministry of Health (MOH) as well as the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), to implement the National Mental Health and Well-being Strategy. This includes the Tiered Care Model for youths to promote help-seeking and improve their access to services. The Parenting for Wellness initiative was also launched to equip parents with practical skills in strengthening parent-child relationships and their children's resilience.

Mr Speaker: Mr Vikram Nair.

Mr Vikram Nair (Sembawang): I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the response. One of the concerns underlying this question was the article that said that suicide was the leading cause of death amongst youths. Has the MOE done any studies into these suicide cases to see if there any lessons to be learnt and how best early intervention might have helped in each of these cases so that we can prevent or reduce the number of future cases?

Dr Syed Harun Alhabsyi: I thank the Member for the supplementary question. Specific to the question on national suicide rates with regards to the youth population between 10 and 29 years old, I do not have the data specific to this particular question. Again, this particular research rests with the national agencies looking at the numbers of suicides as well as death globally and that is something that we can come to if the Member has a specific question in relation to that particular trend.

That, notwithstanding, if I may add, in the context of MOE, we do look at the different tiers in terms of intervention. So, from the level of the students, as we have mentioned earlier, with regards to any opportunity, with regards to mental health education, that is something that we address. We also equip our teachers with skills and basic counselling skills to be able to identify any early signs of distress among our students.

At the school level, we have our school counsellors who can do a suicide risk assessment and also work in tandem with our colleagues from MOH as well as healthcare institutions, in terms of the Response, Early intervention and Assessment in Community mental Health (REACH) teams, which also work very closely with our schools, as well as the specialist teams which reside in the hospitals. So, in terms of mental well-being and care for our students, as well as youths in general, it is a whole entire ecosystem of support. I hope this clarifies.