Management of Bullying in Schools

1 Dr Wan Rizal asked the Minister for Education with regard to the recent Sengkang Green Primary bullying case, what further steps have the Ministry taken to strengthen anti-bullying measures and ensure timely support for both victims and perpetrators, including mental health resources.

2 Mr David Hoe asked the Minister for Education whether the Ministry will consider (a) reviewing existing anti-bullying disciplinary and rehabilitation frameworks to render them more robust; (b) augmenting suspension-based punitive measures with in-school structured reflection, supervised work and restorative conferences, instead of home suspensions; (c) setting minimum competencies and staff-training hours to strengthen educators' capabilities to handle bullying; and (d) pilot cluster-level bullying support teams by counsellors/para-counsellors.

3 Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis asked the Minister for Education (a) what is the framework for determining the extent of disciplinary measures to be taken against perpetrators of bullying incidents that have been reported in primary schools and secondary schools; (b) what are the follow-up measures that are taken to address the needs of victims and perpetrators; and (c) what is the Ministry’s assessment of the effectiveness of the measures.

4 Ms Hany Soh asked the Minister for Education (a) whether there is a Ministry or cluster level framework in place on how schools should deal with bullying cases; and (b) whether the Ministry encourages schools to share and develop best practices of dealing with bullying cases among themselves.

5 Ms Elysa Chen asked the Minister for Education (a) how quickly are teachers expected to investigate and take action after a report of bullying has been made; and (b) whether the Ministry’s protocols on bullying are followed throughout the process in the recent bullying incident at Sengkang Green Primary School.

6 Mr Liang Eng Hwa asked the Minister for Education (a) whether schools are adequately resourced to prevent the occurrences of bullying incidents in schools; (b) whether there are proactive monitoring and surveillance to pick up early signs of bullying situations; and (c) what further preventive measures can be taken.

7 Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo asked the Minister for Education (a) how will the Ministry equip schools and teachers to detect and respond to multifaceted forms of bullying; and (b) how will the Ministry ensure consistency and accountability of all parties across institutions.

8 Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Education (a) whether the Ministry will consider adopting more aspects of evidence-based anti-bullying programmes such as intervention teams; (b) what new measures are being considered to further empower victims and bystanders to report bullying incidents safely; and (c) whether there are plans to enhance support systems, such peer support groups, for students affected by bullying.

9 Ms Elysa Chen asked the Minister for Education how many reported school bullying cases in the past three years involved suspected or confirmed child maltreatment of either the perpetrator or victim of bullying, in light of the impact that a family environment has on a child’s behaviour.

10 Mr Xie Yao Quan asked the Minister for Education (a) whether the Ministry will consider setting up a centralised anti-bullying unit to support schools to investigate the most egregious cases of bullying and follow up with disciplinary and rehabilitative actions, so as to avoid overburdening teachers; and (b) if not, why not.

11 Mr Yip Hon Weng asked the Minister for Education (a) what are the established timelines for schools to investigate bullying incidents and to provide updates to the parents of involved students; and (b) what specific measures are implemented to separate the involved students during an investigation to ensure the victim's safety on school premises and prevent fear-based absenteeism or the need for a school transfer.

12 Dr Charlene Chen asked the Minister for Education (a) what resources are available to schools to detect and counter less visible forms of bullying such as manipulation, exclusion and cyberbullying; (b) how does the Ministry support teachers in managing bullying cases; and (c) what measures beyond training are implemented to ensure teachers have the time and resources to address bullying without adding to their risk of burnout.

The Minister for Education (Mr Desmond Lee): Mr Speaker, Sir, my response will address the questions raised by Members on the management of bullying incidents in schools. May I seek your permission to answer oral Question Nos 1 to 12, and written Question Nos 29 on today's Order Paper?

Mr Speaker: Please proceed.

Mr Desmond Lee: Thank you, Sir. My response will also cover related oral and written questions filed both for earlier as well as subsequent Sittings from Mr Yip Hon Weng, Mr Liang Eng Hwa, Dr Charlene Chen, Mr Kenneth Tiong, Mr David Hoe, Mr Xie Yao Quan, Ms Joan Pereira, Ms Hany Soh, Dr Wan Rizal, Ms Jessica Tan, Ms Mariam Jaafar, Ms He Ting Ru, Mr Gerald Giam, Ms Yeo Wan Ling¹, Mr Foo Cexiang, Ms Eileen Chong and Ms Elysa Chen.

I invite Members to seek clarifications, if needed and thereafter, withdraw their questions for subsequent Sittings.

Sir, recent media and online reports of students engaging in hurtful or bullying behaviours towards others have renewed the spotlight on this issue.

We place a strong emphasis on providing a safe environment in our schools so that our students can learn, grow and thrive. We know that such incidents affect many people. Children who experience hurtful behaviour may worry about their safety and may find it hard to learn and build friendships. Parents love their children and naturally feel anxious and concerned about the children's well-being, whether they have been affected by bullying or have been themselves involved in hurting others.

For our school leaders, teachers and school staff, these incidents require them to manage disruptive behaviours in order to restore discipline. They have to protect those affected, rebuild a safe learning environment and address and correct those involved in wrong behaviours. They seek to help our students learn from their mistakes while engaging with parents who might hold different perspectives on how schools ought to respond. Our approach seeks to provide practical support to help children learn better behaviour, give parents confidence in school responses and enable teachers to maintain caring and enabling learning environments for all students.

Let me first outline our approach to managing hurtful behaviours and bullying, before responding to the various questions.

First, the Ministry of Education (MOE) takes a firm stance against all forms of hurtful behaviours, from once-off, insensitive comments to persistent intentional acts of bullying and physical violence. Schools have rules against such behaviours and teach students why these behaviours are wrong.

Second, we recognise that children learn behaviours from multiple sources – home, school, peers, online. Therefore, upstream preventive work involves these parties, and we all need to play a part.

Third, discipline in the context of the school environment is an educative process. Disciplinary measures must help students learn the consequences of their actions. As children have the potential to learn from their mistakes and grow through experience, our disciplinary approach must continue to focus on teaching, guiding and rehabilitating our children, and helping to restore relationships.

Finally, parents and families are key partners. We need to work with them, build a relationship with them so that they can work with us to instill kindness and respect for others through positive adult role modelling, and closer monitoring of children's online activities, especially outside school.

Our schools also work with the community and partners in addressing hurtful behaviours.

Some Members asked about the outcomes of previous reviews. In 2020, MOE conducted a review on the Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) curriculum. In the context of that larger review, MOE also looked at the issue of bullying. This led to a number of CCE-related enhancements, which were implemented in 2021. Of these, three were relevant to strengthening schools' capacity to address hurtful behaviours and bullying.

First, the CCE curriculum was refreshed to place stronger emphasis on guiding students to be kind and caring, both online as well as offline.

Second, schools established a peer support system in every school, where students are taught how to support one another, be an upstander and look out for those who do not have strong support from their friends in school. So, sometimes, when you go around, you see some of the children with a badge that says "Peer Support Leader", or some other variant of the name.

Third, our schools have designated staff whose work covers areas such as fostering positive school culture, addressing hurtful behaviours and working with parents and the community to guide and educate our students.

I will next elaborate on how these enhancements and other existing measures address bullying and hurtful behaviours in our schools.

Let me start with educative efforts, which some Members have asked about.

From young, our students learn pro-social behaviours through lessons and adult role-modelling in schools. The CCE curriculum and the school environment emphasise values and respect, and students learn to be kind to their classmates, resolve disagreements respectfully and learn appropriate ways to stand up against bullying. Through cyber wellness lessons, they also learn to extend such pro-social behaviours online. In addition, students learn about healthy mindsets, habits and skills to strengthen their mental health and resilience in the face of challenges. Students learn how to respond when they encounter unsafe situations. They are taught to stay calm, avoid retaliation, move away from the situation and seek help from a trusted adult, such as their parents, teachers or school leaders.

Some Members asked about school processes such as anti-bullying frameworks, reporting channels, investigation, parent engagement timelines and disciplinary measures. Our schools have policies and frameworks that send a clear message to students that hurtful behaviours and bullying are not acceptable. These include school rules and consequences for bullying. There are also various reporting channels for students to report bullying. For example, students can report incidents directly or through their friends, peer support leaders, teachers and school leaders, or through online platforms such as emails or online forms. Discipline talks for students are also conducted regularly by schools to communicate their approach to managing misconduct, including bullying.

When an incident is reported, our schools conduct investigations before deciding on the appropriate course of action which includes disciplinary as well as restorative actions. They adopt a tiered approach for disciplinary measures based on the severity of the case. Such measures range from reflection for careless remarks to detention or suspension for more serious cases, and caning for boys in egregious cases. These measures help students learn from their mistakes, reframe their thinking and change their behaviours. For severe bullying that warrants Police attention, a Police report will be made and perpetrators may face legal consequences.

When bullying occurs, our priority is the safety of the affected students. Schools implement safety plans for the victims. This could include separating them from perpetrators, facilitating the removal of hurtful online content and identifying peer support leaders to befriend and look out for them in school. In addition, teachers and school counsellors work with both victims and perpetrators. helping them manage their emotions and work towards mending ties and restoring friendships.

Students who continue to experience distress are referred to community resources, such as the Response, Early Intervention and Assessment in Community Mental Health (REACH) teams for more specialised support. I will just pause here to mention that I am using the words "perpetrator" and "victim" in order to shorten the phrases, but I know people might be concerned about the labels that we use – and certainly we are mindful of that – and we continue to see how best we can find the right terms to use both in public discourse as well as in our institutions. So, please bear with us in the meantime.

I would also say, Sir, that parent engagement and partnership are vital. When bullying incidents happen, schools engage parents to inform them about the facts of the incident, work with them on the safety plan and focus on the well-being of the students. The time it takes to investigate each case will vary, depending on complexity. Similarly, restoring and mending relationships and improving behaviour, take time and parents are encouraged to work with schools and give this process some time to take effect. Schools share resources with parents and parent support groups on how to form caring relationships and monitor their children's online behaviour, online activities and tips to support the children in cases of bullying and cyberbullying. I have a printed copy of the "Parenting for Wellness Toolbox" for parents, which is put together by MOE, the Health Promotion Board (HPB) and the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF). There are some chapters here on, for example, cyberbullying: when a child is the victim, what can parents do? How can they work with the schools? How to notice signs and symptoms that the child might have been cyberbullied both in and outside of school, how to engage in conversation with the children and then, of course, when your child is himself or herself involved in causing hurtful behaviour against others.

Mr Speaker, some Members have asked about teachers training and support for our schools. As part of teacher preparation courses, all teachers are trained to foster positive class culture, address hurtful behaviours and recognise signs of distress. They are supported by key personnel and school counsellors. Our schools use MOE guidelines and resources on what constitutes bullying and cyberbullying, and how to manage these cases. Some schools also work with social service agencies (SSAs) to conduct bullying and cyberbullying awareness programmes for students and training workshops for school staff.

School personnel also regularly review their school-based strategies to manage bullying and share good practices with other schools.

Indeed, improving our framework to tackle bullying is a continual work-in-progress. Members have raised useful suggestions that we will consider as we seek to strengthen our current measures. As I shared on 27 August this year at a dialogue with educators, parents and community partners, MOE had been conducting a comprehensive review of bullying since early 2025. Based on the work done so far, we are now conducting external public consultation on four key areas.

First, strengthening our school culture, environment and processes.

Second, give greater emphasis to values education for our students.

Third, providing more resources and support for our schools and educators and deepening their capacity.

Fourth, enhancing school-home partnerships, the relationship between our teachers and educators, and parents and families.

We are encouraged to have received many constructive suggestions from parents, students, educators, community partners and researchers. These include providing schools with more resources to investigate and deal with cases, involving parents support groups to support parents whose children are involved in bullying, keeping parents informed about the content of CCE lessons so that they can reinforce values education at home and involving peers to educate others on being an upstander – among many other suggestions. We will consider all these suggestions as well as ideas raised by Members seriously, before finalising the recommendations which we aim to release in the first half of 2026.

Our shared goal as an education system and as a society must be an empowering one. We have a collective responsibility to help our children, our next generation, learn how to relate to others, be kind and show respect to others. In this, children model behaviours and pick up values from the home environment, their school environment and the community. Some learn quickly. Some repeat mistakes. Others make new ones. We have some 400,000 over children in our primary and secondary schools, and their daily interactions in class, outside class, outside school.

And children make mistakes. They make mistakes in their academic studies. They may make mistakes when they were performing the co-curricular activities (CCAs). They may make mistakes in their project work. And they may make mistakes in their interpersonal relationships with others, both with their teachers as well as other schoolmates. Some of these could be inadvertent or careless behaviour, lack of awareness or sensitivity. Some of it could be deliberate. And some of it could be a function of their conditions – some may have special needs or other issues that they are grappling with.

They learn best through calm correction from adults, reflecting on how they should have behaved, make amends for their behaviour, experience disciplinary consequences and being welcomed back to their social circles with continued guidance and support.

I thank Members of Parliament (MPs) and the public for the care and concern shown for the well-being of our students and educators. Ultimately, we want to keep improving and enhancing our system, addressing the concerns of parents, the workload on our educators and their sense of mission; and of course, addressing the issues that the public raised. We all want the same outcome: for schools to be safe, caring and enabling environments for all students and our staff. MOE will continue to work with schools, parents, community professionals and members of the public as we collectively role model the right behaviours and create the gracious and respectful society for our children to flourish.

Mr Speaker: Dr Wan Rizal.

Dr Wan Rizal (Jalan Besar): Mr Speaker, I thank the Minister for sharing our approach towards bullying. As a parent, when I first heard the news about bullying and how persistent it has been over the past few months, it was extremely worrying. As an educator and someone who believes strongly in mental health, I thought we were on the right track, scaffolding our efforts to make sure that we give the right support to the children.

But being a parent too, and many parents have actually approached me about the concern of whether we are being a bit too soft in our approach, and whether a harder stance would be necessary. As an educator, I also feel that, sometimes as educators, we do not have that empowerment to take extra steps further. Of course, we worry about the effects of us being too hard on our students sometimes, but I think it is a balance.

Having said that, I have two supplementary questions for the Minister. Firstly, parents are often the first to notice the changes in the child when someone goes through a certain phase. And I think we need to have more support. The toolkit provided is actually wonderful. In fact, I have questioned before, how accessible it is for our parents. So, my question is, how do we make use of this toolkit further to prevent and empower parents to help them in their journey in helping their children when they are bullied or, in this case, both sides, whether it is the perpetrator or the victim, I think we need to give the right support for them.

As an educator, I have mentioned before about our worries about being sidelined for taking a harder stance on some students, for example. Is there some assurance from the Ministry, so that our educators can take a harder stance sometimes and balance it, as we approach our students moving forward?

Mr Desmond Lee: I can see where the Member is coming from, both as an educator as well as a parent. Let me address these questions. First on empowering parents, sharing with them best practices, sharing with them the toolkits – I have explained earlier in my response how our schools already do that and how some of these materials are available both online and sometimes in hard copy. But I think we should spend this quality time looking at how we can further enhance and improve our system to address the concerns of children, parents and of the public, while also making sure that we assure our educators and our school staff who are on the frontlines, teaching, not just teaching academic knowledge, but also shaping, teaching and moulding lives, values and perspectives.

There were some ideas that were given through the review, including the dialogue that I hosted. A parent shared that in the school that her daughter was in, the school would, at the start of every academic year, have some material circulated to every parent, and this is over and on top of what is already being done across most schools and by MOE. This is what we call the community learning network, where we have our educators from different tracks share their best practices with one another, so that we continue this spirit of positive learning on how to manage various issues on the ground as well as in the community. So, that is first, and we certainly would value ideas from the Member as well as other Members on how better we can support parents, work with our schools and with our teachers to manage these issues, whether the child is a recipient of hurtful behaviour, or is the person who affects others through his or her behaviour.

In terms of educators, we have, as I said, a suite of tools that schools can use as a tiered approach, from reflection and learning for mild cases or careless cases or hurtful comments, to more severe punitive measures, such as suspension, detention. And some discipline masters have also shared with me that they make some adjustments along the way. For example, they may find that it is more effective to make the child perform some community work in the school as opposed to just suspending the child and the child does not learn and the child might not see that really as punishment, in certain circumstances.

But all in, when I describe the multi-tiered approach in terms of the severity, if I may use that word loosely, of disciplinary measures, I think we must keep emphasising the fact that these are intended to help the child understand that there are consequences for certain behaviours. Those disciplinary measures must be appropriate to the context and to the children involved, as well as conduce to learn from their mistakes, reflection, restoration of relationships, including mutual apologies or apologies of the appropriate kind and then the children move forward.

So, when these are done appropriately, and we leave some judgement to the educators and school leaders, these will help eventually for our children to learn and to grow.

Mr Speaker: Mr David Hoe.

Mr David Hoe (Jurong East-Bukit Batok): Thank you, Speaker. And I thank the Minister for his response. Allow me to say that my three questions come from conversations with various Singaporeans.

First and foremost, it is about disciplinary measures. Could MOE consider moving from home suspension to in-house suspension in school? Reason being because suspension during my time was painful because you do not get to interact with your friends and even if you go to the arcade, you have to be home by 6.30 pm. But parents do highlight to me that with the access of mobile phones today, a home suspension just means that at home, they can play Mobile Legend. This then makes us question the effectiveness of home suspension. So, could MOE consider moving from home suspension to in-house suspension?

The second question comes from the fact about the well-being and the safety of the person that is reporting. Could MOE consider a standard anti-retaliation clause, explicit consequences for post-report harassment and communicate this to students and parents, because what they do know is that for students who report, they are worried that the parents of the person that they reported on will come after them.

And the third point is about accessible channels. I recognise that there are a few accessible channels mentioned earlier, but we wonder whether could MOE consider specifying a minimum bundle of reporting options, such as those mentioned earlier, peer support, online reporting and so on, so that this allows schools to have a common baseline and every child in all schools will know that these are the various tools that they can access, while still allowing schools to retain their autonomy.

Mr Desmond Lee: Sir, on the first question, as I mentioned earlier, there are a range of disciplinary measures that are availed to our schools. They apply it based on the circumstances and based on the children concerned. This idea of suspension, the feedback that the Member has given to us is also feedback we have received for some children. Suspension from school, sometimes, is also a safety measure to separate the children and ask the child concerned to not come to class, it can be viewed differently. For some children, they feel that this is a consequence that they learn from. For some others, it might not quite have the intended effect because they see it through a different lens and they would not mind being away from school and being at home, and worse, if there is little or no supervision at home, if parents are busy at work. Therefore, our schools also do what you call in-school suspension, where you are away from the class, but you do your learning or do some other community work or service in the school as a disciplinary measure for the actions.

The Member raised two other suggestions. I view them as suggestions and ideas. One, an anti-retaliation clause, another on accessible bundle of channels. I will take it in the spirit, as I mentioned earlier, that the Member's views, as well as those of other Members, will be studied and considered.

Mr Speaker: There are many Members who wish to ask questions. I will only call on those who have filed Parliamentary Questions (PQs) on this subject. I also request that everyone keep your supplementary questions short so that we can cover as many PQs in the course of today. Mr Louis Chua.

Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis (Sengkang): Thank you, Speaker. Two supplementary questions for the Minister. First, to what extent is there the close monitoring of the victims as well as the perpetrators after the bullying – on the part of victims, when it comes to adherence to the safety plan; and for the perpetrators, the adherence to any long-term interventions and rehabilitation?

Second is, in terms of the existing review that is ongoing, where does the Minister or the Ministry see as the current gaps that need to be further strengthened and when can we expect these to be announced?

Mr Desmond Lee: I take Speaker's guidance on short replies. First, close monitoring of the children involved. Well, the schools will do that after consequences are meted out or counselling and other measures are brought into place and depending on the situation, of course, and depending on the impact of the children, the educators, the school counsellors necessary, or sometimes even external agencies like REACH, may be called in and each will have to be customised based on the situation.

In terms of the gaps or the possible areas that we are looking at, I have articulated them in my response: strengthening school culture, environment and processes, greater emphasis to values education, more support for schools and educators, deepening their capacity and enhancing school home partnerships. I mentioned that we hope, by the first half of next year, to be able to roll out a suite of recommendations.

Mr Speaker: Ms Hany Soh. Mr Louis Chua and Minister Desmond Lee have set the gold standard in terms of their clarifications and replies. Please maintain it.

Ms Hany Soh (Marsiling-Yew Tee): I will try my best, Mr Speaker. Thank you, Minister, in acknowledging the fact that parent engagement is vital in such situations of bullying. In this regard, I wish to ask how promptly do the schools or the teachers get in touch with the parents? Is it once the bullying incident had occurred, to update the parents at the earliest opportunity, and whether there will be continuous efforts to handhold and work with the parents in addressing the issues?

I think, many a times, while we acknowledge and understand that resources are lean, and teachers and schools are working very hard in addressing different issues at the same time, it does comes in useful to assure the parents on the progress and hard work that have been undertaken by the teachers and the schools in their best efforts to address the issue.

Mr Desmond Lee: Sir, when an incident happens, as I said earlier, the first priority is safety. And if a safety plan needs to be put in place, it will be done. That is the first priority. Then, some fact-finding – what happened, who were involved and so on. And in deciding whether and when to contact parents, sometimes, there are one-off incidents in class, where children have an altercation or some hurtful words were said, and the teacher's teaching and the teacher wants to restore discipline, turn it into a learning opportunity and then carry on with the rest of the class. And sometimes, the teachers might then say, it has been addressed between two or three children, one-off, they might then decide they do not really need to get the parents involved.

But sometimes the issue is more serious or if it is a repeat issue, the teachers, of course, apart from tackling safety and then doing some quick fact-finding, will then notify the parents. It is a judgement that the key personnel for student well-being, as well as the teachers and the school leaders have to exercise. Of course, when they notify the parents, they would notify all sides who were involved, in order to tell them what has happened so that they also hear from the school and then, of course, on the follow-up action the school will take. And of course, working with the parents to make sure that the learning points are carried across both in the classroom as well as at home.

Mr Speaker: Ms Elysa Chen.

Ms Elysa Chen (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Thank you, Minister, for appreciating that children pick up behaviours from home and other contexts. I also like to ask the Minister if he can share what support measures are in place for students who have been identified as victims or perpetrators of bullying who also experience child maltreatment at home? And also, how does the Ministry ensure that teachers and school staff are trained to recognise signs of child maltreatment linked to bullying cases?

My last question: because we understand that each case is varying in complexity, can the Ministry provide an average timeframe for resolution to report to closure in bullying cases that have been reported across schools?

Mr Desmond Lee: Sir, for children who are either recipients of hurtful behaviour or the actors of hurtful behaviour or bullying, and if it is identified that they themselves were involved in, say, family violence or some family maltreatment that warranted the attention of the social services, then the schools will work with the social services, like the Family Service Centres (FSCs), or other specialised agencies to follow up.

On the second question, the Member is asking for average time, I think, that is very hard to give a clear answer to, because it really depends on the facts of the case, depends on the circumstances and depends on the severity.

Mr Speaker: Mr Liang Eng Hwa.

Mr Liang Eng Hwa (Bukit Panjang): Sir, two questions. Firstly, I would like to ask the Minister, in the recent notable cases in the schools, whether the schools or MOE do a postmortem or look-back review to see whether if there were interventions earlier, or could these have been prevented? So, this is the first question.

The second question is, whether does MOE also carry out some of these psychological studies or research, to better look out for the kind of profile of students who are likely to bully others and those that are likely to be bullied, so that it can be instructive for the educators on how to look out for indications and signs that bullying could happen?

Mr Desmond Lee: Whether schools do postmortem, well, it depends on what has happened. But I am confident that the schools do look-backs just as they share best practices with one another, both within the school as well as across various schools and clusters. Second, I think, the Member is asking whether we look at the background of students or have some circumstances based on social work practices where we look out for possible signs and symptoms.

In our schools, when things arise, they will look into not just the behaviour, but we principally want to look at what is the underlying cause. So, it is not just consequences and then help them to learn. We need to try to ascertain what are the underlying causes that lead to this. If it is a repeat issue, does the child have special needs that may cause them to react in a certain way, for which, certain course of action is needed to support the child? Is it due to poor role modelling, maybe outside school? Is it social media? Do they come from families, as Member Elysa Chen mentioned, where there might be family violence at home and the children then manifest their behaviour in school in a particular way? I think that is the deeper work that not just our educators but also that of the school counsellors. Sometimes, if it manifests itself in long-term absenteeism, our school welfare officers will also get involved. So, these are the two questions.

Mr Speaker: Ms Jessica Tan.

Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo (East Coast): Thank you, Speaker. I have two supplementary questions. One, while I understand, this is a very complex environment in terms of bullying, there is a whole spectrum of it and we do want to give the schools autonomy in terms of managing that because two cases are never the same. But how would MOE ensure that there is some consistency and accountability of all parties, whether it is victim, bully, family or even the educators across institutions, whether there is some consistency, because the Minister talked about best practices. So, in terms of the actual best practice implementation, is there some consistency and accountability across all institutions?

And second, while it is extremely difficult, what training or help is given to both students and teachers in terms of early identification of bullying cases? It is extremely difficult in some cases, but is there training or support given so that there could be early identification and therefore, early intervention?

Mr Desmond Lee: First, as I mentioned earlier, there is an MOE framework, the School Bullying Management Guidelines that is issued to schools where they set out some guidelines for schools in order to help them implement their measures effectively in school. There is a community learning network – sometimes, it involves the discipline masters; sometimes, school leaders for different topics, they also have these learning networks for various subjects as well and CCA and CCE, and so on. So, when it comes to managing hurtful behaviour, bullying in schools, there is also such a network among teachers as well as key personnel who are involved in our schools in handling these issues.

Second, is that training and help for early identification that would apply across the board in the school, from school leader to educator to counsellor and school welfare officers to our students. A lot of it is enmeshed into our CCE classes that bring across these points in an age-appropriate way. For example, in primary school, lower primary, we teach them about friendship: how to make friends, how to maintain friendships, how to be kind, caring and sensitive to one another. And as you grow a little bit older, it will be a bit more explicit about hurtful and bullying behaviours and then how to be an upstander, how to respond appropriately and how to look out for cyberbullying, and so on. So, that is for the school at large.

Then, of course, we have peer support leaders and that was a result of the 2020 major CCE framework review. Peer support leaders do not just deal with bullying and hurtful behaviours, of course, they are there to help students who have difficulty adjusting, new students who have come in, primary one students, help to keep an eye out for other students who might run into difficulties or may feel down and of course, to look out for early signs of bullying and then trained to report to an appropriate adult, including a teacher or a counsellor.

Mr Speaker: Ms Joan Pereira.

Ms Joan Pereira (Tanjong Pagar): I have got two supplementary questions for the Minister. For cases of cyberbullying, what is the status of the Ministry's work with relevant authorities and online platforms to take action on cyberbullying incidents or content? And my second question, do these include quick-response channels that will allow the rapid take down of bullying content posted online?

Mr Desmond Lee: Well, I mentioned earlier that there is some material that is put out for parents, for the community and, then, internally for the school community, guidelines and even some case studies on how to identify, deal with cyberbullying incidents involving children in schools. I understand that the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore has legislation that might give them powers to require takedowns. That is, of course, asking the platform to do so if there is a threshold met.

But at the school-level, if it is one child posting about another child, then it will involve, at the school-level, asking the children concerned to take it down as part of the resolution process.

As for quick-reporting channels, I believe that I mentioned earlier that some schools have online forms, contact arrangements and reporting channels for them to report bullying, including cyberbullying.

Mr Speaker: Mr Xie Yao Quan.

Mr Xie Yao Quan (Jurong Central): Speaker, I go to the question that I filed, suggesting the set-up of a centralised anti-bullying unit to support schools to not only investigate the most egregious cases of bullying, but also to follow up with disciplinary and rehabilitative actions with the key purpose of avoiding overburdening our teachers. And I would just like to ask the Minister if that is one of the specific measures being considered under the review?

Mr Desmond Lee: I thank the Member for his suggestion and again, in the spirit of what I mentioned earlier, we are conducting a review and we certainly take Member Xie Yao Quan's suggestion into serious consideration. If I may share, during our engagements, we also received a similar suggestion. Our teachers are there to teach, but when incidents happen, they want to restore discipline so teaching can continue.

But even in dealing with these bad behaviours, as I said, children make mistakes on their academic work, project work and there is corrective and remedial action needed from a pedagogical point of view. But also when it comes to certain behaviours that they manifest in the classroom, in trying to restore classroom discipline, it is also a teachable moment for the students.

Having said that, when matters escalate or if it is more serious, key personnel in the school may be involved. School leaders may be involved and sometimes, even beyond the school if a matter is more serious, including the Police or the superintendent, zonal directors or even headquarters itself.

There was a suggestion, as part of the review that is ongoing, that we bring in experts with knowledge in restorative practice, or RP, for instance. And, of course, we have to study this carefully, because if we bring these people in, they will have to then integrate well with what is happening in our schools. The teachers on the ground know the children well and also understand the dynamics. If we bring in an external party, they have expertise, but they will then also have to go through a certain get-up in order to understand what is going on and to build the relationship with the school, educators and staff as well as with the parents. So, certainly, we will study it seriously.

Mr Speaker: Mr Yip Hon Weng.

Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang): Mr Speaker, I thank the Minister for his reply. I have two supplementary questions raised by educators. Could the Minister share what safeguards are in place to prevent over-reporting of false positives that may overwhelm teachers and dilute attention from serious cases? And secondly, in strengthening anti-bullying measures, how does the Ministry strike a balance between protecting victims and helping students build resilience to manage everyday small disagreements or teasing that may not amount to bullying?

Mr Desmond Lee: May I just ask the Member, I did not quite catch the first question: over-reporting that overwhelms the teachers? Perhaps the Member can clarify. Sorry, I did not catch that.

Mr Yip Hon Weng: I mean, for small issues or incidents that may not be considered as bullying, but students report it to teachers and teachers may be overwhelmed by some of these small incidents.

Mr Desmond Lee: I understand where the Member is coming from. I think, sometimes you can never get it perfect because so many children are involved and we have this network of peer support leaders as well, and all our children are encouraged to report if there are issues that they face. They are not feeling good, or they see some other classmate in difficulty or they see some behaviours, they will report, because they look up to the teacher as someone whom they respect, as a figure of authority, someone whom they know and trust, and the teacher will then exercise judgement.

I do not think there is a particular policy you can put in place to get children, including primary school children, to calibrate it to the right level. But we are mindful, ultimately, of the demands on our teachers. They are prepared to work hard, but there must be clear purpose and meaning, and helping our children learn the right values and the right behaviours, and building resilience in them is important, comparable to what they are teaching in terms of academic subjects. These lessons in life, these life-skills are, perhaps, even more important. So, our teachers will not shy away and will use these as opportunities to try to turn it into a teachable moment.

The Member is right. I do not think we want to give people the impression that we do not want to overprotect our children because we want them to be resilient. It is a careful balance. We want to arm our children, put processes in place so that the school can be and continue to be a safe, conducive environment for learning, not just academic learning but also learning of values, behaviours and team work and so on – all the 21st Century Competencies that we think are important for our children to take away into life.

And yet, when you have behaviours and interactions, and as I said, there are 400,000 primary and secondary school children, plus minus, if you add the whole system together, ITE, polytechnics and universities, half a million. And the number of micro interactions is huge. Really, these are people-to-people relationships and you want a certain degree of resilience, being able to just brush it off and say, "Well, this person, I understand, may have had a bad day".

But there is a threshold that is not a bright line that is crossed, when that becomes toxic, when that has an impact in a negative way, and when we say we step in, it does not mean we overprotect. It means we step in to prevent further harm, look at what has happened and make sure that those involved learn, including people who are at the receiving end of the bullying behaviour, to also learn how they can better protect themselves and also understand the spirit of forgiveness.

Mr Speaker: Dr Charlene Chen.

Dr Charlene Chen (Tampines): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister whether schools, or staff in schools, are penalised for bullying cases happening in schools? And if so, whether such practices may inadvertently incentivise cover-ups, and more importantly, hinder MOE's efforts to send more resources to support these schools. A second question would be, if no, are there any reasons to believe why cover-ups could happen?

Mr Desmond Lee: I am not aware that there are such penalties for schools or educators if a bullying incident happens in their class or in the school. I cannot believe there is, though I would certainly go back and check. When the Member mentions cover-ups, I think it is best to look at specific cases that we can then examine and investigate, if necessary, because it is a serious allegation.

Mr Speaker: Ms Eileen Chong.

Ms Eileen Chong Pei Shan (Non-Constituency Member): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Minister for touching on MOE's upstream preventative measures and approaches. My supplementary questions actually pertain to this. I am very heartened to hear about the enhancements that have been made to the CCE since 2021 and I would like to ask if the Minister could elaborate on how the Ministry actually evaluates the effectiveness of some of these changes made, especially in light of some MOE statistics, as of 2024, which indicates that bullying numbers have been held steady in the last five years.

And to the Minister's point about how children actually learn from multiple behaviour sources, which thus highlights the importance of upstream preventative measures, I am very heartened to hear about programmes, like the Parenting for Wellness programme and other tool kits that are available for parents, but more importantly, we also understand that implementation is often times as important as programme and toolkit design.

So, could the Minister elaborate on what is the uptake rate by parents of the more than 400,000 school-going primary and secondary school children of these toolkits and programmes? And if the uptake rate is low, whether there are other ways to increase this uptake without placing the onus on our teachers that are already burdened trying to manage the situation in school and outside of school?

Mr Desmond Lee: Well, these CCE changes come about as a result of review. We had a comprehensive review of the kinds of character and values that we see as important to develop in our children, and we will continue to review these from time to time. And then they are then delivered through pedagogy, through class activities, through student activity, and so on, as well as adult role modelling. And as I said earlier, we hope to be able to also share that with parents so that they can do some reinforcement at home. Our parents take charge of our children's upbringing and are also, in a way, teachers of values and character, in as much as our teachers in our classrooms.

As to how we can measure and evaluate, there are so many factors that go into the behaviours of our children. We, of course, can see some of these manifests themselves in the children's relationship with one another, their attitudes towards the people around them, including their teachers. Some of these can be seen on the ground. But I think it is very hard to scientifically measure for each and every child whether these improvements to CCE have, in the short term or immediate term, resulted in certain factors. So, the causative link is not so easy to establish, but these are reinforced, these are role-modelled, and we hope that this sets them in a good position and trajectory for life.

As for the uptake of the tool kits, I do not have the data at this point in time. I have said, in my reply, that these are made available, our schools disseminate some of this information to our parents as well as to parent support groups. And we, certainly, as part of this review, want to see how we can improve the material, make it more accessible to diverse audiences and find better and more effective ways to connect with our parents, not just by sharing information, but by working together for our children's well-being and development.

Mr Speaker: Ms Yeo Wan Ling.

Ms Yeo Wan Ling (Punggol): Thank you, Speaker. Protecting our young through the prevention and identification of online harms and cyberbullying needs to be a whole-of-community effort.

In my community engagements with parents, given that the bullying happens to be in the "unseen" online world, I note that many parents were not aware of the extent of their child's cyberbullying cases. With online bullying ground movements coming from school backyards, for instance, "XXX", being the school's name, and confessions on social media pages, chat groups, game rooms, how will the school and Ministry reach out to the community to be vigilant to such pages and such movements?

Beyond the current reporting channels, will the Ministry also consider a nationwide campaign to stamp out cyberbullying in schools, because really, it is not okay to be not okay.

Mr Desmond Lee: The short answer to both is, we will study in the course of the review. For the Member's suggestions, on the first, we will also welcome members of the public, including Members of this House, if you have seen any of these sites, to also alert us, I think that will be the "all hands on deck" approach to looking after our children.

Mr Speaker: I have called on all Members who filed PQs on this matter for today and the next three days. The last member I am going to call is Mr Gerald Giam. You had filed a question for written answer yesterday, but I will allow you to ask another supplementary question.

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): Thank you, Mr Speaker. Sir, one of the most effective ways to stop bullying is through peer disapproval. How do schools encourage and empower students who are bystanders to intervene and tell the bully that what they are doing is not okay? The Minister mentioned that students are taught to be upstanders and to respond appropriately to bullying. Can this be made part of the core CCE curriculum and be introduced at a lower primary level? This will be a very important skill that they will carry into adulthood, because bullying can happen at all ages and in all environments.

Mr Desmond Lee: I thank the Member for his important point. Upstanding behaviour is not just something that our peer support leaders are trained to do. We hope our students, as a whole, will not just stand at the side, be an audience, or worse, even implicitly egg people on.

So, this is really about fomenting and formulating a positive school culture and class culture, which I mentioned earlier, that is the aim of this review, to see how we can further strengthen existing efforts to create a positive school culture, not just a kind and caring culture, but one in which people speak up and make clear what is not acceptable behaviour in their midst.

Mr Speaker: That is the end of the MOE question time, almost an hour. Mr Xie Yao Quan, next question please.