SINGAPORE : More is being done to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds level up with their peers. Education Minister Heng Swee Keat said this will be addressed when he presents his ministry's plans in Parliament in the coming weeks. He was speaking to reporters after a visit to Kheng Cheng School on Friday. During his visit, Mr Heng had breakfast with students on the School Breakfast Programme. Under the scheme, students from low-income families get vouchers for food, so they won't have to start the day on an empty stomach. Mr Heng said he visited the school to find out how schools like Kheng Cheng are supporting students who fall behind. He sat in on a learning support class aimed at helping Primary One students who cannot quite keep up with Mathematics and English. The Learning Support Programme is a national early intervention programme for Primary One and Primary Two pupils. Students in the programme are supported for half an hour daily by specially-trained teach! ers. It is part of a nationwide early intervention programme, and Mr Heng said such schemes are constantly assessed to make sure the pedagogy is right. He said: "The more we understand how teaching and learning can be done more effectively, the better our pupils will learn. A lot of this is not just about technical learning, a lot of it is about socio-emotional learning. When the child is motivated, he learns a lot better." The school's principal, Mrs Lay See Neufeld, said the school's approach is to
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