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SINGAPORE : Singapore's new School of the Arts starts operations from its interim campus in the new year, and teachers have been busy attending workshops on topics like student assessment and curriculum planning.
And on hand to share his expertise is Professor Steve Seidel, a visiting professor from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Professor Seidel says the teachers are establishing themes called macro questions, which will unite the curriculum across all academic and art areas.
In the first two years, students at the School of the Arts will take courses in dance, music, theatre and visual arts. From year three onwards, they will specialise in one field.
Professor Seidel, Chairman of Arts in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, says: "They are trying to understand how to create a six-year programme - from 13 to 18 years old - that helps young people become accomplished in each of the art forms over that time.
"I don't think anything concrete has been set. But they are really doing a wonderful job at establishing a plan for the school for six years."
The school's opening in Singapore is significant because art education is widely perceived as a niche.
The School of the Arts is getting support from the government's education and arts ministries and Professor Seidel says such support is important.
In fact, S$16 million has been budgeted for areas like curriculum planning.
In comparison, Professor Seidel says art schools in the US do not enjoy such good support.
"The arts have a fairly low status in the education system. At the same time, the arts are revered and clearly essential to our creative economy," says Professor Seidel.
The school's new campus along Bras Bash Road, which costs more than S$100 million, will open for operations in 2009.
Its pioneer batch of students will attend classes at the interim campus at Goodman Road in the East Coast area in the new year. - CNA /ls
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