By expanding the diversity of children who attend these outdoor education programmes to beyond students who attend schools under the Ministry of Education , the National Youth Council These programmes for non-MOE school students will run alongside OBS' usual five-day expedition course for Secondary 3 students. It has temporarily been cut short to a two-day programme due to safe distancing requirements imposed to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.
The aim of piloting this new programme for children with special needs, homeschoolers, orphans and those studying in madrasahs is to enhance social mixing for these children. The pilot programme will be held on OBS' campuses at Punggol and East Coast for now. But the future Coney Island campus, which is currently being constructed and will be ready only in 2024, is designed to be accessible to wheelchair users.
While they have such aspirations, he believes that youths do want some institutions like schools and the Government to have structured ways of being inclusive, to add on to what's really happening on the ground. When asked how effective a five-day programme would be in inculcating inclusiveness among youths, Mr Chua said OBS is just a seeding point.
"So I'll be happy if the young person is not just plugging into the school system and doing things there. But he or she is also plugged to a group within the neighborhood, or into the grassroots and doing something meaningful. If they're not interested at the grassroots or neighbourhood level, we can also plug in at the national level with the Youth Corps," he added.