River Valley Primary School
Racial Harmony Week 2007
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One of the three main thrusts of the CoNE recommendations is “Enhancing NE through Strengthening School-Community Linkages”. Hence, that thrust was the main underlying concept of our school’s Racial Harmony (RH) Celebrations this year. |
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Racial Harmony Expo |
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In River Valley Primary, we focus on one culture for Racial Harmony Week every year. And for this year, our focus was the “Peranakan” Culture. With that in mind, we decided to have an exhibition area for the Primary 3 “Peranakan” Culture NE Card Projects and a “Peranakan” Culture Art Exhibition (which was open to all levels). Besides the “Peranakan” Culture, we also decided to have exhibits on other races and cultures as well because our
We then set out to look for parents willing to ‘loan’ their ethnic clothes, books, toys, games, etc for display. And we had such an overwhelming response from our parents! With these resources, the teachers then decorated and put up the resources at the Expo. The wonderful exhibits at the Expo would not have been possible without such trust and cooperation between the teachers and the parents. |
In addition to the exhibits on the various cultures, there were two other exhibits at the Expo – firstly, an exhibit called “Racial Harmony Archives” in which the photographs of our teachers and students’ parents involved in Racial Harmony (such as weddings, house visits, etc) were displayed. The other exhibit, “Racial Harmony Reflections”, provided an opportunity for our graduating Primary 6 students to reflect and air their views on Racial Harmony. This exhibit was facilitated by our school’s NE Ambassadors. During the entire Racial Harmony Week, classes were
The Racial Harmony Expo was truly an enriching NE experience for all the stakeholders involved – the students, the teachers and the parents. |
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Racial Harmony Food Fair |
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Our teachers and parents also collaborated for the Racial Harmony Food Fair on 20 July, the actual Racial Harmony Day. Both the teachers and parents put up stalls either selling food items or providing free demonstrations and food samples. During the Food Fair, the parents also dressed up to be in ‘character’ when they were at their stalls, leaving unforgettable impressions like the Teh Tarik Man and the Kachang Puteh Lady.
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The food demonstrations at the Food Fair included the making of Onigiri Rice-Balls (Japanese), Tosai (Indian), Teh Tarik (Malay) and Kimchi (Korean). The food items being sold included Chinese Pancake, Kachang Puteh, Peranakan Kuehs, Filipino Chocolate Lolipops, Kueh Lopis, Risolle and many others. Yummy! The recess periods on 20 July was truly a memorableexperience for our students and teachers with all those mouthwatering food available!
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Commemoration of Racial Harmony Day |
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On Racial Harmony Day (20 July), our school commemorated it by reciting the Declaration on Religious Harmony.
The Declaration was led by our NE Ambassadors who dressed up in ethnic costumes on that day. Our teachers and parents also came to school dressed in ethnic costumes.
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Conclusion The experience of this year’s highly successful Racial Harmony Week Celebrations has shown all our stakeholders – students, teachers and parents – that the NE experience can be enhanced through “the strengthening of School-Community Linkages”. And between our school and our community, the possibilities are unlimited!
Submitted by Abu Naeem Bin Hairon, Subject Head / National Education & Social Studies (Internal) |
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students hail from many different countries. And it would be a waste not to ‘tap’ on these available ‘resources’. Finally, after much consideration, the following races and cultures were decided upon – the Chinese, the Malays, the Indians, the Koreans and Japanese (both combined in one exhibit) as well as the Thai and the Filipinos (also combined in one exhibit).
scheduled to visit the Racial Harmony Expo. Every student was given a worksheet to complete, in which the answers to it were found in the Expo. Students also played the games on display while looking for the answers to the worksheet.
