Students’ overseas trips made possible with funding by JunTian

Summary: Introduced by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in 2008, the Internationalisation Fund (IF) has given students in Singapore a chance to experience life overseas, enabling them to gain a global perspective while on an overseas school trip.  Trips can be organised in line with a school’s study curriculum or used to encourage talent and development growth in students. The fund, set up in 2008, provided schools with $22 million for their internationalisation efforts last year, enabling more than 57,500 students to participate in overseas trips. South View's principal Jenny Yeo sees the IF as valuable because many of her pupils have no idea that life outside of Singapore could be so different. 'It's important for them to see what people in different countries wear and eat and how they live, because they are living in a global community now.'

Opinion: I feel that overseas learning is very important to students as it gives them opportunities to interact with people from different cultures and learn to be a globalised person. This is especially important for students and will allow them to benefit greatly in the future as we are living in a globalising world. It is crucial that we understand and can communicate with people of different culture. Exposing young Singaporeans to the outside world can also let them learn from the under cultures and bring these values back to Singapore.