Spreading Cyber Wellness through Student Ambassadors

“To prevent addiction to online gaming, limit the amount of time spent using the computer and the sites that you go to,” says Ang Kai En, an 11 year old student ambassador from Rosyth School.

Together with her fellow student, Ang Wei Heng, 10, they lead the Cyber Wellness Programme in school, by preparing posters, educational games and a video on Cyber Wellness. In particular, their video focuses on online gaming, by featuring a boy who overcame his addiction.

“Be the Change”, the theme for the Cyber Wellness Student Ambassadors’ Conference 2012 held on 20 and 21 November, aims to highlight how student ambassadors can influence their peers to use social media safely and responsibly. About 450 primary school, secondary school and junior college students attended this two day event, jointly organised by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and Microsoft Singapore. A total of 1,466 student ambassadors have been trained through this programme since its launch in 2009.

Cyber Wellness STudent Ambassador Recognition (STAR) Award

At the Conference, the Cyber Wellness STudent Ambassador Recognition (STAR) Award was presented to primary school student ambassadors from Rosyth School, West View Primary School and Haig Girls’ School. The award recognises their active involvement and contribution in promoting cyber wellness among their peers.

An exhibition, featuring the works of nine finalist Primary Schools, facilitated the sharing of information and ideas amongst the pupils.

“It was a real surprise because I really didn’t expect to win after we saw what other schools had done. But when I heard our school being called, my heart was beating so fast!” says Mohamed Faraz, 11, from West View Primary School.

The school has a Cyber Warriors Programme that allows senior-junior interaction, training and support. This year, Faraz and Gareth Goh headed the programme by organising educational games, designing comics, producing e-newsletters and initiating many other activities in school.

Faraz hopes that his juniors will keep up the work and win for a third consecutive time next year.

Over at Haig Girls’ School, a cyber wellness skit was organised by its cyber wellness student ambassadors together with the school’s Drama Club. During morning assembly, they would act out a skit, written by Agarwal Jaanvi, one of the student ambassadors, to promote awareness of harmful and illegal online behaviours.

“Some students said they would ‘unfriend’ people whom they don’t know,” says student ambassador Tanya Rai, 11, from Greendale Primary, who promoted safety on social networking sites via a video screened during assembly.

With the implementation of the new Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) Syllabus in 2014, cyber wellness will be taught through the Form Teachers’ Guidance Period (FTGP) in primary schools. This is in addition to the integrated teaching of cyber wellness in Civic and Moral Education, English Language and Mother Tongue Languages where appropriate. Secondary schools will have four hours a year dedicated to cyber wellness education at each academic level.