WHAT IS MOOT PARLIAMENT PROGRAMME?
The Moot Parliament Programme is a year-long programme organised by the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with expert-mentor volunteeers, trainers, evaluators and law students from NUS and SMU. The programmes aims to educate upper secondary Gifted Education/Integrated Programme pupils on the Singapore model of democratic government and parliament as a legislative institution, and to enhance their interest in parliamentary debates and legislation through developing their awareness of the democratic parliamentary process in action.
| The project aims to instil a sense of ownership and ‘rootedness’ to Singapore amongst highly able teenagers through experiential learning, which takes the form of researching social and community issues, drafting legislation, and role-playing active leadership in moot parliament – all with the guidance of expert and student mentors.
Recent events that has been undertaken:
Events to come:
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WHAT TO EXPECT?
| “I have learnt to be more empathetic towards the underprivileged individuals in our community. Through our research and interaction with them – their problems are no longer case studies on a textbook but rather, real life difficulties that many face on a daily basis. This has taught me to understand how privileged I am, and also to constantly question how I am able to offer help and support to the underprivileged in my community.” – Laura, Secondary 3 MPP 2015/16 Participant from Raffles Girls’ School
At the end of our last debate training, the nature of our conversation with the girls took a different turn at the end. The girls confided in us informally about the stress and pains they were going through in their lives. I personally felt that some of what they were going through was “not right”, but this was not something I could change for them, and all I could do was listen to them as a friend and encourage them to press on.In our interactions with these girls, I saw how there are many things in the world that are “not right”, and how most of these things cannot be made “right” instantly or at the same time. What I did see, however, was how the little we did, both as mentors and students, were a start. And for most things that are “not right” in this world, a start is what we sorely need. The girls eventually won best speaker and champion debate team.”– Daniel Foo (Y2), mentor and current head of MPP |
Time Period and Commitment: Students mentors must commit to a time period from October to August. Key events within this time period include the introductory lecture, structured mentor-mentee meetings, and the eventual debates themselves, outside of which student mentors can meet and mentor their teams at their own discretion.
