Though Primary 6 pupils will receive their Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) results only on Thursday, a batch of 12-year-olds had their own graduation ceremony on Saturday.
The Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC) held a graduation ceremony at Resorts World Convention Centre for 61 Primary 6 pupils from the Supervised Homework Group (SHG) programme.
SHG is a weekly volunteer-driven programme which supports upper-primary children aged 10 to 12.
Volunteers, aged between 17 and about 35, act as older brothers and sisters of the young beneficiaries and mentor them in their schoolwork as well as instil in them positive values through various activities every Saturday afternoon.
Launched in 1994, SHG supports children from beneficiary families under the CDAC Workfare Programme, which helps low-income families become self-reliant through employment.
SHG is targeted at pupils who are academically weaker in their studies, with their results below 70 per cent. Priority is given to pupils from low-income families with a gross monthly household income not exceeding $2,100 or per capita income of not more than $700. Pupils from low-income families scoring 50 marks and below for either English or mathematics or for both subjects are also given priority.
This year, the SHG programme benefited 141 pupils from 123 families and was supported by 170 volunteers.
Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs Sun Xueling, who attended the ceremony, said: "The SHG programme provides holistic help to disadvantaged families by guiding their upper primary children in schoolwork."
Ms Sun, who is also a CDAC board member, added: "This not only helps the children academically, but we also use the opportunity to instil positive values and guide our children in their character development."
Twelve-year-old Ong Jun Zhen, who has been in the SHG programme for the last three years and is graduating this year, said he would miss his mentor, secondary school teacher Melvin Tan, 37. "I think he's very good at guiding me in my studies. He also talked to me about ways to reduce stress when I was preparing for my PSLE."
