SINGAPORE - More than 350 retired educators and administrative staff, and their guests, will be attending on Friday the first of a series of tea sessions for pioneers, in conjunction with Teachers' Day celebrations.

Organised by the Ministry of Education (MOE), the tea sessions will be held every Friday this month and the next, as part of the year-long celebrations to honour pioneer educators. Each session will be from 2 to 5pm at the MOE Heritage Centre in Commonwealth.

In a short address at the event on Friday, Education Minister Heng Swee Keat thanked the pioneer educators for helping to lay a "solid foundation" for Singapore's education system.

He commended them for their determination, adding that teaching in the early years was different. There were "very little resources," he said, and "teachers were not well-paid, the classrooms were small, we all had standardised buildings".

"When you look at the history of our education system, there is so much that we can be proud of," he said. "Your hard work, as well as your heart for our children, enabled us to make great progress."