SINGAPORE - Since the beginning of the year, some pupils at Gan Eng Seng Primary School have been eagerly taking part in Police Pal, a programme that educates them on crime prevention and police work through engaging activities.
The pilot run, which ran from January to September, was such a hit that even pupils from classes who were not involved in the programme were asking about it, said Mr K. Kannathasan, 61, an English and Mathematics teacher at Gan Eng Seng Primary School.
"As we only had some classes involved, other pupils were envious and were asking why they were not selected. Those who were involved loved it and were showing off their badges," he added.
The programme was launched by the Singapore Police Force (SPF) on Thursday (Dec 23) at the Singapore Sports Hub.
Minister of State for Home Affairs and National Development Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim was the guest of honour.
He was accompanied by Assistant Commissioner of Police Shng Yunn Chinn, director of the Community Partnership Department, and Ms Loh Wee Cheng, director of the Ministry of Education's Character and Citizenship Education (MOE CCE) Branch.
Schools can join the programme by contacting the community policing officers at the nearest Neighbourhood Police Centre. The programme is free for all to join.
Police Pal has three level booklets with different themes, where pupils have to complete different crime prevention and police-related activities before they advance to the next level. Each booklet contains 10 activities and feature Ray, SPF's mascot for children.
Level one introduces pupils to the police and what they do. The activities include colouring, drawing and completing a police papercraft.
Level two takes pupils on an adventure to learn how the police work with the community to ensure safety and security. The activities include a word search, poster designing, and a storybook for pupils to read before answering questions in the booklet.
Level three shows pupils how the police maintain law and order in Singapore. The activities include a crossword and word search.
SPF will distribute the materials to participating primary schools. These materials can be completed with the help of teachers and parents, and are designed to be completed outside of school curriculum time.
Pupils can also receive a mystery prize when they attempt at least one activity. They will also receive a level badge when they complete all activities.
Teachers will collect the completed booklets to be checked by the community policing officers. The booklets will then be returned to the schools, together with the prizes.
Police Pal was developed from the previous Young Police Buddy initiative launched by Bedok Police Division in 2019. The programme will involve 116 primary schools and 112,113 pupils.
SPF has worked with the MOE CCE Branch to ensure that Police Pal provides pupils with content that is in line with MOE CCE's syllabus. SPF will also look into improving the activities every few years, and exploring a digital version of Police Pal to sustain the pupils' interest.
Mr Daniel Ng Jun Wei, 33, an English and Mathematics teacher at Greenwood Primary School, said: "Our students enjoy this programme. This has been a good introduction to what the SPF is doing, and we have been weaving it into our CCE curriculum as well.
"In fact, this is a good partnership as it is aligned with the CCE curriculum, and it also develops students to have good character and to cultivate active citizenship.
"It is important to educate students when they are still young. An upstream education helps students because when they are older and make mistakes, they cannot fall back on the excuse that they do not know the consequences."
