OBS’ mission to help youth be more rugged ‘more relevant’ today: PM Lee

Today Online 30 Nov 17;

SINGAPORE — Describing how children are more sheltered and have fewer chances to “rough it out” these days, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that they can learn to be more tenacious and resourceful by going for outdoor adventures with the Outward Bound Singapore (OBS).

Speaking at the institution’s 50th anniversary celebrations on Wednesday (Nov 29), he pointed out that its mission now is “more relevant than ever”, which is to “develop mentally and physically rugged youth to be active citizens inspired to serve the community”.

When former Cabinet Minister Goh Keng Swee set up the school in 1967, he thought it would help to build ruggedness and resilience in young Singaporeans in the early days of nationhood, PM Lee recalled.

Fast forward to today and the need for such training has not waned.

“Our children are growing up in a much more developed and urbanised environment,” Mr Lee said. “There are fewer opportunities to rough it out in the outdoors, and shelter from bad weather is usually just a few steps away. Parents, teachers and schools are also more protective. When our children go ‘camping’ now, they often sleep in the school hall or the classroom, or sometimes on the Floating Platform at Marina Bay. So that sense of nature, the outdoors and adventure is not quite the same.”

While the boys will eventually do National Service, it is “much better if they are already fit, toughened and confident before they are called up”, he added. “We want all our young people — girls as well as boys, to be rugged and tenacious, adaptable and resourceful.”

To that end, the Education Ministry and the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth developed the National Outdoor Adventure Education Masterplan last year. Part of the plan is for OBS to build permanent facilities on Coney Island to take in more students.

OBS has already started some activities on the island, PM Lee said, adding that with the expanded facilities, “every schoolgirl and schoolboy will have the opportunity to go through OBS at least once in their school years”.

Recounting his own experience at the school when he was 15 and among one of the first intakes of students in 1967, Mr Lee said that “OBS was ‘rugged’ in every sense of the word”.

The British Army had been organising holiday adventure camps on Pulau Ubin since the late 1950s before the People’s Association took over. Dr Goh was the association’s deputy chairman then.

The British Army continued to run first official OBS courses and two British majors headed the operations. Many of the instructors were non-commissioned officers from the British Army recruited here, and there were other Singaporean volunteers seconded from the civil service and Vigilante Corps.

The facilities and equipment were very basic and the dormitories were “makeshift”. “We had canoes, sailing dinghies, prismatic compasses and topographic maps, some simple rope and obstacle courses, but not much else,” Mr Lee said.

Pulau Ubin was even more rural then, unlike what it is now with better amenities such as paved roads.

“My coursemates and I found OBS a challenging experience, but we also enjoyed ourselves immensely. Our course lasted 17 days, longer than most of the courses OBS now runs... (We) had to get fit, to learn new skills, to encourage one another along on exercises and adventures. We did map reading and orienteering, and often got hopelessly lost. And we went canoeing (to Coney Island) and sailing (to Pulau Seletar), through sun and rain,” Mr Lee said of that period which “had a lasting impact” on the group and him.

“We were pushed to our limits, physical and as well as psychological. We gained self-confidence, became more resilient, and learnt to work with one another as a team. I think that was what Dr Goh intended.”

Noting that these are lessons that are hard to teach in the classroom, he added: “If OBS does its work well, Singapore will always have rugged youth who embody the OBS spirit ‘to serve, to strive, and not to yield’.”


Pioneer recalls OBS early days as it celebrates 50th year of founding
Noor Farhan Channel NewsAsia 30 Nov 17;

SINGAPORE: While the Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) campus in Pulau Ubin features impressive obstacle courses these days, it was far more spartan when it began 50 years ago.

As one of the pioneering instructors at OBS during its founding days, Mr Mathias Chay has seen the campus evolve.

“My fellow instructors and I would go into the swamps and chop trees, branches and so on to build obstacles,” said Mr Chay, who is in his 70s.

They placed these so-called "agility courses" near the sea so that if trainees were to fall, they would land in the water.

"It was all built by us, made up of the natural elements found around us. I suppose it was not as sophisticated but it did the job,” said Mr Chay at the OBS 50th anniversary celebrations on Pulau Ubin on Wednesday (Nov 29).

“The quarters where the students would stay were actually labourers' quarters. They were built for the workers of the granite quarry nearby,” he added.

Mr Chay also recalled the time when sea expeditions were done using sailboats given to them by the British Army.

“It was one of those old fibreglass boats that were very rudimentary. We called them bathtubs as they were very clumsy,” he reminisced.

PULAU UBIN “LIKE A LARGE, UNKNOWN CONTINENT”

One of Mr Chay’s adventure trainees at OBS was none other than Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

“The facilities and equipment were very basic. We had canoes, sailing dinghies, prismatic compasses and topographic maps, some simple rope and obstacle courses, but not much else,” recalled PM Lee in his speech at the anniversary celebrations.

"Pulau Ubin then was even more rural than today. There were prawn ponds, granite quarries, a few kampongs, old rubber plantations, lots of mangrove swamp and a bit of a beach. To us, it seemed like a large, unknown continent,” he said.

He said that the 17 days he and his camp mates spent there had a lasting impact on him.

"Today, the mission of OBS – to develop mentally and physically rugged youths to be active citizens is more relevant than ever," Mr Lee added.

TEACHING YOUTHS RESILIENCE

Since OBS was formed in 1967, more than 500,000 Singaporeans have been through the course.

OBS instructor Melvin Lam said that current trainees are taught skills like kayaking, trekking, setting up tents and cooking in the outdoors.

“They also stay overnight in the forest. The environment we put them in puts them out of their comfort zone," he said.

Putting the trainees in an unfamiliar environment improves their endurance and resilience, said the 28-year-old, who has been instructing at OBS for a year.

It was such skills which student Haikal Chew learnt on his recent stint at OBS. His fondest memory was leading his team of 60 to kayak around Pulau Ubin.

“The most memorable was the sea expedition, where I was the sea expedition leader. (It) was tough but we made it to our destination and it was meaningful,” said the secondary three student at Woodlands Ring Secondary School.

CEO of National Youth Council David Chua said that there will be more team-based challenges in the high adventure elements of Coney Island when the expanded camp opens there around 2020.

“In the future we can look forward to new programmes not just from Coney Island but to expeditions that will be designed in the northern parts, Eastern parts and southern parts of Singapore,” he added.

At the event, PM Lee also launched the OBS50 anniversary book. It recounts the memories and experiences of former instructors and students at OBS.