尊敬的副总理兼经济政策统筹部长王瑞杰先生
福建会馆监理会以及理事会同仁
各位校长、老师、
女士们、先生们
大家晚上好！

首先，我谨代表新加坡福建会馆全体同仁，热烈欢迎副总理兼经济政策统筹部长王瑞杰先生，出席今晚的教师节慰劳晚宴暨飞跃教师奖颁奖典礼。副总理今晚本来已经有一场活动，却做出特别安排，专门来为飞跃教师奖颁奖，凸显了副总理对老师们的尊重，以及对福建会馆的支持，对此我们深表感谢！

福建会馆在推广教育方面一向义不容辞，多年来对教育的重视和资助广为人知。会馆一直资助六所属校的运作，同时也有课外教育中心、幼儿园以及课后托管服务等等，我们附属机构的教职员，今晚也都来参加晚宴。在此，我代表会馆，感谢大家多年来的贡献，老师们在福建会馆教导多年，为本地的母语教育和学生的健康成长，做出了不可磨灭的贡献。

“教师是人类灵魂的工程师”，各位“工程师”，各位老师，大家辛苦了，希望大家会喜欢今晚的节目，祝大家有个美好的夜晚。接下来，我用英语发言。

Guest-of-Honour, Deputy Prime Minister & Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies, Mr Heng Swee Keat,
Principals, teachers, ladies and gentlemen, a very good evening!

First of all, on behalf of Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan, a very warm welcome to one and all. We are truly happy and grateful that all of you can join us tonight at the Teachers’ Day Appreciation Dinner and LEAP Award Presentation Ceremony.

Tonight, we will be presenting the 12th LEAP Award to 12 outstanding teachers. They are carefully shortlisted from a total of 222 nominations received from 145 schools this year.

Out of the 12 awarded schools, five schools saw their first ever LEAP Award, namely, Presbyterian High School, Raffles Girls Primary School, Waterway Primary School, Zhenghua Secondary School and Zhonghua Secondary School. This is also the 5 schools’ first participation in the LEAP Award 可说是第一次参赛就得奖 – we thank you for your support and hope that more schools will join us in commending your teachers in the future.

I would also like to thank our esteemed panel of judges – Dr William Wan, Mr Ong Kian Choon, Dr Lim Seok Lai, Ms Wendy Yang, as well as Huay Kuan Education Committee Chair and Vice-Chair, Mr Anthony Tan, Mr Ong Chuon Yi and Mr Jimmy Teo – for your efforts in shortlisting the LEAP Award recipients.

Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan has always been at the forefront in supporting education and we recognise the significant roles teachers play in this endeavour. Tonight, being here celebrating Teachers Day with all of you, seeing everyone having such a great time, I am again reminded that happy teachers produce happy students; healthy teachers produce healthy students. So, teachers, stay happy, stay healthy! We hope that all of you will have a wonderful evening, and bring back many happy memories.

Until next year, a very Happy Teachers’ Day! 祝大家教师节快乐！谢谢！