Singapore Swings and Sways
The Singapore Youth Festival (SYF), launched on 18 July 1967, was originally organized by Education Programmes Division to encourage school-going Singapore youth to develop their artistic talents. Held each year in March and April, the festival gained added significance in 1994, when then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong declared it a national event. Since 2012, its facilitation, and management have been led by the Student Development Curriculum Division of the Ministry of Education. Despite its national endorsement, the organization of the festival has not been smooth sailing. It has encountered challenges and resistance from a society driven by academic excellence and financial success, particularly in the 1970s, as a developing nation. The primary reason was many felt that devoting numerous hours to rehearsals and performances would keep the students away from their textbooks therefore affecting their grades, and jeopardizing entrance into prestigious universiti