Chan Chun Sing

Chan Chun Sing (born 9 October 1969) is a Singaporean politician and former major-general who has been serving as Minister for Education since 2021 and Minister-in-charge of Public Service since 2018.

A recipient of the President's Scholarship and Singapore Armed Forces Overseas Scholarship, Chan started his career in the Singapore Army under the Singapore Armed Forces in 1987 and held various staff and command positions, and attained the rank Major-General.

Being one of the four top scorers from Raffles Junior College in the A-Level examination in 1987, Chan was awarded the President's Scholarship and Singapore Armed Forces Overseas Scholarship in 1988.

He graduated from Christ's College, Cambridge with a first class degree in economics.

Chan enlisted into the Singapore Army in 1987, and attained the rank Major-General before entering politics in 2011.

He has held several appointments and this include: Commanding Officer, 2nd Battalion, Singapore Infantry Regiment between 1998 and 2000; Army Attaché in Jakarta between 2001 and 2003; Commander, 10th Singapore Infantry Brigade between 2003 and 2004; Head, Joint Plans and Transformation Department between 2005 and 2007; Commander, 9th Division and Chief Infantry Officer between 2007 and 2009; and Chief of Staff – Joint Staff between 2009 and 2010.

Chan excelled as a student at the United States Army Command and General Staff College in 1998, and was the first foreign student to be conferred the Distinguished Master Strategist Award in the same year.

He was subsequently awarded the Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship to pursue a Master of Business Administration degree under the Sloan Fellows programme at the MIT Sloan School of Management, which he completed in 2005.

He served as Chief of Army between 2010 and 2011.

On 26 March 2010, Chan was appointed Chief of Army.

A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Buona Vista division of Tanjong Pagar GRC since 2011.

He left the Singapore Armed Forces to contest in the 2011 general election.

During the 2011 general election, he contested as part of a five-member PAP team in Tanjong Pagar GRC and won, he was elected as a Member of Parliament.

He stepped down from his post and left the Singapore Armed Forces on 25 March 2011 in order to contest in the 2011 general election.

Chan made his political debut in the 2011 general election as part of the five-member People's Action Party (PAP) team led by Lee Kuan Yew contesting in Tanjong Pagar GRC.

He represented the Buona Vista ward, which was previously held by Lim Swee Say.

The PAP team won by an uncontested walkover as none of the opposition parties contested Tanjong Pagar GRC.

During the election campaign, Chan used the Hokkien phrase "kee chiu" ("hands up") at a rally to engage the crowd, and the term became a nickname for him.

Following the 2011 general election, Chan was appointed Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, and Minister of State for Communications and the Arts.

Chan, then 42, was one of the youngest ministers to be appointed to the Cabinet.

On 31 July 2012, Chan relinquished his portfolio in the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts and was appointed Senior Minister of State for Defence.

Following a restructuring of government ministries in November 2012, he began heading the newly created Ministry of Social and Family Development as Acting Minister.

He was promoted to full Minister in September 2013, and concurrently served as Second Minister for Defence.

Chan has announced three key priorities for his Ministry in the Committee of Supply debate 2014.

These priorities are: (i) to maintain the currency and adequacy of Singapore's social support policies, (ii) to deliver integrated social services and (iii) to develop manpower for the social service sector.

Chan launched the first of 23 Social Service Offices to bring social assistance touch points closer to the populace.

He also served as the party whip between 2015 and 2019.

Chan grew up in a single-parent household.

His mother, Kwong Kait Fong, was a machine operator and he has a sister, Chan Siew Yin.

He lived in a three-room HDB flat in MacPherson with his mother, grandparents, aunt and sister until he was 30 years old.

Chan is married with a daughter and two sons.

He is fluent in three of the four official languages of Singapore namely English, Mandarin and Malay, in addition to his native ethnic Chinese dialect of Cantonese.

He is also a fan of Everton F.C.

Chan attended Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College.

On 23 January 2015, Chan joined the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) on a part-time basis; He was appointed as NTUC's deputy secretary-general on 27 January 2015 and joined NTUC full-time from April 2015.

On 1 October 2015, following the 2015 general election, Chan was appointed Deputy Chairman of the People's Association, a role which he held till 2021 before relinquishing it to Edwin Tong.

In the same year, Chan was put in charge of leading the PAP team in Tanjong Pagar GRC after Lee Kuan Yew died in March 2015.

Before becoming the Minister of Education, he served as Minister for Trade and Industry from 2018 to 2021, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office between 2015 and 2018, Senior Minister of State for Defence between 2012 and 2013, Minister for Social and Family Development between 2012 and 2015, and Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts between 2011 and 2012.

On 23 November 2018, Chan succeeded Tharman Shanmugaratnam as the PAP's Second Assistant Secretary-General (alongside Heng Swee Keat).

In the lead-up to the 2020 general election, Chan was widely seen as one of the three leading candidates (alongside Heng and Ong Ye Kung) to succeed Lee Hsien Loong as Prime Minister of Singapore.