Cynthia Phua
Singapore
“Sir, I am very glad that the Minister has elaborated on the diversification of our food sources. On the ground, our senior citizens are saying that the 10-cent increase in a cup of coffee is affecting their daily needs.”
“Where are the weak links that should be tightened? How does his Ministry intend to tackle the problem and whether it is engaging in any dialogue with different concerned groups in the community, for example, VWOs?”
“Mr Chairman, the Minister mentioned about the cross-agency effort on youth. He mentioned three Ministries – MOE, MHA and MCYS. I would like to ask for one more, ie, MINDEF, because for male youths, if they are delinquents, they would have left school and be enlisted earlier, and they could get help from MINDEF.”
“Many parents are working when the children are in secondary school. As a result, teenage students are left at home in the afternoon without proper guidance.”
“In the community, we came across many new cases where family could not manage to persuade the patient to have early treatment, resulting in nuisances being caused to the neighbourhood and the patient himself who suffers the mental illness.”
“What has been the outcome pertaining to our ongoing efforts to bring back our Singaporean medical students and some of the young doctors working overseas? What are the Minister's views on the newly introduced scholarship for medical students studying overseas?”
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Every one of 639 lines we hold for Cynthia Phua, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 13 of 13.
“Mr Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on the motion. I will go straight to the three areas of my concern and I will make it short as all the points have been said, and well said. Point one concerns the potential of the module-based JC curriculum for the lower and upper secondary education system. I commend the Committee led by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister of State for Education, for the introduction of the module-based system for the provision of breadth and depth of the subject contents of the JC curriculum. It provides diversity and yet allows depth of knowledge. I was so excited when I read this section of the report as I see the potential. I would like to urge that the module-based system be implemented on a wider basis, from the lower secondary, and not only at the JC level. With this implementation, the flexibility of the module-based system, we should try to do away with the streaming of children at the secondary level. Yes, I was concerned recently of the ills of streaming and banding of the secondary school children. I was at a secondary school prize presentation ceremony. When you put the children together, you will note the difference of the children's mannerism, eg, the sounds of the children's footsteps coming forward to receive the school awards becoming softer and softer, from the Express student, to the Normal (Academic), to the Normal (Technical) stream of students. This difference in boldness, and in confidence, was highlighted by some of the teachers and parents after the ceremony, which confirmed my observation.”
“In view of the many issues that have been brought up recently and the many problems that the MCST strata title properties are facing, would the Minister consider a more active and shorter review period, resulting in an earlier completion of the review? Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee: Mr Speaker, Sir, yes, that is the intention. PUDONG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AS AVIATION HUB (Impact on Singapore Changi Airport) 7. Mdm Ho Geok Choo asked the Minister for Transport in view of Shanghai promoting Pudong International Airport as an aviation hub in the Asia Pacific region from 27th October 2002, (a) what will be the impact on Singapore Changi Airport (SCA) which has consecutively been voted as the best Airport in the world by Business Travellers (Asia Pacific) in the last 11 years; and (b) what measures can SCA take to address the challenges so that it will continue to be competitive and maintain its number one position.”
“Would the Senior Parliamentary Secretary give the likely date when the review could be completed? Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee: The review is in the active phase now. We conducted the first dialogue with the stakeholders on 13th November 2002. We intend to collate some of their views and we will go to the public again for a second dialogue sometime before April 2003. We intend to wrap up the whole exercise and come to Parliament sometime end of next year.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to appeal to the Ministry to evaluate these special cases individually. The HDB would be able to set relevant criteria for the evaluation of the eligibility for this concessionary rate loan to ensure that when these families move laterally or downgrade, they are truly in financial difficulties and, in these circumstances, truly eligible for the subsidised loan. One possibility to prevent abuse of the flexibility of consideration by HDB for this second concessionary loan is to cap the quantum for the second concessionary loan, possibly in relation to the previous outstanding loan amount of the previous flat. This action will definitely encourage the fundamental objective of responsible and prudent home-ownership amongst Singaporeans. The second area of concern is that although the proposed amendments will enhance the home-ownership scheme to remain relevant and injecting greater flexibility into the public housing market, I would suggest that MND and HDB do consider certain guidelines to preserve the residential nature of the housing estates, especially so in a high density and close proximity of a block of flats. We should not turn the residential blocks into hostels, especially for foreign workers and foreign students. MND and HDB must retain the final authority to cancel or reject subletting permission, especially so when nuisance and complaints are being made from neighbours. 4.15 pm”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise to appeal to the Ministry of National Development, in view of the amendment Bill, to consider, in this time of slow economic recovery, when many Singaporeans are still facing difficulties in finding employment and many families are stretching on their savings, allowing for a second concessionary rate HDB loan for families who move laterally and downgrade their flats to a smaller flat due to forced circumstances, such as retrenchments, business failures, critical illnesses, death of breadwinners, divorce separations, imprisonment and family support. If these affected families are not able to enjoy this second concessionary loan rate from HDB, they will forever be in the financial web and stuck in this difficult financial position even if they downgrade. In general, these people downgrade to lessen their financial difficulty. As stated earlier by Mr Mah Bow Tan on bank origination of HDB bank rate loans in Parliament on 23rd July, concessionary loans are a key instrument to promote home-ownership. In such dire circumstances, if these families are not able to get the concessionary rate loans, they would even lose their ability to own a flat. Since we cannot tell banks not to foreclose for hardship cases, we should encourage these families to take responsibility and be more dependent on themselves. We should applaud their decisive choice. This is in line with Government's encouragement of prudence and responsibility in housing purchase. Secondly, most of the people in this group may be from the lower income. This would also cause another major problem as they may not qualify for the banks' strict income criteria assessment. So if they do not qualify, where can they turn to?”
“We would like the relevant authorities to consider the interest of the community and its impact on the community when they decide to shift such developments in the neighbourhood centres. Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: Is that a question?”
“They shifted the bus terminal which has also an impact on the community around it. So I ---”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to all relevant authorities, especially statutory boards and LTA, that when they want to vacate such large developments or shift bus stops, they should consider the impact of such action on the community. Like in this case itself, HDB has two or three blocks and the impact on the shopkeepers in the community is really very serious. In my case, they shifted a bus stop ---”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, looking at the Annual Report 2001, there is this cost of interest expense which constitutes about 42% of the operating expenditure. Could we know what is this interest expense?”
“Sir, can the Minister of State consider working with the Ministry of National Development, in terms of letting out void deck shops to vendors, who could be restricted from selling cigarettes, because a lot of void deck shops are very near to the secondary schools?”
“Sir, the Minister has clarified. I would like to thank the Minister for agreeing to handle the exceptions.”
“The Senior Parliamentary Secretary stated that it is the owner's responsibility to maintain and repair spalling concrete. But spalling concrete always happens at the slab that is between two flat units. And the leakage of the moisture is always from the upper unit going down to the slab and into the lower unit itself. In such a case, it is difficult for the owner of the lower flat to maintain that slab that is affecting the owner below. So would the Ministry consider helping the owner in the repair of spalling concrete? I would like to appeal to the Ministry to seriously look into this under the IUP. Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee: Mr Speaker, Sir, if the spalling concrete is a symptom of a ceiling leak between the upper and the lower households, then the HDB will take a look at it and give advice accordingly. If it is a case of pure spalling concrete, then it is simple to repair, because the owner has absolute control over his ceiling. He does not need to interfere with the neighbour upstairs. If it is a case of a ceiling leakage, ie, water seeping through the toilet, then it needs the cooperation of two parties - the upper floor neighbour and the lower floor neighbour. The law is quite clear that both parties must share the responsibility. Sometimes, both parties cannot come to an agreement, either because of the timing or the nature of the repair, in which case HDB will step in and be the expert counsel.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like the Senior Parliamentary Secretary to give us some statistics to show that spalling concrete only happens in the older flats and not the newer flats, especially in 1987, when there was a change in the grade of concrete. Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee: Mr Speaker, Sir, we have done some studies on the correlation between the age of a building and the instances of spalling concrete defects per thousand flats. For flats built before 1983, flats which are about 18 years old, the number of spalling concrete defects is 39.3 per thousand households. For flats built between 1983-1986, the number of defects is 25.9 per thousand households. For flats built between 1987-1990, the number of defects is very low, ie, 1.8 per thousand households because they are very young. And for very new flats built between 1991-2002, the defects of course is miniscule, 1.5 incidents per thousand households. So Members can see that the correlation is very simple. When the flats are young, there are few problems. When they are old, there are lots of problems.”
“75,000 households benefited from that goodwill repair and it cost the Government $30 million - big money in those days. Then in 1995 to 1998, HDB conducted another goodwill repair scheme for something like 27,000 households. So with these two goodwill repair schemes completed, HDB feels that there are very few spalling concrete defects left in the flats. Those that come on-stream now would be taken care of during the MUP programme.”
“I would like a clarification from the Senior Parliamentary Secretary. Currently, for flats that are above 20 years old, ie, those built in the early 1980s, there are about 450,000 flats, and there was a scheme of three years, and only about 2%, ie, 17,000 flats were given assistance. In 1987, there was a change in the quality of concrete, from 20 to 30. And because of that, we notice that there is a difference in the degree of spalling concrete in the newer flats, but not in the older flats. So, I would like to appeal to the Ministry to consider helping those flats that are above 20 years old in the IUP or the MUP. Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee: Mr Speaker, Sir, first of all, under the MUP programme, HDB repairs spalling concrete defects on a goodwill basis, for the simple reason that these flats would be very old. In order to qualify for MUP, the flats would be way above 10 years old. Spalling concrete is a problem of an aging process. Flats need maintenance. As flats age, problems set in. So spalling concrete is a maintenance problem. It is not a design or workmanship problem. New flats have fewer problems. That is the reason why the Member pointed out that flats built after 1990s, for example, have fewer problems because they are young. When we are young, we have no problems. We have no arthritis, or rheumatism. As we grow older, problems set in. So we will see a specialist or a doctor. It is not true that flats built in the early 80s have a high incidence of spalling concrete. They have high incidence because they are older. You ask any doctor, he will say that older patients have more problems. HDB conducted two goodwill repairs over two periods. In 1988, HDB conducted a goodwill repair, and repaired flats with spalling concrete defects.”
“We could also identify the community facilities and have a central booking system where the regional sports office could manage so that all organisations in the community could fully maximise the use of these facilities. There is also a lack of sports facilitators and coordinators. The teachers are doubling up these roles in schools. Some do not even know the sports they are coordinating. Let me quote my personal experience. In view of the shortage of teacher coordinators, a teacher coordinator asked a Primary 3 student to learn from a page of 30-40 questions and then take a 10-question test paper in order to be eligible to become a student scout. The answers given by the student must be perfect, with the capital letters in place. MCDS could support these schools with trainers, coaches or sports volunteers who know the games. We should expand the concept of volunteers into the sports arena. MCDS has done a great job for volunteers in social and community work itself. We should extend this to the sports arena. I thereby urge the adoption of an Inter-Ministry approach to provide for an integrated approach to sports for everyone and excellence, especially to the school children and to lay the foundation for excellence.”
“Sir, one of the pillars for the vision of a sporting Singapore is "Sports for Everyone". Statistics have shown that adults who take up sports start when they are young. To achieve this vision, we must put in resources to get our children active when they are in school. Presently, there is this stark missing link. We are not reaching out to the young in the schools. I would like to propose the setting up of an Inter-Ministry Committee for sports for everyone and excellence for our school children by the Education Ministry and the MCDS. There is a nice fit. MCDS has the vision, the expertise and the funding, especially the facilities, but MOE has the students, that is MCDS' target customers. Without working closely with the caregivers of the students, the principals and the teachers, MCDS would not be able to reach the students to encourage an active sports lifestyle. There is a lack of sporting facilities in schools. Schools have limited spaces so they would only pick the few sports which they have the facilities. In my daughter's school I observe they play soft tennis in the school hall, about 30-40 students at one time, congested with a long waiting queue to just hit the ball. Within one hour, the poor kid is only able to hit about three rounds of three balls each. They cannot even enjoy the game, the sun and the feeling of perspiration. So how do we achieve sports excellence? We should tap on the community facilities among the schools. For example, the CCs could bring in the regional sports and fitness facilities nearer to the community so that students could tap on these facilities with less transportation problems.”
“Sir, can I make a point of clarification? The FSC has the undertone of the VWOs. For example, the rich Family Service Centre in Bishan is a Christian organisation. I know that some families do not want to go there. That is the reason why I asked for the CDC to be the front-line office for such family service support centres and, at the same time, they can also handle the financial assistance cases. Assoc. Prof. Yaacob Ibrahim: Sir, I do not necessarily disagree with the Member that the CDC can play that value-added role. In terms of FSCs where there are such barriers, it is better for us to work with the FSCs to lower those barriers so that people of different faiths or different races will feel comfortable. In fact, our experiences have shown that in some other FSCs, such as the Marine Parade FSC, the number of Malay clients there has been increasing in the last few years. There are ways in which we can lower the barriers to make FSCs more effective, in terms of reaching out to a wider clientele. Certainly, if the CDCs are prepared to take that role, I am sure we could work together with the CDCs, so that they could play the role of a front-line office. I think this is best left to the Mayors to consider.”
“These centres should also have a 24-hour telephone counselling service, trained to listen first and counsel later. Presently, there are too many telephone numbers for people to remember when they are in trouble, and these are not reaching the ground. These centres could also work closely with schools within the constituency. The CDCs are well placed to provide these support centres. However, Mayors have told me that they do not have enough finances. Presently, there are only 12 CDC service centres, which are too little, ie, one centre for about 300,000 people. Therefore, I urge the Ministry to support this one-stop support centre, which will help Singaporeans cope with all these problems derived from dysfunctional families as well as normal families in this economic downturn. As the saying goes, you shall reap what you sow. And I would like to support my argument one more time that, Sir, even our court is adopting this one-stop approach in handling family cases now.”
“Sir, we are living in a fast-paced society, from third world to first world's living standards in one generation. Now, with the economic downturn, families are subject to a lot of pressure at all times. Some of the problems are stress-related, like job losses, retrenchments, relationship problems, harassment, especially now from creditors and relatives, divorces, separations, family difficulties, grief, bereavement, problems with addictions such as alcohol,, smoking or other drugs, gambling, unwanted pregnancies and other personal worries or life stresses, and so forth. Two statistics reflect some of the problems of our families. The number of juvenile delinquents is high (31 per 100,000 children). The number of persons divorced or separated, as what Dr Maliki has said, within the 10 years, increases from 1.3% in 1990 to 2.5% in 2000, that is, double. Most of these problems are found in dysfunctional families and normal healthy families too. With the smaller families, family support is much reduced. Some of these problems must be solved as quickly as possible. I would like to propose a one-stop support centre in every constituency. The Ministry of Community Development and Sports should make residents aware of such centres, so that they are accessible to them. We should educate the people that these are the centres that they can go to for help in times of need, especially now with the economic downturn, coupled with massive job losses. I propose that trained and professional counsellors be allocated to each constituency centre too. Retrenched workers can also be trained to assist the counsellors and run the day-to-day operations of these centres. This creates job openings for retrenched workers too.”
“We should have a supervised student care programme for our students. It could be on a cluster basis, a support for the children, as well as the parents. I would like to urge the Ministry to give more support to our primary and secondary students in view of the fast and intense pace of our education system. As the British Home Secretary, David Blunkett, was recently succinctly quoted as saying in a Straits Times article titled "Criminals. Spot them at age 3", "Instead of trying to pick up the pieces when things go wrong, it makes a lot more sense to invest resources in prevention."”
“Sir, in this House, we recognise that in Asian families, man is still responsible for the household. Hence, woman is denied the medical fees for her children. Similarly, we are talking about Asian families. Most parents would not come forward to seek help for themselves and their children unless the situation is very serious. We would like to urge the Ministry to look into preventive measures to spot high-risk students at a young age and given the resources, to closely guide them through the crucial years of ages 10-15. We need to help these children before they are irrevocably sucked into a life-time of problems, and even crimes. I would like to propose three recommendations: (1) A preventive screening of children at age 9. This is at the age when children are able to understand and be aware of the situation at home and in school. They would also have not lost their innocence in telling the truth or become too conscious of their family circumstances. (2) Have qualified full-time counsellors in the schools. We understand from the Senior Minister of State, Mr Tharman, in his reply speech to Mr Gan Kim Yong's questions, that there are two trained teachers in counselling. I would still like to urge for full-time qualified counsellors in the schools. Counselling needs a lot of time and intervention, especially in seeking family support for these high-risk children, and requires a lot of effort and visitation. Besides counselling, I am also advocating for these high-risk children to have supervised care. In most of these functional families, the parents are caught within their problems, and they have no time to support their children. The children, unable to defend themselves, would usually suffer in silence until they find their own form of outlets.”
“Why not have the time to nurture these students, as I understand that there is currently a software that could even predict a child's performance, based on PSLE scores? Why not give the children the opportunity to perform better in the schools, as their confidence will not be shattered?”
“Most schools serve different levels of students. We are ranking the schools with different fundamentals, eg, comparing Fuji apples with Australian apples. Both are still apples from the external look, but the taste and crunchiness are very different. Most schools would want to become the top 20 schools to attract the top students of the cohort. It is a cycle. The schools which want to be ranked high to attract high-calibre students would have to perform well in the assessment statistics. For most of the schools, the excuse is that the students would perform better in the Normal stream if they have students who fill the Express stream, but the school does not have a class.”
“How many students, after being shot at the body, face and heart, would be able to swim well in the upper stream, which requires a faster pace and energy? I chose the face as "mien zi" and the heart as confidence. At the age of 10-15, face and confidence are very important to them. I sincerely believe that if the children are motivated with confidence and pride, they would be able to do well. Why are our principals so concerned and keen to put the child in the lower stream? Is it the ranking of schools or the actual belief that the child will be better off in the lower stream and could perform better? My next topic is on ranking of good performing schools. I sincerely appeal to the Ministry to remove the ranking of good performing schools. What is the purpose of ranking? To motivate the schools to perform better? Let us take two schools, RI and a neighbourhood school, eg, First Toa Payoh Secondary School. The assumption is that we use the RI infrastructure - creative and flexible course content, the support finances and the best-qualified teachers available. Can First Toa Payoh Secondary School be able to be RI, if it accepts students from the top 1% of the PSLE cohort with a score of at least 260 points and above? Yes. I believe most of us would agree that First Toa Payoh Secondary School would rank among the top schools without much effort. Would RI then become First Toa Payoh Secondary School, a neighbourhood school, if they accept students at 180 PSLE scores and above? RI may not be First Toa Payoh Secondary School but would move higher in the ranking, say, perhaps to that of Sin Ming Secondary School, which is a better performing neighbourhood school. This is in view of our basic assumption of using RI's support infrastructure.”
“Sir, I support the principle of streaming in schools, ie, allowing children to study at their own pace and capabilities. However, I would like to appeal to the Ministry to look at the parents' concern. Streaming is not only at Primary 4. I see streaming is done at every year of study. At Primary 5, if a student does not do well, he will have to slide down to EM2 or EM3. This is similarly done in Secondary 1, Secondary 2 and Secondary 3. If the students do not do well, they slide down to the Normal stream. Why do we need to do streaming each year? I would like to propose to do away with streaming at each year as, in the present system, the students are already streamed and their capability of study at certain intervals, after Primary 6 and at Secondary 4. The two stages at Primary 4 and Secondary 2 should just be subject combinations based on the language capability and interest of each child. Remove the threat that goes with each student the possibility of sliding down to the lower stream at each year. We should allow a more flexible stream, give more space and time for the children and the parents in between the years, ie, before the major examinations of PSLE and GCE 'O' Level, to explore and have fun in their studies. I have included the parents, as I know most parents are studying alongside with their children in Singapore. I did another Primary 6 three years ago. The rush by parents to apply for annual leave before each examination is a common phenomenon. I used to have female colleagues coming to apply for leave, but now we see increasingly more male colleagues coming forward to apply too - a good sign for the ladies in terms of joint parenting. The argument is always that the students are allowed to jump into the upper stream if they do well.”
“The power of play and learn among the siblings cannot be under-estimated within a family. I would like to urge the Government to re-broach the issue of encouraging more children through sibling support, as the joy and benefits of the older children who gain from the experience are much more beneficial and long lasting. As this is a Budget debate, I would like also to take this opportunity to urge for more direct incentives for the children, to help families with young children and working mothers, ie, increase the amount for the second and third childcare subsidies and adding the before-and-after-school care subsidy. I too would like to support Mdm Halimah's call for review of medical benefits for the children of women civil servants. This would definitely help in the course of bringing up the children. To end, I would like again to urge the Government agencies and Ministries to think out-of-the-box to review and realign the resources to provide closer and direct assistance support services to our families at the local community in this period of change. Sir, I support the Budget.”
“This is similarly done by most forward-looking companies for their employees, so as to make them more efficient and able to meet the demands of the future. From the meet-the-people sessions and house-to-house visits, we could identify two main unemployed groups of above 40s - the professionals and executives as one group, and women who are formerly working in the factories as the other group. The GST package would not be able to help these groups if they cannot find alternative employment. With a clear and identified career charted out and a planned and identified programme for training for these distinct groups, effective changes and results can then be achieved. I urge for more focus on the success rate of the matching services rather than the front-end application of job-matching services by our various Government agencies. My third issue. Ms Indranee has spoken of the encouragement of procreation. The rate of 1.4 is below the replacement rate, the lowest in history, and knowing the seriousness and impact this has on our economy in time to come, I would like to encourage and convince the third group, that is, married couples who have the first child and decided to stop at one or two, to have more children. I would like to share my personal experience. I was very concerned of two things at that time - commitment and expenses. However, I was wrong. I really enjoyed motherhood with this third child that I have. Although I have less time with him, his two other elder siblings keep him occupied and entertained and actively help me to bring up their little brother. He is a most cheerful boy, always smiling, and is most alert as he would disappear when his elder siblings have a situation with me.”
“We have social services provided by the CDCs and various VWOs, through the Family Service Centres (FSCs), the Senior Activity Centres (SACs) and now, I understand, that there are the Neighbourhood-linked Centres. I just realise the existence of these Neighbourhood-linked Centres when I wanted to set up a Senior Activity Centre. Very confusing indeed! This is exactly what happened at the local community level. When one family is in need of help, whether it is a child who needs counselling or getting home-based services to bring the handicapped or the sick regularly for medical services, or seeking for financial assistance and advice, the family must know which "C", or centre, to go for assistance. I am urging the Government to consider and allocate additional resources for an integrated centre for the provision of social and community services to our families at the local community. There is a need for a one-stop service centre for families. My second concern. Many of my colleagues have spoken on this issue of unemployment and job-matching services. The rate of successful job-matching is dismally low for the above-40s, as highlighted by Dr Lee yesterday. It is half the success rate of that of the younger unemployed, which is at 8%. I urge a budget be allocated not just for simple job-matching services but bold and innovative measures for job-matching agencies, such as NTUC, MOM, CDCs, to have a collaborative joint effort with employers' associations, unions and career development and training professionals to help chart the career path for targeted groups of the unemployed. This is to enable them to acquire the required skill sets that will make them employable.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me this opportunity to join in the debate. In Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance's Budget Statement, he painted the scenario of a harsh and turbulent world that Singapore is in now. I would not dwell on the fiscal measures of the Budget but would like to urge the Government to review its impact on the human and social capital. I would address three concerns of the Budget and highlight one observation. For those who are in the 40s, we are the baby boomers of the 50s. This is the significant age mentioned in the recent debate on the CPF rates. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight to the Economic Review Sub-committee, tasked to make a review of the CPF rates, to take into consideration that at this age group of 40, we have the old and the young with us [you lao, you shao]. Our expenses are the heaviest at this age group. Most of us were married in our late 20s, and at 40s, our children are only either in the teens or in the tertiary age group, and we still need to support our active parents. My first concern. With the description of the turbulent times, harsh volatile economy, fierce competition, fast changes and disruption, not only the working adults, but the whole family, are subject to this stress and strain in this kind of environment. While the Government is steering and urging the people to prepare and adapt to change, in this Budget I would like to urge the Ministries to be bold in the provision of support services to our people at the local community. Since the 1990s, we have seen many Ministries becoming very specialised in the provision of various support facilities at the local community, together with the various voluntary welfare organisations.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, regarding the 100% occupancy rate of the C class wards, can the Minister of State assure us that those who are on the waiting list would be given the relevant medical attention and also at the C ward charges?”
“Second, in order to reduce the number of early secondary school leavers, to work actively with the employers to either identify the skill set for the job and to persuade the unemployed to undergo retraining for the identified skill set or to re-engineer their job specifications for the ready pool of unemployed. Third, the CDC should tap the already established FSCs to handle the primary investigation of the family assistance cases at the local community and support the working parents and promote a closely-knit family. Mr Speaker, Sir, I support the Motion of Thanks.”
“FSCs provide a spectrum of services that address the wide variety of family needs either directly or indirectly. FSCs have established linkages in other social and grassroots organisations situated in a local community. The FSCs lack the publicity and recognition as compared to the important roles FSCs play. The FSCs are well-positioned to foster greater inter-agency collaboration to build a closer network of service for the family. There are about 35 FSCs in the various housing estates compared to our five CDCs. The FSCs could be the branch offices of the CDCs for family-focused services. Presently, for the family and social service cases, the CDC undertakes the investigation role and refers their cases to the FSC, if necessary, and this takes up a long time before we could get any answers. I would suggest that the role be reversed. As FSCs are now nearer to the families, they should undertake the investigation role and the result would be much faster. CDC at the district level is still remote for the family to access its services. The time taken for the investigation and help to the families in need would be shorter through the network of FSCs. In the Addendum to the President's Address, Assoc. Prof. Yaacob Ibrahim, Acting Minister for Community Development and Sports, had mentioned that the Ministry would work with CDCs to improve the training of social workers at the district level in order to increase the responsiveness of social agencies within the community. I urge the Minister to include the FSCs in his review. In summary, I appeal for support to be given to, first, working parents - about 49% of the working force are women.”
“They know that it is difficult for older employees at the service counter to remember all the different items to collect and pack when they serve a drink, such as coffee and tea. But they prepare the sugar, the stirrer and the creamer into a bag. So instead of remembering three items, they just remember to take out the pack. In the area of retraining, there could be better matching of training needs and training demands. For example, MOM or CDC could advise on the type of job skills needed after discussing with the potential employers and then encourage the unemployed to go for retraining in the specified skill sets. Once the opportunity for employment is there, people would be more willing to spend the time and go for the specific training. Here, the joint agency could do more to assist the potential employers actively on identifying the necessary retraining funding. If the success rate for finding a job can be improved and publicised, this will encourage people to go for the right type of skills retraining. On the second aspect of Family Service Centres, I would also like to urge the CDCs to concentrate on the delivery of social services to the families at the local community through the established networks of FSCs, especially during this economic downturn. The importance of families cannot be underestimated. Families are the foundation of our society. And why do I choose FSCs? It is because the family service areas are already set up at the focal points providing social service to promote and strengthen the well-being of families in the local community. FSCs have three unique features. FSCs focus on the family as a primary unit of intervention and services.”
“The concept of CDCs has been explained as a local community approach to the building of community bonds and the delivery of local social services. Here, I would like to urge the CDC to realign its resources in the delivery of local social services. Two aspects of social services which I wish to highlight are: (1) job-matching and retraining; (2) the use of the established network of the Family Service Centres (FSCs). Most of the CDCs are organising job fairs frequently and have job-matching service. Most of the jobs offered are from those available at the MOM Job Bank. I also found that some CDCs did a little bit more by forming a Corporate Relations Committee to identify potential employers, and some were innovative of revamping from JAP (Job Application and Placement) to JELL (Jobs, Employability and Lifelong Learning). The result of job-matching is still poor. Yes, the reasons are many. But many blame it on the attitude and mindset of the people. So when they come to the MPS with many unpaid bills, who and how do we solve these difficulties? I would like to urge the CDCs and MOM to comprehensively take a fresh look at the job-matching service. Go beyond just job matching and instead introduce intervention job matching. And what do I mean by that? I would like to urge MOM and the CDCs to work with the potential employers, understand their requirements and identify the suitable set of skills that is required to perform this work. Identify the target groups of employees, re-engineer the skill sets, if necessary, to suit the target groups of employees. I must say that McDonald's has done a very good job in this area.”
“As the school hours are not fixed, in view of curriculum activities and the ad-hoc remedial classes, parents have no way of knowing the hours except from the children themselves. Employ retired teachers or suitable professionals in supervising these children in the afternoon and parents can be asked to pay for the service. Subsidy, like the case of child-care services, can be given to the lower-income family. Some of these supervisors could be trained as counsellors and we could identify and create second careers in this area too, especially for middle and late professionals and managers. We have been very successful in getting mid-career professionals to become teachers. Now we can try training these middle and late career professionals to be counsellors as well as student caregivers. With their extended background experience in the workforce and their experience in bringing up their children, they could also be a source of role models for them. It could be even better if we could attract male professionals. Why? Because the report revealed that paternal care is very important in the behavioral development of adolescents. The male figure is still seen as the disciplinary figure in the Asian culture. At this point, I would like to applaud the Inter-Ministry Committee on Youth Crime on its efforts in bringing down the youth crime rate by identifying youth crime trends and high-risk youths early. This was reported recently by Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs, and Chairman of the Inter-Ministry Committee on Youth Crime. Next, I would like to congratulate the five Mayors on their appointment earlier this year. Most of them have been serving as Chairmen of the CDCs before and, now, as Mayors. The CDCs were created in 1997.”
“Furthermore, these children are very vulnerable at this tender age, as can be seen in the Anthony Ler murder case. Coming to my point, the number of early secondary school leavers is still large each year. There is an old Biblical saying that I find very true: "You shall reap what you sow". Therefore, if we do not take the right steps now to safeguard our youths and help those who are at risk due to the complexities of families today, then I am sad to say we will risk reaping a bad harvest, with more complex societal issues to manage, in the years to come. So what are the possible actions? I would like to appeal for an integrated multi-agency approach in identifying the potential early school leavers. I wish to call for a tripartite relationship with the teachers, the parents and the students. In view of the fact that both the parents are working, I would say the contact time of the children will be much longer with their teachers instead of their parents. I am not pushing the responsibility of upbringing to the teachers, but ask for collaboration with the teachers. The teachers who are being trained to deal with children would be able to identify the high-risk children from as early as secondary 1 and quickly refer them to appropriate counselling for closer attention. "Closer attention" - what do we mean by that? I would like to urge the Ministry of Education, jointly with the Ministry of Community Development and Sports, to consider having a student care service at the secondary level, and I applaud the Ministry of Community Development and Sports for having done well in the provision of child-care and student-care services for pre-nursery to primary school children. When these children reach secondary school, most of them are left alone in the afternoon.”
“Three out of the four cases I highlighted earlier are dual-income families. It therefore gives me great concern, as looking at the present economic situation, most parents need to work extra hours and extra hard for fear of losing their jobs. You must be wondering, since I have been talking of early school-leavers, how many are we talking about: I read the report by the Ministry of Education from the MOE website and got the yearly secondary school-leaver figure of 3.5% in 1999. Checking again the website, I could only find the cohort of the "A" level students. However, knowing that about 29% of the "O" levels go to the "A"-level helps, extrapolate it, the figure should be about 40,000. Then the question is: 3.5% of each level of the secondary schools or 3.5% of the four levels? This is not clear in the Minister's report. So the numbers come to the range of 1,400 to 5,600. And you may ask why I did not ask the Ministry directly. I did. I was told that they must be fair to all MPs. And I also had the opportunity to speak to DPM Lee and he told me that is fair treatment. Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to highlight to our Opposition Members that we do not get special treatment in this House. To gain another approach to quantify this number of school-leavers, I found through the MHA website that the number of juvenile delinquents hovers around 2,000 each year. Part of this number of delinquents might be from the early school-leavers. As these children have more free time in their hands, their working parents might find it more difficult to handle them. Some parents who actually lose control of them, most of these teenagers could not work as they are underaged. They will simply loiter around and mix with older youths who may be of bad company.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise to speak in support of the Motion by Mrs Lim Hwee Hua to thank the President for his Address to Parliament. Mr Speaker, Sir, the President has outlined the changed world scenarios after the September 11 incident. Singaporeans are faced with tougher challenges ahead. The foundation at home must continue to be built on. Being one of the new Members of Parliament, we have been repeatedly advised to keep our speeches short and to the point. I will take heed and plunge into the concerns that I have. Last year-end and beginning of this year, I was faced with cases which deeply concern me. Among my close associates, there are two cases of teenaged children leaving school prematurely at secondary 3 and 4. I have also seen two other cases at my meet-the-people session of two children being asked to leave school by their principals due to disciplinary problems and asking for help to find alternative neighbourhood schools. Taking this simple statistic sampling by the count of one person and extrapolating to the 84 + 1 MPs, I am concerned with the statistics as I am certain there are many more such cases. In one of the reports that I have read from the Nanyang Technological University on factors affecting adolescent delinquency in Singapore, age and family income are found to be significant in influencing the delinquency of adolescents. The report indicated that delinquency tends to peak at age 15, ie, mid-adolescence. Coincidentally, this matches the cases that I have experienced on the early school-leavers at secondary 3 and 4. The other significant factor from the report suggests dual-income family or parents who have to spend more time on their jobs, resulting in the reduction of time for their children.”