Jennifer Lee
Singapore
“May I therefore ask the Minister if he will review the tax relief for the CPF top-up for non-working spouses, the conditions of which are currently set, I believe, too late and too low with a view to recommending the removal of the age and prior earnings qualifications? Negative Income Tax”
“Can we take customisation of the system one step further from streaming as we practise it now and look at how we can teach and assess these students, ie, do it all together in a review of that?”
“Secondly, increase opportunities for them to foster understanding and bonding across racial and socio-economic classes through the mixing that is possible in the period of National Service. This concurrently enables them to widen their own network of friends and colleagues into the future.”
“As we have been saying with regard to means testing, we would like to target Government subsidies to those who need it. The $50 to $200 deposited into the Medisave accounts of those over 50s, who need it will, I can assure you, not be enough.”
“They have totally no say in what their spouses do with their own CPF balances and, particularly, after the withdrawal age of 55. I am happy, therefore, that the Minimum Sum will need in future to be topped up before withdrawal is allowed so that at least that amount of money is not unthinkingly spent on pursuit of immediate gratifications…”
“Could I ask the Minister? Obviously, there is so much mismatch - there is a queue, there are vacant flats. Would HDB, in fact, be doing a review? Because the Minister is saying that right now there are certain criteria and because of that, we do not accommodate a lot of people. But it would appear that there is quite a need out there.”
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“Many Ministries and agencies have to come together to realise a truly elderly friendly transport system. I would like to ask the Transport Ministry whether there is a directed effort. Is there somebody in charge to push and coordinate all the activities of all the agencies, so that we can move towards a comprehensive elder friendly transport system expeditiously in a planned rather than ad hoc manner? Assoc. Prof. Ngiam Tee Liang (Nominated Member): Sir, I would like to carry on from where hon. Member, Dr Jennifer Lee, left off. I would like to take up the plight and plea of older persons, otherwise known as the elderly, in heeding the call of the Government to practise active ageing, including remaining or rejoining the workforce where possible. Sir, there are many senior citizens who would like to be in employment, but who find difficulty in doing so. They cite a number of factors. One of these is commuting by mass public transport. While eligible senior citizens are appreciative of the concessionary public transport fares for off-peak travel, they find the applicable time period for travel restrictive. They mentioned that for them, because of reduced employment income, they have to rely on the mass public transport to commute to and from work, and many have working hours that require them to ride the buses, MRT or LRT during peak hours, thus incurring higher transport costs, especially in view of the recent fare hikes. Then there are those who are still fit and healthy and who can take public transport at all times of the day that the mass public transport system is in operation. They do not think it a danger to be part of the rush hour human traffic. Besides, senior citizens are sensible persons.”
“I want to ask whether, in fact, all the buses in our system have already been converted by now. It was sometime ago that this was prescribed. If not, when is it anticipated that this will be achieved? Bigger bus service numbers will also be helpful for senior citizens to quickly and easily identify approaching buses. And also software features such as bus workers' skills and attitudes in providing some assistance or simply being mindful not to accelerate and decelerate too quickly coming into and leaving bus bays, and allowing enough time for the older passengers to get seated. The exclusion of cost of wheelchair lifts and installation of such lifts from the OMV of a vehicle when computing the ARF in the budget this year is most welcome. And this is targeted at the vans used by VWOs to provide transport service for the elderly and disabled clients. But, in many developed countries, it has been recognised that it is actually far more cost effective to transport the disabled and elderly by mainstream taxis with special transportation service, often carried out by the mainstream taxi operators. They can provide door-to-door service round the clock and give travel assistance such as helping the passenger in and out of the vehicle. Essentially, all that it takes is some basic training although, of course, added features in the cabs like grab handles to aid entry and exit, swivel seats and wider door openings are also very helpful. Taxi fares in Singapore compare very favourably with many other developed countries. But for the poorer elderly, various countries have a variety of subsidised systems. London has a taxi card system.”
“Sir, I would like to commend the Ministry on the work that has been done in both ensuring the disabled and elder friendliness of the North East Line, and also on the ongoing work in retrofitting existing stations so that they will be accessible to the semi-ambulant and wheelchair bound. However, in the public transport system, it is actually of little use if only segments of the system are elder friendly, as the user is then still unable to complete his or her journey from one point to the other. Taking the MRT stations as an illustration, having the stations internally totally accessible to the frail and wheelchair bound is useless if the connecting buses are inaccessible, or if the frail or semi-ambulant elder is unable to get to the station, because of overhead pedestrian bridges, underpasses, raised pavements or kerbs surrounding the station. I am not quite sure whether overhead pedestrian bridges, underpasses, pavements and kerbs are under the purview of the Transport Ministry or MND. But I do hope that whichever it is, the planning and implementation of access across systems and precincts are being well coordinated. Moving on to buses, I understand that the Ministry has assessed that it will not be practical to introduce such wheelchair accessible features as kneeling buses, as it is anticipated that this would slow down the whole system too much. However, there are many other simpler features that our buses can have that will make them much more user friendly to ambulant senior citizens, and these include zero step boarding, stepless aisle buses or steps of lower height, properly placed rubberised handgrips and such features. I know, again, that the Ministry has prescribed steps height of 360 mm or less for all new buses.”
“Singaporeans need to change yet another mindset - that of the attitudes towards work in serving others and accord such honest labour the respect that it deserves. This would facilitate the transition we need to make. With that, Sir, I support the motion.”
“Once employers have had the opportunity to get past the initial scepticism, I am sure that they will have enough positive experiences with older workers that sweeteners would no longer be necessary in the long run. No doubt, details of such a scheme will have to be worked out to prevent gaming and abuse. Government has already shown the importance it places on addressing the problem of structural unemployment and enhancing the employability of older workers in the generous funding it continues to direct towards skills upgrading and retraining programmes. This investment in reskilling would go to waste if employers do not respond in sufficient numbers. I believe a concerted effort to incentivise companies for a limited term to hire older reskilled workers would be well worth the money spent. There are other significant factors in the total picture of enhancing the employability of older workers. The two most important that have been discussed often before are moving away from a seniority-based wage system and portable medical benefits. We have been discussing moving away from a seniority-based wage system since the 1980s. As recommended by the ERC, we really need to act much more expeditiously on this. With regard to portable medical benefits, the Deputy Prime Minister has offered both a bit of a carrot and a stick in the budget. But the question is: is this enough, and how can we move this along faster? Both Members, Halimah Yacob and Heng Chee How, have also spoken on this. Finally, while the manufacturing sector continues to be very important to us, many of the jobs that are available, and will be available, are in the services sector.”
“The moral of the story is that effort is most certainly required on the part of the workers, and on the employers, in paying attention to job fit, some orientation and instructions on the job and attention from supervisors in helping the new mid-career recruit to settle in and adjust. This did not take a huge effort or commitment of any additional resources on the company's part, mainly just some additional attention from supervisors in the initial period. For that the hospital has gained a bunch of enthused, committed and stable staff. I see in these tough times an opportunity to redesign jobs and to fill vacancies with mature and stable workers. Not all sectors are in the doldrums and I would like to take the occasion to encourage employers in those sectors that are in good shape to engage also in what is not at all altruistic, but distinctly in their own self-interest, as I believe the returns are well worth the efforts. I have shared one story of one group in one organisation. We must share all other success stories that there are, big and small, to talk about what is possible and workable and viable. But beyond spreading the good word, we need to do more, to urgently accelerate the process, getting companies over preconceived ideas of the capabilities and commitments of older workers. Exhortation and proselytising would only get us that far. I would like to therefore suggest that it may be a worthwhile investment to incentivise employers to hire older workers by offering tax offsets against the cost of employing these re-skilled older recruits, but for a limited period only of, say, 3-5 years, as the intent is purely to get them pass the existing immediate prejudices and mindsets.”
“But I have been tracking their progress and I am confident enough that they will be long-term employees with us to share our story with the House. We started with 10 recruits, mostly in their 40s from varied backgrounds - clerical, secretarial, production operations, storemen. They are now deployed in frontline positions in our wards, clinics and operating theatres. Frontline jobs in healthcare institutions are very tough work. You are on your feet most of the day in constant patient contact and service, going on shifts. I can tell you that this group has had some tough time adjusting, but they are very determined and very committed to making this endeavour work. On the hospital's part, each of their supervisors had been briefed as to making an extra effort to help them settle in, to be available to help, either to coach or to assist, just to provide encouragement. We started with 10, we have lost three, who are unable to make mainly the physical adjustments. The remaining seven, however, their reports on them, both from the recruits themselves, as well as their supervisors, is that they have got through the adjustment period and are now functioning very comfortably in their assignments. In fact, they have been given top marks by the supervisors for attitude and performance. I think 7 out of 10, a 70% retention rate, is pretty good, and I am very happy with the outcome. This group of 40-somethings is a shining example of what is possible with reskilling, good attitude, commitment and the willingness to stick it out through the initial adjustment to a new work environment.”
“On the workers' part, while some are still refusing to accept the reality of Singapore's changing environment and its implications and impact on them personally - as just been recounted by Mayor Zainul Abidin Rasheed - I believe that there are many more people now who are much more willing to adjust their expectations and to try new jobs in sectors that they may not have considered attractive enough previously. There are jobs that are available, if all parties are willing to give it a try. Besides creating new jobs in new sectors, we have some 900,000 non-Singaporeans working in our midst. While we welcome them and know we will continue to rely on them far into the future, there are many sectors, like healthcare, for example, where employers would welcome, with open arms, willing locals to fill positions, so that we can moderate the ratio of local to non-local employees. The Government has put in the money to support reskilling workers. Workers are now more willing to give the schemes a try and to moderate their expectations. Now, employers must also be willing to overcome their prejudices and mindsets to hire these mid-career recruits. I would like to share a success story, not only to encourage workers currently looking for a break in the dark clouds that they can take heart, but more so to encourage employers to engage in some enlightened self-interest. It is about our experience in KK Hospital with a group of new recruits who underwent three months of training in the National Skills Standard for healthcare attendants. In fact, in the HMI training programme that my NMP colleague, Dr Gan See Khem, had established, they are a small group and they have been with us for just two months.”
“Given this scenario of the lack of any savings at all for the bottom 10%, the full-time home-makers not catered for in the CPF system, the anticipated inability of 40% of CPF account holders in the future to meet the Minimum Sum target, and indeed the likely inadequacy of that sum to generate enough monthly income to maintain a desired living standard, it seems to me that a critical part of the solution must be the continued employability and employment of older workers. Many of us must be looking to being employed well beyond our current expectations, not only to keep active and engaged, but also to generate some continuing income to supplement what we have been able to put aside as savings. In this, the Government has been very active and very visibly putting its money where its mouth is, so to speak, with generous funding invested in the Skills Redevelopment Programmes since 1996 and, more currently, in the People-for-Jobs Traineeship Programme. The $0.5 billion that Government has just deposited into the Lifelong Learning Fund in financial year 2002 to bring it to $1.5 billion to date will generate $16 million of interest income to continue to support the skills upgrading and retraining programmes. This is truly a commitment that few governments anywhere else would make and something which Singaporeans should not take for granted. But Government's willingness to generously fund skills upgrading and retraining alone is not enough. Workers and employers need also to play their part.”
“However, implicit in this recommendation is that there will be 10% of the population who will have no financial provisions for their post-retirement needs. This is a very significant number. Just some months ago, the Minister for Community Development and Sports, in answer to a question on the financial assistance schemes available, shared that in the financial year 2001, almost 15,000 beneficiaries were helped. But on examining the details of the numbers, one finds that the majority of these were either in interim short-term assistance schemes or for very specific purposes, such as student care fee assistance, and only 2,773 were beneficiaries under the main Public Assistance System. Compare this number to a full 10% of the population of workers as they reach retirement age. The DPM has mentioned in his Budget speech the need for Government to focus its social assistance in the future on only the truly needy. It appears that this group of truly needy may be a very significant number. How has Government planned to provide for this bottom 10% in their retirement? Is the intent to simply gear up, so that more people will come under the current assistance schemes, coupled with continuing to depend on families to step in the breach, as is the present practice and expectation? Is this realistic, considering the trends of family formation that we are currently experiencing?”
“The Government has taken steps to limit the ceiling on CPF withdrawals to be made for property purchases, and the DPM has announced that the rate of contribution to the Special Account will be raised in steps over the next three years towards addressing the shortfall. But even with these, it is anticipated that only 60% of account holders will reach the target Minimum Sum level. Further, this target amount translates into an income stream of something like $600 per month, assuming a 4% interest rate for a period of 16 years, taking retirement at 62 and life expectancy at 78. Thus, recognising that this amount may not be adequate and, indeed, the ERC has recommended that the Minimum Sum should be subsequently raised beyond $80,000. But truly, how much will we be able to do and, if anything, at what pace? In addition, another major deficiency of the CPF model in catering for Singaporeans' retirement needs is that the system currently leaves out some significant groups of people - the self-employed, workers in the informal sector and home-makers - whose contributions are not attributed economic value and are not included in its cover. As the latter group is largely women, who will in all probability outlive their husbands, their financial security in old age will be precarious. The ERC has taken the approach in its recommendations that CPF should cater for the 10th to the 80th percentile of the income spectrum. Now, this approach makes eminent sense, as indeed the top 20% can very well look after itself and, truly, the bottom 10% would have so little put aside through regular contribution rates - as well as did every dollar that they earned to meet their immediate day-to-day expenditures - that it does not make sense to have them make an employee contribution at all.”
“Mr Speaker, I would like to draw attention to two big areas of concern for Singapore, both of which relate to our demographics - our aging population and our declining fertility. The Budget addresses both subjects to varying degrees - the aging population and the changes to the CPF contribution rates, and in the measures to enhance older workers' employability. With regard to fertility, there is one solitary item, tax exemption, for employer subsidised childcare benefits - not much, but perhaps just a signal that the issue is not being forgotten. For today, I will touch only on the first subject, leaving my observations on our pro-family efforts and policies for the Committee of Supply debate to come. The Member for Marine Parade GRC, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, spoke yesterday on the need for us to totally review our concept of retirement and the way that CPF is structured, against the background of CPF withdrawal age of 55, retirement age of 62 and life expectancy of 78, and the rapidly evolving patterns of employment as companies compete in the globalised economy. Many Singaporeans have come to realise, with considerable consternation, that what they had been taking for granted or assumed that somehow CPF would take care of their retirement needs has been an illusion. In 1998, the Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Aging Population found that only 24% of those turning 55 had $60,000 in their Minimum Sum cash portion. Now the ERC estimates that even of new account holders contributing for a full career span at current CPF rates, only 50% would achieve the targeted $80,000 Minimum Sum for the cash portion of $40,000.”
“Sir, does the Minister of State not think that it is a bit disingenuous of him to actually say that he would refrain from prescribing criteria for maids when, in fact, this Government has never been slow to prescribe, when it never had any doubts of its ability to prescribe what is in the best interest of the people? Secondly, what advice would the Minister of State give to working women in Singapore should there be increases in the maid levy, which actually make it extremely difficult for them to continue to have a maid and yet balance all the responsibilities that they have between their home and their working roles? What advice would he give them in that circumstance?”
“As the Minister of State has observed, the number of foreign workers has continued to rise despite the levies. Would it not seem obvious by now, after so many years of experience that we have had, that the answer must be in something other than the levy? Would it not be a better approach therefore to analyse and permit families to have foreign workers based on need rather than by increasing the levy to an extent that it becomes unaffordable?”
“Could the Minister of State give working women in Singapore an assurance that there are real and adequate alternatives in the form of local domestic and nanny or child care services available before any increases in foreign maid levy are decided upon?”
“To conclude, Mdm Deputy Speaker, I do support the motion, but I would urge Government to further review the whole education system, particularly addressing the needs of our younger, pre-primary and primary school students, to ensure that the broadening of the JC curriculum is indeed matched with a decrease in content so that it is manageable and to avail the improvements to a much wider population of students. 7.03 pm”
“Similarly, with the recommendation to establish specialised independent schools to cater to students with special talents in arts, sports, mathematics and science, these schools will again cater only for the very few. I served recently on the Economic Review Sub-committee on Enhancing Human Capital and co-chaired the Work Group on Arts, Culture, Sports and Recreation. Our Work Group recommended, not elite arts and sports schools, but making arts and sports education widely available to our children in schools so that more of our children will imbue the spirit and values that come with these disciplines. And also, so that we will lose less of those who have the skills and talents in these areas who would otherwise be left by the wayside in our traditional education system. When we look at our workforce today, the problem we have is not with the top 1% or the top 10%. They are more than able to fend for themselves in the old world, and in the new, and indeed to contribute to our national development. The enormous challenge that we face is with the massive 400,000 workers at the bottom of the spectrum, whose world is far removed from the corridors of power and wealth. I would like to ask who is looking into the educational needs of the future equivalent of this large group of Singaporeans, who will also have to deal with the new challenges and the new demands that will be made on them in our new and globalised economy.”
“My second question is: how will the Ministry ensure that this shift of the curriculum from depth to breadth does, in fact, happen and does not result in added load, that the implementation of the new curriculum will stay true to the intent? The third and final question that I want to raise relates to the most diverse JC/Upper Secondary education landscape. I applaud the recommendation. Alas, it will only be for the top 10% of our children. Contrary to Dr Wang Kai Yuen's anticipation that parents will respond by recognising that different skills will be needed now for success and prepare their children accordingly, I am most fearful that the result will be even more fearsome pressure on our children sitting for their PSLE each year, to make it to that top 10%, so that they can benefit from the new integrated programme in their secondary education. As usual, we are focusing so much of our attention, effort and resources on the few at the top. Why should this diversity of approaches be reserved only for the top 10%? We are grateful that the kind of resources and opportunities that were previously given only to the top 1% in the Gifted Education Programme will perhaps now be available to a wider 10%. But is the focus on this elite group, in fact, justified? The GEP has been in existence now for many years. Has there been an assessment, in fact, of its outcomes, other than perhaps the number of President's Scholars that they may have produced? What contributions have previous GEP cohorts made to Singapore society? What skills and spirit and values have they developed?”
“While it is certainly important to look at the finishing stages of their education, who is, in fact, looking into what we are going to do with our pre-school and primary education, to prepare our children for the new world? Secondly, broadening the curriculum is certainly, I think, heading in the right direction. It will give more exposure to our students to more fields of knowledge and allow them to be more well-rounded individuals, allow them more opportunities to find areas in which they have special interests, skills and talents. The Committee has recommended that this broadening be achieved in balance with cutting down on content, and I am all for that. It has been inexplicable to me all this time in recent years that we have been preaching to the adults on the need for life-long learning, because of the rapid obsolescence of knowledge, that we have kept, at the same time, stuffing the heads of our school children with content. So the acknowledgement that we can and should in fact ease up here is good news indeed. However - and this is a big however - how will the Ministry of Education ensure that in developing the new curriculum, we will in fact lighten the content load? Because lightening and reducing of curriculum load is not a new story for us. In fact, we are supposed to have already lightened curriculum previously by as much as 30%. In fact, the Minister himself this afternoon has spoken with conviction that we have trimmed down on content, and yet it would seem that only the Minister and his senior officers have this conviction, because just about everybody else that you speak to in the system - parents, students and teachers alike - do not seem to have experienced any lightening of the curriculum load.”
“Mdm Deputy Speaker, may I start by congratulating Senior Minister of State Tharman and his Committee on a very well written report and one that should, in general, receive widespread support; who would oppose after all injecting more breadth and flexibility into the JC curriculum and the proposed education landscape, painting such a picture of options and variety of pathways as to warm the hearts of parents and students alike. But the recommendations do raise some areas of concern and some questions that could do with some clarifications. As so many of my parliamentary colleagues also have their comments to contribute, I shall restrict my observations to just three areas. For a start, the first question that actually came to my mind when I read through the report was whether we have, in fact, got the process upside down - back to front, focussing all of our attention on JC and upper secondary education, the last four years of our young Singaporeans' education, thinking that we can spend the first most formative and impressionable years of our children's lives, grilling them and grinding away at their self esteem, and then in the final years of their schooling education, we expect to turn them around on a pin and blossom with this new curriculum, albeit it is a very attractive proposition, and to develop their thinking skills at this very late stage. Senior Parliamentary Secretary Koo Tsai Kee gave us a very thorough account of the Bronx Science High School and of the five Nobel Laureates which they created. But I would dare say that the Bronx Science High School did not create these five Nobel Laureates out of thin air. The question for me is, in fact, how these Nobel Laureates' minds were moulded when they were much younger. For me, that is an important question.”
“Yes. When the KK Hospital moved from the old to the new hospital, the most significant factor was the establishment of a new Children's Hospital. That added on an extra 60%, in terms of the size of the hospital, and in fact, the bulk of the increase in cost related to that move was due to the establishment of the Children's Hospital, rather than related to the capacity of the women's services.”
“Mr Speaker, I do not know whether it is appropriate for me to make a point of clarification with regard to the KK Hospital?”
“Would the Minister give us the assurance that at least the civil service would take the lead in this regard, and if they are not at 1.5, that would be the direction in which the civil service would be moving?”
“May I ask whether the civil service timescales are, in fact, now at 1.5?”
“I would like to ask the Minister how we can have comfort in knowing where we are going. Just trying to determine that we do not see a repetition, how would we know that we are actually making progress? Because it would be a sad situation 10 years down the road to be looking at the same picture again. How would the Minister be able to give comfort, if all that we can say is simply we do not really know what we are shooting for?”
“If I may again ask the Minister: is he actually saying that when we reach 1.5, then in fact we can be quite comfortable that there will no longer be any need to have differential treatment of older workers versus younger workers. The other point is in fact how much longer will it take us to get that 1.5, if we have a real confidence level that this will take care of the problem. And I am asking this because I think they are all anxious that in the future we do not have to resort to CPF cuts for older workers.”
“There are two parts to this. One is the flexible system that allows companies to cut costs down quickly. The other is the seniority-based wage system, and my focus is actually on seniority-based wage system. I would just like to clarify if my understanding is correct. What we are talking about here, in terms of monthly variable component, is actually a variable system but within a seniority-based wage system. In other words, the older workers are still getting more, which means that this particular emphasis on MVC will not actually address the seniority-based wage system. Would that be the correct understanding?”
“Clarification, Sir. Obviously, as the Minister has said, the system is not there yet. But at what point, in terms of salary scales and variable components, will the Minister feel that we would have arrived at a stage where we are not on a seniority-wage based system, so that we no longer have to be anxious in future about other ways of approaching it, such as further CPF cuts for the older age group?”
“I think there was a newspaper article on SingTech, and here was one company which was supposedly saying they would respond. The headline was very nice, and it said, "SingTech to compensate older workers". However, if you read the content of that article, basically what the CEO of SingTech said was that good, older workers will get the same reward as the younger ones, not that they will get actually more, to compensate and make up for the CPF cut. To reiterate, CPF is a scheme to help people with their retirement needs. It is not a way to fix wage cost problems and it is not a way to enhance the flexibility of wage structure for workers. Anything we do through legislation, and CPF contribution rates are legislated, never enhances flexibility. Legislation, on the contrary, builds rigidity into the system. Not only is CPF a blunt instrument but, in this instance, it is a wrong instrument. I ask the Government to reconsider its acceptance on this proposal.”
“My concern really is that, if you take that pressure off by taking the easy route, and legislating CPF is actually very easy - we have some debate on this in Parliament and at the end of the day, we go ahead and do it. It is an easy thing to do. But it is not necessarily the right answer. In doing it, you are taking that pressure off constantly pushing to really fix a fundamental problem, which is those seniority-based pay systems. By doing this, in fact, and we can argue about the effectiveness or otherwise, it is counter-productive. You take the pressure off, people will stop and say, "OK, we have fixed part of the problem. CPF for this group is less." So there is less pressure to go for the real root causes. That, I think, is a concern. DPM has said that we will not neglect and continue to work on flexi wage systems and skills upgrading programmes. But these are the other things that if we do not have the pressure on, I think we might end up relaxing a little bit or waiting for the next time that we need to go on for more CPF related changes. The Committee has said that these changes will enhance the flexibility of our overall wage structure. And the Committee has called upon companies to make up to their productive older workers through variable bonus and other such payments. I am not so sanguine that this is going to happen. Truly, how many Members of the House really believe that this is going to happen. Productive older workers will be rewarded in a good company with variable bonuses and such in the same way as productive younger workers. But they are not going to be selectively given more, just to make up for the CPF cut that the Government has mandated.”
“The Economic Review Sub-committee on CPF has said that we should refocus the scheme back to the fundamentals of providing for people's basic needs in their retirement. And indeed, the other proposals, such as restraining the amount to be spent on property and increasing the Minimum Sum, are clearly steps in this direction. But this proposal to cut the contributions of 50-55 year olds is slipping right back to the old habit of using CPF to fix a problem that should be addressed, at source, in other ways. The root causes of the group of older workers having difficulty finding jobs lie, firstly, in their lack of skills, or ability, or willingness to fill available jobs; and, secondly, their relatively higher cost due to our seniority-based pay system. The real solutions to this problem therefore involve reskilling these workers, where possible, and this has been covered at length in terms of the efforts we are making in skills upgrading, also in getting them to accept different kinds of work that Singaporeans currently find or think unattractive or beneath them, and also in getting companies to look at redesigning jobs so that older workers are able to manage in areas where physical strength is an issue. The next group of solutions would be pushing harder to shorten salary scales and increasing performance-based remuneration so that the factor of higher cost of older workers due to the seniority-based system becomes a non-issue. These are the real solutions, not the convenient quick-fix of holding back on CPF restoration. Mr Yao and Mdm Yacob have talked about the efforts that we have tried to make in getting companies to address this to shorten those salary scales, and that it has been very tough.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, despite hon. Member Mr Matthias Yao's attempt earlier to redirect Members' interest to other subjects in the debate, I am afraid I remain rather fixated on the proposal to keep the employer's CPF contribution to 16% for workers aged 50-55 years. Let me say that DPM, Mdm Halimah Yacob and Mr Yao have all talked about the concerns that we have for the older, lower skilled workers. Myself and, I think, many other Members who have spoken before me recognise that it is a concern and that it needs some urgent attention. We recognise that this proposal to lower the employer's contribution rate is a sincere attempt to address the problem. But I am not convinced that this is an appropriate or an effective solution. So the argument is not about the fact that there is a problem. The argument is about whether or not this is really going to be effective, in fact, whether it will be counter-productive. Companies will continue to hire and employ workers who are productive and make useful contributions, regardless of their age. Companies will not employ workers who are unable to get the job done, regardless of the 4% discount, so to speak, on their CPF cost. All that we are going to achieve with this move is to disadvantage those productive workers in the 50-55 age range, who are gainfully employed and make it harder for them to build up their retirement nest egg. In addition, we will further reinforce the perception and the practice of treating older persons universally as a group, as being worth less and contributing less. Government has said, on previous occasions, that we must move away from using CPF as a convenient but blunt instrument to lower cost in economic hard times.”
“Sorry. Will the Ministry review the way jobs are structured and valued to see if we can move this in the right direction?”
“Sir, I think definitely making things structurally rigid is not good. But I would like to ask the Minister what his Ministry and, in fact, all the other Ministries that he might be able to influence, are doing, in terms of actually changing mindset, and this is where Government can take the lead, because promoting responsibility of the father and husband is a very important thing. I think the recent changes in child sick leave is a good example. But will his Ministry pursue and encourage right across civil service more of this type of benefits? In fact, the approach and the mindset of Government should be to encourage better sharing of responsibilities, because ultimately that is, in fact, the way to go. Secondly, the Minister has focused very much on the schemes to educate and retrain to close the gap. But he also mentioned in the beginning of his answer that part of it is that women are in jobs that pay less. My question is: are we doing a review of why this is so? Because, I think, society places values on jobs, and we are very prone to just paying for the jobs that bring direct economic benefit and we do not give enough weight to the jobs that enable the economic activity to be carried out in terms of, for example, child care-type or teaching-type jobs. Well, teaching in Singapore has been pretty much taken care of. But there is a value put on the jobs, and it so happens that those ---”
“Sir, I would like to ask the Minister whether it is true that some elements of the SAT are coachable; in other words the kids can be drilled to sit for it. If this is so, would the usage of the SAT for admission criteria to university encourage the kind of attributes that we are trying to move our kids away from, which is learning by rote, and taking away what we wanted out of SAT, which is pure reasoning skills? RAdm Teo Chee Hean: Sir, some practice with the SAT I tests will be useful for students because they will acquire certain familiarities with the rubric of the examination paper and the types of questions that come up. But the content level of these papers is about where our students would be if they had completed their `O'-level English and Mathematics. So, any further efforts required will really not be necessary, because if they have got their `O'-level Mathematics and Language, that should really be sufficient as content material for them to take the SAT I, and, after that, it is really a test of their reasoning and critical thinking abilities. EMPLOYMENT SITUATION (Update) 13. Mr Gan Kim Yong asked the Minister for Manpower if he will provide an update on the employment situation.”
“A large percentage of home-makers would not have CPF accounts. Surely, it cannot be right that they will not be eligible for the New Singapore Shares. Sir, that is all that I wanted to raise.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I have just one short point to make and two clarifications. The point actually arises from my having sat in some recent dialogue sessions where some professionals have raised the issue of infrastructural work, now that we are accelerating some of the major projects to the tune of $3.5 billion. I believe PWD, which was corporatised not that long ago, is still enjoying a moratorium on major Government projects, and this results in PWD having a lion share of all this work. We have many professional firms - architects, engineers, various building consultants - who are having very bad times. They are struggling. And while it is nice to have acceleration of these projects, I trust that the entire amount would not end up going towards the corporatised PWD, leaving all of these firms out in the cold. I do hope some consideration will be given to this matter. The two clarifications are: first, with regard to hospital fee rebates for classes B2 and C, we are targeting at citizens and their families. I was not clear on whether family members who are non-citizens would also qualify. I work in a hospital. Very often, we would see citizens who struggle with dealing with fees for their family members who may not be citizens. So that would be a good clarification to have. The second clarification is with regard to the New Singapore Shares. I just want to make sure that I understand. The shares will be given through CPF accounts, current or non-current accounts. By that, I understand that all non-CPF account holders will not qualify for the New Singapore Shares. The New Singapore Shares are not the same as CPF Top-ups. I think they are meant to give all Singapore citizens the feeling of belonging and of sharing.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, it has been a long day and I think actually Dr Wang and Miss Braemaputhri have covered a lot of ground and issues I had wanted to raise. So I am just going to be very brief and restrict myself to saying I fully support the Plan. I think it is wonderful that we have been hearing in the media of programmes and plans that the Ministry put up for the high-flyers, principals' training, and, I think, there was a Leaders in Education Programme and Master Teachers. But these are the high-flyers and they are important because you leverage on them. You get a multiplier effect. But, essentially, the high-flyers alone cannot do the job. You need the rank-and-file, the majority of those 25,000 teachers who you have to keep on board, who you have to acknowledge, and keep their spirits up, and give them incentives to stay on. Because, regardless of what wonderfully well-crafted and farsighted policies you may have coming out of the Ministry, you cannot have successful implementation without that continuity and that mass of teaching workforce staying on. So I think this is a great plan. Details of issues to be raised, I think, have pretty much been covered. So I would just like to say I support the Bill.”
“Sir, I essentially think that we probably are alarmed. I would like to ask the Minister, before I get called to order, if we could have the reassurance that for all the efficacious screening tests that can be done, his Ministry will do the best to expeditiously implement such screening programmes so that, in fact, we do not have to resort to liberalising the use of Medisave. I think that may be a better way of going about it.”
“Sir, I rise in support of the Bill. I have only one point to make and it has, in fact, been raised by Members before. So I would be very brief. I would like to join Prof. Chin, Mr Iswaran and Mr Tay in asking that the Minister consider including in the list of persons eligible, who may not have the requisite two out of five preceding years, not only those members of the SAF or Government employees or scholars, but also the employees of private locally registered companies or multi-national companies who are legitimately on prolonged overseas or international postings, as well as students who are overseas for long periods on their own funding. Because I think that all these Singaporeans count, be it that they are overseas on public service or in the employment of the private sector. That is all that I have to contribute. ADJOURNMENT OF DEBATE”
“Sir, I have just one small point to raise and it relates also to something that Mr Simon Tay has already spoken on. With regard to new section 42A(3)(c) which prescribes for rebroadcast, the Minister may revoke his approval at any time without assigning any reason. This assigning to Minister the authority to disapprove and revoke approvals at any time, and without giving any reason, seems to be a favourite clause, not only of this, but of many, pieces of legislation passed, and I am sure to come. Let me say that I have no dispute with the prescription that the Minister's decision be final. But that is quite different from saying that the Minister does not give any reasons at all for that decision. I think that in this day and age in Singapore, we would surely wish to have the Minister share his reasons for his decisions. Firstly, we are looking at increased transparency and, secondly, related to transparency so that in fact all parties involved will have an understanding of Government's reasoning and position and therefore be guided in their actions and behaviour in the future. Finally, it can surely only be in the greater interest of all that Ministers and their officers assisting and advising them are subject to the rigour and discipline of having the rationale for their decisions open to public scrutiny.”
“In other words, for example, the Ministry says that ranking of schools in academic performance is not the be-all and the end-all and other things are important too, then principals' performance, appraisal and progress in their careers should reflect that. I hope that the Minister will take my observations into consideration as an attempt at a shorter term solution even as we grapple with the longer term and even more difficult to resolve issues and challenges in the education of our children.”
“It seems, however, that some principals may be over-zealous in pursuing academic results and rankings on the one hand, or possibly not taking advantage of the autonomy delegated to them on the other. However, when you hear good stories of good schools, invariably, I think, you will find a good principal with initiative, supporting and managing his or her staff well. Sir, if you look at the problem of values, that is something that the Ministry of Education cannot solve on its own and which takes a long time to evolve and resolve. When you look at the anecdotes that relate to teachers, I really do not know how one can go about ensuring that 25,000 teachers perform consistently up to the standards that we all want for the instruction of our children. So it seems to me that the best bet we may have that would enable a more immediate better management of parents' anxieties and frustrations is to pull out all stops and focus on the identification and accelerated development of good dynamic principles to optimise the management of resources and operation of issues and the insightful implementation of policies at individual school level. I recognise that 300-plus good principals sound a lot more manageable a number than 25,000 good teachers. But it is still a tall order. However, by grouping or clustering schools together and the assignment of particularly strong principals so that they may be well distributed among the clusters could achieve a multiplier effect. 1.00 pm There is one more thing, Sir, that is needed and that is to be sure that the measures of performance must be clear and consistent with policy directions so that principals are not incentivised to behave in incongruent ways.”
“Sir, our education system continues to be a topic that generates what we should perhaps simply describe as "animated conversation" where anywhere and anytime, you find a gathering of Singaporeans who are parents. The four Members before me have spoken on various aspects of our education system that cause stress and distress to parents and children. Sir, we have a dilemma. The Ministry's view is that the fundamental problem lies in parents' unrealistic expectations of their children. Parents, on the other hand, are equally convinced that the problem essentially resides in the rigidity of an unforgiving system. When you analyse the stories and experiences recounted, the issues may be grouped largely into three categories. The first relates to the thorny issue of our values - our practice of reducing everything to economics, of measuring success and the dollars and cents that come with the high-paying jobs that come to those with academic achievements that drive our parents to drive their children. The second set relates to the many individual anecdotes of teachers who are less sensitive and less nurturing than what would be considered adequate and satisfactory to guide and help our children develop to the best of their abilities. The third set relates to principals. The Ministry has on occasions before pointed out that it has over the years been responsive in reviewing policies, for example, in reducing curriculum load. Therefore, a number of operational issues, such as, for example, starting times of the school day, principals have been given full autonomy to make decisions.”
“If we can put all of these things together and help with the fees that parents will have to bear, they will surely give families the wider range of childcare and child-minding options possible, so that they can come to arrangements that will best suit their circumstances.”
“Sir, it is great to hear Mr Ang and Mr Yeo speak in support of the family. For today, I would like to focus just on one subject, one that is of great concern to families with young children, which is childcare or child-minding arrangements. Dr Vasoo also earlier spoke of helping to facilitate young couples live close to their parents in HDB estates, and that is one aspect of it, because the assistance of grandparents in supervising childcare is one possible solution. On childcare centres, many families are already sending their kids to childcare centres. I think the acceptance level has increased a lot over the years. And, increasingly, there is also an added demand for infant care cases, and this is a need that should be addressed. But number of centres and places aside, the fees that you have to pay for child and infant care can take a significant bite out of the average family's income, particularly if you have more than one child. So the ability to use baby bonus dollars towards fees will certainly be most helpful. Apart from institutional care, however, there are also less structured child minding arrangements that already exist, to some extent, in the community. Some families foster out the kids during the weekdays to bring them home on weekends. In addition, suggestions have been raised on developing neighbourhood baby sitting networks, which can do child-minding on a daily basis. If these can be organised, it will not only be helpful for working parents, it would also bring income to a group of women who would otherwise be unemployed. Payment for these services would also surely be a legitimate use of the baby bonus account.”
“This is a heavy responsibility for the CDCs, and it is imperative that they gear up to discharge it well. The second issue is flexibility in implementing assistance schemes. We understand that regulations and guidelines for various assistance schemes may have been drawn in ways to attempt to control or minimise the possibility of abuse. However, there are often people in need who may not fit into pre-determined criteria, or may be genuinely hard-luck cases. It is therefore important that officers in charge of implementing assistance schemes have the flexibility to exercise judgement in cases of genuine need. Only in this way can we truly say that any one who needs a helping hand in Singapore can be assured of getting it.”
“Sir, even as we find many positive things to note in our economic progress and achievements in Singapore, we are also very aware that the bottom 10%-20% of our households has seen the average income stagnate even as the cost of living continues to rise. I would like to touch on two issues in extending a helping hand to such families in need. Firstly, while we know that we have good social safety nets and many assistance schemes in place, it is often the case that those people who are most in need of help are the ones who least know how to access it. Last Saturday, Dr Tan Cheng Bock spoke of the need for people to be aware of how to access the healthcare system appropriately, so that they can have maximum benefit of the available subsidised services. I would, therefore, like to propose to MCDS that it conduct an educational programme to provide comprehensive but easy-to-understand information targeted at the lower-income households, to inform this target group of the various subsidised services provided by the Government and how to access these services, through channels that will allow them the best benefit of the available subsidies, and of the variety of assistance schemes available and how to go about applying for them. In reaching out to needy families on a case-by-case basis, especially the lesser educated and the isolated, it is obviously very difficult to be sure that no one who needs help is missed. In this context, the passing over of the disbursement of subsidies, fees and other assistance, and community-based facilities from MCDS to the CDCs, is a good move, as the latter should be able to be more focused on residents in their jurisdiction who need a hand, and be able to reach out more extensively to them.”
“Thank you, Sir. I guess I should cut everything down and just ask a question as well. We were talking about golf courses yesterday and parks as well have a tremendous feel-good feeling for all our residents if we want to make this little city state of ours a really good place to live in, both for our own citizens as well as to attract talents from abroad. Could we also please allocate more land for our parks and actually speed up developments? If you just take a look at utilisation these days, there is a tremendous number of people out there trying to get some fresh air. It is respite from day-to-day work and it is a haven of greenery for our people.”
“In a recent sitting of Parliament in February, the Minister of State, Dr John Chen, shared with us that the Ministry had explored reverse mortgages as a possible source of additional income for elderly HDB lessees for their retirement needs, but had come to the conclusion that it was not a good idea as the monthly returns were meagre and there was a risk of losing their homes at the end of the term. Dr Chen also shared that other schemes were available to assist elderly lessees, for example, those with 3-room flats could sublet one or two or even the whole flat to derive some income. The last option, of course, is for the senior citizens to downgrade to a smaller apartment. There was also a detailed discussion in the Inter-Ministerial Committee Report on the Ageing Population of many good ideas of building more smaller flats, integrated with housing estates for senior citizens. In fact, HDB has already done very good work in developing its studio apartment scheme which, by all accounts, has been very successful. While this seems like a very good proposition right now, might there be concern that when the aging baby boomers double and triple the numbers of over-65 a couple of decades down the road, would there be too many downgraders in the market at the same time, looking to sell, and in fact, would the aging properties be able to hold their value by then? Perhaps, the Minister could share with us his views of the scenario at that future time and what else we would have to be paying attention to or addressing to try and make sure that that scenario is a happy one.”