Lee Yock Suan
Singapore
“The position will be clear when the regulations have been drafted. Right now we are debating it in the absence of actual wording of the regulations. The regulations will be fair, they are meant to maintain a level playing field, and we should wait for the regulations before we pass judgement. The intention is not to go after everybody.”
“I think the Member will be aware that Internet is a very dangerous place. We can have all kinds of poison letters and they will just spread like wild fire. So we must have some means to try and minimise this and make sure that everything is orderly and fair.”
“The other Members have no problem supporting the Bill, including Mr Chiam. I think the position is about 95% clear. Question put, and agreed to. Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House. The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Mr Lee Yock Suan].”
“Then we will have to see the actual situation. But, as I said, the intention is to go after the popular sites, the main sites of parties and non-party political sites. If it is an individual, eg, a young man posting up his own site and saying "These are my views", we are not going to go after those people.”
“The intention is to make the rules clear for the main parties involved in the contest, in other words, the party websites. These are the areas we are mainly after.”
“I thank Mr Chiam for reminding me about his question. On listening to his speech, I was under the impression that he was asking whether this ban on opinion polls applies to the mass media. The answer is yes, it applies to all media, not just the Internet but also newspapers, TV and so on. Thank you for pointing this out.”
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“The Government has long recognised the importance of developing our people to their maximum potential. This is reflected in the upgrading of our schools, the rapid expansion of university and polytechnic education and the restructuring of the ITE into a post-secondary training institution. The enrolment of undergraduates in the NTU, formerly the NTI, has increased five-fold over the past 10 years, from about 2,000 in 1984 to about 10,000 today. It is targeted to increase to about 15,000 undergraduates by the year 2000. NUS, as a more mature university, has increased its undergraduate enrolment from about 13,000 in 1984 to about 15,000 today. It will increase to about 17,000 over the next few years. It is also taking in more postgraduates, 1,200 in 1984 increasing to about 3,000 today. Total enrolment of undergraduates in both universities has doubled, from 13,000 in 1984 to 26,000 today. It will expand to 32,000 in about five years. This will correspond to about 20% of an age cohort. The Government is also providing a grant of $38 million to the Singapore Institute of Management to set up the Open University Degree Programme (OUDP). With an intake of about 1,000 a year, the equivalent full-time enrolment is about 3,000 or about 10% of the NUS and NTU combined enrolment. The OUDP caters to working adults. The expansion of the polytechnic sector has been even more rapid. The number of polytechnics has increased recently from two to four. The total enrolment has more than doubled, from 14,000 in 1984 to 34,000 today. With the completion of the Temasek and Nanyang Polytechnic campuses, total capacity will increase to about 48,000, catering to about 40% of each cohort.”
“That is why I am reluctant to start the classes. So far, we have only one or two requests. But if there are more requests, enough to form a class, maybe we can look at it. Next, I would like to respond to the points raised by Mr Ling How Doong, who is not here, about the scholarships for the independent schools. He said that the scholarships should be linked not only to academic performance but also to the financial status of the students. I must inform him that these scholarships are meant to encourage effort and excellence. And the scholarships are not only available for independent schools but also for all secondary schools in Singapore, including the normal stream, for the top 10% of the students in all secondary schools to encourage them to excel in their studies. For those who are needy, eg, in the independent schools, there is a different financial assistance scheme which is already available. And many students, I think about 20% of the students in independent schools, are benefiting from financial assistance. This provides for the children from families with incomes below $800 per month to receive a 100% waiver of independent school fees. If the income is between $800 and $1,400, then the subsidy level is 75%. In other words, they pay one-quarter of the fees. If the income level is between $1,400 and $2,000 per month, then they have to pay half the fees. So we have different schemes for different purposes. Similarly, for the Government schools at all levels, there is a financial assistance scheme for needy pupils. Next, the question of manpower planning in tertiary education is an important issue concerning many of us and therefore I would like to take some time on this topic.”
“Next, I would like to turn to the question raised by Dr Ow Chin Hock concerning the study of Chinese as a third language by non-Chinese pupils. He referred to my letter of reply to him concerning such a request from a Malay parent. Let me explain the situation. The option to study a third language is given to the top 10% of pupils in the PSLE. They do a first language English, second language mother tongue and a third language. They study the third language from Secondary 1 to Secondary 4 and sit for the paper at `O' level. It is not an appreciation course. It is actually at `O' level. MOE's experience shows that it is not easy, on top of the seven, eight, or even nine subjects which such students do. Many drop out even before Secondary 4 so that the final number taking `O' level is small. This applies to students studying German, French and Japanese. Similarly, only 10 students did Malay as a third language at `O' level. I think Members can understand that it is even more difficult for a non-Chinese to study Chinese in four years and sit the `O' level paper. 2.30 pm The other consideration is a practical one. Are there sufficient non-Chinese students really interested for us to form a class for them? There is really no objection in principle but it is just whether it is a practical idea. It sounds very good, but can we really do it? There are three times as many Chinese students as non-Chinese students in Singapore. In the top 10%, there are even fewer non-Chinese students by proportion. If only 10 Chinese students are interested in Malay elective, how many non-Chinese students are interested in Chinese, even given the current Chinese fever? I think the number is probably less than 10. It is basically a practical consideration.”
“Unfortunately, they have not been successful in finding suitable persons to carry out supporting duties. My Ministry is looking into various means to lighten the workload on teachers. Fax machines and personal computers have already been supplied to schools. Other labour-saving equipment, such as heavy duty photocopiers have also been provided. Timetabling for ECA and other non-teaching duties will be done to facilitate closer monitoring and distribution of workload among teachers. The Ministry has been constantly looking into ways to raise the morale and image of the teaching profession. For example, our advertising and publicity efforts are creating a greater public awareness of the contributions made by the teaching profession. Such publicity has helped to attract a larger number of recruits to join the teaching service. More opportunities have also been created for overseas training, both for graduate and non-graduate teachers. There has been an increase in the number of teaching bursaries and teaching scholarships awarded to good `A' level holders. More than 120 teaching scholarships were given out in 1993. The other important factor, of course, is the salary and here we have made significant adjustments, especially to starting salaries. For example, for a good honours graduate with post-graduate Diploma in Education, the starting pay has been raised by about $325 per month, from $1,882 to $2,207. I hope that with the salary revision, more graduates and more `A' level holders will decide to take up the teaching profession. We, in the Ministry, will continue to do our best to improve the terms of service of the teaching profession as far as possible.”
“First, I would like to take up this point about enhancing the education service. This was raised by Mr Sinnakaruppan. I think all of us would like to see that our teachers and other educational officers are well paid and well motivated so that they will do their best in carrying out their noble task of educating our children. My Ministry has, over the years, improved the pay scales and promotional opportunities of the teaching profession. Graduate Education Officers have been accorded Division I status since 1971 and their salaries have been pegged to the professional service scales since 1982. In 1990, the higher grades of SEO 1A (Senior Education Officer 1A) and SEO 2A were created for graduate and non-graduate Education Officers, respectively. Some principals have also been placed on Superscale grades. With effect from January this year, two new intermediate grades of GEO 1A (General Education Officer 1A) and GEO 2A for graduate and non-graduate Education Officers, respectively, have been introduced to further improve promotional prospects in the teaching service. Most teachers remain as teachers on their long basic scales throughout their careers. With the new intermediate scales, deserving teachers can be promoted even whilst they remain as teachers. I think many teachers will welcome this. But we will have to see how it works out in practice. We are discussing with the Education Service how to go about this massive exercise. The problem of workload on teachers has been a perennial problem and they complain that they have to do quite a few non-teaching duties. The problem here is basically shortage of clerical and other supporting staff, not only in schools, but in Singapore as a whole. My Ministry has provided funds to schools to buy services of supporting staff.”
“Sir, as we have taken up more time than expected for the first item today, may I suggest that we allow more time for the first cut because there are still a lot of issues not answered. The subsequent issues will take less time because they are relatively simple issues.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to report that the Committee of Supply has made further progress on the Estimates for the financial year 1994/1995, and ask leave to sit again tomorrow.”
“Next, the question of attracting foreign students to Singapore. This was addressed by Prof. Walter Woon. I agree with him that we should continue to attract foreign students to Singapore and this is what we have been doing for so many years. As he should know himself, being a university lecturer, there are quite a few students from Malaysia and elsewhere in our universities. In fact, without removing places from our students who qualify, we try and provide up to 20% of the places in the universities for foreign students. Besides this, we also have foreign students in our school system, all the way from primary 1 to JC level. At present, there are about 18,000 foreign students in our school system, representing about some 4% of our schooling population. Of course, whilst we want to attract these people, we must bear in mind also that it costs us money. That is why recently we had to revise the fees for the foreign students. But even with the revision, the subsidy for the school students from overseas is about 50% of the operating cost.”
“This was a very unfortunate incident. It is the first time it has happened after so many years of collaboration with Cambridge. As you know, Cambridge has awarded the 250 affected students moderated grades based on their performance in their school's preliminary examinations and other relevant information. Those who decide to retake the paper could do so in April and the better of the two grades will be taken as the final grade. This is the best that could be done for the students under the circumstances. However, this isolated incident should not lead us to take precipitate action to cut our long-established links with Cambridge. I am confident that Cambridge will do its utmost to prevent such incidents from recurring in future. There are certain advantages in maintaining our links with Cambridge. Firstly, the Cambridge GCE certificates are recognised world-wide. Secondly, there is less possibility of bias in having examiners outside Singapore to set the examinations and mark the scripts. Thirdly, Cambridge examiners have a wealth of expertise and experience in this field and the examination questions are usually original and of high quality. Fourthly, despite the recent incident, the security of the examinations has been generally very good. There are also some practical considerations which we have to bear in mind, such as whether we have sufficient qualified manpower to take over the job and what measures we will need to take to minimize the risk of bias in the marking of scripts if we are to handle the examinations ourselves. On the other hand, setting the examinations ourselves will give us greater control and enable us to develop our own expertise. My Ministry has to study this issue carefully before a decision can be made.”
“Before we plunge into compulsory education, we should look at what is happening in other countries. I think UK is a good example. It says here, "The Police fear growing tide of exclusions." They have a term there called "exclusion". Education is compulsory but the schools suspend the pupils or turf them out in some cases because they just cannot handle them any more, with crime and so on. So there is this term "exclusion" from schools. My counterpart in the UK, Mr Patten, different from the one in Hong Kong, this is John Patten who is embroiled in a row over truancy. There is a picture here of a policewoman interviewing a truant who is smoking away and enjoying himself out of school. In the UK, the students themselves have a term for this. They call this "wagging" out. When they skip school whenever they like it, they call it "wagging", and it is on the rise, despite all these efforts of compulsory education, and despite deploying their Police Force to go running after these children. As I said before, we can have legislation. We have legislation against littering but people still litter. In fact, we have to introduce the corrective work order to shame these people so that they will not litter. But I am sure if we go round the housing estates, we still find litter. So let us not always depend on the law to solve our problems. We must go after the root causes - why are children dropping out - and tackle them at that level. In some ways, it is in fact more difficult than just passing the law. We can pass a law here very easily. But is it necessary? The next question I want to answer concerns the recent loss of examination scripts in the UK postal service by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate which I will call "Cambridge", for short.”
“All these measures and others I have mentioned are positive measures which are aimed at tackling the root causes of the drop-out problem. Pupils drop out of school for various reasons, such as inability to keep up with their studies, family problems, financial difficulties or job inducement without regard to long-term prospects. We should help the pupils to overcome these problems rather than depend on legislative enforcement to compel unwilling or unable pupils to remain in school against their will. Parents in Singapore value education as the means to improve their children's livelihood. Our dropout rate among primary school pupils is already very low and compares well with countries with compulsory education. For example, in Germany, where education is compulsory, the proportion of grade 1 pupils who remain in grade 4 is 97%. The corresponding figure for Singapore is 98.6%. So even though we do not have compulsory education, the retention rate up to the P4 level is higher in Singapore than in Germany despite their compulsory education. Nevertheless, my Ministry is collaborating with community self-help groups to further reduce the dropout rate. Making education compulsory will not necessarily reduce the dropout rate nor will it improve education. In the UK, where education is compulsory until children are 16 years old, schools still face the problem of high truancy and low pupil motivation. There is therefore no pressing need for us to make education compulsory in Singapore. We should concentrate on improving the quality of education and reducing the dropout rate further. At this point, maybe I could just refer you to a recent article which I read in the Times Education Supplement of the UK. This is dated 19th November 1993. It is a very recent article.”
“For the previous six cohorts, the secondary level dropout rate was also about 4%, ie, it has stablised for the previous few batches. Subsequent batches are still in secondary school. Nevertheless, the data show that the dropout rates at lower secondary level have also improved steadily. What about the latest figures for last year and the year before? For the first nine months of 1992, about 1,600 pupils dropped out of school from all levels, P1 to Sec. 5. This was for the period January-September 1992, 1,600 pupils. For the same period last year, the number was 1,100. So clearly, there has been an improvement. With increasing focus and attention, with the teachers doing their best, with the cooperation of the community self-help groups, we have been able to shrink the size of this problem. My Ministry and the schools are taking a more pro-active approach to further reduce the dropout rate with the help of the community self-help groups. The measures taken include: (1) Remedial lessons for the under-achievers and pastoral care for those with personal or family problems. (2) Counselling of potential dropouts and their parents by teachers and principals. (3) Training of education officers and community volunteers to improve their counselling skills. (4) Special attention to schools with high dropout rates and lessons learnt are applied to other schools. (5) Remission of fees and other assistance to needy pupils. (6) Greater flexibility to allow dropouts to rejoin the school system. (7) Introduction of a buddy system where the potential drop-outs are linked up with older pupils or with classmates to help them along. They could also be under the care of teachers.”
“This is for the 1981 cohort, ie, the children who entered P1 in 1981 and that is the latest batch that has gone through our system. 5.45 pm If we look at subsequent cohorts after the P1 cohort of 1981, the drop-out rate at primary level has declined steadily, from 2.6% for the 1981 cohort to 1.7% for the 1985 cohort. There has been a decrease of about one percentage point, from 2.6% for the 1981 cohort to 1.7% for the 1985 cohort. Subsequent cohorts will take the modified PSLE and most of the pupils will be placed in secondary schools after six years in primary school. From P1 to P6, the dropout rate has been very low and has improved further over the years. The P1 to P6 dropout rate was 0.8% or 340 pupils for the 1981 P1 cohort - I repeat, 340 pupils from P1 to P6. They did not complete the six years. This is for the 1981 batch. It has improved to 0.4% or 154 pupils for the 1988 P1 cohort. So we can see that with efforts being taken and with parents conscious as they are of the importance of education, the problem has been shrinking. It does not mean that we should be complacent. We should do more, but we must look at the problem in perspective. With the modification of the school system, in fact, we should now be looking more at the secondary level, those who are going on to the Normal (Technical) stream. We should make sure that the course is relevant for them, interesting for them, and try our best to keep them in school for at least 10 years before they proceed to training with ITE and so forth. Let us look at the secondary level. The cumulative dropout rate from Sec. 1 to Sec. 5 was 4.1% for the cohort that entered P1 in 1981. It is the same cohort I spoke about.”
“Sir, I would first like to thank all Members who have spoken for their keen interest in the Ministry of Education. This keen interest shown by Members and also by the public augurs well for the future of Singapore because we all realise that education is really the key to the future. I would like to try and answer some of the issues raised today but mainly to do with the school dropout problem, compulsory education, the `O' and `A' level examinations and some other issues to do with university education. My colleagues will have to help me out with some of the other issues, as there are so many being raised today. Firstly, on this question of school dropouts, we have discussed this before in this Chamber and I think it is good that we are discussing this again today because it is an important issue and one which we should pay keen attention to. All of us are concerned with minimising the number of pupils who drop out from schools. So there is no disagreement on that. It is only a question of what methods to use in our context. Although we do not have compulsory education, our dropout rate is low. Let me give you some data. Under the old system, a pupil could take, in an extreme case, eight years to complete primary school and five years secondary school, making a total of 13 years. Most students do it in 10 years. The latest batch that has gone through this system entered Primary 1 in 1981. Out of the 42,000 children in this cohort, only 1,100, or 2.6%, did not complete primary school, mostly leaving school at P7 and P8. These were mostly the slower pupils, the monolinguals and the extended stream pupils. About 1,700, or 4.1%, did not complete secondary school, making a total of 2,800, or 6.7%, of the cohort who did not make it to `O' levels.”
“Statutory Boards This revision does not apply automatically to Statutory Boards. As established in the last revision in 1989, Statutory Board salaries should also be in line with overall market levels. Statutory Board revisions, if any, should be settled in consultation with their controlling Ministries.”
“This raised the pension liability of Government proportionately, and resulted in civil servants enjoying less of the benefits of the increase while in service rather than after retirement. Government has decided to make salary increases in this and subsequent revisions non-pensionable. Salary increases will be paid as a Non-Pensionable Component (NPC). This NPC will, however, attract full CPF, even for pensionable officers. Civil servants will therefore not lose out. The public sector unions have expressed to the Government their concern that the new scheme should not disadvantage officers who are nearing retirement age, and had expected to retire with the old medical benefits. This group may not accumulate sufficient extra CPF on the Non-Pensionable Component of their salaries before they retire to cover their expected higher co-payment for medical services after retirement. To address this problem, the Government will pay in-service pensionable officers who retire after 1st January 1994 and receive medical benefits in kind an additional 1% of their salary into their Medisave accounts each month after their retirement, as for officers on the Medisave cum Subsidised Outpatients (MSO) scheme. PSD calculates that this will be sufficient to cover the additional co-payments of most pensioners and their dependants. Officers in the five Designated Services are recruited on pensionable terms, even though all other civil servants are now recruited on full CPF. We do not intend to erode the margin which pensionable officers in these five services enjoy over non-pensionable officers who are earning the same salaries but are on full CPF. We are reviewing the superannuation terms of the Designated Services to bring them up to date and in line with these changes.”
“Uniformed Services Salaries for the Uniformed Services will be adjusted using internal relativities as they have no equivalent in the private sector. Relativities between these services and the rest of the Civil Service will be maintained. Uniformed officers will continue to enjoy a premium over their counterparts with similar qualifications in the rest of the Civil Service. The SAF will be making its own adjustments in line with the Civil Service revision. Clerical Service The Clerical Service faces a shrinking pool of "O" and "N" level school leavers. This has driven starting salaries in the private sector up, not only for clerks, but also for salespersons and factory operators. Salary adjustments are thus only interim measures to alleviate the chronic shortage faced by Ministries. Starting salaries are raised about 19% to facilitate recruitment. Overall increase is 8%. A new apex of Senior Clerical Officer (Special Grade) is added to cater to the career development of outstanding Clerical Officers. Division IV and Daily-rated Employees All Civil Service Division IV and DRE salary scales, except those in the Uniformed Services, are covered by Collective Agreements (CAs). Generally, our starting salaries are above the median compared to approximate equivalents in private sector CAs (1991/92). Average salary adjustments for this group will be 5% to 13%. However, the unions have pointed out that their concern is not just with average salaries, but also with the maximum points. PSD has confirmed that Division IV and DRE maximum salaries are below private sector levels by between 20% to 30%. We are therefore adjusting the maximum salary points by 8% to 28%. Limiting Pension Liability In previous salary revisions, increases went into pensionable emoluments.”
“The fundamental reason is that the Service is still structured as a non-graduate Service, even though for over a decade Executive Service recruits have been almost exclusively graduates. Drastic changes are necessary. The present career salary track of the Executive Service is comparable to only the income of the lower quartile of Pass graduates in the private sector. We cannot hope to get the better graduates with such terms. We will therefore raise the career benchmark for the Executive Service to median private sector incomes of Pass graduates, in the first instance. A salary structure nearer the Professional Services salary scales will be adopted. Performance bonus rates will also follow the Professional Services. The apex grade will be raised to Superscale G from the present Upper Timescale. The graduate recruitment grade of the Executive Service will have the largest increase of 20% as it is furthest out of line with the private sector. Pass (Merit) graduates will have a higher starting salary than Pass degree graduates. All graduates will henceforth be recruited into Division I. The overall increase for the Service is 15%. The Departmental Services such as the Labour Service and Welfare Service, which have similar structures and problems, will get similar adjustments. Education Service In the Education Service, Superscale salaries and performance bonuses will have the same revisions as the Professional Services. Overall increase for the Education Service is 7%. New grades will be introduced to give teachers better promotion prospects. Progression guidelines comparable to those in the Professional Services will be worked out for graduates in the Education Service, so that officers with high potential will not be held back.”
“As with the Administrative Service, the revisions will be divided between salary increases and higher performance bonuses. MPs_ allowance will be increased by 13%. The new salaries are shown in Annex B. Judges have hitherto received a fixed bonus of one month in lieu of a performance bonus. After the revision, they will receive a variable performance bonus of between 0 and 6 months, like Ministers and Administrative Officers. The amount of the bonus will be determined by the Chief Justice. The Chief Justice has been consulted and supports this change. In addition, the Government is revising the allowance payable to Legislative Assistants (LAs) and Secretarial Assistants (SAs) to MPs. LAs are presently paid $500 per month, and SAs $250 per month. These will be increased by 10%, to $550 for LAs and $275 for SAs. Professional Services Superscale salaries in the Professional Services will be increased by the same amount as that for the Superscalers in the Administrative Service. Performance bonus rates for superscale officers will go up to 0 - 2 months from the current 0 - 1.5 months. Performance bonuses will also be extended to the Upper Timescale grade, but only for officers at the maximum salary point. The range will be 0 - 1.5 months. This will serve as an incentive for continuing good performance. Finally, the Professional Services will have faster promotions based on the same progression guidelines as for the Administrative Service. The overall total increase for the Professional Services averages 8%. Executive Service The Executive Service suffers from high turnover. Recruits are leaving in alarming numbers: half to two-thirds of each cohort is lost within 3 to 4 years of recruitment.”
“In the 4 years since the last salary revision, between 1989 and 1992, the Annual Group Increment for Timescale officers has averaged 3% per year, or 12% in total. Timescale officers have therefore received 12% basic wage increase, while Superscale officers have had basic wages frozen. These adjustments, while substantial, will still not be enough to restore the relativity between Administrative Service and private sector salaries which prevailed after the last salary revision in 1989. For example, immediately after the 1989 revision, the salary of a Superscale C Permanent Secretary ranked behind 360 wage earners in the private sector. Since then, the ranking of Superscale C has fallen to 1,000. This revision will only restore it to 500. The other Designated Services, i.e. the Administrative Service (Foreign Service Branch), Intelligence Service and Police (Senior) have similar salary terms as the Administrative Service. They will receive similar salary adjustments, and the same changes to their performance bonus. Salaries of Political, Judicial and Other Statutory Appointments Government is also adjusting the salaries of political, judicial and other statutory appointments. The need to match salaries with job responsibility and with the going rate in the private sector applies equally to political as to civil service appointments. It is crucial to attract honest, committed and competent men and women to become Ministers, MPs and Judges. The competence and integrity of the whole system of government depends on them. Political and judicial salaries are pegged to Superscale salaries in the Administrative Service. Their revisions will hence be of the same order, i.e. between 20% and 35%.”
“These losses are difficult to make up, because the Service cannot easily recruit officers mid-stream from the private sector. Since the 1989 revision, private sector benchmark salaries have outpaced the Administrative Service by between 25% and 50%. Substantial adjustments will therefore be made to Administrative Service salaries. On average Administrative Service salaries will increase by 20%. Can I now ask the Clerk to distribute Annexes (Cols. 1277 - 1282) A, B and C? These give the new basic salary ranges for the Administrative Service. [Copies of Annexes distributed to hon. Members.] Annexes - ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE, POLITICAL, JUDICIAL AND OTHER STATUTORY APPOINTMENTS (Cols. 1277 - 1282) The new basic salary ranges for the Administrative Service are in Annex A. However, this represents only part of the adjustment. We are also increasing the maximum quantum of the performance bonus. This will strengthen the link between pay and performance. a. Basic salary increase for Superscale C and above will average 15%. The performance bonus will increase the present 0 - 2 months to 0 - 6 months. The total increase will average 34%. b. Other Superscale grades will have a 10% basic salary increase. Their performance bonus will go up from 0 - 2 months to 0 - 4 months, bringing their overall increase to 21%. c. Timescale officers will average 9% basic salary increase. Upper Timescale officers, who previously did not receive performance bonuses, will now receive performance bonuses of 0 - 3 months. The total increase for Timescale officers will average 15%. The adjustments are larger for Superscale officers than for Timescale officers, because Superscale officers do not have annual increments, unlike Timescale officers.”
“Actual increases will vary considerably across services and even between different grades in the same service. For example, the Executive Service needs a major salary adjustment. It is far out of line with its private sector benchmarks. In addition, it needs to be restructured to keep up with changes in expectations and recruitment. The Clerical Service will also have significant adjustments, particularly for the recruitment grade. Salaries of ministers, judges and senior Administrative Officers are pegged to earnings of top executives in the private sector. These government salaries have increased only by 6.5% since the last salary revision, compared to a 46% increase in private sector salaries over the corresponding period. We therefore need major adjustments to top public sector salaries. Overall Increases Overall, Civil Service salaries will be raised by an average of 7.1%. The average increase for officers in Division I is 7.8%, Div II is 6.3%, Div III is 7.1% and Div IV/DREs is 8.4%. Administrative Service The Administrative Service is one of our key institutions. It comprises the top administrators in the Civil Service. Administrative Officers formulate and implement Government policies under the direction of the political leadership. They play a vital role in running the country and the economy. They must maintain the highest levels of commitment and integrity. In terms of ability, Administrative Officers must be equal to, if not better than, the best private sector executives. The private sector knows the quality of the Administrative Service, and is willing to pay a premium to get promising Administrative Officers to join their firms. Whenever the salary gap with the private sector has widened, the Administrative Service has lost many good officers.”
“On average Civil Service incomes can be somewhat lower than the private sector, because the Civil Service offers more certain and less volatile careers. However, we cannot allow this margin to grow too wide. Civil Service salaries must keep pace with the private sector, although they will not lead the private sector. The last general salary revision was in 1989. Since then private sector incomes have grown considerably faster than civil service incomes. This revision is to enable the Civil Service to catch up with the private sector, and restore the relativity between the two. Over and above catching up with the private sector, we are further increasing salaries to offset the impact of the revised medical benefits package on serving officers. The additional amount averages 0.5% for Division I and II officers, and 1% for Division III and IV officers and DREs. This is sufficient as PSD estimates that the higher co-payments will amount to only an extra 0.2% of Division I and II salaries, and 0.5% of Division III, Division IV and DRE salaries. This adjustment will ensure that taking the revised salaries in total, serving officers will be better off after 1st January 1994 than before, despite having to make higher co-payments for medical services. The 1989 revision was based on private sector incomes in 1987, because of the lag in gathering income tax data. This revision is based on 1991 data. This two- to three-year lag makes the comparisons conservative. The Civil Service has a wide and complex range of jobs. Thus the salary revision cannot be uniform across the Civil Service. We will make separate and distinct adjustments for each service as determined by appropriate private sector benchmarks.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, my Ministry is not leaving it to clan organisations, CDAC, and so on. Our schools are the front-line. As soon as they find out that a child has been missing school, they will track down the child, persuade the child, meet the parents, and so on. If the child has problems, maybe financial problems, we refer him to charitable organisations to try to help him out. So we are doing the best we can. But we do not think that we need a law in Singapore because our purpose has been achieved. Many countries have laws for compulsory education but they have not been able to implement it and their drop-out rates are in fact way higher than in Singapore. CIVIL SERVICE SALARY REVISION (Statement by the Deputy Prime Minister) 1.22 pm BG Lee Hsien Loong: Mr Speaker, Sir, Government will revise salaries of civil servants, judges and ministers with effect from 1st January 1994. In successive revisions, the Government has established the principle that it will pay civil servants and ministers the rate for the job. Two factors make this an urgent imperative. Firstly, while Singaporeans are prepared to serve the Government, they expect to be paid fair wages, commensurate with their responsibilities, as determined by the market. Unless we pay civil servants and ministers market rates, the quality of the Civil Service and the political leadership will deteriorate rapidly. Secondly, the Civil Service has been shifting from pensions to CPF, in line with private sector practice. This makes it easier to hire civil servants, but also makes it easier for them to leave for other jobs. The Government cannot match private sector incomes dollar for dollar.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, Mr Chiam should check his figures before he makes a sweeping statement like that. The number of the lowly educated in our workforce is high because of the aged workers. Many of the older workers did not have the chance to go through 10 years of schooling. That is why, in proportion, it is quite a big number. But the number of drop-outs every year from school in our system is actually very small. And we are doing our best according to the methods that we think will work, which are counselling, improving the teaching methods, remedial lessons, working with the clan organisations, and so on. So it is not true that we are not doing anything.”
“Sir, I think we all share the same concern that we should educate our children to the maximum and make sure that most of our children go through 10 years of schooling. That is the purpose of our improved education system. For example, under the revision that we have implemented, from next year onwards, most of the primary school children will go on to secondary school. So there should be very few primary school drop-outs. The key point is the method. How do we do it? Do we do it by persuasion? Do we do it by counselling, by making sure that children learn in school? Or do we do it by force of law? We can have a law against littering, but people are still littering. We can have a law against illegal parking, but people are still parking illegally. What is the method that we want?”
“Sir, on the contrary, you may know where a person lives, but if a child runs away to some shopping centre, for example, you need to have a whole army of officers to track down such truants, as was the case in the UK. Fair enough, you know where these people are living, but do you really need to go and chase after them? I think it is better for us to counsel the parents, counsel the children, help them with their studies and make them stay in school.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, the answer is still no, because our situation is under control although the press has highlighted a few cases of children who have missed out on schooling. If voluntary welfare organisations know about these cases, they should refer them to my Ministry and we will do our best to facilitate their entry into school. But we should not treat this as if it is a rampant situation. There could only be a handful of cases. My Ministry will study further this number and see whether it is big. The key point is that you can compel a child to be in school but you cannot make him learn. Although many countries have compulsory education, in practice, they are not able to implement it and the drop-out rate is extremely high, for example, in developed countries.”
“Sir, as I have said, I think most of these children are actually overseas. We do not know for sure, because we have no tracking system. But we will study whether there is some way that we can try and find out who these parents are from the records of births and deaths and from records of children who have registered in our schools. This will require some study. Under our situation where most parents know the value of education, I think there is probably only a handful of children who have not registered in schools for reasons other than being overseas.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, my Ministry can look into this suggestion.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, we do not know the actual breakdown of this number. I suspect that most of these children are living overseas with their parents. Either the parents are working overseas or they have migrated. We do not have the actual figures, but I suspect that the number of parents who have omitted to register their children in school is extremely small.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, the numbers of children who reached school-going age in 1990 to 1993 but did not register to attend any school in Singapore are as follows: Year of attending Number of children who Primary One classes did not attend Singapore school 1990 80 1991 243 1992 366 1993 347 These figures include children who are living with their parents overseas. These parents could be working overseas or they might have emigrated but not changed their citizenship status yet.”
“The Ministry makes a conscious effort in the writing of its instructional materials not to stereotype sex roles. This is reflected in packages such as Home Economics, Civics and Moral Education and the Languages. However, certain roles in society have traditionally been male or female because they are more suited to either sex. It would be unrealistic and unwise to present them otherwise, pretend that differences do not exist, or attempt to change the natural state of affairs by rewriting textbooks. ROLE AND FUNCTION OF WOMEN'S WELFARE SERVICE UNIT. 7. Dr Kanwaljit Soin asked the Minister for Community Development what is the role and function of the Women's Welfare Service Unit and what has it done so far?”
“For the first 9 months of this year, 47,000 students have utilized their Edusave money. This represents 14% of the number of students with Edusave accounts. GENDER REPRESENTATION IN WRITING OF TEXTBOOKS 6. Dr Kanwaljit Soin asked the Minister for Education whether his Ministry is making a concerted effort towards a more balanced and gender equitable representation of male and female roles in the writing of textbooks and, if not, why not.”
“(a) Students at the upper secondary level are required to study 5 core subjects comprising English Language, Mother Tongue, Elementary Mathematics, a Humanities subject and a Science subject. In addition, they may, according to their ability and inclination, offer at the GCE `O' level examinations, 1 to 4 elective subjects taken from among the Arts, Commerce, Science and Technical groups of subjects. Among the students taking the 1993 `O' level examination, girls comprise 50% of the candidature in the Science stream, 61% in the Arts stream, 63% in the Commerce stream and 20% in the Technical stream. There are as many girls as boys in the Science stream. There are more girls in the Arts and Commerce streams and fewer of them in the Technical stream. The situation reflects the different choices made by boys and girls. However, the percentage of girls to the Technical stream has risen from 11% in 1990 to 20% in 1993 and may increase further as more girls take up Technical Studies at the lower secondary level. (b) There are enough classes in the 16 girls' schools to cater to students with an aptitude for Science. This year, 68% of the 116 `O' level classes in these schools are Science classes. UTILISATION OF EDUSAVE ACCOUNTS IN 1993 5. Dr Kanwaljit Soin asked the Minister for Education what percentage of the individual Edusave accounts has been utilised by students in 1993 (up to the latest convenient date) and what is the number of students (as a percentage of the cohort) who have utilised their accounts.”
“In the 1992 PSLE, 5.2% of the cohort (ie 2053 candidates) was retained. Another 1398 candidates (3.6% of the cohort) who were too old to be retained in primary schools were invited to join the Institute of Technical Education. Of those who were retained, 2022 sat for the 1993 PSLE. GENDER DISTRIBUTION IN THE VARIOUS STREAMS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 4. Dr Kanwaljit Soin asked the Minister for Education (a) why there are substantially more female students than male students in the Arts and Commerce streams in secondary schools; and (b) whether this indicates that more Science classes have to be made available in the girls' schools?”
“The number of mother tongue officers selected for overseas training has increased from 18 in 1992 to 26 in 1993. During the recent June holidays, 12 Chinese Language teachers and specialists were sent to PRC to attend a course while 6 Tamil Language teachers and specialists were sent to India to attend a course. In addition, 4 Malay Language officers would be attending conferences in Indonesia and Malaysia this year.”
“Newly-recruited mother tongue teachers have to undergo pre-service training at the National Institute of Education (NIE) before they are appointed to the Education Service. Serving teachers have opportunities to attend in-service courses, workshops and seminars to upgrade their content knowledge and teaching skills. NIE conducts three pre-service language specialisation programmes to train mother tongue teachers. They are: The Diploma in Education (with specialisation in mother tongue) for teaching in primary schools. The Postgraduate Diploma in Education (with specialisation in mother tongue) for teaching in primary schools. The Postgraduate Diploma in Education (with specialisation in mother tongue and literature) for teaching in secondary schools. In addition, NIE also offers a degree course leading to the award of Bachelor of Arts with Diploma in Education. Students may read Chinese Language as one of the two academic subjects they have to offer, together with studies in the Teaching of Chinese. All the three programmes for pre-service training are designed to prepare students to teach Chinese, Malay or Tamil at both the first language and the second language levels in schools. At present, the Ministry of Education organises in-service courses conducted by NIE lecturers and other local trainers to upgrade the skills of serving mother tongue teachers. MOE will increase the variety of local in-service programmes for mother tongue teachers by recruiting trainers from abroad to conduct the training courses. The Ministry also sends mother tongue teachers and specialists for short courses, seminars and conferences in the PRC, Malaysia, Indonesia and India for further training to enable them to keep abreast of the latest language and educational developments.”
“The annual percentage of foreign students in the various tertiary institutions from 1990 to 1992 is shown in the table below: Year Institution 1990 1991 1992 National University of Singapore 8.8% 8.8% 9.2% Nanyang Technological University 14.3% 11.2% 9.7% Singapore Polytechnic 4.2% 4.4% 4.7% Ngee Ann Polytechnic 3.8% 4.0% 4.4% Temasek Polytechnic 1.6% 3.6% 3.6% *Nanyang Polytechnic -- -- 13% *Nanyang Polytechnic started functioning in 1992. ADMINISTRATIVE COST OF THE SINGAPORE GENERAL HOSPITAL 3. Dr Kanwaljit Soin asked the Minister for Health what is the administrative cost per annum of running the Singapore General Hospital as a percentage of the total cost of running the hospital.”
“The required information is given in the table below: BREAKDOWN OF STUDENTS IN JUNIOR COLLEGES BY COURSE, SEX AND YEAR Course Sex 1990 1991 1992 No. % No. % No. % Arts Male 1139 28.4 984 27.1 878 27.0 Female 2867 71.6 2642 72.9 2369 73.0 Total 4006 100 3626 100 3247 100 Science Male 7903 61.6 7395 61.6 6919 60.6 Female 4923 38.4 4616 38.4 4494 39.4 Total 12826 100 12011 100 11413 100 Commerce Male 1303 25.9 1307 26.9 1101 26.6 Female 3725 74.1 3552 73.1 3045 73.4 Total 5028 100 4859 100 4146 100 Total Male 10345 47.3 9686 47.3 8898 47.3 Female 11515 52.7 10810 52.7 9908 52.7 Total 21860 100 20496 100 18806 100 PRECENTAGE OF FOREIGN STUDENTS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS 2. Dr Kanwaljit Soin asked the Minister for Education what was the annual percentage of foreign students in the various tertiary institutions from 1990 to 1992.”
“Sir, I think the Member is referring to recent press reports about parents who made false statutory declarations about foster help or leaving their children with families in the neighbourhood of popular schools. There were some who also had addresses nearby and these were suspect. My Ministry has come out with a press statement. We take a serious view of such matters. We are still in the process of investigating. If there are any cases that are found to have abused the system, we will follow up with appropriate action. We are also in the process of reviewing the guidelines to see whether from next year there should be some changes to avoid such abuses. COLLISION OF MRT TRAINS AT CLEMENTI STATION 5. Mr Chiam See Tong asked the Minister for Communications what safety measures he has taken following the collision of two Mass Rapid Transit trains at Clementi Station recently.”
“Sir, as 1992 was the transition year, it is appropriate to compare the registration exercise in 1993 under the revised registration scheme with that in 1991 under the previous scheme. The new registration scheme focuses on the child's educational needs. It is desirable for siblings to study in the same school. Thus, the highest priority or Phase 1 is for a child with a sibling in the same school. In 1993, the percentage registered under Phase 1 is 41% as compared to 37% in 1991. The increase of four percentage points indicates that more children will study in the same primary school as their brothers and sisters. This is as it should be. Phases 2A and 2B provide for children with other school connections. Previously, it also gave priority to children whose parents had followed various family planning policies. The percentage registered under these phases has declined from 15% in 1991 to 13% in 1993. Schools are thus admitting more children who live in the neighbourhood. Mr Lew Syn Pau (Tanglin): Mr Speaker, Sir, I understand from reports in the press that some parents abused the new system by falsely declaring their place of residence, or that their children are fostered out. Would the Minister tell the House whether this was a serious problem and, if so, how he intends to prevent such recurrences in the future?”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I think he can just go back and read the letter of termination. It is full of grounds for termination. He said that "dishonesty" was mentioned three times and "admitted" was mentioned four times. So all the causes are there. It is just that the University wants to follow its past practice of dealing with such cases, like the case of the staff member who went into a neighbouring house and made the phone calls. So he was allowed to resign. Even the staff who was dishonest with $11,000 was given termination notice. An hon. Member: Same clause?”
“Can I just clarify one point? Mr Chiam keeps claiming that this termination was just an ordinary contractual thing. Both parties are not happy, so there is the right to terminate. Let me just read a paragraph from this letter of termination dated 18th March 1993, which was released to the press and published in full: 'Because of your dishonest conduct, the University in accordance with ... hereby gives you three months' notice ....' "Because of your dishonest conduct" - this is what it says. Is there no cause?”
“I think Mr Chiam should take a deep breath, look at the full facts and decide carefully before saying anything else.”
“Sir, I sympathise with Mr Chiam. He is in a very difficult position. He is a good lawyer and he tries to make a good case. He sets out all the facts. Alas, he has got to defend himself. I will be very generous to him. Maybe he had not known the full facts beforehand and so he had been misled. He had opened his mouth too soon in public. He saw that there was a case for him to attack the PAP. So he went for it. Now he is in a fix. Point No. 1, no clear regulations. I can show him that it is clearly stated in the University (I can hand this copy to the press afterwards) the amounts you can spend, equipment, $2,000; consumables, so much. Are you saying that these rules must contain items that you cannot spend this on your wife's dinner; you cannot spend this on your wife's thesis? This is a professional man who is entrusted with big sums of money to spend on research. You must have the integrity to decide whether it is relevant or not relevant. This is point No. 1 The second point was that the parcel was open, so everybody could see. What does that mean? Is Mrs Chen supposed to recognise, "Oh, this is your wife's thesis, you cannot do it." How can she know? Dr Vasoo may be approving hundreds of cases every month. It has got to be personal integrity. There is no other way. His point about termination, therefore, is wrong. You have the facts, $420. That fellow was ashamed of it. He knew he did wrong, he confessed. Dr Chee does not have the shame in him. You look at the notes of the first meeting. He admitted he had to pay. His immediate reaction was most telling. He went to see Mrs Chen. He found he could not cover up. Then he changed track. Now he dragged in his Professor from Georgia University to try and justify his reasons.”
“He has now been sacked without notice. Now, he can sue. There is no notice. He is sacked. Sue. He does not dare do it. He says it is going to cost a lot of money, but he has got good advisors - two lawyers on his side. They should give him proper advice.”
“He has a sense of shame in him. So he apologised, he paid up and he resigned. But not Dr Chee. Case 2. This is many years back. In 1978, that is 15 years ago, an academic staff member had made false claims from the University in respect of purchases made from Cold Storage Supermarket, Yaohan and certain other places. He had also made claims for the purchase of petrol purportedly to be used for a University boat used for collecting laboratory specimens from the sea. It was discovered that the purchases made from the Cold Storage Supermarket and Yaohan and other places were not purchases meant for his laboratory as he had claimed but in fact were food items for his home consumption. It was further discovered that the petrol he had purchased was not used for the University boat but for his car. By the time he was found out, the false claims that he had made and received from the University amounted to about $11,000. On 12th December 1978, the University terminated his appointment with one month's notice. The University has been quite kind. He also made full restitution of the amount that he had falsely claimed. Sir, we can see from these two instances that the termination of Dr Chee's appointment is nothing unusual. In fact, the University was being kind to him. Now this whole argument has been turned around and Chiam said, "Look, because he has been given notice of termination with compensation, with leniency, therefore the reason must be to avoid charging him in court." That is utter rubbish. If you read the letter of termination, four times he was called "dishonest". If he is an honourable man and an academic, he should go to court and sue for defamation. What is all this excuse that he cannot sue because he has no case. It is utter rubbish. What about the other case?”
“Now that the facts of the case have been revealed, we should ask the SDP whether it still condones Dr Chee's dishonesty and misconduct. The SDP said in its press statement of 1st April: 'The SDP and its Secretary-General have full confidence in Dr Chee. Dr Chee has taken his decision (meaning the hunger strike) because, as a highly principled and deeply religious person, he passionately believes in the truth and in justice which has been denied him.' The SDP and Dr Chee have turned a straightforward disciplinary matter between NUS and Dr Chee into a political issue. Is the SDP so anxious to make political capital out of this case that it fails to differentiate between right and wrong? The SDP must make its position clear so that the public can judge the party for what it is. What is the SDP's view of Dr Chee now? Members have raised a few points which I would like now to explain. The first point raised by both Mr Chiam and Mr Chia Shi Teck is whether I can give examples of previous cases of termination. I can give them two examples. Fortunately, such cases are very rare in the University. So I have only two examples for them. Case 1. The most recent case. In 1992 an academic staff member who was provided with University quarters entered into a neighbouring University housing unit which was vacant to make IDD calls to the United States. When the University received bills from Telecom in respect of the IDD calls made from the vacant unit, it carried out an investigation and caught the academic staff member. The total cost of the IDD calls made from the vacant unit amounted to about $420. This academic staff member resigned within two weeks of being discovered and made full restitution for the amount of money incurred. That is the proper thing to do.”
“Sir, after Dr Chee received the notice of termination and the rejection of his appeal, he has not pursued any of the proper remedies open to him. If he considered that the NUS had breached any of the terms of the Agreement for Service, he could have asked for arbitration as provided for under clause 17 of the Agreement for Service with the University. If he thought NUS' press statement or letters had defamed him, he could sue NUS for defamation, as he had publicly threatened to do. He has done neither. Instead, he has impugned the motives of NUS and sought to work up public feelings against the University. While on leave and receiving remuneration from the NUS, he launched a political attack on the University, declaring himself on hunger strike. He has asked a political party, the SDP, to put pressure on the NUS to withdraw its charge of dishonesty. Such actions by Dr Chee are calculated to bring NUS into disrepute and are wholly unbecoming of a staff member. The NUS cannot ignore such gross misbehaviour which aggravates his original misconduct. It should be noted that Dr Chee remained a staff member and continued to draw a salary from the NUS during the three months' notice period. In view of his gross misconduct, NUS dismissed him on 10th April 1993 with immediate effect, without notice or compensation, in accordance with clause 4(c)(iii) of his Agreement for Service with NUS. Sir, the NUS is fully justified both to terminate Dr Chee's contract for dishonest conduct and subsequently to dismiss him for gross misconduct. NUS must maintain high standards and cannot condone such flagrant misbehaviour from any staff member. The fact that Dr Chee is the Assistant Secretary-General of the SDP is irrelevant.”