Lim Sun Sun
Singapore
“Hitherto, some donors have been reluctant to provide Internet access to needy families, citing fears that they will be vulnerable to online risks such as pornography or gambling. We must therefore introduce more intensive in-school digital literacy programmes to help these children make up for the lack of scaffolding at home.”
“While training sessions are now encouraged to shift online, contractors now need to provide and record a full eight hours of online interaction. However, this does not take into account the fact that online training is more effective when it adopts a mixture of approaches such as flipped learning or blended learning.”
“I believe a targeted programme for unemployed mothers would be very useful in this respect. The Government could also support community efforts and partner with initiatives, such as the Mums@Work, to encourage mothers to remain working and to return to work. Gender Pay Gap”
“I wish to, therefore, conclude by underlining my strong endorsement of the subsidies announced in response to the current COVID-19 crisis. The $4 billion package announced to help workers remain employed through three months of offset wages offer a vital lifeline in current climes.”
“Conversely, an adverse experience from navigating a meandering and fragmented urban landscape will deter them from walking as much as could be possible or desirable. Improving walkability in HDB estates must, therefore, be a key tranche of our overall plans for active mobility and should not be an afterthought.”
“That is the reason why, in my answer, I shared that while the teachers will do one thing, and we are trying to improve ourselves and continue to refine the system, it is also the bigger society, the bigger support system and the people around the kid that will actually enrich and make the whole process holistic for the child in his or her…”
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“On their part, trainees must also pull their weight and not regard the traineeship as a paid sabbatical. They too should be provided with pointers on how they can make the most of their stints and the appropriate mind sets they should adopt to fully benefit from the programme. Fundamentally, the traineeships should offer a combination of substantive skills and career planning competencies that will empower these mid-career jobseekers for their next career move. In this regard, the experience of the Singapore Computer Society’s Career Compass programme offers some valuable lessons. Besides providing training in technical skills relating to growth areas such as AI, cyber security and enterprise architecture, the programme also offers career preparatory training in areas such as professional branding, resume building and interview skills. With a careful and concerted design of SGUnited Mid-Career Traineeship offerings and actionable guidelines for participating companies and trainees, I am hopeful that this scheme can help to prepare mid-career workers for the next phase of their careers. On that optimistic note, I support the Fortitude Budget. 11.51 am”
“The participating companies’ should be supported with instructive guidelines on how best to integrate and upskill their trainees. MOM should provide some flexibility and support for employers across a group of complementary companies to offer cross-training opportunities. For example, career portal Mums@Work has successfully experimented with developing consortia of companies in related industries collaborating to collectively train returning talents so that they can be exposed to a broader swathe of skills. Trainees can thus explore multiple career paths and better identify their transferable strengths in the process. With such innovative arrangements, companies can offer their trainees a wider range of skills upgrading opportunities and support each other without incurring prohibitive overheads. Companies should also be upfront with their trainees about the potential for longer term job prospects or the lack thereof, and share in advance the kinds of post traineeship support they can provide. They should also be more explicit about articulating their criteria for retention if they can afford to increase their headcount. That way, the trainees will not feel like they have been led down the garden path. Besides such substantive issues, the approach that participating companies adopt in hosting these trainees can also make or break a traineeship. There are horror stories of job attachment schemes where mature trainees must sign in daily for a visitor’s pass to enter the company, or who are supervised by very junior colleagues with no managerial experience to speak of. These socio-emotional aspects of mid-career training must be effectively addressed to ensure win-win outcomes for everyone. Above all, the scheme must accord trainees with a sense of purpose and dignity.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the Deputy Prime Minister for his unveiling of the Fortitude budget. This budget is aptly-named because it seeks to fortify support programmes that are urgently needed across all levels of an economy beleaguered by the COVID-19 pandemic. I wish to focus my speech on the welcome support offered via the new SGUnited Mid-Career Traineeship Programme that aims to provide 4,000 traineeships for mid-career unemployed locals. This programme is especially timely as our country goes through rapid digitalisation, now fiercely accelerated by COVID-19. As mature workers, mid-career jobseekers are understandably anxious about the drastic confluence of digital disruptions, outmoded skills and ageism working against them. Compared to fresh graduates, their needs are more complex as many would also be from the sandwich class, juggling lifestage obligations of parenting and eldercare and so their salary expectations are naturally higher. Even though they have an established track record, they will find it harder to pivot, having honed their skills in industries that may be on the decline. And yet, with their maturity and life experience, they still have much to offer our society and ample potential to grow. As the relevant Ministries and agencies work together to operationalise the finer details of this programme, I would like to share insights from industry leaders so that the programme can bring maximum benefit to the trainees and companies participating in this scheme. Principally, industry leaders recommend that expectations of both sides must be carefully managed to heighten mutual understanding and satisfaction with the programme.”
“The recent slew of generous budgetary measures shows that our Government is committed to leaving no one behind. The best way to ensure that everyone gets on the social mobility escalator is to make universal digital access an affordable public utility.”
“Hitherto, some donors have been reluctant to provide Internet access to needy families, citing fears that they will be vulnerable to online risks such as pornography or gambling. We must therefore introduce more intensive in-school digital literacy programmes to help these children make up for the lack of scaffolding at home. But poor digital literacy should not be used as justification to deny low-income families access to a vital resource that the rest of society benefits from. Beyond learning for children, home-based computing will also be essential if low-income adults are to have any real chance to participate in more technology-based training or employment. The progress of our Smart Nation drive has translated into more Government services moving online, thus making digital access even more of a need than a want. In a rapidly digitalising society, comprehensive digital access in the form of wi-fi, devices and technological literacy is a critical social leveller as a conduit for education, upskilling and employment.”
“With our Nationwide Broadband Network successfully in place, extending free home wi-fi to residential areas will not involve more than a concerted coordination with telcos outfitting every home with modems and wireless routers. Indeed, our transition towards 5G provides a strategic opportunity to "reset" our digital infrastructure networks for universal Internet access. The second tranche is ensuring access to computing devices. As those of us who own multiple devices well know, they are not all created equal and some devices are simply more effective for particular functions. As it stands, online learning platforms are optimised for computers or laptops, and not mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. We cannot expect our students from low-income households to simply get by or make do with mobile phones for online learning. Universal provision of computing devices assumes need with less concern over deservingness. Thus, greater universalism could materialise in the form of automatic allocation, as is the case now with Baby Bonus, Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) and Silver Support. Possible channels include building computing provision as part of school registration, ComCare benefits, or WIS. Stepped levels of subsidies according to household income and size of household could also be introduced, similar to the subsidy ladders for childcare and Baby Bonuses. Technology companies should be mobilised to co-fund such provisions as part of their corporate social responsibility efforts. The final tranche is of course digital literacy. Invariably, better-educated parents will be more tech-savvy and can better guide their children's digital access.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the hon Member Ms Anthea Ong for inviting me to speak on this Motion. In her speech, she has vividly captured the wide range of ground difficulties encountered by families on the wrong side of the digital divide. As Leo Tolstoy posited in his renowned novel Anna Karenina: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Indeed, families in Singapore that have struggled with digital access over the circuit breaker period juggling home-based learning and work from home have faced a spectrum of challenges. Some have had no devices, others the wrong kinds of devices, of which many were slow or malfunctioning. And yet others had no Internet connections and still more had limited digital skills. Families on the right side of the digital divide are similarly happy – robust Internet connections, reliable devices, and digital competencies to see them through their online needs for learning, working and transacting. How can we level the playing field as far as such technological needs are concerned? By providing universal digital access. In my commentary published in ChannelNewsAsia today, co-authored with Assoc Prof Irene Ng from the National University of Singapore, we propose a significant paradigm shift – to regard digital access as a public utility, just as we do electricity and water. As far back as nine years ago, in 2011, the United Nations declared Internet access as a human right. With Industry 4.0 pounding at our doors, regarding digital access as a public utility makes eminent sense and will involve three tranches. The first is to make Internet connection universal. Singapore's Wireless@SG programme already provides free Internet access across broad swathes of public space.”
“While training sessions are now encouraged to shift online, contractors now need to provide and record a full eight hours of online interaction. However, this does not take into account the fact that online training is more effective when it adopts a mixture of approaches such as flipped learning or blended learning. A mere replication of face-to face training will not work well in digital learning. It is therefore unrealistic to use old systems to assess new modes of instruction. Finally, I have also received feedback that many start-ups have stalled as most do not qualify for the grants that have been rolled out. They too are asking for help as they fear they will not survive this crisis, however innovative their offerings. I hope some of these ideas can be considered and adapted to the extent that they are practicable. I support the Resilience and Solidarity Budgets.”
“Should the effects of the ongoing crisis persist for longer, more vouchers can be issued at a later juncture. While this is a somewhat unorthodox suggestion, the Government is in fact no stranger to vouchers as it has previously gifted past and present National Servicemen with S$100 NS50 vouchers as part of the NS50 Recognition Package. These NS50 vouchers could be used at more than 6,000 participating outlets and services, including major grocery stores and dining chains and indeed boosted revenue for these participating companies. Moving on to supporting SMEs, feedback from these businesses suggests that cash flow is their biggest issue. Even as they have to continue to pay rents, overheads and salaries, their revenue has either slowed to a trickle or come to a complete standstill. I am, therefore, heartened by the Deputy Prime Minister's announcement today of many new or enhanced support packages, including the Enhanced Enterprise Financing Scheme and the SME Working Capital Loan. I would, therefore, like to echo Labour Chief Ng Chee Meng's call for the aid to come sooner. For the SMEs that still can generate some revenue even during the pandemic, they are now faced with unanticipated expenses. Those that involve interfacing with customers such as F&B establishments are now finding that masks, sanitisers and disposable ware are a rapidly ballooning expense and need help to keep the costs of such items low. As for SMEs that are being asked to shift their services to the digital realm, they are finding that Government grants do not seem to support the cost of adopting video-conferencing solutions such as Zoom. Additionally, Government grant audit systems need to adapt to the digital environment as well.”
“These events can still involve the production of conference materials that can be delivered to attendees, thereby also generating demand for additional services. If our Government Ministries and agencies continue to commission work rather than take a "wait and see" approach, the private sector will also follow its lead and this will create opportunities for smaller businesses to earn some revenue. Another suggestion pertains to paying for work already done. Many Government contracts have been halted with work done half way by contractors. Contractually, payments may not be due but it would be a positive gesture for the Government to see if they can pay for work already completed or reimbursement for expenses incurred by contractors. As individual departments within Ministries may not have the discretion to make such decisions independently, some high level directive on this front would be a helpful signalling effect. The next suggestion relates to stimulating spending by consumers. With the recent lull in consumer spending and understandable dip in consumer confidence, retailers are, obviously, bleeding. The Government’s efforts to help with daily expenses in the form of one-off cash payouts and expenses for families will certainly help to ease families’ consumption needs. Another possibility to explore is to offer shopping vouchers instead of cash. By working with retail consortia to exploit economies of scale, the vouchers can even have a value higher than their cash value. These vouchers can come with a limited validity period of perhaps three months to boost near term spending so that retailers can earn revenue sooner, and therefore, have the cash flow to retain their staff.”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. The saying goes that a week is a long time in politics. COVID-19 has shown us that a week is an eternity in a pandemic. As the coronavirus continues to rage through countries worldwide, it leaves a trail of destruction – claiming lives, industries, businesses and, of course, jobs. The Resilience and Solidarity Budgets are therefore most welcome indeed and will be a tremendous source of encouragement to the many who have been adversely affected. I have, nevertheless, solicited feedback from people across multiple industry sectors to offer suggestions on how these extraordinary provisions can be further refined. Some of the ideas I raise may come across as unorthodox but may have merits so I air them here in the spirit of collective innovation. These suggestions pertain to three aspects – generating work, stimulating spending and supporting SMEs. Like many other people, my calendar has become blissfully clear with many events postponed indefinitely, or cancelled entirely. While the Government has introduced many schemes to provide industries with cash flow during this critical period, another approach may be to generate actual work so that industries can still chug along. For example, training programmes, workshops and conferences should still proceed by migrating online, thereby allowing event organisers and trainers to maintain their business, while gaining valuable experience in digitalisation. If the Government Ministries proceed with their original calendar of events in the coming months, training programmes and outreach campaigns, it sends a strong signal that it is business as usual, and supporting industries will also respond with creative online provisions.”
“Even in the face of COVID-19, I believe our children are under greater threat of from influencers than from influenza! More egregiously, young people are also the target of sexual grooming in online platforms and exposure to sexually explicit content. In Singapore, we have done well to ensure children's rights to access digital devices, services and digital literacy education to children from all socio-economic backgrounds. But there is much more we can do to expressly protect children's digital rights, especially in the areas of the privacy and data protection. We must take more active measures to ensure that their personal data is processed fairly, lawfully, accurately and securely, for specific purposes and with the free, explicit, informed and unambiguous consent of children and their parents. One key issue is that the terms and conditions of digital products and services are couched in obtuse language that adults cannot understand, let alone children. Given MSF's significant efforts in advancing the welfare of children, I would like to ask the Ministry to lead the charge in driving a whole-of- Government effort to recognise, concretise and protect the digital rights of children. Importantly, we should also involve our young people in the process of identifying what they believe their digital rights currently are and should be. For differently-abled children in particular, we must also develop more schemes to pioneer innovation so that they too can enjoy greater access to digital devices and services. At-risk Youth”
“Hon Members, it is my right today to speak to you for four minutes and no longer. Just as it is our right as Singaporeans to contest elections to enter this House or in my case, to be appointed. Fundamentally, rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement, stipulating what is allowed of people or owed to people according to legal doctrine, social convention or ethical theory. In Singapore, the rights of children are protected by the Children and Young Persons Act. I am glad to have been in the House when we passed the amendments to extend identity protection for young people involved in court proceedings to children aged 17 and 18. Identity protection for all our children is critical in a digitalising age. For today's young people, the digital world is ripe with opportunity but fraught with risk. I would thus like to highlight the issue of the digital rights of children. When I started researching into young people's media use 20 years ago, I was speaking to teens. In my most recent research, some of my interviewees reached just above my knee. Indeed, with device use creeping ever lower, we must think of more concerted protection for our children from commercial and sexual exploitation on online platforms. Commercial exploitation is stealthy and widespread. Children are the target of media content that shows the unboxing of attractive toys they cannot afford and the allure of fast food, fast fashion and unhealthy habits such as vaping. Young people's data is being collected and used for commercial purposes and they are aggresively marketed to across all platforms, including movies, internet connected toys, apps, online games and social media.”
“I thank the Minister's for the various announcements and I also appreciate the attention to level the playing field for students from different family backgrounds. I first have a clarification. I would like to find out if there will be greater effort to introduce social emotional training for teachers so that there is greater self-awareness on the part of teachers, and that they better understand how they relate not just to their colleagues but also to their students, so as to build a healthier classroom environment. The second is a comment on the device ownership scheme. I appreciate that there are many virtues to personal device usage in schools, but there are also certain pitfalls that we need to think about. Previous research has shown that device ownership actually involves many components, including device purchase, device maintenance, software maintenance as well as software usage. And families are clearly differently advantaged in being able to provide the guidance. So, I have found in my own research that parents from less well-heeled backgrounds face severe inadequacy and severe anxiety in terms of their inability to support their children in this way. In other words, unless we have very concerted, very comprehensive support and augmentation within schools for IT support for students from different backgrounds, you may find that some of these introductions of device usage may introduce different kinds of inequalities. So, I hope due attention can be paid to this issue.”
“I had mentioned in my Adjournment Motion on the fear of failure, that we must make our schools feel like safe spaces in which to fail, and to try again. Hence, I would like to ask the Ministry what efforts have been made to equip our teachers for the socio-emotional aspects of teaching? Do the teacher preparation curricula in NIE's diploma programmes include such training and competency building? Finally, I reckon that these teachers who commit such aggressions are themselves under stress and pressure, and I wonder what support is provided to our teachers to engage in self-care to deal with the strains of their professional duties and performance targets. Parents have also shared that when they provide feedback on such aggressions to the school leadership, the teachers are excused for being "old school" and that their approach should thus be tolerated. Hence, I would like to ask what more we can do to educate our school principals on recognising the harms of such aggressions and how they can effectively intervene to manage such teachers? Let us strive to foster a positive learning environment to ignite the spark for learning, not just for school, but for life.”
“When adopted in the classroom, students have no fear of looking stupid because the entire class knows that asking questions and making mistakes are vital to learning. When students do not enjoy psychological safety in school and worse, feel stressed and anxious in the presence of teachers who employ harsh classroom tactics, their ability and passion for learning will be extinguished. In light of our students coming in tops for fear of failure, psychological safety in our classrooms is something we must pay closer attention to and invest in. As I make this call, I can already hear the keyboard warriors lambasting me for helping to create a generation of strawberries. I have no doubt that I will attract such comments as, "Attitudes like this will make our kids soft! If they are never scolded, they will never understand failure." I can only conclude that these individuals must have suffered aggressions themselves. Even in the working world, there is increasing recognition of the importance of psychological safety to improved performance and effective learning. What more the importance of psychological safety in our schools and classrooms? I believe that even these teachers who engage in petty aggressions are well-meaning. Their actions are symptomatic of the broader pressures that teachers themselves face in delivering results. Be that as it may, they must be made to realise that such disparaging treatment of students must be abhorred, that shaming and humiliation can exact a considerable toll on students' self-esteem, and will ultimately kill their interest in learning. As many of my fellow Members of Parliament have emphasised, issues around the mental health of young people are on the ascent.”
“Being called bodoh, stupid or 笨蛋 by your teacher, having your teacher throw your homework into the trash in full view of your classmates, seeing your name and wrong test answers flashed on the screen for the entire class to see, having your teacher tell you, loudly and harshly in front of everyone that you will never amount to anything, being screamed and yelled at for giving wrong or incomplete answers, enduring blame from your classmates for depriving everyone of your teacher's promised treat because you failed to score the minimum grade like everyone else. These are the aggressions and indignities some of our students suffer in school. These naming and shaming methods are harsh and destructive, sabotaging our ability to build positive and edifying learning environments. Such tactics humiliate and demoralise poor performers and also create a toxic and competitive environment where peer-to-peer support becomes collateral damage. I am confident that the majority of our teachers undertake their jobs with professionalism, care and dedication. Indeed, many are role models who go the extra mile for students in need, encouraging and inspiring our students. But I have received considerable feedback from parents and students that a minority do commit such aggressions that while seemingly minor, nevertheless, have considerable impact on our students' well-being and motivation to learn. Google commissioned a study to identify why some of their teams perform better than others. They found that a consistent feature of their most successful teams was the concept of "psychological safety". Psychological safety is the feeling that you will not be humiliated or jeered at for the ideas you propose, for asking questions or admitting to mistakes.”
“I believe a targeted programme for unemployed mothers would be very useful in this respect. The Government could also support community efforts and partner with initiatives, such as the Mums@Work, to encourage mothers to remain working and to return to work. Gender Pay Gap”
“Such factors must be taken into consideration in the design and development of SkillsFuture courses to more effectively support these women. Working Mothers Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong: Chairman, Sir, according to MOM's Labour Force in Singapore 2019 report, it is estimated that there were 49,000 unemployed women aged 15 to 49 who gave the main reason for leaving their previous job as either "Housework" or to "Care for Own Children Aged 12 & Below". If we just compare the numbers for those who gave childcare as the reason, there were 19,000 women in their 30s and 10,000 women in their 40s. This suggests that about half the women did not re-enter the workforce after fulfilling their primary childcare responsibilities. I believe we need to do more for our would-be working mothers in the two aspects of exiting and re-entering the workforce. First, we should try to minimise the disincentives and maximise the incentives for working mothers to remain in the workforce. As raised by the hon Member Desmond Choo, this COVID-19 emergency has shown that flexi-work arrangements can work for many jobs and I would like second his call to give working mothers the right to make flexi-work arrangements with their employers when these are workable. Besides flexi-work arrangements, Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) and MOM should take proactive steps to clamp down on practices reflecting "motherhood bias", where women are marked as poor performers for juggling family responsibilities while fulfilling their work commitments. Second, the Government is in a good position to help mothers to retrain and update their new skills and reintegrate them into the workforce, especially through various SkillsFuture programmes.”
“They believe returning women are out of touch with the industry, less dedicated due to their family commitments or cannot gel with younger co-workers. Even in companies with flexi-work arrangements, individual departments may not adopt them or employees themselves may not request them because of the stigma towards flexi-work. Such prejudices are due to managers not knowing how to manage back-to-work or flexi-work employees. We should, therefore, provide more managerial training to address such organisational issues. Also, we should develop toolkits to help managers onboard and reintegrate returning workers. Flexi-work and back-to-work hire support schemes are also currently pitched as offering support to individual employees. There must be more strategic higher level communication about the benefits that such hiring shifts can bring to the company to influence individual managers' decision making. With the threat of COVID-19, we are currently conducting the greatest telecommuting experiment of all time. I urge MOM to systematically survey employers and employees to understand the potential and pitfalls of telecommuting. We can then identify creative flexi-work solutions and introduce best practices for different industries. We should also consider raising SkillsFuture funding for returning women. Due to their longer career gaps, such women have to write resumes, field interviews and job hunt very differently. Hence, their upskilling has to be more comprehensive and targeted to their particular needs. Those who are planning to return to the workforce will still be juggling care-giving with upskilling. Consequently, they may not be able to attend daylong SkillsFuture courses.”
“Mr Chairman – long hours, shifting responsibilities, minimal feedback, constant multi-tasking and zero training. If you saw a job description like this, would you not run in the opposite direction? And yet, many women take on the important job of care-giving without any pay to speak of. Care-giving for young children, elderly parents or family members with special needs is often a labour of love. But it translates into brutal costs to women's employability, career advancement, income and retirement savings. Women have much to offer our workforce. Career portal Mums@Work, founded by mumpreneur Sher-li Torrey, supports 43,000 women starting businesses or seeking flexi-work. Data from their 2019 recruitment campaigns demonstrate the talent of back-to-work females. Eighty-four percent had a Bachelor's degree or higher, 53% had managerial experience and 58% had more than 10 years of working experience and this was in critical sectors, such as banking, finance and IT. Despite these strengths, women face structural, organisational and individual factors that obstruct their return to the workforce. One salient structural factor is the achievement orientation in our education system. In other countries, women tend to take time out from work right after childbirth and, therefore, reintegrate into work when younger. In Singapore, women exit the workforce during their children's critical school years, such as entry into Primary 1 and the high stakes PSLE year. Hence, they are relatively older when they return to work, thus facing the double whammy of outmoded skills and ageism. Organisationally, industry feedback indicates that even when companies are prepared to welcome back-to-work women, direct hiring managers still prefer women without career gaps.”
“Did they use services such as the gov.sg WhatsApp chat and Factually, and how did they perceive them? How did they react when they encountered suspected falsehoods that had not been issued with POFMA orders? Did they subsequently assume that these falsehoods were true, thereby developing unhealthy cognitive shortcuts? These are all crucial questions that we must answer to strengthen both our official communication strategies and our public education efforts. Finally, while I recognise the value of reaching out to people via platforms they are familiar with such as WhatsApp, how secure and financially sustainable is it for us to use such third-party communication channels? Might it not make better sense in the long run to use existing apps such as SGSecure for official Government alerts during periods of crisis? While I understand that SGSecure was launched and is managed by MHA, should our Whole-of-Government approach not predispose us to more strategically integrate our multiple communication channels that we have? I welcome clarifications on the concerns I have raised. Government Communications in Times of Crisis”
“In such a fraught media landscape, rumours and falsehoods can become virulent social contagions that trigger mob mentality and herd behaviour like the panic buying we experienced and are now witnessing in North America. Hence, our public agencies managing our official communications cannot afford to be insular and track only local discourse around crises of a global nature. When this house passed POFMA in May last year, a mysterious yet highly contagious disease like COVID-19 was but a black swan to be avoided. But the crisis now presents us with a valuable opportunity to test the mettle of our information infrastructures, including official communication channels, public education efforts and regulatory measures such as POFMA. In the wake of COVID-19 therefore, I would like to ask how the Government has sharpened its ability to communicate quickly and effectively to all demographic groups in a digitalised world with porous information boundaries. Importantly, can the ministry share how our capacities to cope with online falsehoods have been stretched and what measures will we take to reinforce them? With specific regard to POFMA and its application, can we conduct more systematic assessment of the effects of the targeted and general corrections approach? Specifically, can we obtain data from the internet intermediaries on the reach and access of the corrections that have been issued so that we may ascertain the effectiveness of the corrections strategy and finetune it accordingly? 12.15 pm Additionally, we must seize the opportunity to survey consumers to comprehend how they have managed the onslaught of falsehoods that they have received in light of COVID-19. What personal measures have they taken to verify the information they have received about the disease?”
“Mr Chairman, in as much as COVID-19 has been an abominable threat, it has also been an illuminating lesson on the importance of effective communication and the importance of a robust information infrastructure. Just as medical care has improved significantly since SARS, information and communication technologies have also seen considerable transformations. Our information landscape is paradoxically more fragmented, yet more connected at the same time. It is fragmented and balkanised because there is a plethora of information and communication channels out there. Apart from traditional mainstream media that actively seeking to digitalise, we now have access to vastly more online content, across a range of different platforms including WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat, Facebook and TikTok. It is therefore very difficult to capture in any parsimonious way, the chequered universe of information that audiences today consume and are influenced by. Despite this seeming fragmentation, our information landscape is concurrently more connected because of growing ownership of personal media devices such as smartphones. Individual consumers across the world are thus linked to one another online, creating content and sharing it across platforms, geographical boundaries and even linguistic barriers now being rapidly eroded by translation software. In a globalised hyper-connected world, our understanding of local situations is thus enriched but also complicated by perspectives extending far beyond our immediate environments. As media consumers, we must contend not only with domestic information flows but manage the onslaught of international news, quite apart from having to discern between legitimate news and false rumours.”
“I wish to, therefore, conclude by underlining my strong endorsement of the subsidies announced in response to the current COVID-19 crisis. The $4 billion package announced to help workers remain employed through three months of offset wages offer a vital lifeline in current climes. By helping an estimated 1.9 million local workers through this key Jobs Support Scheme, we can help to allay the anxieties of these workers and their families and demonstrate that ours is an inclusive society where we have a head but also a heart. Mr Speaker, I support the Budget.”
“During a recent conference, I had the benefit of exchanging insights with practitioners and researchers in the adult learning ecosystem. We all converged around several sobering points, that while our workers need to constantly upskill, they do not find the necessary motivation to do so. This arises from a combination of work-life pressures, inertia and resistance to change, and a sense of defeatism that the new skills they acquire will not translate into concrete improvements in their salaries or job prospects. Separately, when employers are dismissive of their employees’ needs or interest to upskill, their motivation is further undermined. Such negative mentalities around upskilling must be addressed, be it through nudges, support programmes or public education efforts. Importantly, too, we cannot expect Singaporeans to develop an inherent drive to learn unless they associate schools and other learning environments with positive experiences. As I mentioned in my Adjournment Motion in Parliament last month on the fear of failure, the overwhelming achievement orientation in our education system does not imbue an intrinsic love for learning. Instead, students become Machiavellian and grade-oriented, while instructors then teach to the test to meet key performance indicators. To become a nation of lifelong learners, we need to accelerate our transition away from a focus on grades towards broader and more enduring learning outcomes. Students should not just be learning but learning how to learn. With greater attention to these three "Ms" of mobility, maturity and mentality, I am confident that we can overcome the challenges ahead, both distant and immediate.”
“The best and brightest talents in our world-leading universities have much to offer by way of problem solving, as the multifaceted COVID-19 crisis has highlighted. With more concerted regulation around data sharing, we can ensure that universities are well-equipped with robust data to conduct research for societal benefit. I would like to further suggest that there be greater data sharing by the Government, for example, from its national level surveys. Such data can help to facilitate productive and evidence-based policy analysis by academics and researchers in our universities and research institutes. Concerns around data security can be addressed through the generation of synthetic data that realistically represents authentic data but that protects privacy and confidentiality. I am glad that plans are apparently underway for such data sharing and I welcome further details as soon as they are available. Moving forward, we should also consider studying the experience of countries, such as New Zealand and the UK, that have advanced data sharing infrastructures and procedures, to identify best practices that we can seek to emulate. Data sharing by the Government is a strategic shift we must undertake to fully realise our Smart Nation ambitions. Precisely because our economy is maturing and transforming, change is, indeed, the only constant, and our workforce has to be prepared for that reality. I, therefore, applaud the SkillsFuture Credit top-ups in Budget 2020. However, this infusion of funds will be for nought if attitudes to upskilling do not shift. My last "M" is, therefore, mentality. Our collective mentality around upskilling must change from "nice to have", to "must do". And this mentality has to be shared by workers, employers and educators.”
“Hitherto, technology companies, such as Facebook, Amazon and Alibaba, have selfishly hoarded their data, from which they distill critical insights to create market dominating products and services. If we continue to let these Goliaths have exclusive rights to exploit the data that they harvest essentially for free from all their users, what chance is there for the scrappy startups of the world to innovate for the greater good? We must leave the door wide open for startups to compete against the incumbents. Oxford University professor Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, co-author of Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data, suggests adopting a “progressive data-sharing mandate” that forces companies above a certain size to share some of their data with smaller competitors. In the same vein, the European Commission recently issued a document titled “European strategy for data” which outlined potential steps it may introduce to require companies to share and pool data. Just as Singapore was a frontrunner as one of the first countries to launch a Model AI Governance framework, we should also consider blazing the trail and pioneer regulation on the collection and use of big data. This will have the twin benefits of levelling the playing field between first movers and startups and fostering a vibrant pro-innovation environment. Importantly, too, academics should not be left out of the data game. At this point, let me declare my interest as a professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design and a member of the Social Science Research Council. Mr Speaker, our world is beset by a host of wicked problems, such as sharpening income inequality, climate change, rising populism and the damaging scourge of online falsehoods.”
“As the World Bank's Fair Progress report argued, low mobility, both real and perceived, can dampen an individual’s aspirations for the future. To more directly address such discouraging perceptions, we need to initiate more systematic mentorship for children of less advantaged backgrounds so that they are inspired by role models who have successfully risen from similar circumstances. As the saying goes, "you cannot be what you cannot see". We, therefore, need to invest more strategically in more after-school programmes where students from lower-income families are offered targeted academic support and career guidance in order to bridge the privilege gap. My second "M" is maturity. As our economy matures and digitalises ever more intensively, we are at a critical crossroads to consider future growth directions. Clearly, in our well-connected society where we are bound together by the Internet of people and also the Internet of Things, a promising path for us to explore is the one illuminated by big data. The application of data analytics in virtually all aspects of life, including finance, business, urban planning, healthcare and education, can generate powerful insights for enhancing resource optimisation, service delivery and efficiency gains. With data to fuel AI and Machine Learning, we can forge a culture of data-driven innovation that aims to raise our quality of life. But that begs the question as to who should own the data and be allowed to profit from it. The social compact between people and corporations which are collecting data about us is riddled with inequity. Indeed, the "compact" is one of distinct asymmetry between the big technology companies and consumers.”
“Mr Speaker, our Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister has delivered a remarkable Budget this year. In this regard, I wish to speak on 3Ms pertaining to the Budget. You might think, given the generosity of the Budget that my 3Ms stand for Massively More Money. But no, the 3Ms I will speak on today are mobility, maturity and mentality. First, mobility. Social mobility is the holy grail of governance. In Singapore, we have made persistent efforts to boost social mobility with significant injections of social spending, especially within the past decade. Budget 2020 is no exception, especially with its Care and Nurture and Stabilise and Support Packages. I welcome the various measures, including grocery and GST Vouchers, kindergarten, transport and school meal subsidies, that will certainly help lower-income families ease their financial burdens. We cannot underestimate the impact of such subsidies. I recall that when I volunteered at the charity Food from the Heart, children from poor families who received monthly food goodie bags saw improved grades. Why so? Once their parents stopped bickering over where the next meal would come from, and there was money left over for transport, the children started to attend school more regularly and this translated tangibly into improved academic performance. Beyond these financial measures, however, what more can we do to ensure that our society is not overly stricken by the proverbial Great Gatsby Curve? This curve describes how family resources and social networks influence a child's future earning potential. When this curve is too pronounced, the advantages conferred by family wealth and connections get entrenched over time, leading to social stratification.”
“Conversely, an adverse experience from navigating a meandering and fragmented urban landscape will deter them from walking as much as could be possible or desirable. Improving walkability in HDB estates must, therefore, be a key tranche of our overall plans for active mobility and should not be an afterthought. I urge our planners to take walkability into account even as they plan the extended cycling pathways, to ensure that these pathways are optimally integrated into our urban landscape and that they do not intrude into or undermine the needs of pedestrians. These concerns notwithstanding, I support the Bill.”
“Zhang and his co-authors found that the overriding feeling when walking through an HDB neighbourhood is the unnecessarily meandering trips required to reach a destination. This is due to the lack of continuity of walking and fragmentation of our urban fabric. Given all these characteristics of older HDB neighbourhoods, they are clearly not as pedestrian-friendly as they can or should be. Active mobility is sacrificed for vehicular traffic, thereby making our HDB estates less navigable. This has adverse implications not just for pedestrians but also for the wheelchair-bound and young families using strollers and prams. But we can draw critical lessons from such research as we design our new HDB estates, and build our expanded cycling network. Additionally, human factors must also be taken into account in boosting active mobility. Research by Assoc Prof Lynette Cheah and her team at the Sustainable Urban Mobility Research Laboratory in the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) has probed into the values that most influence people's choices for active mobility. Using qualitative research methods, they identified convenience, health, comfort and time-cost savings as being the most critical factors. They also established that individuals' experience of travelling on different travel modes also acts as feedback that reshapes their values and perceptions toward current mobility options and expectations for future mobility. What this means is that if walking can be convenient, promote physical exercise and offer time and cost savings, individuals will be more likely to incorporate more walking into their mobility patterns.”
“They found that in HDB estates, apartment blocks have principally been developed for the use of cars where precincts are often surrounded and divided by wide, car-based corridors that impede greater active mobility. So, even though pedestrians are usually able to make their way from departure point to destination, walking is made cumbersome because of frequent traffic lights along the route or the need to use ramps and overhead bridges to cross a street. For example, crossing a road often involves the need to take a long detour and use overhead bridges or a ramp instead of covering the shortest possible route. Other studies have also found that many HDB estates and new towns have a car-centric design with wide car-oriented corridors that cut into their urban fabric. They argued that space and time for crossing are not equally distributed between cars and pedestrians, and that traffic priority is always given to vehicles. Also, block units are surrounded by parking areas and leftover spaces. The consequence of this car-centric approach to our urban design is that active mobility is not ideally facilitated and may, in fact, be undermined due to disruptions and lack of continuity of walking. Adverse consequences, such as jaywalking, may, therefore, result. Another issue previous research has identified is the lack of consistent and well-defined urban block planning, because HDB blocks are not homogeneous or consistent but differ in size, design and pattern. Hence, this makes spatial awareness and navigation more challenging. Each apartment block is surrounded by parking areas and internal car-based streets that reduce the compactness of each neighbourhood.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, no thanks to Kevin Kwan's hit novel and the movie "Crazy Rich Asians", everyone seems to think that all Singaporeans own flashy cars. Well, as the joke goes, we all do have access to a BMW – Bus, Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), Walk. Our extensive and ever-growing public transportation network is certainly making us more mobile, and walking is a key dimension of active mobility. I would, therefore, like to take this opportunity to speak about walking and walkability, as this Bill introduces timely measures to help pedestrians, cyclists and PMD users share our paths safely. Factoring walking into the equation is especially critical as plans have been announced to expand the 440 km of cycling paths here to 750 km by 2025 and about 1,300 km by 2030. Providing dedicated lanes for transport modes with speeds between those for walking and for cars is necessary. But another critical need is to effectively integrate these cycling paths into our urban landscapes so that pedestrians and cyclists can all benefit. Since we will be actively expanding our cycling path networks, I would like to suggest an active incorporation of design considerations that take into account the needs of pedestrians. To this end, let me draw on research on designing walkable neighbourhoods in Singapore. Research by Zhang, Azzali, Janssen and Stouffs at School of Design and Environment at the National University of Singapore (NUS) identified several issues pertaining to poor walkability of Singapore's housing estates along four different dimensions: connectivity, closeness and spatial distribution, comfort and safety.”
“That is the reason why, in my answer, I shared that while the teachers will do one thing, and we are trying to improve ourselves and continue to refine the system, it is also the bigger society, the bigger support system and the people around the kid that will actually enrich and make the whole process holistic for the child in his or her educational journey. As I said earlier, it is something that we will continue to refine and we thank Prof Lim Sun Sun for her suggestions and what she had shared with us today. [(proc text) Question put, and agreed to. (proc text)] [(proc text) Resolved, "That Parliament do now adjourn." (proc text)] Adjourned accordingly at 7.14 pm.”
“I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for his reply. I just wanted to ask if the Ministry was open to even exploring the option of giving all students the choice of checking their results online. It may well be that there are some students who prefer the comforts of their teachers, but there are also very many students who would much prefer to check the results in the privacy and comfort of their home away from the public glare. So, I think this is something that is worthy of being investigated. Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim: Sir, I thank Prof Lim Sun Sun for the clarification required. As I mentioned in my answer earlier, it is something that we continuously review. Nevertheless, as I mentioned, there are a few things to note when it comes to the release of the results, as we also want to build a support system whereby there are teachers and friends who are available to also support the child. And, at the same time, we want to make sure that there are opportunities for the kids to get guidance during that process. I have seen and I have heard, because I have my own children, even after the results are out, the kids do get together and support one another. And, to me, that part is critical because that is where you continue to build the bond, the support and go through that educational journey with your friends. It is not only about pressure or about the fear of failure. It is also about how we look at the educational journey as not only about my own journey – it is my journey with my friends, with my teachers and the community at large.”
“By turning off the glaring spotlight on the collection of results for high stakes examinations, we also send the important signal that ours is a culture of lifelong learning that does not end with attaining these certificates. After all, in the wake of Industry 4.0 and beyond, we must all recognise that learning extends well beyond our formal school years. I believe that through these measures big and small, that we can help to further reduce achievement orientation in our education system and, in the process, mitigate the fear of failure. As they say, there is nothing to fear but fear itself. Failure can be instructive and rewarding, providing us with feedback and valuable experience for future undertakings. But it is the fear of failure that holds us back. When we fear failure, we tend to be more conservative, stick to the tried and tested, and hesitate to venture into new territory. The fear of failure can, therefore, impede personal growth, creativity and innovation, all of which are critical assets for our young people as they mature in a future that is promising, but also challenging. As the ongoing coronavirus crisis sharply demonstrates, ours is a decidedly unpredictable world where curve balls abound. If our young people are crippled by the fear of failure, and do not nurture a growth mindset that is open to constant adaptation, they will find it difficult to manage change and uncertainty. Mr Deputy Speaker, our young Singaporeans are smart, capable and passionate. Let us do our best to make sure that they are fearless, too.”
“Ultimately, the atmosphere around the collection of results for these high stakes examinations is stressful and intense. Must we pile on the pressure by requiring that students collect them personally? An already difficult experience exacerbated by the prevalence of smartphones to capture and broadcast everything via social media? Let us not forget that our young lead very public lives where they have an online image to maintain and live up to, thereby adding to their social anxiety around such watershed events. I reiterate that the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) measure found that a sizeable majority of our students worry about what others would think of them if they fail. By removing the public spectacle with which these results are released, we can lessen the perception that these exams are as high stakes as currently viewed. We will also send the clear message that they are not the be all and end all of each student’s educational journey. As it stands, our universities and polytechnics already successfully release their exam results online. I am confident that with our Smart Nation infrastructure, that we can well handle the online release of PSLE, GCE "O", "A" level and IB results that allow students and their families to receive and process the information in the privacy of their own homes. For students who wish to seek support after the results, schools can be open for the day to welcome whoever wishes to consult, commiserate or even celebrate with teachers. But give all students the option of receiving their results privately. As for students who have excelled, we can still mark their successes in other ways, such as through the Edusave Award ceremonies that showcase achievements by students across all levels.”
“Some may argue that it is parents and, indeed, students themselves who are keen to know how well they are doing. However, we can collectively reshape the culture of achievement orientation if there is an overall shift in emphasis from relative performance towards individual performance, and where qualitative feedback is prioritised over quantitative metrics. Fundamentally, if we want to reduce the excessive focus on grades in our education system, we must ensure that this is practised consistently and across the board, not just in report books but also in everyday teacher-parent communication. Third, another setting in which our students feel the fear of failure most acutely is in the collection of the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), GCE "O" and "A" level results. Many students and families are on tenterhooks in the days leading up to these fateful moments. Those who have performed beyond or up to expectations will be relieved but those who have not will find the entire exercise excruciating. Besides the seemingly interminable wait for the results, there is also the awkward trudge out of school where friends will demand to know how well you have performed. Some students have been known to call the walk out from the school hall to the school gate the walk of shame. Others hide in the toilet until the coast is clear! Mind you, many students will feel like they have failed, even if they have done well by objective measures. In one junior college (JC) where students with 6As and above were invited on stage, some students with 5As cried buckets. In another school where the average International Baccalaureate (IB) score was 43, one student who scored an admirable 41 points was seen bawling his eyes out.”
“As worries about the mental health of young people are on the ascent, we must not dismiss such microaggressions in the classroom and do our utmost to educate our teachers on their harms. I, therefore, propose that we better prepare and empower our teachers to be proactive and sensitive in helping students manage failure and deal with setbacks. Our schools must feel like safe spaces in which to fail and to try again. Second, even as we have de-emphasised class rankings in report books, teachers are communicating actively with parents about their children via a range of mobile apps and digital platforms, including Parents Gateway, ClassDojo, Remind and even WhatsApp. In research for my book "Transcendent Parenting: Raising Children in the Digital Age", we captured screenshots from parents’ phones where teachers would message parents of their children's performance in individual tests and assignments. Some would also include the highest, lowest and median scores for the assignments, thereby allowing pupils to place where they stood relative to everyone else. Yet another teacher messaged the parents that 30 pupils had scored full marks for a spelling test. If our average class size is 33-34, how would the three or four kids who missed out on a perfect score feel? I reckon that those kids and their parents must have felt like failures. Furthermore, apps like ClassDojo also allow teachers to assign a score to children's in-class performance and this is also communicated to the parents, thereby allowing parents to "track" how their children are faring in class. My research also showed that some parents obsess over these scores and interrogate their children about what went on in school, even though these scores are disguised as gamified rewards.”
“However, a small minority engage in microaggressions in the classroom where they use questionable tactics and harsh measures to motivate underperforming students. As distressed students and parents have shared with me, these include reading out the names and test scores of every student in class in order of highest to lowest scorers, thereby prolonging the ordeal for those at the bottom of the pile. Another often mentioned practice is the flashing of the work of poor performers on the screen and using these as examples of what not to do, with the identity of the "incompetent" student being made clearly known to everyone. Teachers have also been known to taunt students with disparaging comments, such as "you’re too stupid to take this course" or "why can’t you do something so simple?" In more extreme situations, some teachers promise the entire class a fast-food treat if everyone in the class scores above a certain threshold. When some pupils fail to attain that magic score, the teacher then denies everyone the treat and the disappointed class then chastises and ostracises the underperformers. Such tactics not only shame the poor performers but also create a toxic environment that promotes dog-eat-dog hostility rather than peer-to-peer support. I believe that these teachers are fundamentally well-intentioned and seek only to spur on their students. And their actions are really symptomatic of the broader pressures that teachers themselves face in delivering results. Be that as it may, such teachers must be made to realise that these destructive methods of highlighting failure and underperformance can demotivate students and lead them to lose interest in the subject. They can also demoralise the students and, at worst, inflict long-term damage on their self-esteem.”
“This involves taking a hard look at the achievement orientation that underlies our education system, with its strong focus on examinations and grades that contribute to this fear of failure. Achievement orientation is by no means undesirable as it propels our students to take their studies seriously, work hard and strive for excellence. However, an over-emphasis on achievement can also extinguish the love for learning, induce an obsession with grades and transform our students into examination-taking machines. I, therefore, commend the Ministry of Education (MOE) for having made concrete steps towards de-emphasising examinations at primary and secondary levels. Mid-year examinations for Primary 3 and Primary 5 and Secondary 1 and Secondary 3 students are being progressively scrapped, and all graded assessments and examinations at Primary 1 and Primary 2 have also been removed to give young pupils two test-free years. Report books no longer state the class and level rankings of primary and secondary school students, and marks for each subject are rounded off and presented as whole numbers, without decimal points, to minimise the intense focus on marks. Instead, teachers now provide qualitative descriptors on their pupils' learning. While some may denigrate these as mere symbolic efforts, we cannot underestimate the power of symbolism. Indeed, there is yet more that we can do to lessen the achievement orientation and downplay the fear of failure, both symbolically and practically, particularly at the operational level. First, let us cast our eye on our students’ everyday learning environments. I am assured that most of our teachers work hard at their jobs and do their best to instil excellence and industry in their students.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Hon Members of the House, as we approach the end of a long Sitting in Parliament, you must be running through your minds the many tasks you need to complete tomorrow, as you tick off those that you have accomplished today. You may cheer in the thought that you have achieved several goals but, nevertheless, berate yourself for not attaining others. And you probably feel frustrated and annoyed at your lack of efficacy in that regard. Because ultimately, as human beings, we are often our own toughest critics. We set lofty targets for ourselves and feel like losers when we do not meet them. We take our own shortcomings and inflate them, diminish our best efforts and magnify our failures. Alas, failure is very much on the minds of students in Singapore, as revealed by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Rankings announced in December. While our 15-year-old students came in second worldwide in Reading, Math and Science, we came in first for a fresh indicator. The PISA test introduced a new measure to assess students’ fear of failure where compared to students from other countries, we have the highest percentage of students, 78%, agreeing or strongly agreeing with the phrase, "When I am failing, this makes me doubt my plans for the future". Tellingly, 72% of Singapore students also worry about what others would think of them if they fail, reflecting the resounding weight of failure on their sense of self-worth. While we may despair that these statistics indicate our failure as a society to nurture tougher and more resilient youths, we should also take them as helpful cues for what we can do to further refine our education system, so that we can make it even more robust and forward-looking than it already is.”
“We should also develop Singapore as a centre where we specialise in innovations to transform food waste streams into valuable by-products. By rewarding such investments, collaborations and innovations, we can steer companies towards greater resource sustainability. Similarly, on the consumer level, we can introduce schemes to change consumer behaviour. Those who choose options with a smaller carbon footprint can be rewarded with loyalty points that translate into discounts. Similarly, consumers can be encouraged to reward companies that offer more green alternatives through rating and voting systems. Step by step, through actions big and small, we can shift mindsets and change behaviour for the better. In conclusion, Mr Deputy Speaker, I firmly support the Resource Sustainability Bill and urge companies and consumers to reduce, reuse and recycle, but also to reinvent, recalibrate and reward.”
“When did we transform into a society where events must involve goody bags, bottled water and an oversupply of catered food? How did our homes start to be filled with conference "swag" – stuff we all get – that we dump into landfills after engaging in Marie-Kondo-inspired spring cleaning? Thankfully, these norms need not be cast in stone. Collectively, we can forge fresh norms that help to advance resource sustainability. Conference organisers should dispense with goody bags, hotels can do away with small toiletry bottles and bakeries must discontinue this practice of wrapping buns in individual bags. I was delighted to learn before entering the House today that FairPrice is starting a month-long trial to charge for plastic bags in various outlets. Every industry can identify positive disruptions to enhance environmental sustainability. Once we create new norms, we recalibrate consumer expectations and break the cycle of wasteful product practices that seem to be more entrenched as we become more affluent. Finally, the third "R" is to reward. Beyond punitive measures that clearly have their place in our ecosystem, we must also consider introducing more schemes to reward companies and consumers for their efforts towards resource sustainability. As the recent study by SEC on building a circular food economy revealed, an estimated $2.54 billion of food loss occurs in Singapore from farm to market annually. This astounding loss must be addressed. We need to introduce more incentive schemes for companies to invest in technology to extend the shelf life of food items. We also have to encourage different players within the food supply chain to collaborate on practicable solutions to stemming food waste.”
“On the specific issue of e-waste that the Bill seeks to address, technology companies have for too long practised planned obsolescence to boost consumer demand. They design lifespans of products, such as smartphones and laptop computers, to be artificially short so that consumers are forced to ditch functional products and acquire new ones. Some devices are also designed to be difficult to repair, or with replacement parts that are tightly controlled by the company, thereby making it challenging to extend their lifespans through replacing faulty parts. Consumers find it far easier to buy a whole new device and junk the old one. In contrast, consider the Dutch social enterprise Fairphone which produces smartphones with significantly less environmental impact. Fairphones are designed to be easy to open, repair and upgrade. For example, Fairphone owners can unscrew their phones and replace the cameras, thereby enjoying the latest technology without having to buy an entirely new phone. Their phones are designed to last for at least five years, more than twice the standard 24-month smartphone replacement cycle. Examples, such as Fairphone, show us that resource sustainability is achievable through reinvention, especially if we introduce the right levers. In addition to the much-welcomed Resource Sustainability Act, therefore, I would like to ask the Minister to consider introducing additional laws to combat the exploitative practice of planned obsolescence, as well as laws to strengthen consumers' rights to repair their electrical and electronic products. The next "R" we must act upon is to recalibrate. It is time we recalibrate people's expectations for what constitutes excellent service and warm hospitality.”
“Heaven forbid that we allow our floss buns to defile our chocolate croissants! Indeed, I often find it difficult to advise service staff that I do not wish to have my breads individually packed and that I have no need for disposable cutlery. Many look at me with annoyance, as if I have disrupted their well-established work processes. I do not fault these staff. The broader structural factors we all labour under are norms set in place by industries and consumer expectations which have been shaped as a result. Companies are keen to win over customers and see offering individual packaging and free bags as good service. Consumers are, in turn, trained to expect and demand such provisions and this vicious cycle perpetuates itself countless times every single day. Over time, such norms and expectations result in mountains of trash and ingrain in our people wasteful habits that generate more rubbish than we can handle. These harmful norms and expectations exist not only in the food and beverage (F&B) but in virtually every industry. I would, therefore, like to propose an alternative set of 3Rs that can take environmental sustainability at institutional and individual levels to a higher plane. In addition to reduce, reuse and recycle, therefore, I propose that we strive to reinvent, recalibrate and reward. The Resource Sustainability Act will be an excellent initiative with regard to reinvention. By requiring that those who profit from the supply of products be responsible for collecting and treating these products when they become waste, companies will be more cognizant of downstream effects of their commercial activity. Hence, this will motivate them to invest more heavily in reinventing their products so that waste generation is minimised.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, I declare my interest as a Board Director of SEC. In the face of scorching temperatures, environmental degradation and climate change, the Resource Sustainability Bill, an entirely new Bill to address these critical issues, is very welcome, indeed. We, in Singapore, have become well-acquainted with the 3Rs – reduce, reuse and recycle – perhaps to the point that they have become somewhat trite and lost valuable traction. In truth, although many of us try hard to practise these 3Rs, it seems like broader structural factors and norms are working against our best efforts. Let me illustrate with one of my favourite Instagram accounts, that of Tabao Girl. This environmentally-minded young woman meticulously details the steps she takes daily to reduce her use of disposables. On most days, she succeeds remarkably with her inspiring arsenal of reusable cups, containers and cutlery, and enjoys her takeaway food like the rest of us. But one day in July this year, she recounted in a post her distressing experience at a bakery while waiting behind another customer. She said, "When he was done paying, I was almost going to cry. First, the 13 buns, each in one plastic bag of its own. Then he wanted six buns in one bag and seven buns in another, and he wanted them double-bagged. Then he asked the cashier to give him one large bag to put everything into. In one bakery trip for 13 buns, there was a total of 18 – eighteen plastic bags – used in one single transaction." I share her distress when I witness such scenes in bakeries, hawker centres and supermarkets. It seems that, as consumers, we have become so precious that food items must be individually packed for fear that they come into contact with one another.”
“It concluded that "States should adopt a national coordinating framework with a clear mandate and sufficient authority to coordinate all activities related to children’s rights and digital media and information and communications technology at cross-sectoral, national, regional and local levels and facilitate international cooperation." Given our whole-of-Government approach to tackling our national priorities, I believe that protecting and advancing children’s digital rights with a national coordinating framework are a task Singapore should actively undertake. Indeed, given our extensive experience with digitalisation, Singapore can also be a key advocate of this movement on the world stage. Such efforts will be in the best interests of the healthy and positive development of children in Singapore and beyond.”
“When our children go online, they are, indeed, vulnerable to risks – risks of commercial exploitation, exposure to inappropriate content, cyberbullying and online sexual abuse, and we must do our best to shield them from these dangers. Thankfully, Singapore has not experienced such high-profile incidents relating to the breach of children’s digital privacy or adverse exposure to online harms. As avid users of technology, however, young people in Singapore are susceptible to such risks, even as we embrace the distinct benefits they can gain from the digital world. Another key tranche to young people’s digital rights must, therefore, be ensuring access to digital literacy education to empower them with the skills to minimise digital risks and maximise gains. In this regard, Singapore has done well through efforts by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Communications and Information, Infocomm Media Development Authority, National Library Board and the Media Literacy Council. I urge technology companies to do even more to support these public education efforts and consider the duty of care they owe to their young users. Mr Deputy Speaker, our children are born into a heavily digitalised environment. Many have a digital footprint even before they have sprung from their mothers’ wombs, with their ultrasound images being shared on social media. That is but the beginning of their digital journey. In light of this prevailing reality, we must take concerted steps towards ensuring that children's digital rights are respected, supported and championed. In 2014, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child held a Day of General Discussion on digital media and children’s rights.”