Ong Seh Hong
Singapore
“The target groups are often the defenceless youth. We have an obligation to protect them and it is important to raise awareness and educate the public on the threat of all these cyber bullying, cyber crimes and cyber sexual hunting. Close cooperation with the parents is another instrument to combat the scourge.”
“And if the book is published, the writer still has to go through book dealers who will take a 50% cut and the books will be put under consignment, ie, payment once every three to five months. The sale of Chinese books has dropped from more than 10,000 to a few thousand, and now to around 1,000.”
“Therefore, I seek an update from MCYS on the nature and the extent of social problems relating to gambling at the casinos following the full-operations of these two casinos in Singapore. What are the control mechanisms in place and how effective have they been so far? Gambling”
“There is, for me, a simple way to tell if the Budget brings real benefits to the people and the country. If the Budget hinders us, if it taxes so severely or gives too generously that we lose our motivation to work, if it makes onerous administrative demands on us and on businesses, then it cannot be a right budget.”
“Sir, I have a few supplementary questions. First, besides denying employees from taking sick leave which is a very clear infringement of the Employment Act, there could be other forms of exploitation of the workers, such as requiring them to work unnecessarily long hours.”
“Sir, I thank the Minister for giving this detailed account of what happened because there were discrepancies in the newspaper reports in the accounts by Mr Goh as well as the Police. However, I would like to ask the Minister how does the Police ascertain whether personal safety is being compromised.”
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“How does MOE appraise the schools in this area? How do the schools engage parents and the community to nurture our next generation with better character development? *Cols. 2031-2034. Deliverables of Education”
“They emphasise on their children's results and they are overly concerned about money and materialistic pursuits. Therefore, they do not let their children do any housework. They only want them to concentrate on their studies. Third, the school. Some schools only focus on academic performance rather than on the personal aspects, such as character building and moral development. Fourth, the social factor. The society talks about materialism and utilitarianism. All these will cause people to emphasise on money and materialistic pursuits. Internet access can also erode the moral values of our young. Recently, the sex photo scandal of Hong Kong actor Edison Cheng is an example to illustrate the distorted values and lifestyle of the modern generation. Therefore, I would like to urge the Government and parents to look into this problem so that we can strengthen the character building of our young. First, we can strengthen the family unit. Parents need to have proper values, and be a good example to their children. Their world views, outlook and moral sense will all affect their children. Therefore, at home, parents should not emphasise too much on their children’s results. Rather, they should let their children participate in house chores so that it will promote greater interaction among parents and children. Second, the school should emphasise on three aspects, ie, moral, intellectual and physical, and not be overly concerned about academic performance but to stress more on the character and moral development of their students. Third, to create a good social environment for the young, so that we can create a good learning environment for them. Therefore, I would like to ask MOE for its comments regarding the psychological and character building of our students.”
“[For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A*.] Last year, during the Budget debate, I urged the Government to look into the character building of our next generation so that they can have a "yin yang hu ji, wu xing xiang fu 阴阳互济，五行相辅" which means to cultivate a harmonious and balanced character. Those words are still ringing in my ears. But I have read a news article recently and it makes me very worried. According to the newspaper report on 28th February, some schools have organised Total Defence Day to raise the level of Total Defence awareness among the students so that they could experience their parents' hardship during the Japanese occupation. So these students ate sweet potatoes and drank tap water. There was no electricity, no fan, no lights, and no air conditioning. And this was just for one day. But the students kept complaining. They said that it was too hot, too dark, the water was not cold, and they did not want to eat sweet potatoes. It was also reported that a 10-year old student refused to go home after the school bus fetched him back. He refused to go home because the maid was not around and there was no one to carry his school bag. So, I am worried about the next generation. Are they too weak? Are they overly protected? They are like flowers in a green house. I feel that the factors affecting their moral character are, first, the self. Students are immature at the developmental age, emotionally and psychologically. Their moral character is not well formed and their value system is also not properly formed. Therefore, they are easily influenced by external factors. Second, the family factor. Some parents have distorted values.”
“The Minister just now said that he does not want to use the same model of means testing for step-down care because he wants to be more generous with the bigger bill. But for step-down care, the bill may be small on the monthly basis but over time it can be very big. Will the Minister consider maybe a similar approach, a hybrid system? You still use this very simple approach but for the special case, you use a different method.”
“Having one model will also mean that patients need to be tested only once and, hence, reducing duplication or administrative work at the step-down care. One model will also prevent the occurrence of situations where a patient could qualify for subsidy in restructured hospitals but not in the step-down care. When such a situation arises, the patient may refuse to be transferred to the step-down care facilities, and it will result in choking and wastage of acute hospital beds. Sir, what has been revealed so far about means testing at the restructured hospitals has allayed some of the initial public anxieties. The Ministry should now follow through to make sure that the means testing system in our healthcare system is simple, clear and unambiguous, a system that is seamless and allow patients to move between restructured and step-down care facilities easily and readily, and means tested only once.”
“Sir, I declare my interest as an employee of a step-down care hospital. I support the Health Ministry's plan to implement means testing in the restructured hospitals to better allocate limited healthcare resources. However, from all that have been reviewed, the new model of means testing in restructured hospitals will be substantially different from that currently used in the step-down care setting of community hospitals, chronic sick hospitals and nursing homes. The proposed new model for restructured hospitals will be more generous to allow high income patients from the top 20% to remain heavily subsidised if they choose B2 or C wards, whereas anyone with per capita household income of more than $1,000 now is not subsidised at the step-down care. The new model will have a gradual sliding scale of subsidy with reduction in 1% point from 80% to 65% in a C Class ward, and from 65% to 50% in a B2 ward. Whereas the reduction in the step-down care now is much bigger, at 25%, and the subsidy is set at 75%. 50%, 25% or 0%. The new model will be based on the patient's declared income as the sole criterion, whereas the step-down care currently looks at the income of patients and all immediate family members as well as the ownership of major assets. Sir, we can see that the new model is simpler, easier to implement and more generous, but yet it remains fair to some extent. Therefore, I urge the Ministry to consider using the new model, if possible, or something similar to this model that we are talking about, for both restructured hospitals and step-down care facilities. This will minimise confusion to the public who see the two hospital systems as one and the same of a public healthcare system.”
“During a recent Chinese New Year gathering, I had the pleasure to taste the "Gi-ah kueh " made by the 75-year-old mother of my friend. This is a traditional food from Ann Kway county of Hokkien province. I have not tasted this delicacy for more than 30 years in Singapore. This food brought back memories of my childhood days, and it reminded me of the urgency of preserving our cultural heritage. This morning, in the Lianhe Zaobao, a reader wrote that the Korean people felt extremely guilty when they were not able to preserve the Nan An Men, a national treasure which was lost in a recent fire. The author asked if such a thing were to happen in Singapore, would we have the same kind of feeling? While developing ourselves into an international commercial metropolis, we must also do our best to preserve our cultural heritage. We have to preserve the very precious heritage and pass it on to our children and grandchildren. This is what I call, "Seek the root while the root is still here, but do not pass the lantern only after the light has been put out." *Cols. 1579-1580. Developing of Geylang Area as a Civic District”
“[For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A *.] Sir, the UNESCO World Cultural Diversity Declaration 2001 states: "Cultural diversity is one of the original sources of development. It is important to mankind, just as biological diversity is important to mother nature." UNESCO also pointed out that cultural heritage includes not only the materialistic historical sites or relics, but also covers the various communities and customs that are left behind by our ancestors, that include the various languages and dialects as well as the performing arts. Singapore was founded in 1819, less than 200 years ago. We do not have awesome relics, such as the Pyramids or the Great Wall but we have something that is bestowed to us by our ancestors – the cultural heritage passed on to us by our forefathers. In fact, we have the various customs and traditions from the Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian communities, as well as our native Peranakan culture. Unfortunately, we do not cherish and preserve them. Many of these have diminished, such as our roadside dialect wayang, and the Malay Gamelan music. Since they are not supported by us, many of these have diminished. As far as language is concerned, many of our younger generation people could not speak their own dialect and the Eurasians are also beginning to lose their unique Kristan language. Many people have forgotten the real meaning of their traditional festivals. Many Chinese families go overseas during the Chinese New Year festival period instead of staying at home for reunion and new-year visitations to their relatives and friends. Many of our roadside crafts and delicacies have also diminished.”
“I think the Minister might have misunderstood me. I am not suggesting that we have a cap on the pricing but rather we should build flats based on affordability, and then we work backwards. If the highest of our $8,000 income household can afford certain amount, then HDB should not build flats that are above this amount. It is not that we cap the flat price regardless of what is the cost but rather you see how much they can afford, then we build up to that. It is different because the flat is worth only that much and you encourage people to be prudent because we think this is the best. If you really want to go beyond your means and do not exercise prudence, then you should go and buy a private condominium or private apartment and you face the risk. Let the market take the risk since this is a market economy and HDB should not be in that business.”
“- it might be 10 years of their income. So I just want to seek Minister's clarification on this.”
“I would like to seek further clarification from the Minister regarding affordability housing, especially the DBS Scheme where actually some flats were priced in excess of $700,000. If HDB is really committed to building affordable housing and there is a certain cap on the family income, I certainly agree with the Minister that we should not just build basic housing. There is a wide spectrum of housing for those households earning between $1,000 and $2,000, or up to $8,000. So, there will be this aspiration. But should the HDB not be looking at the highest end, say, up to $8,000, what is the affordability, and work backwards? In order not to encourage an over-commitment and over-spending on housing, we should, if we think that the most comfortable mortgage payment is a certain amount, work backwards and see how much these flats should be. If the maximum is $200,000 or $300,000, then we should build according to affordability. Then, this is real affordable housing. Because I noted that flats built, say, 20 years ago probably were sold at maybe one or two years of the average earnings of a graduate. But, nowadays, at the high-end, if you say $750,000 -”
“Thank you, Mr Chairman. Finally, I caught your eye.”
“They do not have to pay tuition fees so they have a more comfortable life and they have more time to study. They do not owe a debt upon graduation. So I hope the Minister will be concerned about these students. Sir, the tuition fee for citizens, as far as I can gather from the Internet, is from $6,000 to $18,000. For a medical student, it is $18,000 a year. The cost of living is about $3,000-$4,000. For each student, the total cost - tuition fee plus cost of living - is between $10,000 and $22,000. At present, the CDC and the CCC bursaries amount to $1,600 per year. MOE bursaries are between $800 and $1,200, according to their family income levels. In contrast, these bursaries are like putting out a fire with a cup of water. It is hardly sufficient. And I find that the students have to borrow money or work and study at the same time before they can complete their studies. So I hope the Minister will consider raising the quantum of the bursaries. And for those who study courses where the tuition fees are higher, like medicine, they should be given higher bursaries so that they do not have to bear a burden of lifelong debt. Sir, I support the Minister's Budget Statement. *Cols. 903-908. 2.52 pm”
“I hope the Government will carry out a comprehensive review of the social security net to ensure that those who are in need will not have to wait for the goodies from the Budget and that, every day, they will be able to lead their lives without uncertainty. I would like to talk about the education policy. I am very happy to note that the Minister for Finance is investing more and more to raise the quality of our manpower. Not only is the Government doing more for the Post Secondary Education Account, it has also raised the CDC and the CCC bursaries. These are bursaries provided by CDCs and the CCCs in respect of universities and polytechnics. The quantum of the bursaries has increased, and it has also increased the MOE's quantum as well as the coverage from 50% to 66% of lower-income families. In addition, there are also new bursaries for polytechnic students and this is given to 50% of the lower-income families. But I would like to ask the Finance Minister: why is the MOE bursary amount given to students of the universities and polytechnics differentiated? Why not raise the percentage of bursaries to polytechnic students, so that it is given to 66% of lower-income families, and more families can benefit from the bursaries? For those university and polytechnic graduates who face financial difficulties, I would like to ask the Minister how much is their loan upon graduation. What is the amount that they have to repay? From the Internet forum, I have come across some university graduate grumblers. They said that they have to borrow money during their university days, and have to work and study at the same time. But the foreigners who receive scholarships have several hundred dollars of allowance every month.”
“This year, the Minister for Finance has generously raised the Public Assistance rates. For a single individual, it has been increased from $290 to $330. Our authorities believe that, as far as the singles are concerned, a sum of $330 is the minimum required. I would like to ask the Minister: amongst the older Singaporeans, what about those who are not receiving Public Assistance? How many of them have an income below $330? I have met some people and many of them are singles living in rental flats. They are not working. But they have some CPF savings, not much, but the money is locked up in the account, and they would withdraw $200 plus every month from their CPF Minimum Sum. Because they have an income, they cannot apply for Public Assistance or other welfare benefits. They have to pay their own rent, utilities and daily living needs and medical cost. I believe that this is a sandwiched group of people in the lower-income. I hope that each year, they will be able to get some assistance. But they have a long-term problem. If they have to wait for a package of assistance, which is not certain, then I believe they will be living in uncertainty. With inflation and the annual increase in the cost of goods, the amount that they can withdraw from the Minimum Sum is, in fact, relatively lower and lower. Amongst the lower-income group, I hope the Government would be able to find a long-term measure to help them so that there is a minimum standard of living for them. This is my personal view and I feel that this is a gap in our social security net. Many of my colleagues have brought up the problems relating to social security and their shortcomings.”
“Not only to help the people, we must also manage our surplus and save our surplus so that, when there is a storm, we would have sufficient resources to help our country and people to ride out the crisis. This type of hongbao psychology is partly brought about by us. I suggest that we - the Prime Minister, Ministers, MPs, and the newspapers, all of us - should no longer consider the time to distribute goodies. We should let our people understand and carefully explain and differentiate between the two. The package of assistance, on one hand, is aimed at helping those who are in need, ie, the lower-income group. On the other hand, the distribution of surplus is only given out when the economy has done very well and a part of the surplus is distributed to the people. If we can differentiate between the two, then we can reduce the confusion of the people. So I hope we will not use the goodies to describe our Budget. I would like to ask the Minister for Finance why is it that we must wait for Budget time to review the past year's conditions and provide the necessary assistance. Does this not mean that the social security net is not adequate and that it is no longer in time to make changes to meet those who are in need - the disadvantaged group? We know that water from a distance would not help to fight a fire near our place. If we wait for one year before we look for a solution, what about the lower-income families during the year? I hope that the Government would re-establish a review on our social security system to further improve our social security to be more flexible, comprehensive, and to cover the lower-income group so that when there are changes in the economy, they will be helped in time.”
“[For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A *.] Mr Speaker, Sir, some people feel that the allocation of $1.8 billion out of the $6.4 billion surplus is not enough. Mr Low Thia Khiang appealed to the Government to reduce the 2% increase in GST. But I support the Minister for Finance in maintaining a cautious, pragmatic and far-sighted financial policy. In providing short-term assistance, we have not forgotten the need to ensure the long-term competitiveness of our country. As Singaporeans, we have to adjust a certain psychological bias towards the Budget. Every year, at the time of publication of the Budget, people are no longer interested in ensuring the long-term competitiveness of our economy or continued economic growth. What they frequently ask is: "What am I going to get out of the goodies? How much am I going to get?" When the economy is not doing very well and people expect the Government to help, it is understandable. But when the economy is doing well and the surplus is sufficient, then the people are saying: “The Government is now rich. Whether I need it or not, every one hopes that the Government would distribute more goodies for the people and not only expecting them to help those who are really in need of help." With this kind of psychology, whether the economy is doing well or not, and there is this expectation that the goodies will increase from year to year, where is the money going to come from? So I am worried. Are we not beginning to lose our cautious attitude to prepare for a rainy day? I believe that the Government has a duty to lead the people, educate them and re-establish the attitude of putting aside the grain for a period of scarcity.”
“We have seen better alternatives of funeral parlours in other countries. I think it is only right for us to consider these models for a very small country like Singapore where we are living close by to one another. It may not be an immediate issue as we do not receive many complaints. But, I think, it is an issue that we need to deal with in the longer term. As I said, we have already decided to delay the funeral parlour construction until a time when the industrial site is developed, and we will take into consideration issues that have been raised by residents. I would just like to say that although the issue about complaints may not be a very critical one at the moment, but we do receive complaints from residents. MEDISHIELD (Average payment claim) 5. Mdm Halimah Yacob asked the Minister for Health (a) what is the average payment per claim under MediShield, after the MediShield reforms were initiated, and how does this compare with the period before the MediShield reforms; and (b) in light of the announcement that further changes will be made to MediShield, when will these changes be implemented.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, MOS said that accessibility is one of the considerations. But I just wonder how often do people have to go to a funeral parlour, like they have to go to a shopping centre, cinema or sports complex, that makes accessibility so important. Also, I would like to know how many feedback or complaints MND receives from residents regarding the noise and disturbance from void deck wakes. Because, as an MP, I seldom receive such a complaint and I realise that it has more or less become part of Singaporeans' life and culture. Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien: Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for the supplementary question. Accessibility is, indeed, an important consideration because we have also received feedback from funeral parlour operators that they do consider accessibility as an issue. And also from our perspective and understanding, right now, many of the wakes are actually conducted, as the Member said, at the void decks, on the streets as well as public roads. In view of a potential increase in such wakes in our country, we are basically taking a view about what we need to do for the future. Right now, we have a model that we think is probably a better alternative - a model that basically puts a purpose-built funeral parlour where all the services are put together, it is air-conditioned, it is held indoor. We have all the conditions that we have thought through, including not allowing procession to be carried on the street, allowing incense only to be burnt indoor and with air pollution control measures. So, we believe that the traditional rite and ritual funeral wakes can actually be carried out in an environment that is more controlled and cleaner, and it is probably quieter for everybody in that environment. This is something that we are planning for the future.”
“We could train our students so that they would be more rugged, more self-confident, and be flexible in all their dealings. This will ensure continued prosperity of our nation. * Cols.3231-3236. Education Policy”
“They should be allowed to learn other languages, such as Russian, Arabic and even the African languages. I would also suggest that our MOE contact some of the expatriates who are resident here and invite them to speak to our students on their cultures and traditions so as to open the field of vision of our students. Moving hands, legs and brains. By this, I mean we should provide hands-on learning for our students. In our everyday life, everywhere is a learning arena for us. We can bring our students to the museums, art galleries, factories and even bring them overseas. We should also have more projects and more hands-on learning. A lot of the students are now doing their projects by going into the Internet, and just "copy, cut and paste." I think we should stimulate our students to cultivate critical thinking and have an analytical mind. Retaining their hearts. Finally, we must cultivate our students to leave our hearts here. As a small nation, we are constantly bombarded by cultures from all over the world. We have maintained our great tradition of a multi-lingual and multi-racial society while trying to absorb and integrate the cultures of our new immigrants. This will increase the diversity of our culture. Therefore, whenever our young people go overseas to study or to work, they would have the urge and will to come back and serve our nation. We should be more flexible in the teaching of our National Education programme. Our community involvement project should be more self-initiated by our students. This will make our students more self-motivated in wanting to learn about our own country, our history and our culture. I hope that the Ministry of Education will accept my suggestions.”
“Perhaps our teachers should practise what the kung fu masters do to help "open up" the meridien of our students to effect the circulation of the vital energies as to regulate their bodily functions. We target right brain, eyes, mouths, hands, legs and heart. We must stimulate them to learn and be versatile. Stimulation of right brain. In the past, our education emphasised on science, technology and engineering, and these disciplines call for the function of the left side of our brain, ie, to be logical and analytical. According to Daniel Pink, we need "high concept" and "high touch" to supplement "high technology". In the 21st century, machines can work faster than men, and can replace the human being in many functions. As such, we should now seek the development of the right side of our brain. "High concept" includes the ability to create and appreciate beauty while "high touch" towards includes abilities to think out of the box and to emphasise. We have to train our students with more humanity studies and some non-examination subjects to stimulate our students to learn about the arts. Next, we have to open our students' eyes to see the world, open their mouth to communicate and open their heart to accept others. As a global citizen, one has to correct word new. One has to be more inclusive and more sensitive to the diversity of cultures, languages and religions. Language is the window to the culture. As a global society, Singapore is blessed with the advantage of exposure to people from all parts of the world. Opportunities are available to them to learn many other languages. The Ministry of Education should encourage our students to learn the third language and even the fourth language, and not restrict them to our four official languages.”
“We must be able to endure hardships so that we can absorb all the impact from outside and persevere to fight on until we prevail. However, we cannot be hard on everything. So water arises from metal, we must learn to be like water. Water may be soft and gentle, yet it can penetrate everything. It cannot be cut into pieces. Water can accommodate others and can change its shape according to the container that holds it. We can learn from its softness, gentleness, inclusiveness and flexibility. But to be gentle like water does not mean that we want our children to succumb to pressure. We must be soft outside and strong inside. Water gives rise to wood. We must learn to be upright like the trees and noble like the bamboo. We must be objective and fair, so that we would not be corrupted by the environment around us. We will therefore uphold our integrity, and not to fall into corruption. However, we should not be too rigid and inflexible like the wood. Wood gives rise to fire. Fire represents our passion and our will to continuously upgrade ourselves. Our students must have this passion to learn and to adopt lifelong learning so that they can keep on upgrading themselves and benefit for the whole life. In this book entitled The World is Flat, the author put it as PQ + CQ - passion quotient plus curiosity quotient. Even with passion, we are reminded to be down to earth. This is why fire gives rise to earth. We have to stand firmly on the earth and be pragmatic in the way we do things. We should not just idle away day-dreaming and engage in empty talk all the time. We have to work hard and put in every effort to realise our aspiration. How do we then train our students in the inter-complementarity of these five elements?”
“[For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A *.] Mr Chairman, the world in this 21st century is a flat one. Thomas Friedman, in his work, The World is Flat, mentioned 10 of the major forces that changed the world today, such as the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Internet proliferation, outsourcing and the open source code, supply chain, search engine technology, etc, that pushed the trend of globalisation and flattened the work. They would change the balance of power and the economic and commercial models. They have great impact on all the countries and their people. I think we are faced with a lot of opportunities and a lot of challenges. Can our children find a footing in this new world and make further contributions to our country? When our schools and teachers are educating our students, they should also train and prepare them to face the challenges in future, so that they will be able to shoulder this heavy responsibility. What are the characteristics required to succeed in the future in this 21st century? I think we could illustrate by using the ancient theory of balance between the ying and the yang and the complementarity among the five elements. On the balance of the ying and yang, we have to find a balance between being strong and gentle. In good times, we should not be arrogant or complacent. We should remain humble and alert. In an adverse situation, we must be unyielding and not succumb to pressure, and be resilient, so that we can turn adversity into our favour. To achieve the balance of ying and yang, we must have the full complement of five elements. The five elements are metal, water, wood, fire and earth. For metal, it means that we must have the will and determination, that is, to be as strong as steel.”
“I would like to seek clarifications from the Minister or MOS. Yesterday, it was mentioned that there will be a review of the ElderShield criteria. I would like to ask whether we would consider making it easier for those patients, who are mentally disturbed or demented, but physically, are still able to do some of those functions, but very disturbed in their behaviour and require a lot of attention from the carers, to be also eligible for ElderShield. Let me illustrate. Currently, the five criteria for ElderShield are mobility, whether they can walk, bathe or dress themselves, or whether they are incontinent. Whereas for some of the demented patients, they may still able to do all these, can still move around, ie, can do some of these activities, but are mentally disturbed and have disturbed behaviour like wandering, etc, and excluded under the ElderShield. I wonder if the Minister or MOS would also kindly look into this group of patients and to include them under the coverage.”
“While they provide good services, we do not have expertise in specialised field or in research development. 6.15 pm We need to import specialists. To this end, the TCM Board can play a facilitator role. Currently, TCM Board's policies do not augur well for institutions wanting to bring in foreign experts to set up specialist centres. For academically-qualified foreign TCM doctors, the Board's criteria requiring "at least eight years of experience and holds at least the post of "Deputy Head", complete three years of TCM clinical attachment under conditional registration at an approved local institution" are, at best, restrictive. In comparison, a Singaporean with similar qualifications only needs to complete one year of clinical attachment. This disparity smacks of double standard. I was equally befuddled by the requirement that for each foreign doctor hired at each individual clinic, there must be at least three TCM physicians on full registration, which under current system, means only Singaporeans. This sounds like a protectionist quota system. As it was introduced after February 2006, it is also unfair to practitioners and clinics set up before the new regulations. So I urge MOH to review its policies and welcome more highly qualified and experienced TCM experts to come and practise in Singapore. This will raise the standard of TCM and help us in our pursuit to be a TCM Hub. Influenza Pandemic Plan”
“Mdm Chair, I declare my interest as an employee of Ren Ci Hospital which also provides Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) service. Madam, the past two decades have seen a growing configurance of several trends, TCM doctors approaching TCM on a more scientific basis, western doctors and researchers recognising the potential of Chinese herbs and patients becoming more open to non-western practices. China is clamouring to modernise its vast TCM infrastructure and increase its market share. Hong Kong and Taiwan are hoping to leverage on their Chinese heritage to become TCM hubs. Western pharmaceutical giants are in search of TCM partnership in the lucrative world market of herbal medicines estimated to grow to $12 billion over the next 10 years. Given our Chinese heritage, good location, medical tourism hub status and high medical standards, Singapore should seize the opportunities to develop into a TCM hub. We have done some good work so far. The Traditional Chinese Medicine Act was passed in 2000. I must commend the TCM Practitioner Board for putting up the regulatory framework which ensures only properly trained and qualified TCM practitioners are allowed to provide consultation and treatments to the public. However, I feel that much more can be done. One such area to promote is specialised TCM practice. Unlike western medicines that have an established history of well structured training and practices, the development of TCM in Singapore has been left in the hands of the private and voluntary sectors. Hence, we only have a handful of well-established TCM institutions, like Chung Hwa Free Clinics, Public Free Clinics, Thong Chai Medical Institution and the affiliate teaching facilities.”
“The reason for these two guidelines is that it will ensure that our assets will continue to grow and capital will continue to grow, and to discourage any over-reliance on NII. I have three more suggestions: Fourth, to exclude capital gains due to fluctuation of currency exchange rate. Fifth, we need to draw up a list of strategic investments to be protected. Sixth, to set up an Asset Disposal Committee which will deliberate independently on any proposal to dispose of any of our strategic investments. With that note, Mdm Deputy Speaker, I support the motion. 5.25 pm”
“However, there is a Chinese saying, "fu bu guo san dai ", which means the wealth in the family does not go beyond three generations. Many businessmen always lament that the first generation works very hard to accumulate their wealth, to make the first pot of gold. And the second generation will continue to work to grow it. Then comes the third generation who spends and splurges it away and wipes out what the family has accumulated. I know this is definitely not the intention of our Finance Minister and the Government to open the floodgate for our future generations of leaders to wipe out our national reserves. But in view of the potential downfalls I have just alluded to, I urge the Government to seriously reconsider this proposition to include capital gain in the NII. If the Government still wants to push ahead, I would like to make the following suggestions: First, to limit the capital gains to those investments made during the term of the government and the gain that is made during the term so that the government of any term will not be able to take profit of good investments made by previous governments. Second, to set a minimum rate at which the total asset size must grow before any gain can be realised. This minimum rate can be pegged at a certain percentage, say, 2%, above the inflation rate. Third, to set the maximum amount of NII that can be used in any one year, expressed as a percentage of the total asset size. That, we can work out the number. Let me explain why I made suggestions (2) and (3). For example, if inflation is 2% this year, then our asset must grow by at least 4% before any capital gain above this 4% growth can be realised and used. Moreover, we have capped the total amount of NII that can be used.”
“However, if we always take profit whenever there are capital gains and spend away all or part of the capital gains, then over the longer term, we will not be able to enjoy the consistent growth that we are used to and our "real" asset value, net of inflation, may remain stagnant or even diminish over the years. There is also a technical problem on which currency we should calculate our capital gain. Should it be Singapore dollars or any international currency? Either one would have its problem. For example, our investment in a foreign currency would appreciate in Singapore dollar term if our Singapore dollar weakens. Should this be considered as a capital gain? I will argue against this. In fact, a currency quite often reflects the strength of its underlying economy as well as its reserve backing. If our dollar weakens, it probably means that our economy is not doing so well. In fact, there is more reason that we should not take profit and we should preserve this asset in order to give a stronger backing to our currency. Next, I would also like to touch on protection of some of these strategic investments. Some investments may be made for strategic reasons and should be held for long-term national interest. However, the personnel in charge of our investment may change over time while our strategic interests probably do not change so often. Allowing capital gain to be realised and spent away may also be very tempting for future governments to lose sight of our national strategic interest and sell off these strategic investments. Madam, I understand our Government will need to find new sources of funds other than from taxation in order to fund all these various new programmes and initiatives to keep our economy competitive while helping our people.”
“Even if I were to spend only half of the amount, the remaining $5 million will not get me anything close to what I have just sold. Even with $10 million, I may not be able to get back the same type of property of similar size and location, especially so if the economy is booming. Madam, if we allow capital gain to be spent away, how do we prevent any irresponsible government in future, to sell away our long-term held assets, in order to realise the capital gain so that they can spend them on some of the promises they gave to their electorate? For more volatile assets like equity, the problem could be even worse. Let us say, in a market bull run, up until these two days where the market has major corrections, the price of some blue chip counters, I was told, have gone up a few times, three or four times over the last one year. Let us say, we bought a counter at $1 and we sold it at $2. When the price goes up to $4, we will not be able to get back also the same quantity of shares that we held previously. And then, we may lose in the long-term gains for this asset. I do not know what is the exact portfolio mix of our Singapore reserves, but the shear size of it implies that they must have been well allocated and diversified across different asset classes and also spread over many geographic regions. With this well diversified portfolio, some of our investments will do well this year and another set of investment probably will perform well the next year. Overall, we should achieve a constant long-term growth.”
“Mdm Deputy Speaker, I support the Budget Statement. However, please allow me to raise some concerns on this otherwise celebratory Budget. Madam, I am concerned with the Government's intention to widen the definition of the Net Investment Income (NII) to include capital gain. The details of the definition of this capital gain to be included in NII and what portion is allowed to be used has yet to be announced. Nevertheless, I urge the Government to "sai si ", to think thrice and to move very prudently on this matter. We have always guarded our national reserve very carefully. Only until a few years ago, we started to allow the use of NII. Even then, the Government has adhered to a very prudent and conservative spending of up to 50% of NII contributions. Moreover, the NII definition is limited to dividends and interest income. The usage of NII has so far enabled us to avoid budget deficits for many years. This amounted to about 1.6% of our GDP in the past five years. Madam, the policy of using only half of this interest and dividend income without touching the capital gain, though conservative, has allowed our assets to continue to grow in tandem with the growth of the underlying asset class as well as the economy. Once we start to touch on the capital gains, the situation will change. If my grandfather had the foresight, which he had not, to buy a 20,000 square foot land in Bukit Timah at less than $2 per square foot some 40-50 years ago, the land would have fetched me at least $10 million now. This is a conservative estimate. The capital gain would be $9,960,000. If I were allowed to spend the capital gain, the original dollar of $40,000 would not buy me any property at all.”
“It was until at one point that his arm was giving him so much pain that he called his father and said, "I think my arm is broken." This boy went home with his broken arm, and his father took him to hospital. At that time, his elder sister had just come home. When she saw that, she took off her tie and made a sling for her brother. So this boy was enduring the pain. He did not shed tears and the sister was very calm and she knew what to do. Because 10 years ago, this little sister had also broken her arm in school, and she was healed only after having gone through a lot of sufferings, and she had learnt from her experience. She knew how to relieve the pain of her brother and knew what to do in such a situation. When I was preparing this script and thinking of what I was going to speak about, I was rather heavy hearted, because I was quite worried about our future. However, after reading this article, I became more enlightened and I began to see the light. If we could all behave like these two children, we have a very bright future. We would like to be this boy. Although he had suffered, he did not shed tears, and we would like to learn from this little sister who borrowed from her experience and knew how to deal with difficulties when it was required. I forgot to tell you that the story I told earlier about Zhao Min had a title, which is known as "Gold hill or silver hill is not a hill that you can depend on". We have to be self-reliant. I would like to encourage our people to work together. Together, let us build a more confident Singapore. * Cols. 725-734. 2.24 pm”
“We know that, nowadays, there are a lot of children with a remote control in their hand to control and change the TV channel. At the same time, they will shout to their mother or their maid to do this and do that for them. So this is another way of remote controlling. If our children are like that, we must realise that we have trained them to be over dependent on us. In school, I am very pleased that we are already moving away from the concentration on examination results. We should enhance our emphasis on moral education and physical education. We want to train and cultivate our children to be physically and mentally fit, and we have to start from our everyday living. We make every student do some work in the school, like cleaning the floor, cleaning the blackboard. This is a very good opportunity to train our students. Perhaps the school should consider reintroducing the duty officer scheme for our students. I hope that, apart from military training, we could also have other opportunities to train our young people so that they may be more disciplined and more self-reliant. We know that it is very difficult to build up our spiritual health. But we must try our best to make our people participate and to have the endurance to live through all difficulties. Finally, let me end with another story. This was a story in Lianhe Zaobao last Friday by an author by the name of Tan Tee Seng. His story was entitled, "The Broken Arm". This boy had just completed the PSLE and was playing on the playground when he fell down and dislocated his elbow. But this child carried on playing as though nothing had happened. After that, he even went to the video arcade to play games.”
“But I must remind everybody: while we are strengthening our social safety net, we must have reasonable and careful planning so that it will not make our people over-dependent on the Government. In fact, we should encourage our people, particularly our younger people, to be both soft and hard at the same time. They must be able to resist the temptation of falling into their comfort zones. They have to be able to equip themselves so that they can adapt to the changing environment. At the same time, they must also have a compassionate heart for others, so that they would look after those who need help in our society. In order to attain this objective, if it is just the hardware and software, it is not enough. We have always said that we should not give them the fish but rather, we should teach them how to fish. I think teaching them to fish is only a technical instruction. We must ensure that our people will be able to fish either in calm waters or in choppy waters. It is said that if you endure the sufferings, you will become the man of men. So, we must train our younger generation so that they know how to endure sufferings, just like Zhao Min had trained up her son in the story I told earlier. I stress that teaching should start from home. We must adjust the mentality of our children so that they will be prepared to take some sufferings. At home, we must make our children more self-reliant and look after themselves. Just now, Mr Yeo has said that we have now 600,000 foreign maids. Foreign maids are here to reduce the burden of our working parents and to look after the young babies. Apart from that, we must encourage our people not to be over dependent on foreign maids. So we do not want to call them a remote MM, not Minister Mentor, but mother and maid.”
“Some of them even have their maids to carry their bags for them when they go to school. At home, a lot of parents do not want their children to do household chores. They only want their children to concentrate on their studies. For the children to study and do well in school, the father and the mother or the maid will be doing all the work for them. Nowadays, the schools do not practise the system of rostering the students to clean the blackboard or to sweep the floor. When the young boys go for national service, they do not have to do the cooking because cooking is being outsourced. When they go home, the mother or the maid will wash the army uniform for them. One very senior TV artiste, Mr Huang Wenyong once said, "Our young people nowadays do not even know how to act the part of cutting an apple." The reason is very simple - because he has never cut an apple himself before. Sir, if our generation goes on like that, we are in trouble. In the past three days, many Members have been telling us how to perfect our social safety net and they have made some very good suggestions. In fact, we want to narrow the income gap among our people. We also have to face this problem of an ageing population. There are in fact some less fortunate or the weaker people in society that need our concern. It is good for MPs to be concerned with people and it is also good and proper that we ask the Government to do more. A Straits Times reporter by the name of Peh Shing Huei remarked that good is not good enough. It must be perfect. So just being good is not enough. Sir, I hope I am not being misunderstood. Although I do not agree with a welfare state scheme, I am fully supportive in looking after the weaker people in our society.”
“With three million people, they were able to rule over 80 million Han people. At that time, the Manchurians were all mighty warriors. They could ride the horses and shoot the arrows with ease. But after the good life in China, they forgot how to ride the horse or to shoot their arrows. They could only keep the birds, fight the crickets and smoke opium. Why? I believe this was because the Qing government was over protecting the Manchurians. Let me give you two examples. First, the Manchurian government insisted that the Manchurian native land, that is, the north-eastern part of China, was the exclusive land of the Manchurians and the Han people were not allowed to venture over there. Secondly, every male baby born to the Manchurians was entitled to draw a military salary so that he could concentrate on receiving military training. But it worked the other way! The Manchurians had got it too easy. They did not have to work for their living. Although they were drawing the military salary, they did not train themselves to be warriors. They privately employed the Han people to do the farming for them. As a result, they headed for destruction. Our children were all over-protected by our parents. Let me tell you another story that I heard. A young child at the kindergarten had knocked over a glass of water. The water started dripping, and his pants were soaked. He made no attempt to stop the water from dripping. The teacher asked him why. He said, "Teacher, I am waiting for you to clean it up." He had a maid at home, so he did not know what to do. There was always someone to do the work for him. Our young people have grown up in this age where they do not lift a finger to do any household chores or anything for the family.”
“However, is it really so? Our young people are certainly better educated, but can they, with their mentality and character, rise to deal with the challenges that globalisation brings about. Do they have the ability to deal with both regional and international competitions? Our forefathers and the first and second generation leaders had suffered. They had gone through the sufferings of war, the conflicts and confrontation with the colonial masters and the confrontation days with the communists and the Indonesians. They gone through the hard days but they had never gave up. But now, our younger generation of Singaporeans, do they have the excellent mental quality and sound spiritual cultivation? While enjoying a good life in a good environment, do they think of the dangers while living in peace and harmony and making preparation for the rainy days? Will they be on their toes all the time and be self-disciplined? Will they keep on upgrading themselves? Will they be passionate and sympathise with those who are less fortunate in our society? Likewise, when they are facing difficulties and adverse situations, are they able to take the stress? Are they able to break through the heavy surroundings and bounce back? Can they actively and pragmatically deal with the matters in an optimistic manner or will they just hide themselves under the sand? Mencius said, "In times of abundant harvest, the people tend to be complacent and lazy. In times of calamity, people tend to be felonious and ran amuck. People are not evil by nature. It is the external factors that spoil them." So our people are not born evil. It is the external factors that cause them to behave the way they do. In history, there are many examples. In the 17th century, the Manchurians conquered China.”
“Big Brother Zhang looked at him silently for a moment, gave him a letter, saying, "This is a letter from your mother. Read it well!" What happened was that Zhao Min actually knew that she was suffering from cancer. She made the arrangement in order to train up Jianguo so that he could fend for himself. On that day when his son left home, the mother was actually following him from behind. In order to prevent any accident from happening, she hired three persons to trail his son. This Big Brother Zhang was one of them. On 27th June 2003, Zhao Min passed away. In her letter, she said, "I am most concerned with your survival. As your mother, of course, I love you, my son. But if I were to prepare everything for you and allow you to live in a situation where there is no pressure at all, I will be doing you a disservice. The marketplace is merciless. Today, you may be a millionaire but tomorrow, you can become a bankrupt. If you do not have this relentless determination and the training to make you strong and fit, it will be very dangerous for you and you will be eliminated sooner or later." Sir, thank you for allowing me to finish this story. Although it is a bit long, it is very thought-provoking. The story makes us think of the situation of our country and our worries. Over the past 40-odd years, Singapore started from zero. Our forefathers worked very hard to bring us the Singapore of today. We have created this economic miracle and build up a prosperous city state. We have enviable rich reserves and we have a harmonious society, one that we are proud of. Since independence, our people have the opportunity to receive better education. So, on the surface, our new generation of Singaporeans seem to be in a better position to deal with our future challenges.”
“Xu Jianguo had no choice but to return to Dalian. On his return to Dalian, he was taken ill. There was a person by the name of Big Brother Zhang who took him to the hospital. He was hospitalised for five days, and the hospital bill came up to more than $2,000. Xu Jianguo thought that he had met a good Samaritan. But then, Big Brother Zhang told him, "This money is not given to you for free. You have to pay me this amount plus interest amounting to $3,000 within half a year." Xu Jianguo had to take on one more job. After the Chinese New Year period, he found a job at a construction site with a monthly salary of $1,500. On one occasion, he was so tired that he had to take a rest. For that, he was penalised with half a month's salary and an additional load of 30 more sacks of cement. Three months later, he managed to raise $3,000, and he became rugged and stronger. One day, he came to learn about the difference between the cost of emulsion paint and the cost of painting jobs for the walls. He boldly asked the paint manufacturer to sell him some of the paint at the wholesale price, and successfully tendered for a painting job by offering a price of one dollar less than the others. He then went to the labour market to recruit some workers to work for him, and earned his first $10,000. Banking on his success, he formed his own contractor’s team to undertake painting jobs for others. By August 2003, he had earned as much as $200,000. On 22nd September 2003, Big Brother Zhang suddenly appeared and said, "After one year, don't you want to go home and visit your mother?" When he heard that, he was choked with emotion. All the joy and sorrow of the past one year filled his mind.”
“[For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A *. ] Mr Speaker, Sir, I support the motion to thank the President for his Address. My parliamentary colleagues have already touched on most of the important points, so I would just like to tell a story. There is a report in a magazine called the Vaidurya. It tells the story of a woman by the name of Zhao Min and her son, Xu Jianguo. Zhao Min was a single mother in Shenyang. She was deserted by her husband, leaving her with her only son. She worked very hard to support herself and her son. She started off with a small furniture stall and eventually developed into a furniture factory. By 2002, she was already a rich woman with assets worth more than a million dollars. But her 18-year-old son, Xu Jianguo, failed to be admitted to the university. To the son, when the mother was so rich, there should be no problem with his future. But the mother thought otherwise. Zhao Min told him, "I have worked so hard to build up this business empire, why should I just hand it over to you? You should go out and venture for yourself. Don't come back within one year and don't ask me for money!" The son left home with $1,000 given by his merciless mother and that was on 22nd September. Xu Jianguo went about wandering on his own. One month later, he was in Dalian and all his money had been spent. He had no choice but to work in a hotel as a junior staff earning just $300 a month with no off-days. He had to work very hard from day to night. Life was extremely hard for him. In the Chinese New Year of 2003, he mustered enough courage to call his mother, but the phone number was no longer in use. He went home and found that the house was occupied by a stranger. He went to the factory and found that it had changed hands.”
“I would like to ask the Government, in particular the Ministry of Education, what is its stand on the matter of the use of honorary doctorate titles, especially for those people who obtained them through commercial means.”
“I was told that, a few years ago, there was a guy who brought a basket of PhD degrees for sale in Singapore and the price that he named was not low - S$128,000 per degree - and some people said it was cheap. If you pay $128,000 to an American university, after three years, you may not get a degree. There are people - some of them whom I know - use that title as if they are medical doctors or they have earned a PhD degree. 2.00 pm The indiscriminate use of "doctor" title could mislead others and as a result, some people might gain personal or even commercial interest. People sometimes, by mistake, thought they really have a genuine PhD degree and commit to do business with them. They may then end up in a very awkward situation. Years ago, I attended one of the opening ceremonies of a medical centre which was in my constituency. I was introduced to the Chairman of the organisation, Dr X. It came immediately to mind that he was a medical doctor. But only after a few years later, when the organisation seemed to get into trouble where the particulars of that individual was made public, I then realised that he was not a medical doctor but a retired banker. There are people who have got PhD degrees and serve on a Board or Council or even head certain educational institutions. Potential students look at the school prospectus and see that there are so many "doctors" around. They may come to the conclusion that the organisation is run by academically qualified people. Only when they had paid the money and the "doctors" ran away with their money, they then realised that they had actually been cheated.”
“And these are not from the top universities, such as Yale, Harvard or Oxbridge, but typical universities. Sir, I would, therefore, like MOE to tell us how does the Ministry ensure that our post-secondary and higher education will always be affordable to all Singaporeans. How does MOE hold universities accountable for their fee hikes? How does the Ministry ensure that there is greater transparency in these universities when it comes to fee hikes? How does the Ministry ensure that the universities improve their efficiency rather than simply pass on the increases in their costs to the students? Doctorate Title Assoc. Prof. Low Seow Chay (Chua Chu Kang): Mr Chairman, Sir, the topic I would like to talk about is "misuse of title - PhD degree for sale". On 28th August last year, a Straits Times headline read: "Jakarta's fake-titles scam - 'Alumni' of unlicensed institutions include a former vice president, several former ministers." Lately, the Straits Times reported a CEO of a listed company making a correction to his PhD degree. He said that he did not hold a PhD degree from the University of Southern California, but an Honorary PhD degree from another university known as Southern California University. The former University of Southern California was ranked in the top 30 of the American universities. Later, I tried to search the Internet for Southern California University. "Yahoo.com" search engine could not find this name. I also tried to find out what are the universities in the state of California. I got a complete list of 139 universities in the state of California and, again, the name of this university was not there. So these were what had been reported.”
“Mr Chairman, Sir, as human capital is our nation's only resource, our Government has spared no efforts to nurture our human capital through investing on education generously. With more than half of our cohort now entering post-secondary education and higher education, it is crucial that we must ensure that school fees in the ITEs, polytechnics and universities always remain affordable to all Singaporeans. Therefore, it was quite understandable that students in the local universities and polytechnics as well as the ITEs and their parents are concerned with the recent fee hikes. For the university, in particular, this comes on the back of a fee hike just the year before. And what is of particular concern to parents and students is that the university fee hikes came after the universities have become autonomous. Now they wonder if they are at the mercy of university administrators. Unlike countries with many universities, we have only three, and our universities really have a ready captive audience who have not much choices. Our students' alternative is to go to foreign universities, which is a choice not many Singaporeans can afford. Hence, our university administrators cannot expect our population to simply accept their argument that our universities are world-class or that the students have to pay more as they will earn more when they graduate. I do not think this is a good explanation. The starting salaries for graduates from our local universities do not compare very well with those for graduates from global cities like London, New York and Chicago. In London, the starting salary of a college student is about £21,000, ie, about S$60,000, a year; in New York, it is about US$35,000.”
“I would like to ask the Minister whether the lowering of requirement for entry into university education has led to the decrease in the number of students taking the Mother Tongue subject. Mr Ong Ah Heng (In Mandarin): Sir, whether it is for economic reasons or to enable our own culture and traditions to be sustained and developed, the Government has repeatedly stressed the importance of learning our Mother Tongue language. The Ministry of Education has recently reviewed its policy on the learning and teaching of the Chinese Language. I understand that it is also in the process of reviewing the policy on other Mother Tongue languages. I would like to ask the Minister what is the progress in enhancing the learning and teaching of Mother Tongue languages in the schools. Is the MOE satisfied with the present progress or is there room for further improvement? School Buildings”
“Sir, last night, when I was making my house- to-house visit, I met a Primary 5 pupil doing his Chinese homework. He was copying a list of phrases. The mother complained to me that although her son was fond of the subject - Higher Chinese - the amount of homework for the subject was horrendous, particularly in writing and copy work. I thought she was exaggerating. But when I took a look at the child's exercise book, I was shocked to find that there was a phrase where the child had to copy more than 10 times. I also found that the Chinese teacher had an innovative way of teaching the subject, namely, by making the child copy certain phrases many times if he did not hand in his work on time. To me, this is like borrowing money from a loan shark. The mother said, "Yes, borrow money, pay money. But the pupils owe homework, pay homework." Sir, there had been many reforms and adjustments in our Mother Tongue education, such as acceptance of the White Paper on Chinese Language Teaching in 2004, the "Chinese B" scheme, the relaxation of requirements for Mother Tongue for university admission in order to ensure that our next generation would continue to study Chinese. MOE has said that more flexible and lively methods would be adopted to teach the language and to inculcate a love for the language among the students. In this regard, I would like to ask the Minister whether the example I quoted above is an example of "innovative" teaching. Are our schools making efforts to implement the recommendations embodied in the White Paper on Chinese Language Teaching reform? Why was the teacher still using that kind of teaching method?”
“I, therefore, ask the Ministry to ensure that the fee for this school remains affordable with a view that these are students coming mainly from low income families and also to render generous assistance whenever needed. Finally, I am glad that one of the stated objectives is for the graduates to progress to an apprenticeship scheme with industries. However, if students of NLS cannot find employment after graduating, it would send a strong signal to others not to enrol in NLS. Would it not be better to consult with the various industries on the type of manpower needs so that the proper type of manpower training is being given? Better still, I would urge the school to start offering apprenticeship during their school years. It will serve two purposes. First, to ensure employment after graduation. Second, they may get some allowance from this apprenticeship during their school terms and this will greatly reduce the financial burden of those poor families and act as an incentive to attract and retain the students. Learning Support Programmes”
“Sir, I welcome and support MOE's intention to set up a new vocational school, North Light School (NLS), in January 2007. To my mind, the formation of this school is a step in the right direction in reaction to the social trends in Singapore. The trend, nowadays, in the job market is a preference for those with skills. When one grows older it is easy to lose one's job and harder to secure new employment. It would be even worse for those with little skill and no educational qualification. In 2005, there were 1,100 who failed to progress through mainstream education. When this group grows older, most of them would be confronted with the problem of making a decent living. Thus, the setting of the NLS is to meet this future problem head-on. However, I have a few comments on the NLS. Firstly, while the NLS may be well-intended with the well-being of the students in mind, we need to ensure that this is not another dead-end type of school and it does not become another stigma for the students. Therefore, if students in this school do well, they should be given plenty of opportunities to progress further. If this is not spelt out clearly in the beginning, I am afraid we may face some resistance from parents to send their children to NLS. Secondly, a good majority of these students may come from poor family background. Their parent's financial resources may be stretched. The programme and curriculum of NLS appear to be quite comprehensive. My fear is that meeting these obligations might stretch the students and their parents financially further and it might become a further burden.”
“After this certification, it will also be important to carry out regular audits and accreditation to maintain the certification, and to ensure that it is not abused. Private Education”