S Iswaran
Singapore
“The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has incorporated the requirements of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2020 regulation in its Prevention of Pollution of the Sea (Air) Regulations 2022. The Regulations are applicable to Singapore-registered ships and all other ships while they are in Singapore waters.”
“The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) plans to progressively roll out the charging infrastructure for electric harbour craft operations in the Port of Singapore from 2025.”
“Since 2018, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has imposed minimum bicycle parking provisions covering different types of developments. The requirements are determined by multiple factors, including the developments’ use, location and gross floor area (GFA).”
“I had addressed similar Parliamentary Questions by Mr Gerald Giam on 29 November 2022 and 10 January 2023, as well as in my Ministerial Statement on 8 May 2023. The Member can refer to these past answers and statement as there has been no material change in the allocation of Certificates of Entitlement.”
“To encourage the uptake of electric cars, the Government has rolled out the Electric Vehicle Early Adoption Incentive and enhanced Vehicular Emissions Scheme. When taken together, it provides up to $45,000 off the Additional Registration Fee of an electric car upon registration.”
“The Land Transport Authority studies all potential changes to the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) system carefully, including conducting sensitivity analysis where appropriate.”
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“And he said three students of one ethnic group went out of their way to turn around so that they could have a fourth member of the same group, rather than include in that group a student from another ethnic community. I was not sure what to be more troubled by, that there was such an occurrence in the classroom or, as I later found out, that the teacher seemed to be somewhat helpless about the situation. So we could argue that this is a natural occurrence and that we really cannot do much about it. But this House, and certainly this Government, has never shied away from action on matters delicate when a larger national objective has been at stake. And I concede, Sir, these are awkward situations. If you act, you draw unnecessary attention to it. If you do not act, you allow an unhealthy situation to perpetuate. So what do we do? I do feel that in this sort of circumstances, some tact and with a little bit of deft action, we could perhaps make a difference. So perhaps our principals, vice-principals and teachers could be trained, counselled or made aware so that they can deal with such situations tactfully, preferably imperceptibly, as and when they emerge in the classroom, the school field or in the canteen. Sir, ultimately, I think all of us - the Government, the grassroots organisations and the people - must take collective responsibility to ensure that Singapore continues to move resolutely towards our ideal of a multi-racial society. I support the motion, Sir.”
“But over the years, we have introduced a range of policies and programmes that have been based on ethnicity and language - ethnic quotas in HDB estates, self-help groups, GRCs, SAP schools are some examples. Some of these policies seek to further integrate Singaporeans. Others were designed to meet certain objectives but might have had the unintended consequence of further segregating us. I think it is hard to really assess what the cumulative effect has been on our society. At best, I would say opinion is divided. I would therefore advocate that the Government consider appointing a standing Ministerial Committee to monitor the state of ethnic relations in Singapore and to periodically review policies and programmes that might have an impact on our inter-ethnic ties. The purpose is not to discard policies that have served us well, but to take stock and to ensure that in their totality, they continue to move us in the right direction in pursuit of this ideal. That, I think, will ensure that this important work-in-progress receives regular and high level of attention it deserves. Finally, Sir, I do not wish to create the impres sion that this is the responsibility of Government alone. I think each and every Singaporean has a role to play, and our schools are a good starting point. Schools are a fertile point to plant the seeds of such life-long friendships. I was therefore concerned to hear of anecdotal evidence that students are grouping along ethnic lines in our schools, be it in their choice of sports, CCA activities or even in project groups or social activities. I was at a dialogue session recently when one of the teachers who was participating shared with me how he was conducting a class and he asked the students to break up into groups of four.”
“I would have liked to have found out what percentage of those students had close or even best friends who were from other races, and how often they socialised with them outside school. While it is good for a Chinese or Malay student to know that Deepavali is the Festival of Lights celebrated by the Hindus, would it not be far better for him to have a good Hindu friend who can not only furnish him with the answer but, better still, invite him to celebrate the festival with his family? Would it not be better even as we share each other's food over a social meal, we were also comfortable enough to share each other's hopes, aspirations and fears? Sir, this is perhaps the quantum leap we should strive for in our inter-ethnic ties. It marks a transition from itinerant relations perhaps to life-long friendships. I think it is time to challenge ourselves to strive for this higher paradigm in inter-ethnic relations, one underpinned by deep friendships and bonds of mutual trust. I was inspired by recent discussions and dialogues that were held on a variety of issues pertaining to the Muslim community in Singapore, in particular on madrasahs, the tudung issue and the Malays in the SAF, while I thought the outcomes may not have pleased everyone, the process was sincere, serious and dignified. That sort of initiative and others like the Inter-Racial Confidence Circles pave the way for more that can be done in this respect. Sir, I believe the Government should commit itself to a constant review of its policies to ensure that they engender more of such friendships and to ensure that it can remove any impediments that might lie in their path. We have been diligent in our efforts to build a strong multi-racial Singapore.”
“Sir, that is the challenge for all of us, the Government, this House and indeed all Singaporeans. Sir, the present circumstances have also had a salutary effect. They have served as a timely reminder that our economy and security are works-in-progress. They are vulnerable to shocks and require constant attention, reinforcement and enhancement. From that perspective, our social cohesion is yet another work-in-progress. We have come a long way in our effort to build a multi-racial Singapore. And today, we have heard many Members describe the state of multi-racial relations in Singapore using various metaphors - mosaic, garden, a knitted sweater, etc. I am afraid I do not have a metaphor to offer. But the question I wish to ask is whether it is appropriate at this time of challenge for us to also revisit our model of multi-racial relations and ask if we are satisfied, content with where we are today. We have by now grown accustomed to multi-cultural performances at grassroots and other community functions. We enjoy each other's food and appreciate our diverse cultural heritage and festivals. We also have an awareness of each other's religions and practices. And these are important foundations and we must treasure them. A recent Straits Times' article on a survey of some 300 students also concluded that inter-racial mixing is fine in our schools. The survey asked questions like: what is another name for the Seventh Moon Festival, the Hindu festival of lights and also which is the holy city of the Muslims. The survey found that 95% of students had friends of other races, and 70% had six or more.”
“He was born during World War II and the 50s and 60s had a profound effect on him. For him, the cry "Merdeka", with clenched fist held up high, is still resonant and it evokes vivid and somewhat emotional memories. And make no mistake, my uncle was not a political activist; he was not a freedom fighter; he is a retired civil servant. And we all know, civil servants are not generally given to emotional displays. But he was a firm believer in Singapore and what it stands for. And for my uncle and many of his generation, that cry from the steps of City Hall was a rallying call. It was a symbol of hope and it was a call to stand up and be counted in the nation's struggle. Sir, today, another generation of Singaporeans must rise to this call. We need the right policies, but we also need our people to rally behind the policies and the Government. We can call it Remaking Singapore, Rediscovering Singapore, but, in essence, we must once again find the words, the icons and the spirit to inspire a new generation of Singaporeans, to imbue them with hope and to ignite our people's passion. So that a move by another liner to a neighbouring port is seen, not as a body blow to our prospects, but rather as a spur to revitalize our efforts. So that rising competition in the region does not flag our spirits, but rather puts fire in our bellies to try even harder. So that a bland cerebral cost-benefit analysis will give way to an emphatic visceral attachment to this place. Only then can we pull ourselves up by the bootstraps, help each other the best we can, do what needs to be done, and take this adversity in our stride, as we move forward. If we cannot or we do not, then we would be unworthy of the legacy of our forefathers.”
“And for a younger generation of Singaporeans, born and brought up in the post-independence era Singapore, recent events have taken on a surreal quality, for this is so far removed from the Singapore we have experienced and what we have come to expect in our country. But the question, Sir, is whether this situation is so fundamentally different to our past? Sure, today, the symptoms are acute and we feel them sharply. But the threat of such adversity has always been lurking. Thirty years ago, if we had wagered on Singapore accomplishing all that it has, I suspect we would have been given rather long odds by the bookies. Then the question was whether we would survive the throes of separation, the withdrawal of British troops and early stages of economic development. Three years ago, in the depths of the Asian economic crisis and political upheaval in the region, if we had once again wagered on Singapore's continued success, I think we would still have been given rather long odds. The question was, once again, whether we would survive an economic melt-down, political upheaval and security concerns in our region, in our economic hinterland. So, here we are today, relatively intact, but facing what our President has described as "the most severe challenges in the history of our nation." Again, it is a question of survival. Sir, the truth is, the odds have always been stacked against us. External events have compelled us to constantly rise to new challenges. But we have pulled through, as individuals and as a people, through sheer grit and passion for this place. Do we have the courage and confidence to believe that we will once again survive and succeed? Sir, in thinking about this question and answer, I was reminded of my uncle, curiously enough.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise in support of the motion. Sir, the President commenced his Speech by observing that the last five years have been momentous times for Singapore. A new lexicon that has found its way into mainstream use in Singapore perhaps best captures that sentiment. Five years ago, the words "Singapore" and "recession" would have constituted an unlikely couplet. After all, Singapore was one of the Asian tigers, a dynamo humming along at 8-10% annual growth rates, sometimes higher. The odd difficult year was almost viewed as a necessary respite from the frenzied pace of our growth, rather than as a serious setback. Five years ago, the words "HDB" and "terrorism" would probably never have been used in the same sentence. We took pride in the fact that it was safe to walk our streets and use our subways, even in the middle of the night. Five years ago, a new batch of MPs in Parliament - and I was one of them - spoke, not on unemployment and job matching, but on job-hopping and employee loyalty. The focus was very much on managing the consequences of success - high cost of COEs, high property prices and high wage costs. Sir, we now know that a terrorist cell, based within our HDB heartland, had been plotting unthinkable crimes. The dreaded "R" words - Recession, Restructuring and Retrenchment - are heard with nauseating regularity in our media. And we now counsel our fresh graduates, who were previously spoilt for choice, not to be too choosy when looking for a new job. Dramatic changes in the external environment have thrust Singaporeans into uncharted territory.”
“I would urge that the Government seriously consider some form of training or guidance for those who are entrusted with this, both civil service staff, but, as importantly, the volunteers, the grassroots leaders who are being asked to do this on the ground, because they need to be made aware of the circumstances. This is not just about telling people, "Here is the form, here is the scheme, fill it up, let's do it.", but reaching out to them in a manner that is empathetic and sympathetic.”
“The other point I wanted to address is the Economic Downturn Relief Scheme, which is to be administered through the CCCs. I think this is a very welcome move because it brings assistance to the ground, closer to individuals and is to be administered through individuals who know the area well and the needs of their residents. I would ask, however, that this be administered in as efficient a way as possible by allowing the agencies on the ground, whether it is the CCCs or the CDCs, to acquire more manpower in order to do the job more efficiently and, at the same time, in terms of criteria, there is a tendency for such schemes to be bogged down by a lot of evaluation. And the question is whether we can be a little bit more relaxed with the criteria so that help where needed can be given quickly and it needs to be done in an early and expeditious manner. Sir, the other point is on the delivery of the service itself. Sir, we live in a system where we are used to a very brisk and efficient form of service delivery. This is excellent, but especially at a time of trial like this, we may need to alter the mindsets of many of our civil servants or counter staff and even those on the ground who are being entrusted with the responsibility to administer some of the services we are talking about, like financial aid. Sir, it takes a lot for an individual in hardship to swallow his or her pride and to come out and ask for help. What we want to make sure is that we do not make that task more difficult by either making the process too brisk or too open, denying them the confidentiality for the privacy which would help them preserve their dignity.”
“Sir, I welcome the slew of measures that the Deputy Prime Minister has outlined and I would like to focus specifically on two or three key areas. The first is that I think it is good that we have come out with a package that would help many HDB residents meet their mortgage payments, etc, with respect to their home loans. The key though, Sir, is there are other aspects which I thought I should highlight, in particular with respect to the upgrading packages that the Government has introduced, ie, the MUP programme. These require typically for a household to commit between $10,000 and $20,000 expenditure, if they also opt for the space-adding item. This is a significant amount of money, and in the minds of many householders it is a sum that they are not prepared to commit. There are two categories - those who have already committed to it and the payment will be due over the next year or two because the projects are nearing completion. Then there are those who are having to make a decision over the next few months in a period of great uncertainty, and for whom this financial burden would be a pivotal factor in making their decision. We have some schemes in place but they are targeted at the elderly and those who are below a certain income threshold. I wonder whether the Government could consider broadening the scope of this in order to make it easier. The other part, Sir, is on the servicing of housing loans. I am considering the question of those in the private sector, those who are taking up loans from banks and servicing loans on private homes, whether there is scope for some of them to be able to tap into the Special Account of the CPF, especially when they have been retrenched and contributions to the Ordinary Account dry up.”
“I think this particular experience demonstrates to Singaporeans that the Government does have the resolve to use the reserves when the need arises and that a rainy day is like what we have today. Thirdly, Sir, I also would like to add my voice to the chorus of others who have lauded the leadership shown by the Ministers, other top civil servants and MPs to take a pay cut, in particular the 17% pay cut that the Ministers would be taking. Sir, there are many types of leadership - leadership by example which demonstrates an empathy and a shared sense of purpose, is perhaps the most compelling, and I congratulate the Government for taking that initiative. The Deputy Prime Minister has also stressed one important point which I thought in our focus on dealing with this downturn and the measures that have come about in this package we should not overlook, which is that after this cycle is over and we come out of it, how well positioned will Singapore be to meet the longer term challenges and the structural changes. In particular, Sir, we have been made aware of many of these fundamental movements, like the shift of the economic centre of gravity towards Northeast Asia with the emergence of China, like the need to diversify our economic base more into services and in the manufacturing sector away from the electronic sector to other areas, the need to move up the skills ladder and also nurturing our SMEs as another engine of growth. And I think many of the new measures that have been introduced in this package can be harnessed to not just help deal with the pain of the downturn but also position Singapore for the longer term challenges.”
“Sir, this downturn is sharp, and the Deputy Prime Minister has described this as the steepest downturn Singapore has experienced. Singaporeans are hurting and having to make some very painful decisions in everyday life. A couple of days ago when I talked to some of my grassroots leaders, they gave me some anecdotal evidence which, I think, really rings true. Individuals are having to make decisions like whether to leave their children in kindergartens or withdraw them because they cannot afford the fees due to retrenchment. There are others who work in coffeeshops who tell me that even decisions as minute as wanting to buy a soft drink have become marginally significant. Also, individuals, young people who are at work, are afraid to go on leave because they are afraid that when they come back, they would be amongst those who are retrenched. Sir, in this environment, the evidence is that Singaporeans are doing their best to help themselves, but they are also looking to the Government to do its part to help them through this period of difficulty. In that sense, I think the package has been a very significant one. It is significant, first, in terms of its size and how comprehensive it has been. I think, secondly, it has also been significant because it demonstrates that the Government has the will and commitment to come out with a large package to help Singaporeans when there is a time of need. Many times in this House in the last several years, I have heard questions raised on why we accumulate surpluses and insist on putting money away for a rainy day, and the Finance Minister has been hard put explaining the Government's rationale behind this prudent budgeting policy and attitude towards reserves.”
“Sir, may I ask the Minister is there a specific timeframe within which the detailed negotiations are targeted to be concluded for the agreements to be signed? I ask this because experience has shown that our negotiations on these matters have taken unexpected twists and turns leading to long delays.”
“Sir, the Minister has not answered my second question on calibration of response. BG George Yong-Boon Yeo: Mr Speaker, Sir, I thought I answered that we have to calibrate our response to the actual situation. If this turns out to be a relatively short downturn and at the end of this year or early next year the global economy turns up again, then these measures which Mr Iswaran talks about ought not to be necessary. But if it is more prolonged, which is entirely possible, then we will have to do more. And some of what we do will have to be in the form of direct income support to individuals.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, may I ask the Minister two questions. The first is: the package is silent on measures to help the unemployed or retrenched to service home mortgages, unlike the schemes available in 1998. I would like to know whether the Government has plans to provide such schemes in light of the fact that about 20,000 are expected to be retrenched this year. The second question, Sir, is on the calibration of the Government's response. In 1998, the growth was 0.5% and the Government came out with a $10 billion package. Even netting off the CPF wage cut aspect, it was still about $2.5 billion. This time round, our forecast is 0.5% to 1.5%. So the low end is in a similar range to 1998 and, as the Minister says, it is structuring a bottom. So we have not seen the bottom yet. The package of $2.2 billion, in fact, includes some carry-through measures from the last cycle. So the question really is: why is the Government being somewhat more restrained this time in its package when compared to the situation in 1998? BG George Yong-Boon Yeo: Mr Speaker, Sir, as I said earlier, the retrenchment problem is still not widespread. There is widespread fear because of growing retrenchment, but the retrenchment itself is not yet widespread. We can sense this at our meet-the-people sessions - the number of hardship cases that we are seeing. If it does become widespread, which means that our darker scenario is the more accurate one, then we may need a package of income support for those who are in distress. But we have not reached that point yet.”
“ADJOURNMENT TO WEDNESDAY, 25TH JULY 2001 Resolved, "That, at its rising today, Parliament do stand adjourned to Wednesday, 25th July 2001." - [Mr Wong Kan Seng]. ADJOURNMENT MOTION”
“LAND TITLES (AMENDMENT) BILL "to amend the Land Titles Act (Chapter 157 of the 1994 Revised Edition) and to make consequential amendments to the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act (Chapter 61 of the 1994 Revised Edition)", presented by the Minister for Law (Prof. S. Jayakumar); read the First time; to be read a Second time on the next available sitting of Parliament, and to be printed. STATUTES (MISCELLANEOUS AMENDMENTS AND REPEAL) BILL "to amend certain statutes of the Republic of Singapore and to repeal the Coin Act (Chapter 46 of the 1985 Revised Edition)", presented by Prof. Jayakumar; read the First time; to be read a Second time on the next available sitting of Parliament, and to be printed. INCOME TAX (AMENDMENT) BILL "to amend the Income Tax Act (Chapter 134 of the 1999 Revised Edition)", recommendation of President signified; presented by the Minister for Finance (Dr Richard Hu Tsu Tau); read the First time; to be read a Second time on the next available sitting of Parliament, and to be printed. OFFICIAL SECRETS (AMENDMENT) BILL "to amend the Official Secrets Act (Chapter 213 of the 1985 Revised Edition)", presented by the Minister for Home Affairs (Mr Wong Kan Seng); read the First time; to be read a Second time on the next available sitting of Parliament, and to be printed. ROAD TRAFFIC (AMENDMENT) BILL "to amend the Road Traffic Act (Chapter 276 of the 1997 Revised Edition) and to make a consequential amendment to the Public Transport Council Act (Chapter 259B of the 2000 Revised Edition)", presented by the Minister for Communications and Information Technology (Mr Yeo Cheow Tong); read the First time; to be read a Second time on the next available sitting of Parliament, and to be printed.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, with consolidation, the local banks are going to be more competitive. But there is an expectation, one could say unrealistic or unreasonable, that the onus for providing basic banking services falls almost entirely on the local banks and, yet, we are allowing foreign banks greater access to the local market to compete in the more lucrative, high networth and corporate sectors. Should we not then make access to the local market conditional on the provision of basic banking services level the playing field at the outset and also ensure that the foreign banks that come in factor that into their equation? BG Lee Hsien Loong: Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I said in my Statement just now, we are encouraging all banks that engage in consumer banking to provide affordable banking services. And that means not just the local banks, but also foreign banks with a significant retail presence, eg, the qualified full banks (QFBs). We think that the foreign banks which are operating here will take note of this advice from the Association of Banks but, as I have explained, when it becomes necessary, we are going to require all banks with significant retail operations in Singapore also to provide basic banking accounts so that it is a more level playing field between the local banks as well as the foreign banks tapping the domestic market here, which is what I believe Mr Iswaran is suggesting. BILLS INTRODUCED CIVIL SERVICE COLLEGE BILL "to establish the Civil Service College, to provide for its functions and powers, and for matters connected therewith", presented by the Deputy Prime Minister (BG Lee Hsien Loong); read the First time; to be read a Second time on the next available sitting of Parliament, and to be printed.”
“If we do so, we are liable to make these industries uncompetitive where they are located. We might lose the whole industry completely, which means we will lose even more value-added to the economy. Our problem is to find a balance and we have to leave it to the employers to make this decision about who in fact can make bigger and more valuable contributions to help the company to remain competitive. But, overall, we do have some guidelines and controls to ensure that employers just do not bring in foreigners purely on the basis of lower salaries without regard to their ability to contribute. So when we process applications for employment pass, we do look at the qualifications and work experiences of these people to ensure that they are in fact reasonably suitable for the particular job in mind.”
“Sir, generally, Singaporeans accept the need for foreign manpower at the lower skilled level and also selective use of foreign manpower at the top end. But many seem to have the impression that for the middle tier - technical jobs that polytechnic graduates and so on will be eligible for - there is an excessive reliance by employers on cheaper, foreign alternatives in that sphere. Could the Minister elaborate whether that is borne out by the facts and, more importantly, whether there is any measure in place to ensure that such excessive reliance is prevented? Dr Lee Boon Yang: Sir, of course, during difficult times, Singaporeans who face the competition will feel this natural reaction against foreigners who are competing with them in their area, especially those in the middle level or in the technical jobs. But the reality is that companies that recruit middle-level technical staff very often do have difficulties finding sufficient local employees to fill their vacancies or to meet their demands. Let me give you an example. We have several petrochemical companies in Jurong Island. They offer very attractive jobs. But for a long time, these companies have not been able to find a sufficient number of Singaporeans who are willing to take on the jobs that they have on offer. The job comes with a 12-hour shift pattern and is in a fairly remote location and it is a fairly demanding job. Very few Singaporeans are prepared to take on this job. Should we insist that they take Singaporeans only and delay their operations until they fill up the posts over time with Singaporeans who are prepared to do it? Or should we expect them to increase the pay to a point where they can overcome the Singaporeans' reluctance to take on these rather difficult jobs?”
“So we are not sure what the fourth quarter would look like. While we should not be unduly optimistic, we should also not be excessively pessimistic. If you look on the horizon, yes, there are dark clouds, but there are also silver linings. If you ask me where we are at now - I do not want to go into the details of the package because that would be announced when they have been finalised at the end of the month - it is obviously raining, and the rain will get heavier. This is not a passing shower. But we should not assume that it is going to be a full-blown thunder storm. It may not be. We should get our umbrellas ready and try to stay as dry as possible, but keep watch on the weather. If it gets worse, then we have got to do more, but respond in a measured way, in a calibrated way, and look, even in the darkest cloud, for silver linings which may open up new opportunities for us, which means not slowing down our restructuring because of the problems we are facing, but pressing on so that when the weather clears up again, we will be well positioned and we will be ahead.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is a perception in the market that pump priming and other measures to boost domestic demand may help offset some of the impact of the negative external demand. The Minister has explained why he does not think this might work. Could he elaborate on this so that everybody will have a better understanding? The other point is that the low end of Government's forecast of 0.5% for GDP growth this year is very similar to that which Singapore experienced in 1998 which prompts many to ask the question why a similar order of magnitude of Government off-Budget measures is not warranted. Could the Minister please elaborate? BG George Yong-Boon Yeo: We had 4.6% growth for the first quarter. Flash estimate for second quarter is -0.8%. If we anticipate 1% at the end of the year, that means for the remaining six months, for the second half, we are anticipating the economy to be flat. And 0.5% to 1.5% projection for the whole year means that we are anticipating the second half to be somewhere in between -1% and +1%. The following quarter, we expect the downturn to continue because, if you look at non-oil retained imports, which is a pretty good indicator of what is going to happen in the next one to three months, it remains sharply negative, -16% or 17% last month. So there is near certainty that the next quarter will remain negative. But when it comes to the fourth quarter, we are not sure. If you listen to the American Treasury Secretary, he said he is quite confident that the US would be able to achieve 2% in the fourth quarter which means that things would begin to look up then. Stanley Fischer of the IMF made similar noises. And there are some indications that consumer confidence has picked up, that orders have begun to show more life.”
“Sir, the Minister has explained the different treatment of the public sector, either scholars or those who are sent overseas on assignments, as opposed to those in the private sector, and those who go and study on their own. I think he has cited the examples of the fact that those on Government scholarships are bonded to come back and serve and those in the civil service will return. But, nevertheless, while there is merit in this argument and also the precedents in other countries, there will be those who feel aggrieved that, in essence, really two students in the same university overseas pursuing the same course, one sponsored by the Government and the other on his own funding, would be treated differently. So I would urge the Minister to assure this House whether there would be scope to treat these two categories equally since, I think, we can be assured that chances are there would be commitment to the country on both counts.”
“So it would be useful if the Minister could elaborate how we are going to be able to ensure that our voters are confident, not just familiar with - using the parlance of manufacturing - the front-end system of how to do the vote, but also where we can engender confidence in them in the back-end system, in terms of its security and secrecy, so that they can accept the new system with ease and with peace of mind.”
“Yet, I think we would be hard pressed to doubt their commitment to Singapore because, in many instances, they would be funded by their parents and I think many of them would want to come back and discharge their financial as well as their familial obligations. So I would hope that we could consider these cases and, in that regard, whether the two-year requirement is rather stringent and whether it can actually be lowered or moderated. Sir, on the matter of electronic voting, the comment I wish to make is that Singaporeans are used to our paper-based system. It is a tried and tested process which Singaporeans understand and have confidence in. We are making a change and we can debate the merits of the change, etc. But I think the key point here is that it will raise some questions in the minds of voters, in particular, pertaining to the security and secrecy of the data, in this case, the vote. Sir, electronic systems have shown that they are not free of glitches. And also to many Singaporeans, particularly the older groups, a computer or any electronic device is really a black box, a box that they do not fully understand and they therefore have some difficulty in mustering confidence in. This is probably analogous to why many people still have problems with not just using Internet banking or Internet-based transactions, but even registering for Giro-based transactions.”
“" In other words, why not just let citizenship be the only criterion for voting? And there are sufficient, in a sense, administrative hurdles that the individual Singaporean overseas has to overcome, in terms of maintaining a local address, in terms of registering at various overseas registration centres within 21 days, and also the fact that in many places, these centres are in main cities. So they may have to make a special effort to do so, given that there is a significant effort involved before a person can become an overseas voter. Having said that, I think there is merit to argue a case that we should assure ourselves that there is something more than just the effort to vote, that there is a desire and a stake in the outcome of the election. In that regard, I think the criteria that have been outlined are generally self-evident. But like Prof. Chin who spoke earlier, it appears to introduce dual standards, on the one hand, for those who are agents of the public service who are overseas, whether it is for educational reasons or for reasons of service or deployment, and, on the other hand, those who are in the private sector who have to demonstrate this aggregate two-year residence out of the preceding five years before they are eligible to vote. Sir, since Prof. Chin has made all the points, I just want to illustrate one example. If we take students who go overseas to do their post graduate programmes, it is not unusual for those doing a PhD to spend 4-5 years on a PhD and post-doctoral work. And it would be difficult for such individuals to come back and satisfy this two-year aggregate residence requirement.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise in support of this Bill. But before I proceed to speak on one or two points, I just want to respond to one or two particular comments Mr Jeyaretnam has made. I am particularly troubled that he has chosen to make sweeping statements that impugn the integrity and impartiality of the public officials. I think it is one thing to take offence or have issue with a process or the legitimacy or merits of an argument. But I think it is quite another to cast such fundamental doubt on all officials in sweeping statements. And I am particularly concerned by this because, as an ex-civil servant, I have been involved in the election process as a Returning Officer. I know how seriously we took the process. The import of the process was impressed upon us, and we discharged it to the best of our ability. It would appear, by Mr Jeyaretnam's reckoning, the only way a public official could prove his impartiality was to facilitate an Opposition victory. Sir, I would hope that we could be somewhat more measured when we make comments on such matters. Sir, on the Bill itself, I wish to just focus on two key points. The first is on overseas voting. It is clear that the Bill seeks to strike a balance between, on the one hand, endowing a very basic privilege of voting on Singaporeans who reside overseas and, on the other hand, the need to assure ourselves that there is a certain stake in the country, emotionally, perhaps materially, so that they do not take this privilege frivolously. In that sense, I think the Bill has made a good attempt. But there are some who ask the question, "Why not extend the vote to all Singaporeans who reside overseas, other than those who, by their conduct, criminal and otherwise, may have excluded themselves?”
“Sir, parents need help to navigate through a wide range of options available at the pre-school level. Variety occurs in many ways - number of hours taught, type of curriculum, pedagogic method used, teacher-pupil ratio, relative emphasis on language, second language, and the like. That being the case, I think it is vitally important that the Ministry of Education as the recipient of the products of the pre-primary system helps parents understand the requirements and what they ought to be looking for at the pre-school level, to ensure that their children go through an effective but not stressful pre-primary education. At the same time, I think the pre-primary education institutions themselves will benefit immensely from assistance from the Ministry of Education in structuring a curriculum that will lead logically and naturally into what is taught at Primary 1. Last year, the Minister announced that there would be certain longitudinal studies done to understand better the value and the impact of pre-school education on children. I would like to know, first, what is the status of this longitudinal study; and secondly, in the interim, while we wait for the outcome of the study, what is being done to address some of the needs I have just outlined.”
“May I also seek a clarification from the Minister on the implementation of the recommendations from the review of the mother tongue teaching? I raised it during my speech. RAdm Teo Chee Hean: Sir, mother tongue teaching was reviewed over the last two years, and we are now implementing the recommendations. For Tamil language, the revision of the syllabuses has been completed and will be phased in from 2002 together with new instructional materials and revisions to the examination format. We are also investing $2 million in the Umar Pulavar Tamil Language Centre, and the upgraded centre will be ready this year. And we have also done similar things for Malay language, with the new elective programmes and the honours programme for Malay language and literature. And similar things for Chinese language including another SAP school, another language elective centre in Nanyang Junior College and one or two other things.”
“With these changes, we would have put in place a strong framework for the Education Service to continue to attract, reward and develop those with a passion and aptitude required to be teachers, and this will help us to have good teachers and enough of them to do all the good things that we want to do in education for our students.”
“In fact, we do have a counselling centre in the teachers network, which is outside of the hierarchy of clusters and principals. So teachers can avail themselves of that. I think it is a good idea and we will see what we can do to improve counselling and so on for our teachers to help them. The main initiative that we will be implementing for teachers this year is reshaping the teaching career, so that it can better meet the Ministry of Education's organisational needs and the aspirations and talents of our teaching posts. We want to create a culture of professional excellence which will attract and retain the best teachers and a profession which nurtures the individual and motivates all to achieve superior performance. We began our pay and career review for teachers in September last year. The initial broad recommendations include setting up the teacher and specialists' career tracks, in addition to the current managerial track to HODs and principals, so that MOE can build up a top notch team of professional teachers, capable leaders and dedicated specialists. Part of the current review also examines how to restructure the pay system, but it will look beyond just the tangible rewards. Recognition for teachers will be reshaped within a total framework that includes elements such as learning and developmental opportunities. For instance, the Ministry will spend more than $1 million a year to fully sponsor teachers for the National Institute of Education's advanced diploma and advanced post-graduate diploma programmes. I will not announce details of the review today. The review is expected to be completed soon, and I expect to be able to announce the details within the next two months.”
“But there is also a limit to how many people we can recruit because, as everyone knows, there are also not enough people doing this kind of administrative work in Singapore. But we have also given schools the flexibility and autonomy to buy support services to assist teachers in administrative duties, by using this money. So the post can be commuted to money, and the schools can also use their operating funds. Some schools have already done so. Instead of employing one person for the whole year, they can employ four people for three months during the peak periods, if the schools feel that is what they need. Schools can also use this fund to engage people with specialised skills, such as music instructors to help with CCA. The Ministry of Education monitors the usage of such funds and will increase the quantum, if necessary. We will also be providing principals, HODs and teachers with IT support to do their work better. One example is the integrated IT support system for schools, what we call in shorthand "school cockpit", which is being developed at a cost of $35 million. This is basically something which is built around teachers and enables teachers and school leaders to have all the necessary information, data, statistics, functions and so on that they need to manage the pupils and to work better. We are also giving beginning teachers more support. Being a teacher is intellectually stimulating but it also requires hard work, and beginning teachers cannot be expected to just go into a school at the deep end and start working. So they are mentored and we also provide 80% of the standard workload only for beginning teachers. Mrs Lim Hwee Hua talked about giving counselling and support to older teachers, apart from beginning teachers.”
“They are very useful in specific areas but there is a limit to how many we can deploy in our system. There are two constraints. First, good teachers are in acute shortage all over the world. If we want to go to UK to recruit teachers, we must remember that they just came over last year to recruit our teachers. I am not sure how much headway we can make with that. The second reason is that foreign teachers may not be as sensitised to our norms and values, such as multi-racialism, and this is why most of our foreign teachers are in the secondary schools and not in the primary schools because primary school students are very impressionable at a young age, and it is important that we give them good guidance and values. The bottomline is that we want more good teachers and we want a good balance between quality and quantity. The correct focus is, therefore, on building up our teaching force, while maintaining teacher quality. Our main efforts will, therefore, be directed towards recruiting our fair share of talent and retaining outstanding and experienced teachers. The measures include giving teachers better support and recognition. 3.00 pm Mr Thomas asked about what we have done on teacher workload and administrative support. More administrative support will indeed be provided to teachers. Last year, I announced that we will provide one more extra administrative post for every school. Providing one more post to every school will incur a budget of $20 million a year. And indeed this increases to three the number of administrative posts in schools, compared to none just five years ago. So we will move forward and see how far we can go.”
“Some have found that it has been useful, some have found that it has no effect. Class sizes in the Normal and Express streams generally range from about 30-40 students. In fact, parents want to place their children in the most popular schools even though their classes are filled to the brim. As MPs, you would have heard that parents always come and make suggestions that, "It cannot make that much difference if you squeeze in one more chair and desk there for my son or my daughter." We have heard that many times. If class size is indeed the sole or the major determinant of quality, parents would choose schools that are less heavily subscribed as they are most likely to have vacancies and, therefore, smaller classes. But they do not. While I started out by saying that smaller class sizes have an intuitive appeal, all parents intuitively know and understand that there is more to quality than class size, and it is indeed a multi-factorial issue. Mr Goh Choon Kang and Mr Yeo Guat Kwang asked about foreign Chinese language teachers in our education system. I will address one or two of the issues, but not the whole range. To help foreign teachers adapt to our system, they participate in induction programmes conducted by the Ministry before they are deployed to teach. They receive further support and guidance in their schools and clusters. So far, our foreign teachers, including Chinese teachers, have generally performed well and have adapted to our system. There are a few who do not demonstrate good performance or good work and they will not have their contracts renewed. Several Members have also asked about employing foreign teachers. We are recruiting good quality teachers from overseas. We now have about 400 of them.”
“Over a 10-month period, P1 LSP pupils increase their reading age by 26 months, thus narrowing their reading age deficit by 16 months. The classes are conducted by 214 teachers, whom we call Learning Support Coordinators, and each of our primary schools has at least one LSC. This year, 10 primary schools will get one additional teacher each to implement a similar programme for Mathematics on a pilot basis. If we spread these teachers out thinly to help reduce class sizes across the board, the impact would be negligible. You will not feel it at all. But by putting the teacher resources in areas that count, we are able to make a big impact on the students. It is more effective to identify the learning needs of the students and to design programmes that have high impact on a significant number of students and use the teacher resources that way, which may include smaller classes for specific subjects for specific periods than to try to reduce class sizes across the board. In this way, we have been able to cater to the learning needs of students who deserve more attention, either because they are weaker as in the Learning Support Programme, or because they have special abilities as in the Gifted Education Programme. If we are able to get more teachers and increase the teaching force, we will continue to look at how best we can deploy these teachers, what programmes are available and how we can improve the learning outcomes for our students. Schools are also given the flexibility to vary their class sizes. Some schools have bigger classes. They have a good teacher who can deliver a lecture well to 80 students. Some schools decide that they want to split their classes for their weaker students into 20 each.”
“This means that in every school, there are now more teachers per student to share the teaching duties, compared to, say, five years ago. We expect that student enrolments in our secondary schools will continue to rise by nearly 20% again in the coming four years. But because our target is to recruit our teachers from the top third of each cohort, there is a limit to how far we can reduce pupil-teacher ratios without compromising on quality. There is also a reality check needed to ascertain what proportion of the pool of potential candidates who have the aptitude and interest and how many we can realistically attract to be teachers. We do, in fact, recruit teachers from a wide range of sources and backgrounds, including non-university graduates, polytechnic graduates and also people in their mid-career. Not all teachers we recruit are fresh graduates. Even so, we are currently already recruiting one out of every eight university graduates, which is a very high level. Honestly, I am not confident that we can do very much more than recruiting one out of every eight graduates. Mr Iswaran is right that the key is how best do we use the teaching resources that we have. How do we allocate them to get the most effect and the best education that we can get for our children? Given these constraints, the Ministry's position on deploying our teachers is to do so where the additional teachers can contribute most towards the learning of students. One good example is the Learning Support Programme (LSP) under which P1 and P2 students with difficulties in basic literacy are taught in small group sizes of between 8-10 students. The LSP supports 20% of P1 pupils and 10% of P2 pupils and the results have been quite impressive.”
“Indeed, the 4,000-odd vacancies that Mr Thomas has pointed out pertain mainly to the provision for the recruitment of trainee teachers as they undergo training at the National Institute of Education and float posts to hold those on no-pay leave, study leave, professional development leave, scholarships, training awards, and so on. We have quite a lot of slack in the number of teachers that we can recruit and if we are able to find the teachers, to recruit as many as we want. While we have been expanding our teaching force, we do so with an eye to quality. This means that it will not translate into dramatically smaller class sizes across the board any time soon. It is also because of the changing demographics of our whole teaching force. We have been able to expand the size of our teaching force, especially in the last four years. But because student enrolments in our schools have also been rising, the growth of our teaching service has largely gone into catering to this increased enrolment. Nevertheless, in spite of that, there has, in fact, been some improvement of pupil-teacher ratios. I would ask the Clerk to distribute some data. [Handout distributed to hon. Members.] At the primary level, over the last ten years, enrolment has increased by 19% since 1990 or by some 50,000 students. This means something like another 2,000 teachers are required to cater to them. But in spite of needing an additional 2,000 teachers, we have been able to do a little better than that. Our pupil-teacher ratio in the primary schools has improved slightly from 25.8% to 24.9%. At the secondary level, enrolment rose by 10% in the last 10 years. The pupil-teacher ratio improved from 21.7% to 18.6%.”
“15% have found statistically significant benefits in smaller classes, while 13% found that on average, students in smaller classes perform worse on tests." Doubling the number of teachers or increasing them by one-third or one-quarter, to halve our class sizes, is not the same thing as doubling the number of computers to half the pupil-computer ratio, or even doubling the amount of space provided in our schools. Incidentally, we are doing both of these. With computers, you just put in an order. They will arrive next week. And most importantly, each computer that comes is of the same quality, or perhaps, even more powerful than the older models that are currently in service. They might be even cheaper than the current models. If you order a lot of computers, you get a bulk discount. Can we do that with teachers? Where do I order them from? Please tell me. Would we enjoy a bulk discount if we hire more teachers, and will they be as good as or better than the ones currently in service? If we lower our standards and increase our intakes, they certainly will not be, either in terms of ability to teach or motivation or aptitude. The truth is, it is not easy to find good teachers to do all the things that we want to do. This is a challenge that is not unique to Singapore. The choice is not between 40 students taught by a good teacher and two classes of 20, each taught by a good teacher, but a class of 20 taught by a good teacher, and the other class of 20 taught by a teacher who is perhaps not fit to teach by today's standard. Let me explain the approach that we are taking to build up our teaching force. We recruit as many teachers as we can who meet our standards and we have not limited the number of teachers that we can recruit.”
“In September 1998, the then US Education Secretary, Richard Riley, pointed out that the US faced a shortage of high-quality teachers, with shortages developing in specific fields of expertise, like Mathematics, Science, special education and bilingual education. He lamented: "Too many school districts are sacrificing quality for quantity to meet the immediate demand of putting a warm body in front of a classroom. This is a mistake. Even now, too many school districts are issuing emergency licences." Emergency licences are issued to teachers who are not fully qualified to teach. School systems that have sought to radically reduce class size have found that it has come at the expense of teacher quality because it forces schools to hire under qualified teachers, or teachers whom they would not otherwise have hired. A January 2001 Education Week article says, and I quote: "California learnt their lesson first-hand when the state undertook its own class size reduction initiative beginning in 1996. In the first year of implementation, more than a fifth of the new teachers hired in that state have only emergency credentials. Hit hardest were schools serving poor and minority students, and in the hunt for new space, administrators found themselves carving classrooms out of broom closets and erecting portable classrooms on top of playgrounds." There is a real trade-off between quality and quantity, and the empirical evidence on the benefits of focusing on cutting class sizes is inconclusive, because there are so many factors at work. The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 1998, cited a wide ranging survey of the research that has been done on class sizes. This is the conclusion and I quote: "277 studies have been done on the effects of class size.”
“It is in fact multi-factorial. The factors which influence the quality of education are not limited to class size, but also include curriculum, how it is delivered, school organisation and tone. And whether or not the students behave themselves in a school or in a class has a lot of impact on whether or not we can teach in a large class or teach in a small class. If we have 10 students who are disruptive all the time, we are not going to be able to get any teaching done. But if we have 40 students who are on-task and eager to learn, we can get quite a lot of teaching done. That makes a fundamental difference. Of course, home support and, finally and most importantly, teacher quality. These factors also interact with one another. Good teachers are the key to everything that we do because education is a completely human enterprise. It is about people for people, and it happens through people. When you put the teacher in a classroom, she performs, and how she interacts with students determines whether education actually takes place or not. 2.45 pm While we lay out the systems and infrastructure necessary for an ability-based education, we need good people to deliver this education. Ideally, we would have small classes, every one of which would be taught by good teachers. Unfortunately, the proportion of good teachers in the Education Service and class size is probably inversely related, especially when we look at the issue from the scale of the entire education system, and not just one class or one school. Every country faces this problem. In the US and UK, where class sizes are small, the big outcry is over teacher quality.”
“If you went to the same school 6 or 7 years ago, you would probably find that 70%-80% of the teachers had been there for 15, 20 or 30 years. This is the kind of change that is going on today in the system. So, it is quite critical for us to be able to make sure that we can recruit and retain enough teachers, so that many more of them will stay with us and become the new bedrock upon which the education system is built, just like our loyal and dedicated teachers who are in their 50s and over, who will be retiring over the next five to 10 years. But before I do that, let me first discuss the issue of pupil-teacher ratios and class sizes which has come up regularly. I can almost predict what Mr Chiam will say. First of all, pupil-teacher ratio and class sizes are not the same thing. Class size is a specific arrangement for putting a certain number of students in a specific way in a class, whereas pupil-teacher ratio is an indication of the teaching resources that we have available, say, for a particular school, in relation to the number of students there. Shrinking class sizes has an intuitive appeal. Fewer students mean more attention for each child. Proponents say that it will raise the quality of education, improve pupils' performance, and reduce teacher workloads. And the Ministry of Education is in fact open to all ideas that can improve the quality of education that our students receive and improve the working conditions for teachers, including changing class sizes and seeing what other methods that we can use to deal with some of the problems that teachers face in class, with either large marking loads or students who may need extra attention and so on. However, we are also mindful that the quality of education is not determined by just a single factor.”
“Teachers lie at the heart of all that we do in education, and we need good teachers, and enough of them, to do all the things that we want to do in education. Let me give a rough picture of where the teaching force is today. We have about 25,000 teachers, but it is a teaching force which is roughly an M-shape by age. We have many teachers who are in their 50s and older, who joined the teaching service and took us through the trials and tribulations of the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, and produced the good education system that we have today. So they really were the ones who carried the load over the last three decades of nation-building. But many of them are coming to retirement age. I will lose 3,500 of them over the next five years. 3,500 is enough to wipe out all the teachers in 10 of our constituencies completely. It is about something like 50 schools' worth of teachers. Fortunately, we have been able to recruit new teachers, particularly over the last 4-5 years, because of the new teachers' schemes that have been put in place by my predecessor, Mr Lee Yock Suan. And, in the last few years, we have been able to recruit some 5,000 to 6,000 teachers. So it is an M-shape. Two years ago, the median age of teachers was 43. That means, if you open the staff room and you look inside, the median age of the teachers is 43 years old. Today, if you open a staff room and you look inside, the median age of teachers is 38. In five years' time, when you do that again, the median age of the teachers will be 33. There is a very big shift going on in the teaching service. We have to manage this change. We see it now differentially in our schools. In some of the schools that you go to, half the teachers have less than five years of service, some higher than that - 60%-70%.”
“But the question is: is there a long-term target that the Ministry is working towards in reducing the size of our classes? The problem of quality of teachers will have a gradual correction of its own accord. As the Minister himself has said, each cohort is attaining higher levels of education. So, presumably, we can gradually increase the pool we recruit from within Singapore to augment our teaching resources. The other avenue, of course, is tapping of foreign pool as well, for certain content areas. Sir, the introduction could also be phased in. If we do not want a wholesale introduction of a smaller class size, we could perhaps target it at specific areas, whether it is at, say, early primary or even the primary level as a whole, in order to ease transition into the school system, and in order to enhance the early primary education experience, and we can also target it at perhaps certain pedagogic groups, where highly interactive learning, with the teacher actively involved with the students, is necessary and desirable. I think the establishment of a clear policy direction on where the class size should be is an important signal to the principals down the line, because the Ministry has devolved considerable flexibility and responsibility to principals on how they manage at the micro level the relative sizes of their classes, and some have channelled more resources towards slow learners and so on. But, unless the macro picture is clearly defined, I think there would not be enough resources for flexibility at the micro level. So I would appreciate some clarification from the Minister on the Ministry's position on this matter. RAdm Teo Chee Hean: Sir, let me now deal with teachers, an issue that my Ministry will be focusing on in the school sector this coming year.”
“Sir, my question to the Minister is: how much of a difference can a smaller class size make to the quality of education our children receive? It is not a matter of whether a smaller class size makes a difference - because, I think, as Mr Chiam has said, and I think that is a fairly simplistic argument to say, a smaller class size will, of its own accord, make a difference - the question is, in the scheme of things relative to the other factors, how much of a difference can it make? Intuitively, parents would argue that a smaller class size is desirable. But when it comes to the allocation of hundreds of millions of dollars, clearly we have to go beyond intuition. Sir, MOE has said that class size is one of a slew of factors that impact on the quality of education. Others cited include motivation of pupils, teaching strategies, design of curriculum and the like. The question then is one of an allocative decision. The Government has stated its commitment, and I think the Minister has stated this again today, that it is prepared to spend a considerably larger amount of money on education. Where should the next hundred million dollars in education go when we are talking about the school system and the education within a school system? Should it go towards more IT? Should it go towards more teaching strategy development and curriculum development? Should it go towards reducing class size? That is where I think the relative importance of these factors becomes relevant. The Ministry has cited the fact that, if we try and lower class size abruptly, the quality of our teachers will fall, and that will have an adverse effect. Nobody will quarrel with that argument, and nobody is asking for an immediate or precipitous change.”
“Sir, over the last two years, the Ministry has conducted a review of the teaching and learning of mother tongue in our schools, in particular, on CL, ML and TL. The outcome of the review was an announcement on various changes to the curriculum and methods of teaching, and that these were to be implemented over the next few years in a gradual manner. The results of the review were welcomed by many Singaporean parents and students as a way to differentiate the teaching of mother tongue in our schools, according to the abilities and inclinations of our students. I would just like to ask the Minister for an update on the implementation of the recommendations arising from the review, and whether there has been any feedback or reason to further refine the recommendations.”
“In this day and age, when we are emphasising a broad-based education where we want to ensure that our students come out with the capability to channel their energy in a broad range of areas of endeavour, because the needs of the environment, the economy, and our society are changing so fast, would it not be important for us to ensure that our students have a broad-based approach in their attitude towards education? I would like to ask the Minister: is this a cause for concern at this point? Is there a marked trend? If it is, is it a cause for concern? In particular, is this an example of perhaps a market failure where some form of Government intervention might be justified? Just as, for example, one could argue that the choice of mother tongue as an academic subject might not be high on the list of priority for a student because of the difficulty to score points, but the Government has seen fit to emphasise it as an essential part of education process. Could we adopt a similar attitude towards the humanities? If we do adopt such an attitude, how can we structure the system to ensure that this becomes an essential part of the total education experience our students have in schools?”
“Are there other measures we can undertake through employment of additional support staff or in terms of providing them with customised IT solutions which might minimise these forms of burden in the eyes of the teachers so that they can concentrate on what they do best, which is, teach students. Sir, one feedback that we have obtained from the GPC for Education is that perhaps in our education system, a certain prosaic utilitarian attitude is emerging. Evidence of that would be in the form of the choice of subjects our students seem to be gravitating towards, with a particular emphasis on the Sciences and Mathematics and away from the softer, harder-to-score subjects like the Humanities. We have heard that in some of the top schools, due to emphasis among the students themselves, by choice, there would appear to be a move away from English Literature. If they must do an Arts subject and as required by the schools, they would prefer to do history or geography, because it is easier to score than to do Literature, which generally, it seems, is a harder subject in which to get an `A' or a distinction. This is attributable to many causes - that we over-emphasise Science and Mathematics, that schools are too geared towards achieving quantitative results, because of the ranking system. But, Sir, whatever the cause, the question really is: is this an example of market failure perhaps in our education system?”
“Sir, lest we get carried away with the notion that our education system is full of warts and problems, I do want to bring the focus back to the point that, overall, we have a good education system. Certainly that is the feedback I get from parents and, in general, observers both within and outside Singapore. I think the fact that we are raising issues that are qualitative in nature suggests that we want to make it even better. It would be a far greater cause of concern for us if we are complaining about the quality of the instruction we get in our schools, or that our students are not measuring up when we compare them with international standards. Sir, in part, that is due to the various initiatives that the Ministry has undertaken over the last few years, in particular, focusing on the hardware in terms of improving facilities, the systems through school evaluation models and information technology, and so on. Also, it has demonstrated a focus on perhaps the most important element - the teachers, the people who make the system work. In that regard, the terms of employment for teachers are important. Salaries and benefits are an essential part. One does not want to over-emphasise this because I think there is more to a career than just the pay and the benefits, but this is an essential element. And I would be pleased to know from the Minister what initiatives would be taken in that regard. Perhaps, as importantly, what other initiatives are being undertaken to enhance the work experience of our teachers in the school environment? A common complaint is administrative load, and that leading to stress.”
“And it is important to know that these are applied in a manner consistent with our overarching national objective. Sir, in that regard, I would like to ask whether there is a case for an oversight or coordinating body for self-help groups under the Prime Minister's Office, not a wholesale integration, but a body that can receive reports, be well-apprised of the activities of the self-help groups and use moral suasion on occasions when necessary. I think this would go a long way in reassuring Singaporeans that we have these entities which serve a useful social purpose, we recognise that they might, on occasions, go off from a tangent but that we have the measures in place to curb those instincts. Apart from this audit function, I think the self-help groups themselves might welcome such an oversight or coordinating body as it would serve as an important point of liaison between them and the various Government Ministries and agencies in order to launch coordinated efforts targeted at specific issues within the communities. I would like the Prime Minister's Office to comment on this and the Prime Minister to comment whether he feels that such a coordinating body is necessary and whether such a body can then be set up.”
“However, I was concerned by subsequent reactions from the media that self-help groups should be merged and my colleague, Mr Inderjit Singh, has expressed similar views. Sir, Singaporeans and the media are right to be concerned about the possible adverse impact of self-help groups on Singapore's multi-racial character. But I think they are wrong to conclude that therefore self-help groups should be abolished. Self-help groups tap into a certain sense of mutual help within the community to help the disadvantaged. CDAC, Mendaki and SINDA have shown that this can be a positive force for community upliftment and if we look at the statistics carefully, we will find that in all levels, there has been an improvement, even relatively speaking, over the last 10 years or so. However, there is always the risk that it can easily degenerate into an ugly form of parochialism and segmented thinking. In essence, self-help groups operate in the penumbra between perfect integration on the one hand and ethnic segregation on the other. But does that mean we abolish them? I think not. Merging self-help groups will not guarantee a multi-racial utopia, yet, we would deny ourselves an effective vehicle to help the disadvantaged. Besides, there are hundreds of other clans, religious and community groups that will continue to exist that we cannot and we should not remove by Government fiat. However, I do believe Singaporeans are justified in wanting to know whether there are measures in place to curb the possibility that self-help group activities might be inconsistent with our national objectives. This is especially so given that self-help groups receive substantial support from Government in the form of financial and other resources.”