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Tag: MOE

  • SDP: Just Whom Is The PAP’s Education Policy Serving

    SDP: Just Whom Is The PAP’s Education Policy Serving

    When he was Minister of State for Education, Dr Ng Eng Hen said that “Our universities must become engines of growth for our economy.”

    In 2012, Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang reinforced this point saying that our education system is “to build industry-relevant manpower capabilities for the economy.”

    We had even wanted to become the ‘Boston of the East’, with our universities modeled on Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    But Education Minister Ong Ye Kung now says that the number of graduates will be capped at 30 to 40 percent of the student population because the government had, in the past. placed an over-emphasis on academic qualifications in education.

    This chop-and-change approach to education has damaged the country’s ability to plan for the longer term. For example, the PAP had at one time focused on Information Technology and later switched to preparing students for life sciences. Its current emphasis is on “technology adoption” – whatever that means.

    Such short-sightedness contradicts PM Lee Hsien Loong’s boast of the PAP’s “far-sighted leadership who can anticipate problems”. If the leadership is. indeed, far-sighted, how did we place emphasis on our universities being growth engines for our economy and become the Boston of the East only to realise now that we have over-emphasised academic qualifications?

    Serving local or foreign students?

    And while the PAP caps the number of Singaporean graduates, it subsidises foreign students under the Global Schoolhouse project.

    A majority of international students studying here are given Tuition Grants (totaling more than $200 million per year) as well as scholarships (some of which are not open to Singaporean students). It is reported that foreign students make up between 18 and 20 percent of the total undergraduate intake in Singapore.

    In addition, foreign students receiving the grants have to serve a bond upon graduation (which many, by the way, don’t fulfill). They further compete with local graduates for jobs, many of whom are as it is having a hard time finding employment.

    The discrimination is made even more unpalatable when one considers Singaporean parents spending an average of $21,000 a year on their child’s university education. This is more than twice the global average, with over half of the households going into debt because of it. These parents even prioritise funding their children’s education over paying their bills or saving for retirement.

    And the PAP is limiting the number of local graduates while funding foreign ones? Mr Ong Ye Kung must explain whom exactly his latest policy is serving.

    Read SDP’s alternative education policy: Educating For Creativity And Equality: An Agenda For Transformation.

     

    Source: http://yoursdp.org

  • Primary, Secondary Schools And Neighbourhood Colleges Affected By Mergers In 2019

    Primary, Secondary Schools And Neighbourhood Colleges Affected By Mergers In 2019

    Fourteen primary schools and six secondary schools will merge in 2019, due to smaller cohort sizes and changing demographics across housing estates, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced on Thursday (Apr 20).

    The changing demographics have resulted in an uneven distribution of students across primary and secondary schools, the ministry said at a briefing.

    Demand for Primary 1 places in mature estates has fallen, resulting in surplus places and low enrolment in some schools. But at younger estates, new schools may need to be built to accommodate a higher demand for school places there, MOE said.

    The primary schools being merged are:

    –  East View and Junyuan Primary, to be located on the site of Junyuan Primary.

    –  Balestier Hill and Bendemeer Primary, to be located on the site of Bendemeer Primary.

    –  Da Qiao and Jing Shan Primary, to be located on the site of Jing Shan Primary.

    –  Damai and East Coast Primary, to be located on the site of Damai Primary.

    –  Coral and White Sands Primary, to be located on the site of White Sands Primary.

    –  Casuarina and Loyang Primary, to be located on the site of Casuarina Primary.

    –  Cedar and MacPherson Primary, to be located on the site of Cedar Primary.

    A new primary school in Sengkang, Fern Green Primary, will begin operations in 2018. MOE said this is to meet the high demand for school places in the estate.

    The secondary schools to be merged are:

    –  Yuhua and Shuqun Secondary, to be located on the site of Yuhua Secondary.

    –  East Spring and East View Secondary, to be located on the site of East Spring Secondary.

    –  Hong Kah and Jurongville Secondary, to be located on the site of Jurongville Secondary.

    For the first time, eight junior colleges will also be merged, making this is the largest school merging exercise in the past decade.

    The eight government junior colleges that will be merged in 2019 were selected because of the need to ensure a good spread of JCs across the island, said the Ministry of Education (MOE) at a press briefing on Thursday (Apr 20).

    This is partly why even schools with high entry requirements such as Anderson Junior College (AJC) – which had an entry score of eight and nine points for the science and arts courses respectively in 2016, lower than schools such as Catholic Junior College (CJC) – will have to be merged.

    AJC will take in Serangoon JC, which has also steadily climbed up the ranks since it opened in 1988. In 2016, it had an entry score of 11 points for both science and arts courses, compared to 20 when it started out. The new school will be located at AJC’s Yio Chu Kang site to serve the north-east area.

    In 2019, Jurong and Pioneer JCs will also be merged to form a JC in the west; Innova and Yishun JCs in the north; and Tampines and Meridian JCs in the east. These schools will be located at the latter-named sites. These sites were chosen based on the quality of infrastructure, and their accessibility to transport, said the MOE.

     

    Sources: www.channelnewsasia.com, www.straitstimes.com

     

  • Boys Sit At School Canteen Before Royal Rumble Breaks Out

    Boys Sit At School Canteen Before Royal Rumble Breaks Out

    This story was submitted via Web contribution form.

    Stomper Merketa sent Stomp a video showing a student assaulting another at what looks to be the canteen area of a school.

    In the video, both students can be first seen holding on to the hands of each other while sitting on a bench.

    One of them then prodded the belly of his counterpart who was bigger in size.

    Thereafter, the latter stood up and rained a series of punches on the other student, causing his spectacles to fall off.

    The victim fell to the floor, and his attacker proceed to sit on him hold him in a headlock with his legs after giving him a few more punches.

    Other students around the duo told the physically bigger student to stop, but he paid no attention to their calls and continued attacking his schoolmate.

    As he was doing so, he can be heard saying vulgarities and asking the victim to ‘tap out’.

    At the end of the video, the larger student got up and left the other on the floor.

    It is unclear what led to the fight or what happened thereafter.

     

    Source: www.stomp.com.sg

  • Some Parents Don’t Understand Why Birthday Celebrations Should Be Kept To Minimum

    Some Parents Don’t Understand Why Birthday Celebrations Should Be Kept To Minimum

    No goody bags, no sweet treats and no gifts. Instead, a simple birthday song sung in class should suffice.

    Some primary schools are laying down the law on birthday festivities in schools, saying they should be kept to “no-frills” celebrations.

    This, they say, will curb concerns about food allergies and the consumption of junk food.

    Just as important, it prevents students from making comparisons between the haves and have-nots.

    The Straits Times found that at least six schools have issued such guidelines in recent years: Dazhong Primary School, Pei Chun Public School, Geylang Methodist School (Primary), Oasis Primary School, Springdale Primary School and Riverside Primary School.

    The Ministry of Education has no policy on this, allowing individual schools to decide.

    But some parents whose children are in these schools are unhappy, saying that they celebrated their children’s birthdays in pre-school and should be allowed to continue the custom in primary school.

    Housewife Betha Bhanu Valli Kalyani, 36, who has a son in Primary 2 in Springdale Primary, used to mark birthdays with him in pre-school by distributing goody bags containing toys and tidbits to his classmates, in addition to ordering balloons and a cake.

    “He used to have celebrations in kindergarten, so I don’t see why he is not allowed to do so now,” she said.

    Housewife Geraldine Tan, 41, who has a son in Primary 2 at Holy Innocents’ Primary School, said his school does not discourage such celebrations.

    Making comparisons “is part and parcel of life and shielding children from that is a little excessive”, said Ms Tan.

    But the schools say that they have their reasons.

    “There is also a concern that the students will start to compare between the haves and have-nots,” principal Ong-Chew Lu See said.

    “While we want our students to build quality relationships within the class, we do not want to encourage comparison among them.”

    “Some parents show their love by wanting to celebrate their birthdays in a bigger way, but others love their children in simpler ways…

    “Parents have said that this avoids comparison (of material wealth) among pupils,” she told The Straits Times.

    Civil servant Nur Azlina, 36, who has a Primary 2 daughter and Primary 1 son in Riverside Primary, likes the school’s “no-frills” stance.

    She recounted how her son’s classmate had given out customised pencil cases inscribed with the name of each child during a birthday party in kindergarten and he had asked her if they could do something similar for his birthday.

    “Children already start making comparisons at a young age and it makes things difficult for parents who come from different family backgrounds,” said Madam Azlina.

     

    Source: www.tnp.sg

  • Teacher Calls Out Student For Racist Comments, Class Learns Meaning Of Majority Privilege

    Teacher Calls Out Student For Racist Comments, Class Learns Meaning Of Majority Privilege

    There are a few things I don’t abide in my classes.

    One of them is racism. Today in class I pulled a boy out of class because he called one of his classmates “死黒人” (it literally translates to “die black person” but colloquially it’s more accurately translated to “stupid black person”, and is typically used on people who have dark and tanned skin, not necessarily just African Americans).

    This kid was from a majority race in Singapore, and I called him out on it. I told him people of his race were literally being abused and faced racism daily overseas, and that he was taking advantage of the safe environment here where he’s one of the majority. I told him that saying sorry to his friend was not enough, that he shouldn’t do it again.

    Don’t we all know that’s not going to happen.

    So I addressed the class on this. Acknowledged that I have said racist things before years ago, and that I have also been the target of racism right here in sunny Singapore. And that if you can’t even respect your friends and peers (because that’s what it boils down to), then how can you expect others to respect you.

    Pretty sure most of it fell on deaf ears, given that they are a class that has trouble respecting themselves, and with very probable self-esteem issues.

    It is so, so painful to see the world the way it is. To see kids behaving that way because we as adults tell them (through our behavior and the words we say) that it is okay. That it is normal to have pre-conceived (negative) notions of what different cultures or races or ethnicities are, or do, or have. It is tiring and exhausting trying to re-educate these kids into thinking that everyone deserves respect.

    The very fact that we NEED to RE-EDUCATE them about that is, in itself, appalling.

    And no, this isn’t just at the secondary school level either. I had to address a similar issue while teaching a primary 2 class this morning, when they didn’t react to 2 ethnic dances I mentioned we would be learning, but started giggling and making noise when I mentioned the third.

    Every day I realize how broken our world is, and how we are the ones who broke it. But shouldn’t we also be trying to help fix it?

    Sarah
    A.S.S. Contributor

    Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com