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Tag: MOE

  • MOE: SDP’s Request To Conduct Socio-Political Talks In School Rejected

    MOE: SDP’s Request To Conduct Socio-Political Talks In School Rejected

    The Singapore Democratic Party’s (SDP) request to conduct talks in schools to engage youth on socio-political issues has been has been turned down by the Ministry of Education (MOE).

    Responding to TODAY’s queries, an MOE spokesperson said today (Feb 12): “We cannot allow it because schools are neutral places for learning and not platforms for partisan politics.”

    On Feb 2, the SDP had said in a press statement that the party will “approach our schools and educational institutions to initiate a conversation with our youth on national issues that concern them and their future”.

    Titled “Foster, Forge, Future: Conversations With Our Youth”, the initiative was “aimed at bringing politics and policy-making closer to our students, challenging them to engage in thoughtful analysis on issues facing Singapore”.

    In the statement, the party said that “exposure to alternative points of view is essential”, if the “goal is to cultivate independent thinking” among students”.

    “And if the objective is to foster creative thought, injecting open-minded enquiry into the educational system is necessary,” they added. The party said they would write to the MOE as well as secondary schools, junior colleges, polytechnics and universities with the request.

    Two days later, the party said in a post on its website it had been rejected by the MOE, and that the ministry had said schools are neutral places for learning. While the party was “gratified” by this, it said it was puzzled that “history textbooks approved by the MOE for secondary school students are so partisan”.

    According to the SDP, one textbook stated that the late David Marshall, Singapore’s first Chief Minister and founder of the Workers’ Party, was a “weak and indecisive leader”, and that opposition politician Lim Chin Siong “adopted violent strategies through riots and street demonstrations”, among other things.

    It also cited some questions and answers from a self-study revision book for Secondary 2 students “based on the new syllabus by Ministry of Education”, to highlight its point about history textbooks being partisan.

    In its reply, the MOE said that the textbook segments quoted by the SDP in its post “are not from a MOE history textbook”, while the self-study revision book in question is not endorsed by them.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • SDP: Minister’s Silence On Benjamin Lim’s Suicide Is Troubling

    SDP: Minister’s Silence On Benjamin Lim’s Suicide Is Troubling

    The SDP expresses our deepest sympathies to the family of Benjamin Lim. His suicide is a tragedy that could have been avoided.

    There is a reason why the law and society treat minors differently from adults: They are presumed to not possess the full maturity in thought and deed as adults. Common sense would have indicated to the authorities to proceed with caution when dealing with minors. Yet, five police officers were dispatched to arrest the boy.

    Even if the police were concerned that Benjamin would not be co-operative and could overpower the officers and escape, how far could he have run? And even if he did make a getaway, did the police not have his family, school and classmates that they could contact?

    Also of concern is whether the number of officers sent to arrest Benjamin signaled an aggressive police mindset that was carried over into the interrogation room.

    School officials must be aware that their duty is, first and foremost, to protect students’ welfare as well as their families’ interests. Doing this would not impede law enforcement officers from carrying out their duty. It would, on the other hand, help to prevent tragedies like Benjamin’s suicide from taking place.

    But there is something else that is equally disconcerting. The Ministers for Law, Education, and Home Affairs have kept silent on the matter. Given that a teenager has committed suicide resulting from a series of actions involving the police and the school, it behooves the Ministers to, at the minimum, address the situation and see how the matter is resolved and future incidents prevented.

    Instead of looking into the matter, Todayonline runs a headline saying: “MPs, experts laud police review of interview process involving minors”. Why are MPs and the media not speaking up on investigating the circumstances that led to a 14-year-old committing suicide after police interrogation? Instead, they are lauding the review of a procedure that should not have been in practice in the first place.

    In any developed country, the standard operating procedures (SOPs) would require minors to be accompanied by a parent, guardian or lawyer during interrogation. Its SOPs would also require video recordings of all police interrogations. Without these protections of minors’ rights – indeed the rights of all persons under interrogation – we will never know the treatment meted out to Benjamin during the three hours or so in police custody.

    The public is upset over this incident and deserves full accounting from the Government.

    Dr Wong Souk Yee
    Chairperson
    Singapore Democratic Party

     

    Source: http://yoursdp.org

  • Gay Man Extorts $197,000 From Gay MOE Teacher After Tryst

    Gay Man Extorts $197,000 From Gay MOE Teacher After Tryst

    A 35-year-old man pleaded guilty today (Jan 12) to extorting S$197,000 in cash and other luxury goods from an older male teacher he had an affair with, by threatening to expose their trysts to the Education Ministry (MOE) and his victim’s school.

    Ng Hian Gee Vincent faces up to seven years’ jail and caning for one count of extortion. Seven similar charges will be taken into consideration when he is sentenced on Feb 15.

    Pressing for a jail term of at least four years and three to four strokes of the cane, deputy public prosecutor said the 45-year-old victim — who cannot be named due to a gag order — had suffered for about six months and his “entire life savings… gouged out by Ng”.

    After they met through an online web portal TREVVY in late August 2013, the victim invited Ng, who is married, to his house where they engaged in homosexual acts, a district court heard. According to its website, TREVVY was set up in March 1999 to connect the gay community in Singapore.

    However, the victim later asked Ng to leave as he felt uncomfortable.

    When he found out through the internet that the victim was a teacher, Ng started to blackmail him, demanded large amounts of money as “compensation” and threatened to report their relationship to authorities.

    Fearing for his reputation and job security, the victim succumbed to Ng’s threats, which persisted from September 2013 to March the next year. The court heard that Ng had succeeded in demanding, among other things, cash amounting to S$197,000 and luxury goods worth S$51,900 — including one gold pendant, one Rolex watch, one gold chain and four Chanel bags — from the victim.

    The victim made a police report only in March 2014, when he was “at his wit’s end”, said DPP Wuan.

    As Ng had gambled away the bulk of his money, he was only able to provide restitution of S$24,000 to date. He has also returned the Rolex watch, gold chain and gold pendant to the victim.

    Urging the court not to treat Ng as a first-time offender despite his clean record, DPP Wuan said the offences are aggravated by Ng’s recalcitrance.

    “Not satisfied with his ill-gotten gains when he first committed the offence, he continued to torment the victim in order to satiate his desire to gamble. An enhanced sentence is therefore warranted due to (Ng’s) recalcitrance,” he charged, adding that deterrence should be the foremost sentencing consideration in this case.

    Ng’s lawyer James Ow Yong asked for his sentence to be deferred till after the upcoming festive period so that Ng can “spend the final Chinese New Year with his mother before the inevitable”. Ng’s mother was admitted to the hospital on Jan 10 and is critically ill, the court was told.

    In mitigation, Mr Ow Yong said Ng committed the offences under “frailty of (his) state of mind” due to his failed attempt at a relationship.

    In response, DPP Ng said “frailty of mind” is no excuse for Ng’s offences, which persisted over a long time period.

    “It is trite law that personal financial hardship and ill health are not mitigating factors except in exceptional circumstances. This is no such case,” he added.

    Ng, who is unemployed, is out on a bail of S$20,000.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • Former WP Member: Pritam Singh A Clown For Suggesting That MINDEF Also Charge For Parking

    Former WP Member: Pritam Singh A Clown For Suggesting That MINDEF Also Charge For Parking

    Another clown from the WP side. Made such comparison without thinking.

    By making NSMen to pay for parking space in camps is totally a bad idea. Firstly, most camps do have parking lots reserved for NSMen to park their vehicles during their call-ups. Do Mr Pritam Singh or WP do their call-ups before? Army camps are mostly situated away from any sights of residential or industrial areas. If many NSMen have to park their vehicles hundreds of metres away from the camps, they may jammed up the nearby parking spaces.

    Secondly, have he or WP made a comparison of the number of vehicle parked in camps and schools?
    In schools, the staffs that parked their vehicles are just a small fraction of estimated 20 vehicles. However in camps provided when thereare call-ups the number of vehicles parked could be more than 50 to 100 vehicles. MOST of the NSMen pooled their vehicles to reach to the camps.

    Now more and more clowns are talking points without having considerations to the People. Mr Pritam Singh and WP is now showing that they are just incapable in having “debates” for the People. Next GE, WP Aljunied may fall completely with such clowns voted in.

    Mohamed Fazli bin Talip

     

    Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

  • Singaporean Shortlisted For US$1M Teaching Prize, Will Not Compete

    Singaporean Shortlisted For US$1M Teaching Prize, Will Not Compete

    Greenview Secondary School teacher Muhammad Nazir Amir, who teaches science by getting his students to design toys , was on Wednesday (Dec 9) morning named one of the 50 finalists shortlisted for a US$1 million (S$1.4 million) teaching prize by a Dubai-based education charity.

    But in a surprise turn of events, Dr Nazir, 38, who won the President’s Award for Teachers last year, said he was not proceeding with the competition.

    “I am very happy and honoured to be in the Top 50 but am not proceeding further due to personal reasons,” he told The Straits Times.

    Earlier on Wednesday, the Varkey Foundation, which gives out the prize dubbed the “Nobel Prize for teachers”, said that the 50 finalists were arrived at after whittling down 8,000 nominations from 148 countries.

    The number of shortlisted applicants will be further reduced from 50 to 10, and their names will be announced in February next year.

    The winner will be announced at the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai in March.

    The yearly prize was launched last year to recognise exceptional teachers who go the extra mile for their students and contribute to the profession as a whole.

    In a press statement on Wednesday, the Varkey Foundation said: “By unearthing thousands of stories of heroes that have transformed young people’s lives, the prize hopes to bring to life the exceptional work of millions of teachers all over the world.”

    It said that Dr Nazir, who has a PhD in science and design and technology education from the National Institute of Education, developed the RAP (relevant, appealing and personal) teaching approach for Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects to better engage with students, particularly those who are less academically inclined.

    His lessons include getting students to build toys using scientific principles for storytelling.

    This approach has contributed to a high level of passes among his students.

    United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, who supports the prize, said: “Teachers are entrusted with nurturing the potential of the young and helping them blossom as productive and responsible members of society.”

    This year, Ms Nancie Atwell from Maine in the United States won the prize.

    She was recognised for her work in teaching children to read and write.

    She planned to donate all the money to the Centre for Teaching and Learning, a non-profit demonstration school that she founded in 1990.

    The winners will receive their US$1 million prize money over 10 years, and will be asked to serve as global ambassadors for the Varkey Foundation, attending events and speaking about their work.

    But they will also be required to remain working as classroom teachers for at least five years as a condition of winning the award.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com