The registration of children for admission to Primary One (P1) classes next year will start on July 2 until Aug 27.
Children born between Jan 2, 2009 and Jan 1, 2010 (both dates inclusive) have to be registered at this year’s P1 Registration Exercise for admission to primary school next January.
All primary schools will open for registration from 8am to 11am and from 2.30pm to 4.30pm from Mondays to Fridays during the registration period.
The cohort size of 2016 is comparable to that of 2015 and there will be sufficient school places for all eligible P1 pupils, said the Ministry of Education in a press release on Thursday (Jun 18).
Three new primary schools – Oasis Primary, Punggol Cove Primary and Waterway Primary – will be taking in students from 2016 and will open for P1 registration this year.
Details on the list of primary schools and vacancies available, including a list of registration centres for new schools, can be found on the P1 Registration Exercise website.
A reader has informed TRE that a bunch of foreign-graduate dentists on conditional registration in Singapore are doing dental work in Little India without any apparent supervision.
According to its website, Little India Dentist has a team of 4 dentists [Link]:
Dr Nivedita Seerpi, DDS (USA)
Dr Mansoor Walipoor, BDS (Adelaide)
Dr Yushmee Ramburrun, BDS (Bristol)
Dr Katy Kennedy, BDS (Dundee)
All dentists working in Singapore are regulated by the Singapore Dental Council (SDC), a body constituted under the Dental Registration Act (Chapter 76).
Under this Act, the Council is empowered in Singapore [Link]:
to approve or reject applications for registration as a dentist;
to issue certificates of registration and practising certificates to registered dentists;
to make recommendations to the appropriate authorities on the courses of instructions and examinations;
to make recommendations to the appropriate authorities for the training and education of registered dentists;
to determine and regulate the conduct and ethics of registered dentists; and
generally to do all such acts, matters and things as are necessary to be carried out, or which the Council is authorised to carry out, under the Dental Registration Act.
Searching through the records of SDC [Link], the 4 foreign-graduate dentists are found to have only “Conditional Registration” status. That is to say, none of the dentists in Little India Dentist has full registration:
TRE also found that, except for Dr Nivedita Seerpi, none of the other 3 has registered their “Place of Practice” as Little India Dentist. The 3 have instead registered their place of practice elsewhere:
Dr Mansoor Walipoor – Nuffield Dental Kovan
Dr Yushmee Ramburrun – Nuffield Healthcare Private Limited
Dr Katy Kennedy – Q & M Dental Centre Pte Ltd
What is “Conditional Registration”?
Under section 14A(4) of the Dental Registration Act, dentists under “conditional registration” need to be supervised by a “fully registered Division I dentist” working in the same practice for a specified period (at least 2 years).
The SDC website [Link] further states that dentists under “conditional registration” need to work for a specified period that is equivalent to 2 years full-time of minimum 35 working hours per week under the supervision of a fully registered dentist approved by the Council.
The supervisor must submit a supervisory report on the dentist to the Council every 6 months.
Dentists under conditional registration may apply for conversion to “full registration” after 2 years but this is subject to the Council’s approval.
work in the same clinic premises as his/her supervisee
In fact, SDC is quite particular about having full supervision over dentists on conditional registration:
Please note that the supervisory report will determine if the conditionally registered dentist is able to perform his/her duties satisfactorily. The supervisor should exercise due diligence when completing the report for the dentist under his/her charge. Please complete every section of the report. In the event that a supervisor is unable to continue his supervisory duties for the full period of conditional registration, he/she should inform Council immediately and Council will write to the clinic to re-nominate a new supervisor.
SDC is so particular about having dentists on conditional registration supervised by a fully registered dentist that they issued a reminder to all dentists in January [Link]:
Although the risk is small, patients are known to have died from dental treatment gone wrong.
Finally, a criterion for conditional registration requires the dentist to have been approved for employment in Singapore as a dentist in any hospital or other institution or dental practice approved by the Council.
It’s not known if Little India Dentist has been approved by SDC to employ the 4 foreign-graduate dentists who currently hold conditional registration status.
In any case, Little India Dentist does not appear to have any fully registered Division I dentist at the clinic to supervise the 4 conditionally registered dentists.
On Sunday (14 Jun), TRE reported that 4 foreign-graduate dentists on conditional registration in Singapore are doing dental work in Little India without any apparent supervision (‘Foreign-graduate dentists working illegally in SG?‘).
The 4 dentists are practising at a dental clinic at Kerbau Road called Little India Dentist (www.littleindiadentist.com.sg).
According to its website, Little India Dentist had a team of 4 dentists:
Dr Nivedita Seerpi, DDS (USA)
Dr Mansoor Walipoor, BDS (Adelaide)
Dr Yushmee Ramburrun, BDS (Bristol)
Dr Katy Kennedy, BDS (Dundee)
TRE did a screen capture of their webpage before publishing the article on Sunday (14 Jun), showing the 4 foreign-graduate dentists listed on their website:
Here’s another screen capture of their home page showing the link to their dentist information page. This was also captured on Sunday:
Searching through the records of Singapore Dental Council [Link], the 4 foreign-graduate dentists are found to have only “Conditional Registration” status. That is to say, none of the dentists in Little India Dentist has full registration.
TRE also found that, except for Dr Nivedita Seerpi, none of the other 3 has registered their “Place of Practice” as Little India Dentist. The 3 have instead registered their place of practice elsewhere:
Dr Mansoor Walipoor – Nuffield Dental Kovan
Dr Yushmee Ramburrun – Nuffield Healthcare Private Limited
Dr Katy Kennedy – Q & M Dental Centre Pte Ltd
Under section 14A(4) of the Dental Registration Act, dentists under “conditional registration” need to be supervised by a “fully registered Division I dentist” working in the same practice for a specified period (at least 2 years). The supervisor must submit a supervisory report on the dentist to the Council every 6 months.
work in the same clinic premises as his/her supervisee.
Since the website does not show any fully registered Division I dentists working at Little India Dentist, it is therefore assumed that the clinic does not have any fully registered Division I dentists to supervise the 4 conditionally registered dentists.
Today (16 Jun), TRE has discovered that Little India Dentist has quietly taken down the “Our Team” webpage with dentist information. The “Our Team” link has also been quietly removed from their home page:
If you are the secretary general (sec-gen) of the National Solidarity Party (NSP), chances are that you won’t last very long in the position.
The latest casualty of what some say is the result of internal political bickering is its sec-gen, 53-year old lawyer, Tan Lam Siong.
The NSP announced on Wednesday, 17 June, that Mr Tan has resigned as its sec-gen.
He had only been in the job for less than five months.
The NSP statement, posted on its Facebook page, said Mr Tan is stepping down so as to “focus more on his passion for social and community work, and charitable pursuits while remaining as a congress member.”
When he was elected into the NSP as its sec-gen in January, Mr Tan reportedly told the Chinese press that he “was surprised to be elected”.
However, he added: “Since I have taken up this heavy responsibility, I will give it my all.”
This seems to have lasted less than half a year – which, in the wider context of the shelf lives of the other sec-gens, has raised questions of NSP’s internal structure and politics.
In the last five years, besides the exodus of ordinary members, which include Ms Nicole Seah, the party has seen a turnover of several sec-gens.
All of them had had stints of less than two years each:
Law Sin Ling: Aug 2006 – Feb 2008 (18 months)
Ken Sunn: 2008 – 2009 (less than one year)
Goh Meng Seng: Feb 2010 – June 2011 (16 months)
Hazel Poa: June 2011 to September 2013 (15 months)
Jeannette Chong: Oct 2013 – Jan 2015 (15 months)
Tan Lam Siong: 26 Jan 2015 – 17 June 2015 (less than 5 months)
When each sec-gen stepped down, diplomatic reasons were given by the sec-gens themselves and the party.
For example, when Mr Goh resigned from his position after the 2011 general election, where he led the party’s campaign with NSP fielding the most number of candidates among all the opposition parties, he said it was “to reflect on his future”.
Mr Goh said he would be on a sabbatical for at least two years, and noted that it is “timely to take stock of my future directions”, Yahoo Singapore reported then.
Mr Goh’s successor, Ms Poa, cited personal health considerations for her decision to step down.
And Ms Chong-Aruldoss, who stepped down after losing a bid for the president’s post in an internal election earlier this year, told the press that “she and the others harboured no acrimony towards the NSP.”
Several NSP council members had quit the party together with Ms Chong-Aruldoss who subsequently joined the fold of Mr Chiam See Tong’s Singapore People’s Party.
As for Mr Tan, he has kept silent so far on the reasons for his resignation as sec-gen.
[UPDATE: Mr Tan has since written on his blog: “If there is a single reason why I choose to finally step down after putting in so much time, energy and resources in such a relatively short time, I can only say it is due to incompatibility issues.“]
So, what really is the reason for such a high turnover of leaders in such a short span of time?
One reason, as mentioned above, is the internal politicking, especially when new members join it.
This was what Mr Goh felt when he stepped down at the helm.
Speaking to The Online Citizen (TOC), he said he had “predicted NSP may not be sustainable due to too much internal politicking and partly due to the fact that the new comers who are ambitious to take over the party.”
While he said there was “nothing .. wrong being ambitious in politics”, he explained that integration must be done “properly” as this was “the key to successful leadership.”
“Everyone is a volunteer [in] the party and a leader of a political party cannot hire or fire [as he wishes],” Mr Goh said. “Therefore integration to the party and understanding of each member is important.”
A recent incident involving the status of the party newspaper might be indicative of disagreements in leadership style behind the NSP doors. (See here.)
Another reason for the frequent changes of sec-gens could be the role of the president of the party, which is currently being held by 67-year old, Mr Sebastian Teo. He has been a stalwart of the party and has been president for some 6 terms, or 12 years. (The party holds its central executive council election every two years.)
According to the NSP constitution, one of the powers of the president is the casting vote afforded to him.
A casting vote is an extra vote given to someone to decide an issue when the votes on each side are equal.
In other words, he has veto powers.
“The public would assume that the sec-gen is the leader and where there are such frequent changes, the public may view the ‘ship’ as being directionless,” Mr Ravi Philemon, a former NSP member, told TOC.
“From that perspective it is not in NSP’s interest to have such frequent changes,” he said.
Mr Philemon questioned if the party stalwarts, who seem to wield much control in the party, are ready for progress or new ideas which might take the party forward.
“If you observe, all these former party sec-gens are not party stalwarts, but people who had joined the party fairly recently before they were elected as sec-gens,” he said. “So one theory [for the high attrition rate of sec gens] could be that the newer recruits to the party have a different view of how the party should move forward, which could be in contrast to how party stalwarts feel on that topic. That could be one reason for the frequent changes.”
It is also rumoured that the party elders, who are getting on with age, see the next elections as their last opportunity to even contest the GE, and are obstructing internal changes which might or would require them to make way for new blood.
NSP President, Sebastian Teo
With the next elections less than 2 years away, it would be disconcerting to party members, and indeed its supporters too, that the party seems to be rudderless, as far as leadership renewal is concerned.
The NSP, which was formed in 1987, has only managed to put one MP in Parliament in all those 28 years – and even then, it was only a non-constituency MP.
But with the constant changes at the top, it looks like the party will continue to lack the stability to accomplish more than this.
The prize of an elected MP seat in Parliament for the party is as elusive as ever, if not more so now.
*The NSP will be appointing a new sec-gen in the next few weeks
National Solidarity Party (NSP) secretary-general Tan Lam Siong has stepped down less than five months after being elected to the position at the opposition party’s biennial central executive committee election in January.
An NSP statement on Wednesday night said that he stepped down “to focus more on his passion for social and community work, and charitable pursuits”.
Mr Tan told The Straits Times that he remains a “congress member” – or cadre member – of the party, with voting powers. He did not elaborate on the reasons for his stepping down or say who would succeed him.
The NSP’s statement, signed by party president Sebastian Teo, said that during his tenure as secretary-general, Mr Tan had been “energetic and resourceful, putting in place new initiatives and introducing new perspectives into the party”.
“Whilst the party is sad to lose him as our secretary-general, we would like to thank him for his contributions during this period, and wish him all the best in his pursuits.”
Mr Teo added in a comment to The Straits Times that the next secretary-general will be decided on at a party meeting scheduled for next week.
