1 Ms Carrie Tan asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether there are efforts to work with other Ministries on youth mental health awareness amongst parents and on equipping parents with mental health awareness and response skills to better support children and youths in the environment of their own homes.
\tThe Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social and Family Development (Mr Eric Chua) (for the Minister for Social and Family Development): Mr Speaker, parents play an essential role in their children's mental health and well-being. Youth mental health and well-being is an important issue, and there has been a concerted effort between Ministries, agencies and community partners to promote and support youth mental health awareness, including amongst parents.
The Health Promotion Board or HPB conducts mental health education programmes for parents with pre-school and Primary school-going children, to equip them with the knowledge and skills to develop and strengthen their children’s mental well-being, social and emotional intelligence, and resilience. Through these programmes, parents learn to better communicate with their children and to manage their children’s emotions.
MOE also provides practical tips and resources to parents through platforms such as Parent Kit, Schoolbag articles, \"Ask Me Anything About …\" Facebook Live sessions and through their \"Parenting with You\" Instagram account. These resources support parents in identifying signs and sources of stress in their children, building resilience in their children and taking care of their children’s mental well-being. For students-at-risk, schools and Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) provide parents with timely updates on their children’s state of mental health and work with them to ensure care and support is provided where needed.
The COVID-19 pandemic posed new challenges and highlighted the importance of strengthening the mental health and well-being of our youth. To help parents better support their children, Families for Life (FFL) launched the #FFLShareTheCare online video series during the circuit breaker period. Experts such as Dr Daniel Fung, Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), and Mr Arthur Ling, Deputy Executive Director of Fei Yue Community Services, were invited to speak on teen behavioural issues, parenting as well as building strong family relationships. These videos have been well-received, with about 2.5 million views to-date.
MSF also offers evidence-based parenting programmes such as the Positive Parenting Programme, or Triple P, that equips parents with simple and practical strategies to build strong, healthy relationships with their child, up to age 16, and confidently manage their child’s behaviour. Currently, Triple P is available via an e-learning platform, Triple P Online (TPOL) or via video-conferencing platforms such as Zoom.
Other digital resources have also been developed to equip parents with the information and tools to support their children’s mental well-being. The Temasek Foundation, with support from the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC), has developed a \"My Mental Health\" microsite to address mental health challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Another website, Mindline.sg, is a joint initiative by Ministry of Health Office for Healthcare Transformation (MOHT), MSF, National Council of Social Service and IMH. A one-stop repository for resources and tools, Mindline.sg provides support and self-care tools specifically for care-givers.
While these programmes and resources help provide families with education and awareness on youth mental health and mental well-being, some of them may require further support and assistance. Families facing marital and family issues, and/or parenting stress can approach any of our Family Service Centres or FSCs, or the online counselling service set up in April 2020 by MSF with the Community Psychology Hub. In 2020, over 1,200 clients have been supported through the Community Psychology Hub online counselling service.
Apart from these Government-led initiatives, over 1,500 youths, parents, care-givers and individuals from the social sector and mental health professionals came together to form the Youth Mental Well-being Network, to which MOE, MSF and MOH lend support. Members include both individuals and organisations such as Campus PSY, which stands for \"Peer Support for Youths\", which promotes mental health awareness and peer support amongst youth, and Acceset, which aims to improve the mental well-being of youths through technology and research. Members have been discussing various initiatives and ideas to enhance youth mental well-being, some of which are on equipping parents to better support their children’s mental health. The Network continues to welcome contributions from anyone who would like to join and make an impact in this space.
We will continue to work with anyone and any agency or individuals, who will come together with us, to help parents better support their children’s mental health and well-being.
\tMr Speaker: Ms Carrie Tan.
\tMs Carrie Tan (Nee Soon): Mr Speaker, I thank the Parliamentary Secretary for his reply. I would like to seek clarification on what is the current take-up rate by parents with regard to the Triple P – Positive Parenting Programme in schools. Are there challenges to its roll-out, if any, and whether the Triple P Programme is on track to meet its scaled up targets, if it does have a plan for scaling up?
\tMr Eric Chua: Mr Speaker, I thank the Member Ms Carrie Tan, for her questions. I am happy to actually share that to-date, about more than 30,000 parents have benefited from the programmes. And we have some results to show.
Triple P has, in fact, proven to be quite effective. We have parents coming back to tell us that they now have greater parenting competence. They have also experienced less parenting stress, improved emotional states that they experience and also reduced behavioural problems that they find in their children.
So, overall, on a more sustained basis, more specifically, parents have also come back to tell us that about 20% reduction in both their children's problematic behavioural scores have been observed, as well as their own parenting stress scores. And this is taken about three months after they have completed the programme. So, we are happy to share some of these encouraging results.
So, with this result, we hope that more parents could come onboard, join us for these online programmes, invest some of the time and energy, so that they can learn better parenting tips and be onboard with us on the programme.
\tMs Carrie Tan: Thank you, Speaker. To add on to my supplementary question, I noted that the current Triple P efforts are quite focused on delivery via digital platforms. Are there any plans by MOE to work with community partners or, perhaps, even PA, to bring some of this awareness or publicity about these programmes into the community, so that parents who may not naturally gravitate towards finding information online also will be accessed, in terms of having this information about the programme reach them.
\tMr Eric Chua: Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for her additional question. We are now leveraging quite a bit on the online platforms because of the current situation that we are in, because of the pandemic situation that we are in. But we take her suggestion. As much as possible, we will definitely work with community partners to try to proliferate and make this programme, which is a good programme for all parents, myself included. Hopefully, the participation rate can be further boosted over time.
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"NParks' Tree Inspection Regime","subTitle":null,"sectionType":"OA","content":"2 Ms Hany Soh asked the Minister for National Development (a) how frequently does NParks check its trees to ensure that they are in a healthy condition and not prone to falls; and (b) whether there is a safety check regime in place for parks under the charge of NParks to ensure that our parks remain safe for users.
3 Mr Shawn Huang Wei Zhong asked the Minister for National Development (a) what is the current inspection routine and procedure to ensure that trees in public areas are safe from tree rot, infestation and tree failure that can potentially cause a loss of life; (b) whether there are sufficient resources allocated to conduct these inspections; and (c) what are the scenarios that will cause a healthy tree to fail within nine months after its inspection.
\tThe Minister for National Development (Mr Desmond Lee): Mr Speaker, Sir, may I take Question Nos 2 and 3 together?
\tMr Speaker: Yes, please.
\tMr Desmond Lee: Thank you, Sir. Ms Hany Soh and Mr Shawn Huang have raised questions about NParks’ current tree inspection regime and I will address them together.
The National Parks Board (NParks) has a tree inspection and maintenance regime that is aligned with the Best Management Practices of the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA). Regular tree inspections are carried out by trained inspectors every six to 24 months, depending on the location and size of the tree. Trees that are close to areas with high pedestrian or traffic activity are inspected more frequently.
During a tree inspection, NParks’ inspectors conduct a comprehensive visual examination of the tree crown, branches, trunk and roots to assess the tree’s health and stability. Trees that are found to have possible defects are subject to an additional in-depth inspection, which involves the use of diagnostic equipment to assess the internal condition of the tree. Since November 2016, such in-depth inspections are also conducted annually for trees of more than four metres in girth. This is a precautionary measure in response to changing weather conditions, and is over and above the Best Management Practices of the International Society of Arboriculture.
Beyond inspections, NParks has put in place other measures to reduce the risk of tree failure. First, NParks carries out targeted arboriculture treatments to improve general tree health and their ability to withstand severe weather conditions. It prunes trees regularly to remove weak, dry or overgrown branches, and to improve their structure and balance.
Second, NParks is also progressively replacing storm-vulnerable tree species with hardier species.
Third, NParks uses technology to analyse risks and improve inspection processes. For instance, NParks is piloting modelling techniques to understand the impact of adverse environmental conditions, such as strong winds, on the structural integrity of trees. This will help NParks to better determine the pruning required to improve tree stability.
To ensure that there is sufficient expertise to perform tree inspections, NParks has built up a pool of certified arborists in Singapore by offering professional training courses and seminars. These courses are conducted by both international and local arboriculture experts, for NParks staff, as well as tree care professionals in the private sector and other public agencies that manage trees. There are currently more than 620 arborists in Singapore who are accredited with the International Society of Arboriculture. Apart from its in-house arborists, NParks also requires its tree maintenance contractors to have certified arborists in their teams.
With this comprehensive tree management programme, NParks has reduced the number of tree failure incidents by almost nine-fold, from 3,100 in the year 2000, to 339 in 2020. However, it is not possible to completely prevent tree-related incidents because trees are living organisms that can be affected by pests and diseases, as well as environmental conditions. Even healthy and structurally-sound trees can fail during storm events due to exceptionally strong winds or heavy rainfall.
Lastly, Ms Hany Soh has asked whether NParks has a safety check regime in place for its parks. Beyond trees, safety inspections are also carried out for park infrastructure and facilities. NParks appoints registered professional structural engineers to inspect the structural integrity of buildings and structures in its parks, such as shelters, bridges and monuments, once every five years, in accordance with statutory requirements under the Building Control Act. Regular and systematic checks of park facilities are also conducted by NParks staff and external inspectors. For example, all playgrounds are inspected monthly by NParks staff, and every six months by external Certified Playground Safety Inspectors. This allows NParks to detect and rectify defects in a timely manner and to keep our parks safe for users.
In conclusion, Sir, the questions raised by Members are in relation, I probably assume rightly, to the recent Marsiling Park death. We deeply regret the loss of life, every one death or injury as a result of tree-fall incidents is one too many. My colleagues at NParks and the arborist community work hard day after day to keep our streetscape, to keep our parks and our nature areas safe for Singaporeans to enjoy.
\tWe will continue to press on to keep up the work and to ensure that our City in Nature is safe and enjoyable for everyone.
\tMr Speaker: Ms Hany Soh.
\tMs Hany Soh (Marsiling-Yew Tee): Thank you, Speaker. I thank the Minister for his response to my question. Indeed, the victim of the recent Marsiling Park fallen tree incident is actually my Woodgrove resident. Like the Minister, I agree with him, that every of such unfortunate incident is one too many.
I have two clarifications to make. Firstly, I understand that some countries do adopt methods such as cabling and bracing by placing or threading steel cables between tree branches or trunks to limit its movement and to provide more structural support to the trees, thereby minimising the damage caused to trees in windy or stormy conditions.
Another practice of tying back trees, on the other hand, as practiced by countries such as Japan, is to ensure that if trees were to fall prematurely, it will fall towards a pre-determined direction, away from human traffic.
In this regard, I would like to seek the Ministry's clarification, whether they will consider implementing these measures for trees that are within parks or high human traffic areas.
My second clarification is whether NParks will consider to do more public education on safety at parks, sharing tips on how to recognise potential hazard in parks and what to do when a park-related accident occurs.
\tMr Desmond Lee: I thank the Member for her questions. On behalf of my colleagues at NParks, we extend our deepest condolences to the family of the deceased. We stand by them and have offered the support that they may need at this difficult time.
In regard to the Member's first question on the use of restraints on trees. NParks does use tree support systems for trees that have reached maturity or have known structural weaknesses, among others. For example, there is a heritage tree I am told, the Lychee Tree atop Mount Rosie in the Novena neighbourhood. It is supported by permanent galvanised steel structure built to withstand elements. This tree is more than 100 years old.
NParks also uses cabling methods in selected situations such as the tree, a Palaquium tree at the Evolution Garden at Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG). This method is used as a precautionary measure to restrain the tree from falling in a direction of the footpath.
Tree support systems can constrain, however, young and semi-mature trees in the ability to grow. This could also constrain them in their ability to make natural swaying movements in order to buffet the impact of strong winds, and in fact, may inadvertently weaken the structure of the tree – because the crown gets the full impact and the tree structure is constrained from some degree of natural movement.
NParks will study carefully what more situations we can use it, but we also have to recognise that these structures can also pose safety issues if used without care in park settings where people frequent.
To ensure that park users can enjoy our parks safely, NParks has installed advisory signs on various safety related issues across our shared spaces. This includes signs to guide the appropriate use of play and fitness equipment; as well as what the public can do when they encounter wild animals in our parks, or hazards like falling branches in forested areas. NParks will continue to engage and educate our community on public safety tips in our parks by putting out advisories and safety messages onsite and on NParks' website.
Recognising potential tree hazards in our parks, requires assessing the health and structural integrity of trees and is best carried out by trained personnel with the requisite experience and expertise. Members of the public with feedback on public trees or park facilities can contact NParks via its hotline at 1800 471 7300 or through the OneService app.
For park-related accidents or incidents, public should contact the Police or the SCDF immediately, if there is an emergency or NParks' hotline otherwise. Members of the public may also approach NParks officers who are stationed onsite at some of our parks during office hours.
\tMr Speaker: Mr Yip Hon Weng.
\tMr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Minister for his reply. Besides trees in parks, many trees are actually in HDB estates managed by Town Councils. Can the Minister share how does NParks work with and coordinate with the Town Councils for tree inspection and how does NParks share their expertise with the Town Councils?
\tMr Desmond Lee: I thank the Member for his question. NParks manages some 6 million trees in Singapore, whilst in Town Council areas, if I recall right, about a million trees managed in areas under Town Council management. There are, of course, trees managed by private property owners, by MCSTs, by other agencies as well.
And so, the first thing is to ensure that the arborists in Singapore, as I said earlier in my reply, that we have a community of arborists numbering more than 620, who are trained and accredited by the International Society of Arboriculture. They have to undergo regular training and upgrading in order to upkeep their standards and they are then certified by NParks. NParks offers professional training courses and seminars, both by international and local experts, and that raises and supports the standards of arborists, who are then deployed not only under NParks' regimen but also that of Town Councils, the private sector as well as other agencies as well.
In addition, in relation to trees under Town Councils, NParks works closely with agencies that manage trees, Town Councils and landowners to advise them on tree care standards. NParks also provides professional training courses and seminars for tree care professionals in the private sector and other public agencies which manage trees. For example, NParks provides training for the staff of Town Councils or managing agents administering landscaping contracts, in various plant health and maintenance topics.
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Availability of Industrial Attachments and Internships for Students in Future-ready Sectors","subTitle":null,"sectionType":"OA","content":"4 Mr Leon Perera asked the Minister for Education what efforts are being undertaken to ensure a strong availability of industrial attachments and internships for students of Institutes of Higher Learning in future-ready industrial sectors including sectors in green tech, urban farming and artificial intelligence.
The Second Minister for Education (Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman) (for the Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) place strong focus on industrial attachments and internships for their students, to complement their learning in the classroom. This is the case across all sectors and courses, including in the specialised fields of green technology, urban farming and artificial intelligence.
In total, there were 25,000 internship opportunities in Academic Year 2019/2020 for students in courses related to infocomm technologies, artificial intelligence, environmental studies and environmental engineering, urban greenery, clean energy and green building management and so on; more than enough to meet the student demand. The IHLs work closely with industry partners to design and facilitate such opportunities, which are often credit-bearing, to ensure quality learning for their students. We continue to benefit from strong interest by organisations that have partnered the IHLs to host student interns. Examples include Edible Garden City, SolarGy, Shopee, Singtel and IBM.
Besides internships, the IHLs also work with industry partners to organise projects to expose students to real-world work in these areas, including: industry talks, learning journeys and company visits. For example, National University of Singapore organises relevant industry talks and facilitates case competitions on sustainability topics by industry partners like Schneider Electric, Ecolab and Tata Consultancy to provide students with insights on career prospects and industry trends. Ngee Ann Polytechnic organises the Future City Programme with industry partners to provide hands-on learning opportunities focusing on future technologies, such as with Moovita, a high-tech start-up specialised in providing software solutions for driverless vehicles. In the process, students benefit from the experiential learning and also acquire a better sense of what the industry entails.
Let me assure Members that our IHLs will continue to partner stakeholders to ensure a strong array of such opportunities to benefit students across all sectors, including in other in-demand areas such as advanced manufacturing, healthcare and so on.
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Temporary Occupation Licences for Properties Already Acquired by and Reverted to Government","subTitle":null,"sectionType":"OA","content":"5 Mr Leon Perera asked the Minister for Law for Temporary Occupation Licences (TOLs) issued for continued occupation by owners of properties that are already acquired by and reverted to the Government and which are not required for immediate development (a) what are the considerations behind the decisions for (i) renewal or termination of TOLs and (ii) duration of each TOL term; (b) whether the occupants are consulted in such decisions; (c) whether there is a standard process for public interest like heritage value or community impact to be taken into consideration in these decisions; and (d) whether TOLs can be passed on from a deceased family member to surviving relatives.
\tThe Second Minister for Law (Mr Edwin Tong Chun Fai) (for the Minister of Law): Mr Speaker, it is difficult to answer this question if it is hypothetical because much depends on the specific circumstances of each case. A non-exhaustive list of such factors could include: the nature of the property acquired; the nature of its heritage value; the possible immediate uses; the possible need for works to be carried out on the property; whether the Government assesses that it should keep the property vacant while the various factors are being assessed; or whether it is possible or appropriate for the property to be put to some interim use.
If the Member has a specific property in mind, he can let us know and we will consider.
With the above in mind, I will set out my answer. Sir, state lands which are not required for immediate development can be put to interim use through tenancy agreements or Temporary Occupation Licences (TOLs). TOLs are issued to preserve flexibility for the Government's discretion as to the use of state lands, which are needed for a variety of purposes. The terms of the TOLs would reflect this.
Before the issuance of a TOL, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) will consult with various agencies such as the Urban Redevelopment Authority or the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, where lands are to be let out for community uses.
TOLs are short-term instruments. SLA will consider each application for a TOL or its renewal on its merits, taking into account various factors such as the nature of the land in question, whether a site might be affected by development plans and whether the proposed use might generate disamenity in the community.
TOLs can be terminated if the licensee no longer wishes to use the land, or if there are breaches of the TOL conditions, or if the land is required for redevelopment.
SLA will consider all requests for passing on of the TOL from a deceased person to surviving relatives. Cases will be considered on their merits, the context of the person or persons applying and whether there are other relatives, as well as other factors.
\tMr Speaker: Mr Perera, can you keep your supplementary questions short.
\tMr Leon Perera (Aljunied): Thank you, Mr Speaker, Sir, yes, just very briefly. I thank the Minister for his answer. I just wanted to clarify that in the case of TOLs issued to sites which have been slated for future re-development – sometimes, the terms are very short – where possible, would the Government consider, in a rather than one year, say two year or three year extensions where there is a strong heritage case and where heritage groups have made that argument. That is the first clarification.
Second and last one, does the Government work with heritage groups to take their inputs into account when making these TOL decisions.
\tMr Edwin Tong Chun Fai: Sir, as I mentioned, the Government takes into account a variety of various factors, whilst at the same time preserving its discretion to deploy the land for efficient uses.
Having said that, on a case-by-case basis, we will consider the appropriate length, having regard to factors such as whether the land is going to be put up or re-developed immediately and the time span for that; as well as factors such as its purpose and use in the community, including matters such as its heritage value.
Mr Speaker: Order. End of Question Time. The Clerk will now proceed to read the order of the day.
\t
[Pursuant to Standing Order No 22(3), Written Answers to Question Nos 8-10 and 12-14 on the Order Paper are reproduced in the Appendix. Question Nos 6-7 and 11 have been postponed to the sitting of Parliament on 4 March 2021.]
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Estimates of Expenditure for the Financial Year 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022","subTitle":"Committee of Supply – Paper Cmd 5 of 2021","sectionType":"OS","content":"[(proc text) Order read for consideration in Committee of Supply [4th Allotted Day]. (proc text)]
[Mr Speaker in the Chair]
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Committee of Supply – Head S (Ministry of Manpower)","subTitle":"Creating a future-ready economy and workforce","sectionType":"OS","content":"Head S (cont) –
[(proc text) Resumption of Debate on Question [2 March 2021], (proc text)]
[(proc text) \"That the total sum to be allocated for Head S of the Estimates be reduced by $100.\" – [Mr Desmond Choo]. (proc text)]
The Minister for Manpower (Mrs Josephine Teo): Mr Chairman, I thank the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) and other Members who have spoken passionately.
Twenty-twenty was an unusual year for MOM. With the COVID-19 pandemic, two battlefronts opened up. In terms of pandemic control, MOM was involved in managing the inflows of work pass holders and the outbreak in the migrant worker dormitories. On the economic front, we faced the sharpest employment contraction in decades.
In March last year, I had said that MOM would review the housing arrangements for our migrant workers, raise standards, improve well-being and be better prepared for a next pandemic. In August, we set up a new dedicated group in MOM, the Assurance, Care and Engagement (ACE) team, to provide better support to our migrant workers.
We have made good progress. We are reviewing plans to expand coverage of the Foreign Employees Dormitory Act (FEDA). And we will pilot a Migrant Workers' On-boarding Centre. Later, Second Minister Dr Tan See Leng will detail the steps we intend to take to transform the landscape for migrant workers.
On the jobs front, we have started 2021 on a firmer footing. Were this not so, we will be having a very different debate. Resident employment has rebounded to slightly above pre-COVID-19 levels. Resident unemployment rate has fallen since October last year. In January, resident unemployment further moderated to 4.3%.
Throughout the crisis, our workforce has shown remarkable resilience. Employers too heeded the call to retain their Singaporean Core.
On its part, the Government provided strong support for local employment. Many more Singaporeans stayed employed because of the Jobs Support Scheme (JSS), plus the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package. At the same time, we tightened controls on foreign manpower to account for the slack in the labour market.
But there is more work to be done. Unemployment and long-term unemployment rates are still elevated. Even for those employed, some are in short-term or transitional positions.
With this as backdrop, MOM has three overarching priorities. In the short term, we must secure the rebound by shoring up hiring of locals. As Mr Desmond Choo reminds us, we should not, for a moment, assume this will be easy. Beyond immediate concerns, we must not lose sight of the medium and longer term. Digitalisation, remote work, widening income gaps and an ageing workforce will continue to challenge us. We must aim to overcome the crisis and help every segment of the workforce emerge stronger.
To do this well, our employers are critical. Their capacity to innovate and become more productive will determine how much we can improve job quality over time. In supporting business transformation, we will pay particular attention to SMEs.
With your permission, Mr Chairman, I have asked the Clerk to place some reference materials on Members' seats.
Securing our rebound. Given the uncertainties that still persist, the job market may take a while to recover. Our aim is two-fold. First, for employers, shore up hiring demand. Second, for workers, seize better opportunities.
As announced by Deputy Prime Minister, we will extend the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package. Mr Liang Eng Hwa has asked how these programmes will help.
From September to October 2020, we estimate that the Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI) supported over 110,000 new local hires, by around 26,000 employers. These 110, 000 represent roughly 5% of the workforce. In two short months, such a movement into growing companies is not insignificant, especially when we consider the hiring weakness. About half of the new hires were aged 40 and above. Prof Hoon Hian Teck will be interested to know that one-third of the JGI-supported hires switched into new sectors, possibly a re-allocation towards jobs with better future prospects.
JGI may also be helping to address the issue of unemployment and under-employment which Mr Patrick Tay was concerned about. Around three in 10 JGI hires were not previously in a job; majority had been out of work for more than six months. In other words, the JGI uplifted those who were long-term unemployed as well. More than six in 10, got the same or higher pay than their last-drawn.
To reduce scarring, we must be ready to deal with further displacements. Without JGI lubricating the process, the movement of workers into growing firms and industries will likely be slower. A JGI extension of seven months is helpful, and we will assess what is needed after September. It comes on top of long-standing schemes like WSG's career conversion programmes.
Since 2016, we have facilitated over 34,000 placements or redeployments through WSG's Career Conversion Programmes. Before 2020, WSG placed on average of 5,000 annually. Last year, we placed over 13,000, including a spike in re-deployments. This year, despite more subdued employer interest, we have catered capacity for 10,000 places.
Contrary to Dr Jamus Lim's suggestion, the Professional Conversion Programmes have well-documented outcomes. About 90% of the participants remained employed after 18 months. About seven in 10 earned more than their last drawn salary.
Mr Desmond Choo and Dr Lim can be assured that such conversion programmes will remain a core feature of our system of employment support.
As for the JGI, this remains an extraordinary measure. Employers should not delay their local hiring, in the hope that the JGI will be available indefinitely. I hope Dr Lim agrees that some urgency on the part of employers helps jobseekers.
At the same time, I hope employers take note of the enhanced support when they hire mature workers, persons with disabilities and ex-offenders. As noted by Members Mr Yip Hon Weng, Ms Ng Ling Ling and Mr Eric Chua, these jobseekers face greater difficulties. This is why we will provide 50% support for the first $6,000 of gross monthly wages, for up to 18 months. Altogether, employers can receive up to $54,000 for each eligible hire.
Even with the substantial support provided under the JGI, we are realistic that not all employers can expand hiring. This is why we extended the SGUnited Traineeships, SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways and Skills programmes. Minister of State Gan Siow Huang will say more about the enhancements for the SGUnited Traineeships Programme and on the SGUnited Skills Programme at MOE's COS.
For all unemployed jobseekers, until a suitable job materialises, these traineeships and attachments are the best way to be supported. I thank Dr Lim for recognising that \"Singapore already has most of the elements of an end-to-end safety net in place including the functional equivalent of unemployment insurance\". Prof Hoon thoughtfully highlighted the irony of unemployment insurance in heightening or even prolonging unemployment. NTUC also recognises its limitations.
Unemployment or redundancy insurance, which Dr Lim also calls for, can indeed provide useful income relief.
But they cannot replace efforts to help people get back to work. Insurance payouts also may not match the allowances we are providing. Many unemployed persons will not qualify for any redundancy payout. They include new graduates just entering the workforce, workers who were dismissed, whose contracts ended and were not renewed. Nonetheless, we agree with Mr Patrick Tay not to foreclose these options. MOM will continue to study their merits.
In the meantime, two key enhancements will make the attachments under the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathway Programme more attractive for mature individuals and their company hosts. Participants aged 40 and above can receive higher training allowances of up to $3,800, compared to $3,000 previously. Host organisations will share just 10% of the allowance, compared to 20% previously. With this enhancement, it is even more affordable to host someone with years of work experience than a new job entrant.
To ensure that jobseekers can access help, WSG expanded its outreach significantly. For the first time, career matching services were brought to the heartlands at scale, with the SGUnited Jobs and Skills centres in all 24 HDB towns. Thanks to the close partnership across Government agencies, with unions and employers, WSG placed close to 55,000 locals into jobs, traineeships and attachments. This is 70% higher than what we achieved in 2019.
This work does not stop. WSG is continuing to innovate to provide better support to our jobseekers. No jobseeker need ever walk alone. WSG has been and will always be a pathfinder for you.
Mr Chairman, many Members of Parliament have asked what we can do to fortify our workforce in the post-COVID-19 world. We have always operated on the principle of fairness at work, for both individuals and employers, to maintain cohesiveness in an open economy. Every worker segment must have a fair chance to emerge stronger. Businesses must have fair support to succeed.
Apart from securing the rebound, we will have five key thrusts. For lower wage workers (LWWs), we will focus on equality, mobility and dignity. For mature workers, we will address concerns over employability and retirement adequacy. For self-employed persons, women, and persons with disabilities, our focus is on inclusion and progression. For our PMETs workforce, we need fair opportunities, quality and diversity. For migrant workers and foreign domestic workers, we need a renewed focus on safety, health and wellness.
Let me focus on lower wage workers. Over the years, our income gap has narrowed. Incomes at the 20th percentile grew faster than the median. This decade, our ambition is to build on these gains and significantly grow incomes at the lower end. Workfare, which the Government introduced in 2007, will remain a permanent feature of our social safety net, boosting incomes at the lower end and moderating inequality.
But wages must go up, while preserving options to work. We agree with Dr Koh Poh Koon, Mayor Fahmi and Mr Pritam Singh that it is only fair for essential services workers to be better recognised for their efforts. As a society, we must be willing to accord dignity through paying better salaries to those at the lowest end.
We must also create pathways for these workers to progress. I am very glad Mr Raj Joshua recognises this as the true value of the Progressive Wage Model (PWM). No one should dismiss its meaningfulness to workers, whatever the age of these workers.
This is why in October last year, with the encouragement of Deputy Prime Minister Heng, I sought the support of Secretary-General NTUC and President SNEF to set up the Tripartite Workgroup on Lower Wage Workers.
The Workgroup is making good progress. It has developed an ambitious plan and detailed roadmap for a major expansion of the PWM. We will start by introducing PWM to the food service and retail sectors. In cleaning, security and landscaping, in-house workers will be covered. We will also work out ways to introduce PWM to other occupational groups, what Dr Koh calls vocational PWM. Senior Minister of State Zaqy who chairs the Workgroup will provide more details in his speech.
Mr Chairman, Singapore has what it takes to uplift the lives of our lower wage workers and their families. In doing so, we will become a better and more cohesive society.
Mr Chairman, let me turn now to mature workers. We have tended to put everyone 40 and above into the same category of \"mature workers\". However, one can almost see two distinct generations within this group, with vastly different educational and work experiences.
The group now aged 55 to 69 were born in pre-Independence Singapore, from 1951 to 1965. One-third of this group have below Secondary school qualifications. Fewer than 30% have a diploma or degree. Nonetheless, given the widespread expansion of opportunities, nearly 40% hold PMET jobs.
The group now aged 40 to 54 were born in post-Independence Singapore, from 1966 to 1980. Only 10% have below Secondary school qualifications. Over 60% have a diploma or degree. Nearly 70% hold PMET jobs.
As a result of these differences, a 2019 MOF study had some interesting findings when it compared Singaporeans born in the 1950s and 1970s. In terms of median real income, the younger group earned twice as much as the older group when both were in their 40s. In terms of median real Ordinary and Special Account CPF balances, the younger group had three times as much as the older group.
For the older age group, it is fair that they have the opportunity to work longer. It will help them build up more for retirement. In this regard, I fully agree with NTUC Deputy Secretary-General brother Heng Chee How and Mr Yip Hon Weng. We should avoid a disruption of our plans to raise the retirement and re-employment ages.
Therefore, from 1 July 2022, the statutory minimum Retirement Age will go up from 62 to 63. The statutory Re-employment Age will also go up from 67 to 68. As earlier committed, the Public Service will proceed with these changes a year ahead of legislation. This will help to keep us on track to raise the Retirement Age to 65 and Re-employment Age to 70 by the end of this decade.
While we are asking more of our employers, we have also provided them fair support to make these adjustments. This is why we announced the $1.3 billion Senior Worker Support Package last year. Companies that raise their retirement and re-employment ages before it becomes compulsory, can apply for the Senior Worker Early Adopter Grant. Many senior workers will work longer if they can do so part-time, they tell us that. Employers that provide such opportunities can apply for the Part-time Re-employment Grant. Together with the support for job-redesign, which I will say more about later, this helps to address Ms Ng Ling Ling’s concerns about broadening the range of jobs for senior workers.
Interest in these two grants has been high. Since they started in July last year, we have supported 1,700 companies with 17,000 senior worker beneficiaries. We will top up their budget by over $200 million to directly benefit about 75,000 seniors. But the larger goal is to create the momentum and shape a new norm among employers, where many more companies raise Retirement and Re-employment Ages to 65 and 70, well before 2030.
A senior who can leave the workforce at age 70 instead of 67 and defers the start of his CPF LIFE payouts accordingly, can get around 20% more per month for life.
Can it be more? Part of the answer lies in raising CPF contribution rates for those aged 55 and above. Two years ago, tripartite partners had agreed to set in motion a phased increase, starting from 2021. Due to COVID-19, this was deferred by a year to avoid worsening the employment prospects of older workers. Fortunately, despite the pandemic, senior employment has largely held up.
Tripartite partners therefore agree to push ahead, barring unforeseen circumstances, to raise senior worker CPF contribution rates from 1 January 2022. The CPF Transition Offset scheme will absorb half of the increase for employers in the first year. The impact will be further cushioned by the Senior Employment Credit which provides up to 8% wage offset to employers of senior workers for the next two years until the end of 2022. We will study the extension beyond 2022 and will update in due course.
As to Mr Louis Chua’s question on whether CPF members can earn higher returns, there is no magic formula. Higher returns come from taking higher risks. Prior to the pandemic, we had been studying if a Lifetime Retirement Investment Scheme (LRIS) can be introduced to help members who have the risk appetite and investment horizon but not enough investment knowledge. Recent events have altered the investment environment. We need to update our planning assumptions and strike the right balance between risk and return in our design of LRIS. I seek Members’ understanding that we will update when ready.
Sir, I have outlined changes to the Retirement and Re-employment Age plus CPF that will also benefit the mature workers still in their 40s and 50s, provided they remain in the workforce.
Everywhere in the world, automation and digital advances have shifted labour demand towards higher level skills. At all levels including PMETs, perfectly competent people can be at risk of displacement, unless they upskill. Even in China, McKinsey estimates that up to 220 million workers may need to reskill for new occupations from 2018 to 2030. That is almost 30% of the Chinese workforce.
We must try and make the best of these trends. We can help our people pick up new skills and move into new jobs. With our strong educational foundation and build-up of the continuing education and training eco-system, we can turn this challenge into an opportunity for Singaporeans. By doing it better than other countries, we can strengthen our competitiveness.
This must be complemented by new job creation and upgrading of existing jobs, both of which comes from pervasive business transformation, including that by the SMEs. I will say more about its nexus with workforce transformation later.
But let me highlight two concerns. A previous survey in Singapore observed that our older workers are more dependent than their younger peers on employers’ guidance to attend training. Yet a recent study by the World Economic Forum suggests that in addressing new business opportunities, employers in Singapore are less likely than countries like Japan and Australia to re-skill existing workers, choosing instead to hire new staff who they can plug-and-play.
These attitudes must change. It must become the norm for employers in Singapore to build on the transferable skills of mature workers to meet new business opportunities. At the same time, we also need mature workers to take greater ownership of their skills upgrading. A new norm of continuous re-invention must take root, as Ms Janet Ang also envisioned.
Brother Abdul Samad would be pleased to note that the career conversion programmes benefited 12,600 mature individuals in the last three years, and we want to go further.
This year, we will introduce new programmes for in-demand jobs in growing sectors such as Manufacturing, Information Communications and Technology to provide fair opportunities for our mature as well as all jobseekers. The training and salary support in these programmes come on top of the enhanced JGI. As a result, employers can get up to 95% of the costs covered. It is very generous and the right way to recognise employers and workers for making the effort. Sir, in Mandarin.
(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted livelihoods and disrupted our lives, but we must continue to press on with some far-reaching policies. Therefore, we will continue with our plans to raise the retirement and re-employment ages to 63 and 68 respectively from July next year. We will also raise the CPF contribution rates for senior workers from January next year to help them accumulate more retirement savings.
The full support and cooperation of all employers is critical to ensure the new policies benefit senior workers. Last year, the Government introduced the $1.3 billion Senior Worker Support Package to help companies adjust their operations to continue employing senior workers. In one year, even with the current COVID-19 outbreak, 1,700 companies have tapped government subsidies to bring forward their plans to implement the new retirement and re-employment ages, as well as create part-time roles, to help 17,000 senior workers remain in the workforce.
To encourage and support more employers, the Ministry of Manpower has decided to top up $230 million for the two subsidies. At the same time, we will help employers defray the business costs of the increased CPF contribution rates for senior workers.
The goal of allowing our elderly to realise their dreams to continue contributing at work during their golden years and enjoy old age after retirement is not out of reach. As long as the tripartite partners, companies and the elderly work together, we will be able to build a fulfilling and fruitful golden era for the elderly in Singapore.
(In English): Sir, let me now signpost the direction for self-employed persons (SEPs). For well over a decade, our SEPs have consistently made up 8% to 10% of the resident workforce. They are not a homogenous group and can be found in over 200 occupations.
In recent years, we have seen the rise of SEPs who use online matching platforms to get their work, or gig workers. About 3% of our resident workforce could be considered \"gig workers\". They mostly worked as private hire car and taxi drivers, or drivers for delivery services. Majority say they prefer to be self-employed.
Because of their diversity, we should avoid a one-size-fits-all approach to supporting SEPs. Instead, we have three areas of focus.
First, we will support SEPs who wish to switch to regular employment. One such example is Mr Nazry Zakaria, who transitioned from being a freelance project manager and set designer, to a Creative Strategist at Unearthed Productions – this is the name of the company. To pick up digital marketing skillsets for his job, Mr Nazry participated in WSG’s Professional Conversion Programme for Digital Advertising Professionals. His income is now more stable and he has better opportunities for career development.
Second, we have started to help SEPs better meet healthcare and retirement needs. With the introduction of MediShield Life and CareShield Life, SEPs are generally well-protected against major medical expenses even without employer-provided benefits. The gap lies in the risk of income loss should illness prevent them from working, as SEPs do not have paid medical leave. This is why we worked with insurers to introduce prolonged medical leave (PML) insurance. They now cover almost 40,000 SEP drivers and riders.
We also introduced the Contribute-As-You-Earn (or CAYE) scheme for SEPs providing services to Government procurement entities. With CAYE, SEPs have a convenient way to build up their medical balances. In 2020, the first year of implementation, about 95% of SEPs remained on CAYE, although they could have opted out. About 4,000 SEPs made CAYE contributions. They received close to $1 million in matched MediSave contributions from the Government, as part of a one-off incentive to help SEPs transit to CAYE. Nevertheless, we are aware that many SEPs had to defer their income and MediSave contributions. Hence, we will extend the qualifying period to receive matched MediSave contributions for another year, till 31 December 2021, to provide more time for SEPs to fully benefit from this transition package. With the encouraging take-up of CAYE in the public sector, we will study if the scheme should be extended to SEPs serving the private sector. We will consult the relevant industry stakeholders before doing so.
The third area of focus is to find a better balance in the arrangements between “gig workers” and their intermediaries that deploy their services. As Mr Patrick Tay and Mr Louis Chua had suggested, one way is to provide basic employment rights for SEPs. But this is not straightforward. In Italy, for example, “gig workers” dependent on one buyer or intermediary for their work, are categorised as dependent contractors and entitled to partial employment rights. This provided added protection to the dependent contractors but also incentivised employers to reclassify regular employees as dependent contractors instead.
In California, the legislative moves have swung like a pendulum. But as several MPs have highlighted, the latest ruling by the UK Supreme Court may have turned the tide decisively towards recognising Uber drivers as “workers”. In this regard, we welcome the NTUC’s keen interest to strengthen representation of SEPs and freelancers. In general, such workers can already form associations and be affiliated to NTUC. Examples include the National Taxi Association and the recently-announced National Delivery Champions Association. Collectively, about 47,500 SEPs are already part of the labour movement.
Likewise, in terms of work injuries, SEPs do have some protection. Key platform intermediaries like Grab, Gojek and Deliveroo, already extend free personal accident insurance coverage to the SEPs who they place in jobs. Nonetheless, we acknowledge Mr Pritam Singh’s point that coverage is not uniform and collective bargaining is still not available.
In the Addendum to the President’s Address last year, we said that we would review the responsibilities of service-buyers and intermediaries to bring about a fairer and more balanced relationship with their self-employed workers. In doing so, we will take into account the need to be fair, yet practical, recognising the usefulness of work opportunities provided by the intermediaries and the need to secure better outcomes for workers.
Sir, having covered the priorities of our local workforce, let me turn to our foreign workforce. The views raised by Members on our foreign workforce fall into two broad clusters. On the one hand, Mr Edward Chia and Ms Cheng Li Hui suggested greater access to foreign manpower for some sectors, to address persistent shortages. On the other, Mr Patrick Tay and Brother Abdul Samad emphasised localisation and strengthening the Singaporean Core, which requires reducing reliance on foreign manpower. Sir, this is a tension that MOM grapples with continuously.
Our fundamental objective is always to serve the interests of Singaporean workers. Access to foreign workers is meant to help grow a larger economic pie than we otherwise can. Therefore, the foreign workforce must act as a complement to our local workforce.
At the Work Permit level, the Services sector is our baseline for foreign workforce policies, with a Dependency Ratio Ceiling, or DRC, of 35%. Services account for three quarters of our workforce. We already recognise that some sectors are less attractive to locals. Manufacturing, for example, has a DRC of 60%, at the operators' level. Construction, Marine Shipyard and Process sectors get even more.
There is a limit to how much further we can differentiate within Services. The sub-sectors, which lobby the hardest, already hire the big majority of work permits in Services. If we relax quotas for each one of them, it amounts to raising the overall DRC for Services. Instead, as Ms Foo Mee Har has called for, we will focus on helping companies become more manpower-lean and strengthen their Singaporean Core. Many firms have already started on this journey. In the last three years, an average of 20,800 firms benefited annually through the Lean Enterprise Development Scheme.
Meanwhile, periodic adjustments will continue to be made to the Local Qualifying Salary, to ensure that locals are not hired on a token salary in order to access foreign worker quota. We will hold off further increases this year to give firms time to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the last few years, we have also updated the S Pass policy. We have made cuts to the S Pass sub-DRC in Services, Construction, Marine Shipyard and Process sectors. As mentioned by the Deputy Prime Minister in his Budget speech, we will also reduce the S Pass sub-DRC in Manufacturing gradually, from 20% to 18% next year, and to 15% in 2023. In addition, we raised the S Pass qualifying salary twice last year and extended the Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) job advertising requirement to cover S Passes to ensure that locals are considered fairly for these jobs.
Ms Hazel Poa expressed disappointment there were no more cuts other than for S Passes in manufacturing. Ms Poa may not have been in Parliament for the last few years to know of all the adjustments we have made. Nonetheless, I urge her to consider the points made by Mr Liang Eng Hwa. Whatever her criticism, the foreign workforce accounted for all of our employment contraction in 2020. I would not say foreign workforce policies alone made this happen, but they certainly played a part.
We will continue to review our S Pass levers, including the qualifying salary, quotas and levies. This will be done together with efforts to transform industries and upskill the local workforce. Over this decade, employers should expect further changes to S Pass rules to be phased in. I encourage them to start making the efforts to strengthen their local talent pipeline at this level.
At the Employment Pass (EP) level, our aim is two-fold. First, we will continue to ensure that foreign professionals complement our local PME workforce. The salary threshold is by no means a perfect gatekeeper of quality, but it is easy to understand and administer. We raised the qualifying salary for EP holders twice last year and will explore possible refinements to how we do so. Ms Janet Ang and Mr Saktiandi Supaat who spoke about worldwide shortages in tech and digital skills will understand why we do not set a quota on EPs. Doing so will limit our ability to compete for the most cutting-edge investments and sophisticated activities, and hurt Singaporeans’ prospects in the longer term. In any case, as Mr Melvin Yong and Mr Sharael Taha pointed out, knowledge workers can increasingly work from anywhere. This must temper our expectations regarding the usefulness of further EP controls, like levies, which Mr Leong Mun Wai has advocated.
Second, we will ensure employers practise fair hiring and improve the diversity of their foreign PMET workforce. It is wrong for employers to disregard qualified local candidates because of discrimination. MOS Gan will say more in her speech.
To comments by Brother Abdul Samad, Mr Saktiandi Supaat and Mr Pritam Singh regarding the Capability Transfer Programme (CTP), Deputy Prime Minister Heng noted that it is one of many to facilitate capability development. In general, we do not depend on any single programme to achieve better employment outcomes. Other agencies, besides WSG, have introduced or enhanced complementary capability development schemes. For example, ESG has the Global Ready Talent Programme. It supports Singapore enterprises in building young talent pipeline through internships and overseas work opportunities. All the programmes that have helped to recruit, reskill or redeploy local PMETs, reduced the need to rely on foreign professionals.
The CTP remains a useful complement to sector-specific schemes, as well as broad-based schemes like LEDS and JGI. We have committed about $5 million so far under CTP, and employers have to co-fund part of the costs. The supported projects span over 20 sectors, and we welcome more businesses to use it. As announced, we will extend it to September 2024.
For consistency with recent work pass moves, we will also regularise the work arrangements of Dependant Pass (DP) holders. The vast majority of DP holders do not work during their stay in Singapore. DP holders who have sought employment in Singapore via a Letter of Consent (LOC) constitute only about 1% of all Work Pass holders. From 1 May 2021, DP holders who wish to work during their stay in Singapore will be directed to apply for a relevant work pass, such as an EP, S Pass or Work Permit. We will provide sufficient time for existing DP holders working on a Letter of Consent (LOC), as well as their employers, to transit to this new arrangement. Most of them meet prevailing work pass criteria. Those that do not, will have to cease working in Singapore.
Sir, several Members have asked for more support for workforce transformation. Transformation should serve a purpose to create better jobs, better skills and, therefore, better pay and better prospects. All of these cannot be achieved without better businesses. It is why workforce transformation and business transformation go hand in hand.
Many studies have attempted to predict jobs of the future. They are useful signposts and help us create the conditions to keep businesses thriving. For example, we invest heavily to build up digital access and capabilities – Minister Iswaran said quite a lot about it yesterday. However, the extent and manner in which the future jobs materialise will depend on the entrepreneurial zeal of our businesses to disrupt the status quo and seize new opportunities.
To sustain better pay over time, there is no short cut to raising productivity. This is rarely achieved by just up-skilling or re-skilling the workers. At the firm level, work processes must change and jobs redesigned. Otherwise, the new skills have limited impact. In Chinese, we say, “英雄无用武之地”. At the industry level, business norms must evolve and innovations embraced.
Again, these decisions depend very much on the dynamism and foresight of our business leaders, as pointed out by Mr Henry Kwek and Ms Janet Ang. It includes dealing with the threats and opportunities of remote working within and across national borders.
Strengthening business capabilities and promoting innovation comes within the purview of our sectoral agencies. MOM too, has a keen interest because the future of our workforce depends very much on it.
On our part, we will pay particular attention to SMEs, a point which Ms Yeo Wan Ling has raised. They deserve a fair chance to succeed. Our partners, SNEF and many trade associations and chambers (TACs) tell us that SMEs face bigger difficulties in their quest to transform. This is understandable and we will help in several ways.
First, how to transform jobs. A good example is our logistics sector. In 2019, an interagency team, including the Economic Development Board (EDB), Enterprise Singapore (ESG) and WSG studied the impact of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) on the logistics sector in the next three to five years. The study systematically identified how 56 existing job roles will evolve and how 12 new job roles will emerge. As it turns out, more than half of the existing logistics jobs will experience a medium to high degree of change.
Logistics companies are taking reference from the findings to invest in new systems and reskill their staff. For a warehouse supervisor, the job role can evolve from manually recording inventory to operating automated storage and retrieval systems.
WSG supports these through existing Professional Conversion Programmes, as well as the new Place-and-Train programme for Supply Chain and Logistics Coordinators.
We will set aside close to $10 million over the next two years for more of such Jobs Transformation Maps (JTMs). So, we have the ITMs and we have the JTMS. Three JTMs have been completed and we have plans for another 12. They will help the TACs and SMEs alike with their workforce planning.
In addition, we expanded the Productivity Solutions Grant to also support job re-design. There is a panel of pre-approved consultancy firms. They bridge the knowledge gaps for companies to develop and implement job redesign solutions. This year, we raised the subsidy to 80%. I urge businesses to take advantage of the enhanced support before it expires in a year.
Second, how to help SMEs attract talents. Close to 31,000 SME employers have benefited the JGI and SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package.
We will help companies looking for local talent to also get professional assistance. We recently appointed five best-in-class employment agencies under a new Human Capital Partnership programme. They help employers consider talented locals they may sometimes overlook, by focusing on their transferable skills and relevant experience. We also have the P-Max programme which has placed over 7,800 PMETs into 7,300 SMEs in the last five years.
We want our SMEs to succeed. Ultimately, their ability to transform themselves will spur our workforce to be transformed too.
Mr Chairman, I have outlined MOM's priorities this year. In the short term, we will need to secure the rebound by shoring up hiring of locals. In the medium and longer term, we must help every segment of the workforce emerge stronger, including our migrant and foreign domestic workers. We will support our businesses to transform, especially our SMEs, so that we succeed together. We will keep strengthening fairness and support for workers.
Let me conclude by emphasising the importance of tripartism again. Few countries have the extraordinary advantage we do. Its value was reinforced when COVID-19 struck. Without the reservoir of trust between the tripartite partners, many issues would not have been resolved quickly. In Luxembourg, we saw trouble. In France, unions called for a nationwide strike to denounce the French government's pandemic response, disrupting essential services for many citizens.
In Singapore, both workers and employers accepted the many painful adjustments we made. NTUC sprung into action. Its Job Security Council helped many workers retain their jobs or move into new jobs. Employers too helped to preserve a strong Singaporean Core, even if they had to downsize.
Once again, I thank Members for your many suggestions and support to MOM. The COVID-19 pandemic did not just test the resilience of our workforce. Tripartism was also tested and we are emerging stronger. [Applause.]
The Second Minister for Manpower (Dr Tan See Leng): Mr Chairman, it has been over a year since the pandemic started. As of today, over 114 million individuals all over the world have been infected and more than two million have died. We have been fortunate, with a whole-of-Government effort and everyone's support, patience and cooperation.
After successfully bringing the COVID-19 outbreak in our migrant worker dormitories under control, we continue to maintain tight measures to minimise transmission. These include safe management measures, rostered routine testing every 14 days as well as through distribution of contact tracing devices to our migrant workers.
In 2020, the construction, marine and process or CMP workforce has shrunk considerably, by about 15%. The CMP workers are the main occupants of our dormitories. With fewer workers and with more safe management measures, there have been significant project delays which impact completion timelines for on-going construction projects. This cannot continue indefinitely.
We are now able to progressively bring in new migrant workers to support our businesses. However, let us not be mistaken. This, by no means, represents that we have won the battle. In fact, as I have alluded to in my previous speech at the end of last year, we have just reached base camp. This base camp is different in that unlike Mount Everest or any mountain peak where we know where the full height of that peak is, for this particular crisis, we really do not know where that peak is.
Early this year, as the global COVID-19 situation worsened, we tightened measures to contain the risk of spread from imported infections. We introduced on-arrival tests and an additional post-Stay-Home Notice seven-day testing process for CMP workers. This essentially means that the Stay-Home Notice (SHN) for these workers has been extended to 21 days. This further mitigates and minimises any risks of an imported case from transmitting the virus into the dormitories or into the worksites.
But our work is far from done. Continuous adaptation and improvement have helped us to bring the pandemic under the current state of control. But even as we continue to battle the evolving global and local situation, we continue to take on board the valuable lessons that we have learnt from the past many months of managing this current pandemic.
To prepare for future pandemics, we will transform our migrant worker landscape in three key areas.
First, we will fortify the upstream entry controls and measures for migrant workers. This is done so that we can minimise the transmission risks of new workers arriving on our shores and to ensure that they are properly onboarded before they move into our community.
Second, we will strengthen the resilience of our dormitories. This includes conducting a comprehensive review of the housing standards of our dormitories, strengthening regulatory controls, to enable us to continuously raise housing standards across various the dormitory types and sizes.
Third, we will also ensure the sustainability of all of our efforts to assure, to care for and to engage with our migrant workers. We will do so through cost-effective healthcare, establishing a migrant worker volunteer network to deepen our engagement with them, as well as partnering with our non-governmental organisations (NGOs), employers and community organisations.
On the first initiative, that of fortifying migrant workers' entry and onboarding process. Renewed inflows of migrant workers will be needed to continue to meet the needs of our growing economy. But at the same time, we need to ensure that good public health outcomes are achieved.
To do so, we have set up a Migrant Worker Onboarding Centre (MWOC). This is a one-stop centre to pilot an end-to-end onboarding process for all CMP sector work permit and S Pass holders entering Singapore. There are three elements to this: first, the Stay-Home Notice (SHN) period; second, an enhanced medical examination; and thirdly, an orientation and Settling-In-Programme (SIP) for these migrant workers.
The journey for a migrant worker to safely enter Singapore can be segmented into three zones.
First, the green zone. This refers to the upstream precautionary efforts in the source countries. Today, before migrant workers depart for Singapore, they are required to take a COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test in their country and produce a negative PCR result within 72 hours before their departure. Robust pre-departure tests (PDT) will minimise imported cases and allow more workers to come in.
There are some employers already taking extra precautions in verifying the health status of their workers by even employing the use of serology tests before departure. This is over and above the PCR test. This allows employers to identify workers who have recovered from COVID-19 so that the public health measures that we are going to adopt on arrival can be more targeted.
Second, the blue zone. This refers to what we do here in Singapore. When they arrive here, we have introduced a combination of on arrival PCR test as well as serology tests. This allows us to better differentiate recent infections from the recovered persons can still be intermittently shedding the virus but they are no longer contagious. For example, for these workers who are found to be already recovered, we can exempt them from SHN. All other CMP sector workers from higher risk countries are now required to serve 21 days – first 14-day SHN plus another additional seven-day testing process as a further precaution. And this is where our one-stop MWOC comes in.
At the MWOC, while the workers are undergoing the additional seven-day testing process, they will also go through a residential onboarding programme, comprising: one, the enhanced medical examination; and two, the orientation and the SIP that I have alluded to earlier.
This enhanced medical examination programme will entail more comprehensive and rigorous screening to enable appropriate health support and interventions. For example, workers above the age of 40 or with risk factors will also be screened for chronic illnesses like diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. This enables us to identity these risks and have more effective targeted downstream patient care. It also reduces potential work disruptions and unexpected medical costs for employers from untreated health conditions.
The residential settling-in programme will inculcate better dormitory living and worksite practices amongst migrant workers who have just arrived here and help them understand their employment rights, the kind of good health practices and Singapore's social norms. For instance, workers will learn to adopt the safe management measures, learn how to use contact tracing devices and SafeEntry check-in as well as the Foreign Worker MOMCare (FWMOMCare) app to monitor their temperature, update daily health status and access telemedicine if symptoms are reported. Our guest migrant workers will learn when and how to seek help when they are unwell or when they need assistance with employment disputes.
Third, the white zone. This refers to the time when the workers have cleared all these check-ups and when they can move into their respective residences and adopt safe living measures both at work as well as in the community.
This MWOC brings together various entry processes as one efficient, seamless, integrated end-to-end process. Centralising and coordinating the operations and functions together also facilitates faster reaction times as well as allowing us to adapt and be able to pre-empt better preparation for future pandemics. It benefits employers, workers and the general community in Singapore.
For employers, bringing the processes together helps to lower the risk of transmission from imported cases, enabling the entry of more migrant workers to support our businesses where they are needed. Employers, especially the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), will have the benefit of the MWOC providing an end-to-end SHN and onboarding service, compared to now, where each employer would have to arrange for the medical screening and Settling-In-Programme (SIP) on their own after their workers have completed their SHN.
For workers, the onboarding programme will help them start their employment in Singapore on the right footing, with them knowing their rights. The MWOC will also provide the flexibility to adjust SHN as well as testing measures in the blue zone, depending on the volatility and the fluctuation of the situation in the source country where they come from in the green zone. So, we can calibrate it appropriately. This is done in order to safeguard the safety and the health of the workers as well as our general community in the white zone.
Ms Sylvia Lim highlighted her concerns of households and businesses of the uncertainty when bringing in migrant workers. This MWOC is part of our efforts to minimise COVID-19 importation risk and we hope that this will also serve to minimise other types of future infectious disease importation risks, so that we can bring in sufficient numbers of workers to support the needs of our economy.
We adjust the entry numbers in a very dynamic fashion – depending on the infection transmission risk in each one of the home countries, depending on the risk levels and the regions that our workers come from. We facilitate the entry of foreign workers as required for key infrastructural projects. We have also been responsive and we have provided a higher degree of certainty to employers as well as households.
Entry approvals are allocated on a first-come-first-served basis by the chosen arrival date, and we facilitate, where it is needed, families to come and enter together. Entry applications will get an outcome by the next working day. Employers will also be advised on the next available arrival window should applications for their chosen arrival dates be unsuccessful.
Mr Desmond Choo, Mr Mohd Fahmi Aliman, Miss Rachel Ong and Mr Louis Ng asked how we can and we will improve the standards of dormitories, including smaller sites as well as factory-converted dormitories.
Today, we have a variety of migrant worker dormitories – the Purpose Built Dormitories (PBDs), the Factory Converted Dormitories (FCDs), the Construction Temporary Quarters (CTQs) and the Temporary Occupancy License Quarters (TOLQs). Sixty percent of the 280,000 migrant workers in dormitories stay in just 50 large dormitories with beds of 1,000 or more and they are regulated under the Foreign Employee Dormitories Act (FEDA). Forty percent of them are in the numerous FCDs, CTQs and TOLQs.
All dormitories, whether regulated under FEDA or not, are subjected to a set of regulatory requirements set by the various Government agencies, covering areas such as building and fire safety, minimum living and hygiene standards. FEDA imposes additional requirements in areas such as public health and safety, security and public order, and the provision of social and commercial facilities as well as services.
Our experience in containing this pandemic in the dormitories highlighted the need to strengthen our regulatory levers in order to enable us to raise and enforce housing standards very quickly across the various dormitory types and sizes, and to introduce new housing standards to make dormitory living more resilient to public health risks. We are thus reviewing the scope of FEDA to expand it to cover all dormitories, regardless of size.
This will allow us to bring the regulation of all dormitories – that means it covers the FCDs, the CTQs and the TOLQs – under one single Act. We are going to introduce consistency in terms of housing standards and safe living requirements in all the dormitories through this FEDA expansion.
This will allow MOM to prevent and more quickly contain disease outbreaks in the dormitories. Requirements to create more isolation bed facilities, stringent infection control measures, and ensure dormitory residents' well-being, had to be implemented on non-FEDA dormitories through the COVID‑19 (Temporary Measures) (Control Order). When we expand the scope of FEDA, this would empower MOM to directly and quickly impose safe living and infection control requirements.
This also enables MOM to implement a consistent framework of housing standards across dormitories of different sizes and types. We will have common requirements that apply across the board such as cleanliness, space and ventilation as well as additional requirements that depend on the dormitory's size such as recreational facilities in some of the larger dormitories.
We will engage stakeholders in the coming months to review and to get their input in terms of expanding the scope of FEDA. We will consider the details of the regulatory framework by incorporating their feedback. We hope to complete this review and provide more details in the second half of 2021.
Miss Cheng Li Hui and Ms Hazel Poa asked whether dormitory standards will be adjusted and how the higher costs arising from future improved dormitory standards will be managed.
As most migrant workers continue to live in communal settings, it is critical to improve, better prepare and future-proof our dormitories for future pandemics.
Since September 2020, we have progressively rolled out over 25,000 beds in Quick Build Dormitories (QBDs). To respond to the immediate COVID-19 challenges while strengthening the public health resilience of our dormitories against infectious disease outbreaks and enhancing living conditions for migrant workers, we have piloted a set of improved standards at these QBDs to test for their effectiveness, their feasibility and their economic viability and sustainability.
For example, the capacity in each QBD room is capped at 10 residents. This is in order for us to reduce inter-mixing amongst residents. Each QBD room is also fitted with en-suite toilets to minimise transmission risks from shared facilities. Kitchens, dining rooms and laundry areas also cater to smaller groups of residents. The principal basis is to de-densify all the rooms to facilitate the segregation of residents so that during a pandemic, we can quickly impose lockdowns in a very targeted and precise manner.
We are also conducting a holistic review on these improved standards to be applied to future new dormitories, keeping in mind that every new disease outbreak can be very different from the existing one. We are always working in close consultation with MOH, with public health experts and with the various stakeholders such as employers, migrant workers themselves, dormitory operators and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to gather all of their views in coming up with the new standards.
We will also draw on our experiences from the Quick Build Dormitories. In addition to infrastructure, we are also studying how contact tracing has enabled us to more accurately identify, isolate and quarantine close contacts in the event of a public health outbreak. There are also innovative processes and practices in dormitory management that can be adopted to improve overall standards in terms of infection prevention and control. We expect to finalise all of these standards later this year.
We recognise that higher standards may also result in higher costs for employers and dormitory operators. Many businesses would have locked in their costs in their existing projects and will now need time to adjust to higher migrant worker housing costs. Dormitory operators may also be more cautious in bidding to build and own new dormitories, given the current uncertain demand for migrant worker housing alongside the evolving COVID-19 situation.
The Government is studying the possibility of developing the upcoming PBDs on a different operating model compared to the current system, where land is released for commercial operators to bid, to build and to operate. We are studying each option very comprehensively and we will share our findings – and again, we will work with industry to get their feedback – in due course.
For existing dormitories, we will also consider how to progressively improve standards, pacing and phasing it so that the price fluctuations will not be steep and the gradient will be gradual; while ensuring competitive bed rental prices and a continuous, stable housing supply during the transition period. We will update on all these in due time.
Having put in place all the upstream and long-term measures explained earlier, we need to ensure that our efforts can be sustained for the longer term. Disease outbreaks will harm not just our valued workers, but disease outbreaks also have grave implications for employers, for the economy, for our resident population as a whole, and the provision of many services. It is in all of our interests to make sure that we continually take good care of our migrant workers.
COVID-19 provided the impetus for us to relook how we engage and support the migrant workers. We have to and will establish a resilient and safe support eco-system to care for them.
Ms Hazel Poa asked whether MOM has sufficient manpower to implement all of these ambitious plans. Since August 2020, we have set up the Assurance, Care, and Engagement (ACE) Group. ACE officers regularly check on the dormitories. We have also got the FAST teams come onsite to work with the migrant workers. This assures them of our continued interest in preserving their well-being. We continue to provide holistic physical, mental and social care for them. Our multi-layered strategy of regular testing and swift containment has also effectively helped to contain infections in the dormitories to the current very low levels.
This outbreak highlighted gaps in primary health care that migrant workers received pre-COVID-19. Often, migrant workers might delay or avoid seeking medical attention until the condition worsens significantly, with negative consequences for health, employment and work outcomes, both for the worker and the employer. The Government has since made it easier for migrant workers to access good primary healthcare. We will need to be able to sustain this for us to constantly survey and have sentinel reporting health clinics to detect public health threats early.
Today, about 200 workers use the 24-hour telemedicine service available to them via the FWMOMCare app on a daily basis. We have piloted 13 regional medical centres and further increased access by opening a night clinic in each of the West, Central and East regions of Singapore. About 500 workers a day receive medical support for non-acute respiratory illness (ARI) conditions like gastritis or chronic diseases like diabetes.
Beyond this pandemic period, we will take stock of the healthcare eco-system for migrant workers residing in dormitories and other housing types, to see how we can sustain the longer term access to primary healthcare in a cost-effective and culturally-sensitive way. For example, we hope that every migrant worker can be registered with a designated medical centre or GP clinic near where they live and work to foster better continuum of care and better doctor-patient relationships.
In this way, we will shift beyond episodic care to better manage chronic health conditions, including mental health. We have set up a Project DAWN taskforce. We have also introduced a seven-point mental health strategy comprising: (a) mental wellness promotion, (b) identification of at-risk patients/factors, (c) screening of mental health conditions, (d) surveillance of mental/emotional distress, (e) development and training of para-counsellors and counsellors, (f) timely escalation of care, and (g) provision of post-intervention support to complete and ensure a holistic mental health support eco-system for our migrant workers.
Employers remain responsible, ultimately, for providing and paying for their workers’ medical treatment. Hence, our review of primary healthcare support will also aim to keep these costs manageable. In a small minority of hospitalisation cases, employers can face large medical expenses. MOM is reviewing medical insurance coverage for migrant workers to help employers better manage their medical expenses, and to give both employers and workers a greater peace of mind. Again, we will provide an update later this year.
COVID-19 vaccination will also be made available to migrant workers. When ready – and it will be ready soon – it will be accompanied by comprehensive communications in all of their native languages. This additional layer of protection strengthens our defences. We encourage, when the time comes, all of our employers and workers to get vaccinated to create a safer living and working environment for everyone.
Compared to 12, 13 months ago, we are much better equipped now to deal with the health pandemic. Most importantly, employers and migrant workers have shown a significant amount of trust, patience and support in the measures which we have had to implement.
One of the things we learnt is, that we were able to bring the COVID-19 situation in the dormitories under control because of the critical and crucial contributions of many, many volunteer networks who have helped workers overcome many of the fears and challenges that they face in Singapore, such as language barriers and the lack of social support.
Many NGO volunteers have helped to distribute food and care packs to our migrant workers. Many migrant worker volunteers have also stepped up to disseminate information to their peers in native languages and worked with MOM’s Forward Assurance and Support Teams (FAST) to deliver assistance at the dormitories.
Mr Muthaiah Diwakaran, a volunteer ambassador with the Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC), has been in Singapore for about 20 years and currently resides at Cochrane Lodge 2. This is a purpose-built dormitory. He reaches out to care for his peers, takes questions on the latest worksite and dormitory measures, and encourages the workers to sign up for Gov.sg WhatsApp updates in their preferred language.
I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of you, volunteers, the various organisations and migrant workers, for bringing care, comfort and company to our fellow migrant workers during this period.
To better support and facilitate the outreach of more volunteer networks, ACE will partner key stakeholders to create a more structured eco-system to engage workers.
First, ACE will tap on existing volunteer networks, such as MWC’s volunteer ambassadors for a start, to set up a network of migrant worker volunteers in every dormitory with 100 or more residents. Through this network, ACE will partner dormitory operators, employers and NGOs to better communicate with migrant workers, to understand their needs and work collectively together to uplift their well-being.
Second, we will offer para-counselling training to our migrant worker volunteers to encourage peer support and better protect the mental health of our migrant workers.
The initiative under Project DAWN helps workers to identify signs of stress, help them to perform simple breathing exercises that can help them relieve their anxiety and learn where to find and access mental health support in Singapore.
Third, we will also support ground-up volunteer activities that can promote social cohesion amongst migrant communities. For International Migrants Day last year, we brought together 24 partner organisations and 180 volunteers to celebrate at eight Recreation Centres all across Singapore. We will do more to widen the circle of community volunteers.
We hope that this new engagement model will encourage migrant workers to step forward and co-create solutions. We are always a work-in-progress and we encourage everyone who has ideas to come forward and share with us, so that we can work collectively to improve everyone's livelihoods. And we encourage employers to give your fullest support to migrant workers who wish to serve their dormitory residents.
Ms Hazel Poa and Mr Pritam Singh asked about the enforcement of laws protecting migrant workers’ employment rights, such as cases of underpayment of salary. In general, foreign employees in Singapore are protected under the same civil and criminal laws as citizens for general crimes, employment matters, safety and health and injury claims.
We provide foreign employees with additional protection under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act or EFMA and the Employment Agencies Act or EAA. These prescribe the employers’ responsibilities for hiring foreign employees, such as supervision and proper deployment, prompt payment of salaries, provision of a safe working environment and ensuring acceptable accommodation. For the local employment agencies, we limit the fees in which they can charge workers.
We will investigate all salary and fee-related complaints, which include underpayment of salaries, collection of kickbacks or recovering of employment costs, and excessive recruitment fees. We will take necessary enforcement actions. Mr Singh asked for the details of the number of migrant workers who were unpaid and the details of restitution made. Between 2015 and 2019, 950 errant employers were caught for not paying the foreign employees their contractual fixed monthly salary or inflating the salaries with no intention of paying them the amount that has been declared. There were about 1,400 foreign employees affected in these cases.
Penalties for the underpayment of salaries take into account the severity of the offence. For not paying the salaries that are due to them, employers could be prosecuted and they could be fined up to $10,000, jailed up to a year, or both, under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (EFMA). These penalties were last reviewed and raised in 2012, up from a fine of up to $5,000, or jail of six months or both. So, we doubled it.
Exploitation in any form is not fair to employees and is unacceptable. For underpayment of salaries, we will get the employers to make full restitution of salaries owed to the foreign employees. The vast majority have been able to recover their salaries in full. For wilful employers, MOM will take further enforcement actions and failure to comply will attract additional penalties, including payment of fines and serving an imprisonment sentence. Underpayment of salaries to any employee, foreign or local is not tolerated and we will not hesitate to take actions against any errant employers and parties who abet the offence.
To Mr Singh's suggestion to require errant employers to pay the foreign employee a penalty amounting to six months of his salary for each instance of salary underpayment, MOM already requires such employers to make full restitution of the salary owed to the employee and pay a fine or be jailed if prosecuted. We will facilitate the transfer of affected workers who want to continue to work in Singapore to a new employer. And in spite of many of these things that we have heard about, Singapore remains a very attractive destination for our migrant workers who want to come to work. So, what we are trying to do is to assure workers that they can continue to stay in Singapore – because this is what they need – to earn an income when they report their employers for salary underpayment. As such, at this particular point in time, we do not see the need to require the employer to pay the employee an amount beyond what was owed to him.
One way to reduce the incidence of salary underpayment or non-payment is e-payment. As of January 2021, more than 97% of employers pay their migrant workers living in the dormitories electronically. For the remaining, we are in consultation with tripartite partners to extend requirements for electronic payments to more workers, including locals and work permit holders who are not living in the dormitories.
Mr Louis Ng and Mr Leon Perera expressed concern, rightfully, about the recruitment process, including job advertisements, fees paid by migrant workers and if it was possible to establish direct recruitment channels.
Our laws limit the recruitment fees charged to migrant workers by Employment Agencies (EAs) in Singapore at one month of their salary for each year of their contract, capped at two months. So, it is one month for each year capped at two months. EAs must also refund 50% of the recruitment fee to the worker if the employment is terminated within six months and MOM takes strong enforcement actions against EAs that do not comply with these requirements.
MOM also actively takes enforcement action against persons performing EA activities without an EA licence, or engaging in hiring activities without an agent licence. Such persons face a jail term of up to two years or a fine of up to $80,000, or both. Harsher penalties will be meted out for subsequent convictions, including fines of up to $160,000 or a jail term of up to four years, or both. So, receiving or offering payment as consideration for the employment of migrant workers is also prohibited under the EAA and the EFMA Act. Offenders found guilty under the EFMA Act can face a jail term of up to two years or a fine of up to $30,000, or both.
In recent years, MOM has also adopted the use of data analytics to detect anomalies and fraud in the employment patterns of migrant workers more quickly and more accurately. This has helped us to proactively detect cases, in addition to complaints and tip-offs when we receive from NGOs, MWC ambassadors and migrant workers. We encourage all parties to provide us with the different data sources so that we can triangulate better and we encourage migrant workers who are made to pay monies to their employers or any other party as a guarantee of employment, and members of the public with information to come forward on all these illegal recruitment and workplace practices to inform us immediately. This is our appeal to you.
We have also ramped up education efforts. MOM has been educating foreign employees to report underpayment of salaries and employment kickbacks through various platforms and initiatives such as FWMOMCare app. During the mandatory Settling-In Programme, an orientation for first-time work permit holders, and roadshows, we will educate them. The regular presence of MOM’s FAST teams at the dormitories also allows for early detection. Hence, foreign workers are now aware that they have multiple avenues to seek help. We continue to encourage and we hope that you would help us to send the message out as well, to ask them to come forward early to report if they face any employment-related issues.
There was a decrease in illegal employment agent activities in 2019, with around 70 foreigners and 18 Singaporeans being taken to task, compared to an average of over 100 foreigners and 25 Singaporeans per year in the preceding three years.
We have not discounted this centralised job portal, as suggested by Members. While we see that as a possible opening and option, we recognise the fact that different employers tap on various channels to recruit employees, whether it is employment agencies, employee referrals or direct hiring from source countries. If we want to mandate a centralised recruitment platform for all employers, many of our businesses have given feedback that this will limit their hiring flexibility to meet their respective manpower needs. So, I think we have to be open to all different options.
In addition, such a platform can reduce but not necessarily completely eliminate fees paid by migrant workers to these \"unlicensed\" overseas agents or middlemen, to assist with the documentation that is required or to help them link them to this platform or \"licensed\", so to speak, employment agencies in the source countries. This is always a hard work-in-progress.
We will constantly and continually work with stakeholders including employers, migrant workers themselves, the NGOs, the employment agencies, to explore the various suggestions that have been brought up in the past, today and moving forward, to reduce the recruitment costs incurred by migrant workers seeking a job in Singapore. Like my appeal earlier on, the support of employers, the NGOs and acceptance by workers will be crucial.
Miss Rachel Ong asked about protecting the rights of workers to safe and hygienic meals. Today, there are various options, including self-cooked food. Migrant workers who face issues with access to adequate and proper food or other well-being concerns should report their cases to us at MOM. MOM will address the issues with employers. In serious cases, we will take appropriate enforcement action. We are happy to work with NGOs, dormitories operators and employers to explore different ways to ensure that our workers receive sufficient, sustainable and nutritious food.
With the outbreak in dormitories now under control, many volunteers are concerned about the strict measures that remain in place for workers residing in dormitories, even as the country moves into Phase Three. We understand and we empathise with their needs and the need for social interaction. At the same time, we are also concerned about the livelihoods of workers should a second wave or clusters develop in the dormitories. We are, therefore, calibrating and easing restrictions in a very carefully, controlled, safe manner, particularly given the fact that there is a lot of news about more virulent strains emerging.
Communal facilities have resumed operations in dormitories where operators have demonstrated good compliance with safe management measures.
Starting from this month, instead of once a week – which means in early March, instead of once a week – migrant workers can visit the Recreation Centres up to three times a week, on their rest days or after working hours. Each visit will be extended from the current three to four hours. Workers will have more time to carry out their personal errands or to do some sports. To mitigate transmission risk from inter-mixing, these workers must have attended their rostered routine testing and they must continue to carry their contact tracing devices.
We are also currently drawing up plans to allow eligible workers to visit the community once a month. The operational details are being worked out to keep the numbers in the community manageable.
We have no intention whatsoever for restrictions to be stricter than necessary or to be in place for longer than what is necessary. Because, we are dealing with the real risks posed by COVID-19, especially when we are trying to prevent cross-transmission or possible re-infection.
Hence, we appeal to all of you for your support and understanding as we continue to calibrate measures to adapt to the ever-evolving situation. We are just doing our level best to make efforts to restore a sense of normalcy where it is possible. Mr Chairman, in Chinese.
(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] In the past year, Singapore has introduced a series of measures to cope with the pandemic. We have gained valuable lessons and experience to prepare us for the next outbreak. Going forward, we will help migrant workers and migrant worker dormitories to enhance their capabilities to respond to future outbreaks in three key areas:
First, we will fortify our first line of defence by putting in place preventive measures before and when migrant workers arrive in Singapore. We will pilot a Migrant Worker Onboarding Centre, or MWOC – an end-to-end onboarding process that will integrate the Stay-Home Notice (SHN) and on-arrival testing, for all Construction, Marine and Process (CMP) sector work permit and S Pass holders entering Singapore. The MWOC will be able to provide the flexibility to tweak measures taken pre-departure and upon arrival to minimise the transmission risks of new workers arriving in Singapore.
Second, we will strengthen the resilience of our dormitories. We intend to expand the Foreign Employees Dormitory Act (FEDA) to cover all dormitories, including those with fewer than 1,000 beds. This will enable us to continuously raise and enforce housing standards across various dormitory types and sizes.
Third, we will put in place strong support systems to make these efforts sustainable, including strengthening healthcare provision and social networks for workers residing in dormitories and other housing types.
Everyone has a part to play in fighting COVID-19. With the cooperation of dormitory operators, employers, workers and the community, together we can minimise the risks of COVID-19 outbreaks and welcome the new norm.
(In English): In conclusion, Mr Chairman, our efforts to build a safe and resilient migrant workforce must not stop here. In fact, we are just beginning. We will fortify our defences through upstream measures before and when workers arrive into Singapore. These series of safeguards will help us to better manage any risk of imported cases and to better onboard them.
We will raise living standards and enhance all of our processes in our dormitories to strengthen our collective ability to respond effectively and rapidly to future outbreaks.
We will put in place strong support systems to make these efforts sustainable over the longer term, including strengthening healthcare provision and social networks for workers residing in the different dormitories and the different housing types.
We recognise that these efforts come at a cost. But prevention is always better than cure. The Government believes that investing in these preventive measures today will save us from spending more in the future to manage future outbreaks.
On this note, I appeal and urge everyone and employers in particular, to seize this opportunity to accelerate your adoption of higher productivity and less labour-intensive industry models.
We call upon all of you, over the last one year, who have braved the storm together with us. You have expended significant resources, significant opportunity costs. We should all collectively take active steps. We should all collectively strengthen our workforce, our workplace resilience, and to put in place robust and sustainable measures that will see us through the long haul.
Future pandemics are not a question of \"if\". It is a question of \"when\". Together, if we put our hearts and our minds together, we will always be ready for future pandemics. [Applause.]
The Senior Minister of State for Manpower (Mr Zaqy Mohamad): Mr Chairman, earlier, Minister for Manpower outlined how MOM will strengthen our efforts to ensure workforce and workplace resilience. First, by uplifting our low-wage workers. Second, by ensuring good workplace safety practices. Third, by enhancing our employees’ mental well-being.
We have made good progress in supporting our low-wage workers. In the decade from 2009 to 2019, low-wage workers saw higher income growth than the average worker. This has helped to reduced income inequality, and bears testament to the Government's multi-layered approach to support our low-wage workers.
Workfare Income Supplement, which the Government introduced in 2007, laid the foundations to supplement the incomes of our low-wage workers. It casts a wide net, covering full-time and part-time employees, as well as the self-employed.
In 2020, about 440,000 people were eligible for Workfare, as long as they earned less than $2,300 a month and met all other eligibility criteria. It supplements workers' wages by up to 30%, depending on income and age. On top of Workfare, we have the Progressive Wage Model, or PWM, and Workfare Skills Support.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has tempered progress, we are fortunate that there has been broad-based preservation of jobs and employability.
This has not been the experience elsewhere. At its peak, the unemployment rate for OECD countries was 3.6%-points higher than pre-COVID-19 levels, whereas in Singapore, the increase was smaller at 1.6%-points.
To cushion the impact on the incomes of low-wage workers, last year, the Government assisted them with the one-off Workfare Special Payment of $3,000, fully in cash, on top of regular Workfare payouts. In total, approximately 500,000 Singaporean workers benefited from about $1.5 billion of Workfare Special Payments. Such an effort has certainly supported our low-wage workers in these challenging times.
But we are not out of the woods yet. Keeping our low-wage workers employed must continue to be our highest priority. And we have done so through measures like the Jobs Support Scheme, which has helped to keep our unemployment rate low.
Keeping this priority in mind, we should take careful steps to raise the wages of our low-wage workers. Especially in a time like this, we must not trifle with careless moves that would risk them being unemployed instead. We will continue to build on Workfare and extend the PWM to cover more workers. This combination is a sustainable way to uplift our low-wage workers through better wages and work conditions.
Take our security officers, for example. Since January this year, security firms are no longer granted overtime exemption, or OTE. This means that a security officer can only work up to 72 overtime hours a month, instead of the previous industry norm of 95 hours. While security officers would be heartened by this move, many were also concerned about the impact on their wages because many relied on overtime pay for their gross incomes.
To mitigate the impact of reduced overtime hours on wages, the tripartite partners agreed to a $150 increase in the PWM basic wage floor, double that in preceding years. More security officers also saw even higher wages. What this means is that security officers can now work fewer overtime hours while maintaining their gross monthly wages. I am thankful to both the Labour Movement and security employers for continuing with these changes despite the current challenging business climate.
Mr Alvin Goh is one of many who have benefited. When he joined the industry in 2017, he worked six days each week, averaging 94 overtime hours a month. Mr Goh was earning about $1,800 in gross wages then, with some additional support from Workfare. Today, because of PWM, Mr Goh works up to 72 overtime hours a month – a significant reduction of 22 hours. This means two additional rest days a month, which he uses to spend more time to rest and spend more time with family. Thanks to PWM wage increases and his progression up the PWM ladder, his gross wages today has increased by more than 50% from the $1,800 he was earning in 2017, to about $2,800 today.
Besides improved working conditions, many of us have witnessed the transformation of job roles in the sector – from \"jagas\" who perform largely caretaking functions, to security officers who are skilled professionals, enabled by technology today. Careful implementation of the PWM has also helped to avoid negative employment effects. We have seen the growth of more locals joining the sector of around 6% a year, from 2015 to 2021. The Progressive Wages approach, with Workfare as a foundation, has benefited the security sector, employers and security officers, who have seen better career prospects, wages and work conditions.
With your permission, Chairman, I would like to refer all Members to the brochures and the sheets that have been given out, detailing our efforts to support low-wage workers.
The story of Mr Alvin Goh and others like him, bear testament to the value of building on Workfare to adopt progressive wages. The Tripartite Workgroup on Lower-Wage Workers have been working hard to ensure that our low-wage workers can emerge stronger together with the rest of Singapore. Presently, our existing PWMs cover around 85,000 workers.
Dr Koh Poh Koon and Ms Yeo Wan Ling asked if the wages and prospects of our low-wage workers in the Food Services and Retail sectors could be uplifted. NTUC Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng also expressed similar sentiments recently.
We have been studying the extension of the PWM to more sectors. In my Committee of Supply speech last year, I reiterated our intention to do so when business conditions were more favourable – we were at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
As we strive to emerge together from the pandemic, I am pleased to announce that the Tripartite Workgroup has agreed to extend the PWM to the food services and retail sectors. These sectors are among the sectors with the largest numbers of low-wage workers. We estimate that these PWMs could cover up to 80,000 local workers.
The Workgroup also recognises NTUC's aspirations for the PWMs to be implemented within two to three years. And we have convened Tripartite Cluster committees for each of these sectors, which will recommend an implementation timeline, taking on board all stakeholders' concerns, including market conditions. The tripartite cluster committees will target to submit their recommendations on the timeline and other implementation details to the Government by the end of the year.
In good part because of the PWM, the median gross monthly wages of cleaners have seen cumulative real growth of 37% since 2013, to $1,388 in 2019. For security officers, we saw cumulative real growth of 29% since 2015 to $2,391 in 2019.
We are confident that our local workers in the food services and retail sectors will likewise see a meaningful uplift to their wages in time to come.
We also welcome NTUC's strong commitment to expanding the PWM. And we look forward to NTUC, bringing on board their social enterprises, such as NTUC Foodfare and Fairprice, when we expand the food Services and retail PWMs, along with other progressive employers.
Even as the tripartite partners work through the details, we recognise that our approach will need to be balanced.
During my consultations with the industry, many food services and retail employers supported the imperative to do more for low-wage workers in their sectors. I am heartened by their support.
At the same time, we are also mindful that while some firms are doing very well, others may still be more at a nascent stage of recovery. So, our intentions must therefore be carefully calibrated. It must be meaningful for the worker, but it must also be viable for our SMEs.
We will pay close attention to the potential impact of PWM on business costs. The Government will do its part to support the transition, alongside employers and consumers.
We will also consult extensively with the employers and unions and be sensitive to existing industry practices, such as incentive-based wage remuneration like commissions, for example, when designing the PWM in these sectors.
Today, all cleaners, security officers and landscape workers of licensed or registered cleaning, security and landscape firms benefit from being paid at least PWM wages. Other companies may also employ staff in-house to perform these roles, such as hotels and F&B outlets which are not covered under existing PWMs.
Sir, the Workgroup fully agrees with Dr Koh Poh Koon that it will make sense to extend the existing PWMs to benefit up to 50,000 of such workers. We intend to consult key affected sectors on a suitable timeline to move forward.
To the questions from Mr Louis Ng and Mr Fahmi Aliman, I wish to reinforce the Government's ambition to eventually cover all sectors with Progressive Wages, on top of Workfare as a fundamental layer of support for our low-wage workers.
We are starting in sectors with the highest proportion of low-wage workers in the workforce and identifying ways to expand beyond these sectors.
We also recognise that there are low-wage workers employed in similar occupations but distributed in other sectors. So, we are studying practical ways to cover various occupational groups under Progressive Wages and will share more when ready.
To the figures Mr Gerald Giam quoted yesterday, the discrepancy arises because of coverage.
Part-time employees work fewer hours so their gross wages would naturally be lower. Similarly, for self-employed persons, the nature of their earnings and their working hours are not comparable. But let us also look at the big picture.
The wages of our low-wage workers have not stagnated in the past decade. We have seen our efforts improve the wages of all Singaporeans and we have seen progress at the bottom 10% and the bottom 20%.
So, just to give you some idea. The bottom 20% of wages increased by 39% in real terms in the last decade, 2009 to 2019. At P10, we are just increased by 37% in real terms – same period. That is really the big picture. The wages of our low-wage workers have not stagnated. They have gone up and we will continue to help them progress. But regardless of how the numbers differ, an important point is that low-wage workers also receive the Workfare support. And in time to come, our aim is to cover them through Progressive Wages too.
Nevertheless, more broadly, I thank Mr Gerald Giam for his consistent support of the PWM since 2014, I believe when he was a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament when he commented on its launch. We share similar objectives, even if our methods or approaches may differ.
Mr Giam may have the impression that there is little risk of disemployment when higher PWM wages are mandated. It is precisely because of the calibrated way in which we have rolled out PWM, negotiated with the industry and the Labour Movement, have we been able to avoid disemployment and improve wage outcomes in which the market can bear.
Where feasible, the tripartite partners make positive improvements to the work conditions, as I shared earlier with the security sector, which in turn, promotes more local hiring. So, it is a win for the employer, a win for the worker and also a win for the service buyer and hopefully consumers in the future.
The Government stands ready to support, to ease the transition for firms, including training support. And that is why sectoral tripartite consultations are critical.
As for Mr Edward Chia, I agree when he cautioned, businesses, especially our SMEs, must be given a reasonable runway to adjust and prepare for the PWM. I thank him for his support. I also want to assure him that this is exactly how we prevent problems.
I hope that Mr Giam will appreciate the delicate balance involved and the Workgroup members who are trying hard to act responsibly.
The Workgroup will also study how to ensure that wage growth in PWM sectors continues to outpace median wage growth. Our aim is really to narrow the wage gap amongst our workers and strengthen the cohesion in our society.
Mr Chairman, the PWMs currently benefit 85,000 workers. In the short term, we will be at least doubling the coverage up to 218,000 workers. More importantly, it remains our aspiration to cover all sectors with Progressive Wages in the longer term, on top of Workfare as the fundamental layer of support for all our low-wage workers. The Workgroup expects to conclude its deliberations and issue its recommendations to Government to do so before the end of the year.
Uplifting our low-wage workers is a whole-of-society effort. Employers and workers must continue to be committed to job redesign and upskilling. As consumers, let us also recognise our responsibility.
I am heartened that a Government poll conducted early this year found that, even amidst the pandemic, a considerable proportion of respondents – 39% – were willing to pay more for goods and services to help low-wage workers receive higher wages. Forty-two percent were neutral, while 19% were not prepared to do so. Though there are many Singaporeans who are willing to pay more, but we can see that the support is not so clear-cut.
As a nation, it is important that we stand in solidarity with our low-wage workers. I urge all Members in this House, across parties, to help build consensus among Singaporeans that this is but a small price to bear together for a fairer and more cohesive society.
At the same time, the extension of PWM to these sectors is not an excuse for companies to indiscriminately raise prices, which Dr Koh and Mr Singh are rightly concerned about. I fully agree.
With the expansion of PWM to the public-facing retail and food services sectors, we will study options with relevant agencies to keep a close watch on indiscriminate profiteering.
To Mr Singh's specific query on lift maintenance contracts, today, there is no requirement for Town Councils to procure services from any particular firm, though I recognise that some firms specialise in particular lift models. Authorised dealers are required to supply parts to other players on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. Town Councils can also compare prices between firms to make informed decisions on awarding of contracts. Agencies will look into any unjustified contract hikes and Mr Singh can offer us details to follow-up if there are.
More broadly, Mr Singh's example brings to bear two points.
First, since introducing PWM for the sector through Government procurement in 2019, we have seen median gross monthly wages for full-time resident lift technicians rise from around $3,300 in 2017, to about $3,800 in 2019. But at the same time, our efforts may have some impact to consumer prices. This highlights why careful deliberation by tripartite partners is necessary as we expand to more PWMs. No company should unjustly profit from the PWM, but we must also recognise that these moves will not be without cost. That is why Workfare continues to be important, as consumers and service buyers do not bear the cost impact of the wage supplements.
All of us have a role to play as our low-wage workers enjoy better wages, dignity and respect. I agree with Mr Raj Joshua Thomas that seeking the well-being of our fellow workers must be part of our culture. The Government will partner the community in this effort.
With this in mind, the Workgroup has called for the formation of the Alliance for Action (Afa) for Lower-Wage Workers. This Alliance for Action or AfA will mobilise passionate, action-oriented people to contribute to the whole-of-society effort to uplift low-wage workers.
The Government supports the Workgroup's call and we will launch the AfA soon and run co-creation workshops for AfA members over the next six months to start these ground-up initiatives.
Mr Chairman, moving on to workplace safety, MOM is alarmed at the recent spate of workplace accidents. The Ministry is investigating every incident and we call upon the whole industry to seriously review their safety protocols.
We acknowledge that companies are facing manpower shortages due to border and pandemic controls. Nevertheless, companies must not compromise worker safety by rushing or having workers operate machinery or perform tasks that they are not trained for. They should also review their risk assessments to account for COVID-19 conditions.
Since mid-December 2020, MOM has stepped up enforcement. Out of 510 inspections since mid-December, MOM has uncovered 486 contraventions and issued seven Stop-Work Orders (SWOs). No company should be complacent.
Since last November, Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Council and industry associations have called for two Safety Time Outs (STOs) to improve safety protocols.
We are particularly concerned with the Tuas explosion on 24 February, resulting in multiple casualties. It was one of the worst accidents in recent years. Our inspectors have commenced inspections on close to 500 companies that may have combustible dust hazards. And this is to ensure that risks are minimised. The Minister for Manpower will appoint an Inquiry Committee to thoroughly study the case and recommend prevention measures, including policy or regulatory changes if necessary.
Mr Melvin Yong asked about workplace safety amongst sub-contractors. Sub-contractors are not the only ones responsible for workplace safety and health. Main contractors must also be responsible for ensuring overall safety across their worksites, including managing the safety performance of sub-contractors on their sites.
To motivate both main and sub-contractors to improve their workplace safety practices, MOM launched the CheckSafe e-service in January this year to make construction companies' safety track records readily available. This way, developers and main contractors can make more informed decisions in appointing safer sub-contractors. We intend to expand this to other sectors for service buyers to influence WSH outcomes through their choice of contractors.
For construction fatalities involving sub-contractors' workers, we will also prosecute the main contractor if they fail in their duty to ensure safety of workers on the site. Later this year, MOM will release a framework emphasising safety performance for public sector construction tenders. In this way, safer companies will have better access to business opportunities. I hope the private sector will follow suite in due course.
This approach is an important complement to deterrent penalties in WSH prosecutions. The maximum penalty for WSH Act offences have increased from $250,000 in 2016 to $400,000 in 2019.
Based on MOM's inspections, almost all companies have appointed a Safe Management Officer (SMO). We support Mr Melvin Yong's suggestion that companies could consider upskilling their SMOs to become WSH representatives through courses such as the Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) Certificate in Workplace Safety and Health or through participating in the bizSAFE programme, for which training subsidies are available.
Mr Chairman, Singapore has come a long way in our workplace safety and health standards. Since the Nicoll Highway collapse in 2004, our workplace fatal injury rate reduced from 4.9 per 100,000 workers to 1.1 per 100,000 workers in 2019. This is a level achieved only by a handful of developed countries. But still, we must never be complacent and we remain committed in our goal in making Singapore one of the safest workplaces in the world.
Mr Chairman, the COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us of the importance of ensuring workforce and workplace resilience. For its part, the Government is committed to continue leading efforts to uplift our lower-wage workers, to ensure good workplace safety practices and to enhance employees' mental wellbeing, not just for the benefit of every worker but also for the good of employers and society-at-large.
The Minister of State for Manpower (Ms Gan Siow Huang): The past year has not been easy for employers, employees and jobseekers. One group that is new to our workforce and learning to navigate their entrance into it are our recent graduates.
Miss Cheryl Chan and Mr Yip Hon Weng asked about the progress of our SGUnited Traineeships and its impact on our graduates. Not surprisingly, fewer graduates found permanent full-time employment last year. SGUnited Traineeships provided a viable alternative. I agree with Prof Hoon Hian Teck that our graduates on traineeship can gain industry-relevant experience and build their networks as pathways to future job opportunities. About nine in 10 graduates from our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) who entered the labour force last year found jobs or traineeships within six months of graduation. Among them, 5,400 were on traineeships. Most of these traineeships were in growth sectors such as financial services, information and communications, and professional services.
The SGUnited Traineeships Programme will be extended by an additional year till 31 March 2022. This allows the programme to support the class of 2021 as well.
We are making some adjustments to the SGUnited Traineeships. We will raise training allowances for ITE and Polytechnic graduates. This is to give an extra boost to our ITE and Polytechnic graduates, who are facing more difficulty in finding jobs. We hope that our recent graduates who have not been able to find jobs can seriously consider traineeships. To facilitate this, the training allowance for ITE graduates will increase by about 30%, up to a maximum of $1,800 and about 20% for Polytechnic graduates, up to a maximum of $2,100. The traineeships are available to graduates from the private education institutes as well.
Ms Jessica Tan, Mr Liang Eng Hwa and Ms Nadia Samdin will be pleased to know that we have made changes to facilitate trainees' transition into jobs. The maximum traineeship duration has been shortened from nine to six months. Companies will not be allowed to take on the same trainee for a second traineeship. We want to encourage host organisations to hire trainees who have performed well during the traineeship stint. These changes will take effect on 1 April 2021.
2021 is a year of celebrating Singaporean women. I wholeheartedly support this initiative and I would like to take this opportunity to update on the employment of women in Singapore.
Our female employment rate has remained stable at 73% despite the impact of COVID-19. This speaks to the strength and resilience of our women amidst challenging labour market conditions and reflects our efforts in supporting female employment.
Mr Louis Ng asked if the practice of declaring the last drawn salary contributed to the gender pay gap. He referred to a Boston University study on the impact of salary history on gender pay gap. The United States introduced a salary history ban in 2016.
In Singapore, the adjusted gender pay gap is about 6%, which is lower than that in the United States. According to a 2018 study by Assoc Prof Jessica Pan from NUS, occupational segregation was a key contributor to the gender wage gap here.
In Singapore, jobseekers do not have to comply with requests for their last drawn salary and employers cannot insist on it either. If a jobseeker chooses to provide salary information, employers should use it carefully.
I share Ms Mariam Jaafar's and Ms Yeo Wan Ling's conviction that we should support women to stay active in the labour force. The labour force participation rate for women has been rising steadily from 68.4% in 2010 to 76.6% in 2020. Even COVID-19 could not stop us. It is perhaps a sign that more men are sharing in care-giving responsibilities at home and our workplaces have become more supportive of women.
We are mindful, however, that in our Asian culture, women carry a disproportionate weight in care-giving duties. In 2020, 65% of women who were outside the labour force cited family responsibilities as the main reason as compared to only 8% of men. Our answer to this is not in asking men to stay at home and be full-time care-givers but to increase support for care-givers as a whole so that they can contribute to work and have an income.
I share Ms Carrie Tan's views on the importance of supporting care-givers in the workforce. We acknowledge that care-giver leave helps them take care of their loved ones through short-term illnesses. However, it is also important to hear from care-givers what is most helpful to them. Our conversations with working care-givers showed that flexible work arrangements were more important and sustainable.
We also support care-givers who would like to return to the workforce by providing career matching services from Workforce Singapore (WSG). Through providing a supportive environment for our working care-givers, we can empower them to fulfill career aspirations concurrently with family commitments. Lower wage care-givers who are working may also be eligible for the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) Scheme, which provides up to $4,000 in cash and CPF top-ups annually.
We have also taken steps to help care-givers build their retirement nest egg. First, we encourage cash top-ups to CPF accounts of care-givers through tax incentives and Government matching grants. Second, we supplement the retirement income of seniors who had low incomes during their working years through the Silver Support Scheme.
Ms Carrie Tan also suggested for us to combine childcare and parent care leave to form a more holistic family care leave provision. While we agree that this might provide more flexibility to care-givers who have to take care of both children and their parents, we will have to consider the long-term implications of such a measure.
COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of flexible work arrangements. Most companies implemented flexible work arrangements last year in view of safe management requirement for the workplace. Many successfully redesigned work processes and infrastructure to facilitate staggered work hours and work-from-home arrangements. In 2020, the proportion of employers that provided some form of flexible work arrangements rose to 93% and almost half of employers provided formal tele-working arrangements.
Mr Louis Chua and Mr Louis Ng would like to see flexible work arrangements continuing post-COVID-19. The importance of flexible work arrangements was echoed in the recent Emerging Stronger Conversation series too. Particularly, on working from home, a survey conducted in July last year showed that four in five workers wished to continue to work from home for at least half the time, even after Government measures are lifted.
Employers are aligned with this too. In a recent MOM online poll, more than three in five businesses indicated that they intend to continue to allow employees to work from home at least half the time post-COVID-19.
Although COVID-19 has significantly increased the proportion of people working from home, further study is needed to understand the impact of such arrangements on the work productivity and wellbeing of employees in the long term. Some employers may feel that work-from-home, if protracted, could hinder collaboration, productivity and the building of team spirit. Some employees may prefer to work in the office if their home environment is not conducive or for social interaction. The degree to which work-from-home can be proliferated will vary across occupations.
We will look at the experiences of other jurisdictions such as the UK and Australia, which have introduced flexible work arrangement legislation. But we will need to work with our tripartite partners to ensure a holistic representation of employees and employers' interests as we decide on the steps for the longer term.
We have recently formed an Alliance for Action for Work-Life Harmony to help companies instill workplace practices and resources to promote work-life harmony. In the long term, this will help companies better attract and retain talent.
At its heart, a progressive workplace is one where everyone is treated fairly and empowered to perform at their best. There have been various calls by Members, including Mr Patrick Tay and Mr Louis Ng, to introduce additional legislation to tackle workplace discrimination and harassment.
We have laws to raise employment standards and we update them regularly. For harassment, we have the Protection from Harassment Act and the Penal Code. These laws enable the Government to take action against harassers, including at the workplace.
We can have more legislation to enforce against bad behaviour at the workplace but if we take a legal approach to every aspect of employment relations, we will have an adversarial industrial climate.
Not legislating does not mean we do not have higher aspirations for our workforce and workplaces. We have Tripartite Guidelines, Advisories and Standards, and these have worked well in advancing both employers and employees' interests while maintaining a positive and constructive relationship between both groups. Members may recall that before the Retirement and Re-employment Act was introduced, we also adopted a promotional approach. We will continue to review this bag of tools and introduce and upgrade the tools as necessary.
Over the past three years, the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) handled an average of 400 discrimination cases annually, including those arising from proactive checks by MOM. In about 50 cases each year, the employers were found to be in breach of the guidelines and had their work pass privileges suspended.
Through the Fair Consideration Framework (FCF), we encourage fair employment practices that are open and merit-based. We hold employers to account for not considering the workforce in Singapore fairly. We proactively identify companies with suspicious workforce profiles, that is, companies that have an exceptionally high share of foreign professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) compared to their industry peers or a high concentration of a single foreign nationality source. We place them on our FCF Watchlist for closer scrutiny of their hiring practices even if they have not flouted any rules.
More importantly, schemes like the Jobs Support Scheme, Jobs Growth Incentive and Professional Conversion Programme tilt the balance in favour of hiring locals.
This is similar to how we take a progressive approach to reducing other forms of workplace discrimination.
Specifically for seniors, job redesign and reskilling have also enabled us to increase their employment in Singapore. Despite the absence of an age discrimination law, Singapore's senior employment rate increased from 59% to 67.5% in the past decade. In contrast, countries like the UK and US have age discrimination laws but lower senior employment rates than in Singapore.
In short, we will use a range of tools as well as legal and regulatory measures to keep our workplaces progressive, fair and inclusive.
Mr Chairman, Singaporeans take pride in being a caring and kind society. We teach our children to take care of the vulnerable and disadvantaged. Many Singaporeans were outraged when we heard about what happened to Ms Piang Ngaih Don, a foreign domestic worker from Myanmar who was brutally abused by her employer and died tragically in 2016. This was an act of extreme evil.
Let me state unequivocally to this House that our society has no place for cruelty to anyone. We must do our best to support vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children and foreign domestic workers.
Foreign domestic workers play a key role in supporting our families, whether in household chores or care-giving. Most employers appreciate the help from their foreign domestic workers and build good relationships with them. However, some employers treat their foreign domestic workers unreasonably. In the worst cases, they inflict harm.
Employers in Singapore must know that any abuse of foreign domestic workers will not be tolerated. The Penal Code was enhanced in 2020 to double the maximum punishment against individuals who abuse vulnerable people, including foreign domestic workers.
MOM has been reviewing measures to better support foreign domestic workers and strengthen safeguards against abuse in three areas.
First, making greater use of existing touch points with foreign domestic workers. Employment agents should have an interest to ensure that the foreign domestic workers they place settle in well, especially those working in Singapore for the first time. One-on-one interviews after newly arrived foreign domestic workers start work with employers and mandatory off days would also give abused foreign domestic workers more opportunities to seek help.
Second, in terms of the reporting by doctors, we will work with the medical fraternity to better identify signs of abuse or distress.
Third, our partner organisations like CDE and FAST can also expand their outreach and engagement, to strengthen the network of support to foreign domestic workers.
These measures do not in any way, remove or reduce the responsibility of each employer to take care of his or her foreign domestic worker.
Neither can they eliminate completely the risk of foreign domestic worker abuse. But we must do all we can to minimise its incidence, and build a culture of respect for foreign domestic workers, in our homes and in our community. MOM will provide an update in due course. Mr Chairman, please allow me to conclude in Mandarin.
(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Although we face many challenges, we will continue to work hard to build a fairer and more inclusive workplace for our workers. Regardless of gender, age, race or physical ability, we want to make sure that all Singaporeans are able to thrive at the workplace.
The Government, employers, workers and the community, can all do our part to protect the vulnerable in our society. Let us work together and march towards a fairer and more cohesive society.
The Chairman: Ms Carrie Tan.
Ms Carrie Tan (Nee Soon): Thank you, Chairman. I would like to thank Minister of State Gan for replying. I appreciate MOM in highlighting that low-wage care-givers also get income top-ups through Workfare. I think that is very helpful. In my cut, however, I was calling specifically for attention to look into basic income for full-time stay home care-givers who were previously from hired and low-wage industries. By this I mean a community that has moved from low-wage, literally, to no wage.
I am not sure whether this group of community is receiving enough attention because they may not fall conveniently within MOM's portfolio given that they are not in the workforce. And, if so, can Minister of State or someone please share like which Ministry should we be directing the attention for this community of care-givers, to look out for their well-being and their interest because they do not fall conveniently within a particular portfolio. I appreciate a clarification.
Ms Gan Siow Huang: The Government has strengthened areas of support for care-givers via the Care-givers Support Action Plan that was announced in 2019.
Firstly, there is a range of home and community care options to help support the care and social needs of the elderly loved ones when care-givers have to go to work. There are also various respite care options in eldercare centres and nursing homes for care-givers who need help with caring for seniors for short periods of time, including during the weekends.
Another example is the area of financial support. MOH has introduced a home-caring grant in October 2019 to help defray the costs of care-giving in the community. This grant provides a $200 payout per month to eligible individuals with permanent moderate disability that can be used to offset the cost of home and community care services – transport expenses to travel for medical appointments and cost of hiring a foreign domestic worker.
Households that need financial assistance for their basic living expenses including the low-wage stay home care-givers can also approach Social Services Office which will look into ways to support them.
To answer Ms Carrie Tan's question, actually it is a whole-of-Government. There are several Ministries working together to support care-givers, whether they are full-time care-givers or part-time care-givers. We have the MSF that looks at ComCare. We have MOH that looks at supplementing and providing alternative care-giver options. And we have MOM as well that looks at CPF support and retirement savings support for care-givers.
So, I would not say that it is a single Ministry but rather, a whole-of-Government effort to support care-givers.
The Chairman: Mr Desmond Choo.
Mr Desmond Choo (Tampines): Thank you, Mr Chairman. I have two matters for clarification. First of all, I want to thank Minister for acknowledging the work of the Labour Movement and affirmation of the importance of tripartism. The Minister mentioned about the Jobs Transformation Map. It is an important evolution in our transformation journey. Can the Minister update which are these 12 industries or sectors that will be in the first phase of this transformation? How many jobs are expected to be impacted and how can tripartite partners be part of this transformation?
Secondly, including private sectors' search firms to assist in job search for PMEs and help SMEs find workers can be a good and an important game-changer for Singapore. How does the Minister see the role of such search firms vis-a-vis the current placement agencies such as WSG and e2i in the longer term development of job placement in Singapore?
Mrs Josephine Teo: Mr Chairman, I thank Mr Desmond Choo, the GPC Chair for his clarifications.
Let me address the second question first. I think search firms and WSG as well as e2i, they play complementary roles. The search firms or, more broadly speaking, employment agencies have well established networks. They have within their networks companies whose recruitment requirements are well known to them because on an on-going basis, these employers reach out to the employment agents to help fill positions for a simple reason – they may not have a very large HR department with recruitment specialists. So, the employment agencies have their own networks of hiring employers.
The other benefits that I think the search firms and employment agencies bring is that quite often they guide the jobseekers on what aspects of their resume and skillsets ought to be emphasised when presenting themselves to the prospective employers. This is very often the key deciding factor. Because of their in-depth knowledge of prospective employers' requirements, which sometimes go beyond what can be stated in a job advertisement, this insight enables the jobseekers to review their own set of experiences and profile themselves appropriately.
I think in a well-developed landscape for job placement, the employment agencies can play a complementary role to WSG and with e2i. I think there is another value that they bring to the table and it is that quite often they will give very honest and direct feedback to the jobseekers and help them to appreciate where their chances might be better. This message is better delivered through the employment agents, on some occasions. There is a role for all the different parties.
On the question that Mr Choo asked on the Jobs Transformation Maps, it really depends on the sector – how many job roles will be identified systematically through the studies. In the case of financial services, for example, we identified 121 roles.
By the way, I should just add that not all of the sector agencies call them Jobs Transformation Maps. We refer to them broadly as Jobs Transformation Maps because that is exactly what they help the companies and the individuals accomplish – jobs transformation.
Whatever the sector agencies choose to call these studies, the key really is that when we speak very broadly about the impact of technology, we do not recognise sufficiently that the impact on specific industries and job roles depends very much on which technology we are talking about.
In the case of financial services, three key technologies will have an impact – artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process, automation (RPA) and advanced analytics. The study looks specifically at the impact of 121 job roles, arising out of these three technologies. In the case of logistics, it is 56 existing job roles and the specific technology we are looking at is Internet of Things, on the AR/VR or augmented reality, virtual reality, and blockchain. Because these are the kinds of technologies that would transform this sector, and not quite RPA/AI and advanced analytics. So, it is different. In the process of doing this study, over and above the 56 roles that were identified, another 12 new roles that the industry will need were also identified.
The value of these kinds of studies is to look very specifically within a foreseeable time frame, technologies that will make a key difference to help the companies transform the jobs and to re-skill their workers.
To Mr Choo's specific question, which are the other 12 sectors apart from human resources, financial services and logistics that were completed, they are the wholesale trade, retail, food manufacturing, infocomm and media, supply chain management, accountancy, in-house finance and accounting functions, construction, facilities management, land transport, environmental services and tourism.
The Chairman: Mr Pritam Singh.
Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied): Thank you, Chairman. Firstly, thank you to all the MOM office holders for replying to the cuts filed by my WP colleagues and myself. And I also like to thank Minister for Manpower Mrs Josephine Teo for responding to my Budget debate speech on the Capability Transfer Programme. I think she gives some information with regard to how much has been expended on it so far. I believe the figure was $5 million.
Just going back very quickly to when the programme was announced in 2017, the former Minister for Manpower Mr Lim Swee Say, stated, and I quote, this was in the Budget debate of 2018, he said, \"The scope of capability transfer is tremendous – high tech to high-touch; MNCs to SMEs; domestic to export-oriented industries\". And we were given some information about the funding cap per project. It was $300,000. And in exceptional cases, even more could be given if the particular project was worthy.
To that end, I would like to ask whether it would be correct to characterise the Capability Transfer Programme thus far as a scheme for which there is more to be desired, in view of the amount of money that the Government has spent on it so far. Because I would agree actually that there is a lot of scope for it to support and improve the prospects of the Singaporean Core.
The second question that I have is, again, with regard to the Capability Transfer Programme, whether there are plans to improve its usage across industries tracked by the ITMs because I would agree that there is a lot of scope for it to be a gamechanger. I think we had an example of it in the MTI COS where the Minister for Trade and Industry spoke about moving into a high-value bracket in manufacturing, for example; not just doing what other people are doing but doing things which very few people can do. And here, I believe the Capability Transfer Programme has a lot of scope.
Mrs Josephine Teo: Mr Chairman, I thank Mr Pritam Singh for his interest in the Capability Transfer Programme. Former Minister Lim Swee Say, at the launch, also made clear that the CTP is one of many programmes that the Government has to support capability development. Specifically, he also highlighted that it will complement the other programmes that sector agencies already have in place.
Of course, as the situation evolves, the sector agencies may identify more specific programmes that help their sectors to achieve better transformation and they make a case to MOF. If MOF considers that those needs are better met by such sector-specific programmes, then funding would be provided and the sector agencies will run it. The CTP itself is not tied to any particular sector. So, in that sense, it is focused in its mission. However, it can apply across sectors that are not covered very specifically by our agencies. So, I think it is a useful complement.
As to whether we would like more take-up of the programme, that is the reason why we extended it. But I should also caution that, from time to time, the Government re-examines all of its schemes of support to businesses and streamlining happens on a regular basis. So, this is part and parcel of Government administration.
Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang): Mr Chairman, I thank the Ministry for the replies. I have two separate matters for clarification. First is on the SGUnited Traineeships. How many of those on the SGUnited Traineeships were offered full-time employment in the industry that they were doing their traineeships in? Second, on senior employment, a lot of effort for senior employment is at the job-matching level at the local level. Can the Ministry share more plans on this effort?
Mrs Josephine Teo: Mr Chairman, to Mr Yip's first question on the SGUnited Traineeships Programme, even at the start, we did not expect that the trainees must gain employment with the same company or within the same industry. The trainees, being fresh graduates, are at the start of their working lives. I think all of us have had that experience and benefit from being exposed to a variety of employment settings and different kinds of industries, different types of companies – big companies, SMEs. And this experience is really meant to try and help the trainees build up their resumes so that when they advance to the next stage of seeking a permanent job role, they are able to tell the prospective employer that, \"Look, this is what I learnt\". It matters less whether they go back to the same industry or same company, than the fact that they will be able to advance to a new job role. In any case, most of the trainees have not completed their traineeships. I think what we will want to watch very carefully is whether they are able to move to a job thereafter and that is what we will focus on.
The second question with regard to senior employment is that seniors are just like all other jobseekers. They have aspirations, specific job requirements, and a variety of ways exist in which to help them to get into a job. They can come to WSG, they can come to e2i, depending on what kinds of careers they have been active in. Even employment agencies might be a suitable avenue of support for them.
As to local types of jobs, to my knowledge, whether it is the CDCs or even some constituencies, there are attempts to try and make available such jobs. Again, I think they are complementary and certainly welcomed in terms of providing more openings that seniors can consider.
The Chairman: Assoc Prof Jamus Lim.
Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim (Sengkang): Thank you, Chairman. I have a quick clarification question for Minister Teo when she said that the Ministry would not close the door to suggestions like redundancy insurance, among other things. Does that mean that there are, in fact, impending plans to set up a sort of a tripartite workgroup on, say, end-to-end job safety net or to further study the kind of feasibility of unemployment insurance schemes as well as other end-to-end job safety net schemes? I mention this because when I stated that we have the functional equivalent of this end-to-end job safety net, it was including a number of elements, such as the COVID-19 Support Grant or the Recovery Grant or SIRS, which, at the moment, are actually temporary. So, it would be nice to understand the extent to which some of these schemes may have a longer shelf life.
Mrs Josephine Teo: Mr Chairman, when the Government says that it keeps an open mind on issues, that is exactly what it is – it keeps an open mind. It continues to look at the experiences of other countries. It considers studies that are done elsewhere and also assesses, on a continuous basis, the changing landscape in Singapore and whether further action needs to be taken. At this point in time, we have a tripartite work group that is very intensively engaged in moving on lower wage workers. If and when there is a need to set up another tripartite workgroup, the Member can be sure that it will not be done in secret; it will certainly be announced publicly.
The Chairman: Ms Yeo Wan Ling.
Ms Yeo Wan Ling (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Thank you, Chairman. I thank Minister of State Gan for acknowledging the work of FDWs for being the larger eco-system of support for our Singaporean women workers. The mental wellness of our FDWs is something that needs to be considered with care. Given that their workplace is also their home, many FDWs find it hard to disengage from their work, especially if they are care-givers to the elderly and young in the households. And NTUC's FDW clinics for employers and employees that I helm for the labour movement, an often brought up point is the loneliness that our FDWs face, particularly if they are first-time FDWs and they come from different cultures and speak only their native languages. In such cases, would the Ministry share with the House if there are plans to assist our FDWs in work-life harmony and if there are comprehensive outreach programmes being done by the Ministry to ensure the wellness and settling-in of our new FDWs.
Ms Gan Siow Huang: I thank Ms Yeo Wan Ling for reminding us that FDWs, like us, also need work-life harmony, and mental well-being is as important to them as it is to us. So, actually, MOM has a number of measures already to help our foreign domestic workers adjust in Singapore. These include educating them via the settling-in programme on matters, such as Singapore's social norms, their employment rights and stress management.
In addition, MOM works with stakeholders, including NGOs, to provide recreational facilities and stress management courses. NGOs, like CDE under NTUC, and FAST, each maintains a 24-hour helpline for foreign domestic workers. CDE also partners mental health advocacy organisations, such as Silver Ribbon, to provide counselling services for foreign domestic workers who need someone to talk to. We recognise the importance of foreign domestic workers having opportunities to establish friendships, pursue recreational activities and deepen ties with the community. So, we work closely with partners, such as CDE and FAST, which I mentioned earlier on, to provide training, recreational spaces, social activities. In 2019, about 158,000 foreign domestic workers participated in courses, services and activities organised by various NGOs.
The wide range of services and activities available include befriender programmes, affordable educational courses, counselling facilities, libraries and gyms. And there are many opportunities for foreign domestic workers to enhance their work-related skills or pick up new skills for their personal development.
FAST is building a new clubhouse that will be 10 times larger than their current premises, with a capacity of 5,000 people and I am looking forward to opening it in the second half of the year.
We encourage our foreign domestic workers to utilise public parks and spaces as well and adhere to the safe distancing measures imposed at these public places, instead of gathering on public walkways where there may be safety and accessibility concerns.
The Chairman: Mr Louis Chua.
Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis (Sengkang): Thank you, Chairman, and thank you to the Ministry for their kind sharing. I have got two clarifications. I think the first is regarding the LRIS which Minister Teo shared. I recognise that this is something that has been in place, but it has been about close to five years since August 2016 when the plans were first announced. So, I was just wondering if there is any specific timeline that the Ministry could share in terms of when we can expect some of these details to be announced.
And in relation to the cut I have filed, has the Ministry considered or is it considering allowing CPF members to invest alongside the Government's investment vehicles since we do not really need to look very far in terms of the options for funds that Members can consider. The second is in relation to parental care leave. Is this something that the Ministry is actively looking at considering to implement in the near term to send a signal that this is no less of a need, as compared to some other leave provisions, such as childcare leave or even annual leave.
Mrs Josephine Teo: Mr Chairman, Mr Chua had, during his cut, talked about CPF members co-investing with, I think, our sovereign wealth funds. I am not really sure whether he has fully thought it through because, in all investments, there are risks involved. And our sovereign wealth funds have to take a certain amount of risk in order to generate the returns and, on a year-to-year basis, sometimes even over longer periods of time, there is no sure win, no perfect guarantee. So, when we think of their good record of performance, we must also not forget that there are occasions where these investments do not produce the same returns, as hoped. So, that is something we always have to keep in mind.
As to LRIS, what we were really trying to do is to create a product that will not be costly for CPF members to invest through, to basically make it something that is passively run and also takes advantage of the long time horizon that you have for your CPF savings.
As I have explained in my speech, this is obviously not going to be an easy product to design. I can only say that, there is a Chinese expression, \"慢工出细货\", that is, if you want a very fine product, it does take a bit of time. So, I beg the Member's indulgence that it is more important that we do a proper job than to rush it.
The Chairman: Mr Melvin Yong.
Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye (Radin Mas): Chairman, I have two clarifications for Senior Minister of State Zaqy Mohamad.
First, on workplace safety. I am glad that the Senior Minister of State agrees with my suggestion to upskill SMOs to become WSH representatives in their companies. The NTUC will work closely with MOM to push and facilitate this.
Some safety officers have raised concerns that their hands are sometimes tied when it comes to improving internal workplace safety practices in their companies. They constantly worry that doing so will cause them to be blackmarked by their employers as workplace safety is always seen as a cost centre. They worry that speaking up may put their employment contract renewal at risk sometimes. I would like to ask if the Ministry can better safeguard the interests of our safety professionals so that they can perform their roles and improve workplace safety for all workers confidently and with greater assurance.
Second, I would like to ask the Senior Minister of State to respond to my question on whether we can better track the effectiveness of our workplace mental health initiatives and the adoption of our tripartite advisory on mental well-being at workplaces through perhaps the annual surveys that MOM conducts.
Mr Zaqy Mohamad: Chairman, I thank the Member for his questions and I will start with the mental health question first.
Mr Melvin Yong asked about the adoption of recommendations from our tripartite advisory on mental well-being at workplaces, including Employment Assistance Programmes (EAPs), which I know the NTUC has worked really hard on.
Since its launch in November, our partners and our mental health providers have reported increasing interest from employers in offering mental well-being initiatives at the workplace. I think this is a very positive sign, given the current COVID-19 arrangements that we have. As the economy recovers, we expect more companies to reprioritise their resources to more mental well-being initiatives. Besides NTUC, MOM is also working with employers and HR groups to promote the adoption of the tripartite advisory. And as suggested by Mr Yong, we will track the adoption of the MOM surveys every two years, with the first occurring later this year.
Moving on to Mr Yong's second question on the audit that the safety officers do, rest assured. We understand their roles as auditors. It is same as financial auditing, too, where they have a safety responsibility, like the fiduciary responsibility that auditors have, to report any risk to the safety of our workers. There are two things that workers can do. One, they can use the SnapSAFE app which is available. Two, they can call the MOM safety hotline which is at 6317-1111. Do call if you have any information which we can look into.
But I can assure Members that following many of the incidents, we are definitely concerned of late, especially with contractors rushing to catch up after work stoppages last year. I think that is one risk that we saw. The second one is certainly manpower disruptions, as I have mentioned earlier, due to border controls and pandemic measures. So, we need companies to put in place adequate risk assessment measures to adhere to safe work processes and ensure that, when there are machines, they are only operated by staff that are trained.
On MOM's part, we are putting in place more technology for the industry to adopt, such as drones, to replace workers from difficult high-rise inspections so that it makes their work safer. Two, fleet safety technology, for example, can improve situational awareness of drivers and wearables, too, that can monitor workers' health.
On our part, when it comes to enforcement, we have also been using behavioural insights to target riskier firms. For construction, for example, MOM highlights to companies how their safety records faired relative to industry peers and calibrates our inspection frequency based on their standing. For manufacturing, transport and storage sectors, MOM uses big data to predict riskier companies and focuses inspections on them. Data models are refined continually to improve our enforcement.
We have also started publishing WSH learning reports. Also, to the Member's earlier point about safety training, we have also enhanced our mandatory safety courses for workers. So, from 2022, mandatory construction safety training will need to include experiential elements that simulate high-risk situations, such as falls from heights, collapsing scaffolding and crushed by machinery, so that workers, especially in construction, can better understand the workplace safety and health risks at the construction sites.
From 2022, cleaners will also undergo mandatory WSH courses which provide cleaners with skills to carry out their work safely. For example, addressing risks of slips and falls as well as in inhaling toxic fumes from detergents and working from heights. So, these are some of the measures that we are putting in place to make Singapore a safer place for all workers.
The Chairman: Mr Leong Mun Wai.
Mr Leong Mun Wai (Non-Constituency Member): Chairman, I thank the Ministers and Ministers of State for all the work that MOM is doing for the workers in Singapore. I have two questions.
First, I would like the Minister to confirm whether the Singaporean workers have been disadvantaged under the current employment regime whereby a wage disadvantage is against Singaporeans because foreign workers do not contribute to CPF, there is no quota on EP holders, there is no skills transfer requirement, there is no succession planning requirement. Is this a conscious trade-off that we have to make?
The second question: given that the Ministry has already done a lot of work on the PWM – and I appreciate the work that the Government has put in and this House is also of a consensus that all of us should be helping the lower wage workers more – so, why is it so difficult to take that one small step because we have already put in a lot of subsidies for the low-wage workers, just take that one small step to make it a blanket living wage or minimum wage? And then, we can concentrate our effort and resources on upgrading our workers through the vocational PWM that the Government has started. I think that is a very good step because we really have to upgrade the skills and the income of our higher wage workers actually. Those are the two questions.
Mrs Josephine Teo: Mr Chairman, I thank Mr Leong for his acknowledgement of MOM's work and also for his support for extending the PWM.
He has asked the question: why do you not just take that small step? Actually, we took that big step in 2007 through the introduction of Workfare and this comes at no cost to the employers and, therefore, no dis-employment risk to the worker. That step was already taken in 2007. I think, first of all, we have to recognise that. It is the broadest-based support that we are providing to lower wage workers. It comes every month; it supports the lower wage workers, not only cash payouts but also to build up their CPF so that, like all Singaporeans, they have the prospect of not just providing for their families but also providing for themselves in retirement. Workfare, in 2007, was a big step. Let us remember that.
To his question on whether we have disadvantaged Singaporeans, I am not sure whether Mr Leong was in here when Mr Liang Eng Hwa delivered his cut which, I thought, was so sharp in pointing out that when you look at 2020, the tremendous trauma that our employment market went through over the course of the whole year, what was the employment contraction? One hundred and seventy-plus thousand. Which segment of the workforce contracted? Foreign workforce – one hundred and eighty-plus thousand.
What happened to our resident workforce, local workforce? It actually grew, very modestly, but it grew. Which country can actually produce this report card? So, from that perspective, in what way has the local workforce been disadvantaged?
The Chairman: Ms Janet Ang.
Ms Janet Ang (Nominated Member): Chairman, let me declare that I am a council member of Singapore Business Federation (SBF). Thank you for all the presentations and the speeches earlier on. And, of course, Minister Josephine, if I can tell you, my niece took a traineeship and then she found a job. So, I am sure her cohort who did that would be very appreciative.
May I seek a clarification with the Minister on the timeline for PWM implementation in food services and retail?
I appreciate the NTUC's call to do this in two to three years. Indeed, SBF fully supports all the efforts to uplift our lower wage workers, especially with Workfare and PWM. The issue is, of course, timing.
I think I shared the national business survey by SBF. So, pardon if I repeat again. Among those negatively impacted, which comprise about two-thirds of the respondents and the majority are SMEs – 85% of the respondents are SMEs – 70% think that they will take more than a year to recover from the pandemic. The time horizon for global recovery, of course, we all know, is uncertain and, according to some global watchers, it could be as long as four to seven years. I spoke to my Mckinsey friends and they have got a big scenario planning thing. The best scenario, maybe one year. Of course, their worst scenario is four years. Since we are in pandemic mode, I guess we should take the worst – it will be about four years.
So, while I would like to see our low-wage workers earn more – and believe me, you, I really want to see that – but it may be early for our companies recovering from disruption to take on additional wage hikes. So, in my view, keeping jobs ought to take priority over wage hikes at this time. I checked with some of the businesses. Many of the small businesses are still struggling and, with the DRC and if plus wage hikes, they are going to quit. Our low-wage workers will only have wages if there are at least companies to work for. So, this is my dilemma. For those who understand the lingo, I am having an Isaac moment.
The Chairman: Ms Ang, can you come to the point?
Ms Janet Ang: Okay. So, I appreciate that MOM has had the unenviable task of balancing multiple demands. And SBF and the business community have pledged in the Sustainability Employment Report in 2019 to support opportunities and progression for our workforce, especially the vulnerable workers and the low-wage workers. So, I advocate for continued dialogue amongst all members in the tripartite workgroup (TWG), on a timeline that can be a win for all. So, speed with prudence. May I ask whether TWG will take my points into consideration?
Mr Zaqy Mohamad: Chairman, I note there is time constraint, so, I am just going to keep it short.
The Chairman: Yes, please.
Mr Zaqy Mohamad: First, I thank the Member and SBF for supporting the initiatives of our tripartite work group. And that is precisely why PWM takes a very sectoral approach in which, we have just announced that we are setting up the tripartite cluster to study this for the Food and Beverage as well as the Retail sectors.
We fully understand the challenges of the sectors today. That is why we have made a conscious effort to hold back by a year, before we set up the tripartite work group to understand this. And rest assured, as said in my speech, we will look at the differences in the two sectors and the different business models that may occur. Even for the retail sector, we are mindful that there are also threats from e-commerce and therefore, we are also looking at the whole sector as a whole. These are adaptations that we have done in the past PWMs and we will continue to do so to study and adapt to every sector as required.
The Chairman: Mr Desmond Choo, would you like to withdraw your amendment?
Mr Desmond Choo: Chairman, I would like to thank Minister Josephine Teo, the public office holders, Permanent Secretary Aubeck Kam and the team of MOM officers for their ceaseless work over the last 14 months. They had been at the frontlines of COVID-19 and most of them still are. We know that many challenges and long hours await them as Singapore seeks to recover from the pandemic and tackle the structural forces. For that, we want to place on record for appreciation for the MOM officers. On that note, Chairman, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.
[(proc text) Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. (proc text)]
[(proc text) The sum of $7,075,047,900 for Head S ordered to stand part of the Main Estimates. (proc text)]
[(proc text) The sum of $101,951,000 for Head S ordered to stand part of the Development Estimates. (proc text)]
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Committee of Supply – Head K (Ministry of Education)","subTitle":"Creating a future-ready economy and workforce","sectionType":"OS","content":"Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan (Pioneer): Sir, I beg to move, \"That the total sum to be allocated for Head K of the Estimates be reduced by $100\".
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools across the globe had to close during lockdowns and for prolonged periods and many schools are still closed in some countries.
In Singapore, the entire teaching and education sector including from pre-school, Primary, Secondary, SPED, Junior Colleges, Polytechnics, ITE, private and international schools and our Universities, including CET centres and training providers and adult educators, including the entire MOE had to pivot and moved to home-based and online learning overnight. Many had to grapple with these new ways of work and education delivery. Many had to learn to use various video conferencing software. Everyone had to convert their homes to become lecture theatres, virtual classrooms and even laboratories.
Notwithstanding, the entire education eco-system came together to pivot and to get our students get back to school after the circuit breaker and resume some normalcy including restarting many of the CCAs and events. We thank every one of them who have made possible the delivery of education, skills and training to our students and adult learners against all odds, safely, in a social distance way.
With disruption, and now the dreaded disease, it is vital for the entire education system to stay ready, relevant and resilient. I wish to highlight some pertinent points and observations for MOE for its entire education and learning continuum. I have six key observations and suggestions.
First, seamless transition from Kindergarten 2 to Primary 1. As MOE is now involved in delivering pre-school education through the MOE Kindergartens, I see an immense possibility and scope for MOE to better research into and enhance the curriculum of kindergartens as well as for Primary 1, so that we can better integrate and support the seamless transition of children from Kindergarten 2 to Primary 1. I find that this is an important aspect which can be further augmented to ensure children are able to catch up with or sometimes cope with the knowledge, skills and competency requirements for Primary 1.
Two, strengthen mental health and wellness in schools. We work for home and home-based learning as well as the bane that comes along with social media and device usage, as well as bullying both in the real and online world, the mental state, health, and well-being of students and teachers as well, from Primary all the way to University, is something we cannot take lightly. I submit that our education system must be well poised and prepared to prevent, detect, and provide support this area in the next normal. Can MOE share whether in the past five years, we see an increasing trend of students having mental health issues and challenges and what is MOE doing to overcome this challenge, which is further exacerbated by our drive towards digitalisation and learning device issuance?
Three, better prospects for Mother Tongue and Specialist Teachers. Our Mother Tongue and other Specialist educators and teachers in school play an integral part and role in our education system. I am particularly concerned especially in the treatment of and the parity of teachers who specifically teach only Art, Physical Education and Music and other specialised areas. Can MOE provide an update on the morale, career progression and developmental opportunities afforded to this category of teachers, including the Mother Tongue teachers and also whether MOE conducts any ground surveys of the morale, engagement scores and aspirations of this group of teachers?
Four, better job placement for SPED students. Another area I feel strongly is the provision of job opportunities for SPED students and their future beyond the learning institutions and classroom. I submit that we can and should do more to hasten and strengthen the various placement programmes and initiatives to allow SPED students who complete their school and training to prepare for work in areas where they are keen and able to.
Five, smaller class sizes and student-teacher ratios. With a lesser student cohort across the entire mainstream education system due to low birth rates in the past decade, I think we should look into having smaller class sizes across our Primary and Secondary Schools. It is without doubt that smaller class sizes do help to enhance and improve the overall learning experience and enhances the student-teacher interaction opportunities for every student.
Six, supporting continuing education and training. With the half-life of skills shortening with transformed jobs and new jobs, greater speed to market in terms of skills, competencies, and knowledge is an imperative. We need our Institutes of Higher Learning to transform into Institutes of Continuing Education and Training to work with employers and especially the industry clusters to know the future jobs and the future in-demand skills, so that we can plan, prepare and conduct bite size and modular training in response to market and industry needs.
I urge MOE to undertake appropriate strategies to help our workers, especially the mature PMEs achieving skills security by supporting them in their pursuit of training opportunities. In this regard, can MOE review the Mid-Career Enhanced Subsidy Scheme to encourage mature PMEs?
MCES is tagged to whether a PME is in receipt of a tuition grant for a local degree programme. This means that PMEs seeking to obtain a second degree from our local University to enter into a new sector or industry are ineligible for the Mid-Career Enhanced Subsidy scheme (MCES). And that the MCES cannot be separated from the tuition grant is a policy blind spot that impedes PMEs with local first degrees from reskilling with a second local degree to get their foot in a new sector.
As part of the Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs), the 23 industry sectors have launched the Skills Framework for each of the sectors. I strongly urge employers to deep dive into these skills framework, work with our unions, to develop individualised skill maps for their current employees based on the framework for the different sectors and industries. These maps will serve to provide personalised career and training recommendations for every employee and help meet every worker's unique aspiration and needs. How can SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) further outreach and raise the awareness and significance of the skills framework, especially for the PMET jobs and PMETs?
[(proc text) Question proposed. (proc text)]
Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng (Jalan Besar): Chairman, Sir, \"What would be the ideal education system for Singapore, if we were starting from a clean slate?” This is the question I would like to ask MOE.
The world of teaching and learning has been disrupted, like never before. The COVID-19 pandemic threw us a curveball. Thankfully, education technology that the MOE has, such as the Student Learning Space and the Personal Learning Devices (PDL) they had in mind, were already in the works for use by the students. COVID-19 had significantly compressed the timeline to digitise education; and ground challenges like educator, student and family readiness are not uncommon.
In higher education, further disruptions are expected. Burning Glass Technology, a consulting firm that analysed close to a billion job postings and resumes in 2019, reported that good future jobs are \"hybrid\" jobs – more complex and multi-disciplinary. A good mobile app developer, for instance, needs to understand not only programming coding, but also user interface design, content and marketing. The demands of a hybrid job market, for instance, makes cross learnings across departments and disciplines, especially in higher education, not only important but urgent.
The call for change is widespread. In the United States, Khan Academy's Sal Khan, who was the visionary ahead of his time in creating individualised online student learning free, called out the need to: one, make available personalised and tailored education at a mass scale, citing a list of good quality online resources developed in the US; two, empowering parents and teachers as better partners for education; and three, uplifting every student at every stage of life, including the adults.
Locally last year, education experts such as Dr Varaprasad and Dr S Gopinathan shared a similar vision of a future education for Singapore – one that is tailored to the individual, learning anytime, anywhere and at any age. They dreamt of an end to high stake state exams, physical classrooms and teacher-led mass learning.
Indeed, if that were the model of future education, then many concerns raised here and outside of this House such as class sizes, excessive tuition, PSLE, Mother Tongue scoring and so on – are issues surrounding the current education model.
Past education reviews such as the PERI – the Primary Education Review, the Secondary School Review, ASPIRE, and even Special Education Reviews; were mostly fine tuning of the current system whilst retaining the same structural pillars. Alas for me, the true train 10 years school system without the PSLE is still a pipe drink for me.
Dr Prasad and Dr Gopinathan, both former MOE staff, concluded that it would be challenging to transform Singapore's education system for the very reason that it is so well-established. They spoke of the difficulties of reforming a well-established and well-polished education system due to legacy and structural rigidities; and how even making incremental changes will require changes across a very vast, complex system and overcoming resistance from many stakeholder groups.
But Chairman, I call upon the wisdom of Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen's renowned work on innovation. The good Prof convinced many senior leaders, some of whom are in our Government, that even the most outstanding companies with established products can become irrelevant unless they know how and when to abandon traditional business practices. Hence, the need for what he calls, \"disruptive innovation\".
I totally understand the wisdom of not throwing the \"baby out with the bathwater\". But in the face of changes that come so fast and furious, there is merit to consider some disruptive innovation. Therefore, I ask MOE to conduct a national exercise to answer the question of, \"What would be the ideal education system for Singapore, if we were starting from a clean slate?\"
Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied): Mr Chairman, during the COS debates in 2020, MOE announced that Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) would be refreshed, reinforcing the teaching of moral values increasing emphasis on mental health and cyber wellness, engaging students more actively in contemporary issues and being more integrated into subjects and activities. There is growing recognition that soft skills that are crucial for 21st century employees.
I am using soft skills here as a convenient broad shorthand for a number of skill-sets such as, firstly, critical thinking and problem solving which top the list of skills many employers believe will grow in prominence in the next five years.
Secondly, self-management such as active learning, resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility, all ranked highly in the World Economic Forum 2020 report.
And thirdly, resilience and curiosity, which are reported as priced by industry leaders.
The PISA 2018 results indicate two areas of concern for students in Singapore: adaptability to new challenges and the fear of failure.
Only half of our students said that they could deal with unusual situations compared to an OECD average of more than that. Over 70% expressed concern about failure versus the OECD average of just 50%.
How can our CCE curriculum help to plug these gaps? For one, we should cultivate some form of standardised measurement of soft skills, spanning not only tests but project work, classroom interaction and other work streams. After all, we need to build measures of success into our policies so as to ensure that in education, as in all domains, we are striving for outcomes and not just effort.
Hence, I would like to ask how does MOE intend to measure progress towards soft skill formation objectives in the CCE?
Next, I would to like to urge greater support for teachers to a progressive reduction in average form class sizes. This would better enable teachers to focus on pastoral care for students. Research has shown that smaller classes may stimulate non-cognitive skills or soft skills, a point I have made in my Parliamentary Adjournment Motion on the subject in 2017.
I would thus like to suggest that MOE pilot CCE classes and smaller class sizes to study their effects on students' non-cognitive development.
My Parliamentary colleague, Assoc Prof Jamus Lim will elaborate on the subject of class sizes in his subsequent cut.
Ms Hazel Poa (Non-Constituency Member): Permission to take my three cuts together.
The Chairman: Yes, please.
Ms Hazel Poa: Mr Chairman, the Budget Statement described extensive plans for an innovation-driven economy. To thrive in an innovation-driven economy requires more than the acquisition of technical skills and scientific or professional knowledge, but also a mindset that is ready and able to challenge established norms or widely accepted thinking, not afraid to fail and ever ready to try again, and an eagerness to navigate the unknown.
Can the Minister share with us what are the plans to prepare our students for an innovation-driven economy?
Over the years, efforts have been made to move away from a grade-centric education system. This is reflected in the \"Desired Outcomes\" section under MOE's budget. However, this is not totally reflected in the key performance indicators (KPIs) that are measured.
Firstly, a number of the desired outcomes are not measured in its KPI. For example, there are no measurable indicators for adaptability, ability to work in teams and across cultures, critical thinking, and so on. Will the Ministry be looking into additional KPIs to measure these desired outcomes?
Secondly, with reference to the KPI relating to engaged citizenry, is such community work compulsory for students? If so, it would not be a true indicator of engagement. Measuring the engagement rate of grown citizens would be a more accurate indicator.
Finally, whilst this is not included in the desired outcomes, would the Minister consider additional KPIs to measure equity outcomes, for example, the percentage of students from the bottom quintile that are top performers?
Here, I declare my interest as an operator of a private school. During the course of my work, I came across students who dropped out of Secondary schools but, after working for a few years, decided that they needed to go back to school. Aiming to enrol in a Polytechnic, they set out to take the \"O\" Levels in private schools. However, private education does not come cheap. It is sad to see some give up because they cannot afford it.
Homeschooled students also do not get access to core curricular activities (CCAs). Taiwan's schools embrace homeschooling and schooling kids learning together. Countries like Israel have a second-chance programme to help students complete their Secondary and diploma education. As long as our young have the desire to learn, let us give them the necessary support.
I therefore have two questions. Will the Minister consider granting financial support for those studying outside of mainstream schools? Will the Minister allow these students to be attached to mainstream schools for CCAs?
Mr Baey Yam Keng (Tampines): Mr Chairman, I have three children. Over the past eight years, my family have gone through three PSLEs, one \"O\" level and one \"A\" level. There will be one more taking \"A\" level examination this year and the youngest one will be taking hers next year.
Members who are sharp will think that maybe I missed out two \"O\" levels. Those who are quicker will know that I did not miss any major milestones in my children's education but because two of them are in the Integrated Programme. But I am sure that there may be Members who do not understand what we are talking about because they have no children or their children have long passed their schooling years.
Indeed, most of us will only pay attention to or make an effort to understand policies which affect us directly. However, in the area of education, most of us will claim some authority because we ourselves have gone through formal education in Singapore. We have our own experience to go by. The problem is, the personal experience of most parents will be outdated, easily by 20 to 30 years.
For me, I went through the era when PSLE scores are in the 300 to 400s. I took my Secondary 1 History in Chinese, had to take a compulsory \"O\" level subject in Religious Knowledge, and could only choose a pure science, pure arts or pure commerce subject combination for my \"A\" level. All these have changed today.
Today, \"multiple pathways\" have become the lingo and I am a firm believer of that.
My youngest daughter did not do as well as her two elder siblings in Primary school. With a 30-point difference in her PSLE score, she could not make it to any of the schools offering the Integrated Programme. She went to a school in our neighbourhood, whose cut-off point was some way below her score. During her four years there, because she was \"within her league\", she blossomed. Her confidence and self-esteem improved tremendously and she was offered various exposure and leadership opportunities in school. I am glad she did really well in her \"O\" level last year and could make it to any school she wants. Through a slightly different pathway, she now joins her elder brother, who is doing the last year of his Integrated Programme.
What made us really proud of her is that she did all these years without any tuition. She made it with her diligence and discipline and, I would say, by being in a school environment that supported her and one that was suitable for her.
In recent years, MOE announced major structural changes to our education system, including the new PSLE scoring system and Full Subject-Based Banding in Secondary schools.
May I know what MOE is doing to help students and parents understand the thinking behind these major changes so that all can benefit from the policy intent? This is not to game the system but to change mindsets so that our young could reap the benefits of the changes and, more importantly, enjoy the learning process and develop positive attitudes that would stay with them for lifelong learning.
Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): In Primary school, students may take a combination of Standard and Foundation level subjects based on their strengths and choices. However, many students and parents may not be aware that for the purpose of Secondary 1 posting, even a perfect score at a Foundation level maps to a Standard level's Achievement Level (AL) of only AL 6. In contrast, students taking Standard level subjects can achieve AL 5 if they score just 65%. A higher AL translates to a poorer PSLE score.
When parents opt for their child to take a Foundation level subject after Primary 4, it will be an uphill climb to get back to Standard level in Primary 6. Poor grades in school are seldom a full reflection of the student's abilities. The quality of instruction they receive and their home environment make a big difference. Some students simply need more encouragement and guidance to do better academically.
What are the objective and subjective criteria that schools use to determine the student's subject level combinations? How are parents, including those who may be less educated, made fully aware of the impact that taking Foundation level subjects will have on their child's PSLE score? How do schools ensure that late bloomers will have a fair chance at taking Standard level subjects at the PSLE despite poor examination performance in Primary 4 and Primary 5?
Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan (Pioneer): Sir, in 2014, MOE began reserving 20 places each, for registrants under Phase 2B and Phase 2C so as to preserve open access in all schools for parents who have no prior connections to the Primary school. Despite this, residents are still not able to secure a place in a nearby school as the school is oversubscribed in Phase 2C.
Anecdotally, I understand that more parents are registering their children in earlier phases, leaving fewer places for those who live nearby in Phase 2C.
I can understand why the Primary 1 Registration Framework needs to accord higher priority to certain groups like siblings as well some priority to other families with ties to the school. There is a maximum number of places that a school can offer. So some tradeoffs will be necessary to enhance open access in all our Primary schools, especially in Phase 2C, for those who live near the school.
Perhaps it is timely for MOE to review the Primary 1 Registration Framework to see how to enable more children to secure a place in a nearby school, especially in Phase 2C, while bearing in mind the need to still preserve some level of priority for those in Phases 2A1 and 2A2.
Mr Shawn Huang Wei Zhong (Jurong): Mr Chairman, recently, I received feedback on the challenges of securing a place in a school near where students live. In most cases, it is because the schools nearby are very popular in the neighbourhood. In addition, there are many parents who are also former students who would like their children to be part of the school.
Can I ask the Minister for Education how the Ministry views balancing the priority between alumni and students who live in the neighbourhood, and if there is any on-going review?
Ms Hazel Poa: Mr Chairman, MOE has been closing schools and reducing its headcount of teachers due to declining birth rates and school enrolments. From 2011 to 2020, the number of teachers declined by 16% from 39,412 to 33,001. Allied Educators, who provide extra support to teachers and schools, also declined by 32% from 1,772 to 1,205.
However, the number of management executives increased by 260% from 851 to 3,066 and management support increased by 147% from 519 to 1,282.
Can the Minister clarify why so many more management staff are needed to manage a declining number of teachers and students? What are the targeted number of teachers in the next few years?
To introduce greater diversity and differentiated learning into our education system, we need smaller class sizes. I mentioned this last October and I feel the need to bring it up again.
With declining enrolment, it would have been the perfect opportunity to reduce class sizes had we not decreased the number of teachers and NIE intake. Not only would smaller class sizes provide better outcomes for students, it would be beneficial for teachers as well. We ought to care for teachers' emotional and mental loads as well, in addition to their work loads.
Will the Minister consider resuming the recruitment of teachers to previous levels, especially at a time when job opportunities are greatly reduced due to the pandemic?
Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim (Sengkang): Mr Chairman, Singapore currently has one of the highest average class sizes among advanced countries in Primary and Secondary schools. In 2019, it amounted to 33 students per class. In contrast, the average among industrialised economies is a little more than 20. Even in East Asian economies such as Korea and Japan, student numbers in the Primary school classroom only push a little past 25.
To be clear, the trend in Singapore has improved over time. The pupil-teacher ratio at the Primary level was around 26 at the turn of the millennium compared to 15 today. But this is hardly satisfactory in light of the fact that these numbers still pale in comparison to countries such as Denmark at 12, Australia at 11 and Luxemburg at nine. While certain banded classrooms are indeed smaller, this does not cover students who are not currently struggling, who arrived there on the basis of supplementary educational support.
Indeed, some may question, why, in spite of these unflattering resource ratios, our students appear to be able to producing some of the best test scores worldwide.
Part of the reason is likely to be our heavy reliance on supplementary education, sometimes pejoratively called the shadow education system, supplied by families directly. Private tuition and other supplementary education expenses come up to $112 out of the household's monthly educational expenditures, a little more than 2%. This is more than what the average household spends on clothing and air travel and about a quarter of what they spend to be able to put a roof over their heads.
At the national level, we spent $1.4 billion on such additional private tuition. This is around 10% of the total that the Government spends officially on public education and, to the extent that we believe public education should be largely self-contained, represents an additional and implicit tax on Singaporeans.
To be clear, other East Asian societies, including China, Indonesia, Japan and Korea tend to engage more private tutors than other advanced countries. Around 70% of students in these aforementioned countries attend after-school lessons in mathematics, for instance – unsurprisingly, I was one of them – compared to less than 20% in countries such as Austria, Canada, Finland and New Zealand.
Even so, the disparities between what we devote to public education expenditure is clearly indirectly, if imperfectly, made of four by private supplemental financing. Even setting our \"kiasu\" mindset aside, most parents do not have any burning to send their kids onto additional tuition if there are otherwise able to cope with the subjects. Consider how our tuition dollars are predominately spent on subjects where students struggle such as math or languages, and less on humanities such as history or geography.
Smaller class sizes can go a long way toward helping the average Singaporean household reduce their perceived need to engage additional private tuition. Perhaps, more importantly, smaller class sizes can also help level the playing field. While the evidence in favour of small class sizes for overall student achievement is weak albeit still positive, it is undeniable that individual students can benefit from smaller classrooms.
A small number of students release the load on our teachers, thereby freeing them up to pay more attention to students that are falling behind and since lower income households are less likely to be able to allocate additional finances towards tuition just so that their children may stay up to speed, this obviates the need for supplemental private tuition which can prevent students from such households from falling even further behind.
To this end, I am suggesting that the MOE, perhaps, consider capping class sizes at 23 which incidentally is the OECD average and, in particular, for the most tutored subjects such as mathematics as well as languages.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): Sir, in my Budget debate speech, I proposed to make our performance management system of stacked ranking more standardised, transparent, fair and formative for teachers.
There is strong feedback from the ground that ranking is not the best way to appraise all job holders. There are differences in implementation across schools and there is a need for a more standardised system. There is also a need for more transparency. Many share that they do not feel the process of ranking has been made transparent to all teachers.
We can also make the system more fair by removing the quotas for C-, D and E grades.
Lastly, the appraisal system should be more formative than punitive. We should remove the punitive implications of getting the lower grades. We should create a more nurturing environment for our teachers.
I look forward to working with MOE and the unions to improve the performance management system of stacked ranking.
We all grow and learn from feedback. Our teachers are no different.
School leaders must give teachers who receive the C- or D grade feedback to improve their performance. However, some teachers shared that this feedback only comes after the actual grade has been issued. Some say that little is done to help teachers improve in the course of the school year.
Similar to how students have a mid-year exam to gauge whether they are on the right track, our teachers must also be given feedback prior to receiving their actual grade. There are guidelines in place for ROs to give intermittent feedback. We should ensure these are strictly followed. Will MOE strengthen processes for teachers to seek feedback on their performance?
MOE currently uses the 360-degree feedback tool more as a developmental tool for leaders to gather feedback rather than as an appraisal tool. To further strengthen this process, can MOE consider incorporating this into the appraisal process and specifically linked to performance grade? There is strong support for implementing a 360-degree feedback to assess the effectiveness of Reporting Officers at all substantive grades.
Ms Foo Mee Har (West Coast): Chairman, as Singapore re-defines our competitive edge by pivoting towards innovation, we will need to create multiple pathways for Singaporeans of all potential to develop and thrive. Achieving this will require the creation of \"pathways to excellence\" in multiple fields and disciplines, and both public and private tertiary institutions should have roles to play.
Singapore can be proud of a public education eco-system that delivers world-leading education outcomes and boasts some of the world’s best universities. So, we are very proud of our public universities eco-system. But our private education system also has produced high quality providers in specialised areas, such as LASALLE and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. These specialised institutes are able to deliver excellent outcomes and are seen as leaders in their own field.
Looking globally, we see many examples of private schools offering \"pathways to excellence\" in high-demand, specialised areas – for example, the Parsons School of Design in New York as well as EHL for hospitality at Lausanne, Switzerland.
Similarly, Singapore can encourage private education institutes to fill talent gaps in the specialised fields and to build best-in-class capabilities in niche areas, and thereby complement the broad-based education offered by our public system.
Sir, we should consider enhancing the Private Education Institution (PEI) framework to enable PEIs that have the required track record, capabilities and academic rigour to have their own degree awarding powers. This will enable Singapore’s top quality home-grown PEIs to be independent of their overseas partners and have the autonomy over their curriculum design, development and delivery.
Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: Every year, around 9,000 students graduate from private education institutions offering degree courses in Singapore, while thousands more study in universities overseas. Apart from the few who obtain scholarships, most of these students will have to pay full tuition fees for their studies. This can cost them between $8,000 and $30,000 a year at local private education institutions, which vary considerably in instructional quality and resources and an average of $33,000 annually in overseas universities. These are enormous financial commitments for them and their parents.
In contrast, their peers and local Autonomous Universities spent around $8,200 annually for a non-medical degree after benefiting from tuition grants.
Many Polytechnic graduates feel the pressure to get a degree because better job and salary prospects as they compete in a globalised job market even in Singapore. The cohort participation rate in local Autonomous Universities last year was 42%. Can our AUs continue to open up more places, raising the target cohort participation rate to 50%? This will allow more deserving Singaporeans who want to attend the AUs to tap on the tuition grant scheme and benefit from the high quality of education offered by our AUs.
Mr Darryl David (Ang Mo Kio): Chairman, the concept of meritocracy has been central to Singapore's success. The implicit assumption in the system assumes that success in life is a deserved outcome to those who have worked hard and upwards, social mobility is possible if you strive and succeed regardless of the socio-economic class that you are born into.
This psyche of attaining success through one's effort and merit has been enshrined much into Singapore's collective consciousness and social fabric and has manifested itself in our perception that attaining a good education is somehow correlated with success. The ultimate apex of our education journey is seen as a quest for a university degree with the belief that attaining a pedigree degree from a good university is one of the passports of success.
But the fundamental objective of a holistic university education should not be credentialism where students and parents chase after branded degrees, but rather the acquisition or market relevant knowledge, life skills and a keen sense of inquisitiveness that propels one to continuously upgrade and seek new knowledge throughout one's life.
As such, we should be wary of continuing to chase after GPAs and endorsements of the universities without considering if its training and education is relevant to the job market and, more importantly, to our lives.
In the world we live in today, it is not so much about what you know, as opposed to what you can do and I believe that we just strive to contemporise our university education to reflect this reality. Our university education landscape tends to revolve around a continuous four-year stint of education from 18 to 21 or 22 years of age.
Depending on the degree programme, this curriculum tends to be largely theory-based. Some students who have interacted with tell me that they sometimes have difficulty to relating to concepts that were taught in universities because the unable to comprehend how these concepts work in the real world. Students also sometimes take a formulaic approach to concept application, applying their learnings rigidly assuming that the best practices that they have learned in case studies and classes would work in the real world.
University educators that I have spoken to, on the other hand, often lament that students are unable to grasp concepts that seem so intuitive to those who have work experience.
So, the question I would like to ask is if there are still value in putting our students through a continuous linear four-year tertiary education when they are 18 years old, or should we explore an education system that is more balanced and is a hybrid between a combination of hands-on experience and theoretical knowledge.
Perhaps, we should amend and adapt the theory-oriented straight to university model and focus on a more practice-oriented model where we ensure that students should have some practical experience via internships, attachments or work stints before their enrolment to universities.
We could also think about implementing a work-and-study model where students alternate between stints of study and work to complement and enhance what they have already picked up in the university and vice versa. This would help them better appreciate the concept that they have studied in school and allow them to draw practical and operational relevance that are much needed for them to function and blossom in today's university.
So, universities could thus be seen as the places of true continuing education where students of different ages and experiences could come and go, taking a continuous short series of short courses and programmes that would enhance what they have already learnt in the real world. And I would quote from hon Member Ms Denise Phua's line of \"learning anytime, anywhere and at any age\".
Along this line, we could also encourage our universities to value educators who bring with them a deep wealth of experience and functional expertise in the corporate world. Educators who are able to straddle between corporate life and academia as these educators can then complement a largely research-oriented faculties.
I would thus like to urge MOE to consider the points that I have made above as it takes steps to contemporise university education in Singapore.
Mr Eric Chua (Tanjong Pagar): Mr Chairman, every youth has potential. Potential to do well in life. Potential to be the best version of him or herself.
In 2020 last year, the proverbial stork blessed our little red dot with 38,705 babies. My son was one of them. In time to come, they will begin life’s salmon run and give it their best shot in their swims upstream. Some will thrive and do well. And yet for a variety of reasons, some of these young ones will stumble along the way. Each cohort, less than 1% does not complete Secondary school education. By any standard, we have done remarkably well in keeping our young ones in school.
But the story here on is a little troubling. At lunar new year gatherings each year, conversations sometimes crash into awkward silences when parents share about their child’s enrolment into ITE. These silences point to a mental model that has been entrenched in our collective psyche, that there exists a hierarchy: university degrees are more valued than polytechnic diplomas, and diplomas are more valued than ITE certificates. And paper qualification that a young person possesses is the marker of his or her intrinsic value, or worse, one that is commensurate with his or her concept of self-worth.
How tragic would that be, if it were true? I have been mentoring ITE students for the past seven years or so, so I have the privilege of interacting with many of them. Deep down in my heart, and I am sure in many of Members' hearts, too, in this Chamber, we all know there is still some truth to this. It is still how many of us frame how we think about education and success.
Are students who do well academically, that is, our top 10% in schools, top 10% in everything else in life? I cannot speak for others, but I do know if I ever were to be assessed for handyman work, I would likely rank amongst the bottom 10%. My better half can attest to that. And how about an index for street smarts? I hardly think I would go very far in that aspect as well.
So, why are we, as a society, so fixated on good grades, degrees and white-collared jobs? It is high time that we recognise that every youth has potential, and potential should not be defined narrowly in terms of academic achievements. Perhaps, we should stop labelling youths who are not as academically inclined as the \"bottom 10%\" or the laggards? They too have talents; they too have potential that they can show to the world. They are not the bottom 10%!
Wayne Liu, or DJ Koflow as he is better known, is one stellar example. When a younger Wayne ran afoul of the law, what the probationer said left a deep impression on him, and I quote, \"You don’t have good grades, but you’re a very talented kid. You need to find your focus.\" Today, Wayne is one of our music scene's most established turntablists, well sought after in the region.
I must qualify I am not making a case that one needs to be big in order to be successful. I recently spoke to Eugene, a teaching assistant and technical officer in a local institution. Eugene always had an interest in music. Armed with an ITE certificate and his burning passion, he decided to become an audio engineer right after National Service. It is a path less travelled, and understandably, family support was lukewarm.
But Eugene was lucky. He had met several mentors who took him under their wings and generously guided him along the way. Eugene's journey in music was heavily driven by passion. In school, his main motivation to learn was to pick up skills that would help him do well in what he was passionate about, not grades.
Eugene's journey, as well as many others who had taken paths less travelled, is instructive.
How can we, as a society, change our mindsets about how success is defined and how one gets there? How can we, as a society, dump our deep-seated biases and start looking at our youths with a pair of untainted lenses?
While it is true that ITE students might not have done well academically, it does not follow that they are less worthy members of our society. They too have talent and potential. How can we better structure a system that would nurture, mentor and help them uncover and pursue their passions, even in non-mainstream fields?
I would like to conclude with a quote from the late Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a novelist and winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. He said, and I quote, \"Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them… life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.\"
Mr Chairman, we must enable and empower all our youth, including who are less academically inclined, to be able to reinvent and be the best version of themselves.
Mr Don Wee (Chua Chu Kang): Chairman, for students from disadvantaged families, Student Care Centres, or SCCs can play a crucial role in ensuring that they get the additional support for their well-being. In addition to supervision and guidance for their studies, centre staff can help to keep an eye on their health and emotional conditions, and alert the authorities if there are troubling issues affecting these students.
May I ask if all underprivileged families whose children apply for places in Student Care Students are admitted? Can they be given priority for places at their own schools' SCCs to minimise travelling, particularly for Primary school students? If their own Primary schools do not have SCCs, if the families wish, can their children be accorded priority for transfers to the nearest schools with SCCs? Lastly, can dinners be provided for children from distressed families to minimise food insecurity?
Ms Janet Ang (Nominated Member): Sir, I declare that I am Chairman of Singapore Polytechnic and a council member of Singapore Business Federation.
Sir, to-date, Singapore's world-class ITE and Polytechnic education has served us very well, with 70% to 75% of each year's cohort of students attend ITE and our five Polytechnics. Much credit goes to MOE and all our educators and staff. Education is the key enabler that imbues values and empowers social mobility. When we get this right, it is not just the students involved but their families too.
COVID-19 has accelerated industry changes and everything needs a rethink and education is no exception. I have four questions and one suggestion.
One, I would like to ask the Ministry for an update of Second Minister Maliki's review of Applied Education to ensure that ITE and Polytechnic graduates' skills are matched to interest and jobs.
Second question – the jobs that our students will be doing in the future may not even exist today. The dynamism in the industry expects our graduates to be adaptable, versatile and resilient, as well as having an attitude of being always ready to learn. Thus, the importance of providing them a broader base education that strengthens their foundation has grown in importance. What is MOE planning to ensure that there will be resources to enable broad-based education for our students at the diploma level and would MOE consider to give greater flexibility for students in their choice of diploma and perhaps even allowing them to change course one time.
The third question – how is MOE providing for resources to address mental health and wellness issues, which is anticipated to increase?
And my last question is around lifelong learning. In support of the national imperative to encourage lifelong learning, Polytechnics have built on the existing industry partnerships to develop programmes to support our local Industries and businesses. What we have found is that SMEs still need help with their skills transformation plans. Can Minister share how he sees our IHL educators supporting our SMEs further upstream with the planning for the reskilling of staff?
I have one suggestion, which is to second lecturers to selected industries for three to six months or longer, almost like a skills transformer as a service to help SMEs develop the CET training plans for their staff. The focus on CET for workers is imperative. How does MOE intend to further this aspiration?
And in closing, I would like to leave a quote for all the students: \"Educators open the door, but you, must enter by yourself.\"
Ms Mariam Jaafar (Sembawang): Polytechnics and ITEs are a critical part of our education system. Not only must the curriculum be dynamic and able to prepare graduates for the future economy, they must also appeal to the diverse learning interests and needs of our students and inspire them to seek out challenging opportunities for them to always learn and grow.
As our education system moves to novel approaches like subject-based banding in our schools and dual majors in our Universities, let us not neglect to consider similar approaches for our Polytechnics and ITEs, including the potential to accelerate progression based on performance or dual diplomas.
I would like to ask MOE to provide an update on Polytechnic and ITE employment outcomes respectively, including full time, contract, part time employment; as well as statistics on graduates who go on to jobs unrelated to their course of study; and salary levels within and outside of course of study. The latter point is particularly pertinent to ITE, where there remains a perception, that a not insignificant number of graduates find it more lucrative to take on delivery jobs.
I would also like to ask MOE, as the Member before me, to provide an update on the pathways, progression and curriculum in Polytechnics and ITEs, and how success will be measured.
Dr Wan Rizal (Jalan Besar): Chairman, may I take the three cuts together?
The Chairman: Yes, please.
Dr Wan Rizal: Thirty years ago, the \"typical\" route for Normal stream students was to do their \"N\" levels and get into ITEs. Alternatively, they can do well for \"N\" levels, get themselves to do the \"O\" levels next, and then get to the Polytechnics or Junior Colleges.
This pathway still exists. It is not a bad one. Many of my best students actually come from the ITE route. Another group that stood out is from the Polytechnic Foundation Programme (PFP). Many have done well – even better than those that come in from the \"O\" levels route.
Students nowadays are lucky. When I was doing my diploma 25 years ago – yes, 25 years ago – courses were limited to business, IT, or engineering-related one. Now, we have a variety of courses, from Sports Science all the way to designing games for gamification.
In my previous speeches, I have brought forth the need to review courses in IHLs to cater for the diverse learning needs and interests and better prepare graduates for the future economy. This include meaningful and relevant internship programmes.
Therefore, I would like to ask the Minister, what are their plans to enhance the current pathways in the IHLs?
Sir, my second card in Malay, please.
(In Malay): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Language is a reflection of a person’s race, culture and character. It also links one’s identity to his or her heritage.
As Singapore transformed into a developed nation that places importance on using the English language fluently, let us remind ourselves that the major economies in this region do not use English as the lingua franca but our mother tongue languages instead like Malay, Mandarin and Tamil.
Therefore, what policies will the Ministry of Education pursue to preserve the use of mother tongue languages among students so that they will not only appreciate but also understand the importance of mother tongue in their daily lives?
(In English): One persistent issue that I have been confronted with my students and young residents alike, is mental health – from anxiety to addiction to depression originating from various sources from home, school and the cyberspace.
The cyberspace is not just a digital playground. It is a source of information or misinformation, and a platform for rich interaction. Our youths use social media pervasively, and they may feel that they must present a particular front to keep up with their friends' fake realities on social media. This behaviour may induce unnecessary stress that may affect their mental wellbeing. Additionally, this stress may be compounded and worsened when cyberbullying comes into play.
It can be as simple as continually muting a fellow classmate in class such that he cannot participate in an online class anymore. Or it can be more serious ones, where they gang up on online social media, target an account, attack them and ridicule these accounts.
Chairman, as a parent, as an educator, I am naturally concerned. In my recent speeches, I highlighted the importance of mental and digital literacy to teach our students how to manage their mental wellbeing, protect themselves in cyberspace but most importantly create future generations of social media users who are discerning and uphold an unwritten code of conduct.
Therefore, could the Ministry share their plans to further institutionalise, incorporate, and enhance mental health education and cyber wellness in the current curriculum.
Ms Carrie Tan (Nee Soon): Mr Chairman, the number of teen suicides have increased in recent years, and depression and anxiety are emerging increasingly as real struggles amongst our youth. Mental health issues often begin during school-age years, especially during and after puberty. Stresses and confusion brought by physiological and hormonal changes add to the fray, at a time when young people are honing their self-worth and trying to form their own self-identity.
Bullying, conflicts amongst friends and social exclusion present themselves in the school environment which is where children spend the most time. It logically follows that mental health education and support must also start in schools. Teachers and students often notice small changes in thinking and behaviour in their peers and an individual before a major episode happens. Learning about early warning signs and taking action can help – and may even prevent mental health struggles from worsening into mental illness.
When society risks losing young lives to mental health struggles, educators need to understand and nurture our young through their challenges in holistic manners. Perhaps having a trauma-informed care approach to understand the context of students' experiences could be one way.
Educators can benefit from understanding the various ways that trauma appear in children's lives and some of these include poverty, peer victimisation, family violence, racism, homophobia, and lately, what has come to public attention, transphobia.
I would like to ask MOE, what are its current strategies to strengthen mental health support in schools, and how is it equipping teachers and staff, and to consider the above suggestions.
The Chairman: Order. I propose to take a break now.
[(proc text) Thereupon Mr Speaker left the Chair of the Committee and took the Chair of the House. (proc text)]
Mr Speaker: Order. I suspend the Sitting and will take the Chair at 3.25 pm.
Sitting accordingly suspended
at 3.02 pm until 3.25 pm.
Sitting resumed at 3.25 pm.
[Mr Speaker in the Chair]
[(proc text) Debate in Committee of Supply resumed. (proc text)]
[Mr Speaker in the Chair]
Head K (cont) –
Dr Shahira Abdullah (Nominated Member): Chairman, youths are highly plugged into issues that surface in Singapore and beyond due to the ease of access to the Internet. More often than not, their opinions and knowledge about these issues also tend to come from the Internet. Constructive guided discussions in school may be an effective way of unpacking these issues.
I am heartened that the revamped Character and Citizenship Education or CCE curriculum is trying to prepare the students to have these conversations in a sensitive and thoughtful manner. These topics may include issues, such as bullying, social media use and the navigation of race and religion issues. I believe this is a good move as students from different backgrounds are able to interact together in the school environment. At the same time, students are generally more comfortable in school, so they tend to be more candid in their responses.
With my own personal interactions with teachers on the ground, however, many have confided that they are uncomfortable in handling these difficult conversations and I quote, \"Yes. Sometimes, we are also scared to discuss as may not always be able to deal with what is raised\" or \"Students indicate that they are comfortable discussing sensitive topics like, for example, race, religion, sexuality but some of the teachers are not. Then, how do we move forward?\" These are just two of the many teachers who have said something similar.
In a recent CNA article, Ho Li-Ching, President of the Singapore Association for Social Studies Education, found additional pressure present and I quote, \"Singapore teachers who wish to address controversial public issues in their classrooms face constraints. My own research has shown that they are particularly concerned about the impact of breaking laws, breaching norms, especially important OB markers, and faced with the pressures of national examinations, many do not want to deviate from the prescribed official curriculum. Teachers also face pressures, such as the threat of external challenges or sanctions, and censure from superiors or peers.\" These uncertainties and fears will undoubtedly lead to some sort of self-censorship and unwillingness of teachers to conduct these conversations.
In a previous Budget debate in March last year, the Minister had said that with the expansion of the CCE curriculum, every school experience can be a CCE lesson. Every teacher can be a CCE teacher. I think this is an excellent goal.
However, could I ask the Ministry if there are plans to have all teachers trained in such specialised skills and, if so, what is the estimated timeline for this? Controversial issues and incidents can happen at any time and it would be advantageous for all teachers to be able to seize it as a teachable moment when it happens.
For teachers who are trained, I would also like to suggest for periodic reviews and surveys to be done to find out the perceived confidence versus competence, when handling these conversations. This may be an indication of the willingness of teachers in conducting these conversations.
Mr Darryl David (Ang Mo Kio): Mr Chairman, the COVID-19 pandemic has also made the mental health issue a concern. People have felt the effects in a number of ways: increased anxiety, worrying about health and a change in lifestyle habits and socialisation because of social distancing. Pressure levels could intensify for people who already face mental health challenges arising from daily stressors.
Our young people and students would be no different, and I would thus hope that MOE can continue to develop and enhance their pastoral and career counselling support provided to our schools and institutions.
Pastoral counselling is essential in helping students with their mental wellness so that they can deal with their day-to-day mental stress. Sources of this stress can take the form of that which they face in their personal lives due to family and, perhaps, relationships. However, stress can also result from school-related matters, such as juggling multiple commitments – dealing with academic commitments and co-curricular activities and struggling with issues, such as their emerging identity and personality, relationship matters, peer pressure and even bullying.
We tend to assume that it is typically older students, such as those in Secondary school onwards, who are affected by stress and mental health issues. However, it could also be that students in Primary school face their own types of stress, especially in the face of what some see as the \"mother of all examinations\" – the PSLE.
Mental wellness and peer support have been given more focus in schools over the years and MOE has also updated and revised its Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) curriculum for 2021. It would be good if schools, even Primary schools, were able to get more trained counsellors and psychologists to cater to the needs of these students facing challenges and difficulties in this area.
Pastoral counsellors do help to manage the mental and emotional wellness of the students. However, I feel that there is also a need to have career counselling for students as well.
While career counselling is typically associated with providing students who are graduating from University to help them sort out their professional post-University choices, I feel that it would be good to also provide career counselling to students earlier. This could be for students who are transitioning from Secondary school to their Junior College and Polytechnic education, as they can then be guided and advised about the choices that they make in the next step of their education journey. Often, students do not get sufficient guidance in these areas in terms of the industry or the profession in which they are interested.
Professional career counsellors should ideally be industry professionals with the appropriate industry and professional experience – very different from the experience offered by educators or teachers. Now, these counsellors could also have the industry connections and network to invite industry professionals into the school to help speak to the students. This will help engage students so that they can make choices that are obviously more informed choices.
I believe that MOE does provide this support via their Education and Career Guidance (ECG) platform, so it would be good to extend and enhance these resources so that every school perhaps could have its dedicated team of trained, professional career counsellors.
Catering to students' emotional and career needs will help put them on a road to a stable and secure future, giving them hope and a sense of purpose. I hope that MOE will continue to provide the required support in these areas.
Mr Shawn Huang Wei Zhong: Mr Chairman, may I take my cuts together?
The Chairman: Yes, please.
Mr Shawn Huang Wei Zhong: Thank you. Home-based learning, more screen time, online lessons, examinations, CCAs, tuition, extra lessons for a myriad of activities. The fear of failure. A constant struggle. The environment for a student today has become vastly different from the one of the past. I am most concerned for the mental well-being of students. Minister of State Sun Xueling, too, shared similar concerns as she highlighted the importance of mental well-being and shared how crucial it was for those students who suffer not to feel stigmatised.
Despite COVID-19 and these evolving challenges, MOE has done well to consistently update and roll out new programmes to better prepare our next generation for the challenges ahead. Recently, there has been an update to the Character and Citizenship Education curriculum. Back in my time, it was called \"好公民\".
Minister Lawrence Wong shared that every teacher is not just a subject teacher but also a teacher of 21st century competencies and a teacher of citizenship and character. This resonates deeply with me as it is important to ground our students with the values and competencies that will put them in good stead to thrive in an uncertain future, to care for our fellow citizens and community.
Can I ask the Minister for Education to share more on the updated CCE and how it can support our students' mental well-being? Second cut.
The current curriculum of special education is tailored to support children throughout their education roadmap. As part of any education system, there will be periods of transition between schools and programmes. These periods of transition may not be easy for many students with special needs. When not properly managed, they could cause disruption and much time is needed to adapt.
Can the Minister for Education share more on how intervention programmes today help our students with their transition as they enter Primary school and Secondary school?
Ms Rahayu Mahzam (Jurong): Every child is different and deserves to be given the opportunity to thrive and discover their true potential. Some may even have special needs and may need more support and guidance. However, this should not just translate into giving them special attention and help. What would be more meaningful is to empower and equip them with as many skills as possible so that they can be as independent as possible and could even contribute towards the economy and society in the future.
Further, it is also important to provide opportunities for them to integrate into the community. We could start by creating opportunities for them to learn and play alongside typically developing students in school.
I am sure many would not disagree with the vision of supporting our children with special needs and creating an inclusive and integrated learning environment for them. But the challenge comes in the implementation.
Firstly, there is a spectrum of needs and it may not be easy to truly customise and curate the curriculum and integrate students with varying needs. Secondly, a lot of resources are needed and educators need to be sufficiently knowledgeable and mentally prepared to manage the different students. Thirdly, there may be concerns about shortchanging the typically developing children if teachers need to accommodate those with special needs.
I understand the challenges but I believe there is great value in investing upstream to provide our students with special needs with the skills and preparing them for life. The cost of having to care for them in later years may be greater and this may result in a social burden to families and the community. More importantly, this group presents a potential resource which may not have been fully tapped.
In Israel, there have been efforts to train those who are in the autism spectrum for cybersecurity jobs and an artificial intelligence (AI) start-up has found that autistic people are highly suited to their business involving data annotation. These developments may still be at the nascent stage, but if we choose to view children with special needs as assets to the community, I am sure we will find a way to maximise their potential.
I would also argue that beyond benefiting the students with special needs, students who are typically developing also stand to gain a wealth of skills, values and knowledge that are crucial for the diverse workplace of the future. Learning in school should not be just about learning hard skills and knowledge like Mathematics and Science but also about the softer skills and values.
I believe it is in our interest to nurture a culture of inclusion, respect and understanding, and these values need to be inculcated from an early age.
I acknowledge that much has been done by schools but I believe we can enhance the existing efforts. To this end, I ask that the Ministry look at a few areas.
Firstly, could a review or some studies be done to look at developing fields where the skills and inclinations of the special needs students could be developed? A revised curriculum could then be curated to enhance the student's education experience and better maximise the child's potential.
Secondly, could the Ministry and schools also look at how to better equip and support educators to manage diverse student profiles? Beyond just sending them for training, could we look at understanding the challenges and providing sufficient resources to guide educators in this journey?
Thirdly, could schools look at intentionally creating platforms by adapting programmes, redesigning school spaces and setting aside time for cross-interaction during learning and play? We should look at how to regularise such interactions and teach students to respect each other and embrace differences. Schools are best placed to create opportunities to normalise acceptance of people with different abilities and celebrate different strengths.
I laud all the efforts taken by the Ministry thus far and sincerely hope that the Ministry would continue to build on existing programmes and initiatives.
Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng (Jalan Besar): Sir, over the last 15 years, MOE has been paying increasing attention to and investing in students with special education needs, or SEN. This is deeply appreciated.
About 20% of students with SEN attend some 19 Special Education, or SPED, schools. The rest, 80%, attend mainstream schools in Singapore. A proportion of these students then move on to Institutions of Higher Learning, or IHLs.
First, on students with SEN at the IHL level. Sir, internships are vital to IHL students, offering them work exposure and boosting their chances of obtaining future employment. Many students with SEN find challenges in securing internship opportunities to get the authentic work experiences that they need. Without proper support, their chances in securing and completing the internships are low.
I, therefore, seek to find out the success rate of securing and completing internships for students with SEN in IHLs and how MOE is supporting the institutions and these students.
Next, turning to mainstream Primary and Secondary schools. Students with SEN in the mainstream schools follow the national curriculum set by MOE. Their eligibility for the next level of education often weighs heavily on their academic scores and the academic subjects understandably take precedence during curriculum time. Teachers and supporting Allied Educators often give the feedback that there is insufficient time and expertise to build and coach these students in non-academic life skills, which they often badly need.
Can MOE update on its plans to provide more support so that students with SEN in mainstream schools are better prepared for their next phase of life – either to the IHLs, the next level of learning, or for work? Is there another model different from the current model that might work?
Finally, on Special Education, or SPED, schools, which are run in collaboration with disability social service agencies, or SSAs.
Many SPED students in SPED schools need a longer pathway or runway to learn both literacy and life skills. The runway is even longer with the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. More than the rest of their peers, SPED school students badly need lifelong learning.
Recent years saw interesting developments in the special education sector: (a) an increasing number of SPED schools in Singapore; (b) an increase in secondment of MOE career mainstream principals to run special schools; and (c) an increase in MOE headquarters' SPED management, control and reporting requirements.
Tight governance, compliance and reporting are all very critical matters whenever resources, public or community, are expended. But for especially the SPED sector, where challenges abound, the Government needs to find a better way to bring out the best in its disability charity partners and the community assets that the latter can harness.
I have three suggestions for MOE's favourable consideration: (a) conduct a joint visioning exercise amongst key stakeholder groups on the SPED schools of the future; (b) develop alliances for action to effectively look into how the sector can innovatively better the education and life outcomes for these students; and (c) design and pilot lifelong learning SPED schools with willing partners and sponsors for the major disability groups.
I look forward to MOE's considered and favourable response.
Mr Mark Chay (Nominated Member): Mr Chairman, it is encouraging that inclusion has been a consistent theme in our recent Budgets. In sports, medals are won in seconds and those fleeting moments belie years of effort. Our training towards inclusion has just begun and I am concerned whether we are committed enough to reach the podium.
Not many of you know that para-athlete Theresa Goh and I represented Singapore in Athens 2004 – I at the Olympics and her in the Paralympics. I learned about the Paralympic Movement then and, over the years, got to know more para-athletes. In 2019, I found little hesitance in deciding to become Yip Pin Xiu's coach even though I have never coached anyone with disabilities before.
We share the same passion, spoke the language and I soon learned that we have more similarities between us than differences. I felt confident in adapting what I know with what she needs to enact her Paralympic success.
Typically, when a child expresses an aspiration to become an Olympian, we can guide the child to pursue this aspiration through CCAs and clubs. But what if the child has disabilities? Can appropriate advice and encouragement be given to them? Does the child have to be contented with just inclusive physical education (PE)?
There is no doubt we need to play the long game for inclusion and I have two suggestions to make.
First, our educators must understand the Paralympics. Most Singaporeans already know what the Olympics are, but not its parallel movement.
Second, support our educators with additional resources to teach youths.
Both suggestions have been tried and tested by the Singapore Disability Sports Council through two pilots: The I'mPOSSIBLE programme that attracted over 250 educators to undergo training on the Paralympic movement. and Project ParABLE, a Temasek Foundation-sponsored pilot that offers resources, such as athlete ambassadors and equipment, to bring para-sports experiences to all students.
We should evaluate how we can allocate resources to continue and extend such support to all schools to get us closer to the podium goal of sustainable inclusion.
Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang): Mr Chairman, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown into sharp relief the importance of reskilling and upskilling opportunities for our workforce. Through some of these programmes, Singaporeans equip themselves with the necessary skills to take up new roles in the in-demand sectors. Even for those who are still in the midst of their job search, learning new skills through the various courses offered by SkillsFuture has helped them to stay confident and productive.
Can the Ministry share details on further efforts to support Singaporeans to learn for life through the SkillsFuture movement? What are the latest statistics concerning SkillsFuture Credit usage? Can we look forward to another round of SkillsFuture Credit top up?
As more people stay at home and spend time online, this has led to a surge in interest in online educational content. Being able to attend classes anytime from the comfort of their homes is a boon for many busy adults juggling multiple commitments. Will SkillsFuture look into encouraging this trend of learning online, even when safe distancing measures are relaxed?
What are the plans for the next phase of SkillsFuture to facilitate the pursuit of skills mastery and development? What are the measures of success for the SkillsFuture initiative?
Mr Sharael Taha (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Mr Chairman, we continue to invest in our people and in providing for more support through SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package for our workers.
Of the many upgrading courses available, many are on digital skills. These courses need to translate into real changes. How can we increase the efficacy of these trainings into driving real digital transformation? Can we consider measuring success through transformation-driven metrics rather than course take-up rates? A tiered approach can be used, where applicable, to provide basic subsidy for attending the course and enhanced subsidy if the employee drives a change to the business. An example is the lean sigma black belt course, which is an operational excellence training course where a participant receives his certification only after showing a $1 million operational improvement to his organisation.
Ms Mariam Jaafar: The work-from-home trend driven by COVID-19 has accelerated the realisation that work can be done from anywhere in the world. While this is often couched in terms of a warning to workers in terms of higher competition for jobs in our market that could be done from outside Singapore, it is, in fact, also an opportunity, for our workers to take on jobs anywhere in the world.
An unfortunate casualty of COVID-19 is that the pace at which we can pursue learning and growth opportunities in the region has decreased, as borders remain closed. Schools have had to cancel overseas learning trips and exchange programmes and some companies have scaled back on their regionalisation and internationalisation ambitions.
Chairman, I am grateful for many things in my life but one of the things I am most grateful for is to have had the opportunity to study and work in the US and, for the past few more years, just spend most of my time working with clients in the region.
Besides gaining an understanding of the market and the ability to work on different types of projects, overseas work experience has many other benefits, including learning to work with diverse teams, cultivating an open mind, enhancing independence and adaptability, and gaining a sense of perspective, empathy, humility and gratitude. While the benefits are clearly greater when teams are co-located in the market, there is still a lot to be gained from working with virtual teams in another market and I have lived this on my own. As a consultant, I used to spend 45 days a year away from home and the circuit breaker seemed like the end of the world. But we have adapted and we have learnt that we can still deliver projects and deliver great value – staff teams in any of the countries from regions around the world – with technology.
The Government has recently strengthened the enterprise pillar of the skills eco-system with many exciting reskilling programmes driven by Queen Bee global companies, many of which provide support to place graduates of the programmes into local positions within Singapore firms in their eco-system. At this point, I should declare that I work for one of such companies.
Can we lean in on the Queen Bee global companies that we are partnering with in our various skills programmes to provide opportunities for our students in schools and our trainees in our skills programmes to gain exposure and experience working on projects and internships with teams outside of Singapore, while remaining in Singapore, as the world continues to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, and perhaps even be considered for employment with companies overseas today, and even more after we are all vaccinated and the opportunities of the world are open for us again?
Ms Foo Mee Har (West Coast): Chairman, I declare my interest as CEO of WMI, an education institute.
COVID-19 brought significant disruption to the global economy and, with it, also permanent changes to the job landscape. We witnessed a unique situation, where millions of workers became unemployed on one hand and significant numbers of new jobs created on the other. The skills mismatch has never been more stark.
Whilst Singapore has managed to keep unemployment at bay with generous job support schemes, many have flagged under-employment as the bigger issue. A trend has been observed in a recent Joint Autonomous Universities Graduate Employment Survey. It reported that fewer Singapore graduates secured permanent full-time jobs in 2020, along with a spike in part-time and temporary employment, amidst the pandemic.
As Singapore shifts its focus towards recovery and emerging stronger, we need to accelerate support for Singaporeans to pick up skills they need to move into new jobs and new sectors. The Government, employers and workers need to join forces to embrace reskilling pathways to address the skills mismatch.
According to a Harvard Business Review article, reskilling refers not only to learning specific job technical skills but also to acquiring core competencies, such as adaptability, communication, collaboration and creativity. The process of reskilling successfully for a new job or to carry out new tasks requires significant commitments of time and investment.
For example, the General Assembly's immersive courses that help participants gain skills for jobs in technology, data and other digital roles, typically take 480 hours of live instruction, either online or in a physical classroom, are often delivered over an intense 12-week period. So, how do we evolve our SkillsFuture training eco-system to adopt similar teaching pedagogy like General Assembly, to provide learners with skills accorded in a more formal learning experience with clear links to job performance outcomes? With significant job opportunities in the care, digital and green economy, how can we evolve our reskilling pathways to train for skills needed in these sectors?
Sir, I called, in Parliament last year, for the setting up of an Industry Skills Training Scheme to be led by employers and industry groups. The set-up of the industry academies to provide high quality certified courses to support acquisition of skills and capabilities in demand by industry is critical to support reskilling efforts.
The introduction of SkillsFuture Queen Bee companies is a good initiative. Queen Bee industry leaders, such as IBM and Google can leverage their best practices, cutting-edge know-how and training solutions to level up the skills capability of companies in the network. Also, the partnership between Goggle, EDB, IMDA and SkillsFuture Singapore for the Skills Ignition SG has the potential to boost jobseekers' employment and employability.
So, I would like to ask: how can SkillsFuture Queen Bee programme and Goggle-type initiatives be expanded to bring more industry leaders onboard the reskilling effort?
The Chairman: Minister Lawrence Wong.
The Minister for Education (Mr Lawrence Wong): Mr Chairman, much has been said about the wide-reaching impact of COVID-19. It has forced us to question assumptions we have long taken for granted and it has changed the way we live, work, study and play.
In many countries, the impact has been felt sharply by students. Schools have been closed for months; some students have not seen their teachers face-to-face for more than a year. Worse, the issue has been politicised in some places, creating sharp divisions between parents, teachers and even teacher unions. Many worry that this will impact a whole generation of children, not just struggling to keep up in their studies, but also finding it difficult later to catch up in their skills, job prospects and incomes.
Fortunately, this has not happened in Singapore. We had to close schools and move to full home-based learning for a month during the circuit breaker. But for the most part, we have been able to keep schools open and ensure learning continues seamlessly. For this, we owe a debt of gratitude to all our educators for their hard work and sacrifices, their ability to adapt and respond quickly, and their dedication to keep our schools and students safe. So, I would like to put on record in this House my thanks to all our educators in Singapore. [Applause.]
Beyond the immediate impact it has had on our schools, COVID-19 has added greater urgency to our \"Learn for Life\" movement and crystallised what our priorities are moving forward. As Ms Denise Phua said, it has given us an opportunity to re-imagine what our education system could be like in a post-COVID-19 world, and I assure her that that is something we are committed to doing. We are not constrained by legacy thinking or existing ways of doing things. No programme or structure in our education system is beyond scrutiny or re-examination. We may put back the stone after turning it over and there may well be good reasons for the stone to be there, but we will continue to pick it up again and again and we will take a closer look from time to time.
In fact, since joining MOE, the question I have been asked the most is: what can I do to better prepare for a more uncertain, turbulent and volatile future? And I think many young people and their parents hope for some guidance on what course of study would give them a head-start. But, in fact, there is no \"right\" or \"ideal\" subject to choose.
Whatever a student studies in school, the content knowledge will need to be constantly refreshed and updated throughout their careers. For example, many young people today want to learn how to code and that is a good thing. Today, many learn Python. A few years later, they will have to confront new apps, devices and programming languages. So, students have to be prepared to constantly upgrade themselves and take on multiple jobs throughout their lifetimes. In fact, some of the jobs they will do in the future may not even exist today.
In such a world, what is more important is the ability to learn how to learn, to keep on learning and re-learning and to enjoy doing so. We want our students to read widely, ask critical questions, analyse data, formulate ideas and to communicate well. Most of all, we want them to be curious, to enjoy the learning adventure enough to do this repeatedly throughout life, discovering new wonders each time. And that is why we have been making bold changes in our education system to move away from the over-emphasis on grades and examination results and to nurture a generation of students who enjoy learning and are not bogged down by chasing every last mark.
As Mr Patrick Tay said just now, we want our system to be ready, relevant and resilient. So, we continue to improve, to learn from other systems and to try out new approaches. Whatever changes we make, we do so carefully and thoughtfully, not just blindly copying others, but making sure there are genuine benefits and value.
Today, let me share about three of MOE's priorities over the coming years: first, to equip our students with competencies and skills beyond book knowledge; second, to support learning through multiple diverse pathways and throughout life; third, to uplift our students and ensure they develop to their fullest potential, regardless of starting point.
Let me start with how we are developing in our students a broader set of foundational skills and core competencies needed to thrive in today’s fast-changing world. This is something several Members spoke about earlier, including Ms Denise Phua, Mr Leon Perera and Ms Hazel Poa, and I agree with them that it is important to develop these skills. The competencies that matter for success in the real world go well beyond academic abilities. They include skills like effective communication and teamwork, creativity and innovation, curiosity, resilience and grit.
We often call these 21st Century Competencies, or 21CCs, and we are committed to strengthening the teaching of such life skills across our education system. It is not so easy to test or develop KPIs for such skills. The outcomes are not always easily measured, and must be observed over time. So, we take a practical approach. In schools, our teachers actively look out for these traits in our students. We also participate in international benchmarking studies. And what is encouraging is that our students do outperform their peers in some areas, like cross-cultural skills and dispositions, and collaborative problem solving. Of course, there is also room to improve in other areas, like adapting to new challenges and the preparedness to embrace failure. So, we have made progress but there are some areas where we can do better and we will continue to do more to emphasise 21CCs throughout the entire education journey.
In schools, one important approach is through Character and Citizenship Education, or CCE. We are progressively rolling out a new curriculum for CCE that will equip our students with the competencies to be more future-ready. The revised curriculum will further anchor our students on strong values, teach them to appreciate diverse perspectives, strengthen their mental resilience and make them more cyber-savvy. CCE will not just be delivered through dedicated lessons. But it will also be interwoven more deliberately throughout school lessons and activities, as part of the everyday school experience. And Minister of State Sun Xueling will provide more details later in her speech.
We are also learning from our experience with Home-Based Learning, or HBL, and are incorporating Blended Learning strategies in schools – where students learn not just in classrooms, but also at their own pace at home, enabled by technology.
In particular, we will schedule HBL as a regular feature of the curriculum. We will introduce around two days of HBL a month in Secondary schools, and it can be slightly more for Pre-University. That is between 10% to 20% of curriculum time, depending on the level. So, it is a meaningful and important part of the curriculum. And every Secondary school student will own a Personal Learning Device – a laptop or tablet – to support Blended Learning by the end of the year.
The key motivation for doing this is to give our students more flexibility to chart their own learning and to equip them with important skills, like initiative, discipline and self-management.
Besides curriculum coverage, HBL days will also include dedicated time for student-initiated learning, where students can explore areas of personal interest outside the curriculum, like learning a foreign language or musical instrument. And we hope this will fuel our students’ intrinsic motivation to learn, and help them discover their interests and passions.
Beyond HBL and Blended Learning, our teachers are also transforming the in-class learning experience, to be more inquiry-based and experiential. Last week, I visited Lakeside Primary School, which is piloting the use of immersive technology to enhance learning. I joined a Primary 5 class for their Science lesson on the human respiratory system. Very relevant in the pandemic, as all of us know. We put on virtual reality (VR) goggles, we examined a pair of lungs up close in a VR environment and learned about how the lungs function. It was wonderful to see how engaged the students were – they were enjoying themselves, they were curious, and asking many questions and excited about learning.
And that is just one example of the kind of holistic teaching and learning that our schools are engaged in today. And we will continue to find new ways to ignite our students’ curiosity and support their development into self-directed and passionate life-long learners.
Besides schools, the Institutes of Higher Learning, the IHLs, are also looking at more holistic education outcomes, something which Mr Darryl David spoke passionately about. They are fundamentally re-thinking existing structures and methods to better meet today’s demands and they are also sharpening their focus on the inculcation of life skills that are important across all disciplines.
For example, IHLs are putting greater emphasis on experiential learning through projects outside the classroom. Such applied and hands-on experiences help to impart valuable skills like teamwork and negotiation. Often, industry partners are brought on board, giving our students valuable exposure in tackling real-world issues.
Another important change is the expansion of interdisciplinary learning in our IHLs’ curriculum. This builds on the broad-based education provided in our schools, where our students are exposed to a wide range of subjects. We recognise that some of the best thinking happens when different fields, ideas and disciplines intersect.\tAnd that is why it is important to expose students to different ways of thinking; to develop hybrid skills, as Ms Phua highlighted just now. It is similar to how an athlete does cross-training to exercise different key muscle groups. So, interdisciplinary learning is something that is happening across our IHLs.
These systematic changes are being made at the Autonomous Universities (AUs) and Polytechnics. For example, the Universities are enhancing the common curricula for their undergraduates, to equip them with core skills and multidisciplinary knowledge; and give students more room to pursue electives that they enjoy. As students start specialising in particular disciplines, they will also be given greater flexibility to pursue double degrees, double majors, minors and electives. Likewise, similar shifts are being made in the Polytechnics, where students will be exposed to a greater breadth of learning and modules.
When it comes to teaching and learning outcomes, our educators are at the forefront of all our efforts. They, too, believe strongly in developing students holistically, and in nurturing key values and competencies.
So, MOE will do more to support our teachers in this important work.
First, to strengthen our educators’ skills in CCE, we will establish a new Centre for CCE at the National Institute of Education. This centre will work with schools to strengthen CCE learning, conduct relevant research, and provide thought leadership. Our goal is for every teacher to be a CCE teacher and we will provide them full support to achieve this.
Second, we will launch a new Centre for Teaching and Learning Excellence. We now have one such Centre at Yusof Ishak Secondary School. It allows teachers to train in situ, strengthening the nexus between research, theory and practice. Teachers are able to participate in master classes and demonstration classes, apply their learning in an authentic classroom setting, and explore innovative ideas in curriculum and pedagogy. The Centre has received good feedback from Secondary school teachers. So, to support our Primary school teachers, we will start a new Centre for Teaching and Learning Excellence at New Town Primary School from this year.
I thank Mr Louis Ng for his appreciation of the difficult and important work that our teachers do, and his suggestions to improve the appraisal framework for our teachers. MOE shares his desire for a more effective performance management system, and we will refine and calibrate how to do this better over time. We will continue to use our regular dialogue sessions with the Public Service Division and the teachers’ unions, to ensure that our appraisal framework is relevant, fair and motivates performance and development.
We will also look out for the well-being of teachers in specialised subjects like Arts, Music, PE and Mother Tongue, something which Mr Patrick Tay highlighted earlier. We will continue to run comprehensive staff engagement surveys, something which we are already doing. We will do more of that. We will engage all our teachers and support them holistically in their professional development as well as their career progression.
Our second priority area is to provide more diverse and flexible pathways for learning. Whenever I visit our schools and tertiary institutions, I see an incredible diversity of talents and passions amongst our youths. Every student is unique, and we must do our utmost to empower each of them to learn, grow and thrive.
That is why we are pressing on with major structural changes in our education system, to provide more flexibility for our students to customise their learning experiences, and embrace a wider spectrum of strengths and talents through diverse pathways and through every phase of their learning.
One major reform being implemented this year is our PSLE scoring system. It will support a shift away from an over-emphasis on academic results. Because with wider scoring bands, there is no need to chase every last mark. Every student will be measured on their own progress and can set their own goals, regardless of how their peers performed. More schools will also have the same cut-off point. So, we encourage parents and students to look beyond cut-off points and pick a school based on its programmes, its ethos and culture, and that best fits the student’s interests and aptitudes.
Mr Baey Yam Keng and Mr Gerald Giam spoke about this and, indeed, MOE has been progressively preparing students and engaging parents for these changes. In particular, our teachers will continue to advise parents and students on the subject combination that best caters to the student’s pace of learning, based on their learning outcomes, aptitude and attitude.
But this is not cast in stone. So, if a student who initially takes a subject at the Foundation level shows improvement, then the school will support them to take the subject at the Standard-level for PSLE. Students who do well in their Foundation subject at PSLE or later can also take subjects at a more demanding level in Secondary school. MOE will continue to put out more information and engage parents on these PSLE changes. In fact, in the next few months, we will provide the indicative Achievement Level cut-off points for each individual school, simulated based on the latest 2020 PSLE results.
But each time we put out this information, I think parents will look at all the details very carefully and I want to remind everyone that the PSLE is just one checkpoint of many in the education journey. I think Mr Darryl David just now said it is the \"mother of all examinations\". It is not. It is only one checkpoint of many throughout one's education journey and the changes to the PSLE are part of a bigger move to provide flexible pathways for learning, and to avoid locking a student into any fixed path in Secondary school and beyond.
We are enhancing such porosity in our Secondary schools through another major structural change – and that is Full Subject-Based Banding, or Full SBB. We have been piloting Full SBB in 28 schools since last year. In these schools, students of different academic abilities are placed in mixed form classes, and they can offer additional subjects at a more demanding level. And the initial findings from these pilot schools are very encouraging. Students in the mixed form classes are learning well and they are making friends with classmates from different courses. More importantly, they are learning to respect and appreciate each other’s differences and strengths. And with a greater diversity of perspectives, classroom discussions are richer and livelier. Some students attempting subjects at a more demanding level were naturally apprehensive at the start. But with support and encouragement from their teachers and classmates, they have been progressing well in their learning and enjoying their lessons.
The implementation of Full SBB is not a trivial exercise. Significant adjustments are needed: our schools in the arrangement of classes and timetables; our teachers in how they design and teach classes for varying student profiles; and our students in their mindsets and attitudes towards learning. So, I am glad that everyone has risen to the challenge and embraced these changes and we are on track to implementing Full SBB across the system.
We will continue to learn from the experiences of the pilot schools, and more schools will come on board the Full SBB. In particular, about 30 more schools will come on board Full SBB next year, and we will roll out Full SBB to the remaining Secondary schools over 2023 and 2024.
We will then see the end of streaming and a new approach across all our Secondary schools – giving students greater agency in their own education, and more opportunities to develop their diverse strengths and interests.
We are also expanding and enhancing our post-Secondary pathways to better support students with different abilities and talents and to ensure that they have more opportunities to progress to post-Secondary courses that are in line with their interests and strengths.
In particular, we will take steps to enhance our Polytechnic and ITE education, to ensure that it remains responsive to the aspirations of our students and the needs of our future economy. Second Minister Maliki Osman is leading a comprehensive review of opportunities and pathways in applied education, and will share more about this later. Let me share briefly some of our thinking.
In the Polytechnics, we are looking to expand the Common Entry Programmes (CEPs). Through the CEP, students benefit from exposure to different course options within the cluster as well as career guidance support. It allows them to discover their interests and strengths, and better understand the nature of each course, before they decide on a specific diploma course.
We will also enhance the ITE pathway. Today, ITE offers two-year Nitec programmes, and Higher Nitec programmes most of which are two years in duration. Around 30% of Nitec graduates today do not progress to Higher Nitec or other publicly-funded upgrading pathways. We want to do more to help these students. So, we are reviewing the ITE curriculum structure to see how to enable more ITE students to attain and benefit from a Higher Nitec certification.
Many ITE students want to pursue a diploma, and we will help them do so. Some do well at ITE and they go on to the Polytechnics. ITE itself offers Technical diplomas and Work Study diplomas. These are different from the Polytechnic diplomas as they put greater emphasis on technical and applied learning, and they integrate work experience into the education journey. We will expand these distinctive diploma offerings in ITE, so that more students can benefit.
Ms Foo Mee Har spoke about quality Private Education Institutions and how they can complement our public system and fill talent gaps in specialised fields like the arts. Indeed, MOE believes strongly in the need to nurture more diverse talents through our multiple education pathways. In our next phase of development, we will need this diversity of talent – in STEM and also in the arts, design and media.
We will, therefore, take steps to strengthen arts education in Singapore. Today, LASALLE College of the Arts (LASALLE) and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) are our home-grown private arts education institutions, supported by the Government. They offer specialised arts and design diplomas as well as degree programmes in partnership with overseas universities, like Goldsmiths, the Royal College of Music, and the University of the Arts London.
The programmes are subsidised by MOE, enabling students to access a quality and affordable arts education. They have attracted high-quality faculty, many of whom have contributed significantly to the wider cultural sector in Singapore. Their graduates have also forged diverse and successful careers and contributed to our society and the economy.
I have discussed with the boards and management teams in both institutions. We recognise that LASALLE and NAFA have grown from strength to strength over the years to become centres of artistic excellence, with their own unique character and strengths. We want to retain these distinctive identities.
At the same time, both institutions recognise the opportunity to come together and forge closer collaboration, and to leverage their respective strengths and traditions.
So, MOE, with MCCY's support, will work with LASALLE and NAFA to establish an alliance between the two institutions. Because of the quality and standards that both LASALLE and NAFA have achieved, I am happy to share that MOE will grant the alliance its own degree-awarding powers, and also confer it University status. So, this will be our first University of the Arts in Singapore.
It will be a private University, supported by the Government, with LASALLE and NAFA as its two constituent colleges. In other words, both will remain as distinct colleges offering their own programmes, and the University will draw on strengths from both colleges and drive synergies between them. For example, students in future can benefit from a more diverse range of offerings, with more opportunities to access cross-institution modules and projects, as well as share learning resources.
Faculty can look forward to more opportunities for joint academic collaborations. More importantly, we envisage the University to contribute more to cultural life in Singapore and the region, and to offer a stronger value proposition to its students and stakeholders. I have provided a broad sketch of what this alliance will look like in the future. There is a lot of work to be done in putting this together. MOE has appointed a Pro-Tem committee chaired by Professor Chan Heng Chee to oversee the implementation.
I hope the new Arts University will take tertiary arts education in Singapore to greater heights, enabling our youths with strengths and talents in this field to maximise their potential and contribute to our economy and our society.
Our efforts to expand pathways and opportunities are not limited to the schooling years. In the past, most of us saw education and the workplace as two separate worlds. So, we have a fixed period of education, frontloaded when we are young, followed by a fixed period of work. But this model is no longer relevant today. We need a rotational model, where work and education are rotated through one's career, and there are multiple entry points for education through life. And that is an important shift we are making across our entire system.
So, we have to look at the University Cohort Participation Rate, or the CPR, in this broader context. As suggested by Mr Gerald Giam, we will continue to review the CPR periodically, taking into consideration the manpower needs of the economy. But the CPR for fresh school-leavers is just one pathway to University. We have also expanded opportunities for working adults to pursue a degree, for example, through part-time degree programmes. So, those who wish to enter the workforce first can get a clearer sense of their interests and areas they want to deepen their skills in, and then make more informed choices about upgrading later.
The pandemic has also thrown into sharp relief how essential reskilling and upskilling are for our workers today. And this is why MOE has enhanced our support for Singaporeans and companies to pursue workplace training during this period. The various schemes have helped our fresh graduates from University, Polytechnics and ITE. It has cushioned the impact of the pandemic and allowed us to avoid the high unemployment rates seen in many other countries. We are also paying close attention to mid-career workers whose jobs are impacted and who need help through work transitions.
Mr Patrick Tay suggested that we allow PMEs with a local degree to reskill with a second subsidised degree. I appreciate the intent behind this, but a full-time four-year degree programme may not be the best way for a mid-career worker to retrain to enter a new sector. So, we will have to review and enhance the various modular pathways to support career transitions, especially into growth sectors.
I agree fully with Mr Patrick Tay that the IHLs are our key partners in this endeavour. They serve not just as a bridge that students cross to enter the workforce, but also a companion for all Singaporeans in their journey of lifelong learning.
Overall, MOE is committed to further strengthening this culture of lifelong learning – not just for work reasons, but as a habit and as a way of life. Minister of State Gan Siow Huang will say more about this later in her speech.
Let me move on to the third and final area – how we are uplifting every student, regardless of starting point or background. Reducing inequality and strengthening social mobility has always been our priority, even before COVID-19. We have made significant moves over the years to ensure that education continues to be an effective social leveller in Singapore. For example, we have invested in quality and affordable pre-school education. We have ensured that those without a conducive home environment can benefit from school-based Student Care Centres and after-school engagement. We are working more closely with community partners to strengthen wrap-around support for disadvantaged students and their families; and we are also providing more support for children with special needs, both in our mainstream schools and in dedicated special education schools. Second Minister Maliki Osman and Minister of State Sun Xueling will share more on these as well in their speeches.
This commitment to uplift every child is also reflected in our approach to resourcing schools. Mr Patrick Tay, Assoc Prof Jamus Lim and Ms Hazel Poa spoke about class sizes.
Ms Poa, in particular, highlighted that there had been a sharp reduction in the teaching force. I believe she is referring to figures from the Budget Book, and I should clarify that there had been some definitional changes in the Budget Book figures over the years. So, these may not provide a meaningful year-to-year comparison. In fact, a better source of information to look at the size of our teaching force that is deployed in schools is the Education Statistics Digest which we publish and is made available online. If you look at the data, it will show that while there has been a slight decline in recent years, we have broadly maintained the size of our teaching force. At its peak, it was about 33,000 or slightly over 33,000 a few years ago. Now, it is about 32,000. So, just a slight decline, not the sharp fall that Ms Poa highlighted.
Also, it is more relevant to compare our teacher numbers with our student enrolment numbers. So, you have got to look at the teaching force in context, compared with student enrolment. When we compute the Pupil-Teacher-Ratio (PTR) in our school system, we find a very clear trend. Over the last decade, the PTR has improved, from about 19 and 16 in 2010, for Primary and Secondary school levels, to about 15 and 12 currently. And this is comparable to the OECD averages.
So, the question is really about how we choose to allocate our teachers across our education system. Today, we are deliberate in deploying them where they can maximise their impact, as part of our needs-based resourcing approach. So, we deploy more teachers for students at the earliest grade levels or for those with greater needs. For example, our Learning Support Programmes run in class sizes of 8 to 10.
Foundation subjects in upper Primary are taught in smaller classes, between 10 to 20 students in most instances. Classes are also generally smaller for Secondary students in the Normal (Technical) course. Compared to other OECD countries, we also devote a larger share of our teachers' time to important activities that are crucial for students' holistic development, like CCAs, professional development and lesson preparation.
So, when Members cite our larger class sizes compared to OECD norms, I hope they understand that it is not that we have fewer teachers, compared to other countries. Assoc Prof Jamus Lim also suggested that it is our heavy reliance on private tuition that plays a part in our students doing well in international benchmarks.
But really, that is not being very fair to our teachers who work so hard and give so much of themselves for every child in school. In fact, the OECD and other research point to teacher quality as being the critical element in influencing student learning and performance.
So, we have capable, motivated and a first-rate team of teachers, and we will continue to invest in them and focus their time on what matters.
This means continuing to reduce the amount of time teachers spend on lesson, marking, and administrative work, including through the use of technological tools and additional manpower support. And wherever possible, we will certainly look at having smaller class sizes in more areas, especially in subjects where students may benefit from more interaction and more space for discussion.
The bottom line is this – MOE will continue to secure as much resources as we can for the Ministry and we will deploy our teachers in a way that achieves the best outcomes for every child. Whatever resources we have, MOE will have to prioritise them to achieve our desired outcomes.
Ms Hazel Poa asked for more support for those who are outside the mainstream system, including home-schoolers and those in private schools. We will continue to look into these suggestions. But I hope everyone understands that resources are always going to be constrained, and we will need to prioritise them for students in our national system.
For example, we are seeing students from disadvantaged backgrounds with complex needs – not just in academic and learning support but also in other areas. That is why we have piloted in some schools a more holistic \"whole-school\" approach. In other words, beyond support for specific needs through more teachers, these schools are also provided with extra general resourcing – including Student Welfare Officers and Allied Educators. The schools then have the flexibility to identify, monitor and extend support to such students. This goes beyond just academic support; it includes mentoring, motivational and even holiday programmes.
Let me share how such a holistic \"whole-school\" approach has benefited one student. She had little motivation to attend school, often playing truant, or turning up late for school. She struggled academically and had difficulties getting along with her classmates. Teachers recognised that her behaviour stemmed from broader issues – low self-esteem, her strained relationship with her parents, and her family's financial difficulties.
So, her school enrolled her in a mentoring programme, where a volunteer mentor helped her to better understand the challenges she faced and how to overcome them. She participated in group bonding sessions with her peers to strengthen her communication and life skills. Her teachers provided her extra support for her schoolwork; while the school counsellor organised counselling sessions for her and her mother. Her family also received financial support from the school.
Today, things are looking up for this student. She is motivated and engaged in school, participating actively in class and her CCA. Her grades have picked up, and her relationships with her parents and classmates have improved. This arose from an actual pilot that we have started. So, we will study the findings from the pilot, and consider how to expand such holistic support to more schools with similar profiles of students who are disadvantaged and vulnerable.
One important aspect of a rich and meaningful school experience is the CCAs and activities outside the classroom. CCAs provide opportunities to develop character, resilience, team spirit and leadership. They are important platforms where students from different schools, different backgrounds and races can interact with one another and form lifelong friendships. It is important we give all our students such exposure. That is how appreciation and respect for diversity is imbued at a young age.
So, I have asked the MOE team to study how we can better support our schools in this area, and ensure that students across all our schools can have a full CCA experience based on their passion and interests.
The importance of keeping our schools open to students from all backgrounds is also reflected in our Primary 1 registration framework. In this framework, we give priority to some groups like children of school alumni because we want families to build connections to their schools, and for each school to develop its own tradition, history and identity.
At the same time, we do not want our Primary schools to become closed circles, which you can only access if your parents or siblings went there. It was for this reason that MOE set aside 40 places for children who have no prior connection with the school in Primary 1 – 20 in Phase 2B and 20 in Phase 2C – with priority given to those who live near the school. This has helped to give every Singaporean child a chance to enter a Primary school of their choice.
In recent years, we have seen competition for spaces in more popular schools intensify, and more schools having to ballot to allocate places. Such popular schools are not limited to any particular locality. Some people have a perception, only certain area have such popular schools. That is not true. Such popular schools are found across all our towns in Singapore.
As a result, even with the 20 places set aside for Phase 2C, some children do not get to attend a school near their home. I am sure Members have received such appeals before. We receive these appeals at the Ministry and we are sympathetic, because there are many good reasons why children should be able to get a place in one of the schools near where they live.
So, I agree with Mr Patrick Tay and Mr Shawn Huang that we should try to increase the number of places set aside under Phase 2C. This is the open phase for those who do not enjoy any form of priority admissions, and is, therefore, based on home-school distance. We are reviewing the P1 Framework to see how to do this in an appropriate manner. Of course, we recognise that any increase in places for Phase 2C would mean greater competition under the earlier phases for the more popular schools
We will have to study this carefully and balance the competing demands – to give Singaporean children and their families a better chance at their school of choice, particularly, if it is near their home, while still recognising the merits of providing some priority to certain groups. Ultimately, I want to reassure Members that MOE remains committed to ensuring the quality of every Primary school. Wherever our children go for their studies, they will be well served, and well supported to reach their fullest potential.
Mr Chairman, may I say a few words in Mandarin.
(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] COVID-19 has brought us many new challenges, and also reinforced the importance of 21st Century Competencies such as creative thinking and resilience, which are needed to thrive in future.
Knowledge may be finite, butthe world is fast changing and unpredictable. Hence, other than knowledge, we should develop in our students a broader set of skills including adaptability and a love for lifelong learning.
It is also vital that we shape strong values and character, which are the bedrock of every child's success. We will interweave CCE more deliberately throughout our students' entire school experience to teach them to be cyber-savvy, mentally strong, and to appreciate different perspectives.
Bilingualism will also continue to be integral to our education system and national identity. A strong foundation in our mother tongues will enable our students to better appreciate their heritage and values and take on opportunities in a rising Asia.
We will continue to transform and reimagine education to ensure that our students are future-ready. But MOE will not be able to do this alone. Our communities and families also have a part to play to lay down the foundations for our children to develop. We look forward to continuing our partnership in education with our many stakeholders, to bring out the best in every child.
(In English): Let me conclude. The pandemic poses huge challenges for countries everywhere. But it is also an opportunity to transform and re-imagine education, and to start realising a vision for the future of learning where our children learn with joy, rigour and purpose in schools and beyond.
MOE is seizing this window of opportunity to equip our students with a broader range of competencies; to develop more diverse and flexible pathways of learning through life; and to uplift every child, regardless of their starting point. We will stay open to new ideas and we will continue to engage in careful and thoughtful experimentation to keep our education system ready for the future.
MOE cannot do this work alone. We work with many stakeholders, including our educators, parents and the community at large. So, all of us have a role to play to encourage our children to pursue their passions and interests, instead of focusing only on their academic results; and to be open to the different pathways our children can take throughout life, empowering them to find one that best suits them.
We all have a shared interest in bringing out the best in our children. I look forward to continuing and strengthening our partnership in education, to nurture our next generation, and shape the future of our nation together. [Applause]
The Second Minister for Education (Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman): Mr Chairman, MOE is committed to bring out the best in every student, regardless of their starting point in life.
The Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families Taskforce, or UPLIFT, was set up in 2018. Through UPLIFT, we aim to safeguard social mobility and strengthen support for students from disadvantaged families, by helping them to achieve their full potential.
Like Mr Eric Chua, many of us have come across these students in our work. They face challenges like irregular attendance, and some struggle with self-confidence and motivation. Oftentimes, we find that they lack a structured home environment after school. While the number of students facing these challenges is small, MOE is committed to ensure that all students have the support that they need to do their best and to grow up well.
One of UPLIFT's key strategies is to strengthen after-school care and support, especially for those who do not have conducive home environments. I am pleased to inform Mr Don Wee that we have set up a Student Care Centre, or SCC, in every Primary school since last year.
The school-based SCCs provide a safe and nurturing environment for students after school hours, where they can enjoy lunch, an afternoon snack, complete their homework and participate in various enrichment activities. Schools prioritise their students from disadvantaged backgrounds when allocating SCC places, and are committed to expanding capacity where necessary.
We are concerned about students who may benefit from the SCCs but are not currently enrolled. Thus, all Primary schools have started proactively reaching out to parents of these students this year, to encourage them to enrol their children in these SCCs. The teachers guided families through the enrolment process and streamlined the process for financial support.
Secondary schools have put in place the GEAR-UP programme, targeting students who would benefit from more structured after-school supervision and support. These help schools identify students' needs early, to better strengthen and customise their learning and socio-emotional support.
Beyond our schools, UPLIFT seeks to provide the necessary support for disadvantaged students and their families. This was why we started the UPLIFT Community Pilot in Boon Lay, Kreta Ayer and Woodlands starting January 2020. In these three towns, we introduced an UPLIFT Town-Level Coordinator, or TLC, to smoothen the flow of information and coordinate support for the family from community agencies.
The work of the TLCs is important, as community agencies might not always be able to identify the children and families who need their support. Conversely, schools might not be aware of all the community resources available to support their students.
We are also recruiting volunteers as UPLIFT family befrienders to check in with the families regularly, mentor and guide them, and assist the TLCs. The first batch of about 50 befrienders completed their training in December last year and have recently been matched with families.
Let me provide an example of the wrap-around support provided by our TLCs. I recently visited Mohammed Nazri and his wife Mariana, both in their mid-30s. They have five children in Primary school and a sixth child who is just under one year old. Nazri’s TLC has been supporting the family since early 2020 when the children's school attendance was irregular.
The TLC first found out that Nazri and his children lived in Malaysia for several years. When the family returned to Singapore, the children found it difficult to adjust as they were behind their peers academically. One of the first things that the TLC did was to enrol the children in MENDAKI's weekend tuition classes and also work with MENDAKI to source for volunteer academic coaches to mentor and inspire the children and provide more individualised support.
As mentioned, UPLIFT's support goes beyond the children. The TLC has been supporting the parents, too. For example, he linked up Mariana with AMP Singapore, which has schemes to support her interest in setting up a micro business, to enable her to earn an income while caring for her infant. When the child is ready to be placed in a childcare centre, we will assist her to do so and help her look for a more permanent job. The TLC will also explore upgrading support for Nazri, who is a food delivery rider, to help him secure a more sustainable job.
Apart from the TLC, the family has been matched with two befrienders. One of them is an IT professional, Raj, who has helped the children ease into online learning. I hear that the children's attendance has improved over the past one year and they are more engaged in their learning. I wish Nazri and his family all the very best.
Mr Chairman, their story is a powerful reminder of what we can achieve through UPLIFT. Indeed, at first glance, we see a vulnerable young family with six very young children. When I met them and saw the smile in their children's faces and eyes light up, I see hope and dreams. We must do all we can to fulfil these hopes and dreams for these children. I am confident that, together, we can secure a brighter future for Nazri and his family and many other families like theirs.
The UPLIFT Community Pilot has yielded positive outcomes, with about 80% of the students placed in the pilot in early 2020 attending school more regularly. As such, from February this year, we have expanded our coverage to include more students, such as students living in rental flats as we work closely with ComLink set up by MSF. We will also extend the UPLIFT Community Pilot into Bukit Merah. Together with the coverage of students living in rental flats, we are working to support students from about 70 schools who are living in the pilot sites by the end of this year. This means we will surpass our original target of 300 students supported by the Community Pilot by 2022.
Community partnerships are key to the success of UPLIFT, and must continue. Many community partners have stepped forward to support students from disadvantaged families, who were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. We will continue to bring on board more community partners, work with them to curate suitable programmes and connect them with schools whose students would benefit most.
Our work in UPLIFT is a whole-of-society effort. We will continue to press on, working hand-in-hand with the community to ensure no child is left behind.
When I took over as Chairperson of UPLIFT, I wanted to deepen our collaboration with Self-Help Groups and also brought People's Association on board the taskforce. They have brought valuable expertise and experience to take UPLIFT forward.
We will also continue to work closely with MSF and other Government agencies to synergise across different initiatives, like ComLink, KidSTART and community programmes like M3. This is part of the Government's commitment to strengthen our social service delivery.
Mr Chairman, Ms Janet Ang, Ms Mariam Jaafar and Dr Wan Rizal have also spoken on how our applied education pathways must continue to prepare our graduates for the future. We have made significant progress over the past few years and I am leading an ongoing Review of Opportunities and Pathways in Applied Education to build on this foundation. My team comprises representatives from the public, private and people sectors, many of whom have deep engagements and experience in the ITE and Polytechnic sector, as well as Polytechnic and ITE leaders. Over the past couple of months, we have spoken to over 400 stakeholders, including students and graduates of the Polytechnics and ITE, their parents, employers and industry partners and the staff. Their perspectives have been valuable in shaping the review's early work. We plan to reach out to more stakeholders.
Mr Eric Chua reminded us of the important role deep technical skills have in our workforce and society. Our students know this, too. Many shared their aspirations to upgrade themselves, building on the foundation they had acquired in Polytechnic or ITE. All of them wanted to hone their skills to stay up to date in a fast-changing workplace, which is very heartening. Some, of course, aspire for a University degree.
We also heard from employers who agreed with the value of upgrading, but were quite wary about hiring and training someone, only to have them leave in a few years for further studies. I hope we can find meaningful convergence between the students' aspirations and the employers' needs. Ultimately, continued training and deepening of relevant skills must translate to better employment and salary outcomes for our Polytechnic and ITE students. We will continue these conversations over the next few months.
Allow me to share an overview of the ideas that have emerged so far, which I see as key priorities for us to address through this review.
First, we recognise our students' diverse interests and aspirations and support them in exploring different options. This includes strengthening porosity and flexibility in our education pathways and ensuring strong Education and Career Guidance, or ECG. We agree with Ms Janet Ang that we must help our students be, and I quote her, \"always ready to learn\", engaged in their studies and inspired about their future careers. We will look into how to do this better through our review.
Second, our courses and curriculum must remain industry-relevant and prepare students well to enter the workforce after graduation. But we have to balance near-term job readiness with career resilience. We want our students to be versatile and able to seize emerging opportunities over the course of their careers.
Third, we must and we need to invest in life skills, including essential competencies such as cross-cultural communication, critical thinking and collaboration, which are relevant across jobs and disciplines, as well as life outside their workplace. We want to prepare our students well for life and work, regardless of the pathways they choose after graduation.
Fourth, as part of our on-going efforts to help every student achieve their potential and find success, we will build on our experience with UPLIFT in our schools and leverage community partnerships to strengthen support for students with higher needs and enable more of them to achieve their full educational potential.
Mr Eric Chua spoke passionately about how we should support our ITE students. I wholeheartedly agree and this is, indeed, a key priority. One of the first moves we will undertake in this review is to enhance the ITE's curricular structure. In 2019, we announced that, by 2030, we would provide more opportunities for ITE graduates to upgrade beyond a Nitec qualification over the course of their careers, taking into account diverse student aspirations and learning needs. More than half of the 2019 cohort of Nitec graduates progressed immediately to a Higher Nitec, up from just under half the year before. We will continue to progressively increase Higher Nitec places.
We will cater more Polytechnic places for working adults and grow the ITE's Work Study Diploma (WSDip) pathway. We will also work closely towards expanding ITE's diploma programmes. ITE's Work Study Diplomas or WSDips, and Technical Diplomas have a distinct applied focus and cater to students who benefit from a more hands-on learning style. This will strengthen opportunities for ITE graduates to upgrade to a diploma in the course of their careers.
I would like to assure Ms Mariam Jaafar that ITE employment outcomes are strong overall. About two-thirds of the ITE graduates in full-time permanent employment reported that their job was related to their course. For Polytechnics, it was about three-quarters. Having said that, we can always do better to ensure better salary outcomes for our ITE and Polytechnic graduates.
ITE is committed to preparing its students well for the working world. We agree with Dr Wan Rizal on the importance of providing meaningful and relevant internship experience for our students.
I recently met Siti Raudah, who graduated from the Nitec in Logistics Services in 2019. During her course, Siti interned at YCH Group, a home-grown supply chain solutions company, where she coordinated the movement of freight containers. She made a strong impression and was offered a permanent position after graduation – a very, very positive experience in her internship. Today, she is a Logistics Specialist at YCH.
As the pace of economic change grows, our graduates will require deeper skills to stay competitive. Our companies will also need a more highly skilled workforce to transform. Employers have an important role to play. They complement theory with critical on-the-job training and this is especially evident in the WSDip pathway.
I recently met Alex, who is currently working at air services company dnata and, concurrently, a trainee of our WSDip in Airport Operations. While at dnata, Alex picked up specialised skills, such as cool chain handling. He now leads an Equipment Operator team to ensure the safe and timely movement of inbound and outbound cargo.
There is scope to do more for ITE students like Siti and Alex, many of whom benefit from a more hands-on pedagogy which suits their learning pace and style. To this end, we will make some structural changes in ITE. We want all ITE students to aspire to attain their Higher Nitec qualification when they enrol in ITE. Today, ITE offers both Nitec and Higher Nitec courses, with the Higher Nitec building on the foundation established during Nitec. We will streamline the ITE curriculum to provide more students the opportunity to attain a Higher Nitec in a shorter duration. This will equip our ITE graduates with deeper industry-relevant skills, which provide a stronger foundation for future skills upgrading.
We will also ensure sufficient flexibility for students of different profiles under this new system to cater to different learning needs and paces. With this change, we hope to better meet students' aspirations for upgrading, while continuing to meet evolving industry needs. We will share more details in the months ahead.
One point we heard in our engagements was the importance of course matching. When students are matched to a course that they are passionate about, they are more motivated to do well and succeed. In recent years, we have taken steps to support students' progress from Secondary school to Polytechnics. We have enhanced the Education Career Guidance (ECG) in Secondary schools to help students explore different career pathways and education options.
In 2019, we expanded the Polytechnic Foundation Programme, or PFP, which prepares selected Polytechnic-bound Normal (Academic) students to enter Polytechnics. In the lead up to the implementation of Full Subject-Based Banding in 2024, we are looking at how the PFP can cater to a more diverse profile of Secondary school students, with different strengths and pace of learning. We build on this when students enter Polytechnic. So, one key effort is the introduction of the Common Entry Programmes or CEPs.
In 2019, we expanded CEPs to the Business and Information & Digital Technologies clusters, complementing the existing Engineering CEPs. CEPs target students interested in a cluster but are undecided about their specific course that they want to undertake.
One student who has benefited is Leonard, who applied for Temasek Polytechnic's or TP's Aerospace Engineering course in 2019 but did not meet the cut-off point. So, Leonard entered TP's Engineering CEP instead, where he was given a feel of TP's other Engineering courses through modules like electrical circuit analysis, digital electronics and programming. Leonard and his classmates also benefited from talks and hands-on activities conducted by lecturers, ECG counsellors and industry professionals. The CEP helped Leonard affirm his interest in Aerospace Engineering. Leonard worked hard and has since secured a place in the Aerospace Engineering course. I wish him all the best.
Leonard's experience is not unique. Out of the 2019 cohort of CEP students, 90% agreed that their CEP has helped them discover their interest and aptitude. This is an encouraging start. There have been other moves since then.
Republic Polytechnic introduced a CEP for the science cluster, and Singapore Polytechnic rolled out their single Media, Arts and Design Course, which functions like a CEP. Building on this, we will introduce CEPs in the Arts, Design and Media, and Sciences clusters in all Polytechnics from 2023. With this change, we expect 25% of Year 1 diploma students to enter Polytechnic via a CEP, up from 20% currently.
Mr Chairman, allow me to continue in Malay.
(In Malay): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Education must remain an uplifting force for the less advantaged in our society, and help all students achieve their full potential. Through UPLIFT, we will continue to collaborate with the community to complement our efforts in schools.
One key change is the expansion of the UPLIFT Community Pilot Programme, including extending it into Bukit Merah estate. We will also strengthen our collaboration with Self-Help groups, including MENDAKI, and explore synergies with other related initiatives such as ComLink and M3.
Today, at the post-secondary level, almost 70% of each cohort choose the Polytechnic and ITE route. I am heading the review at the ITE and polytechnic levels to help our students stay relevant and achieve success amidst an ever-changing world.
We want all ITE students to aspire to attain their Higher Nitec qualification when they enrol in ITE. This means that we recognise their potential and have confidence in their abilities. To this end, we will streamline the ITE curriculum to provide more students with the opportunity to attain Higher Nitec within a shorter duration.
Polytechnics will also undergo important changes. In the first year of their studies, we will expand CEPs to better support polytechnic-bound students in their course selection process. We are also studying how we might expand the PFP to cater to more students.
During the Budget debate, Ms Mariam Jaafar spoke about the representation of the Malay community in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). MOE is committed to support all students, regardless of race, and we will continue to encourage all students, including Malay students, to develop their interests in STEM.
I would like to give the assurance that we start from a position of strength. STEM courses are popular among Malay students as well. Today, we find that over half the Malay intake in our Institutes of Higher Learning are taking STEM courses.
This is just the start of an exciting journey. I hope we can come together to make these ideas a reality.
Dr Wan Rizal asked about MOE’s efforts to foster students’ interest in and appreciation of the Malay Language, and their Mother Tongue Languages (MTLs) in general.
Chairman, let me start by elaborating on MOE’s efforts to promote the use of the Malay Language.
Our education system is based on the bilingual policy. A strong foundation in our mother tongue language will enable us to deal with this region more effectively while continuing to stay rooted to our heritage. This is important because we know that the number of children who use Malay as the main language at home is decreasing.
Over the past few months, I found out from our Malay Language educators about how we are making adjustments in terms of how and what we teach, to ensure that the Malay Language continues to thrive for a new generation of learners.
For example, Lead Teacher Cikgu Zainaba Omar from Clementi Primary School sets real-world tasks for her students like preparing menus for breakfast and lunch when teaching classifiers like \"a pinch of salt\" and \"a cup of cereal\".
This \"task-based approach\" helps make language learning more authentic. I was told that her students have become more confident, not just in using the Malay Language, but in the preparation of their own daily meals as well.
Parents and the community also play a critical role in reinforcing students’ use of the Malay Language beyond the classroom. MOE is committed to support their efforts through the Malay Language Learning and Promotion Committee (MLLPC).
One of MLLPC’s signature programmes is the Perkasa Warisan camp, conducted in collaboration with the People’s Association and the Malay Activity Executive Council (MESRA). The camp provides primary school students an opportunity to deepen their knowledge of Malay culture and heritage through hands-on activities.
Since we introduced it in 2018, the Perkasa Warisan camp has reached out to over 1,400 students across 39 primary and secondary schools.
In recent years, we have expanded our efforts to post-secondary students as well.
As the Malay proverb goes, \"If we do not split the trunk of the palm tree, how can we get the sago.\" I applaud these efforts, and am confident that we will continue to find good ways to help the Malay Language thrive as a living language in our homes, schools and community.
(In English) Mr Chairman, in English. Bilingualism is a cornerstone of our education system and a good grasp of our Mother Tongue Language, or MTL, can unlock opportunities for our students in the region and beyond. MTLs also help us to remain connected to our heritage and our Singaporean identity.
Mr Chairman, let me conclude by saying that we have come a long way but our education system cannot remain static. We must respond to changing circumstances as we prepare our children to function confidently in the future. And our children must be at the centre of our education system. We must work together to ensure that education remains an uplifting force for all and secure a brighter future for Singaporeans and Singapore. [Applause.]
The Minister of State for Education (Ms Sun Xueling): Mr Chairman, Sir, I thank Members like Mr Patrick Tay, Dr Wan Rizal, Mr Shawn Huang, Ms Carrie Tan and Ms Janet Ang for their thoughtful and timely questions on MOE's support for students' well-being.
As Minister Wong has shared, we have been implementing the refreshed Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) curriculum, starting with Secondary schools this year. The CCE curriculum has an updated, stronger emphasis on mental health and cyber wellness education. Students will learn about topics like differentiating signs of stress and distress, and healthy habits for positive well-being.
We recognise the nexus between increasing digital usage and mental health concerns, even more so amongst our young, who may not know how to regulate their use of social media. Teachers will work alongside student peer supporters to look out for other students. We will also work with parents to help guide their young in the use of online media.
During CCE lessons, students will learn to identify risks in the digital space, such as doxing or scams; discern unverified or inappropriate content; and take steps to protect themselves and others. Schools will also guide students to report cyber bullying and harmful content to the online service provider.
In Secondary schools and pre-Universities, students will discuss contemporary issues of interest, such as environmental sustainability, race and religion. Through CCE 2021, we hope that students will be equipped to become more resilient, stay mentally healthy and engage one another respectfully and constructively on issues.
Ms Carrie Tan and Dr Shahira Abdullah have also asked how teachers are equipped to strengthen mental health support and navigate contemporary issues. We will be launching a new \"Centre for CCE\" at NIE to helm teacher education for CCE by end 2022. The Centre will bring together local and international experts in CCE research and professional development and provide critical thought leadership in this field. This could establish NIE as a leader for CCE in the region. The Centre signals our strong commitment to be evidence-based in our curricular and pedagogical approaches. As part of strengthening teachers' professional development for CCE, our courses equip teachers with the skills to teach CCE.
MOE has regular dialogues with our educators to understand their teaching needs and also be attuned to the issues that students are concerned about. Every Secondary school also has trained specialised CCE teachers to role model and coach other teachers in facilitating challenging CCE discussions. From 2022 onwards, every pre-University institution will also be equipped with specialised CCE teachers.
Beyond CCE, our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) are enhancing mental health support by strengthening programmes on mental wellness literacy and awareness. Our Polytechnics and ITE have worked with the Health Promotion Board to launch a new mental wellness curriculum for all Year 1 students from 2020 and 2021 respectively to raise awareness and understanding of mental health and also to foster early help-seeking behaviour. The autonomous Universities (AUs) are also promoting mental wellness through briefings during freshmen orientation and University-wide programmes.
Another key pillar of mental health support is peer support. Hence, as MOE has announced last year, we will establish a peer support culture and structure in every school by the end of this year.
Currently, all IHLs have peer support programmes. From this year, schools will also appoint dedicated Key Personnel to oversee peer support and student well-being matters. They will tap on student peer supporters to help students involved in incidents that affect their well-being.
Alongside peer support, I agree with Mr Darryl David that counselling and guidance must be made readily available to those who need it. Counsellors are vital members of the student support team. MOE will continue to grow the number of teacher counsellors and equip them further over time.
MOE's efforts complement larger nationwide movements to destigmatise mental health and encourage help-seeking.
Last year, MSF, MOH and MOE started the Youth Mental Well-Being (YMWB) Network. Over 1,500 enthusiastic individuals came together to strengthen the youth mental well-being space. I am proud to share that the network has initiated ideas for over 30 potential ground-up projects. One team I have met is equipping parents to strengthen emotional literacy in their children. Another team is working on reframing perceptions of counselling and destigmatising help-seeking. I sincerely thank the network members for their efforts and we warmly welcome others to join them.
As we emerge from COVID-19 and face on-going challenges, it is going to be a bumpy ride. But the journey within each and every one of us is not a journey we need to walk alone. Let this be our gentle encouragement and steadfast commitment to one another.
Chairman, I would now like to reaffirm MOE’s commitment to an important group – students with Special Educational Needs (SEN).
In recent years, we have developed the landscape significantly. As Mdm Rahayu Mahzam has suggested, we need to grow our students with Special Educational Needs as well as typically developing students in the soft skills that will last them into adult life. Learned Members, such as Ms Denise Phua and Mr Shawn Huang have shared how transitioning between stages can be daunting for students, especially those with SENs.
For instance, for pre-school children, moving to P1 can be a major transition, as Mr Patrick Tay had mentioned. To help them along, MOE’s Nurturing Early Learners framework, which is used by MOE Kindergartens (MKs) and other pre-schools, focuses on nurturing children’s curiosity, socio-emotional and motor skills and love for learning, alongside basic literacy and numeracy goals. But we recognise that some students with SEN need further support.
MOE is, therefore, introducing a new targeted intervention, called TRANSIT (or TRANsition Support for InTegration), to all Primary schools by 2026 for P1 students with social and behavioural needs. These students will receive support from Allied Educators (Learning and Behavioural Support) and teachers to develop foundational self-management skills, in small groups and in their classrooms during their P1 year. By the end of P1, students should be able to learn independently in class, with occasional help.
One of the first pilot schools is Elias Park Primary. One student, let us call him M, had a difficult time adjusting when he entered P1. He would lie on the floor and shout in class. Through TRANSIT, our teachers and Allied Educators (LBS) taught M self-management skills, such as working within his personal space and communication. He was prompted to apply these skills throughout the school day and his parents reinforced them at home. Today, M has a positive learning attitude and he interacts well with his peers.
By end 2021, MOE would have piloted TRANSIT in about 40 schools – or one out of five Primary schools. As the pilot outcomes have been promising, MOE will roll out TRANSIT in all Primary schools by 2026, benefiting around five to 10 P1 students in each school per year.
For adolescents, entering Secondary school is another milestone. Through school-based interventions, such as \"Circle of Friends\" and peer support structures in every school, schools are building an inclusive culture where peers actively look out for one another and those with Special Educational Needs.
Ms Denise Phua and Mdm Rahayu Mahzam have asked about MOE's plans to support the students with Special Educational Needs in mainstream schools to better prepare them for the next phase of their lives. We have increased the number of Allied Educators (LBS) in our schools who work alongside teachers and ECG counsellors to prepare students with Special Educational Needs further studies and work. We agree with Mdm Rahayu on the importance of promoting interaction between students with and without SEN.
Mr Mark Chay has pointed out the benefits of parasports. One key way to sustain relationships between mainstream and SPED schools is through Satellite Partnerships. MOE will strengthen these partnerships and work with Ms Denise Phua and other sector leaders to increase opportunities for meaningful interaction. We will continue to work with schools and partners to develop more inclusion opportunities, including parasports that meet our diverse students' needs, develop their strengths and forge mutual understanding and respect.
As students progress to IHLs, they can receive course guidance, access arrangements, SEN-related funding for Assistive Technology devices and support services, and also internship support.
Finally, Mr Patrick Tay and Ms Denise Phua have asked about SPED students’ transition from school to work. SPED graduates can take up certifications, like ITE Skills Certificate or Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) or participate in the School-to-Work (S2W) Transition Programme by MOE, MSF and SG Enable, which provides customised training pathways, job matching and work options. I salute the SPED schools for their personalised approach to finding job opportunities and matching their students to jobs. Overall, about half of SPED graduates are successfully employed or progress to post-Secondary educational institutions like ITE and other further training. MOE affirms its strong commitment to the SPED sector. As Ms Denise Phua has observed, we build schools, provide significant funding and send personnel to work with social service agencies and also to contribute their expertise.
I would now like to share about the expansion of capacity of SPED schools. We will be expanding Grace Orchard School (GOS). This is to help meet the demand for places in the west region and enhance the accessibility of SPED schools serving students with Mild Intellectual Disability (MID). With the expansion, GOS will cater to 600 students aged seven to 18, from 450 today. In our work to expand GOS, as with the other seven new SPED schools, we work in consultation with the social service agencies' staff to improve students’ educational experience. Our students can look forward to (a) new vocational training facilities; (b) larger classrooms and modulation spaces to cater to students who also have ASD; and (c) facilities for PE and sports, like sheltered playgrounds and outdoor fitness areas.
Alongside enhanced infrastructure, we will develop the skills of all school personnel in both mainstream and SPED schools through coaching, pre-service training and in-service courses. Our teachers frequently come together across schools, sharing and innovating with their practices. We seek to build on the strong spirit of collaboration which we are seeing amongst the SPED schools. Thus, we agree wholeheartedly with Ms Denise Phua's call that MOE, together with other agencies, stakeholders and SPED staff, should work together to envision a brighter future for our SPED graduates and their families.
As we strive to make our education system more inclusive where each and every child is recognised, appreciated and supported for who they are, I call on everyone to play a part in making this reality possible. Mr Chairman, Sir, in Chinese, please.
(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] In a rapidly changing world, having the resilience and perseverance to surmount challenges is critical, hence, we need to place more focus on the character development and education of students.
We are thus launching a new Centre for CCE to enhance professional development for CCE and also develop pedagogies which will best help our students. We also recognise that CCE has to be founded on values, and this requires schools,Mother Tongue teachers, families and the community to work closely together.
We are also rolling out new programmes such as TRANSIT which will benefit Primary 1 students with behavioural and social issues.
Such targeted interventions during an important phase, when our children have just embarked on their primary education, can help ensure that they can better adapt to their schooling environment. We firmly believe that these little steps all add up to build a more inclusive learning environment. Thank you.
The Minister of State for Education (Ms Gan Siow Huang): Mr Chairman, as a small country with no natural resources, Singapore’s most valuable assets are our people. Hence, developing our people is a national priority, starting from early childhood, to tertiary education for our youths, and continuing education and training (CET) for adults to support their careers and aspirations.
Lifelong learning empowers each Singaporean to chart his or her own journey in life and gain fulfilment at work.
The SkillsFuture movement was started in 2014 to take lifelong learning to the next level. It creates multiple pathways for our people to upskill and reskill, either to develop mastery in their skills, or pick up new skills to start a new career path. SkillsFuture supports Singaporeans to learn for life, for lifelong employability.
One of the points highlighted in the Emerging Stronger Conversations is that lifelong learning is necessary to keep our workforce resilient. We have built a comprehensive eco-system of training support and skills pathways over the years. When COVID-19 struck, we were able to tap on the eco-system to support our graduating students and workers.
We have taken great care to support fresh graduates from ITE, Polytechnics and Universities as they make the transition into working life. And in my MOM speech just now, I spoke about the SGUnited Traineeships.
In addition, our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) have stepped up career facilitation assistance to the graduates, and provided free CET modules to help boost their employability. Many of our graduates have taken courses in areas, such as data analytics and finance.
I agree with Mr Darryl David on the benefits of Work-Study Programmes. Our SkillsFuture Work-Study Programmes bridge fresh graduates’ transition into the workforce. Such opportunities are available at the diploma, post-diploma and degree levels, providing an applied learning pathway for our graduates to continue developing their skillsets in their chosen industry.
To ensure continued availability of such opportunities during this period, we have introduced wage support to employers that are participating in Place-and-Train Work-Study programmes. To support more students who are graduating this year, we will extend this measure to 31 March 2022. The companies will receive wage support of 45%, on top of the wage support under the Jobs Growth Incentive.
Ms Foo Mee Har highlighted the need to evolve our reskilling pathways to address job opportunities in the care, digital and green economy. This has been a key focus in our efforts to support mid-career Singaporeans whose livelihoods have been affected. We engaged key partners to provide training through the SGUnited Skills programmes and SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways, a company training programme, to help jobseekers move into new jobs, particularly in the growth areas.
For the healthcare sector, one such training partner is the HMI Institute of Health Sciences (HMI Institute). As part of the SGUnited Skills Programme, HMI Institute provides employment facilitation and career advisory services to its trainees. Since August 2020, HMI Institute has enrolled 360 individuals, many of whom are mid-careerists, contributing towards the much needed pipeline of manpower for our healthcare-related roles. Altogether, close to 10,000 other trainees have enrolled in SGUnited Skills and SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways – Company Training programmes, with the first courses having just completed in February.
The SGUnited Skills and SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways – Company Training programmes will be extended by an additional year to 31 March 2022. This will provide continued support for Singaporeans to learn and thrive, as our jobs and workplaces change, and as businesses transform.
In the next phase, we will expand the capacity of in-demand courses courses with good hiring opportunities in sectors such as infocomm technology (ICT) and media, professional services, healthcare and advanced manufacturing. We will keep the duration of most courses to no more than six months, so that the trainees can transition to employment quickly, with the support of the training partners.
While the pandemic has created a challenging operating environment, it also presents opportunities for employers to upskill their workers during the downtime, thereby getting them ready for new business processes.
We have supported employers in sending their workers for training through the Enhanced Training Support Package (ETSP). The ETSP supports eight sectors that have been more severely affected by COVID-19. About 155,000 training places have been taken up in these sectors, benefiting more than 72,000 employees across 1,300 companies. ETSP has been particularly well-utilised by the tourism and aviation sectors. We will extend the ETSP to 31 December 2021. This will allow the firms to send more workers for industry-relevant training to help their workforce emerge stronger post-COVID-19.
Due to the pandemic, a much larger proportion of training last year was delivered in a blended or online modality. Indeed, online training can provide greater convenience and reach. SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) is working with training providers to assess how this can continue to be enhanced while ensuring that the learning outcomes are met.
Ms Mariam Jaafar noted that while COVID-19 has limited opportunities for overseas exposure, leading global companies could be tapped to provide this in virtual formats for Singaporean workers and students. We agree and have been finding ways to do so. Some of our IHL students have been able to take on internships with overseas start-ups under the Global Innovation Alliance (Innovators Academy) programme via \"remote internships\". We will continue to explore how we can engage our partner companies and Queen Bees to expand such opportunities to more individuals.
Even as we tackle the near-term challenges that the pandemic has brought about, it is important that we continue to keep an eye on the future that lies beyond. We are therefore pressing on with our plans for the Next Bound of SkillsFuture, which Mr Yip Hon Weng asked about.
A key thrust of the Next Bound of SkillsFuture is enhancing the role of enterprises in developing their workforce. Ms Foo Mee Har has emphasised the importance of this and I fully agree.
We continue to help employers invest in the skills development of their workers. We have onboarded 22 SkillsFuture Queen Bees and supported more than 400 enterprises, most of which are SMEs. The Queen Bee companies include private sector leading firms, such as IBM and Prudential. They form business communities with enterprises to address common skills needs and co-create solutions in their sectors.
Ms Janet Ang asked how our IHL educators can strengthen support for our SMEs' training efforts. Today, our Polytechnic lecturers do industry attachments with companies, including SMEs. We have been ramping this up to ensure that they remain in touch with industry developments. As they undergo such attachments, they could use their institutional knowledge to help bring technology solutions to enterprises and also help their host companies strengthen their training plans. So, it is a win-win situation.
In addition, companies can benefit from consultancy services provided by the National Centre of Excellence for Workplace Learning or NACE, for short. NACE was established in 2018 to strengthen the capabilities of companies to deliver training at the workplace. Thus far, NACE has supported about 530 companies in building workplace-based learning capabilities.
To support employers in pursuing enterprise and workforce transformation, we launched the SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit in 2020. So far, about 3,400 eligible employers have sent their workers for SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit-supportable training programmes.
SSG's skills frameworks serve as an important common reference point across training providers and employers, as they provide key information on career pathways, job roles, as well as existing and emerging skills required for the job roles in different sectors. I agree with Mr Patrick Tay that we need to encourage the adoption of the Skills Frameworks.
That was why I was happy when the Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES) established a National Engineering Career Progression Pathway, in alignment with the Skills FFramework. The scheme opens a non-academic route for engineering technicians and technologists to move towards the Chartered Engineer status, hence promoting employee recognition and career development based on technical skills and work experience. IES has set a strong example of how industry associations can take the lead in building new skills-based pathways. I hope to see more associations drive such change in their respective domains.
Complementing the focus on enterprises is our effort to encourage individuals to take ownership of their skills development. Mr Yip Hon Weng asked for the latest statistics concerning SkillsFuture Credit usage.
More than 188,000 Singaporeans utilised their SkillsFuture Credit in 2020, up from about 156,000 Singaporeans in 2019. The number of claims also increased by about 30% from 2019 to 2020. We will continue to provide personalised guidance, in the form of SkillsFuture Advice workshops and seminars and Skills and Training Advisory at job fairs and community events, many of which are actually organised by the CDCs.
I thank Ms Denise Phua for highlighting the lifelong learning needs of persons with disabilities (PwDs). For this group, besides the common course offerings, they can also choose from 30 SkillsFuture courses customised for them, covering areas such as ICT, food and beverage and customer service. We will continue looking at how to strengthen the training eco-system to support their needs.
Under the Next Bound of SkillsFuture, we will also focus on helping mid-career workers transition to new and emerging employment opportunities.
To this end, we have been ramping up our provision of training programmes and strengthening the partnership between SSG and WSG to improve employment outcomes of Train-and-Place programmes. From July to December 2020, we launched over 300 programmes, including SGUnited Skills and SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways – Company Training programmes which I mentioned earlier on.
Looking beyond the pandemic, we expect to build on the groundwork and evolve these programmes into Career Transition Programmes. This will strengthen our slate of offerings to our mid-career workers in their steady state.
We constantly seek to ensure that our training programmes deliver outcomes. I thank Mr Sharael Taha for his suggestions. Our course fee subsidies are tiered, with the highest tier tied to those with work-related outcomes.
Given the tight fiscal environment, we are also mindful about how we resource the Next Bound of SkillsFuture.
First, we are continually reviewing existing schemes, to focus our funding on training that delivers strong employment outcomes.
Second, when the Enhanced Training Support Package ends this year, we will revise the absentee payroll funding to a more sustainable rate. This complements the SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit that will continue beyond 2021.
Lastly, in line with the SkillsFuture message for individuals to pursue their own training pathway and take up industry-relevant modular courses, we will phase out the SkillsFuture Qualification Award which is tied to completion of full qualifications. We will implement these changes from 1 January 2022 onwards.
I am heartened by the tenacity demonstrated by Singaporeans in the past year, from our workers to employers. As we set our sights on economic recovery, we will continue to support Singaporeans in their lifelong learning journey towards skills mastery. Through SkillsFuture, we will enable Singaporeans to strive for their goals, and emerge stronger together.
The Chairman: Clarifications? Ms Denise Phua.
Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng: Chairman, I have two questions for MOE for the Minister first.
I would like to thank the Minister for assuring us that he supports the need to re-imagine education because of the fast and furious changes we are seeing. And that there will be few sacred cows – or stones! – that he will be not willing to turn and look at. May I ask the Minister to provide some details on what is next in re-imagining education and how do we get the map to show that indeed, the sum can be larger than the parts? And what about stones like PSLE which we have discussed much in the past? And how to turn, for example, to build on strengths of some of the tuition centres so that parents, families and students do not have to rely so much on tuition centres. That is first clarification.
The second one is for the Minister of State Sun Xueling. I have three questions. One is, why would students with mild intellectual disability (ID) with no other conditions, why cannot they be included into mainstream schools, for example? So, that is one.
Two, can the Minister of State comment on my request for joint visioning for SPED schools of the future? And also, to ask whether MOE would consider looking into piloting lifelong learning SPED schools which might improve the landscape and the outcomes for students with SEN needs in SPED schools.
Mr Lawrence Wong: Chairman, our starting point is that we have a good education system today. It is not a system that is broken and in need of a complete overhaul. But at the same time, we keep an open mind. We are not satisfied with the status quo. We keep on improving and we continue to do so by experimenting, trying out new approaches, understanding what works, what does not work so well and then, step by step making careful systematic effective implementation to improve the system continuously. That is our approach.
Year-by-year, you may not see a lot of change but, in fact, it all adds up when you take a step back.
Just think about some of the things that have been happening over the recent years. The emphasis on 21 CCs and CCEs in schools. The change to aptitude-based admissions to Universities; is a very important step. The broadening of multiple pathways. The change in PSLE scoring system. The removal of streaming and the move to full subject-based banding.
These are not done in an ad hoc fashion. They are all part of a coherent reform to make our system better, to encourage students to pursue their strengths and interests, to instil the joy of learning in every child.
That is the direction of where we are heading. If you talk about a roadmap, what are we trying to achieve, basically, we want to continue this effort to instil in every child competencies and skills that will prepare them better for the future. It is an important effort.
We want to continue to build diverse and flexible pathway so that we can nurture diverse talent, so that people with differing abilities and strengths can pursue those passions and interests and excel across a whole range of different areas.
And we want to uplift every child, providing much more support to the disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, including children with special needs.
Those are our priorities and we will continue to lift every stone, look at every issue, potentially slay a few more sacred cows in order to ensure that we have an excellent education system to bring out the best in every child.
The Chairman: Ms Sun Xueling.
Ms Sun Xueling: I thank the Member, Ms Denise Phua, for her clarifications.
MOE's overarching goal is to provide quality education for all students with special needs. But this must be balanced with ensuring that they develop educationally in a setting that best fits their needs.
Currently, 80% of our students with special needs are already in mainstream schools. And where there are more specific needs that these children with special needs have, they are then supported in the SPED schools. Earlier, I have talked about expanding the range of SPED schools that are available to best fit and best serve the students that we have who have special needs. So, that is on the first point.
On the second point that Ms Denise Phua had about lifelong learning, we share her views and her aspirations and belief that our students with special needs should lead meaningful lives and they should continually upgrade their skills and be active in the community and also contribute to society.
With regards to supporting SPED graduates in lifelong learning, both myself as well as my colleague Minister of State Gan have talked about the variety of training supports available to our students with special needs. This includes broad-based training support such as course fee subsidies and SkillsFuture Credit for those aged 25 and above, and also just like my colleague Minister of State Gan has spoken about, SkillsFuture Singapore has also worked with SG Enable to roll out more than 30 SkillsFuture Credit-eligible courses that are customised for our fellow friends, residents with special needs, students, and they cover areas such as information and communications technology (ICT), F&B and customer service.
We are fully aligned with the thinking that Ms Denise Phua has, that there should be continuous lifelong learning opportunities for our students with special needs.
The Chairman: Assoc Prof Jamus Lim.
Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim: Thank you, Mr Chairman. I thank the Minister for his considered reply.
Let me just start by respectfully disagreeing with the characterisation that I am devaluing the work of our teachers by pointing out the gap filled by private tuition. Let me state for the record that I have tremendous respect for the quality of our teachers and the efforts that they put in. But that said, I think we both can agree even the best and most hardworking teacher would generally be unable to assist their children as much as they would wish if they are hamstrung by heavy loads.
When I call for smaller class sizes, I am implicitly calling for MOE to provide our teachers with the environment such that their quality may be fully experienced by the children because they are not stretched too thinly.
If what we are concerned about is an ability to maximise the impact of this existing high quality teachers, if we are not going to have an outright reduction in class sizes, perhaps we will consider supplying teaching aides or assistants to the classrooms teaching the tuition-intensive subjects that I mentioned, namely mathematics and the languages.
Mr Lawrence Wong: Mr Chairman, I thank Assoc Prof Lim for acknowledging the hard work and efforts of our educators in schools. I think we are on the same page.
Number one, as I said, MOE will continue to ensure that we have a high quality teaching force and make sure that we have healthy pupil-teacher ratios. Already, our ratios today are comparable with OECD standards. So, it is not for a lack of teachers.
Second, we will do everything we can to support our teachers. Assoc Prof Lim highlighted that because of the heavy loads of the teachers, they may be hamstrung and may not be able to be as effective as they would like. We will continue to review with all our educators what is the best way to allocate their time across the different areas of work that they do, both in classrooms and outside of classrooms, bearing in mind that when you make these OECD comparisons, many other countries do not have the same kind of CCA provisions that we have in Singapore, neither do they have teachers spending time in these areas.
I have asked our educators before, \"Would you like to cut back your time on CCAs?\" Many of them said no. They value their time in CCAs because they recognise that this time outside of the classroom is important for holistic development of students.
We will continue this conversation and engagement with our teachers to give them our full support from the MOE headquarters and whatever they need to get their job done and, as I said, to provide holistic teaching and learning for every child.
The Chairman: Mr Don Wee.
Mr Don Wee: Mr Chairman, I would like to compliment and congratulate MOE and ITE management for improving the quality of ITE tremendously over the past decade. Like Mr Eric Chua, I have met many excellent ITE youths who help out at my constituency's events. Like what Minister Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman has said, many of these youths lack family support and guidance when they were much younger and therefore, they draw inspiration from their ITE teachers. Besides teaching, all these class advisors do general management, they facilitate social and financial assistance and they also perform the role of counsellor. Moreover, ITE is also admitting more and more students with special needs.
May I ask MOE if it will continue to pump in more resources to alleviate the workload of ITE teaching staff by introducing the likes of Allied Educators or the equivalent because we need happy and effective ITE teaching staff to produce happy and effective ITE talents.
Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman: Mr Chairman, first, let me thank Mr Don Wee for his recognition of the effort of ITE teachers in educating our students in ITE.
Indeed, ITE is more than just an educational institution. They acknowledge that they have a strong social role in supporting their students. ITE absorbs and takes in students from diverse backgrounds and with diverse abilities.
As Mr Don Wee mentioned, the teachers have done a tremendous amount of work in not only just providing training in terms of the skills required by the students to get better outcomes in terms of their work, but they also provide a lot of support emotionally. I have met many of the students, even those who have graduated. They tell me that the one thing that always makes them remember their ITE education is indeed their teachers. Sometimes, after they have graduated, after they finish their National Service, they come back and they want to speak to their teachers to get some career guidance. So, thank you so much, Mr Don Wee, for acknowledging the work of our ITE teachers.
Yes, we will continue to look at how best we can support our teachers. Given that we are also having more SEN students in ITE, we have also been increasing resources to support SEN students. For example, in 2019, we provided ITE with an additional six SEN support officers. These are officers that are specifically recruited to help students with special needs, the varying needs of these students. We have added six to augment the resources that ITE had as well as supporting the SEN support office. This brings the number to 19 in 2020.
We will continue to monitor the learning needs of our ITE students and we are prepared to enhance the support if necessary, including for our SEN students.
For those students who do come from other disadvantaged backgrounds, we also support ITE with social emotional counsellors to help them with some of their challenges. Today, ITE has 19 social emotional counsellors across the three colleges.
We will continue to assess. And Mr Don Wee is absolutely right. Many of the students come with very challenging backgrounds. They want to study. At the same time, sometimes, they get engaged in part-time employment because of the financial circumstances they are in. We provide financial support for them and we will continue to help them, because we want them to aspire to have higher qualifications. As I mentioned earlier, with the curricular structure review, we want all ITE students to aspire to attain their Higher Nitec qualification when they enter ITE.
One last point I want to add is that, in recognition of our ITE's staff, we introduced the ITE Staff Appreciation Day last year for the first time. Last year, it was on 6 November 2020. And we will recognise the first Friday of November each year as the Polytechnic-ITE Staff Appreciation Day, akin to Teachers' Day, but specifically for our teachers in the IHLs.
The Chairman: Mr Louis Ng.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: Thank you, Sir. I thank the Minister for sharing that MOE will review the appraisal system. But could I ask specifically whether as part of the review, we can look into removing the quotas and the punitive implications of the lower grades? I also thank the Minister for changing \"sacred cows\" into \"sacred stones\". That is much better because we do not need to slay the cows anymore.
Mr Lawrence Wong: Mr Chairman, we have had this discussion with the Member Mr Louis Ng before, where he filed some questions on the appraisal system. I have explained that we do have an appraisal system for our teachers. It is part of performance management.
In fact, if you look at the literature or if you look at education systems around the world, the quality of teachers, as I said before, matters a lot in outcomes. We are fortunate in Singapore to have capable, motivated, high quality teachers.
The performance management system we have in place supports this. We will continue to review how the appraisal system can be more effective and can be more supportive of our teachers.
The system is aligned with the rest of the Civil Service, so we will have to do this together with the Civil Service. But where it comes to some of what Mr Ng talked about – punitive consequences of getting a lower performance grade – that is certainly something that MOE can look at. As I said just now, we have been in discussion with the our teachers' unions on this matter. We will continue to engage them and work with them, taking in their feedback and suggestions to see how the system can be further improved.
The Chairman: Mr Patrick Tay, would you like to withdraw your amendment?
Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan: Sir, I would like to place on record our thanks to Minister Lawrence Wong, Minister Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman, Minister of State Sun Xueling and Minister of State Gan Siow Huang as well as the MOE staff team for powering this year's Committee of Supply and also sharing the exciting plans and programmes as we try to ensure that our education eco-system stays ready, relevant and resilient.
I would also like to thank our educators, tripartite partners as well as stakeholders in the education eco-system because it is going to get tougher and we really need to stay ahead of the times and of course, ahead of the curve, particularly, with this next normal and a lot of disruptions, digitalisation and the drive towards continuing education and training. With that, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.
[(proc text) Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. (proc text)]
[(proc text) The sum of $13,310,388,800 for Head K ordered to stand part of the Main Estimates. (proc text)]
[(proc text) The sum of $530,000,000 for Head K ordered to stand part of the Development Estimates. (proc text)]
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Committee of Supply – Head L (Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment)","subTitle":"Building a liveable and sustainable home","sectionType":"OS","content":"The Chairman: Head L, Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment. Mr Louis Ng.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): Mr Chairman, I beg to move, \"That the total sum to be allocated for Head L of the Estimates be reduced by $100\".
MSE's portfolio is a broad but incredibly crucial one. As long as we breathe, eat and live in Singapore, MSE's policies touch all our lives and we have an important goal of ensuring sustainability at the heart of everything we do.
Last month, my Government Parliamentary Committees (GPC) colleagues and I delivered the first ever Parliamentary Motion on climate change.
This House declared climate change a global emergency. We committed to deepening and accelerating efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change and to embrace sustainability in our development.
I am heartened that we are making progress and have launched a Singapore Green Plan 2030. The goals and efforts in the green plan are ambitious but I hope that the green plan will set a minimum standard that we will far exceed.
The Earth needs us to achieve and then go beyond the Green Plan. The Green Plan should be a living document that we can continuously review and update from now until 2030.
[Deputy Speaker (Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo) in the Chair]
We can afford to move the base line upwards and expect higher standards of our sustainability performance. We cannot afford to rest on our laurels once we meet the existing target. Ultimately, we need to remember that the goal is not to check off every target in the Green Plan. The goal is to slow down, stop and reverse if possible, Earth's path towards widespread and irreversible climate collapse.
I hope our conversations about the Green Plan over the next decade will both be about how we can meet the targets and what higher targets we will be shedding for ourselves. For this Committee of Supply, my Government Parliamentary Committee colleagues, fellow Members of Parliament and I will be asking lots of questions and making numerous suggestions for sustainability and MSE's other portfolios. Let me get the ball rolling.
Will MSE work with industry and civil society to strengthen the Green Plan?
Will MSE shore up climate resilience by enhancing coastal protection and boosting flood resilience?
Will MSE strengthen the resilience of our food supply and ensure food safety?
Will MSE strengthen Singapore's water security by greening our water treatment processes and increasing water efficiency?
Will MSE work towards a zero waste nation by closing the e-waste, packaging waste and food waste loop?
Will MSE build a clean and endearing home for all by raising public health standards, transforming our environmental services industry and sustaining the hawker industry?
There are lots more questions, and Madam, I look forward to a robust debate.
[(proc text) Question proposed. (proc text)]
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: Madam, we are in a race to the bottom for climate change. Race to the bottom of the amount of carbon emitted. Several cities such as Hong Kong, Monaco, Delhi have pledged to work towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The European Union, Japan and the Republic of Korea, together with more than 110 other countries, have pledged carbon neutrality by 2050.
Of course, commitments must be back by ambitious action and concrete plans. But setting a goal is invaluable in itself.
First, it sends a clear signal to its industries, citizens and civil society on the direction and speed of policy change. The signal will have a trickle down effect in influencing decisions in boardrooms and individual action.
Second, it provides a yardstick for measuring if we are taking bold enough actions to achieve our declared goals.
Will Singapore also pledge to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and what are our plans to achieve this goal?
The Government introduced the Public Service Taking The Lead in Environmental Sustainability (PSTLES) initiative back in 2006. During Committee of Supply last year, PMO announced that it intends to raise its ambitions and for the next phase of the initiative. Can the Ministry share some of its plans and targets?
Under current initiative, each Ministry is required to appoint a Sustainability Manager to set sustainability targets for FY2020 and to develop a resource management plan to meet its targets. In addition to the reporting in the Singapore Public Sector Outcomes Review, will the Government consider requiring Sustainability Managers to publicly report annually how well their Ministries have fared in achieving targets set for their Ministries?
Also, many countries have emphasised the importance of a green recovery, even as the world continues to reel from the COVID-19 pandemic. What are the Public Service's own plans on environmental sustainability and how does it intend to decarbonise?
Mr Liang Eng Hwa: Mdm Chairman, can I have your permission to take my two cuts together, a total of three minutes.
The Chairman: Yes, go ahead.
Mr Liang Eng Hwa (Bukit Panjang): Singapore has to play our part to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to the impact of climate change.
We have deep interest in the global efforts to fight the deteriorating effects of climate change and Singapore has been an active player and strong supporter of multilateral approaches to tackle climate challenges.
In 2015, in line with the Paris Agreement, Singapore made further commitment to reduce our emission intensity by 36% from 2005 levels by 2030 and to stabilise our greenhouse emissions aiming to peak at around 230. Given our limited access to renewable energy, our pledge towards the Paris Agreement is indeed an ambitious one.
However, I understand that countries like US, European Union, Japan, South Korea and China and among others have set even more ambitious targets and have declared that they would reach net zero emission or carbon neutrality by 2050 or 2060.
In the light of these developments, can I ask would Singapore be raising its climate change ambitions further? How we gear up our economy and the society towards carbon neutrality and how long would it take realistically?
My second cut. Singapore has set an ambitious solar target of \"2 gigawatt-peak by 2030\", which will provide enough power for over 300,000 homes. This would make solar energy as one of the \"Four Energy Switches\" for Singapore.
The Government has accelerated efforts to harness solar energy via increased deployment of solar panels and energy storage solutions. We are also gearing up industry players to scale up capabilities and to stay abreast of the latest solar technological developments.
In Singapore context, the key limitations to solar being one of our major sources of energy are our lack of vast spaces and the fluctuating cloud cover due to our weather.
Other than HDB blocks, can I ask the Minister what are the examples of untapped spaces that the Government intends to deploy solar, and how is the Government leveraging innovation to do so?
Besides solar, can I also seek an update from the Minister on the key efforts and initiatives that the Government is working on with the private sector?
Last year, the Government announced plans to import 100 megawatts of electricity from Malaysia for two years. This is part of the plan to strengthen the regional grid architecture and allow countries to share clean energy sources. Can I ask the Minister how will this impact electricity prices and what are the considerations the Government will take into account to manage price volatility? How can consumers play a part in this transition, and how does the Government intend to support them?
Mr Gan Thiam Poh (Ang Mo Kio): Madam, there are many aspects to combating climate change and promoting sustainability. Many issues need our attention and urgent action. But funds and resources are limited, and have been further strained due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Singapore needs to select and decide on our climate goals and achievable milestones.
We are a small city state with a densely built urban environment and manufacturing facilities, as well as an air, maritime and financial hub. Hence, our carbon emissions are not insignificant relative to our geographical size. Yet, we are dependent on these activities to survive as we lack natural resources. How can we balance these competing demands and meet our short and long-term climate goals without compromising the quality of life for our citizens?
Would the Minister elaborate on our climate initiatives and projects? What can we achieve in the short, medium and long term together with the communities in the world? Beyond mitigating our domestic emissions, how can Singapore contribute to international efforts to achieve Singapore's climate goals?
We need a whole-of-society approach to solve the problem of carbon emissions. Firstly, how do we reduce carbon emissions from our electricity consumption from running offices and households? We also use a lot of air-conditioning in our hot and humid weather.
Secondly, we are an air, maritime and logistics hub, and have an active manufacturing sector. How do we incentivise companies to make more efficient use of electricity? Thirdly, we need to encourage our people to use more public transportation to cut down on emissions from private vehicles. Emissions are also linked to our diets and lifestyles. Eating less meat and reducing waste will make a lot of difference.
I would like to ask the Minister what are our plans to further mitigate and reduce our carbon emissions?
Miss Rachel Ong (West Coast): The global momentum on climate change has accelerated significantly with many countries increasing that climate ambitions. As a responsible global citizen, we are doing our part to fight against climate change and commit to fulfilling our pledge. The targets of the Singapore Green Plan 2030 includes lowered carbon emissions, creating green spaces and investment in green technology. Embarking on these initiatives will require several trade-offs.
For example, setting space for solar panels might limit space for other activities. As Singapore works towards achieving our climate targets, what are the other anticipated trade-offs and how are we addressing them?
Mr Sharael Taha (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Singapore needs to continue to remain attractive for investments. Our lower tax rates compared to other developed countries is one of the many reasons that makes us attractive for investments.
How will an increased in carbon tax impact our climate strategy? Will it encourage the industry to adopt new technologies to be more efficient or will it reduce our attractiveness for investments as investors look for cheaper and less restrictive alternatives in this region? How do we strike this balance?
The Chairman: Ms Hany Soh, please take your three cuts together.
Ms Hany Soh (Marsiling-Yew Tee): Thank you, Chairman. Environmental consciousness among Singaporeans is growing. In recent months, I have participated in a series of dialogue sessions, both formal and informal ones, involving people from all walks of life, including my Woodgrove residents, both young and old.
All of them spoke with great enthusiasm in advocating for a greener society. I am therefore heartened with the recent launch of the Singapore Green Plan 2030. In this regard, I wish to ask the Ministry, how can Singaporeans take part in this important Green Plan effort?
To succeed in our Singaporean Green Plan 2030, I see the need to collectively and continuously involved the efforts of our \"Three Ps\": People, Private and Public sectors. What kind of programmes will the Ministry introduced to foster more collective actions by the Three Ps to combat climate change together? What is the target outcome that we are trying to achieve from each of these programmes for the next three, five and 10 years? Which of the programmes would be expected to have the most impact in a community, in the business community and for the individuals respectively?
As shared in the recent debate on the Motion to accelerate and deepen efforts against climate change, the community in Woodgrove would like to work closely with the relevant agencies and private sectors, to participate as a community to achieve the greatest impact in combating climate change for the better well-being of our future generations.
In terms of involving the community, I understand that the SG Eco Fund was launched last year to support projects that advance environmental sustainability and promote the community's involvement. In this regard, I have three questions.
Firstly, how many applications have been submitted thus far? Secondly, how many of these applications have begun their projects that have enjoyed community participations. And thirdly, what is the desired outcome for each project supported by the SG Eco Fund?
I hope that these projects are able to achieve sustainable outcomes and be scalable in scope, allowing them to be easily replicated and introduced across Singapore in the long run. I also hope that one of the key aspects would be the tap on this projects to nurture more individuals as green champions for our community.
Finally, apart from the five Ministries mention in the Singapore Green Plan, I believe that the MCI also plays a vital role in raising awareness and rallying the people, corporations and the Government to advance Singapore's national agenda on sustainable development together.
I have recently watched a screening of \"A Wicked Problem\", a climate change documentary series by CNA hosted by Senior Minister of State for MCI, Dr Janil, in which he hits the ground to investigate what Singapore is doing to combat climate change and to rally Singaporeans to do their part in their personal capacities.
I hope that MCI will track and gather feedback from viewers the impact and the outcome of such documentary series. I personally find such programmes engaging and insightful and hope that more of them can be created in other languages and even dialects to raise more awareness and support for Singaporeans to come together to combat climate change. With effect like this, we can make a difference for the greener benefit of our future generations. In Mandarin, please, Chairman.
(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] The Singapore Green Plan 2030 is jointly led by the MOE, MND, MSE, MTI and MOT to set clear goals for urban greening, sustainable living and green finance. But I think that MCI, as the Ministry responsible for ICT, media, government information and public communication strategies, plays an important supportive role in driving the public sector, businesses and Singaporeans towards the goal of sustainable development in the next 10 years.
I hope that the MCI will launch a series of programmes in four languages as well as various dialects to encourage Singaporeans to participate more in sustainable living. By adopting the ‘listening more and watching more’ approach, I hope that Singaporeans will understand that it is everyone's responsibility to protect the Mother Earth and green up the environment. I firmly believe that as long as our people stay united and do their part to combat climate change, our next generation will have a better green future.
Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis (Sengkang): Madam, the Green Plan is an important step forward, not just for the environment but also for our overall social and economic health as a nation. I would like to take this opportunity to applaud the introduction of new initiatives such as the Enterprise Sustainability Programme, moving up Singapore's EV charging point target from 28,000 to 60,000 by 2030 as well as strengthening sustainability curriculum and programmes in schools.
However, apart from some of these, the Green Plan mostly outlines many existing initiatives and targets that were previously already announced. For example, the aim to green 80% of all buildings over the next decade is a target that was set in 2011. It has been a decade since then.
Madam, the Government has now declared climate change a global emergency. To demonstrate our seriousness on treating climate change as a global emergency and existential threat that it is today, we need to continue pushing the boundaries and set bold and vicious targets for ourselves.
As I mentioned during the Debate on the Climate Change Motion, Singapore's updated NDC targets submitted in 2020 does not genuinely limit emissions growth beyond what was already committed to under our first NDC, which was submitted in 2015. There is room for us to strive for even more.
The next NDC's submission is due by 2025. Does the Government intend for Singapore to set more ambitious emissions target for this next submission? In addition, will the Government consider setting a more specific deadline to reach net zero emissions, taking into consideration IPCC's recommendation of net zero by 2050?
Ms Janet Ang (Nominated Member): Madam, our founding fathers, Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his Old Guard colleagues wrote our Singapore story. They had the courage to dream big, creating a “First World oasis in a Third World region”, and the leadership to make it happen. Their rallying cry was for this “mudflat to become a metropolis”! When they look at what we have here today, they should feel that their sweat and tears are justified. We hope that when it is our turn to look at where we would have brought Singapore to, we too, will be justified.
The Singapore Green Plan or SGP2030, is an exciting vision and a rallying cry for the whole of Singapore to work towards becoming a sustainable Smart Nation. Climate change is a global emergency and a threat to mankind. This House has committed to act.
Allow me to focus this cut on the business of climate change and the business of the SGP. The global crisis presents an opportunity for Singapore to be the world's living laboratory for all things smarter and sustainable. Our companies will all have an opportunity to get on this agenda, and align with SGP2030 to: one, ensure that they themselves will be able to comply with the targets; two, that their business will be ready to participate in the global \"green\" economy when buyers of products and services will be calling for \"green\" criteria to be met; and three, that sustainability will become the differentiator and competitive advantage and new businesses and start-ups will be conceived.
For a start, many of our SMEs do not understand how all this will impact them. How will MSE and the whole-of-Government help our companies to begin their journey, starting with awareness?
Next, companies will need to know where they are and what steps they need to take to get to the green standards that will be expected. Will MSE be developing and rolling out an assessment programme, much like the SERI for Industry 4.0?
There will be new skills and new jobs. Our workers and our future workforce will need to be trained as well. How will education and CET curriculum in our schools and IHLs change to reflect this future?
In closing, I believe that there is a unique opportunity for Singapore businesses to create a vibrant value chain eco-system and circular economy around this Singapore Green Plan 2030 movement. With SGP 2030, it is once in a lifetime or last in a lifetime opportunity for the business community, the Government, academia, experts to begin the dialogue and co-create an integral development approach to economic and social growth, bringing everyone along. \"The future forward begins now. We only need to imagine it, to decide it and to do it”.
Ms Poh Li San (Sembawang): Mdm Chairperson, last month, together with several fellow Members of the GPC for MSE, we filed the Motion to Accelerate and Deepen Efforts to Combat Climate Change.
The Singapore Green Plan 2030 that is organised along five pillars and outlined by the five Ministries is, indeed, encouraging.
I would like to know how the sectoral plans within the pillars allows Singapore to achieve its net zero-emission aspiration earlier and is there a target year to achieve net-zero emission goal?
On the matter of global warming, what are our plans to protect Singapore against the threat of sea level rise? This is especially so since our sea level is projected to further increase by about one metre.
I would also like to know, how can we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic with a greener and more sustainable future for Singapore?
Would the Minister for Sustainability and Environment shed light on these queries?
Mr Don Wee (Chua Chu Kang): Mdm Chairperson, the Government has announced that Choa Chu Kang, Nee Soon and Tampines have been earmarked as Eco-towns. Residents can expect transformations which will enhance their environments so that there will be more sustainable and livable space for residents. On the drawing board are sustainable community touchpoints such as hawker centres which will have zero waste by composting food scraps. In addition, these towns will be able to track their energy consumption, water usage, carbon emissions and their progress in recycling.
Can the Ministry provide an update on what has been implemented so far and what future developments can be expected? Will new waste disposal methods such as Pneumatic Waste Conveyance System be introduced in these towns?
The Chairman: Prof Koh Lian Pin, you can take your three cuts together.
Prof Koh Lian Pin (Nominated Member): Mdm Chair, the Singapore Green Plan 2030 includes several on-going and new initiatives. One of these initiatives is City in Nature.
The targets of City in Nature include doubling our annual tree planting rate, increasing the land area of our nature parks by over 50%, and adding 1,000 hectares of green spaces. These are ambitious and important targets for transforming Singapore into an even greener and more beautiful city by 2030.
Can the Ministry share its plans for tracking progress towards achieving these targets over the next decade? Perhaps, more importantly, what does success look like in terms of the outcomes of City in Nature for the public, private and people sectors?
Green spaces are important for the many benefits they provide to Singapore. These benefits may include conserving biodiversity, addressing climate change impacts, and improving the physical and mental health of our fellow Singaporeans.
The success of City in Nature in delivering these outcomes, hinges not just on the amount of additional green spaces that we set aside to meet our target, but also on the quality of these green spaces, with respect to the different benefits we hope to derive from them.
Green spaces are not all the same. In fact, our understanding of the different types and values of green spaces could be a matter for public consultation and discussion, as part of the Green Plan Conversations.
The Green Plan Conversations are a timely and constructive opportunity for the public, private and people sectors to take a holistic approach in considering what should be part of Singapore’s current natural resources and future natural heritage.
These Conversations are also an important opportunity for the public, private and people sectors to communicate even more effectively with one another to strengthen our mutual trust and social compact, as we manage the inevitable and growing tensions between economic development and nature conservation in Singapore. For example:
Perhaps, the Government could explain more plainly to the people why it cannot ease the demand for land, if that is indeed the case.
Perhaps, the nature community could explain more convincingly to the Government why green spaces should be valued as our natural capital and national assets.
And perhaps, all of us could demonstrate that we can take a pragmatic, calibrated and science-based approach to face our challenges, make hard decisions and co-create solutions as a society.
I think most Singaporeans do appreciate that there are multiple priorities, constraints and trade-offs that need to be considered in making our urban planning decisions.
On the other hand, as a biophilic, or nature-loving, society, many of us wish to hold on to every little piece of remaining greenery we understand to be relatively pristine.
That is why the public, private and people sectors may also benefit from having the bigger picture of what remains of our green spaces in Singapore to help frame our discussions and align our perspectives and priorities.
To appreciate this bigger picture may require us to answer a few important questions, including:
Where are the green spaces that we must defend at all costs?
Where are the necessary ecological buffers and corridors that we need to protect?
What other green spaces are there in Singapore, where are they located and what are their marginal values for nature conservation?
What more can we do by leveraging Singapore's natural capital to strengthen our ecological, climate and socio-economic resilience?
That is why I am excited by Minister Desmond Lee’s recent announcement to engage the nature community in building a more comprehensive picture of Singapore’s island-wide eco-systems and connectivity, and in understanding how specific sites connect to our nature cores, buffers and corridors.
The Ministry's plan to do this in a scientific and systematic manner is extremely important and a huge step forward for us to understand the value of green spaces in the broader context of Singapore's natural capital at the national scale.
I am confident that this effort to be led by our National Parks Board, in partnership with our academic nature and community stakeholders, will produce invaluable perspectives, science and tools to help inform Singapore's long-term planning decisions.
The Green Plan conversations are therefore a vital and necessary platform for us to engage in open discussions, consultations and communications to co-create an effective environmental management framework and set of processes for achieving the intended targets and outcomes of the City in Nature initiative and the Singapore Green Plan. By working together to consider the green spaces we have left, not in isolation but in their totality, we can make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
With regards to the Kranji Woodland incident, I am confident that ongoing investigations by the relevant agencies will identify any gaps or breaches that may have resulted in the premature land clearance. And upon the completion of those investigations, I am confident that the necessary deterrents and safeguards will be put in place to prevent it from ever happening again.
Apart from the premature clearance at Kranji, I think there are other important issues that may be even more deserving of our attention. For example, what must we do to ensure the success of the ecological corridor that would run through the Agri-Food Innovation Park at Kranji, in fulfilling its function of increasing ecological connectivity across Singapore? How can we do the same for the other ecological corridors on the island? How do we ensure that the environmental monitoring and management plan for Kranji will deliver its intended outcome of mitigating any ecological impact on Sungei Pang Sua and neighbouring habitats, such as Mandai mangrove and mudflat? Perhaps, these questions need to be discussed in consultation with the nature and scientific communities.
I am also happy to learn that the Ministry will continue efforts to strengthen our Environmental Impact Assessment, or EIA, framework.
EIAs are an essential part of good environmental governance, as they empower and enable the authorities to get the most complete information on a proposed development, through rigorous scientific protocols and engagements with nature and community stakeholders.
The recent announcement by Minister Desmond Lee to explore the potential of centralising EIA processes is another significant and positive step in the right direction.
A centralised EIA approach could help reduce the risk of any conflict of interest, increase and maintain EIA standards and eliminate any ad-hoc and inconsistent practices.
Perhaps another improvement for the Ministry to consider is to adopt a more precautionary approach in our EIA framework.
At the moment, the Ministry and relevant agencies as technical experts, shoulder the initial burden and responsibility of having to assess the likelihood of any environmental impact that may result from development and the need for any environmental studies and mitigation measures. Perhaps the initial burden should instead rest on the developer, to always be required to show, prior to development, that there would not be impacts beyond acceptable thresholds. And if there would be potentially unavoidable impacts, to require the developer to put in place and demonstrate the adequacy of mitigation measures.
I think this preliminary layer of information can add to the context-specific set of considerations that the Ministry and relevant agencies will have to act on as decision-makers.
Ultimately, a sound EIA framework helps to increase transparency in our urban planning decisions, encourage stakeholder participation and ensure greater public support of development plans and mitigation measures at later stages.
As we continue to discuss and debate the various ways to improve the EIA framework and other key ingredients of good environmental governance, we should not lose sight of the overarching goals and outcomes that the public, private and people sectors all seek to achieve.
I believe we all want to maintain public trust in the credibility and integrity of the processes by which we evaluate the different priorities and trade-offs of our society, so that we can make the most informed decisions on our natural capital for the benefit of the current and future generations of Singaporeans.
Miss Cheryl Chan Wei Ling (East Coast): Mdm Chairman, may I have your permission to take all three cuts together?
The Chairman: Yes, please.
Miss Cheryl Chan Wei Ling: Madam, climate change is an existential challenge to Singapore. To ensure that urban infrastructures are more climate-resilient, it is imperative to adopt the use of existing climate change information and resources for urban planning.
An example is the Department of Transportation in Toronto, where they take reference on historical rainfall data to forecast peak discharge flows from two of their local basins that had recently experienced severe flooding affecting several highways. By adopting climate forecasting and re-modelling of the streamflow, they can estimate future flooding using projected climate data for the region. These revised forecasts were then compared to asset inventory, allowing analysis of all transportation infrastructure. This enabled the Department to identify at-risk roads, bridges and other infrastructure and include design elements to reduce their vulnerability to future flooding.
The same applies to our infrastructure for goal towards electrification of vehicles. The conversion rate is highly dependent on public education, access to charging infrastructure, comparable cost and more choices of alternative vehicles. There is also need for stronger public-private partnership to establish the full infrastructures on an expedited basis.
Recently, the Government shared that our sustainability measures will include nature-based solutions. Can I ask what are these solutions and how will we support research and development in this area?
For building designs with lower carbon emissions and for sustainable maintenance, we should incorporate innovative design solutions. In Singapore’s tropical weather, the strong rain, wind and sun will have an impact on HDB flats and commercial buildings. Let us take an example – the Marco Polo Tower in Hamburg. Each floor of the apartment building is sent a few degrees away from the one below, around an axis, which allows for recessed facades that protect residents from direct sun and negates the need for heavy usage of air conditioning.
Another notable green feature of this development is the inclusion of heat exchanger on the roof that turns warm air into a cooling system and natural ventilation that implies residents can sleep soundly without being disrupted by external noise.
Another example is the Shanghai Tower – the world's second tallest building. It is also architecturally sustainable in design. There is a transparent second skin wrapped around the building creating a buffer of captured air that serves as natural ventilation, thus reducing energy costs. Two hundred and seventy wind turbines are also incorporated into the facade to power its exterior lights. Thanks to measures like these, the tower uses significantly less power than other skyscrapers and has a platinum LEED certification.
Will the Ministry legislate the requirement for future public or private developments to align with certain sustainability guidelines in the design process? At Committee of Supply 2020, it was announced that various stakeholders will be invited to co-create the next edition of Green Building Masterplan. Can the Ministry provide an update on this?
As we move towards sustainability, there is also a need to ensure our food supply security. This means we need to integrate creative ways of farming in our urban landscape to address the food demand under land scarcity condition. From re-purposing rooftop of multi-storey carparks, urban farming buildings to agri-farm cluster, there are certainly ways to raise awareness about our security needs and integrate investments. We should do more to encourage Singaporeans and local companies to be a part of this effort.
Besides companies, I believe that more can be done on an individual level. We can actually begin by changing our habits and focusing on reduction of energy usage, increase the amount of conservation and upcycling. NParks's \"Gardening with Edibles\" initiative during this circuit breaker was well-received, with many still continuing this labour of love for plants and edibles at their home or in the community. How can we encourage more residents and enthusiasts to sustain this interest and be part of the green efforts in the community? Can this attract the younger generation to a new green economy of smart farming.
Let us take a leaf from other countries like in South Korea where the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs is launching a US$36 million project to research, develop and demonstrate smart farm technologies and the next-generation core and convergence techs. I am hopeful that we too can encourage the next generation to sustain and manage the farming industry in Singapore.
Much has been outlined on a national level for the Singapore Green Plan 2030. The Green Plan is built upon five key pillars, but it encompasses many aspects of sustainability that we wish to frame our policy and actions upon. I would like to highlight three aspects – jobs in the green economy, accounting framework for green financing and ground-up initiatives and collaboration with the Government.
First a roadmap on job creation for the green economy. I have met residents, youths and mid-career individuals who wish to join and they are keen to be part of this green economy. However, this being an emerging area meant there is more ambiguity on the type of jobs available and what these jobs are like. To better facilitate the creation of a more detailed roadmap and career path for those interested, I have raised some of these in a recent Private Member's Motion on climate change. I will just name a few here.
One, to provide more variety in the courses at the Institutes of Higher Learning for those who are interested in the field of sustainability as a career.
Another area is facilitating early or mid-career moves towards jobs focused on environmental sustainability in partnerships with companies through structured mentorship and work transition programmes.
We can also work with industries and public sector to outline the types of future green jobs and constantly align on skills and competencies required for such roles in the emerging sectors.
Second, to standardise the accounting standards framework to further grow the green finance. Singapore has already made huge inroads in green finance and is considered the leader in ASEAN. How can we further grow this sector and seize the future opportunities?
Locally, having a standardised accounting framework would better enable meaningful interpretation and comparison of emissions as well as allowing for greater transparency of these green investments. In the Green Finance Position Paper 2020 by Eurocham Singapore and Accenture, the paper also concurred on the benefits of having a standardised accounting standards framework for the region in further growing the green finance sector for ASEAN. Though, it had acknowledged that a complete harmonisation may be too onerous, suggesting something closer to banking regulations where each country's requirements can align with the global rules and allow for greater flexibility in adoption within each of the country.
And lastly, encouraging ground-up initiatives and collaboration with the Government.
Suggestions were put forth to create an eco-system to adopting a collaborative consultative partnership between citizens, Government and the private sector to address issues pertaining to climate change and the green economy.
I would like to ask the Minister, as environmental awareness grows in Singapore with a myriad of ground-up initiatives, how are these initiatives internalised by the respective Government agencies for consideration and potential incorporation with the public sector projects? On this note, I would like to ask for an update on the progress of the HDB Green Towns Programme which was announced at last year's Committee of Supply.
Ms Tin Pei Ling (MacPherson): Madam, in mature housing estates, we see generations of families being raised. Sustainability is therefore critical.
In MacPherson, about one in three of our residents are aged 60 and above. We have a high concentration of mature flats and are affectionately known as the \"chap lao, 十楼\". We now have a comprehensive public transport network, four hawker centres and many other amenities serving our constituency. I am thankful for what we have, but I also think about how we can sustain high quality living experience for many generations of residents in MacPherson.
One pain-point faced is the regular breakdown of lifts, despite monthly maintenance scheduled because of high daily usage and lifts being aged. This is highly disruptive to our residents, especially our seniors. If the lifts are to be replaced entirely before its planned lifecycle, overall costs can increase very significantly as well.
As we progress, and age, we can expect to see more mature estates and aged infrastructure. But to tear down and rebuild everything is also untenable over the long run, quite wasteful as well. So, we must find solutions to preserve our infrastructure's longevity and maintain the quality of our living environment.
The quantum advancement in technology, applied to the digitalisation of energy, can allow us to move from reactive to predictive maintenance. Back to the HDB lift example, leveraging smart technology, data and machine learning enables Town Councils to intervene before the lift breaks down. This reduces downtime, cuts operational costs and improves customer experience for residents. And hopefully, cost-savings can be passed on to residents eventually in the form of lower S&CC.
I note that the HDB collaborated with the Imperial College London and A*STAR in 2017 to embark on a research programme to study how smart sensing and analytics strengthen predictive analytics for efficient estate maintenance. May I ask whether there are useful findings that can be applied?
More importantly, what is the Government's plan to leverage smart technology and data to enhance quality living and preserve the tangible and intangible value for estates, especially mature ones like MacPherson?
In addition, based on EMA's data, electricity consumption of public housing in mature estates is about 10% higher than that of non-mature ones over the past 15 years. This difference could be due to many reasons, but a very likely cause is that aged infrastructure can lose efficiency and consume more energy. Perhaps the Ministry could shed some light on this.
Hence, I am glad that there are national programmes such as the Solar Nova. Solar energy is clean and offers cost predictability. Current electricity price fluctuates with oil price. For solar, the cost is fixed and locked in upfront and then spread over a fixed term of 20 to 25 years, thereby offering cost stability and predictability.
Hence, if we can step up the implementation of Solar Nova, especially for mature estates, before the 2030 target, we can achieve a cleaner and greener living sooner. I also believe that by scaling the use of solar energy, the positive environment impact is highly significant. May I ask whether there are plans to step up and accelerate the Solar Nova implementation in mature estates like MacPherson?
Madam, mature estates are like \"Brownfields\". Unlike new estates where sustainable solutions and green designs can be applied from step 1, it is tougher to \"retrofit\" mature estates. But if we can turn these so-called \"Brownfields\" green by going smart, we would create a real innovative model that others can follow. This way, we could also retain the distinct identities of our mature estates and keeping them vibrant for generations to come.
Ms Nadia Ahmad Samdin (Ang Mo Kio): Madam, may I take my two cuts together?
The Chairman: Yes, please.
Ms Nadia Ahmad Samdin: Thank you. Our efforts for a more sustainable Singapore must be in both the hardware and infrastructure we built to fight climate change and also the hardware of Singaporeans – our behaviour, priorities and lifestyle.
I would like to ask the Ministry if there are any updates on increasing the climate resilience of our infrastructure in towns particularly in older housing estate such as McPherson, Cheng San and Seletar, and if there are any plans on supporting the development of nature-based solutions to make our island city as a whole, more climate resilient.
Beyond towns through our city, it has also been a year since the Government announced its vision towards becoming a city in nature. In the announcement, NParks shared four key strategies: extending our nature park network, intensifying nature and gardens and parks, restoring nature into the built environment and strengthening connectivity between our green spaces.
In my earlier Budget debate speech, I shared my hopes that some recommendations from the Blue Plan can also be incorporated into the Green Plan. As an island city-state, our waters and marine environment are also a very important part of our living environment.
Can the Ministry give an update on the progress made, challenges faced, and possible extensions in carrying out this vision? And beyond our green spaces, does the Government have further plans to better protect blue spaces in Singapore and integrate this into our city in nature vision?
As we integrate nature with urban development, we inevitably also encroach into the homes of our Singaporean wildlife. Human-wildlife tensions are increasing and I am sure many of us have had heart-stopping moments when we see videos of pangolins or otters crossing the road into incoming traffic. As we work towards greener towns and improve connectivity in green corridors, how can we better manage human-wildlife tensions and educate the public?
Beyond infrastructure, it is also about lifestyle. To inculcate sustainable habits, we have to start from a young age. Young Singaporeans spend a large part of their formative years in school where educators impart knowledge and shape the values of our youths from a young age.
We see that every school is a good school, but schools cannot just be good. They also need to be meaningful for life. A Junior College Economics student can tell you the effects of negative externalities of pollution on the market. That is good. But if despite having this knowledge, they still do not choose to adjust to a greener lifestyle, that may not be very meaningful.
I had called for sustainability to be adopted as part of the core curriculum during the climate change Motion, and I am very heartened to hear that the Government is working towards this.
I would like to ask how will climate change and sustainability be taught beyond science subjects to incorporate social justice and economic elements of climate change, and what is the vision for the school environment to have responsible habits for a sustainable Singapore for all? What efforts can schools embark on to reduce energy usage and waste generation on campus? And in light of the recent announcement that 20% of schools will be carbon neutral by 2030, what are some of the support measures that the Government will extend for this goal to be reached?
Dr Shahira Abdullah (Nominated Member): Singapore is embarking on the Green Plan 2030 to spearhead the move for sustainable development in Singapore. The immense growth potential of the environmental sector will translate into new jobs and industry transformation.
In MSE's Addendum to the President's Address in 2020, the Minister stated that MSE will develop a pipeline of talent to support sustainability in Singapore, by offering scholarships in specified areas, such as climate adaptation and climate science. May I ask the Ministry if there are any updates regarding this plan and on whether the number could be increased? Would there also be an extension of the scholarship to other degrees or diplomas also related to sustainability?
To ensure this pipeline, I also believe that the process starts from young. Students should be exposed to green careers from their Secondary school years. These could be done through learning journeys, assembly talks and having sustainability issues become more integrated into the education syllabus. Teachers and parents will also need to be equipped with the knowledge of this growing industry. This could be part of the present Eco Stewardship programme.
There is a wide variety of education options with different career pathways. Many sustainability careers span beyond science and engineering. Specialised career guidance in these industries could be considered by ensuring that the present career counsellors in Institutes of Higher Learning are also well-versed in them.
We could consider having experts and professionals to mentor interested students. Attachments and internships with green companies and organisations could also be offered.
One example of a programme that could be expanded is \"Journey of a Green Purpose\", an initiative spearheaded by Seastainable and Green Nudge Singapore. It is a 12-part webinar that aims to equip students and young adults with knowledge on what to consider while trying to establish a career in sustainability. This would, in the end, help channel these students into green jobs to accelerate Singapore's green recovery from the pandemic and our low-carbon transition.
With a steady increase of talents in the green industry, and a strong robust framework, Singapore can be an education hub for sustainability and attract ASEAN students to build capacity in the region.
Mr Abdul Samad (Nominated Member): Mdm Chair, I welcome the launch of the Singapore Green Plan 2030. As we work towards building a sustainable Singapore, we can and must do more to promote individual and collective responsibility to care for the environment. Singaporeans should be equipped with sound knowledge and awareness of our environmental issues to inculcate in them a deep care for the environment, and eventually champion and encourage their peers to adopt similar habits.
It is commonly said that values are not only taught, but also caught. I would like to know how MSE is working with MOE to nurture a sense of responsibility for the environment, and an appreciation for nature in our students? How can we ingrain in our students the mindset and attitude to always think about practising sustainability?
Efforts to inculcate the sustainability mindset should be ongoing. As our students progress to subsequent stages of education, efforts must continue to reinforce habits to reduce energy usage and reduce waste. What are some initiatives that MSE is working with the Institutes of Higher Learning to promote the importance of environmental sustainability?
My experience as a union leader has also taught me the importance of partnerships and how they are key in ensuring better outcomes. I would therefore also like to ask how MSE intends to engage different stakeholders among the community, parents and industry partners to more effectively inculcate and reinforce sustainability values in our students.
Miss Cheng Li Hui (Tampines): Mdm Chair, in past years' debates, I have asked about MOE's plans to incorporate climate change and environmental education into the curriculum. Our schools play a key role in educating students on the importance of green initiatives and playing a role to combat climate change. While environmental education is already present in our school curriculum, what more can we do to enhance the teaching and learning of sustainability concepts? I am glad to hear of MOE's commitment to support the Singapore Green Plan. School is the place to inculcate responsible 4Rs habits and how to recycle properly. Can the Minister share more on MOE's plans in areas beyond curriculum?
Mr Xie Yao Quan (Jurong): Madam, can I have your permission to take my two cuts together?
The Chairman: Yes, please proceed.
Mr Xie Yao Quan: Madam, there are few fundamental realities about what climate change means to Singapore and Singaporeans.
First, it is a wicked problem. There is no silver bullet and solutions will necessarily be complex. Number two, there is a part for all Singaporeans – all of us to play and make a real difference, despite our size. We can make a difference in Singapore and we can make a difference for the world. Three, we need to start from young.
To this end, the Singapore Green Plan aims to enhance environmental sustainability in schools and get at least 20% of schools here to be carbon neutral by 2030, with the rest to follow thereafter. The Singapore Green Plan also calls for us to nurture the next generation of Singaporeans with the will, knowledge and practical opportunities to protect and steward our environment for generations to come.
Can MOE share further details about its plans to educate our students on sustainability and their role to co-create and jointly own the Singapore Green Plan, and indeed, our whole-of-society movement towards a greener future?
We have a population of almost a million vehicles in Singapore last year, according to LTA. Assuming Net-Zero in the vehicle population going forward, we are still looking at almost a million vehicles in Singapore in 2030. Converting the entire population to electric vehicles will be a huge undertaking. In this light, the $30 million set aside in this year's Budget for electric vehicle related initiatives over the next five years, can only be a start. I would like to ask MOT, specifically about its plans for driving electric vehicle adoption for commercial use.
There are two parts to this. Firstly, on point-to-point passenger transport and in this respect, I am applying the question to both taxis and private hire vehicles, as I expect their operating models to further converge in the future. It is worth noting that today, there are roughly 90,000 taxis and private hire vehicles on our roads. And so for both taxi and private hire businesses, what are the Ministry's strategies to work with these companies to drive sector wide adoption of electric vehicles? What are the key principles, and what are some of the key planks that the Ministry is studying and developing, and this could be in terms of licencing requirements or vehicle ownership regime or the mix of charging infrastructure and its availability across both residential and depot settings for example?
Secondly, as e-commerce and the movement of goods on Singapore roads continue to grow, what other Ministry's plans to work with logistics businesses, to similarly drive electric vehicle adoption across the whole of that sector?
Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye (Radin Mas): Madam, the House recently debated about the importance of combating climate change, and I fully support the ambitious goals announced under the Singapore Green Plan 2030.
However, I also echo some concerns Members have raised about our push for Electric Vehicles (EVs), particularly the installation of charging points. How did the Ministry decide on the target of 60,000 EV charging points by 2030? Is there a corresponding 2030 EV adoption target? Can our power grid and local sub-stations, particularly those located in older HDB estates, cope with this additional load?
Have we factored in the rapid development of EV batteries, particularly the recent revival in swappable battery technology and battery-as-a-service solutions? Will this make fixed charging points irrelevant in the years to come? What were the lessons learnt from the experience of installing BlueSG charging points, which required significant cross-agency collaboration?
Madam, there has also been much global debate about whether EVs are truly good for the environment. The crux lies in the way EV batteries are produced and, perhaps more critically, how they are disposed. According to research papers, recycling useful materials from lithium-ion batteries remains a tedious and risky process. Placing them in landfills can cause them to explode and is also not a feasible option for land-scarce Singapore.
Does the Ministry have plans to ensure the sustainable disposal and recycling of EV batteries?
To better address such potential environmental pollution issues, can the Ministry revise the current Vehicular Emissions Scheme to impose a pollution tax on how \"green\" the EV manufacturer supply chain is instead of focusing on tailpipe emissions?
Mr Lim Biow Chuan (Mountbatten): Madam, a few years ago, I was looking to buy a hybrid car. I wanted to do my small part to buy a car which uses less petrol and hence be environmentally more friendly. However, at the car dealer, I was told that the hybrid version of the car would cost almost $10,000 more than the petrol model. The car dealer told me that unless I drive long distances, the savings in petrol would not be able to offset the higher costs of the hybrid car.
Thus, while I applaud the intent of the Government to move towards cleaner energy car models, we need to take a holistic view at the pricing of cars such that we can effectively encourage car buyers to opt for cleaner energy cars. Thus, the Government should look at lowering taxes on electric cars or hybrid cars so that a similar model would either be less expensive than an internal combustion engine vehicle or at least on par in terms of pricing. Otherwise, the average consumer may not want to pay more for a cleaner or greener vehicle if it burns a big hole in his pocket.
We should also look into making more charging points easily available. Recent media reports suggest that very few condominiums allow the installation of charging points for Electric Vehicles. And for those condominiums that wish to do so, they need to seek approval at the annual general meeting (AGM) of residents, whereby 75% must approve the installation of the charging station.
Without available charging points for their Electric Vehicles, many drivers will be concerned as to how they charge their Electric Vehicles.
Thus, I urge LTA to make it compulsory for HDB car parks, for condominiums and even office buildings to provide a minimum number of charging points in the car parks. Mandate such installation of such charging points because waiting for the condominium to approve the installation at AGMs would take far too long.
Wherever possible, charging points should also be installed on the streets or roads next to parking lots. To encourage condominiums, office buildings and HDB estates to set aside space for charging stations, LTA should also consider some form of financial incentives for them.
May I also ask the Minister whether the projected installation of more charging stations will require extensive electrical upgrades. If so, what is the cost involved to upgrade electrical power? We not only need charging points for the Electric Vehicles, we also need the chargers to be able to charge the Electric Vehicles quickly. If it takes too long to fully charge an Electric Vehicle, then consumers may not want to spend the time waiting for their cars to be charged.
Finally, I also call on the Government to consider how to dispose of spent or used batteries of Electric Vehicles such that at the end of the day, we will not end up with an environmental hazard and the question of how to dispose of such batteries.
Mr Ang Wei Neng (West Coast): Mdm Chair, I would like to first declare my interest as the CEO of the ComfortDelGro taxi business.
With the current push toward Electric Vehicles, or EVs, in Singapore and the prospect of converting a large fleet of point-to-point vehicles into EVs, the following are my primary concerns.
For a mass adoption of EVs in Singapore, we need to better incentivise both private and large fleet owners to switch to EVs. There are three important determinants.
The first is cost. With the enhanced Vehicular Emissions Scheme, or VES, there is a good chance that the cost of EVs will be similar to that of entry-level luxury cars. For example, the basic Tesla Model 3 will cost about $160,000, inclusive of the current COE price, which is equivalent to the BMW 2 series or the Mercedes A Class.
As a large fleet owner, the complete waiver of the Additional Registration Fee, or ARF, is a welcome move. However, the selling price of the EV after the waiver of ARF is still significantly higher than that of a mass market hybrid vehicle, which makes it hard for mass market adoption.
Is MOT prepared to take a further step to waive all statutory charges, including import duty, related to EV? If so, this will help to further reduce the cost of EVs.
The second is the charging time or the maturity of battery technology. The charging time of EV, ranging from 30 minutes to two hours for the full charge that allows a range of 200 km to 400 km, is a deterrent. For cabbies that use the EV over two shifts of driving, they cannot afford overnight charging of eight to 12 hours like other drivers.
Third is the availability of charging facilities in Singapore. While the number of charging stations will balloon to 60,000 by 2030, which would be a strong impetus for EV adoption, a lot of industrial sites cannot afford for us to install a fast charging station.
Would LTA or related authorities be prepared to improve the power infrastructure of industrial buildings so that fleet owners could install more fast charging stations? We need a charging farm to support a large fleet of EVs.
While much has been done to drive up the adoption of EVs in Singapore, these are some practical concerns which I hope MOT, LTA and other agencies can address.
Mr Gan Thiam Poh (Ang Mo Kio): Madam, the Government has announced that from 2030, only new cleaner energy car models may be registered. Will the Ministry elaborate on how it will promote the adoption of EVs to achieve this new target?
Having been used to a wide range of car models run by internal combustion engines, the EVs' range may not be diverse enough to appeal to some potential buyers who consider a list of other attributes in addition to fuel economy and safety. These include branding, design, tactile driving, feel, and so on. What if more owners decide to renew the COEs of older cars operating on internal combustion engines?
There is also concerns about maintenance and repairs of EVs. Do we have the manpower training programmes in place to equip and certify a new generation of technicians?
EVs are more expensive than vehicles utilising internal combustion engines even after factoring in the Electric Vehicle Early Adoption Incentive (EEAI) and enhanced Vehicular Emissions Scheme (VES) incentives. How will the Government make EVs more accessible to all car owners?
Families with young children and the elderly may find these higher priced vehicles a burden, similarly, for those who depend on driving private vehicles for a living. I am also concerned about families with members who have special needs or disabilities who depend on private vehicles for mobility. Will the Government consider assisting them with family-friendly or disability-related rebates? How about the maintenance and repairs of EVs? Does the Government have any indicative figures of such costs and what measures will be introduced to help bring these costs to affordable levels?
The Government has set a target of installing 60,000 charging points islandwide by 2030. I am concerned over whether we may be overbuilding, given that the initial adoption rate of EVs may not be as high what as we hope for. As this may require extensive electrical upgrades, how will the Government reach this target? How will the Ministry ensure that the charging points are well distributed while keeping costs manageable and the final bill to the users affordable?
The other worry is that EVs will be popular but potential buyers are limited by the charging points. For example, their residential estates may not have enough charging points due to existing space or electrical power output constraints. Some residents have told me that their old condominiums may have issues. Landed property owners may also have problems and need help for their estates' power distribution to be adjusted.
Prof Koh Lian Pin: Mdm Chair, permission to take both cuts together.
The Chairman: Yes, please proceed.
Prof Koh Lian Pin: The Singapore Green Plan includes a series of initiatives to encourage a shift away from the ownership and use of internal combustion engine vehicles towards the adoption of cleaner energy vehicles, including Electric Vehicles and hybrid Electric Vehicles.
This cleaner energy transition will almost certainly reduce air pollution and improve air quality on and around our road networks. It would also reduce the consumption of petrol and diesel fuels in our transport sector. However, the operation of Electric Vehicles still requires the production of electricity and its distribution to the expected 60,000 charging points across the island.
As we transition to having only cleaner energy vehicles on our roads, what does that translate to in terms of the additional demands on our power production capacity, infrastructure and energy security? What plans are being considered for Singapore to meet these additional power demands?
Perhaps more importantly, if Singapore were to continue to rely primarily on natural gas to generate the electricity that we need in the foreseeable future, what would the net carbon emissions savings of the transition to cleaner energy vehicles in our transport sector be?
Additionally, has the Ministry considered any intermediate milestones as indicators of success towards achieving the 2030 target of requiring all newly registered vehicles to be of cleaner energy models, and the 2040 target of having only cleaner energy vehicles on the road?
Finally, the biggest transformative win, in terms of reducing carbon emissions in Singapore's transport sector, arguably, is to increase the use of our public transport system. What steps is the Ministry considering to help us achieve this outcome?
An energy reset is one of the five key initiatives in the Singapore Green Plan. Using cleaner energy has been put forward as a way to lower Singapore's carbon footprint.
The Energy Market Authority, or EMA, announced last year that it is tapping on regional power grids for cleaner energy resources as a strategy to further diversify Singapore's energy supply. In fact, the EMA is embarking on a two-year trial for electricity imports from Malaysia to Singapore.
In assessing and refining the technical and regulatory frameworks for importing electricity into Singapore, what steps is the Ministry taking to evaluate and benchmark the carbon footprint, at source, of imported electricity to meet the cleaner energy goals of the Singapore Green Plan?
Ms Yeo Wan Ling (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Mdm Chair, the future we march toward is inevitably a low-carbon future. That being said, we are aware of the limitations on the land use on our island home.
Our narrow tidal range and calm seas limit our ability to utilise commercial tidal and wave power. We also do not have a river system with fast flowing water throughout the year to harness hydroelectric power. Our small physical size, high population density and land scarcity limit our potential for sustainably grown domestic biomass and large behemoth wind farms.
While ambitions to raise the capacity of solar PV capabilities six-fold by 2030 is impressive, our reliance on traditional sources of energy is still glaring. As we speak, about 95% of our electricity is generated from natural gas sources. How then can we be assured that decarbonisation will be a reality for Singapore?
The Chairman: Mr Saktiandi Supaat.
Mr Saktiandi Supaat (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Mdm Chairman, can I seek request to take the three cuts together?
The Chairman: Please proceed.
Mr Saktiandi Supaat: Mdm Chairman, with the push for digitalisation and innovation, demand for energy is on the rise. From data centres to electric transport to smart technology, all these require electricity to power. And as most of us are virtually spending our entire day online to work, study, learn and play, this insatiable appetite for data comes at significant environmental costs. Collectively, data centres around the world account for around 2% of greenhouse gas emissions and is expected to surge to 14% by 2040, the same as the US share of global emissions today.
It is good that Singapore has been making shifts towards alternative energy sources, such as solar energy. I have asked about several Parliamentary Questions on this on the Sun Capable Project and other solar and alternative energy efforts. Can the Ministry share what other key efforts to decarbonise our electricity grid and how can our power generation companies contribute to these efforts?
Mdm Chairman, at the moment, about 95% of Singapore's electricity is generated from imported natural gas. The prices of natural gas are indexed to oil prices. So, electricity prices do fluctuate and Singapore is, typically, a price taker. But electricity prices in Singapore are generally lower now, with the opening of the energy market. Intense competition between retailers has led to very attractive fixed price deals in contract spending over years. This brings relief for many households, with residents spending more time at home with remote working and hybrid work arrangements.
The downside to all this is that it could be challenging to encourage consumers to adopt energy-efficient measures to reduce electricity usage. How does the Ministry plan to meet this challenge over time?
Mdm Chairman, for years, Singapore has been making gradual steps to encourage businesses and individuals to reduce our carbon footprint. Just recently, the Singapore Green Plan 2030 was launched and it certainly gives us plenty to look forward to, including a vision of a low carbon future where clean energy is produced, used and managed.
Yet, there are some issues that we will have to consider. For example, in the short-term, the upfront cost of switching to cleaner machinery and vehicles would be quite hefty. This can be challenging in the current climate where many businesses are struggling to get back on track financially. Also, despite having no oil and gas resources of our own, Singapore is Asia's top petrochemicals hub and one of the world's top three export refining centre. The sector and its supporting industries employ a large number of workers in Singapore.
Can the Ministry share which are the key trade-offs that Singapore will have to contend with? Where are the negative impacts for industries, corporates and consumers and how will the Government help them to cope in the transition phase?
Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied): Mdm Chairman, OPEC forecasts that the green transition in shocks like COVID-19 place a big question mark over the future for oil markets.
Last year, Shell announced its intent to axe 500 jobs or 38% of its Pulau Bukom workforce and aims to reduce its global workforce by up to 9,000 by 2022. Just today, ExxonMobil announced that it will be cutting 7% of jobs in Singapore. No doubt, these developments owe something to COVID-19 but jobs affected by changes in fossil fuel demand over the longer term may eventually go beyond the refineries and include those in bunkering, rig building and other businesses in the fossil fuel industry eco-system.
In a Parliamentary reply to my Parliamentary colleague, Ms He Ting Ru, MTI said that the shift to low emissions mobility would not result in significant job losses for Singapore. But can the Government share its expected outlook for jobs in the oil and gas and petrochemicals industry clusters as a result of the longer term global decarbonisation trend?
Could we also consider making career conversion programmes more targeted for workers affected by this green transition through proactive pushing out of awareness campaigns and targeted ad campaigns? Worforce Singapore has implemented career conversion programmes like the PCP but reskilling can be more proactive and should not happen only when the transition is in full swing and jobs are already being lost.
Lastly, even if the majority of our workers in potentially affected industries are able to transition successfully, I expect some will fall between the cracks into unemployment and under-employment through no fault of theirs.
As has been argued by Members of this House, such as my Parliamentary colleague then, the hon Ms Sylvia Lim in the past, I urge the Government to implement measures of under-employment so that we can track this and refine our tools against bad employment outcomes.
The Chairman: Order.
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Head L (cont) –
Ms Mariam Jaafar (Sembawang): Madam, in my Budget debate speech I shared how proud I am of the intent clearly articulated in the Green Plan 2030 to forget a brave new green economy that will bring a host of new green jobs in green technology, in certain economies but also in green financing and common services.
I also spoke at length about how we can push on technological and business model innovation and collaborations so that we might lead the world, including by becoming the world's most sustainable hub for specific sectors for which we have a competitive advantage such as petrochemicals and shipping, as well as pushing forward on international and regional engagement, coordination and leadership, in particular, leading a collective ASEAN 2 degree path. The Green Plan and Budget also outline other areas, including energy efficient materials and the built environment.
To that, I also shared my optimism that given our development history in areas like engineering and process control, this time with some training and reskilling, our local workforce and can be the ones who benefit the most from this transition. This will help make climate change relevant and relevant to the broader community, not just a fortunate few and rally them to join in the conversation and more important action.
That that end, I would like to ask if a strategic review of the jobs and skills that will be in demand in the green economy has or will be done along with a review of the jobs, particularly local jobs that will be impacted directly or indirectly by the transition to the green economy. And let us put a plan against it and get ahead of the curve.
As many of my colleagues have stated, the importance of starting this in our schools to propagate the knowledge on sustainable development concepts as well as the science, in particular, material science, so that we will have an informed and empowered citizenry well before the green economy is truly upon us.
Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui (Holland-Bukit Timah): Mdm Chairman, while our enterprises develop and grow their revenues, they too must care for our society and planet. Now that we have a Singapore Green Plan 2030, we must drive our enterprises to weave in environmental, social and governance objectives.
In my maiden speech, I shared that we need to broaden our view of enterprises and entrepreneurs as having not only economic value but deep societal value at their core. In addition, I spoke about how enterprises are agents to societal changes and we need more companies be created with missions that value adds to our society and improves our societal well-being. This is possible and I call on the Government to implement ESG for SG, in other words, introduce an ESG mark with clear and appropriate indicators for environmental, social and governance that is applicable to Singapore and Asia. These benchmarking standards are needed so that our businesses can work towards concrete target setting. Investors want to do more with their money and create good social outcome goals.
An ESG mark will allow investors to make an informed decision while enterprises grow with accountability and sustainability. Implementation of an ESG mark can benefit individual consumers and B2B clients, very much similar to International sustainable food certification, such as Marine Stewardship Council and the Rainforest Alliance. An ESG mark will assist one to make conscientious decisions and selecting who he or she will support and patronise. By empowering the end consumer with more informed choice, we may drive supply chain upstream towards a greener and more impactful future. Such a mark could also assist regional and international efforts and benchmarking like how various Singapore standards have been adopted regionally.
ESG is not a new concept. It is widely embraced and accepted in finance and investment sector as key criterion in decision-making. For instance. It was reported that in Europe, many pensioners consciously chose asset managers with ESG capacities as their fund manager. Much can be learned about how it has been implemented and translated into different practice models for the various industries in Singapore.
I acknowledge that the ESG measurement tools are highly different for different sectors. As such, I propose that we need to have different set of indicators that is more targeted and relevant to sectors to make it more meaningful for enterprises, investors and consumers. In addition, we need to consider the nature of smaller enterprises that their growth and development are much different even though they belong to the same sector. For instance, a high-end fashion chain retailer versus heartline retailer within a retail sector uses resources that are vastly different skill and rate thereby impacting our environment very differently. Hence, there should be a tiered ESG measurement within the same sector to ensure that we account for new ones or smaller enterprises.
Apart from the above proposal, I recommend that we dovetail existing and future measurements, such as BCA Green Mark, Enabling Mark, PWM Mark as part of a larger ESG mark so the Enterprises have one clear benchmarking standard and investors and consumers have only one report to assess the companies from its peers.
We must further develop our brand equity that is trusted, sustainable and impactful. In fact, Singapore is growing as a wealth management hub. We could establish ourselves and ensure that the impact investment capital flows through our companies creating good and impactful jobs for Singaporeans and growing our economy in a sustainable and inclusive manner. I am cognisant of the fact that setting up a ESG mark can be complex and it takes time to develop one for each sector that is well accepted by the majority of companies.
With this in mind, I propose that we take a small step but incorporating a ESG component in the evaluation of Enterprise Grant schemes. This is a small step that is hand signal and encourage a commitment towards sustainable and socially impactful development.
Mr Desmond Choo (Tampines): Mdm Chairman, the green economy will significantly impact our SMEs. While larger companies are able to plan for this green future, SMEs might not have the resources to do so.
The Government has introduced the Enterprise Sustainability Programme to help enterprises, especially that of SMEs, to grow their green capabilities and benefit from the new opportunities in the green economy. Can the Ministry share whether we will be providing additional support to the SMEs on top of what is provided under the programme? Can the Government also consider support and funds to companies that want to trial or introduce new green technologies to their current business operations?
As the majority employer in Singapore, SMEs clearly need to play an outsized role in the green economy. What are the new roles that these SMEs would play in this new economic order?
The oil and gas sector has been a fixture in Singapore's economy for more than a century. From having oil storage facilities in the late 1800s to the first oil refinery in the early 1960s to becoming one of the world's most important oil and chemicals hub, Singapore's fortunes have always been somewhat tied to petrochemicals. The sector continues to generate a significant portion of our GDP. It also hires many workers. While there is no doubt that we will move to a low carbon future because of existential climate reasons, that transition is likely to be fraught with complexities.
First, we can simply shut the plants and go low carbon. But there will be massive loss of jobs in the oil and gas sectors and those supporting process sector companies. We will need to work with the oil and gas companies to adopt new technologies to transit to a low carbon future. Can the Ministry share with us its transition plan that balances our ambitions with support for our workers and economies?
Second, it is not only just the oil and gas sector that faces intricate complexities. There are many other companies and their workers who depend on petrochemicals. For example, the logistics sector depend on an extensive fleet of delivery vehicles. The infrastructure and technology for them to transit to electric vehicles is still nascent. The future seems to be one where we seek to reduce carbon footprint progressively. Can the Ministry share how we can help these companies with the transition?
Even so, there can also be opportunities within the low-carbon space. New industries and research outfits might be set up or evolved to provide new investments and jobs. Can the Ministry share what are these new jobs and industries that will be created? How can we better prepare our Singaporeans to take up such opportunities?
Mr Kwek Hian Chuan Henry (Kebun Baru): Mdm Chairman, in a recent interview with The Straits Times, I was asked about my thoughts as a Member of Parliament who advocates for climate change on the future of the petrochemical sector in Singapore.
My response was this: \"If for any reasons, our petrochemical companies exit Singapore, it is quite likely that they move to a different location with even less robust carbon emission standards to minimise costs. A balanced approach will, therefore, be to acknowledge that Singapore provides essential manufacturing services, including petrochemicals to the rest of the world, and the way we discharge our duty to the world is to ensure that our companies achieve world-class efficiencies in energy and carbon.\"
On this note, can I get MSE to provide an update on the progress of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in July 2020 by Chevron, Pan-United, Keppel Data Centres and Surbana Jurong, with the support of Singapore's National Research Foundation regarding the aspiration and development of mature carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies.
The Chairman: Leader.
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Committee of Supply Reporting Progress","subTitle":null,"sectionType":"OS","content":"The Leader of the House (Ms Indranee Rajah): Mdm Chairman, may I seek your consent to move that progress be reported now and leave be asked to sit again tomorrow?
The Chairman: I give my consent.
[(proc text) Resolved, \"That progress be reported now and leave be asked to sit again tomorrow.\" – [Ms Indranee Rajah] (proc text)]
[(proc text) Thereupon Deputy Speaker left the Chair of the Committee and took the Chair of the House. (proc text)]
Ms Indranee Rajah: Mdm Deputy Speaker, I beg to report that the Committee of Supply has made progress on the Estimates of Expenditure for the financial year 2021/2021, and ask leave to sit again tomorrow.
Mdm Deputy Speaker: So be it.
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Adjournment","subTitle":null,"sectionType":"OS","content":"Resolved, \"That Parliament do now adjourn to 10.00 am, tomorrow.\" – [Ms Indranee Rajah].
Adjourned accordingly at 7.33 pm.
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Increase in Issuance of Heavy Vehicle Season Parking Tickets","subTitle":null,"sectionType":"WANA","content":"8 Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui asked the Minister for National Development whether there are plans to increase the number of URA season parking tickets for our heavy vehicle parks especially at towns where there is more demand and new applicants are placed on waitlists.
Mr Desmond Lee: All heavy vehicles are required to have a designated overnight parking space before they can be registered. As of January 2021, there are approximately 32,800 heavy vehicles, and about 41,200 heavy vehicle parking (HVP) lots. So, there are more than enough lots for all heavy vehicles.
Residents have raised concerns about noise and safety arising from HVP lots near their homes. These are concerns that we share, as heavy vehicles have a higher propensity to cause death or serious injury in an accident.
In addition, land near existing residential areas is needed for housing and community needs.
Therefore, instead of having more HVP lots in residential estates, we are increasing the number of HVP lots in industrial areas, including those nearer to residential estates, where possible.
Those on the waitlist for their preferred HVPs should continue to park at their designated parking lots, or explore alternative spaces via the OneMotoring website. Business owners should also work out appropriate transport arrangements for their heavy vehicle drivers to commute to and from work.
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Extension of Assisted Reproduction Technology Co-funding Scheme to Couples above Age 40","subTitle":null,"sectionType":"WANA","content":"9 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Health whether the Ministry can extend the Assisted Reproduction Technology co-funding scheme to couples where the wife is 40 years or older at the point of marriage.
Mr Gan Kim Yong: The Assisted Reproduction Technology (ART) co-funding scheme supports couples who face difficulty in conceiving naturally. In January 2020, the scheme was enhanced to allow women who had attempted an ART or Intra-Uterine Insemination (IUI) procedure before 40 years old to tap on up to two of the six co-funded ART cycles at age 40 or later. This aims to encourage couples to start their families early and those with difficulty conceiving to consider the ART procedures early.
The age criterion of 40 years old is set based on clinical evidence that the success rate of conception for a woman who undergoes ART treatment decreases with age, with significantly lower success rate after 40. Nonetheless, we do consider appeals on a case-by-case basis for couples with extenuating circumstances.
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Non-spousal Sponsorship Renewal by Long-Term Visit Pass Holders","subTitle":null,"sectionType":"WANA","content":"10 Ms Carrie Tan asked the Minister for Home Affairs of the average of 24,255 applications received each year from Long-Term Visit Pass (LTVP) holders who requested for the renewal of their pass through non-spousal sponsorship (a) what is the breakdown by relationship to sponsor; (b) what is the approval rate for each category and what are the common reasons for rejection; and (c) what are the circumstances under which LTVP holders married to Singaporean citizens can seek sponsorship from other Singaporean citizens.
Mr K Shanmugam: The average number of applications received each year from 2015 to 2020 for the renewal of a Long-Term Visit Pass (LTVP) which is not sponsored by a local spouse, was about 23,500. Of this, 46% were from foreign parents and 37% were from foreign children, of Singaporeans or permanent residents (PRs). The remaining 17% were from LTVP holders with other types of relationship to their sponsor, such as foreign family members of Student’s Pass holders, foreign former spouses (of Singaporeans or PRs) who are widowed or divorced, and foreign still-married spouses who are undergoing divorce proceedings.
In the same time period, nearly all LTVP renewal applications from foreign parents and foreign children of Singaporeans or PRs were approved. For applications from LTVP holders with other types of relationship to their sponsor, about 98% were approved. A small minority of applications were rejected, mostly due to (i) the applicant not having local family roots, (ii) the sponsor or applicant having adverse records, or (iii) because the sponsor was not able to demonstrate the ability to financially support himself or herself and the applicant.
While the general rule is that foreign spouses should renew their LTVP under the sponsorship of their local spouse, those who are unable to do so can seek sponsorship from other Singaporeans or PRs. ICA will consider if there are valid reasons for the foreign spouse to stay in Singapore, such as whether the foreign spouse has custody of Singaporean children or is undergoing divorce proceedings in Singapore.
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Ensuring Adequate Cybersecurity Measures are Taken by Companies that Take Possession of Customer Data","subTitle":null,"sectionType":"WANA","content":"12 Mr Shawn Huang Wei Zhong asked the Minister for Communications and Information (a) how do the existing mechanism and enforcement ensure that adequate cybersecurity measures are taken by companies that are in possession of customer data; and (b) what are the follow-up procedures after a loss of data is detected.
Mr S Iswaran: The Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) requires organisations that collect, use or disclose personal data in Singapore to put in place reasonable measures to protect the personal data in their possession or control. This includes cybersecurity measures to secure personal data held in IT systems.
To assist organisations, the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) provides guidance and advice in three areas. One, adopting a 'data protection by design' approach when developing IT systems to ensure appropriate cybersecurity measures. Two, addressing IT risks and observing good practices through guides such as \"Electronic Personal Data Protection for Organisations\". Three, managing and remediating data breaches effectively, through a guide that sets out breach containment and impact and risk assessment. The Government also actively supports organisations to strengthen their cybersecurity posture against data breaches. Organisations can leverage resources developed by Cyber Security Agency, or CSA, such as the Be Safe Online handbook, which details six essential cybersecurity principles for companies to better manage cyber risks.
In event of a data breach, organisations must now notify the PDPC and affected individuals where the data breach affects at least 500 affected individuals, or there is a risk of significant harm such as involving loss of financial information. Organisations may also seek help from CSA’s Computer Emergency Response Team, which can provide preliminary technical cybersecurity assistance and advice on containment and recovery actions. The PDPC monitors data breaches closely, and will take appropriate enforcement actions including meting out proportionate financial penalties.
Cybersecurity and data protection are our collective responsibility. By staying vigilant and adopting the necessary cybersecurity measures, we can safeguard our digital assets and data, ensuring a safer cyberspace for all.
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Extending Pilot for Pre-Implantation Genetic Screening to Private Clinics","subTitle":null,"sectionType":"WANA","content":"13 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Health whether the Ministry can consider extending the pilot for the Pre-Implantation Genetic Screening to private clinics so as to increase the number of patients enrolled under the pilot study.
Mr Gan Kim Yong: Pre-Implantation Genetic Screening (PGS) is currently available to any woman who fulfils one of the following clinical criteria: (i) 35 years and above regardless of prognosis, (ii) suffered two or more recurrent implantation failures, or (iii) experienced two or more pregnancy losses.
At present, eligible patients from all private assisted reproduction (AR) clinics and hospitals can be referred to the three public AR centres, namely, National University Hospital (NUH), KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and Singapore General Hospital for in-vitro fertilisation treatment and embryo biopsy. The biopsied samples will then be sent to the NUH PGS laboratory.
The Ministry of Health is reviewing ways to increase patient recruitment to the pilot study, and we will give careful consideration to the Member of Parliament’s suggestion.
14 Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for National Development whether HDB can increase the number of BTO flats in new towns in the north east so as to have a good mix of BTO flats islandwide for offer in each exercise.
Mr Desmond Lee: HDB launches BTO sites in a range of locations across Singapore each year to meet the diverse needs of home seekers. The number of flats offered in any particular location depends on various factors, including when the sites earmarked for BTO projects are physically ready for development, and the availability of infrastructure capacity to support housing development.
Over the years, HDB has launched many public housing sites in the North-East Region, which comprises the HDB towns of Ang Mo Kio, Serangoon, Hougang, Sengkang and Punggol. Since 2018, more than 8,000 units have been launched across nine BTO projects in the North-East Region. Later this year in the August 2021 BTO exercise, HDB will also be launching about 1,300 BTO units in Hougang.
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Review on Requiring Frontline Officers with the Singapore Police Force to Undergo Psychological First-aid Training","subTitle":null,"sectionType":"WA","content":"1 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Home Affairs whether he can provide an update on the Ministry's review on requiring frontline officers with the Singapore Police Force to undergo psychological first-aid training to improve the quality of response to attempted suicides.
Mr K Shanmugam: Police completed a review of their training programme in February 2021 and assessed that the elements of psychological first-aid training in the programme are adequate for now. For instance, the training programme for frontline police officers, such as the Ground Response Forces, covers suicide intervention skills such as empathising with emotionally distressed individuals in order to be able to assist them appropriately.
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Social Workers Trained in Suicide Interventions in Singapore Police Force's Crisis Negotiation Unit","subTitle":null,"sectionType":"WA","content":"2 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Home Affairs (a) whether the Singapore Police Force's Crisis Negotiation Unit (CNU) currently includes social workers trained in suicide interventions; and (b) if not, whether the Ministry will consider including social workers in the CNU when responding to suicide attempts.
Mr K Shanmugam: The Crisis Negotiation Unit (CNU) includes Police officers and psychologists who are trained in negotiation tactics, including how to handle cases involving barricaded subjects or those who attempt to commit suicide. There are no social workers in the CNU.
When attending to a case involving attempted suicide, the immediate objective of responders is to ensure the safety of the person in distress and others around him or her. After the Police have ensured the safety of the various parties, other relevant personnel may then be brought in to attend to the suicidal person and to provide the necessary support. This may include social workers.
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Installation of traffic Lights or Lifts to Pedestrian Overhead Bridges in Sengkang West","subTitle":null,"sectionType":"WA","content":"3 Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for Transport whether there are plans to install traffic lights or lifts to pedestrian overhead bridges along Sengkang West Way and Sengkang West Avenue to enhance road safety and convenience for residents in Fernvale constituency in view of the increasing number of senior citizens and young families living there.
Mr Ong Ye Kung: The 3 kilometre stretch along Sengkang West Way and Sengkang West Avenue has 10 traffic light crossings and six pedestrian overhead bridges (POB), i.e. an average of a crossing every 200 metres. All the traffic light crossings are barrier-free, as is one of the POBs. Residents who need a barrier-free crossing can typically reach one within a reasonable walking distance.
We will continue to prioritise constructing lifts at pedestrian overhead bridges at locations that will benefit large numbers of seniors and commuters with mobility challenges, where there are fewer alternatives, and with a focus on those near public transport nodes and healthcare institutions.
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null},{"startPgNo":0,"endPgNo":0,"title":"Arrangements for Migrant Workers on Special Passes Staying in Dormitories to Leave Dormitories Regularly for Mental Health Reasons","subTitle":null,"sectionType":"WA","content":"4 Miss Rachel Ong asked the Minister for Manpower (a) whether migrant workers on special passes staying in dormitories and who have not been and are not able to leave their dormitory rooms for work may have special arrangements to leave their dormitories on a more regular basis for mental health reasons; and (b) whether the Ministry is able to expedite their cases in order to facilitate their return to their home nations.
Mrs Josephine Teo: MOM issues Special Passes to migrant workers who are required to stay in Singapore to assist in investigations or for salary or work injury claims. Like other dormitory residents, migrant workers on Special Passes staying in dormitories are allowed to visit Recreation Centres (RCs). They can seek approval from MOM, through their dormitory operators. To be eligible, they need to have a contact tracing device and for COVID-naïve individuals, they need to have a COVID negative test result within the last 14 days. Restrictions are gradually being eased in a safe and controlled manner, and from early March, they can visit the RCs up to three times a week.
MOM ensures that investigations and claims processes are carried out expeditiously so that these workers can return home as soon as possible. Most cases are resolved within six months. Some cases may require a longer time due to multiple and/or serious work injuries. As a result, additional time will be required to allow the injuries to stabilise before a medical assessment can be conducted.
","clarificationText":null,"clarificationTitle":null,"clarificationSubTitle":null,"reportType":null,"questionCount":null,"footNotes":null,"footNoteQuestions":null,"questionNo":null}],"writtenAnswersVOList":[],"writtenAnsNAVOList":[],"annexureList":[],"vernacularList":[{"vernacularID":4322,"sittingDate":null,"vernacularTitle":"Vernacular Speech by Mrs Josephine Teo","filePath":"d:/apps/reports/solr_files/20210303/vernacular-Josephine Teo MOM 3 Mar 2021 -Chinese.pdf","fileName":"Josephine Teo MOM 3 Mar 2021 -Chinese.pdf"},{"vernacularID":4323,"sittingDate":null,"vernacularTitle":"Vernacular Speech by Dr Tan See Leng","filePath":"d:/apps/reports/solr_files/20210303/vernacular-Tan See Leng MOM 3 Mar 2021 -Chinese （MOM edit).pdf","fileName":"Tan See Leng MOM 3 Mar 2021 -Chinese （MOM edit).pdf"},{"vernacularID":4324,"sittingDate":null,"vernacularTitle":"Vernacular Speech by Ms Gan Siow Huang","filePath":"d:/apps/reports/solr_files/20210303/vernacular-Gan Siow Huang MOM 3 Mar 2021 -Chinese (MOM edit).pdf","fileName":"Gan Siow Huang MOM 3 Mar 2021 -Chinese (MOM edit).pdf"},{"vernacularID":4325,"sittingDate":null,"vernacularTitle":"Vernacular Speech by Dr Wan Rizal","filePath":"d:/apps/reports/solr_files/20210303/vernacular-3 Mar 2021 - Dr Wan Rizal - MOE Cut.pdf","fileName":"3 Mar 2021 - Dr Wan Rizal - MOE Cut.pdf"},{"vernacularID":4326,"sittingDate":null,"vernacularTitle":"Vernacular Speech by Mr Lawrence Wong","filePath":"d:/apps/reports/solr_files/20210303/vernacular-Lawrence Wong MOE 3 Mar 2021 -Chinese (MOE edit).pdf","fileName":"Lawrence Wong MOE 3 Mar 2021 -Chinese (MOE edit).pdf"},{"vernacularID":4327,"sittingDate":null,"vernacularTitle":"Vernacular Speech by Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman","filePath":"d:/apps/reports/solr_files/20210303/vernacular-3 Mar 2021 - Min Maliki Osman - Reply to MOE Cut.pdf","fileName":"3 Mar 2021 - Min Maliki Osman - Reply to MOE Cut.pdf"},{"vernacularID":4328,"sittingDate":null,"vernacularTitle":"Vernacular Speech by Ms Sun Xueling","filePath":"d:/apps/reports/solr_files/20210303/vernacular-Sun Xueling MOE 3 Mar 2021 -Chinese (MOE edit).pdf","fileName":"Sun Xueling MOE 3 Mar 2021 -Chinese (MOE edit).pdf"},{"vernacularID":4329,"sittingDate":null,"vernacularTitle":"Vernacular Speech by Ms Hany Soh","filePath":"d:/apps/reports/solr_files/20210303/vernacular-Hany Soh MSE 3March2021 -Chinese.pdf","fileName":"Hany Soh MSE 3March2021 -Chinese.pdf"}],"onlinePDFFileName":""}