Speeches
FY 2009 Committee of Supply Debate: 5th Reply by Senior Parliamentary Secretary Mr Masagos Zulkifli BMM on Supporting Singaporeans in Education, Reducing School Attrition, and Update on Pre-School Initiatives
(I) Supporting Students in Education
Several MPs were concerned about how students from lower-income families would be able to cope with education expenses in the economic downturn. General education is almost fully subsidised by the Government. Beyond this, MOE has been providing assistance to students from lower income families who might not be able to afford the subsidised fees and other related expenses.
In light of the current economic recession and feedback from schools, we have further reviewed our financial assistance program and will enhance the benefits to provide even more help to needy students.
Enhancing MOE Financial Assistance Schemes
For primary and secondary school recipients under the MOE Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS), in addition to free textbooks, MOE will now also provide a basic package of school attire every year that will include new sets of school uniforms and PE attire. The enhanced benefits will save parents an additional $130 a year for primary school pupils, and $160 for secondary school students. Families with more than one child in school will find that these are significant savings to their family expenditures.
For pre-university students, MOE will be increasing the bursary quantum for FAS recipients by 50%, from the current $500 to $750, to help them pay for textbooks and other essential items for their studies.
These enhancements to the FAS are expected to cost MOE $7.3 million per year, increasing the total FAS budget by 68%, to $18 million annually.
We understand that some families could be temporarily caught out by the financial crisis because of unemployment or retrenchment, as mentioned by Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim. We are monitoring the situation closely. As at end-Jan this year, there was a 6% increase in the number of FAS recipients compared to the corresponding period last year. I wish to assure MPs that those in need can apply for the MOE FAS at any time and help will be rendered promptly.
Support for School-Based Financial Assistance Schemes
To address the points made by Mr Christopher de Souza and Mr Siew Kum Hong, MOE will be spending $5.4million to support school-based financial assistance schemes, as announced by Minister yesterday.
Schools have the flexibility to decide on the eligibility criteria and the type of assistance, to cater to the specific needs of students more effectively. With some items like uniforms now covered under the enhancements to the MOE FAS benefits, schools can provide more discretionary assistance to their students, for example meal and transport allowances, or as suggested by Mr Siew Kum Hong, supplementary books. The grant for the school-based schemes is a one-time payout. MOE will look at how it is spent and listen to feedback from the ground, and review the need to provide an additional grant if required.
Apart from the MOE FAS and school-based financial assistance schemes, schools are also able to use their Opportunity Fund at their discretion to help provide students from lower-income families with school-based enrichment opportunities.
Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim had asked about the processes we have in place to identify and help students in need. Schools use various channels like newsletters and announcements at assemblies to inform parents and students about the availability of financial assistance. Teachers also keep a look out for students in need, especially those who are in fee arrears. Our schools adopt a whole-school support framework whereby various resource personnel including teachers and counsellors are involved to support students in need. Going forward, schools with higher needs in this area will be provided with an additional Allied Educator (Counselling) and Operations Manager (OM) over the next few years. At our tertiary institutions, there are dedicated student financing officers to advise students on the financial assistance options available. Currently, around one-third of local students in our universities benefit from financial assistance.
MOE already provides sufficiently for students at all levels to achieve their educational goals in schools. Beyond MOE’s assistance, the community plays an important and useful role in providing social support in other areas, to help children and their families. To Ms Irene Ng’s point made earlier in the Budget Debate, Self-Help Groups do play a key role in supplementing the Government’s existing efforts in helping needy families. Each group may appear to be helping their members in different ways and to different extents, but we should leave it to them to decide how they want to help their community, as they know best the specific needs of their community and are better able to reach out and connect with them because of language and cultural commonalities.
Dr Amy Khor had asked if there could be better co-ordination on the use of the different funding sources to provide financial assistance to students. Schools will continue to provide the first line of support to these students, but in some instances, they will also refer cases to community organisations like Family Service Centres or Community Development Councils for further assistance. These organisations would be in a better position to coordinate with other relevant agencies to reach out to not just the needy students, but also their families. My colleagues at MCYS will give more details on what is being done at the community level to support needy families and children through their coordination with schools.
I wish to assure MPs that MOE will continue to review our support structures in place, to ensure that every child receives the necessary support and no student will be forced to drop out of school because of financial constraints, especially during the downturn.
(II) Reducing School Attrition
Dr Amy Khor and Mrs Josephine Teo talked about the importance of keeping our youths in schools. Indeed, this has been one of MOE’s key priorities over the years. I am happy to share that MOE has met the attrition target of 1.5% in 2008, a target set earlier by PM Lee, two years ahead of schedule. Therefore, about 99% of our students are in good stead to go on to pursue post-secondary education. 10 years of general education will also allow time to build character and a sense of belonging to community and nation in our students.
Identification and Monitoring Tools for at-risk students
In April this year, MOE will roll out a system so that schools can better identify and monitor at-risk students as they move from class to class and from school to school.
Teachers can also get a better documentation of the profile of at-risk students, so that they can follow up in addressing the students’ learning and counselling needs consistently.
School-based Programmes
Schools have also started various ground-up initiatives to guide and support at-risk students with disciplinary, behavioural and academic problems. Last year, I mentioned the Time-out Programme, which has been effective in reducing the dropout rate among the at-risk students. More schools are now organising such programmes for their at-risk students compared to last year.
Post-Secondary Progression
I agree with Mrs Josephine Teo that in a knowledge-based economy, our students should go beyond the first 10 years of general education and obtain useful post-secondary qualifications that will help them find gainful employment. Today, 93% of our students already progress to some form of post-secondary institutions. MOE has been enhancing the progression pathways for students to progress to ITE and the polytechnics. ITE has also been beefing up their counselling and support services, and strengthening their collaborations with VWOs to provide further support to students. The various financial assistance schemes we already have in place, as well as the new enhancements announced by Minister, will provide the necessary help to students with financial difficulties so that they can focus on their studies.
Community Partnerships
I fully agree with Dr Amy Khor that reducing the number of dropouts is not something that schools can do alone. For students who choose to leave school despite all measures by schools to persuade them to stay on, all schools will refer these cases to VWOs, so that school leavers have support. Youth Link is one such example where MCYS organizes social workers to work with the Out-of-School Youths for 1 year to provide the necessary guidance and support, and to encourage them to come back to schools. I encourage grassroots organizations who wish to help these youths to contact the schools, to see how best they can complement the schools’ efforts and work with the professionals and social workers to help the dropouts.
Before I move to the topic of pre-school education, I wanted to address Mr Wee Siew Kim’s concerns on textbook wastage following changes to the syllabus. Syllabuses for all subjects are reviewed regularly every 6 years. When the content is found to be dated and when the syllabus does not support key competencies we want to develop in our students sufficiently, it is important that we update the contents and textbooks accordingly. Where changes arising from the syllabus review are minor, MOE works with the publishers to ensure that the existing textbooks can continue to be used, by having the changes communicated to schools. Students who require financial assistance can apply to the MOE FAS or the school-based financial assistance schemes.
(III) Update on Pre-School Education
Let me now turn to pre-school education, an issue which was raised by Mrs Josephine Teo and Dr Maliki Osman.
MOE’s desired outcome for the pre-school sector is for all children to have access to quality pre-school education, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to better prepare them for school. Currently, the community and private sector provide a range of offerings to meet the needs of different parents, while MOE focuses our efforts to uplift standards through key leverage areas, especially teacher quality and curriculum.
Teacher Quality
Minimum Qualifications
Last year, we announced the new industry standard for teachers teaching K1 and K2 to have 5 ‘O’ Level passes, including a pass in English, and Diploma-level qualifications by 2013. We are on-track in meeting these targets. In 2008, about 1,540 teachers attended the Diploma in Early Childhood Care & Education-Teaching course, an increase of 30% over the previous year.
Today, about 40% of the kindergartens have already met the requirement of having 75% of their teachers meeting the new minimum qualifications. To encourage kindergarten teachers to take on professional upgrading, MOE will also be providing $4 million worth of bursaries and scholarships each year for kindergarten teachers to pursue full-time and part-time diploma courses as well as the Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood) programme conducted by NIE.
To raise awareness about jobs in the kindergarten sector, MOE will facilitate recruitment efforts by providing relevant information about various platforms such as career fairs and Workforce Development Agency’s (WDA) websites. Our polytechnics will also offer more training places in early childhood education. Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Temasek Polytechnic will each start a new full-time diploma course for students who are interested in early childhood education. Temasek Polytechnic will also be starting a new part-time training course for existing pre-school teachers. Altogether, our polytechnics will offer 250 places for full-time studies and 420 places for part-time studies.
As announced by Minister earlier, the new Advanced Diploma in Kindergarten Education-Teaching (ADKET) will offer up to 100 training places this year for mid-career professionals and fresh graduates or diploma holders to become kindergarten teachers.
While the programme is shorter, the rigour and quality of training will be maintained, with a focus on curriculum and teaching methods, so that trainees will be equipped with the necessary competencies to teach young children effectively at kindergartens.
The ADKET course fees will be subsidized under the enhanced Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience, or SPUR for short. During the period of training, kindergartens will receive a monthly stipend support of up to $1,000 per trainee. MOE is working with the WDA to explore the feasibility of including the ADKET course into the Workforce Skills Qualifications or the WSQ framework.
To encourage continual upgrading for kindergarten teachers, as asked by Mrs Josephine Teo, MOE has developed a Professional Development Framework to help kindergartens identify training needs and prioritise areas for the professional development of their staff. MOE also organises in-service training workshops for kindergarten teachers, to increase their knowledge and skills in areas such as pedagogy, and leadership and management skills.
Teaching Resources
Curriculum
In the area of curriculum, MOE developed a Kindergarten Curriculum Guide last November to help teachers in developing appropriate curriculum and assessment to support and promote children’s holistic learning and development in the early years. I assure Mrs Josephine Teo and Dr Maliki Osman that these are aligned to the Desired Outcomes of Primary Education.
MOE has also provided grants to non-profit kindergartens to enable them to build up their teaching and learning resources, such as musical instruments, outdoor play equipment, and IT and multimedia equipment. Last year, over 90% of the 380 non-profit kindergartens benefited from this funding support, amounting to a total sum of $3.2m. In addition, 51 kindergartens received the Kindergarten Innovation Grant of up to $5,000 each, to help them engage in innovative practices that will enhance the quality of teaching and learning for students.
PCF Macpherson Blk 54, for example, used the grant to start a mini-history project about the Macpherson area. Children went around the neighbourhood, armed with digital cameras and video cameras, to take photographs and conduct interviews with residents. I hear that they even interviewed their MP, Mr Matthias Yao Chih! Through the project, the children developed a better appreciation about the history of the Macpherson area, and also developed their level of self-efficacy in the process
PPIS Kindergarten (Bukit Batok Centre) used the grant to purchase digital cameras and video cameras for teachers to capture children in action. Teacher and children then update their curriculum projects and activities on a blog. This allows their work and progress to be archived more effectively. Parents are also updated through E-newsletters, which allows faster two-way communication between teachers and parents.
St James’ Church Kindergarten used the fund to transform their outdoor area into an eco-farming learning environment, including the planting of fruit trees and rearing of fish and rabbits. They set up the environment through recycled materials and conducted sessions to show the children how natural resources could be harnessed for the construction and operation of a farm.
Quality Assurance
Dr Maliki Osman had asked about the licensing requirements for kindergartens. To ensure a minimum standard in the quality of early childhood education, kindergartens have to meet criteria relating to the principals and teachers’ qualification, educational programme, and physical premises. Kindergartens that fail to meet the stipulated requirements will be de-registered. So far, one kindergarten has been de-registered. To help parents select a suitable kindergarten for their children, the profile of each kindergarten such as the staff qualifications, total enrolment and fees are provided on the MOE Pre-school Education website.
Over time, we want to see pre-school providers take greater ownership in monitoring their own performance and striving for greater excellence. MOE is in the process of developing a voluntary quality assurance and accreditation framework for kindergartens. This should be good news for Mrs Josephine Teo. Those that meet specified standards can apply to be accredited as a mark of the kindergarten’s quality. The pilot-testing for the quality assurance tool will start from the first half of 2009, and we hope to roll out the framework in 2011.
Funding Support
Since 2002, the government has also provided annual recurrent grants to eligible non-profit kindergartens which are major providers of kindergarten education. MOE will be enhancing the recurrent funding further, from the current $17 million a year to $62.5 million per year in 4 years’ time.
(IV) Conclusion
In conclusion, MOE will continue to ensure that no one is denied access to quality education due to financial constraints. The enhanced Financial Assistance Schemes, complemented with the school-based financial assistance schemes, will provide some welcome relief to families in need.
Sir, education is our best investment for the future. Even in this economic downturn, MOE will continue to work closely with stakeholders to enhance our education system, so as to provide the best possible education to the next generation.