Consultations ongoing for sea burial site
Published Date: 14 May 2018 12:00 AM
We thank Mr Tay Yew Chee for his feedback (How can 'sailing parents' understand rationale if MOE doesn't comment?, May 9).
The Ministry of Education (MOE) has not commented on the project because consultations are ongoing with the National Environment Agency (NEA), to help the ministry better understand the nature and scale of the operations of the site.
MOE is also gathering feedback from users of the MOE Sea Sports Centre, and will share the feedback with NEA.
Ong Kim Soon
Director, Physical, Sports & Outdoor Education Branch,
Student Development Curriculum Division,
Ministry of Education
How can 'sailing parents' understand rationale if MOE doesn't comment? (Tay Yew Chee, ST Forum, 9/5, pA23)
I refer to the report (Sea Burials: NEA to work with sailing fraternity; May 7).
Despite the concerns and opinions raised in an online petition by user "Sailing Parent" suggesting that the proposed location is inappropriate, the Ministry of Education (MOE), whose sea sports centre is directly affected, has declined to comment.
How are the "sailing parents" to understand the rationale and be convinced otherwise by MOE if it does not want to comment?
This can lead to negative interpretations.
Perhaps MOE and the National Environment Agency (NEA) would like to take a stand to convince these concerned parents and win them over into accepting that the Tanah Merah site is a well-chosen one.
Otherwise the parents will feel that they are being stonewalled with standard answers and no comments, leading to a stalemate which is undesirable.
On the other hand, it is acceptable if there is a need to reconsider the site with this new feedback, which was not available in 2010 when the project first started.