SDP - Oct 2014 - This is what happens when we do cut-and-paste policy-making

This is what happens when we do cut-and-paste policy-making

http://yoursdp.org/news/this_is_what_happens_when_we_do_cut_and_paste_policy_making/2014-10-11-5889

Added on: Saturday, 11 October 2014

by the Singapore Democrats





In his 1997 National Day Rally, then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong pointed out that Singapore needed more undergraduate students. He said: “In fact, we are short of students who can meet the entry grade of NUS and NTU.”

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong now persuades Singaporeans not to “go on a paper chase for qualifications or degrees.”

It is this kind of confused approach to education that does so much damage to the country. Through the decades the PAP has used education as a tool to achieve its economic and, most unfortunately, political goals.

A snip here and some glue there has been the guiding principle of education policy formulation with the end-result that we now have to import foreigners in massive numbers without which, in Mr Lee Kuan Yew's words, Singapore will fail.

Fortunately, Singaporeans have become more discerning (and bolder) and are pointing out the shortcomings, and even hypocrisy, of the Government when it comes to educating our children.

For example, Ministers run the line that all our schools are equally good. This earned the rebuke of Jurong West Secondary School Vice-Principle Pushparani Nadarajah who said: “How many of our leaders and top officers who say that every school is a good school put their children in ordinary schools near their home? (Only) until they actually do so are parents going to buy (it).”

The truth is that the PAP does not know how to take our education to the next level because it does not have a clear grasp of what education is and what an educated person looks like. Its cyclical pattern of making patchy revisions to our education system will lead us nowhere.

The SDP believes that education must be the process where an individual learns to discover herself and, in doing so, endeavour to improve the human condition. To this end, it is important that we teach our children that reading and learning can be enjoyable and intrinsically rewarding. The goal should be to lead our students to learn, not push them to study.




Based on these principles, we have drawn up, among others, the following alternative measures:

1. Scrap PSLE. The exam places an extraordinarily unhealthy degree of stress on children. One in three students say they sometimes think that life is not worth living because of the fear of exams. (Read the shocking statistics in Why do we do this to our children?) In addition, capability is not measured by one examination at the age of 12. Scrapping the PSLE will allow teachers to teach and students to learn in a holistic manner.

2. Stop ranking students. Segregating students according to exam results is counter-productive. Education is not about competition with one’s classmates but learning through collaboration and teamwork with one’s peers.

3. Reduce workload, broaden curriculum. Broadening the curriculum to include student-collaboration projects, speech and drama, music and humanities, and reducing the workload on core subjects will prepare them to be well-rounded and intelligent individuals, instead of merely efficient exam-takers.

4. Reduce class size. Reducing class to 1 teacher to 20 students will enable teachers to pay more personal attention to the development of the students.

5. Cultivate creative minds. Training our teachers to build confidence in students instead of drilling into them the right answers will enhance the development of creative skills in our children.

Instituting these reforms will help us cultivate not just a talented workforce but also, and more importantly, a thinking and caring people.

Our education policy paper Educating for Equality and Creativity can be read here.

If they really care, then fund special needs education

http://yoursdp.org/news/2014-10-01-5886?lwitJh


Added on: Wednesday, 01 October 2014

by the Singapore Democrats





Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Mr Teo Ser Luck, chastised Mr Roy Ngerng and Ms Han Hui Hui for frightening the children with special needs during the protest at Hong Lim Park on Saturday.

He said: "The children are my utmost concern." His party mates wasted no time in piling it on, waxing eloquent about how special needs children need to be protected.

Below is a compilation taken from the blogsite Singapore Notes of what the PAP MPs said:

Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin: “I am appalled. We now heckle special needs children? Vile. Total and absolute disgrace.”

Social and Family Development Minister Chan Chun Sing: “To cause alarm and distress to special needs children, and disrupting their routine cannot be right no matter how righteous you think your own cause may be.”

MP Janil Puthucheary: “No excuse for bad behaviour, but especially not directed at kids.”

MP Zaqy Mohamad: “A pity that special needs children were heckled by protesters at event by YMCA at Hong Lim Park.”

MP Ang Wei Neng: “There was no good reason for the bloggers to heckle children with special needs and hurl vulgarities.”

MP Tin Pei Ling: “What have these special needs children done to deserve being heckled down?”

Click to expand...

If these MPs cared so much for children with special needs, it would save everyone a lot of trouble if they amended the Compulsory Education Act (CEA).

In 2003, the Government passed the CEA to make it compulsory for families to enroll their children in school. The stated objective of the Act is to "give our children a common educational experience which will help to build national identity and cohesion."

But the CEA excludes children with special needs, that is, it is not compulsory for these children to attend school. Education for them is left entirely to their parents who are often unable to afford sending them to special schools.

At the moment, only children with mild disabilities attend regular schools. The rest have to attend special schools run by Voluntary Work Organisations (VWO).

The question is why. Why are they not given a similar experience to "build national identity and cohesion"? Are they lesser Singaporeans? Are they any less worthy of government support? Why are they discriminated against?

We raised this subject in our alternative education policy paper Education for Creativity and Equality: An Agenda for Transformation which we launched in May this year. We proposed, among other measures, the following:

1. Amend the CEA to include all children. Don't discriminate against children with special needs, they are Singaporeans too and they deserve to be treated equally.

2. MOE takes over Special Needs Education instead of leaving it to VWOs. In this way, special needs children from poorer families can also attend school.

3. Provide effective training for MOE teachers to enable them to undertake special education.

Click here to read the full paper.

The MPs can take the lead by proposing these measures at the next Parliament sitting and show Singaporeans that they genuinely care for children with special needs.

Otherwise, they run the danger of being accused of using the children to take potshots at the protesters and score cheap political points.

Singaporeans will be watching.