EMERGENCY PLANS FOR FLOODS AND MAINTENANCE OF TREES IN SCHOOLS

EMERGENCY PLANS FOR FLOODS AND MAINTENANCE OF TREES IN SCHOOLS

3.

Mdm Cynthia Phua asked the Minister for Education (a) whether schools have emergency plans to help students who are stranded by floods; and (b) how do schools check on old trees within their premises to ensure that they do not endanger the students and staff.

Dr Ng Eng Hen: (a) Schools have various Standard Operating Procedures to deal with different emergencies. If students are stranded in schools during a flood, the schools will put students' safety as their priority. Besides, moving the students to higher elevation for safety, schools will attend to the students' well-being. Parents will be contacted as necessary. Schools will work with the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF) if there is a need for evacuation.

(b) The Ministry of Education (MOE) has a turfing and planting maintenance programme in our schools.

The contractors engaged by MOE carry out fortnightly visual inspection on the condition of the trees. The contractors' teams, which include qualified horticulturists, would submit a bi-monthly report on the tree inspections. If recommended by the horticulturists, they will carry out more stringent checks on the trees. As part of their work, overgrown branches are cut and pruned regularly. Based on the inspections, wilted, dead, diseased and damaged trees are either replaced or removed from the school premises to ensure that they do not endanger our students and staff.

In view of the recent weather conditions, MOE has asked our contractors to perform thorough inspections of the old trees in our schools. These inspections are led by qualified horticulturists who have undergone training by NParks and are able to identify trees which are decaying or at risk of falling down. When required, an arborist may also be brought in to advise on the health of the trees and the safety measures required.

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