PREMATURE SCHOOL LEAVERS (Raising of literacy and basic skills)

Mr Liew Kok Pun asked the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education (a) the number and percentage of persons by any convenient age groups between 6 and 14 years of age who are now not in schools or in any other educa- tional institutions; and (b) whether there is any firm plan by the Ministry of Education and the Vocational and Industrial Training Board to introduce compulsory education or to require all premature school leavers to undergo some form of vocational-technical or work-related training, to ensure that entrants into the workforce have got a minimum level of literacy or basic skills to cope with a more advanced technological work environment in the 1980's.

The Minister of State of Education (Dr Tay Eng Soon) (for the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education): Mr Speaker, Sir, in answer to the first Part of the Member's question, I provide a Table (Cols. 199 - 200) obtained from the Department of Statistics from the Population Census of 1980. I would like to ask the Clerk of Parliament to distribute this Table to Members of the House. Table - Non-Schooling Population (Cols. 199 - 200)

[Copies handed in and distributed to hon. Members.]

The Table gives the percentage of children at each age level from 5 to 14 who are not attending school or an educational institution of any kind. These figures need some explanation. Most of those at the age of 5 or 6 are either attending kindergarten or are in school. But, as to be expected, a percentage of them are not yet in any kindergarten or school. From age 7 onwards, the great majority, i.e. over 99%, are in school. Those who are not attending school at ages 12 to 14, as shown on the Table, are those who have dropped out of school, mainly at Primary 6, on failure of their PSLE or on being overaged.

In answer to the second part of the Member's question, Sir, I appreciate and share the Member for Boon Teck's concern that all premature school leavers should undergo some form of vocational or work-related training before they join the employment market, This problem will become more acute as the effects of world recession begin to reach us. In any retrenchment resulting from recession, the first to go will be the unskilled workers. Although we do not yet have much retrenchment in Singapore, among the 1,652 workers who were retrenched during the second quarter of this year, 8 out of 10 were without skills. This underlines the importance of having a skill.

My Ministry and VITB have carefully considered whether it is feasible to introduce legislation for compulsory education. Our conclusion is that at the present time it is not necessary nor desirable to legislate for compulsory education. I am aware that there are many countries which have compulsory education both in their academic as well as their vocational schools. This measure has, however, not necessarily ensured that all their children will leave school educated or skilled. In fact, it is well-known that compelling unwilling and unmotivated pupils to stay in school leads to increased problems of truancy, discipline and delinquency. In the United Kingdom, for example, special officers have to be employed to enforce compulsory schooling to make sure that truancy cases are followed up.

Instead of legislating for compulsory education, my Ministry and VITB will try out an alternative approach based on automatic registration. Under automatic registration, all school leavers from the monolingual stream and all premature school leavers from Primary 6 and above will automatically be registered for vocational training at VITB. Although the final say will still rest with the parents, automatic registration should see many more premature school leavers joining VITB than at present.

For the first batch of those leaving the monolingual stream at the end of 1984, VITB is preparing a special Pre-Vocational Training Course for them. This course will provide the pupils with project work to develop basic vocational skills. It will also include classes on language and numeracy skills, work attitude development and physical education. Monolingual pupils who go through Pre-Vocational Training can go on to Basic Engineering and NTC-3 trade courses at VITB.

Those who join VITB after PSLE or from the secondary schools will go into the Basic Engineering Course which leads to NTC-3 and NTC-2 skill courses.

At the moment details are being worked out between my Ministry and VITB for direct entry into the NTC-3, NTC-2, and ITC courses for pupils who have completed their Certificate in Secondary Education (CSE) as well as those with some 'O' level passes. The details of these will be released by VITB in the near future.

Automatic registration will not achieve a 100% transfer of premature school leavers from schools to VITB, but it should ensure that the majority will be placed in a course at the VITB.

To make sure that the prospects of skill training are well understood by school leavers, VITB is working on publicity materials, including audio-visual presentations on vocational training. These materials will be specially directed at schools where there are pupils in the monolingual and extended streams in primary schools and at the normal stream in secondary schools.

We are expanding VITB from its present enrolment of 11,000 to more than 24,000 by 1985. Many employers, especially those of high technology industries, prefer workers who have a skill to offer. This should motivate many of our school leavers to seek vocational training.