SCHOOL BOARDS (INCORPORATION) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

The Minister for Education (Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

Sir, the Bill makes provisions for the establishment of boards of governors to manage independent schools. The governing board will be established as a body corporate with a separate legal entity independent from its members. This is to protect board members from having to bear personal liability for the acts, omissions and debts of a school.

The Bill enables the Ministry to establish governing boards for independent schools by the publication of a Ministerial order in the Government Gazette. The order will set out the constitution for the governing board of the school concerned. The constitution of each governing board of an independent school can therefore be specially tailored to meet the needs and objectives of the school.

The Bill provides for the governing board of an independent school to have autonomy in a number of matters, namely, the recruitment, promotion, discipline and dismissal of teachers and other staff of the school, determining the policy for the admission and dismissal of students and fixing the fees payable by the students. The school may retain the fees collected for the purpose of defraying the cost of maintaining the school. With greater autonomy in the management of the affairs of a school, the governing board can create a distinct character and identity for the school.

My Ministry is conscious of the significant and far-reaching impact the governing board and the principal will have on the management of the school and its pupils. The Bill therefore provides that appointments to governing boards must be approved by the Minister and that the appointment of the principal must be approved by the Director of Education.

Sir, the Bill also makes provisions for the winding up and dissolution of governing boards of independent schools. Since these boards are created by legislation as separate legal entities, the enabling legislation must also make provisions for their winding up and dissolution should the need arise. I hope, of course, that we will not need to use these provisions but the Bill will be incomplete without them.

Sir, the establishment of independent schools is another step in our drive for excellence in education. I commend this Bill for the approval of Members.

Sir, I beg to move,

Question proposed.

Mr Chew Heng Ching (Eunos GRC): Sir, the Bill sets the way for more schools to become independent, as the Minister has explained. Whilst the idea of independent schools is good in the long term, I think we need to implement it gradually. I am not against independent schools. There are many merits for it. If we want quality education, we have to pay for it. My concern is the high cost of education associated with independent schools. This higher cost of education has resulted in higher school fees for our students. I would like to urge the Minister to study the independent school programme carefully and perhaps have it implemented at a more gradual pace.

Sir, on the Bill itself, I have no reservations. I support the Bill. However, I wish to seek the following clarifications from the Minister. First, is the board of governors meant to replace the present school advisory committee or the school executive committee which was introduced some years ago? If not, then where do we draw the line of responsibility between these various bodies?

Second, what checks and balances will the Ministry have to ensure that the board of governors perform its duties in the best interest of the nation and in the best interest of the students?

Third, will these governors be paid? Are they going to be volunteers? If so, and if we were to have a board of governors for each school in Singapore eventually, then we will have to find hundreds or thousands of volunteers who are capable of serving on these boards. Do we have these resources? How does the Ministry propose to tap these volunteers to serve on these many boards?

Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam: Sir, the Member for Eunos GRC has brought up four points. I will deal with them in the order which he has brought them up.

First of all, with regard to school fees charged by the independent schools, I believe that we have gone through this matter at some length last November. I do not wish to restate all the arguments. I am conscious of the apprehension and worry of Members and parents regarding the fees charged by independent schools. I would merely restate the position that the fixing of fees is the responsibility of the schools. The responsibility of Government is to ensure that there are sufficient financial assistance schemes in place so that no child will be denied a place in an independent school simply because his or her parents cannot afford to pay the fees. And the statistics which I have given to the Member during the Question for Oral Answer bear this out. We will monitor the situation and we will ensure that financial assistance will always be available.

Secondly, with regard to the relationship between the boards of governors and the SMCs or the SACs, the board of governors essentially runs the school together with the principal. They set the general policy. If they want to set up a school advisory committee, it is up to them. If they want to set up executive committees or other committees, it is up to the board of governors.

Thirdly, with regard to the checks on the board of governors, there are two very important provisions in the Bill which I have highlighted, ie, the members on the board of governors must be appointed by the Minister and the principal must be appointed with the approval of the Director of Education. These are the two key people who are involved in the management and the running of the school. The schools will also be regularly inspected by the Ministry of Education. In fact, the schools have asked for this themselves so that they have an independent external appraisal of how they are doing. I think with those two safeguards in the Bill, the schools will be well monitored and nothing should go out of hand.

Finally, as to whether the board of governors would be paid, again this is entirely up to the schools concerned. So far, with regard to the six independent schools, I do not think the boards of governors have requested for any payment, neither has any payment been made to them, to the best of my knowledge.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam].

Bill considered in Committee.

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Clause 1 -

The Chairman: In line 5, a minor printing error, ie, the figure " - (1)" will be deleted.

Clause 1 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clauses 2 to 17 inclusive ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Bill reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.