10-YEAR COMPULSORY EDUCATION SCHEME (Timing and mode of operation)

Dr Kanwaljit Soin asked the Minister for Education if he will give details of the timing and mode of operation of the 10-year scheme of compulsory education for every child in Singapore.

The Minister for Education (Mr Lee Yock Suan): Mr Speaker, Sir, starting from 1991, the Ministry of Education has introduced refinements to the education system to provide every child with at least 10 years of general education - six years of primary education and at least four years of secondary education. However, education is not compulsory in Singapore.

Primary education comprises two stages - a 4-year Foundation stage and a 2-year Orientation stage. The Foundation stage aims at providing pupils with a good foundation in English, the mother tongue and Mathematics, while the Orientation stage offers a differentiated curriculum to match the different learning needs of pupils. At the end of Primary 6, all pupils will sit for a modified Primary School Leaving Examination, which will place them in an appropriate secondary course.

In addition to the present Special, Express and Normal (Academic) courses in secondary schools, a new course - the Normal (Technical) course - will be introduced in 1994. This course will be technical-oriented and will prepare pupils for further technical-vocational education and training at the Institute of Technical Education. These pupils will take the GCE N-level examination at the end of four years and those who are able will do an additional year and take the O-level examination.

At the end of 10 years of general education, pupils may pursue further education and training at junior colleges, polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education, depending on their interests and abilities.

Dr Kanwaljit Soin (Nominated Member): Why is the Minister not willing to make 10 years of education compulsory for every child?

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Mr Speaker, Sir, whether a pupil benefits from being in school and whether he learns and progresses depends on his interest and motivation. We feel that if we just force the pupils to remain in school, it will not really solve the problem. There are cases, for example, where pupils, because of family problems, have to leave school. The principal and teachers will counsel these pupils and their parents and persuade them to stay on. Our drop-out rate from school is very low compared to other countries. On balance, we feel there is no need for us to introduce compulsory education.

Dr Kanwaljit Soin: Would the Minister agree with the Advisory Council for Youths' figure that 6.8% of the young have less than PSLE education? That is one supplementary question. Can I go on to the second supplementary question, Sir?

Mr Speaker: Yes.

Dr Kanwaljit Soin: Does the Minister not agree with the wish expressed in the Next Lap that every Singaporean should have at least 10 years of education? The third supplementary question is: With the new organisation of the ITE, you can only get in if you have at least 10 years of basic education. So the school drop-outs would not have an opportunity to join this institution.

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Mr Speaker, Sir, I do not have the figure with me but I think the figure of 6-7% of pupils not completing primary education is probably within the ballpark. It goes to show that the drop-out rate is very low, especially in the primary school stage. The ones who leave tend to be the ones who are in the Extended stream. They are 13-14 years old and the problem is that usually they will go, for example, for vacation jobs. Once they have tasted the working experience and they have money, they tend not to come back. There is a tendency to try to drop out. It is important that the schools persuade and counsel them.

The drop-out rates are higher in the secondary level. That is the stage when the children are older. Our system tries to keep them in school for 10 years. So I fully agree with her that we should, as far as possible, keep the children in school for at least 10 years. But it is no point forcing them to stay. It is only through persuasion, teaching and motivating them that we can achieve the result.

As for the ITE, the intention is that eventually they will accept pupils who have completed secondary education. But this is still a plan and, if necessary, we may modify it to take in some of the other pupils or we may, for example, help to place them in factories through apprenticeship programmes. The whole point is to prepare our young people with education for proper employment eventually. While I agree fully with her on this point, it is a matter of approach. We feel that compulsion is not the way to do it.

Dr Kanwaljit Soin: Sir, would the Minister then agree that there is a relationship between early school drop-outs and youths at risk? The Minister has not convinced me that there is no need for compulsory education.

Mr Lee Yock Suan: This problem of school drop-outs is a very big social problem in many countries. Fortunately for us, it is contained to very small proportions. For example, at each level, the drop-out rate is less than 1%. And if we take a cohort going through the whole 10 years of schooling, it comes up to about 6-7%, as she has mentioned.

It is a total social problem. The Ministry on its part will do its best. We counsel the parents, we counsel the students, we try and give them more opportunities to come back to school if they want to. But in the end, we have to work with other groups, eg, SINDA, MENDAKI and CDAC. The intention is that we will henceforth refer some of these cases to these other organisations to look more closely into their social background, whether they have financial difficulties, whether they have learning difficulties and try to keep them in school and motivate them to learn, but not through compulsion.

Mr Low Thia Khiang: Sir, does the Ministry of Education have records to monitor children who have reached school-going age but whose parents have not registered them for school?

The Minister mentioned about counselling for parents whose children have left school. I would like to know from the Minister what sort of counselling the Ministry is providing and in what way.

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Sir, as for the first question, I believe we do have the records, but I have to confirm this because I am speaking from memory.

As for the second question, counselling is done by the teachers who know the pupils. As soon as they find that the pupils have lost interest and are showing signs of wanting to leave school, the teachers counsel them, the principals counsel them and the Ministry also gets involved with the counselling process. It is a matter of talking to them and trying to understand their problems and explaining to them why they should stay in school. So it depends on the case involved.

Dr Kanwaljit Soin: Sir, does the Minister not agree that there is a need to have a structured mechanism to follow up on these drop-outs? What the Minister has mentioned is what happens at the initial stage, but there is no structured mechanism to follow up on what these drop-outs do and then to fit them into maybe apprentice systems or some other system. From the figure of the National Council of Social Service, is the Minister aware that there were 57,000 disadvantaged youths in 1990, most of whom dropped out from school?

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Mr Speaker, Sir, I agree with her that we should have a proper mechanism to counsel and, if possible, to follow up. But it is a total problem involving not only ourselves. It has to involve, for example, community organisations. It has to involve the families especially. In a practical sense, it is a big problem because the numbers are big. The schools are already loaded with their problems of providing general education. We do our best to persuade them and to keep track of them. But it has got to be a total approach involving not only ourselves but other groups. And to some extent, I think Members are straying away from the main line of the Question. If Members have interest in this topic, we can discuss it in the Budget debate.

Mr Speaker: I want to remind Members that supplementary questions should be related to the original Question and they should not stray too far away from the subject under discussion. Dr Toh.

Dr Toh Keng Kiat (Nominated Member): Sir, as some students have dropped out because they cannot fit into the usual school system because of a structured syllabus, will the Ministry consider a special programme like tutelage to bring these children back to school?

Mr Lee Yock Suan: The schools are already providing remedial lessons. For pupils who have difficulties in various subjects, the teachers will get them to stay back after school and provide additional lessons. I think a lot of pupils on their own have tuition. There could be other cases, eg, where the pupils need special help and they could be referred to special schools, schools for the disabled and so on. There are various special schemes available.