ESTIMATES OF EXPENDITURE FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR 1ST APRIL, 1995 TO 31ST MARCH, 1996

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Order read for consideration in Committee of Supply [2nd Allotted Day].

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Head L (cont.) -

Amendment moved [15th March, 1995],

"That the total sum to be allocated for Head L of the Main Estimates be reduced by $100." - [Mr Peh Chin Hua].

Mr Peh Chin Hua (Jalan Besar GRC): ( In Mandarin): Sir, let me continue with where I had left off yesterday. The third point is that we should return the cane to the teachers. The teachers must have the right to punish the students. Appropriate corporal punishment is necessary. Caning a student on his palm will not cause bodily injury. Only then can the teachers have their dignity restored. Furthermore, the Ministry of Education must stand behind the teachers. They must openly support the teachers in the application of corporal punishment. Only then can the system of corporal punishment be effective.

Let me quote two articles written by the students in the Friday Weekly. One student wrote: "Teacher should not punish me. He should serve me well as though I am a customer." In another article, the student wrote: "If there are no students, there will be no teachers." This is wrong thinking.

Fourthly, before admitting the students, the school should make it compulsory for the parents to sign a letter authorising the school to exercise strict control over the children, including the application of appropriate corporal punishment. For parents who do not wish their children to be punished, I think the school should have the right to refuse admitting them in the first place.

Fifthly, I think we should increase the salaries of the teachers and improve their promotion prospects.

Sixthly, we should appoint Heads of Department formally and officially, and give them higher allowance and pay rise.

Seventhly, employ professional administrative officers to deal with administrative work in the school.

My last recommendation is that we should employ more teachers to take charge of extra-curricular activities so that the ordinary teachers will not be bogged down with ECAs at the expense of their normal teaching of academic subjects.

In short, parents should look at the problem of discipline as part and parcel of the education for their children.

I hope that the Ministry of Education will set up a special committee to deal with the problem of low morale among the teachers.

The Chairman: Mr Peh, your time is up.

Mr Chew Heng Ching (Eunos GRC): Sir, the teaching profession is one of the oldest in Singapore and teachers used to be highly respected in our society. However, with economic progress and abundant job opportunities which offer better salaries and rewards, teaching has become less attractive over the years.

We still have thousands of teachers who have dedicated their life to teaching as a career. Many of them are non-graduate teachers who have put in many years of service, ranging from 10-30 years, to teach, to serve and to educate our children. It is therefore of great importance that this group of teachers continue to be sufficiently motivated. Due recognition must be given to them for their work and dedication and they must be amply rewarded.

Sir, the Ministry of Education recently, in recognition of the need to keep our teachers sufficiently motivated, mounted a massive promotion exercise where some 2,000 teachers or, I was told, roughly 10% of the teaching profession, were promoted and given pay rises of between $150 and $190. I wonder if the Ministry has gathered any feedback from the teachers on the outcome of this promotion exercise.

Based on my own feedback in the constituency and the teachers I have met, many seem not happy with the outcome of the recent exercise. They told me that teachers with administrative duties were favoured over teachers with teaching duties and the promotion exercise also did not give due recognition for long and dedicated service.

I would like to ask the Minister whether he is aware of the state of morale among this group of teachers and also his Ministry's assessment on the recent promotion exercise, the feedback his Ministry officials have gathered from the teachers' unions and other sources, and what plans, if any, his Ministry has to further boost the morale of this group of teachers. Will the Minister also explain the rationale and the criteria for promotion of these teachers and how frequent will this promotion exercise be carried out from now on?

Mr Peh Chin Hua: ( In Mandarin): Sir, having read the report in the Shin Min Daily News I cannot help feeling that the moral standard in Singapore is declining and times have really changed. Just imagine, secondary school students, in uniform, walking intimately hand-in-hand in public, and some are even seen hugging and kissing at the road-side, as though they are the only people in the world. How can we not shake our heads in disbelief!

Since the number of single ladies and single men is increasing every year, I have no objection to Junior College students falling in love as long as it does not affect their studies or their physical and mental development. But at such tender age, they do not fully understand "sex" and this may lead to unhealthy conduct. Some teachers told me that today even secondary one girls are seen to have love bites on their necks. How can we not worry about this present situation!

Following the development of our society and the continuous impact of undesirable culture, the thinking of our primary and secondary school students is becoming more daring and mature. The media, such as the movies, television, video-tapes and laser discs, have transcended time and space in the audio-visual fields, and exerted great influence on our primary and secondary school students on sex. Since the Ministry of Information and the Arts feels that they have to keep up with the situation and insists on allowing the screening of R(A) films under some restricted guidelines, I feel that the Ministry of Education should also have certain precautionary educational measures to prevent the infiltration of undesirable culture and R(A) films into our schools. I think we should take proper measures. The Ministry of Education should, under such circumstances, maintain our traditional Chinese values and also introduce sex education in our schools. I hope the Ministry of Education will consider this.

Dr Kanwaljit Soin (Nominated Member): Sir, unfortunately, whenever the term "sex education" is brought up, it always sends the wrong signal, which is that we are teaching our kids about the biological art of procreation and this will encourage them to experiment. As a result of this fear, the whole subject of sex education is usually shunted aside.

I would like, at the outset, to delineate clearly that sex education does not equal sex instruction. Instead sex education should include:

1. the physical aspects of sexual development;

2. the emotional aspects of teenage sexuality;

3. the meaning of a responsible and committed boy-girl relationship;

4. the consequences of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. In 1994, HIV carriers went up by 800% in Asia; and

5. the importance of respected sexual constraints for those who are not married in order to have a future healthy marriage, ie, to teach our teenagers to be able to say no to pre-marital sex.

If our sex education classes would include all these aspects, then it will definitely improve the quality of our children's and our lives. Unfortunately, however, sex education in the wider terms and in the context I have described does not exist in Singapore schools.

The pilot pastoral care programme in 50 selected schools attempts to deal with some moral aspects of sex education. However, the actual quantum of sex education and family life education that actually goes in varies widely in schools even amongst the 50 selected schools and this is because of lack of appropriately motivated and trained teachers and heavy curriculum demands.

The Science and Biology teachers are assigned the uncomfortable task of going through the lessons on human reproduction. The lesson focuses on biological fact and does not touch on ethics and moral values.

There are some voluntary organisations like the Singapore Planned Parenthood Association that offer to give talks but this is also dependent on the schools' discretion. I therefore feel that there have to be formal lessons where the two aspects of sex education - moral and biological - must be brought together and taught in a holistic manner. For this we need political will and the commitment by the Ministry of Education to underscore the importance of this subject for our teenagers for this will determine the sex-related attitudes we wish to pass down to them and this has been demonstrated very eloquently by Mr Peh.

One possible way of drawing up the core content and presentation would be for the Ministry of Education to set up a special committee consisting of decision makers, social workers, grassroots leaders, educationists, sociologists, religious leaders and organisations like the Singapore Planned Parenthood Association. We would also like to give our teachers special training or designate special trainers for the task. Also, the fears of the public would have to be allayed and explanations given to them about the holistic nature of the subject and how vitally important it is for our children to develop healthy and right sexual attitudes. I hope the Minister will agree to look into this matter with a view towards implementation.

Dr Ow Chin Hock (Leng Kee): ( In Mandarin): Sir, yesterday, Mr Peh Chin Hua spoke on the eight points of discipline and the status of teachers. Today, I would like to raise only one issue, ie, moral education.

Recently, many Singaporeans seemed to be concerned with this issue once again. Perhaps this may have something to do with the Prime Minister's speech on the family and values at the National Day Rally last year. On 24th September last year, the Feedback Unit conducted a dialogue session on education with 58 representatives from the teachers' unions, tertiary institutions, student unions and cultural bodies. Most of the participants agreed that we should step up the inculcation of moral values on students. At the same time, they were concerned with the deterioration of discipline in schools. At that time, the press focused their report on the caning of students and omitted the participants' emphasis on the importance of family education and the influence of social trends on the students.

As far back as 1979, the then Minister for Education, Dr Goh Keng Swee, appointed a Moral Education Committee headed by Mr Ong Teng Cheong. The Committee conducted very extensive and in-depth studies on the matter and made a number of recommendations. I was one of the members of the Committee. That is why I remember very clearly that one of the most important recommendations was to define the scope of values to be inculcated in the moral education programme. These included (1) personal behaviour, like habit formation and character development; (2) social responsibility like a sense of belonging to the community and respect for cultural heritage; and (3) loyalty to the country such as love of country and spirit of nation building. Subsequently, the Ministry of Education invited a number of Confucian scholars to compile a set of teaching materials on Confucianism. Unfortunately, when the Ministry of Education decided to abolish Religious Knowledge in 1989, the Confucianism programme was likewise affected and died a natural death a few years later.

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I am bringing up this old story once again to remind the Ministry of Education officials that "education of people takes a hundred years to bear fruits" [ ]. They have to give mature consideration to all aspects of the matter before making a move. They have to look far ahead. At the same time, I would like to know whether the subject of Civics and Moral Education taught in the primary and secondary schools today has incorporated the recommendations of the said report on moral education. Has any adjustment been made and what are the areas that need to be improved?

Sir, in fact, the inculcation of moral values is not confined to lessons in civics and moral education. It can also be transmitted through other subjects such as language and history. The school spirit, discipline and the words and deeds of the teachers have great influence on the pupils too. Example is better than precept. If the teachers can play an exemplary role by practising what they preach to exercise the formative influence on the pupils' character, the effect will be better.

However, in order to do this, the Ministry of Education should give the teachers the respect they deserve. Some teachers at the dialogue session pointed out that the Ministry of Education seems to be taking the side of the parents most of the time. At the slightest provocation of a complaint by the parents, they will put the teacher under investigation with total disregard for the feelings of the teacher concerned. This will undermine the teacher's morale, and it will also affect the students' respect for the teacher.

I agree with the view of many of the teachers, that is, the inculcation of moral values is not the sole responsibility of the school. Parents should take up a large responsibility in teaching their children. As it is said, "bearing a child and not educating him, the fault lies with the father" [ ]. So parents who send their children to school and relinquish their responsibility of educating them are not fulfilling their duties as parents. With the trend of our society moving towards the pursuit of material well-being and the emphasis on money and wealth, if we want our children to have the correct values and not drift with the tide, the family must play a supporting role with the school. Virtues like personal cultivation, loyalty to the country and other moral values must be cultivated from young. Only then can the children grow up to become good citizens. Should the Ministry implement some programmes and find ways and means to encourage the parents to exchange views on their children's conduct, character and behaviour, and to cooperate closely with the school in educating their children.

Mr Koo Tsai Kee (Tanjong Pagar GRC): Sir, if one believes the story of some teachers, there appears to be an erosion of discipline in some of our schools. Teachers, I am told, are being intimidated by naughty pupils, obsessive parents, bureaucratic principals, an interfering media and a public relations conscious Ministry of Education. These allegations may not be true, but they are in town. I think a clarification from the Ministry will be instructive.

Sir, I believe in one philosophy, and I share that with my hon. colleague, Mr Peh Chin Hua, that the more our pupils are disciplined in schools, the less they will bleed on our streets.

When I visited a friend in the States recently in November, my friend told me he searched high and low for a school for his daughter. He wanted a school which insists on strict discipline. Finally, he found a private school quite far from his house. This school insists that pupils wear uniforms to school - quite a strange phenomenon in America, because most American students go to school in whatever attire they like. This school also insists that it reserves the right to discipline its pupils without interference from their parents. Any parents not happy with the system are welcome to take their child to another school. And the school fee is not cheap; it is about US$400 per month.

My point is that most private schools abroad prize discipline as a virtue and they sell their discipline as an attraction to parents. Parents seek out good schools and these are mostly schools that maintain high to very high discipline. Only lousy public schools have the reverse: no discipline. No respectable teacher worth his or her salt would want to teach in a public school. Unfortunately, that is the case in America.

Sir, teaching is a calling. People join the teaching profession because they want to make a difference to the children's lives. I urge the Ministry to give teachers some autonomy to discipline the pupils.

Every time a difficult parent complains to the Ministry, the Ministry sends in its feared investigation team, and it does not help lift the morale of teachers who are caught with the task of educating young pupils.

Would the Ministry consider discipline as an attribute in their yearly ranking exercise for schools? I think in the present attribute list for ranking, you have got "O" levels, ECAs and various other types of attributes. Perhaps it would like to rank discipline as an attribute. Some parents might look at that as a plus point.

Mr Choo Wee Khiang (Jalan Besar GRC): ( In Mandarin): Sir, recently there were a number of newspaper reports on the problem of discipline of students and corporal punishment. I have very deep feelings about these matters.

First, I hope the Ministry of Education will take a clear stand on the two incidents concerning students beating up their teacher and the teacher imposing corporal punishment on the students. The Ministry should make a fair judgement on these matters. Whatever it may be, the newspaper and television have played up their reports and such reports have aroused the attention of the public. Generally, the public opinion is that there is a need for corporal punishment in the schools.

I personally feel that the teachers should have the absolute right to impose corporal punishment and take disciplinary action against students who are unruly, and such actions may include the recording of major demerits, minor demerits, or even expulsion or corporal punishment, or a combination of these.

I agree with Mr Peh Chin Hua. If parents do not want their children to be disciplined or punished in the school, they should put it down in writing, that is, they should opt out.

Corporal punishment is a very sensitive issue and, in this respect, I hope that the Ministry of Education can formulate or re-formulate a set of guidelines which must be effective and capable of producing a deterrent effect so that the students will realize the importance of discipline. As for parents, I think we must instill the awareness of respect for the teachers as a virtue.

Disciplinary action and corporal punishment should only be imposed on recalcitrant students. Most students do not require such punishment or disciplinary action. On the other hand, I do not think our teachers will impose such punishment on their students at random. So I feel that the Ministry of Education should give its strong support to the schools, teachers and principals and, together with the cooperation of our parents, I think the standard of discipline in the school can be enhanced and the respect for teachers can be re-established.

Just as there are laws in a nation, and rules in the family, the schools must also have a set of rules for maintaining discipline in school. As parents, when we punish our children, we do so out of love. Similarly, the teachers also do the same out of love and concern for the students. Surely, the teachers will not punish students without reason or without any justification. If you do have such teachers, I think they will be dealt with by the Ministry of Education or the principal of the school.

In January 1991, the Bulletin of the Singapore Chinese Teachers' Union published a letter written by Mr Tan Keng Guan, the Principal of Pei Chun Public School, which was carried in Lianhe Zaobao on 22nd October 1994, with the caption: "Restore the Respect for the Professional Status of the Teachers". He expressed his views on corporal punishment and disciplinary action against the students. I think this article deserves our attention. We hope that the Ministry of Education will make reference to this article and adopt some of the recommendations by Mr Tan, the school principal.

The Ministry of Education can also make a study on how China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea punish their students and maintain discipline in the school.

On the discipline of students, I think it is a very serious matter. For example, a few years ago, in a school in Toa Payoh, some students beat up the principal. I think such students should be sent to a reformatory home. Two years ago, I think it was somewhere in District 9, a school principal wanted to impose corporal punishment on a student. The parents were notified, but when the parents turned up in the school, they instigated their son to beat up the principal. I think such matters must be taken very, very seriously. We should look very seriously into the problem of discipline of our students.

In addition to this, student-gangs are also a matter of concern to me. Yesterday, it was reported in the newspapers that a female student was beaten up by girl-gangsters at Junction 8. This may well be just an isolated case - not a very common occurrence, but it was serious enough to be reported in the newspapers. I do not know whether the Ministry of Education, the Police or the Ministry of Community Development have any reaction to this - whether the Ministry of Education has taken any action to prevent the teddy girls and teddy boys from misbehaving themselves outside the school.

The Chairman: Mr Choo, your time is up. Dr Arthur Beng.

Dr Arthur Beng Kian Lam (Bedok GRC): Sir, it is good to see that the Government has set another $1 billion to the Edusave fund to enable more to be offered by the schools to our children. In education, the final satisfaction is seeing every child being developed to the maximum of his or her potential and in the nurturing of a good citizen.

In this era of rapid technological change, and that of regionalisation and globalisation, the education system must quickly fine-tune to meet up to this challenge. Will the children now in school be equipped with the skills to cope and work effectively in this new environment?

When seen against this back-drop, Edusave and extra-curricular activities have a new challenge. It is ECA which complements the academic studies to provide for total pupil development. I thus welcome the Minister's statement earlier this year to recognise the use of ECA points for entry into Junior College.

The student today has a wide range of activities inside and outside school to distract him from what can be seen as very mundane ECA. Teachers and others involved in ECA must move quickly to make ECAs relevant to the times. Included in this must be more challenging and exciting ventures. Educational trips overseas must be more than just sightseeing visits. They should include adventure training, participating in programmes, interacting with their peers overseas, and a chance to understand another culture. This will make not only the understanding of our neighbours better, but also a better appreciation of what we have, and our own social and political structure and problems. For example, a visit to Thailand should not only consist of visits to interesting historic sites, but should also include travelling to Bangkok in a non-air-conditioned bus, so as to understand the meaning of traffic jams. This will help them all to understand our concerns for the control of the car population in Singapore.

With regard to the uniformed youth organisations (UYOs), I would like to ask the Minister regarding the enrolment status and performance of UYOs in schools. Much has been said about the problem of discipline in schools and I would not add more except to say that UYOs have an important role to play in inculcating discipline in our students.

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One principal shared this experience with me. When he first took over the school, the school had a big problem of discipline and what he did was to place a lot of focus on UYOs in the school. In five years' time, he managed to control this problem and it is now a premier secondary school, Gan Eng Seng Secondary School.

Another important aspect is the teaching of Information Technology (IT) in schools. I understand that in some schools, the teaching of IT, or the use of computers, may not be so easily available. I would like the Minister to consider making it a priority allocation of the school's Edusave allocation for expansion to IT. Computer studies should be made as soon as possible as part of the curriculum and not only as an extra-curricular activity. I know that in some schools, it is already a curriculum subject.

In conclusion, I would like to say that it is Edusave that has made possible the "cream on the cake" in education. The Ministry of Education should now wisely guide the schools towards achieving national goals through ECA with the prudent use of Edusave.

Mr Davinder Singh (Toa Payoh GRC): Sir, it was recently reported that some students at the National University of Singapore have to take a compulsory course which has been designed to teach them to think, speak and write. This has come as a bit of surprise.

Year after year, we read that our schools churn out students who excel in GCE O' and A' level examinations. No doubt, the education that most of our students receive will prepare them for their chosen vocation. However, the fact that some university students have difficulty analyzing, evaluating and thinking logically tell us that we should be doing more with the students well before they enter the universities. It is a good idea to start a course which will teach them these skills. But the course at the university level is not the best way to deal with the problem. We should really evaluate the kind of training that our school children are receiving to determine whether, in addition to obtaining excellent grades at examinations, they are being properly prepared for university and their careers.

With an economy that is becoming more competitive, we will need more people at the top and middle level management equipped with the skills of inquiry and analysis. We are also going to need people who are more articulate and are willing to think through and take stands on issues. We need to develop initiative and creativity.

It was reported in the newspapers that the most powerful business organisation in Japan is leading a private sector effort to find ways of nurturing originality and the inventiveness of its people. Top Japanese businessmen, academics and industrial experts believe that these qualities are essential for creativity which, in turn, is needed to maintain Japan's vitality and international competitiveness. Is the Ministry proposing to tackle this problem and, if so, how?

Dr Lee Tsao Yuan (Nominated Member): Sir, throughout these past 30 years, our educational system has always had its one key objective the needs of the economy. The approach has been pragmatic and, as such, has served the needs of the economy well.

In the next 30 years, Singapore will face different economic challenges from those of the past 30. In particular, the challenge of moving up the value-added ladder will entail a search for new business opportunities, in terms of new markets, new production processes, new ways of organising business in order to make things better and cheaper. This calls for creativity.

Singapore must become a nation not merely of doers but of doers and innovators and thinkers. Just as the educational system has focused on educating as many as possible in the past, it is imperative that the educational system include a focus on creativity now and in the future.

The establishment of independent schools, autonomous schools and the Gifted Education Programme are important moves in this direction. My question is whether this is sufficient. For example, as Mr Davinder Singh has pointed out, there is feedback that first year university students find it difficult to cope with the more analytical demands in the university and yet this represents the most capable in their cohort and the group for which the development of creativity will be the most important.

The setting up of committees to review policies, or committees to spearhead major new policy initiatives, is commonly accepted in Singapore. The Economic Planning Committee, Cost Review Committee and the Committee to Promote Enterprise Overseas are some such examples. I would, therefore, suggest the establishment of a committee to look into the development of creativity in the educational system. The committee would be tasked with not merely looking at the institutional infrastructure but also with the educational content at various levels of the educational system. I think that this issue is of sufficient importance to warrant the establishment of such a committee. The committee could be headed by a Minister of State and could comprise educationists from various educational institutions as well as employers.

In conclusion, there is no crisis in education. Our educational system has served us well. My concern pertains more to the future and to the need for greater creativity and innovativeness for continued economic growth in the coming decade.

Encik Imram bin Mohamed (Nominated Member): Sir, I would like to voice my concern for the plight of the below average students in our schools. These students comprise about 10% to 15% of the cohort every year.

Sir, we have a very good educational system in Singapore where no child is deprived of a place in school. However, the system is biased towards the high achievers. Justifiably so, we spare no effort and money to further develop these bright students through GEP, independent and autonomous schools plus special Edusave grants for them. On the other hand, very little attention is given to the slow learners who are left more or less to fend on their own. As these pupils progress unassisted through primary schools, they would fall further and further behind their peers. I fear this would lead to an ever widening gap between the top and bottom in our society. This would lead to obvious consequences. If we draw up a profile of these students, you will see that they come from low income, single parent, or broken families. The environment they grow up in, plus the lack of motivation, increase the probability of them dropping out of schools, becoming delinquent and vulnerable to drug consumption.

Some self-help groups have, on their own initiatives, implemented special programmes to help the low achievers in the primary schools. They have achieved measurable success. Their outreach is, however, limited due to lack of resources. A more concerted effort is required to help all these children. Just having weekend tuition classes for them to attend are not sufficient. With the right motivation and proper guidance, they could also be developed to their maximum potential. Remedial effort should start from an early stage as it would be easier to mould them during their foundation years.

I believe it is worth the while to put in the extra effort and money to help improve this group of children, as it will prevent them from later becoming an obstacle to our progress, or, worse, a burden to society. I would appreciate it if the Minister could let us know what plan he has to help these students and whether the Edusave facility could be extended to allocate funds for specially tailored programmes for them.

Mr Peh Chin Hua: ( In Mandarin): Sir, Edusave is a very good plan. However, despite its implementation since 1992, many students and parents still do not understand the function of Edusave and the benefit they can derive from it. I hope that the Ministry of Education will publicise this scheme to prevent it from being misused by schools.

I understand that many parents are perplexed over the fact that Edusave is being used by schools to organise educational tours and dinners for the students. It is very difficult to explain to the parents that going on a tour is to widen our knowledge and it will help us to understand the history, culture and ways of life of other countries. It is also not easy to explain to parents that by making the students attend some formal dinners will help them learn some dinner etiquette and table manners. To the parents, it is merely merry-making and feasting, a misuse of Edusave.

Some schools are even suggesting that contributions be made from Edusave towards the School Building Fund. Parents are getting the wrong impression that the Government is trying to use another method to take back what they have given out earlier through Edusave.

I think we must retain the original principle and spirit of Edusave. It should not be misused by the schools. I appreciate the plan to award scholarships through Edusave. I hope that the Ministry of Education will make the scholarship awards from Edusave complement the scholarship/bursary awards introduced by the grassroots organisations. The joint scholarship/bursary awards not only enable the students to understand the community spirit but is also an effective promotion of the scheme.

I hope the Ministry of Education would consider the above suggestions.

Mr Chew Heng Ching (Eunos GRC): Sir, the Government has committed that it will build up the Edusave fund to $5 billion to put in place a strong permanent foundation for educational standards to be continually upgraded for a well-educated and highly-skilled people who will always remain the fundamental objective of this Government.

Sir, in keeping with this philosophy, the Government has gradually increased its contribution from budgetary surpluses to the Edusave fund. Better than expected economic growth has allowed the build-up of the Edusave fund to its present level of $3 billion with another billion dollars to be added on this year. This build-up of Edusave fund will allow students to participate in a larger variety of educational programmes to maximise their potential.

Sir, my concern is that our schools may be tempted to quickly implement plans to try to spend this huge amount of Edusave fund as the build-up of this fund is much faster than expected, far beyond the expectations of Education Ministry officials, principals and teachers. And I agree with Mr Peh that we must ensure that teachers do not misuse this fund.

Sir, it is appropriate, at this juncture, for the Minister to tell the House what is the progress in the use of this fund. How many students have indeed benefited from it and where do we go from here?

Sir, on the use of the fund, I would like to make one suggestion. I am aware that we are gradually converting more and more Government schools into independent and autonomous schools for which school fees would rise. May I ask the Minister if he would consider using part of this fund to provide additional grants to these schools to improve their quality of learning and teaching so that school fees in these schools can remain low and affordable?

Mr R. Sinnakaruppan (Kampong Glam GRC): Sir, I welcome the Government's move to accelerate the build-up of Edusave by adding another $500 million from last year's surplus to making it a total contribution of $3 billion, as Mr Chew has just pointed out.

The Edusave Scheme has been in operation for two years now and most Singaporeans have heard of Edusave but many, including parents and educationists in our schools, may not be fully aware of how this scheme operates. The Ministry of Education allocates the Edusave income into three categories: (1) a pupil's individual account for both primary and secondary schools; (2) a block grant to secondary schools; and (3) scholarships to top pupils in secondary schools.

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Presently, the fund in the pupil's individual account can be used for school-based enrichment programmes and, in some instances, for part payment of autonomous and independent school fees. However, in the two years in which this fund has been in existence, the withdrawal rate by pupils has been extremely low. For example, in 1994, the fund withdrawal rate by primary school pupils was only 3.5% and that of secondary school students was only 16.9%.

The Ministry should carefully examine the reasons for this gross under usage of Edusave funds. The procedure for withdrawal of funds for approved use should be made simple and easy to administer. At the same time, it must have enough controls to prevent the abuses that Mr Peh had talked about. Also, the Ministry should step up its publicity drive on the entire Edusave scheme so that students and parents better appreciate the objective of the scheme and how students can effectively benefit from the scheme.

The Ministry should also examine if the present designated use of the fund may be too restrictive. Ways of expanding the use of the fund should be explored. For example, the Ministry should seriously look into the possibility of allowing students to use the fund for enrichment programmes and other special projects undertaken by the self-help groups. This must not be seen as a welfare handout, as self-help groups play an important role in the education of our students, and the Government recognises this role.

Another point that I would like to raise is that the block grant for schools is presently only extended to secondary schools. Last year, I asked if this grant could be extended to primary schools as well, and the Minister of State, Dr Aline Wong, had then replied that it would be considered at an appropriate time. With the additional $500 million given to Edusave, I wonder if this is an appropriate time to extend the scheme to primary schools as well.

Dr Kanwaljit Soin: Sir, the issue of granting pupils' Edusave to the fourth child in the family and to the disabled child has been raised numerous times by several MPs. I would urge the Minister to take a fresh look at the issue.

The Prime Minister said in this House on 16th January 1992 when he was referring to Edusave and I quote:

`... so I have revised the scheme to ensure that every student has something, ie, a participation prize, the day you enter school, and the better ones a scholarship.'

On the basis of this thinking of the Prime Minister, I feel that the participation prize should not be denied to any child when he or she enters school, whether it happens to be the fourth child in the family or a disabled child going to a special education school. Just because the special education schools are not being run by the Ministry of Education which I feel already penalises the disabled child, these children are then again penalised by denying the pupils' Edusave grant to them.

Where the fourth child is concerned, the policy-makers worry that the Edusave grant for the fourth child may encourage the poorer families to have more children. There are better ways to encourage low-income families to keep their families small. Denying the pupils' Edusave grant to the fourth child when the other three siblings will have their accounts, may make the fourth child feel unwanted and discriminated. We must also not forget, and which has been said over and over again, that the only asset we have is our people, especially our children and we must try to maximize their potential.

The Prime Minister said in The Next Lap:

`... we will continue to provide for children who have special needs ... we will not exclude them from the mainstream.'

I feel that not giving the fourth child in the family and the disabled child a slice of the asset enhancement programme in the form of the pupils' Edusave is a discriminatory policy and goes against the grain of giving them equal opportunities.

I would therefore like to request the Minister to look into this matter.

Mr Sinnakaruppan: Sir, one of the success factors contributing to our rapid economic growth has been our emphasis in keeping pace with changes and advances in information technology. The training in the use of information technology must be done at all levels and must start at a young age. In this regard, many of the modern kindergartens already provide instruction through computers for K1 and K2 children. However, our primary schools are not in a position to continue this process as they are not equipped with computer facilities.

I would like to ask the Minister if there are any plans to equip all primary schools with computers. Also, I like to know if computer instruction would be given at the foundation stage in primary schools so that there is continuity of computer instruction for our young children after they leave kindergarten.

I understand that almost all our secondary schools are well equipped with at least one computer laboratory with multi-media computers. To give greater importance to IT, I would like to ask whether the Ministry has any plans to make computer applications as a compulsory subject for all students in the Express Stream.

Sir, I am aware that the Ministry is collaborating with NSTB on a multi-media pilot project called the Students' and Teachers' Workbench (STW). I had the opportunity to see some demonstration software for this project at a seminar organised by the Ministry last year. I would like to know how is the progress of this project and when this project would be implemented in all our schools.

Dr Kanwaljit Soin: Sir, the Ministry of Education has taken a very commendable step in the field of information technology by starting multi-media teaching in six schools. But why do we not really revolutionize learning by doing what no other country has done, ie, provide each and every student in the primary schools, secondary schools and junior colleges with their own personal computer to be kept in the school on each student's desk? I can see that the Minister is smiling and shaking his head. But I am thinking of this very revolutionary step and Singapore is known to do things for the first time. So let us go into it in a big way.

Right now, we have school computer laboratories where students have to take their turn at using the computer. Our main concern should not be the maximum utilisation of the computers, but should be the maximum utilisation of the students' ability and the students' time. There are only about 25 or so computers in one school and very few teachers are computer literate. So the students only get a limited time at the computer.

If we really want to function as a wired and intelligent city in the global IT network, then let us start in a really big way. We have talked a great deal about surpluses and how to spend the money wisely. So let us take this step and in one decisive move, we will make all our students computer literate and completely comfortable with IT.

All the talk about competitive advantage, human resource development, value added and high-tech industries, etc, all these will be realised if we provide a computer to each of our students. After the initial capital outlay, we would only have to upkeep the computers and upgrade them in stages.

Sir, I would request the Minister to take on this challenge of providing each student with his own personal computer in schools, and then the Ministry of Education would be a trail blazer in the field of learning, teaching and the maximization of human ability in the age of information technology. So please, Mr Minister, do consider it.

Mr Peh Chin Hua: ( In Mandarin): Sir, the ranking of schools is basically a good idea. If we can examine the side-effects of this system and improve on them, then it will become a perfect system. Therefore, I hope that the Minister for Education would consider the following points:

(1) Avoid having to transfer students from one school to another if their results are less than satisfactory. In order to compete for higher ranking and maintain the good record of success year after year, some principals from the "well-known" schools will deliberately raise the standard of the school by setting very difficult questions for their students. Those who are less proficient will fail to make the grade and will have to be transferred to the N' stream. As the school does not offer N' stream classes, these unfortunate students will be forced out of the school and transferred to another school.

(2) Prevent unnecessary pressure on teachers and students. In its journal, the Singapore Teachers' Union pointed out that some principals had told their teachers to leave the school if they could not achieve good results for the students. As a result, many teachers have to spend a few additional hours each week to give extra lessons to their students. This has indirectly exerted extra pressure on the teachers and the students.

(3) Do not over emphasise on academic results. To evaluate the success of a school, one should consider not only its academic results but also how well it fares in the development of character as well as the physical and mental well-being of the students. School ranking would create a situation whereby schools with less satisfactory performance are neglected.

If the popular schools can exchange teachers with those not-so-popular schools, it will help the principals and teachers to acquire better experience. At the same time, principals and teachers from the popular schools will understand the difficulties encountered by the less popular schools and the difference in quality between students from popular and less popular schools.

Dr Ow Chin Hock: ( In Mandarin): Sir, with regard to the ranking of schools, the Minister for Education should look into three questions. (1) What is the objective? (2) What is the method to be used? (3) What are the consequences?

In a dialogue session on 21st September 1994 conducted by the Feedback Unit, some participants offered some suggestions on the ranking of schools. No doubt the ranking of schools is conducted by the Ministry with good intentions. The question is whether or not the parents and teachers can effectively make use of the information provided by the ranking. Perhaps some adjustments can be made to the method of ranking.

Let us first discuss the method of ranking. The calculation of the average results in the 'O' level results may give rise to some deviations, because not all the students take the same combination of subjects. My suggestion is that we should divide the subjects into two categories - the core subjects which are compulsory, ie, all students must take, and the non-core subjects which are elective subjects and the two categories must be given different weights in the calculation of scores for ranking.

Secondly, there are some schools which have good track records in sports, cultural and ECA activities, and some with good traditions. The Ministry of Education should take these into consideration in their evaluation of the schools. I know the Minister had said this is very difficult to do. But I feel that if there is a will, there is a way. For example, the World Competitive Report is able to formulate composite scores for the competitiveness of various countries based on abstract criteria such as human resources, infrastructure, management efficiency, etc, and rank them accordingly. So ranking the schools according to their examination results as well as their performances in other areas will go a long way in promoting an all-round and balanced development of the schools and the students.

As for the consequences of the ranking, it is certain that ranking would exert more pressure on the schools. Another possible side effect is manipulation: One example is preventing the students from taking subjects which are difficult to score. Also, some schools may even refuse to admit students whose results are not up to their required standard. The most obvious consequence is that many schools spend great efforts and time to force-feed the students, making them "examination smart". Relatively, moral education, sports and even the training of an analytical mind are not as important as the examinations. This has led some participants at the dialogue session to feel that the schools are fast becoming examination centres. Everything is centred on examinations. Everything else is of secondary importance. If that is the case, then I think education would have lost its original meaning. This examination-oriented mentality is something which deserves our deepest concern. The ranking of schools is certainly going to aggravate this trend! 1.30 pm

Mr Sinnakaruppan: Sir, for decades now, the GCE "O" and "A" level examinations have been set and marked in Cambridge. Last year, the issue of whether the examination scripts should continue to be marked overseas came up for discussion and many parents expressed their concern about the loss of some 200 examination scripts sent to Cambridge for marking.

While we recognise that such an incident is rare and isolated, the Ministry must nevertheless set the long term direction as to whether we should continue to be dependent on Cambridge.

There are certainly several merits in continuing with the present arrangement. For instance, the GCE certificates are internationally recognised as a benchmark. Also, the wealth of experience of the Cambridge examiners allows for consistency in maintaining standards. But on the other hand, we have established ourselves as a centre of educational excellence in this region. As such, it may be necessary for us to work towards becoming self-reliant. Also, over reliance on an external source can prove to be fatal in the event of a major crisis in the United Kingdom.

Last year, the Minister informed the House that his Ministry would study the matter more carefully before a decision is made. I would like to ask if the study is completed and what is the outcome of the study.

Now, I will take the next amendment. The Open University was set up some two years ago to provide an opportunity for working adults to pursue a degree programme. Presently, three degree programmes leading to a BA or a B.Sc degree are being offered.

Ever since the Open University was started, there have been numerous requests from the public as well as Members of this House to start an engineering degree programme at the Open University. This demand comes particularly from polytechnic diploma holders who have a strong desire to acquire a degree qualification so that they can get ahead in their careers.

The Ministry has recently announced that a part-time B.Tech programme will be offered and that the programme will be offered at the National University of Singapore. This came as a surprise to many as the natural place for such a part-time programme would have been the Open University.

This move has raised a question as to whether the Open University would offer engineering degrees at all in the future. I hope that the Minister can clarify this concern.

I also understand that the development grant for the Open University would run out by 1998. I would like to know if the Government would continue to provide the Open University with sufficient funds for its future development and administration. In this regard, I would also like to know whether there is a renewed thinking about the long term role of the Open University.

The Chairman: Mr Koo is not here. You can continue with your next topic.

Mr Sinnakaruppan: Sir, every year, the universities and the polytechnics are allocated millions of dollars for the purchase of equipment, setting up of new research centres and to embark on developmental projects. Usually, these funds come from a variety of sources - the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, the Economic Development Board, National Science and Technology Board, and so on. While the various schemes have separate accountability, it appears that there is no central agency to coordinate and control the total fund allocations to the respective faculties or departments of the universities or polytechnics.

It is common to find that some lecturers embark on projects that may be of personal interest to them and these projects may be of little relevance to the department or faculty concerned. If such a lecturer is enterprising and is able to write well, he is able to source sufficient funds from external agencies for his research work.

Therefore, there is a need to institute proper coordination and control in the manner in which funds are sourced and distributed. Perhaps a quality audit system should be in place to ensure coordination of fund allocation. Such an audit can be carried out at two levels. At the first level, the central administration of each tertiary institution could set proper guidelines and rank the needs of each of their departments or faculties. At a higher level, the Minister can appoint a panel who can do random audits on projects and research work carried out by individual departments or lecturers. This panel could also help to coordinate the level of funding extended to the various tertiary institutions by the different sources and also set stringent performance indicators so that the funds could be spent more prudently.

Sir, I hope the Minister would take up this suggestion.

Mr Koo Tsai Kee: Sir, in most developed countries, universities are ranked according to their areas of excellence. Departments are ranked against departments and universities against universities.

The purpose of ranking universities is to allow students a means of making informed choices about the courses and universities they wish to enrol in. Ranking also allows employers an objective means of assessing the relative worth of their employees. Ranking is also advantageous to the universities themselves because it motivates staff and the ranking list guides them as to where they stand.

I suggest that we rank the two universities in Singapore. The problem, however, is that ranking only two universities does not add up to much because the best is number 1 and the last is number 2.

I would like to suggest that the Government or perhaps some magazines, maybe Straits Times or Lianhe Zaobao, find a way of ranking our universities against some of the better regional universities. In America, for example, magazines like Fortune, Business Week, New York Times, routinely rank schools, colleges and universities. Our graduates need to know where they stand against some of the other universities in the region like Hong Kong University, National Taiwan University, University of New South Wales or similar universities like that. Already our students are competing with these regional universities in other areas, for example, in debates, etc. Also, our graduates are working abroad and ranking our universities against their universities allows employers overseas, maybe in Hong Kong or China, to know the relative worth of our graduates from the NUS or NTU. I hope the Minister would give it some thought.

Mr Sinnakaruppan: Sir, with the Government's thrust towards developing our external economy, more and more Singaporeans are accepting overseas postings. As many of them bring their families with them, there is a need for Singapore to set up international schools in countries where there is sufficient demand for such schools. In this regard, Singapore has already set up its first school in Hong Kong. I would like to know what is the progress made in this school. I would also like to know if it is true that Normal Stream students are not accepted into this school even though their parents may be working there. I would like the Minister to clarify this.

I would also like to know if there are any plans to set up more of such schools in China, India and possibly Vietnam, as a number of Singaporeans are working in these countries.

Mr Low Thia Khiang: ( In Mandarin): Sir, the Member for Tanjong Pagar GRC, Mr Koo Tsai Kee, was talking about ranking of universities. I do not know whether he is aware that, in the past, universities were ranked as follows: Class I: Cambridge University of England and Harvard University of the USA; Class II: University of Singapore; and Class III: Nanyang University. Now, let me talk about the Normal Stream in our education system.

Since we started to adopt the streaming scheme in our education system, students who did not do well in the PSLE were streamed into the Normal stream or Normal (Technical) stream. Apart from demoralizing the young children and breaking the hearts of their parents, this exercise creates a stigma on the students and causing them to be treated as persona non grata by the schools. I do not wish to argue about the merits or demerits of streaming, but one thing I can say for sure is that these students, who were unfortunate to have done poorly in their PSLE for various reasons, are now concentrated in one class or in one school, and this is certainly going to cause a lot of disciplinary problems and the school reputation will be affected. Teachers who are responsible for the charge of these students will have the problem of managing these students. I hope the Ministry of Education will look into this matter and try to find some ways to solve the problem.

At the moment, the Normal stream students are concentrated in the neighbourhood schools. Some schools are hoping that they can have less classes in the Normal stream so that they would not lag behind in the annual ranking of schools.

According to a report in the newspapers, a certain school transferred a number of students who did not do well in their examination to other schools on the excuse that it has no Normal stream class in the school. I think this principal is certainly looking for an easy way out. If students are no good, then kick them into the Normal stream and the parents will have no choice but to take their children to another school. That is too easy. If the Ministry of Education does not rectify this situation whereby schools are at liberty to admit only good students, and to reject all those whose performance is below par, then there will come a day when our education system will become nothing but a tool for the production of economic manpower, and our schools will become factories for the manufacture of economic and human resources. That will be a great tragedy to the modern history of mankind!

The Ministry of Education should encourage the top schools to take in poor performers along with the top performers to provide them with a better environment and professional guidance to help them improve on their performance, or to "add-value" to them. Let all the secondary schools, including independent schools and autonomous schools, have Normal stream and Normal (Technical) stream classes so that there will be a better spread of students in every school. In that way, Normal stream students will have the chance to study and work along with the better students so as to spur them on. On the other hand, the good students will have the opportunity to mix with the Normal stream students and interact with them so that they will have a chance to understand the problems of students coming from different backgrounds. This is something good, and we should look into it.

Dr Kanwaljit Soin: Sir, in the Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools, Chinese and English are taught at a first language level, ie, CL1 and EL1. They were introduced because the Government believed that there was much in the traditional discipline and culture of the Chinese medium schools to inculcate desirable core values into Chinese children. It is not clear as to which Chinese core values the SAP schools are supposed to preserve and transmit to their students but one can assume that these values refer to some or all of the following: (a) respect for authority; (b) virtues of hard work, discipline and perseverance; and (c) filial piety.

In my opinion, there is nothing characteristically "Chinese" about these values as the other ethnic groups in Singapore also subscribe to them. I believe that these same values are being taught to all our school children as part of their moral and civic education programme. Furthermore, the bright Chinese students can take Chinese at a higher level in non-SAP schools so that language proficiency can be acquired in non-SAP schools. Thus, it seems to me that the original rationale for SAP schools is no longer present. Furthermore, it is an anomaly that we should go out of our way to segregate our brightest students on an ethnic basis when they will have to function as adults in a multi-racial society. I am aware that the SAP school programme has been modified so that for extra curricular activities, students are encouraged to interact with their counterparts from non-SAP schools but this interaction time is limited.

If we continue the practice of segregating bright Chinese students in SAP schools, we may be inadvertently encouraging inter-ethnic insensitivity.

We recently witnessed an unfortunate example of this in the telecast of the 1995 TV commercial awards when two TCS actresses, Zoe Tay and Fann Wong, could not and would not even read out the names of non-Chinese winners.

Singapore has been blessed with inter-ethnic tolerance and harmony. Let us not tempt fate by going out of our way to segregate our young, especially the brightest, during their formative years. They have to learn from young to be tolerant and sensitive to habits, cultural practices and religious beliefs of the other ethnic groups.

In addition, with our regionalisation drive, our present SAP students will in future be going to countries like India, Pakistan and Indonesia to do business. Would it not be better to expose these students to other ethnic minorities in their school environment?

It is high time that we re-thought the rationale for SAP schools and decide whether we should continue with the scheme. We should be bold enough to tackle this problem now rather than take refuge in the status quo and then pay for the consequences later.

The Chairman: Mr Chiam See Tong is not here. Mr Lee Yock Suan. 1.45 pm

The Minister for Education (Mr Lee Yock Suan): Sir, I wish to thank all Members who have spoken for their continued interest in the field of education. Since so many items have been raised, I will be only answering some of them. But I wish to assure all Members that I will give every item my individual attention. It is just to share out the work that I can only answer some of their queries.

First, I would like to touch on the question of the teaching career. The success of an education system depends critically on the quality and morale of the teaching staff. It is therefore a primary concern of my Ministry that our teachers are well looked after and that we continue to attract good recruits to the education service.

With the recent restructuring of civil service personnel management, a Personnel Board chaired by PS (PMO) now has full authority to recruit Education Officers and to decide on their promotion into all grades below superscale. The PS and Director (Education) are members of the Board. This new arrangement has meant greater authority and flexibility for my Ministry to recruit and reward good officers.

With effect from 1st February 1995, a total of 2,456 Education Officers were promoted to two intermediate salary scales. These are the General Education Officer (GEO) IA for graduates and GEO IIA for non-graduates.

This promotion exercise is significant in two aspects. Firstly, the number promoted is big: more than 10% of the 22,000 Education Officers were promoted. Secondly, it enables classroom teachers to be promoted whilst they remain as teachers, without having to take on additional responsibilities. Before the introduction of these intermediate grades, teachers could only remain on one long salary scale, GEO I or GEO II, unless they took on leadership roles as Heads of Department, vice-principals or principals and were promoted to the senior scales.

This promotion exercise has been welcomed by the teachers' unions and has generally gone down well, judging by the few complaints that my Ministry has received. Understandably, in any promotion exercise, those who are not promoted may feel disappointed. However, I wish to assure all teachers that the January 1995 exercise is only the first of a series of promotion exercises to promote deserving teachers into the intermediate grades. The next exercise will be in October this year and I expect thereafter, it will be held once a year.

Those promoted so far include 11 principals and 221 vice-principals who were still on the basic scale despite their responsibilities and years of service. So I think it is high time that we promoted this group of people. Priority was also given to promote 1,240 serving Heads of Department (HODs) with at least two years in the post. This second group deserves priority because they are taking on additional responsibility besides their teaching load, and we have experienced difficulty in attracting teachers to become HODs. We are looking into this problem. One way is to give them priority in promotion. Besides these, a total of 822 classroom teachers were promoted. These are teachers with at least five years of service and consistently good performance. They were recommended by their school principals based on their ranking of the teachers in the school by performance.

Of the 2,456 officers promoted, 60% or 1,462 are non-graduates. This corresponds roughly to the 63% of the total population of Education Officers who are non-graduates. Thus, both graduates and non-graduates have a similar chance of being promoted. The prospects of career advancement are also similar for those teachers who are able and willing to serve in leadership positions.

Besides the improved promotion prospects for classroom teachers, my Ministry also needs to attract and retain outstanding officers who are able and willing to take up leadership positions. Such officers, both scholars and non-scholars, need to be identified early and given challenging assignments with appropriate rewards so that they will grow rapidly to assume leadership positions in schools and at MOE headquarters. Faster promotion time-norms will be implemented for good officers.

I wish now to touch briefly on some of the concerns which Mr Peh has mentioned as reasons for the low morale of the teachers who spoke to him. First, a point of clarification. He mentioned that last year 400 teachers who had less than three years of service resigned. This is, I am afraid, not correct. Last year, in fact, 576 teachers resigned for various personal and other reasons, not just work pressure alone. Of these teachers, 95 (and not 400) had less than three years of service.

The situation in the Ministry of Education is that the manning position is fairly stable. If you look at 576, it is a big number. But if you divide it by 22,000 teachers, it is only about 3%. I think we are lucky because we still have a very big group of dedicated teachers who have committed their whole life to teaching and these are people who are on the pension scheme. Unfortunately, we are now on the CPF scheme and as more of them come in on the CPF scheme, I think it will be harder to retain them. We will have to look into how we can keep these new teachers who are on the CPF scheme. More and more of the teachers who resigned are those on the CPF scheme.

Back to Mr Peh Chin Hua's point. Firstly, regarding the retention of pupils, this was discussed last year when he raised it. My Ministry has found it more effective to channel pupils into different streams so that they could be taught and could progress at the rate according to their ability. In the past, weak pupils could not cope even if they were retained in classes which catered to average pupils.

Secondly, concerning school discipline, I wish to assure all teachers that MOE is fully behind them if they have to enforce discipline according to the school regulations. However, it is better that corporal punishment be vested only in the principal, the vice-principal or designated teachers and carried out after due processes and not in anger. This is to protect both teachers and pupils.

As for administrative and ECA duties, some of these responsibilities go with the job of teaching. Wherever possible, MOE has computerised and automated the various administrative tasks to compensate for our perennial shortage of clerical workers which affects not only the schools and the Ministry, but I think the whole of Singapore. Nevertheless, the Ministry is trying harder to recruit more supporting staff and has given funds to schools to enable them to try and hire part-time staff on their own. Unfortunately, so far, they have not been very successful.

Next, I wish to turn to the important issue of how to teach and develop creativity in our schools and in the education system. This has given rise to some commentaries and reports in the papers recently and I wish to thank the two Members for raising this issue.

I agree with hon. Members that it is important to teach young Singaporeans to think critically and creatively and to learn independently so that they are better equipped to face the challenges of the future. The questions are: how to do it and what can we realistically expect to achieve. I have asked my officers to look further into this issue.

Our education system has kept to the fundamentals and is highly structured, with a clear syllabus, continual assessment and examinations to make sure our pupils learn. Pupils are channelled into different streams according to ability and taught appropriate subjects at the pace they can cope with. Our bilingual policy requires pupils to learn their mother tongue and be proficient in English so that they can master the other subjects.

In contrast, some Western countries have for years been taken up with the concept that children should be left to discover things for themselves, to be creative. There are no set curricula, no examinations and little homework. The end result is that many adults are barely able to read and write.

Our education system has done well as measured by examination results which have improved remarkably over the years. This applies to the broad mass of pupils and not just the top ones. The rising level of education has enabled our economy to grow strongly over the past 30 years. The steady improvement in examination performance has, however, given rise to doubts that our pupils have become too examination-oriented with little time and inclination for independent learning.

It has also been observed that some NUS students have difficulty expressing themselves clearly or coping with the thinking skills of a university education. We must of course bear in mind that the percentage of students enrolled in our two universities has doubled over the past decade and the bright students tend to be attracted to popular courses like medicine, law and business administration. The language ability of our students varies but the important thing is that they should be able to express themselves with sufficient clarity to communicate effectively in their chosen fields.

Our education system has developed in response to pressure from our society which has tended to focus on examination results. In this information age when a vast amount of knowledge can be accessed by the touch of a button, it is important to teach students how to find and process information rather than merely acquiring a vast amount of knowledge.

Since 1987, schools have been offered the CORT, which stands for Cognitive Research Trust, Thinking programme developed by Edward de Bono. The programme teaches critical and creative thinking to lower secondary pupils. In the module on creativity, pupils are taught to generate ideas and to break out of established patterns of thinking and to look at things in a different way. Using the processes advocated, pupils learn to generate creative and practical solutions to problems. At present, 103 secondary schools have adopted this programme.

As an extension of the current thinking programme, my Ministry is working on a programme to incorporate core thinking skills into the learning of subjects and to make thinking more pervasive in the curriculum. However, it takes time for pupils to acquire these skills and be able to integrate thinking into the learning process.

A fundamental question is whether creativity can be taught or is largely inborn. Not everyone can learn to be an artist, although most pupils can learn to draw simple objects. Higher order thinking skills may be beyond the reach of a large number of pupils.

In this connection, I would like to inform Members that my Ministry will be expanding the Gifted Education Programme which caters to our brightest pupils. The plan is progressively to double the intake from about 0.5% of each cohort to about 1% by 1998. The intake at Primary Four will increase from 200 to 400 pupils and that at Secondary One, from 50 to 100 pupils per year.

To conclude, I would like to say that I agree in general with the sentiments of the Members that this is an area which deserves careful study to make sure that we do not lose out in terms of our flexibility and ability to think and learn independently. But we must be realistic about the possibilities. I think it is not everybody who can do this. But if we can improve on the speaking skills, thinking skills, then I think we should do our utmost to try and achieve it. As quoted just now, there is some movement in Japan which is doing the same thing. The difference between the Western system and our system is that ours is more Asian and tends to be more structured and rigid, and it makes sure that large numbers of pupils learn a set amount of knowledge. In the West, they tend to be more free. So you get a wide variation in the standards of achievement. But at the same time, they tend to be more creative, I believe. So the question is how to strike a medium between the two. But I am afraid some parents may object because if we start doing this, then the questions may in fact become harder for the children, and not easier. 2.00 pm

Next, I would like to take up the question on the ranking of schools since I have answered this question recently from Mr Low Thia Khiang. I think the sentiments expressed are not dissimilar. The general thrust of Mr Peh Chin Hua and Dr Ow Chin Hock is that they are in support of the ranking of schools. There are certain advantages. It provides information about these good schools and it adds a certain amount of competition and in our context we cannot avoid competition. The main point is to avoid over-competition, to make sure that we do not over-emphasise the academic aspects at the expense of the other areas which are necessary for the total development of the pupil.

If Mr Peh Chin Hua is aware of any school where the teachers tend to set difficult questions so as to get rid of the weaker pupils, he should let me know. I would be very surprised if there are schools like this. I believe all our schools are doing their best to try and teach their pupils. The question on the Normal Stream is a separate one which will be taken up separately. But in general terms, as a result of ranking, of course schools are competing harder. But I do not think they go out of their way to get rid of their weak pupils, and they should not do this. If any school is doing that, I would like to look into it. Let me have the information.

Also, I do not think it is really true that the principals will pressurise their teachers so much that if they do not produce results, they would be got rid of. I am not sure this is in practice. But again, if there are instances, please let me know.

The Ministry is giving attention to all the schools, and not only to the top schools. In fact, as I have explained before, very often it is the weaker pupils who require more attention and the job of teachers in the neighbourhood schools is, in some respects, more difficult than the job of teachers in the top schools. Of course, the challenges are different. Teachers who might do very well in a top school where there is a lot of intellectual stimulation and interaction may not do equally well in a school where you need a lot of patience and understanding of the pupils. So we do post the principals and teachers around but we must make sure that we fit the right teachers into the right schools, and not do it just for the sake of doing it.

Dr Ow Chin Hock has proposed various refinements to the ranking system. As I said before, I am open to ideas. If there are ways we can improve on it, I would like to do it. But we should give it some time and see how it goes before we make any further changes. For example, how do we rank ECA? Of course, we may have a subjective basis but then it is open to question. And the public somehow still tends to focus on examination results. If you are complaining that in fact there is already too much competition and you add in further elements of ECA, and so on, would that not further compound the problem? So we would like to study this further. As I said, if Members have good ideas on how we can refine the system, I would welcome them.

Next, I wish to turn to the question of the setting of the Singapore-Cambridge GCE examinations which arose last year because of the loss of some scripts. The Ministry has studied this question carefully and come to the conclusion that it is better to stay with the present system for various reasons. One, the examination is very well recognised internationally. Two, the quality has been consistently very good and Cambridge has built up a good pool of teachers, assessors and examiners who can set very good and original questions. And this arrangement is also good from the point of view of security, despite this one incident of loss of some scripts, and also from the point of view of lack of bias. Because Singapore is a very small country, it is important that we have a good system that is fair. From the point of view of cost, there will be no cost saving even if we do it ourselves because I think our examiners will have to be paid and the rates will not be different from what the UK teachers are being paid. So, overall, there will be no saving.

Having said that, I would like to assure Members that, of course, we want to build up expertise within the Ministry in this important area. So the Ministry will be progressively more involved with Cambridge to see how we can develop some expertise in this area. But, on balance, we feel that it is better for us to stay with the present system.

Next, there are various questions about the universities. Firstly, the Open University programme. Mr Sinnakaruppan has asked about the recent introduction of the Bachelor of Technology programme at NUS and what this means for the Open University programme. Just some background on this programme. This idea came out from the National Science and Technology Board and the NUS. They feel that it is good if we can have a programme on a part-time basis to enable engineers who are working on the shop floor to upgrade themselves without having to leave their jobs to go overseas, for example. These are people who could make very good R&D people, if you give them the additional knowledge. They could also become good shop floor engineers. So the idea came to me and I thought it was good. We should start, and they are ready to start, very soon from 1st July or early July this year. It makes use of the lecturers from the university. It also makes use of the workshop and laboratory facilities in the university. So we can start off very quickly and I expect the first batch will be about 100 students.

This does not mean that the Open University programme is now out of the question. I think that is still possible. But in the case of the Open University of UK, I believe they are more experienced in the area of non-technical subjects, ie, more in the area of English Language, Mathematics, Humanities, where there is no need for much hardware. So if you want to do it with the Open University, it may be possible but we have to develop further courseware and also we have to find out how to get the facilities to teach these pupils. So for the Open University, it may take some time. But I think it is not ruled out.

As far as the Open University is concerned, our thinking is still the same and, that is, we want to use the Open University as a venue for those who have missed on the educational opportunities to come back and upgrade themselves on a part-time basis.

As for the support for the Open University, I have made it clear in previous years that the Government's policy is to support the University on a front-end basis with a block grant of about $38 million. They have come back since to ask for more money because the costs of building, and so on, have gone up and we are looking into it. But the main thing is that it would be a front-end support. The cost of running the programme is basically recovered from the students and it comes to about $4,000 per year which I think is affordable by most working adults. So there is no question of whether this grant is going to run out by 1998 or not. If they come out later with programmes that the Government supports, then we may provide more funding front-end, for example, for development of the courseware. But as of now, we have provided money to help them put up a new facility next to Ngee Ann Polytechnic. We have provided the land and this money will also be used to finance the computer facilities, the library, and so on. Hopefully, through this kind of support, we will be able to build up a good institution.

Mr Sinnakaruppan also asked about the quality audit of the R&D programmes in universities. I share with him the same concern that there should be proper checks and balances and control to make sure that the money is well spent. As Members are aware, the Government has provided a sum of $100 million to be used for academic R&D. This is not so much the applied side, and not so related to the immediate use. For those with more immediate possibilities, the funding will be through the NSTB. So, basically, there are these two streams of money coming, partly from the academic research fund and partly from the NSTB.

For the academic research fund, there is a committee chaired by PS (Education) and comprising members from the Ministry of Finance, NSTB, NUS and NTU to manage and administer the fund. So they are learning how to have proper checks and controls on the use of the fund. And one of the basic concepts is that the research workers will have to justify their needs for the fund, that their research work is worthwhile, that they can do it and that it is worth doing. So they have to compete for money from this fund. One of the problems is that if you have too much money, then it could be mis-spent. So we have to keep our controls quite tight and limit the amount that we spend on R&D. So far the Auditor-General's office has had a look and they are quite happy with the situation. So we will see how it goes from here.

Mr Koo Tsai Kee came up with this interesting idea of how to rank our universities. I think it is something that is worth exploring and if there is information on how it can be done, I would like to discuss with him. As a matter of interest, it was brought to my attention recently that in the 1994 issue of the Journal of Systems and Software, which is a New York publication, NUS has been rated the fifth top university worldwide and the top non-US academic institution in terms of publications in the field of systems and software engineering. So I think it goes to show that our universities are getting somewhere. And with the huge amount of resources we are pumping into the universities, I think we should be able to build up the universities into world-class universities.

Some years back, we had Lord Dainton from Shelfield University who came to do a study for us and it was he who recommended that we should have two competing universities, NUS and NTU. His own assessment was that our universities were comparable to the redbrick universities in UK, for example, Manchester and Shelfield. So when our students look overseas for education, they may want to bear in mind that our universities are actually very good and it is much less costly for them to study here than overseas. Of course, if they want the overseas exposure, then they have to go there. But do not always assume that foreign universities are better.

Mr Sinnakaruppan asked about the international school in Hong Kong. I would like to inform him that the school has been doing well since it was established some years back. It was opened in September 1991 and currently the enrolment is about 620 pupils, of whom more than 70% are citizens of Singapore, or PRs of Singapore. They are still operating from temporary premises but will be moving soon to new facilities which are being built. So far, this school is concentrating only on the primary section. The thinking of the Ministry is that when the children are older, it may be better for them to stay in Singapore in boarding schools or hostels, so that they are more involved in the local situation and better able to look after themselves even whilst their parents are working overseas. So for the Hong Kong International School, the thinking is confined to the primary section, at least for the time being.

As for schools in other areas, my position is that we are very short of teachers. So our first responsibility is really to make sure that our system here is functioning properly. Of course, at the same time, we need to support those Singaporeans who are venturing overseas. But the numbers going abroad at the moment are still small and they are scattered all over the place. Even China is a very big country and you have some in Beijing, some in Shandong, some in Suzhou, and so on. The Ministry will get involved when there is a critical mass of students so that we can put up a proper school where there are enough classes for the different levels and it means committing a lot of manpower and other resources. So for the time being, I hope these people will understand that when they go overseas perhaps the practical solution is to enrol their children in some of the international schools. When their children come back, there is no problem for us to fit them back into the school system. We may have to assess at that point in time what is their level of competence and put them in at the appropriate level. If they are going to China, for example, the Chinese language is no worry for them. In fact, the immersion will be very good for them. But they may be concerned whether the children will be able to still follow the Singapore curriculum. 2.15 pm

There are some private enterprises which have expressed interest in putting up commercial schools overseas, catering not only to Singaporeans but also to the international community. And if they are interested in the Singapore curriculum, they can approach either the Ministry or the Singapore Teachers Union which has an interest in this area. The STU is prepared to get them in touch with retired school principals and help them with the curriculum and so on. So there are these other possibilities at present.

Dr Kanwaljit Soin talked about the SAP schools and asked whether they are still relevant today, especially in view of the fact that they tend to be predominantly of one race. You have to go back a bit and understand the history of it. These schools were set up at a time when more and more parents were going into English education. So the Government decided that it was important that we preserve some of these good schools, the ethos, the discipline, the Chinese environment, the high level of Chinese. There is extensive use of Chinese in these schools. For example, the school song, the way they go about the education system and so on. So it may be a bit too simple to think that it is just a matter of values. Values are common, but the "Chineseness" of these schools cannot be reproduced easily. I think it will be a great loss to Singapore if we were to close down these schools just to avoid the racial segregation.

The issue of racial mixing has been discussed before in the House and I do not want to go into it in great detail. But the point is that we live in a multi-racial society and most of our children come from HDB flats. There are, in fact, many opportunities for them to meet and interact. Perhaps what we can do is to provide more opportunities for the SAP school students to interact with the other schools and try and compensate for this factor. But I do not think we should do away with SAP schools for the reasons which she advocated.

Sir, I will leave it to my colleagues to answer the other points.

The Minister of State for Education (Dr Aline K. Wong): Sir, I would like to take the questions on Edusave first. Mr Peh Chin Hua, Mr Chew Heng Ching, Mr Sinnakaruppan and Dr Kanwaljit Soin have spoken on the topic. And questions have been raised as to how the funds have been used, how many people have benefited, and whether the money has been put to good use. So I will take this group of queries first.

There are three schemes to the Edusave Fund. First, there is the grant to Government and aided secondary schools. Second is the scholarships scheme to top pupils in independent schools and in Government and aided secondary schools. Third, the pupils' Edusave accounts.

Edusave grants to Government and Government-aided secondary schools are given to the schools to enable them to buy services and resources and to introduce programmes that would enhance the quality of teaching and learning. The amount of the grant is pegged at $90 per pupil. Roughly, each school will get up to an average of $100,000.

In 1993, the total amount which had been allocated to the schools was $12.4 million but, in fact, only $6.8 million was used, giving a utilisation rate of 55%. In the second year of implementation, 1994, the utilisation rate has improved quite a great deal. The amount allocated was $14.5 million. The total amount used or expended was $11.5 million. The take-up rate or utilisation rate was thus 80%. The schools have been making quite good use of these Edusave grants.

As for the Edusave scholarships, as I said, there are two types. One is for independent schools. The other is for Government and Government-aided schools. Edusave scholarships for independent schools fall into two categories: one is the 4-year scholarships which are awarded to the top 25% of Secondary One students in the independent schools based on the PSLE results. The other is the yearly awards for pupils in the top 5% based on the school examination results each year, and these pupils are not on the 4-year scholarship scheme.

In 1993, a total of 705 students have benefited from these scholarships in independent schools. In 1994, the numbers have gone up because the 4-year scholarships are cumulative. The total number has gone up to 913.

As for Edusave scholarships in Government and Government-aided schools, these are given to the top 10% of the pupils based on school examination results. In 1993, a total of 3,347 students in Government and Government-aided schools received these scholarships. In 1994, the number has increased to 8,485. So you can see a large number of students have benefited from these scholarships.

Scholarships for independent schools and scholarships for Government and Government-aided schools together took up a total amount of $2.48 million in 1993 and $6.1 million in 1994.

Finally, there is the Edusave Pupils' Fund. These are contributions by the Government to each pupil's Edusave account. In 1993, each pupil received $50; in 1994, $100; 1995, $110. Because this is for every student in the mainstream schools, the number of pupils who benefited is very huge. In 1993, a total of 349,000 students received contributions in their Edusave accounts. In 1994, 358,000 students received contributions. The total amount given out in 1993 was $17.5 million. In 1994, it was $35.9 million.

Thus, the income from the Edusave Endowment Fund has benefited both schools and students alike.

We are conscious of the fact that we need to exercise tight control over the way the schools spend the grants and students use their Edusave money. Mr Peh Chin Hua mentioned that because the Edusave scheme is relatively new, parents and the public do not fully understand its purpose and usage. I think he has a point there. I think we need to do more to inform the public on what the Edusave fund is for, as well as to dispel some of the misunderstandings that they may have already got.

One such misunderstanding is that Edusave may be used as donations towards school building or extension funds. In fact, this is not the case. MOE has instructed the schools that the Edusave Pupils' Fund cannot be used for the building of school facilities. But if the students voluntarily, and with the consent of their parents, want to donate the fund to the school, it is only for the purpose of the Edusave scheme itself, which is for enrichment activities. I do not think many students have done that. There are some misconceptions about the use of Edusave funds and I think we need to do a bit more publicity work.

I do not entirely understand the point made by Mr Peh that we should allow the constituency bursary and scholarship funds to run in parallel with Edusave scholarships. I think they run in parallel anyway. If he is suggesting that perhaps to publicise the Edusave scheme, we could have, say, a concomitant giving-out ceremony in the constituencies, it can be considered. But there may be some practical problems, because some students who receive Edusave scholarships may not go to a school in the constituency which gives him a bursary, and so on. I think there are practical problems here.

Mr Chew Heng Ching also asked if the Edusave fund can be used for activities which could help to reduce school fees in autonomous and independent schools, because he is of the opinion that these school fees are rather high. I must emphasise that the underlying philosophy of Edusave is that parents should pay for some part of the expenses for basic education of their children. So every parent is required to pay the school fees as well as the miscellaneous fees. Edusave funds can only be used for the second tier miscellaneous fees and for the autonomous schools' additional miscellaneous fees that they can charge if they need to.

The school fees and miscellaneous fees are quite small, even for autonomous schools. For secondary schools, it is $5 for school fees and $7 for miscellaneous fees. The second tier miscellaneous fee is only $2.10 maximum. The autonomous schools charge an additional miscellaneous fee of $3. Over and above this, they can levy a discretionary amount up to $15, but no autonomous school is charging that. Edusave is allowed to pay for the second-tier and additional miscellaneous fees in autonomous schools.

As for independent schools, the same principle applies. In fact, the Edusave scholarships in independent schools help pupils pay for the independent school fees over and above what other pupils would be paying for the standard school and miscellaneous fees.

If students have difficulty in paying for school fees in the independent schools and they are not on the scholarship scheme, the financial assistance schemes are still operational in independent schools. They can apply for these financial assistance schemes. There should be no problem to their applications if they meet certain income criteria.

Mr Sinnakaruppan commented that there is actually a rather low withdrawal rate for the Edusave Pupils' Fund. This is true. But the percentages of 3.5% for primary schools and 16.9% for secondary schools he quoted actually refer to the amount of money withdrawn. The participation rate by accounts is much higher. We have seen an increase in the participation rate.

He asked whether the Minister could consider extending the use of the Edusave Pupils' Fund to, say, activities carried out by self-help groups. Again, the original purpose of the Edusave account is for enrichment programmes organised by the schools. They are meant for the programmes which are school-based.

I understand that many of the self-help groups are running mainly tuition classes at the present. They may have some plans to offer enrichment programmes to the students. These students can already participate in the enrichment programmes run by their own schools by using the Edusave Pupils' Fund. There is nothing to prevent them from joining those school-based activities. I do not know whether Mr Sinnakaruppan is thinking of having these self-help groups organise school holiday camps, museum visits and so forth. What kind of enrichment programmes is he thinking of? Edusave is for school-based enrichment programmes. However, we are not entirely closed to the idea. I think we can discuss this further, but there may be practical difficulties in implementation, administration and so forth. I think this can be considered and we are not entirely closed to the idea. 2.30 pm

Dr Kanwaljit Soin raised two questions on Edusave for the fourth child as well as for disabled children. She had raised these questions last year. The position of the Ministry is still the same at this point. We are not giving Edusave to the fourth child because we have this population policy to discourage parents who cannot afford to have more than three children not to have a fourth. We must adhere to the objective of our national population policy. Therefore, Edusave is not extended to the fourth child. As for disabled children, again she knew from last year's debate that the Ministry's stand is that disabled children already enjoy four times the per capita grant as compared to primary school children in the ordinary schools. In that sense, they are given very special treatment already.

Let me move on to Dr Ow Chin Hock's question on moral education. Yes, it is an old and long story. But occasionally it is salutary for us to remember the rationale for our policy. Moral education has been introduced in our schools in one way or another way back since 1959. Dr Ow mentioned the Report on Moral Education under the chairmanship of Mr Ong Teng Cheong and some developments since then. Yes, we adopted the recommendations of that Report as seen in the textbook series on "Good Citizens" and "Being and Becoming". These two series were replaced somewhat later because we introduced Religious Knowledge in the schools. Then Religious Knowledge was reviewed and replaced by a new syllabus on Civics and Moral Education. Beginning in 1992, the new Civics and Moral Education has been introduced in secondary schools and the whole programme would be completely phased in by 1996. As for the primary schools, the "Good Citizens" series have been revised and already fully implemented two years ago.

In this new syllabus on Civics and Moral Education, we have included all the basic tenets that were recommended by the Ong Teng Cheong Report and more. We have moved beyond that to include the five national core values as well as the more recent prominence given to family values. I like to say that the curriculum has been very carefully designed and based on very sound pedagogical principles. I agree completely with Dr Ow that the teaching of Civics and Moral Education should not just be based on book knowledge. It should come from the teachers acting as role models. It should also be reinforced in extra-curricular activities, group activities and community service projects, and so on. We are implementing that with every intention to teach our children, each and every one of them, to become a good citizen with upright character and of use to the society.

Let me come to sex education. I would like to thank Mr Peh and Dr Soin for supporting the teaching of sex education in schools. For a long, long time the Ministry of Education has been very cautious about teaching this subject. As Members know, our population is a rather conservative one. But in the face of rapidly changing social values and exposure to all kinds of external influences, we cannot but incorporate sex education as part of our school curriculum. But sex education is not taught as a subject on its own, as Dr Soin has rightly pointed out.

The approach we have adopted in the teaching of sex education is cross-curricular where aspects of sex education are covered in several relevant subjects. I would not say that they are irrelevant. They are relevant. They may seem disconnected but they are actually not, if you know about the contents and the way we teach sex education in progression. The relevant subjects include health education in the primary schools and science, home economics and civics and moral education in the secondary schools. Both factual and social aspects are covered in these subjects.

At the upper primary level, through health education, pupils are taught to prepare for puberty and early adolescence. The content provides pupils with knowledge of the physical changes and aims to help them cope with the physical and emotional changes arising from adolescence. At the lower secondary level, sex education is given greater breadth of treatment through the topic "sexual reproduction in human beings" in the science syllabus. Home economics also teaches about the developing stages into womanhood and manhood, and personal hygiene, including menstruation and so on. In science and home economics, the teachers are to convey the moral attitudes and responsibilities related to sex and to emphasise responsible sexual behaviour. So it is not taught out of the social or moral context.

Of course, in civics and moral education, responsible behaviour and moral values are the main focus of this separate subject. The topic on "boy-girl relationship" is included in the formal curriculum of civics and moral education. This includes themes on coming to terms with one's own sexuality, developing healthy relationships with members of the opposite sex and taking and accepting responsibility for one's actions as well as responsibility in marriage and parenthood.

Apart from this cross-curricular approach, there are ECA activities which reinforce self-discipline, moral fortitude, responsibility, and so on.

I think it is a matter of opinion whether sex education should be taught as a separate subject or whether it could be taught in a cross-curricular manner. Occasionally, these topics are brought together when Ministry of Health officials visit schools and give talks on sex education. But these are necessarily of short duration and are rather focused lectures. We have actually included all the topics that she thinks we should include in the broad definition of sex education.

Finally, let me come to Encik Imram's question on what the schools are doing for the below average students. As Encik Imram pointed out, many of the children who perform below average in schools come from low income families or broken homes, and if we do not help them at an early age, they stand at risk of failing in school with social consequences for themselves and the community. We have instituted special programmes for children with learning difficulties. Generally speaking, there are two broad groups of students for whom we have devised specialised programmes. One is the group that he talked about, ie, the students who are slow learners. They are the below average students. The other group is students who have average and above average ability but they are not performing up to the potential. So we have specialised programmes for these two groups of students.

For the below average students, to-date, there are already 80 primary schools which have a specialised programme to cater to them. But right now, we are running a pilot project in 20 schools where we want to streamline the two specialised programmes that I have just talked about, ie, catering to the two different groups of students, trying to pool resources, streamline procedures and so on, in order to improve further these programmes that we provide for them. So depending on the results of this pilot study this year, we would consider extending the specialised programme for below average students to more primary schools in future.

In the programme for the below average pupils, the thrust is on the early identification and remediation of the bottom 20-30% of primary one children who are considered to be at risk of failing in school. The Ministry has given additional resources to teach these students. In fact, each school has a learning support coordinator who would administer a screening test to see what kind of specialised help they need. The selected children would be withdrawn from the classes to be taught in small groups, during curriculum time but in withdrawn classes. The progress is closely monitored by the learning support coordinator, the classroom teacher as well as by our educational psychologists. Once the children can perform up to standard, they are transferred back to study in the main class with their peers. We also run workshops for parents to provide home support and teach parents how to supervise and help the children with the school work. The remediation programme is given mainly to primary one children but in some places, where there is a need, we also give it up to primary three level. As I said, depending on the results of the current pilot project, we may extend this programme to even more schools in future.

Since the Ministry runs the special programmes at no extra cost to the pupils, as we give the additional teachers, the question of using Edusave fund for such purpose does not arise.

The Minister of State for Education (Encik Sidek bin Saniff): Sir, let me first thank Members for their observations and concerns regarding the state of discipline in our schools. We share their concerns. We know that discipline is the most important aspect of education. Without discipline there is no school, no society, no nation.

Mr Koo Tsai Kee asked about the level of discipline in our schools. Let me assure this august Chamber that the level of discipline in our schools is good. The vast majority of our pupils are well-disciplined and appreciative of the educational opportunities available to them. Most of the discipline cases dealt with by our schools are minor infringements of school rules. The most serious discipline problems which surfaced are committed by a handful of recalcitrant pupils, but dealing with them can be time-consuming. A number of measures, of which caning is one, are used when serious offences are committed. The number of serious offences meriting caning is relatively low. The incidence of caning is likewise relatively low. The schools also work closely with the police and probation officers to help pupils correct their behaviour in order to fit better into society.

Sir, during curriculum time, the emphasis is on the formal curriculum and pupils apply themselves diligently to the task of learning. Outside curriculum time, pupils play games and take part in activities which interest them as part of their ECA. This, however, does not mean that there is a clear demarcation line between work and play. Lessons which are well conducted are interesting and enjoyable and pupils can have fun while learning. Similarly, if ECAs are to achieve their intended purpose, pupils learn while they play. Skills are acquired, for example, on how to conduct meetings or to excel in a game, and lessons are learned, for example, about team work and commitment to a goal. It is thus difficult to apportion specifically a length of time for work and play in the school. 2.45 pm

Sir, regarding the question by Mr Koo Tsai Kee to rank schools according to discipline, let us go one step at a time. We will discuss whether we need to have such measures later on.

Sir, Mr Choo Wee Khiang asked a very specific question about an incident in one school - St. Hilda's Secondary School. At about 1.30 pm on 28th February 1995, a Secondary Three pupil of St. Hilda's Secondary School assaulted the discipline master of the school. The teacher had told him not to loiter in the school canteen, but to go home as his school day was over. The teacher had also checked the boy's hair cut and uniform and told him to get a proper hair cut and school trousers. The boy turned violent, hit the discipline master repeatedly and kicked another teacher. He had to be restrained by two teachers with the help of a third who held down his arm. The assistance of a police officer was necessary to subdue the boy. The boy has a poor discipline record. He was frequently absent from school, inattentive in class, hot-tempered and abusive and rude to his teachers. He had hit a teacher in his former school last year and was transferred to St. Hilda's Secondary School in January this year to give him an opportunity to improve on his behaviour in a new environment. However, one month after his transfer to this present school, he hit a school mate.

Although a decision had been taken to cane him over this incident, corporal punishment was not carried out as he was on medical leave for a period after the incident. The pupil was suspended from school immediately after the incident. The school's discipline committee has now met and has decided that he is to be expelled. The Ministry feels that these stern measures are necessary and supports the school in its firm handling of this incident.

Sir, now the observation made by Dr Beng. Dr Beng asked several questions, including ECA, Edusave.

First, let me assure Dr Beng that secondary schools may use the Edusave grants for uniformed group activities such as camping, field trips and educational tours. Pupils themselves may also pay for these activities from their Edusave accounts.

On ECA, in the revised guidelines, computer clubs are included on the list of core ECA.

His last question is regarding the membership of uniformed groups: how has it fared up to now? The membership of uniformed groups has declined, but not substantially. There are still about 30% of secondary school pupils in the uniformed groups and this is close to the target set by MOE for one in three secondary school pupils to be in the uniformed groups. The decline is not unexpected, as with better financial resources schools are able to engage outside instructors and coaches and offer their pupils a wider choice of ECA. Together with this, the uniformed groups are also faced with a shortage of teacher officers. The uniformed groups are addressing the problem by making their activities more challenging and attractive to the pupils.

The Singapore Scouts' Association, for example, has, among other things, improved the facilities in Sarimbun Camp to include a radio station for radio-hams, a climbing wall and pyramid obstacle course. To ease the shortage of manpower, the Singapore Scouts' Association and the Singapore Girls' Guide Association are allowed to have their volunteer adult instructors conduct activities without the presence of a teacher. The Member has been asking this for many years, and we have complied at last.

Sir, the NCC and NPCC are looking into providing more challenging outdoor activities, both locally and overseas, for the participation of cadets. The NCC, for instance, has annually organised expeditions for its cadets to climb Mount Ophir, Mount Kinabalu and the foothills of the Himalayas.

The NPCC, likewise, has been conducting educational tours and adventure training in Indonesia and Malaysia for its cadets.

Dr Beng also asked whether we should send them to Bangkok and experience the traffic jams there. I leave this to the principals and the officers to consider his suggestion.

Sir, Mr Sinnakaruppan, the Member for Kampong Glam GRC, asked about the use of technology in education. Teachers in schools are encouraged to use computer technology to support the learning programmes in schools. Computer-aided learning can be achieved through the use of well-structured courseware that guides and helps pupils through difficult concepts. The courseware must be interactive and must engage pupils in useful learning activities. The degree of integration of computer technology into the school curriculum depends on how closely coupled a particular courseware is to the existing syllabus. And for the curriculum packages developed by CDIS, suitable computer courseware titles are identified and incorporated into the suggested learning strategies.

The Primary Mathematics Series or courseware produced by CDIS, for example, covers some 80% of the primary Mathematics topics from Primary Three to Primary Six. There are 23 titles in this series and are therefore well received by teachers. 75% of our primary schools have procured this software and it is an indication of the extent to which primary schools have incorporated computers into their learning programmes. We can expect this figure to rise further when all primary schools are fully equipped with computers within the next two to three years.

Sir, at the secondary level, CDIS is publishing a series of six CD-ROM titles in Mathematics for the use of Secondary One and Two pupils. The content is closely tied to the current syllabus of all the three courses, whether it is Express, Normal (Academic) or Normal (Technical). The series breaks new grounds in multi-media techniques incorporating animation, sound, and full motion video. All secondary schools are equipped with computers with multi-media capabilities. Current statistics show that about 70%-odd of secondary schools have purchased computer courseware related to the school curriculum.

So whilst schools are also encouraged to use commercially available courseware, CDIS will continue to develop more titles to help schools incorporate even more computer materials into their teaching repertoire.

The implementation of Students' and Teachers' Workbench (or STW) pilot project is an indicator of the Ministry's commitment to maximise the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning in the classrooms. This $5 million project will be tried in six secondary schools next year. Depending on the findings of the pilot project, consideration will be made whether to extend the project to more schools and to additional subjects.

Sir, now I move on to the question posed by Dr Kanwaljit Soin. Dr Soin asked about the policy of information technology in our schools. Several computer-based programmes are being implemented in our schools. Through these programmes, pupils can use the computer for various purposes as a curriculum subject, as mentioned in my answer to Mr Sinnakaruppan just now, as a tool for learning curriculum subject, normally termed Computer-based Learning (CBL), or core curricular activity and computer literacy.

The Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore (CDIS), a division of the Ministry of Education, spearheads the computer education programme in schools. Computer Application (CPA) was first introduced in 1994 as a compulsory and vocational subject for pupils in the secondary Normal (Technical) course. The whole year's programme is aimed at equipping pupils with functional computer literacy skills. The subject is vocational-biased to cater to the needs of the more technically oriented pupils. All secondary schools with Normal (Technical) programme are provided with one or two computer laboratories, each with 42 multi-media micro-computers. Teachers are specially identified and trained to teach the subject. As I said just now, CDIS plays an important part in this area.

Let me go now to the programme in primary schools. At the primary level, the emphasis is on using the computer as a tool rather than as an object of learning. To-date, an average of 12 teachers per primary school has been trained through a 15-hour course to implement the Computer-based Learning (CBL) programme.

Another group of two teachers per school was trained as a CBL coordinator through a 100-hour course to take on wider responsibilities to overseer and manage the CBL programmes in their respective schools. The Ministry of Education provides primary schools with substantial funding to purchase courseware. Primary schools are encouraged to concentrate on Mathematics and English in their CBL programmes. Primary schools purchase their own hardware from community funding sources. Currently, about 70%-odd of the primary schools have CBL programmes and each of these schools has on the average 20 computers available for pupils' use. In the next two or three years, every primary school will get one or two computer rooms equipped with about 40 multi-media computers. 3.00 pm

As for secondary schools, we will encourage them to implement CBL in the curriculum and concentrate their effort in core subjects. The Ministry will provide funding for the purchase of courseware as well as the training of teachers. All secondary schools are provided with at least one computer laboratory of about 40 multi-media computers each. In addition to the standard provision from the Ministry of Education, many secondary schools have also procured additional hardware on their own.

Sir, the development of the courseware will assist CBL in our curriculum. CDIS has published, as I mentioned earlier, 23 titles on Mathematics and as we go on, this will be increased further. Besides that, to make it interesting, we also create computer clubs. Computer clubs are set up in secondary schools to stimulate and develop pupils' interest in computers and their applications. This programme is offered as an extra-curricular activity. Pupils sign up as members of the club and meet once a week for hands-on learning of computer packages. The classes are led by teachers as well as pupil leaders. More than 1,000 teachers have been trained through part-time in-service course to enable them to take charge of the clubs.

Sir, later this year, the Ministry will phase in the teaching of keyboarding skills to Primary 5 pupils. Keyboarding is a basic computer skill which enables pupils to work comfortably and efficiently with the computer.

The other area is the Students' and Teachers' Workbench which I have already mentioned in my answer to Mr Sinnakaruppan. The next point is on the future plan for IT. We introduced IT as early as 1981. Even in the labour movement, NTUC, in order to ensure that they are also keeping pace with the development of IT, has what they term as the IT path. As of now, I was told about 50,000 workers are doing it. What more in preparation of our students? We must be able to foresee the vision of the future.

Sir, the Ministry of Education will continue to provide resources to support computer programmes in school and work towards having every school-leaving student computer literate. That is our assurance. More schools will be encouraged to adopt basic computer learning strategies in the classrooms to increase learning effectiveness. CDIS will also produce more coursewares to meet the needs of the students.

Dr Aline Wong: Sir, I am sorry I forgot to answer one point raised by Mr Sinnakaruppan. Now that we have more money in the Edusave Endowment Fund, we have in fact an additional $1 billion, he asked whether we intend to extend the Edusave grant to primary schools. Yes, the Ministry is planning to extend the Edusave grant to primary schools from next year. The amount has still to be determined. We will see how much income this additional $1 billion would generate before we know how much we can disburse.

Mr Choo Wee Khiang: Sir, allow me to clarify. First of all, it was Mr Peh Chin Hua who mentioned about St Hilda's Secondary School and not me. Second, I would like to air my views about the seriousness of disciplinary problems in schools. The fact that the number of students who are being caned is low does not imply that there is no problem. You cannot quantify. I think we have to qualify the problem. For example, the Straits Times reported on 13th March 1995 that the CID would look into the problem of rising youth crime, of which 2,108 were arrested. I would like to know how many of these 2,108 were students in Singapore.

Third, I would really like the Minister of State to consider setting up a committee to look into suggestions raised by Principal Chen in his article which was published in the Bulletin of the Singapore Chinese Teachers' Union. I think the problem of discipline in schools cannot be understated by mentioning the low numbers. There may be cases where principals and teachers felt that it would not be nice to be reported because of face, because of the ranking of the school, or for other reasons like knowing that the teachers or principals have been beaten up by students and therefore they do not want to cane them. So I think we have to look at it seriously. I wish the Minister of State will give me a positive reply.

Encik Sidek bin Saniff: Sir, in my opening remarks, I mentioned that discipline is an important aspect of education. Without discipline, there is no school, there is no society, there is no nation, and we take it seriously. The fact that I mentioned about the percentage being low is a fact. But it does not mean, as he has rightly said, we take it lightly. Certainly not. I said the vast majority are good students. For instance, in our primary schools, out of 261,000 primary school students, only a fraction is involved in recalcitrant behaviour, that is, only 0.6%, not even 1%. But when they reach secondary level, I was told that in many countries it shoots up to 10-15%, if not more. But in our secondary schools, it is still below 10%, to be exact, only 3.7% pupils are involved.

For instance, in primary schools, the number of playing truant cases jumped up from 14% to 25%. For stealing and shoplifting, which is under the second category where the Police may come into the picture it is 18% while they are young, but 13% when they grow up. For those who do not do their homework, it is 29% in primary schools, but none at all in secondary schools. They must have known the value of education at that point of time. For fighting, and a part of street gangs, it is nil for primary schools, but we are concerned about 13% in the secondary schools. For defiance and use of abusive language, like the one we cited just now, about 14%; smoking, none at all in primary schools, but about 12% in secondary schools.

The Chairman: Order. Mr Sidek, we are running out of time. Would you like to finish off?

Encik Sidek bin Saniff: So these are the concerns of my Ministry and, as I said, discipline is a very important aspect of our education.

Mr Choo Wee Khiang: Sir, I would like to raise my point again very quickly. The Minister of State mentioned that schools without discipline are not schools. I think schools without discipline are bad schools. They are distinctly different from good schools. As I said, 0.6%, or whatever percentage, which he mentioned earlier, is quantitative. I am talking about the qualitative problem of it. I think we really need to look into the long-term implications rather than the short term approach to such a problem in our schools.

Mr Chiam See Tong rose ---

The Chairman: Order. We have run out of time for this amendment.

Mr Low Thia Khiang: Sir, my question on Normal Stream education has not been answered.

The Chairman: We have run out of time. You can ask your question on another occasion. Mr Peh.

Mr Peh Chin Hua: ( In Mandarin): Sir, the Ministry of Education seems to have taken a change towards its stand on discipline. Because of time constraint, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

The Chairman: Order. I propose to take the tea break now.

Thereupon Mr Speaker left the Chair of the Committee and took the Chair of the House.

Mr Speaker: Order. I suspend the Sitting and will take the Chair again at 3.30 pm.

Sitting accordingly suspended at 3.10 pm until 3.30 pm. Sitting resumed at 3.30 pm

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Debate in Committee of Supply resumed.

Head L (cont.) -

Mr Peh Chin Hua: ( In Mandarin): Sir, I beg to move,

That the sum to be allocated for Head L of the Main Estimates be reduced by $10 in respect of Code LA 1500.

The admission requirements of the NUS and NTU are very restrictive and very stringent. As a result, many 'A' level students with reasonably good results are not able to gain admission. Some did well but are not admitted to the courses of their choice. As a result, they have to go overseas for their studies. Because of the high cost involved, some families just simply cannot afford to send their children overseas, especially those from the lower-income groups. I think we should sympathise with them.

As we approach globalisation in economic development, the demand for people with tertiary education will naturally increase year by year. One way the Government can help our young people to obtain tertiary education is to give them low-interest educational loans, so that children from the low-income groups such as taxi drivers, hawkers and ordinary workers can also obtain the loan to go for overseas studies. I think the advantages for this are: (1) it can help solve the problem of shortage of young people with tertiary education as we approach globalisation; (2) we can allow those who benefit from the Government's scheme to return to Singapore to serve the nation; (3) we can help those who intend to venture overseas in the future because having been educated overseas will give them a good headstart.

Sir, for these reasons, I hope the Ministry of Education can consider this suggestion.

Mr Low Thia Khiang: ( In Mandarin): Sir, according to the 1993 Annual Report of the Education Service Commission, the power to engage temporary graduate teachers has been delegated to the Ministry of Education since last year. The Ministry can now engage university graduates as temporary teachers. My questions are: how many of such temporary graduate teachers have been engaged by the Ministry and what type of schools were they posted to? What is the number of temporary graduate teachers in each type of school? What is the mobility of such temporary teachers? What percentage of these temporary teachers are still being engaged for as long as three years? How does the Ministry of Education ascertain that these graduate teachers who have received formal training in the National Institute of Education can effectively teach the students?

Dr Kanwaljit Soin: Sir, non-Tamil Indian languages like Punjabi, Gujerati, Urdu and Hindi are now taken by non-Tamil Indian students in both primary and secondary schools as a mother tongue. However, unfortunately, their status is still uncertain when it comes to counting their marks at each semester and year-end examination. Only grades obtained in the PSLE, 'O', 'N' and 'A' level examinations are taken into account for admission to the next level of studies and into university courses.

I will now, for the sake of illustration, take the case of students taking Punjabi as a mother tongue but the same situation applies to the other non-Tamil Indian students. The practice of not giving weightage to Punjabi has certain consequences:

(1) In some primary schools, the students who take Punjabi are not given a position in class because they are short of one subject compared to their peers who take Malay, Tamil or Chinese as their mother tongue. This causes the Punjabi students to have less self-esteem and feel left out even if they are good in their other subjects.

(2) The next consequence is that in the promotion from Secondary Two to Secondary Three, not taking Punjabi into the counting may affect the child's streaming into either Normal or Express stream.

(3) A third consequence is that at the 'O' level, a student's entry into Junior College for the first three months is determined by the preliminary results. And here again, Punjabi is not counted.

All these examples illustrate that for a student, there is a disadvantage in taking Punjabi or any other non-Tamil Indian languages as a mother tongue.

Also, I would like to say that for Punjabi, this is taught in five tuition centres and there are 1,600 students taking Punjabi. The tuition centres are under the Sikh Advisory Board which is a statutory board. Could the Minister look into this matter, please, and see how it can liaise with the Sikh Advisory Board and other similar bodies, when it pertains to the other languages, and standardise the marks at each level so that they will be taken into consideration for the term and the year-end examinations, and the schools will then take these marks into account? This way, the non-Tamil Indian students will feel that they are being given the same consideration when they are making the sacrifice of taking the mother tongue outside the school.

Assoc. Prof. Low Seow Chay: Sir, I would like to disclose my interest. I work for the university.

Sir, the university tuition fee is set at a certain percentage of the operational cost per student of the university. At this moment, the undergraduate tuition fee ranges from about $4,000 to $5,000, depending on whether the course is laboratory-based or non-laboratory-based course, excluding Medicine and Dentistry. This figure is quite an unaffordable figure for certain students whose parents' income is low, say, below $2,000 per month. So it is difficult for them to afford it without resorting to the borrowing of money by taking up a tuition loan or using the CPF savings of their parents. Since the fee is a percentage of the university's operational cost, therefore, it is important for us to examine the operational cost of the university carefully.

We know that the university's teaching staff are very versatile. Besides teaching the undergraduate courses, they also do many other things, for example, doing research, doing international collaboration, of which some of the objectives are more inclined towards the foreign university objective in research. They do consultation work and the university also sets up many local centres and institutions. These institutions and centres are normally run by the academic staff, either fully or partially, and some of these centres have nothing to do with undergraduate teaching.

Based on the reasons given above, we realise that the actual operational cost of the university is much higher than the net operational cost for conducting undergraduate studies. I hope the Ministry would look into this and apportion a right amount to the operational cost for the running of the undergraduate courses. By doing so, perhaps the tuition fee could be lowered, and I believe it may be fairer for the students because they are the people who have to pay the fees.

I would also like to ask the Minister about the operational costs of the local universities. Are they comparable with the Australian universities or even universities in the United Kingdom? Also, I would like to ask whether the Government has set any cap on the cost of operation of the universities.

Mr Cheo Chai Chen (Nee Soon Central): ( In Mandarin): Sir, more and more parents are sending their children to kindergartens for pre-school education. This has become a trend. I suggest we regularise pre-school education and make it part of formal education in our education system.

There are many advantages in pre-school education. From young, the children can be taught good habits in life and good personal conduct like how to keep personal hygiene, not to litter, etc. The children can learn to lead a community life from an early age to prepare them for their future admission to primary schools, so that they will know how to adjust to school life and know how to get along with others. The other advantage is that we can inspire the wisdom of the children at an early age and inculcate in them the correct values.

I suggest that pre-school education classes should be conducted by the Government, because the Government can provide subsidies and the people's burden can be lightened. At present, private kindergartens which are receiving Government grant charge about $75 per month. The fees at private kindergartens without Government grant can be as high as $300 a month.

If pre-school education classes are run by the Government, then they will provide employment opportunities for retired teachers, so that our limited human resources can be better utilised.

The other aspect is that if pre-school education or kindergarten classes are conducted by the Government since it has sufficient resources - more than the private resources - and the Government has the information on the population distribution, they can better adjust the number of places to be offered to the young children in the various towns and housing estates. The private sector does not have this advantage.

Another point is that some private kindergartens are run by a political party. There is a possibility that the kindergartens may be used by the political party as a political tool.

For example, in my constituency, if your children want to join a kindergarten class run by a certain political party, you have to approach the Member of Parliament or the advisor of a grassroots organisation for his signature. This is a very funny arrangement. If there is a place in the kindergarten, you should allow the child to join the class. Why must the parents be required to get the signature of the Member of Parliament or the advisor of a grassroots organisation? This is a major disadvantage.

According to a notice by the Ministry of Education in February 1992, the Government said that if kindergarten classes were to be run by the Government, then the Government's expenditure on education will be increased by 10%. Now, if we look at the educational expenditure for this year, it is approximately $3.7 billion. If we were to increase it by 10%, the additional amount is just $370 million. Take our budget surplus for this year at $5 billion, we have more than enough to pay for the small additional expenditure.

As a matter of fact, the Government can also take other measures to reduce the expenditure. For example, the Government does not have to build new schools to run these preparatory classes. The Government can run the classes in the void decks of HDB flats, like what is being done by some private kindergartens today, and a lot of costs can be saved. It will also be convenient for the parents to send their children to the classes.

Another point is that the Government can reduce its subsidy on private kindergartens, because if the Government were to run the classes, it will not be necessary for the Government to subsidise these private kindergartens. The Government can also collect nominal fees from the parents and therefore further reduce the expenditure.

If you take a look at the present situation, the cost of attending kindergarten classes is higher than that incurred for children going to primary and secondary schools. This is illogical!

As such, I hope that the Ministry of Education will consider regularising the pre-school education classes, and make them part of our formal education system. At present, this is being done in Germany and the United Kingdom. 3.45 pm

Mr Peh Chin Hua: ( In Mandarin): I wish to clarify what Mr Cheo has said. First, the PAP Community Fund is not receiving any grant from the Government. Mr Cheo mentioned about the fees of $75 to $300. This is inaccurate because we only collect $20 per month.

Mr Low Thia Khiang: ( In Mandarin): I want to clarify with Mr Peh. What post is Mr Peh holding in the PAP Community Fund?

Mr Peh Chin Hua: ( In Mandarin): The Community Fund is a trust fund. It is not a political fund.

Mr Cheo Chai Chen: ( In Mandarin): Mr Peh said that the amount of $75 is not correct. But this was the feedback I received from a member of my staff. That was what she paid. I do not know whether it is the PAP kindergarten or not. I am not sure. According to my information, it is $75 per month. There is also an advertisement in the newspapers on a kindergarten class which is charging $300 a month.

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Sir, Mr Peh Chin Hua has asked whether the Government would consider extending low interest educational loans for children of low income families to attend foreign universities. Whilst I sympathise with the aspirations and needs of these people, I am not in favour of this proposal for the following reasons:

I think it is important that students and their parents should live within their means and not over-commit themselves to high expenditure on a foreign degree. Some of these oversea degrees are of doubtful value. The range of qualities is in fact very wide. For example, in the United Kingdom a few years ago, all the polytechnics were converted to universities. In fact, in the UK, about half the universities were actually former polytechnics. So our students have to be very careful, when they are considering going overseas for further education, whether it is a worthwhile investment on their part.

I would suggest that those students who are unable to make it to NUS or NTU should consider enrolling in our polytechnics instead. The polytechnics are very well established. They provide good courses, they are well equipped, they have good teachers and they provide a very useful three-year training programme to equip the students with job-related education and training so that the diploma that they can get from the polytechnics is of good market value and provide a good basis for them to build their professions. After some years of working experience, they can consider enrolling perhaps in the Open University or in the NUS' part-time Bachelor of Technology programme or proceed to other avenues for higher education.

I believe banks have been quite liberal in lending to this area, but the MAS has been cautioning them and has provided the banks some guidelines. So it is important that parents and students realise the importance of spending their money wisely and keep within their own limits.

Over the last 10 years from 1984 to 1994, the number of university places in the NUS and NTU has doubled from 13,000 to 26,000 and the polytechnic places have more than doubled from 14,000 to 34,000. With the completion of the two new polytechnics, the capacity in the four polytechnics will reach 48,000. Our targets for higher education are that 20% of each cohort of students should attain tertiary education and another 40% polytechnic education, making a total of 60%. I believe this is one of the highest post-secondary rates in the world, even compared to countries in the West.

Our targets have already been exceeded with students going overseas and polytechnic graduates upgrading to degrees. In terms of the job market, whilst the economy is booming and the short and medium term prospects for graduates look good, I think we have to be mindful of the longer term prospects as well, with so many graduates from the universities and polytechnics entering the market. Even allowing for our regionalisation programme, it is important that we provide our students with a broad range of education and skills according to their ability and to suit the needs of the economy. The problem is that in developed countries there is a big rush for university education, partly brought about by the unemployment situation where people have to train further and further in order to do the same level of jobs. In fact, there is under-employment. For example, in Europe, many of the universities are bursting at the seams with a flock of students rushing for higher education. In fact, this phenomenon is partly a mask for their high unemployment situation where students are spending many years at public expense studying in universities.

Many of the universities in English-speaking countries have also over-expanded and they are now strapped for cash. Many of them are eager to admit foreign fee-paying students even at the expense of quality. All in all, we have to be very careful here and I will caution the parents and students to have realistic expectations. By all means, do their best, get a place in the universities here or the polytechnics, but do not overstretch themselves by trying to go overseas to chase after a piece of paper called a degree.

Next, I would like to answer Mr Low Thia Khiang concerning the Provisional Graduate Teachers Scheme. This is a scheme to enable the Ministry to hire graduates on a temporary basis to fill up vacancies which arose last year and this year because of the change in the education system with most of the students who were formerly from the monolingual and extended streams going to the secondary schools. There was a big bunching effect and we needed a lot of secondary school teachers. So we came up with this idea to hire graduates on a temporary basis. They may not really be interested in teaching but they have the necessary qualifications and knowledge and we allow them to teach maybe for a year or two years. Based on experience and qualifications, we can then allow them to enrol in the National Institute of Education, if they are seriously interested in taking up teaching as a career. So far, the scheme has worked out well. I do not have the actual figures on mobility. If he is really interested, I can provide him with the figures later.

In terms of numbers of teachers recruited under this scheme, in the 1993 exercise, 149 were recruited. In 1994, another 23 were recruited. As of now, there are 53 such teachers in service. The Ministry is planning to have another such recruitment exercise later this year because we continue to have some vacancies in selected areas, especially in secondary schools. We are also going overseas to Australia, New Zealand, UK, and maybe even Canada, to try and get teachers for mainly English and Mathematics. It is better if we can get the teachers locally and, as far as possible, recruit the teachers from our own domestic sources. That is why we have this provisional scheme.

Dr Kanwaljit Soin asked about the teaching and examinations in the minority Indian languages. My Ministry has gone to great lengths to provide for the examination of these languages at the PSLE, GCE "N", "O" and "A" levels. The number of students doing these minority languages is actually very small. Let me give you some figures. For example, for primary students doing Bengali, for primary one to primary six, there are only a total of 73 students. That means on average about 10 students a level. For Gujerati, for the six levels, a total of 49 students or less than 10 per level. For Urdu, a total of 19 students for six levels. So on average only three students per level. The bigger numbers are for Hindi and Punjabi. For Hindi, from primary one to primary six, 312 students. For Punjabi, 347 students from primary one to primary six. Despite these small numbers, the Ministry has recognised the sentiments of the community and has gone out of its way to arrange for these examinations. Where the examinations are available, say, in Cambridge, there is no problem, for example, "A" level and "O" level. We have to provide some guidance to them on the "N" level. For the PSLE there has been a big hustle trying to provide these examinations. We went to India and consulted the various educational authorities and we are not sure yet that the arrangements are working out well.

The cost per student is also very high. Despite all that, we are doing our best to try and accommodate the needs of these people. So where the examinations are properly set by these recognised external bodies, we have no problem recognising them. They are used for purposes of promotion. For example, for entry from primary school to secondary school, we take into consideration these national examination marks for deciding which stream and what school they go into. Similarly, for entry into junior colleges after the results are known from GCE.

But where it is done by private tuition centres where they give examinations, for example, for primary one to primary five students, it is very difficult for us to assess what is the quality and standard of teaching and examination by these centres. So our principle all along has been that we cannot recognise these marks for the school's internal promotion purposes. We have told the parents right from the beginning. We will allow the students to do these languages instead of Tamil or Malay, but we cannot recognise these marks for purposes, for example, of deciding whether they can go from one stream to another stream. For those purposes, we look only at the other subjects. This is an understanding that we had with them.

Although the Hindi and Punjabi groups seem to have organised their tuition centres rather well, the principle remains that we have no expertise in those areas and we are not able to assess whether they are doing it professionally, whether in the long term the standards will be maintained, and so on. For that reason, it is very difficult for us to recognise those grades that are awarded by the private tuition centres for purposes of promotion between streams.

Assoc. Prof. Low Seow Chay asked about the cost of university education. I think he knows the university situation very well. We are trying to build up world class universities and therefore we have to pay world class salaries. Also, our teacher to student ratios are quite comparable to good universities overseas. This is one fundamental reason why our cost here per student is comparable to developed countries like the UK and Australia. In some cases, we are a bit lower than them but we are catching up quite fast. I agree with him fully that we should try and control this cost. The universities now have been moved to a block grant scheme. That means they get a sum of money every year to finance so many students. If they are able to save money, then they get to keep the money for other purposes. That gives them the incentive to control cost. Both the universities have either set up or are in the process of setting up management accounting systems so that they have a better hold on the cost situation.

For purposes of fees, we have been careful to separate out the other items. For example, the postgraduates are more heavily subsidised. So we separate the cost of undergraduates from postgraduates. We only look at the undergraduate part for the purpose of fee setting for undergraduates. We have also cut out the R&D portion. The R&D is now funded by the academic research fund. So that part is again not costed into "under-graduates". If there are areas where we can refine, I hope he would let me know and I will look further into it. 4.00 pm

But I think we have to accept that despite their best efforts, so long as the economy continues to grow strongly and salaries continue to rise, costs will have to go up and we will have to make annual adjustments of the fees, small amounts each time, so that it is more affordable.

My colleague will respond to Mr Cheo.

Dr Aline Wong: Sir, allow me to reply to Mr Cheo's point about Government providing for pre-school education.

The Government's policy is to concentrate on formal education from Primary One onwards. The provision of pre-school education should be left to the private enterprises. We have pronounced this policy quite clearly in the past. At the moment, there are already 422 education centres and private kindergartens providing pre-school education. They are generally doing a good job and in spite of what Mr Cheo said, a lot of them charge quite affordable fees, especially the PCF kindergartens, many of which charge in the range of $20 to $25. Only some, which have been recently renovated and offer very much upgraded facilities and programmes, charge higher fees, in the region of $75 to $80. Of course, some private kindergartens charge much more but this is up to the parents' choice.

The general philosophy should be that the Government should concentrate resources in teaching children of the formal schooling age, and where the private sector can do a good job in pre-school education, the Government should allow them the freedom to do so. The role of the Ministry of Education in pre-school education is to regulate the operation of the kindergartens in accordance with the provisions of the Education Act. We try to ensure that they provide safe and adequate facilities, that they have suitably qualified principals and teachers and also run an acceptable curriculum.

Mr Cheo's proposal seems to suggest that pre-school kindergartens should be used as a child care facility in order to enable married women to work. I think that is a wrong use of kindergartens. Kindergartens should rightly be for the education of the child and, in practice, you will find that many kindergartens run very short programmes, either two hours or four hours, and this is by no means a solution to enable married women to work.

Then he said that perhaps if we have these kindergartens run by the Government with grants and so forth, we can also provide opportunities for retired teachers. While this may seem attractive, I think for pre-school education you also need some specialised training. It is not that everybody who is interested in doing so can do so. You need to receive specialised training in pre-school education such as those offered by the NIE. And also you will notice that a lot of the teachers in kindergartens are young girls rather than people who are middle-aged and above. So it may take a special type of personality and interest as well as training.

We should not look at the amount of surplus the Government has and say that given this $5 billion surplus, why do we not spend some more on pre-school education. The question must be for what purpose - is it necessary, would it be beneficial? In my opinion, pre-school education is best left to the private sector. In fact, they can do a good job in offering a wide range of programmes. If the centres come under Government, the tendency is to have uniform programmes, prescribed curriculum, all kinds of rules and regulations, restrictions on what they can do, what they cannot do. This is not desirable. The present situation is satisfactory. The Ministry's job is to concentrate on formal schooling from six years onwards, and many countries, many governments in the world, are doing the same thing. So why should we do something entirely different?

Mr Cheo Chai Chen: Sir, can I ask some more questions?

The Chairman: We are running out of time.

Mr Low Thia Khiang: May I seek clarification from the Minister on the question of provisional graduate teachers?

The Chairman: We have run out of time for this amendment. Mr Peh, could you withdraw your amendment?

Mr Peh Chin Hua: I withdraw my amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

The Chairman: Amendment No. (3). Encik Ibrahim.

Encik Ibrahim bin Othman (Thomson GRC): Sir, I beg to move,

That the sum to be allocated for Head L of the Main Estimates be reduced by $10 in respect of Code LD 1500.

[Mr Deputy Speaker in the Chair]

4.06 pm

Encik Ibrahim bin Othman (Thomson GRC): Sir, during the Primary One registration exercise last year, many parents in my Bishan North Division failed to get places for their children into a Government-aided primary school which has been relocated in Bishan North Estate. This is because they are registering their children in the primary school for the first time under Phase 2C. Their children lost out in priority to children whose parents are directly connected with the school, that is, their parents are old boys of the school and they come under Phase 2B, even though they are staying far away from the school.

I believe residents staying within the vicinity of a school should be given priority over non-residents. If we need to have priority for old boy or old girl links, then there should be a limit and not deny places to children who are staying within the vicinity of a school.

For the record, Sir, out of the more than 100 children registered in that Government-aided school under Phase 2C last year, only 28 children were given places after balloting, that means, more than 70 children in my estate have to go to schools outside their estate, either in Ang Mo Kio or in the next division within Thomson GRC. They have to incur extra cost in travelling to their school every day.

I do not have any objection for old boys or old girls being given priority in registration. However, I feel there should be a ceiling for their children's enrolment. If we do not have a limit to the number of children of old boys or old girls, then residents would not get a chance to enrol in the school which has been relocated in their housing estate.

I hope the Minister would consider fixing a ceiling for old boys and girls to enrol their children in their former schools.

Dr Tan Cheng Bock (Ayer Rajah): Sir, I move this amendment to seek an update on the issue of administrative support for schools.

This topic was discussed at length during my term as GPC Chairman (Education). Today, has the situation changed for the better, or has it remained status quo? Listening to teachers, I seem to get the impression that this situation has not changed. There is one clerk per school and teachers are still bogged down to a large extent by non-teaching work.

Some of the reasons given are because of poor recruitment, because the job is not interesting enough and, of course, low pay - maybe we are not paying people well enough for them to want to seek clerical jobs in schools. I often wonder whether some of our teachers leave because of the lack of such support. They entered the teaching profession full of ideals to teach but found they are doing a lot of non-teaching work, and that must have frustrated many. Thus, I am suggesting that we should divorce the two - teaching and management in the schools. Teachers teach; administration, management manage.

Leaving admininstrative work to a management team will create more time, more quality time, to be paid to students by teachers. This will mean a more satisfying job and I hope less resignations. This administrative group can help teachers organise school activities like ECA, help out in the clerical work of printing, cyclostyling notes, test papers, and help to run the library service for schools. I am sure we can work out a more detailed work specification. If this administrative support is not possible per school, can I suggest a cluster management of schools, that is, a few schools nearby should share a common management team to take care of these activities that I mentioned, and even more. School principals should sit in this management committee. The centralisation of such management team would mean more efficient staffing, less duplication of equipment, purchasing of better equipment to save cost and time.

Perhaps this team, after listening to what the Minister for Education has replied to Dr Kanwaljit Soin's concern about SAP schools, may help to set up a series of education and sporting programmes for SAP schools and neighbourhood schools. This will give students from both schools a chance to play and to work together. I understand the concern raised by Dr Kanwaljit Soin on SAP schools. I also share her concern. We are in a multi-racial society. Dr Kanwaljit Soin's concern about students in SAP schools lacking opportunities to mix with non-Chinese Singaporeans must be addressed.

Some students in SAP schools have been studying in a totally Chinese environment since kindergarten. We hope the HDB environment can help to neutralise this because we ensure a multi-racial mix in the housing estates. But I am not sure we have been able to convince Dr Kanwaljit Soin.

We cannot abandon SAP schools. The reasons for its setting up, as put forward by the Minister, we must accept, and I accept. Yet we should recognise the concern of Dr Soin and our non-Chinese Singaporeans. I therefore suggest, as I suggested before, that to minimise this lack of interaction between SAP schools and neighbourhood schools or the other schools, we should twin some of these schools, that means, we twin a SAP school and a neighbourhood school and allow this management team that I have suggested to coordinate educational and sporting programmes, so that we may be able to at least allay some of the concerns of Dr Kanwaljit Soin and our non-Chinese Singaporeans.

Mr Zulkifli bin Mohammed (Jalan Besar GRC): Sir, the latest report announced by the CID on 13th March 1995 revealed rather disturbingly that the arrest of under-16 offenders are on the rise, showing a four-fold jump from 100 to 400 over the past four years and also that more juvenile offenders are getting bolder and committing more serious crimes. This escalation surely has a spill-over effect to schools, as is evident by the worsening discipline problems currently being encountered by teachers.

Sir, during last year's debate, the House was informed that the incidence of juvenile crimes involving pupils had not risen. Can this be so? I am inclined to believe the situation now is otherwise, bearing in mind there is a correlation between juvenile offenders and delinquent students. My question is: what is the increase in the number of delinquent students and what kind of serious offences or crimes are they involved in? It appears to me that the tripartite cooperation between the Ministry of Education, the schools and the Police to tackle the problem is not achieving the desired results.

I would like to hear the Minister's assessment on the points that I have just raised. 4.15 pm

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Sir, Encik Ibrahim Othman raised the question of Primary 1 admission. Last year's registration was a rather unusual year because we were dealing with a particularly big number of children who were born in the Year of the Dragon. So as a result, there was a big competition and rush for places in schools. In normal years, the situation is much calmer and more people living in the neighbourhood are able to benefit in registering their children in Phase 2C.

Having said that, I think it is important that we continue to recognise the links with the old boys because this is important for us to foster loyalty to the alma mater and to encourage greater parental support for the school and contribution to the school. That is the reason why we continue to have these priority schemes. The top most priority is of course for siblings who are already in the school so that they can go to school together. I think that makes a lot of sense. The second priority is for children of old boys, or siblings of old boys in case of ---

Encik Ibrahim bin Othman: Can I ask the Minister: what happens if, after Phase 2B, there is no more vacancy for residents? They will find it ridiculous to send their children to another school when there is one right in front of their flat. They will then come and see the MP during the meet-the-people session and say, "I want a place for my child in the school." That is the problem we are facing, when you have a popular school relocated in our new estate. So that is why I am suggesting a limit to this old boys' connection.

The Chairman: Can I just remind Members that the Minister has got only five minutes to reply?

Mr Lee Yock Suan: I understand the Member's problems. Maybe, I can just refer to some figures that I have here. I think he is probably referring to Catholic High School. In 1993, 115 children were admitted in Phase 2C out of a total of 365 places. These are the people living in the neighbourhood. In 1994, as he rightly mentioned, 28 children were admitted in Phase 2C out of 400 places available. But of the 400 places, 133 were actually taken up by siblings and another 73 were taken up by children of old boys. So the number catered for by the old boys was actually only 73. That was Phase 2A. For Phase 2B it was 166. These are others, people with connections, many of whom could be Catholics. So they get priority to go into these schools which were set up by the missions. So in having these priority schemes we recognise the fact that the schools were set up by the missions. They are aided schools and therefore we have given them some priority.

So on this question of whether we should give them priority, I think the answer is yes. Whether we should have a cap is something that we have to study carefully. I do not know how many Members here and outside would favour such a cap. I think it depends very much on which side of the fence you are on, whether you belong to the Catholic group or non-Catholic group. So it is a very controversial area and, in some ways, it is really a zero sum exercise. A better way would be, wherever possible, for us to expand the number of places in these good schools, the popular schools. And I think some schools have on their own taken in more children, like last year, when there was a particularly strong demand. So this is an area we can study and we can also try and provide more good schools in the vicinity. Catholic High School is not the only good school in the Member's constituency. There are also other good schools.

Encik Sidek bin Saniff: I will respond first to Dr Tan Cheng Bock's suggestion. My Ministry recognises the need to minimise the administrative work of teachers so that they can devote their time to teaching duties. Wherever feasible, the Ministry has introduced computerisation and office automation in schools to help teachers in their work and to improve school management. For example, computers are used for library administration, pupil management to monitor pupils' performance in examinations, physical fitness tests. As for the use of labour-saving equipment, the Ministry is currently trying out the use of the staple collating machine in Junior Colleges and the optical mark reader in 10 primary schools. And based on the evaluation of the above machines, the Ministry plans to introduce both of them to all the primary schools.

Faced with the tight labour market, the Ministry finds it difficult to recruit enough suitable candidates to fill all the available clerical posts in schools. To alleviate the situation, the Ministry has engaged temporary staff, including polytechnic and university students during their school vacation, and retired clerical officers to serve in the schools. In addition, the Ministry has also allocated funds to schools, or allow schools to tap funds for the purchase of administrative support and ancillary services. We are also studying the possibility of recruiting clerical staff from overseas.

Sir, on the question posed by Mr Zulkifli, I must say that the delinquent students in Category B would have committed major breaches of discipline in school which might warrant reporting to the Police. Only those in Category B are dealt with by their school. Those in Category C have committed criminal offences which require Police action. Delinquent students in this category are very disruptive in school and very difficult to manage. The root of their delinquency could stem from parental neglect and dysfunctional homes.

Equipping teachers with social skills in counselling alone will not help to reduce these cases. It is vital for the family and the community to work together to help these problem students. My Ministry is currently working with the Police to strengthen further the existing school-police liaison scheme. One of the measures being looked into is how best counselling could be carried out on these delinquent students.

For the information of Members, let me say that we take this discipline matter seriously. And my Minister, as early as last year, has asked me to head a committee to look into the state of discipline in our schools. I met all our officers. We met and discussed and recommendations were made and, I am quite sure, they would be implemented this year.

Dr Tan Cheng Bock: Sir, the Minister has not answered my question. Because of shortage of time, perhaps he could give me a written answer for this.

Encik Ibrahim bin Othman: Sir, because of time constraint, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

The Chairman: Amendment No. (4), Dr Soin. Could you please make your point, Dr Soin?

Dr Kanwaljit Soin: Sir, I beg to move,

That the sum to be allocated for Head L of the Main Estimates be reduced by $10 in respect of Code LE 2500.

Sir, I would like to urge the Minister to agree that the Ministry of Education should assume full responsibility for the education of disabled children, that is, special education. By full responsibility, I am referring to financial, curricula and resource provision for the education of disabled children. The 50/50 funding principle which is being followed now is for welfare services. Special education is not a welfare matter. Special education is strictly education and should rightfully be the responsibility of the Ministry of Education.

The Chairman: Dr Aline Wong, you have two minutes.

Dr Aline Wong: At present, the Ministry is assuming half of the financial responsibility for the special schools, the other half being borne by the NCSS. I do not fully agree with Dr Soin's view that special education should entirely be the responsibility of the MOE. I think it should be a responsiblity shared with the community. This approach has always been the case and has worked out well.

The Ministry helps the special schools with finance and curriculum development. We loan teachers to the schools. The financial cap that we have adopted is quite generous, up to four times the cost of educating primary school students in ordinary schools, and as far as I know many of the special schools have not required financing up to this maximum cap. In fact, some of them still have quite a distance to go. So the financial arrangement, so far, is fine.

The Chairman: Dr Soin, would you like to withdraw your amendment?

Dr Kanwaljit Soin: I am not satisfied with the Minister of State's reply because I think special education is an education and not a welfare liability. But because of shortage of time, I have no choice but to withdraw my amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

The sum of $2,713,693,400 for Head L ordered to stand part of the Main Estimates.

The sum of $993,997,200 for Head L ordered to stand part of the Development Estimates.

Head W -

The Chairman: Head W - Ministry of Trade and Industry. Amendment No. (1), Dr Ow.

Dr Ow Chin Hock: Sir, I beg to move,

That the total sum to be allocated for Head W of the Main Estimates be reduced by $100.

Sir, last year, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 3.6%, higher than the increase in 1993, but still lower than the expected increase of 5.5%, following the implementation of GST. The strong Singapore dollar and subdued oil prices helped to check imported inflation at 0.7% level. The increase in domestic inflation was mainly attributed to domestic source - 40% of the increase was due to high food prices, another 50% was accounted for by increased costs of transportation and communications, and miscellaneous items.

Sir, among the major expenditure groups, the highest increase was transportation and communications, 5.9%. This was followed by cooked food, 4.6%. It should also be noted that the retail prices of food items rose by 3.9% in 1994, the highest annual increase since 1982. While the increased cost of transportation and communications was expected because of higher car prices, parking fees and taxi fares, prices of food items, particularly cooked food, need to be monitored closely. This is because the lower the household income, the higher the percentage of expenditure on food.

Sir, in 1992, I was drafted into the Cost Review Committee under the chairmanship of Mr Lim Boon Heng. The CRC has recommended that separate CPIs be compiled for different income groups to complement the overall CPI. May I ask the Minister whether this has been done. If so, how did the CPI for the lowest 20% income group behave as compared to the CPIs for the middle income and the higher income groups? How would the increase in food prices affect the low-income households?

I note that on 23rd January 1995, the Minister of State for Trade and Industry reported in this House that the CPIs for the different income groups will be released in July. I hope he meant July 1995 and not July 1996. The Minister of State also said that the 1992/93 Household Expenditure Survey was completed in September 1993. This survey, Sir, as we know, forms the basis of weightage for calculating CPIs. So may I ask the Minister two questions? (1) why has the Department of Statistics under MTI still not come out with the CPIs for the different income groups nearly 18 months after the Household Expenditure Survey was completed? Our CRC Report took only one year to complete. (2) has the 1992/93 Household Expenditure Survey shown any significant changes in consumption patterns as compared to the 1987/88 survey? In particular, have the percentages of private road transport and accommodation increased in view of the so-called asset inflation? Have the middle-income households been subjected to the so-called middle-class squeeze? Could we have an answer based on the survey's preliminary results? 4.30 pm

Encik Othman bin Haron Eusofe (Marine Parade GRC): Sir, while the imposition of GST had a limited impact on prices in 1994, because some major retailers like NTUC Fairprice, for instance, had absorbed the tax, the consumer price index (CPI) rose by some 3.6%, and as Dr Ow has just outlined, domestic factors accounted for much of this rise.

Sir, I would like to ask for an assessment of the work of the Ministry - and I believe here the Ministry has a Committee on Profiteering and Inflation - what steps have the Ministry taken to check inflation and profiteering. Is the Ministry checking to ensure that Government programmes as well as increases in charges and levies imposed by Government departments and statutory boards will not bring about higher inflation and an increase in cost of living this year?

Secondly, I would like to ask the Minister to get the Ministry of Trade and Industry to give more support and contribution to CASE. CASE has been doing an excellent job and its programmes and activities, like price watches and consumer education, have helped keep prices down. However, in order for CASE to be effective, it needs good staff. In this connection, it will have to pay good salaries to recruit good staff. CASE should be regarded as an integral part of the effort to monitor inflation and to check profiteering.

Sir, I would like to ask the Minister to get his Ministry to give stronger support and more contribution to CASE.

Mr Koo Tsai Kee: Sir, recently, Mr Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve Chairman, had asked the US Bureau of Labour Statistics to find a way to eliminate the built-in bias of the core CPI in America. Mr Greenspan is saying something that many economists have known for sometime now that the CPI always overstates inflation. Mr Greenspan estimates that the core CPI in America is between 0.5% and 1.5% higher than the real inflation. He said that one month ago, he said it again on Tuesday. The US Congressional Budget Committee has also come out to support Mr Greenspan and said that the CPI is higher by 0.5%.

Sir, the reason for Mr Greenspan's suspicion is well known. But, to put it simply, the CPI captures the price movements of yesterday's basket of goods, but consumers live for today and today's basket of goods has yet to be defined. By consuming cheaper goods and services not defined by yesterday's basket of goods, consumers can beat the CPI and therefore register a lower inflation for themselves than what the CPI tells them. In a way, the CPI is like a road map. It always reflects yesterday's topography, not today's landscape. Like maps, the CPI is out of date the moment it is released. But like maps, that is not the fault of the survey department, nor the fault of the bureau of labour statistics.

In the light of the American debate on the CPI which has focused Congress and Senate, I would like to ask the Minister how much lower is our real inflation. In fact, I am asking, is our inflation not lower than 3.6%?

Dr Ow Chin Hock: Sir, under my second amendment, I would like to raise the question of Foreign Investment and Investment Overseas.

Last year, our manufacturing investment commitment reached $5.86 billion, a record high. 75% of the investments was foreign investment. The Prime Minister and all Singaporeans should be happy with these figures.

The Economic Survey reported that the electronics, chemical and petroleum industries attracted the major share of these investment commitments. May I ask the Minister to give some detailed breakdown of the investments by industries? How many new jobs will be created? And what will be the linkages and spin-off activities from these investments?

I suppose electronics and petrochemicals are the two areas identified for cluster development. Let me offer some observations here, Sir.

(1) The electronics industry accounted for 39.1% of the total manufacturing value added and absorbed 33% of the employment in the manufacturing sector. However, as we all know, electronic products have very short product life cycle. Hence, the industry is not very stable. So should steps be taken to restructure our manufacturing sector so as to avoid our over reliance on the electronics industry?

(2) The second observation. Petroleum products, industrial chemicals, paints, pharmaceuticals and other chemical products together accounted for only 14.6% of the total manufacturing value added. And because of their capital intensive operations, these three industries absorbed only 4.1% of the total manufacturing employment last year. Thus, job creation cannot be the reason for promoting this group of industries. Moreover, petroleum product industries have the lowest value added per dollar worth of output, 17.5 cents per dollar. So what are the reasons for investing so heavily on infrastructure development, including land development, for developing this particular industry cluster?

Sir, the last point is that while Singapore continues to attract foreign investments, Singapore companies have also invested overseas. According to the Department of Statistics' estimate reported in the Economic Survey, the total Singapore direct investment abroad increased from S$7.8 billion in 1990 to S$13.1 billion in 1993. 45.2% of the Singapore investment in 1994 was in East Asia, including 26.4% in ASEAN, 15.3% in other NIEs and 2.9% in China. I was very surprised by the very low investment figure in China, 2.9% of $13 billion, which works out to be about $380 million. May I ask the Minister how are Singapore's overseas investments estimated? Is there a gross under estimation of investment in China and other countries? Is there any plan by EDB and TDB to build up the data bank on investments abroad by Singapore companies, the type of economic activities they are in, and other information so as to measure or gauge the extent of Singapore's regionalisation drive?

Mr Chew Heng Ching: Sir, I just have two questions. The first question pertains to the $5.8 billion of foreign investment brought in last year. Would the Minister tell the House what benefits, directly and indirectly, will these investments bring to Singaporeans, the men-in-the-street? The second question pertains to regionalisation drive. Would the Minister give us a status report on this programme, and whether his Ministry is happy with its progress? And what further plans the Ministry has to further expand the regionalisation programme?

Dr Wong Kwei Cheong: Sir, according to the Minister for Finance in the Budget debate on Tuesday, 14th March, and as reported in the Straits Times on 15th March, the pool of venture capital funds to help local SMEs to venture overseas increased by 33%, from $2.6 billion in 1993 to an estimated $3.5 billion in 1994. I believe this amount was spent by public as well as private venture capital funds. However, according to the budget of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, as stated in page 651 of the Government Budget book for FY95/96, the total sum allocated to EDB to assist SMEs is only about $369.3 million, namely, $200 million for the Cluster Development Fund, $67.7 million venture capital fund, $59.5 million for the Economic Development Assistance Scheme and $42.3 million to EDB Investments (Pte) Ltd for equity participation and venture capital investments.

I hope the Minister for Trade and Industry or the Minister for Finance can explain why the Government is only allocating $369.5 million while the total sum from public and private venture capital funds used to assist local SMEs in 1994 to venture overseas was about $3.5 billion. In view of the large Government budget surpluses and the importance of regionalisation, may I suggest that the Government allocate a greater portion of this budget surplus to assist SMEs to venture overseas.

Dr Lee Tsao Yuan (Nominated Member): Sir, economic growth in the last two years at 10% has been nothing short of the spectacular. Typical boom conditions prevailed such as the tight labour market and high productivity growth. Yes, there were a few industries that have not done well such as the retail and petroleum refining industries. But the 10% growth was, in general, broad based and should be an occasion of celebration, with most people laughing all the way to the bank. However, the fact is that quite a number of people are not laughing. Instead, they are feeling the pressures of doing business in Singapore.

I would like to add another dimension as to the reasons why. Industries go through product cycles. The mature phase of the product cycle is typically characterised by more standardised technologies, more suppliers in the market and more intense competition. Profit margins are lower than in the early phase when high entry cost means fewer players. Some of Singapore's major industries are in the mature phase of the product cycle. The electronics sector, for example, from disk drives and other computer peripherals to consumer electronics is under tremendous pressure to cut costs and innovate as profit margins are thin.

Similarly, traditional banking is also experiencing reduced profit margins. The new high margin area is in trading and fee-based banking. What is more, learning curves are getting shorter. It is easier for new players to enter the market than in the past. The emergence of new regional players is also an integral part of this overall picture. This is further exacerbated by the fact that when profit margins are low, companies can survive if volumes are high. But the small size of the Singapore market does not often allow for a high volume of sales. Companies often have to look outside of Singapore in order to expand and penetrating foreign markets is often more difficult than doing business in the home market.

What I am trying to suggest is that for products in the mature phase of the product cycle, it is inevitable that pressures will be intense and profit margins reduced. It is the very nature of the business. However, for other products which are in the earlier phases of the product cycle, profit margins are higher. In other words, industry trends can account for some of the pressures that the business community in Singapore are facing today. I have no data but I suspect that for labour intensive manufacturing product processes, profitability is higher in other countries which have lower labour and land costs, and that for the same processes, profit margins in Singapore have fallen over time. In contrast, profit margins for capital and skill intensive industries remain high in Singapore, and that is why foreign investors still come here to invest. 4.45 pm

I mention this for two reasons. First, to ask the Minister whether my assessment of the current economic situation is correct, as the Ministry has access to more information than I do. Second, I mention this in order to move the current debate in Singapore on the economic policy environment forward. Business costs are important. The Government should help alleviate the cost pressures to which businesses in Singapore are increasingly subject to. In addition to this, it is important that businesses continually search for new product niches, new ways of doing the same thing which result in better quality products at cheaper cost, establish brand names as an alternative to continuing with OEM sub-contracting, engage in more R&D, and so on. The key question in my mind therefore is: how can both business and Government join hands in a collaborative effort to move into new growth areas, new markets, and in this way sustain our growth momentum into the next century?

The Chairman: Mr Chay, you can take your two amendments together.

Mr Chay Wai Chuen: Sir, first on R&D activities. Our economy spent about $1 billion in 1993 on R&D activities, which is about 1.12% of the GDP. Most of the grants are administered to the private sector, for example, R&D Assistance Scheme and the Research Incentive Scheme for companies. We also have an Innovator Assistance Scheme. Most of these schemes are administered by the National Science and Technology Board. R&D spending is important for our economy to develop new products and processes in the special niches of industry. They expend large amounts of public funds. In order to ensure that the money is spent to beneficial result, will the Minister consider providing information on periodic reviews of the research spending to see how this money spent is being translated to the bottom line? This is not too difficult, especially as more than 60% of the expenditure are industry related in the private sector.

The second point is on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). They play an important part in our economy, as mentioned by several Members in the House. They constitute one-third of the total employment in the manufacturing sector and SMEs constitute 44% of employment in manufacturing, commerce and the service sectors in our economy. Also, SMEs contribute 27% of the value-added in the manufacturing, commerce and the service sectors in the economy.

I am aware that the EDB administers several programmes such as the Local Enterprise Finance Scheme, the Technical Assistance Scheme, the Upgrading Programmes for Local Industries. However, looking at Command Paper No. 3 of 1995, page 675, the sum of money administered for the whole of 1994 was quite small, ie, only $5 million out of an allocated sum of $20 million under EDAS Phase 1, a mere 25%, and $20 million out of $56 million allocated under EDAS Phase 2, 36%. In any case, these figures of 1994 were actually much smaller than the preceding year of 1993. Are we running down these schemes?

I am also concerned whether we are reaching down to the SMEs in a timely and practicable manner, especially now with the EDB also taking charge of the regionalisation drive. It may be worthwhile considering how such assistance schemes can reach out to more users in a more user-friendly way without straining the manpower resources of the EDB.

The Minister for Finance has in his Budget reply mentioned that the EDB has granted assistance to local industries over the years through the Capital Assistance Scheme and the Local Enterprise Finance Scheme and the Industrial Development Scheme. The outstanding loan under these various capital assistance schemes was $855 million in 1994 as against $803 million in 1993. These figures are found in the Annual Report of the EDB. These are loan schemes on preferential interest rate. The interest rate subsidy varies over the term period of 10 years. In some years in the past, recipients of these schemes were actually receiving negative subsidy interest rate when interest rate in the market charged by banks was low. However, based on the 3% subsidy and the risk premium rate estimate, the total assistance of $855 million works out to only an assistance amount of about $25 million over a period of ten-year term period, which is small beer even for small industries. Will the Minister consider administering some of these capital assistance schemes to approved business consultancies, just as the Local Enterprise Finance Scheme is administered through financial institutions?

Mr Chew Heng Ching: Sir, the retail sector is going through tough times. The key factors affecting the retail industry are the huge supply of retail space, the competition arising from too many shopping centres throughout the island, the decline in tourist expenditure, partly the result of our strong Singapore dollar, the tight labour market resulting in difficulty in recruiting retail manpower and the reduced spending by Singaporeans, partly the result of higher COEs and property prices.

Sir, talking to people in the retail industry, I gather that these people are very unhappy. If this sentiment persists, some retailers may have no choice but resort to profiteering tactics and unfair trade practices. This would mean that the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) may be burdened with more work following more complaints from disgruntled customers. If this problem goes unchecked, it may hurt our image as a shopping centre and affect our tourism industry.

Sir, my view is that the situation is quite serious. We can argue that these are businessmen's woes. Businessmen should be answerable for their own actions. All businesses carry risks. But, Sir, it is time for the Government through MTI to try to interfere and try to solve the problems faced by the retail industry. I believe the problem is more than cyclical in nature. The Government should look at how best it could, through the help of various agencies and various retail organisations, address the structural problem faced by the retail industry and come up with solutions.

I therefore suggest that the MTI seriously look at forming a special task force comprising representatives from the Singapore Retailers Association, Merchants Association, the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board and other relevant Government and non-governmental agencies to address the problems faced by the retail sector and come up with solutions and recommendations quickly.

Mr Koo Tsai Kee: Sir, I am told that direct sales, ie, door-to-door sales, account for the employment of about 45,000 people, both full-time and part-time, with a turnover of about $200 million. Door-to-door sales provide a direct and valuable service to consumers. It brings the products right into the comforts of the homes. In the United States of America, door-to-door sales are a preferred form of shopping for those shopping for expensive up-market consumer products like jewelleries, high pressure vacuum cleaners, things like that. For this reason, direct sales are also known as "private shopping". Just like private banking, you get privacy, security, exclusivity.

I have no doubt that with rising affluence in Singapore, more Singaporeans will want to indulge in the luxury of direct sales where customers are treated like pseudo-VIPs. But direct sales could be troublesome if there are no laws to protect innocent consumers from intimidating sales persons who misrepresent their products or use high pressure sale tactics to push their sales.

CASE recently received several complaints from consumers who were duped into buying expensive Kirby vacuum cleaners from unscrupulous sales persons. This is one of the worst case that I can quote. There are several other examples. These sales persons targeted innocent and kind-hearted families and offered free demonstrations for their vacuum cleaners. Upon entry, sales persons literally camp in homes and use high pressure and harassing tactics to close sales. Sales persons refused to leave until deals were signed and sealed. Usually they enter a house in the early hours of the evening at 6.00 pm to 7.00 pm and then they might stay way beyond midnight, in one case past one o'clock in the morning.

Irate consumers have been complaining to CASE, of which I am the President. Because of the tough stand taken by CASE in this particular episode, the agent for Kirby vacuum cleaners, Crossley Management Consultants, has written to CASE to apologise and tell us that he has disciplined his sales staff. He is also taking measures to make sure that companies selling his products conform to strict codes of direct sales. He reassured CASE that such activities would not repeat themselves. He claims that he would also put in a voluntary seven-day cooling-off period in his contract. While this episode has a happy ending, I am sure future episodes would follow the same story line. When the law allows people to cheat, they will do so. If they do not, they are not optimising.

Recognising the increasing trend to direct sales, most developed countries already have what they call the Direct Sales Act. Malaysia, for example, not yet developed, but developed in this respect, has a very comprehensive Direct Sales Act enacted in 1993. This Act governs the rights of consumers and the duties and obligations of companies engaged in direct sales. For example, the Act will require companies to register themselves and their sales staff. Also, the Act will define the hours during which sales persons could knock on a person's door. Sales after 10.00 pm perhaps could be illegal. I think the most important aspect of a Direct Sales Act is that it allows a cooling-off period to exist. The cooling-off period in most countries range between 7 and 10 days. The cooling-off period is a period which allows a consumer who has signed a contract to purchase the item during a door-to-door session to rescind his contract. In other words, he walks away from it and says, "I do not want to buy your product."

In the context of a lack of a Direct Sales Act in Singapore, I would like to ask the Minister two questions. First, when can we have a Direct Sales Act? I know it will take some time. So the second question follows. In the absence of this Direct Sales Act, whether the Ministry could enforce a cooling-off period anywhere in our existing legislation.

Dr Ow Chin Hock: Sir, I wish to focus on Employment and Productivity.

In employment, two figures should be noted: (a) 71,200 new jobs were created in 1994, marginally higher than 70,800 jobs created in 1993, and (b) 9,300 workers were retrenched in 1994, higher than the 6,500 in 1993. Retrenched workers need not be absorbed by the new jobs created because they do not necessarily match the job requirements in terms of education, skills, occupations, and age group. May I ask the Minister a few questions here: (1) what is the profile of the 9,300 retrenched workers in terms of occupations, education and age groups, and so on? (2) What sectors and industries have absorbed these retrenched workers in 1994? (3) What types of new jobs were created in 1994? Are they white-collar or blue-collar, skilled or unskilled jobs?

Sir, labour productivity grew by 5.3% in 1994, lower than the 6.7% in 1993. However, it was still higher than the 5.2% increase in real wage. The sectoral productivity growth rates, however, were uneven, ranging from 1.2% for the financial and business services sector to 11.4% for the manufacturing sector. The strong productivity growth in the manufacturing sector was more than enough to offset higher labour cost increases, resulting in the decline in unit labour cost for the manufacturing sector. However, unit labour cost for the overall economy rose by 1.9% because productivity growth was lower, and wage growth was higher in 1994 compared to 1993. All these figures show the importance of productivity growth. Productivity increase allows real wage to increase, and workers' living standard to improve without eroding our economic competitiveness. However, while labour productivity can increase due to better education and training and improvement of work attitude of workers, labour productivity can also be raised by higher capital-labour ratio.

There are two questions which have been bothering me. So I take this opportunity to ask the Minister to help me to clarify these doubts. (1) What are the main sources of labour productivity growth in Singapore? (2) Has capital been used efficiently? 5.00 pm

Mr Chay Wai Chuen: Sir, we are informed that labour productivity grew by a healthy 5.3% in 1994 but, as mentioned by Dr Ow, this is lower than the 6.7% in 1993. Presently, in the survey report on the Singapore economy, the Government tracked labour productivity figures - output divided by labour units employed and the unit labour and unit business cost indices.

Figures on productivity are very important especially so for an economy that is operating at full employment and also in the process of restructuring. The estimates on labour productivity are very important especially when compared with changes in wages. One important input that is not taken into account in these figures on labour productivity is the contribution of the capital input. This is particularly so when we have big capital investments in plants, petrochemical, oil refineries, etc. Also when a company upgrades and puts resources into new plants and equipment, the result is higher output. But this output is not all due to labour but to a combined input of capital and labour. Capital must also earn a rate of return comparable to its marginal cost. For such a combined input, productivity data can be obtained by a total factor productivity index. This gives the output attributable to a weighted combined input of capital and labour. It will give a better idea of contribution by capital and labour and separate out the two. This will also give a better reflection of the contribution of labour and capital separately towards productivity. These indices should not be constructed and evaluated at too aggregate a level but should be at sectoral levels by types of industries or across industrial sectors.

Will the Minister consider giving us total factor productivity index in future economic surveys in Singapore?

Mr Sinnakaruppan: Sir, the National Productivity Board (NPB) and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) have made good progress in promoting structured On-the-Job Training (OJT). Presently, there are more than 80 approved OJT centres at the various companies. These centres operate on the basis of a OJT blueprint that aims to bring about skills acquisition specific to the job. Workers who successfully complete the OJT are given a Certificate of Competency. But these certificates do not have national or industrial recognition because of the wide variation from company to company and programme to programme. The gap between the NTC-3 and this certification is indeed very wide as a result. Figures available indicate that the number of workers signing up for apprenticeship schemes has started to drop significantly.

Employers should not see OJT as an alternative to acquisition of broader skills that is obtained through NTC courses. They should be made to see that OJT is a stepping stone for unskilled workers to acquire higher skills through NTC certification. It must be seen as complementary to NTC courses. This message must be clearly understood by employers and also, to some extent, workers, so that they would continue to place emphasis on our national skills certification courses.

The NPB and ITE should also look into how the gap between OJT and NTC certification can be narrowed. OJT progress must also become more and more structured. NTC courses, on the other hand, should be made more skills-based rather than being occupational-based, at least at the NTC-3 level. For example, machine operators can be taught basic skills in handling equipment and hand tools, understanding of electrical and electronic works, safety, and so on. These are likely to be part of any typical OJT package. As such, provision must be made for these skills to be certified to the equivalent of one or two modules of a skills-based NTC-3 course.

Such a credit system would help to close the gap between OJT and NTC certification without affecting standards. It would also become an incentive, as workers can get an NTC-3 certification in a shorter period of time.

Sir, I hope that the Minister would look into this urgent and important matter.

Mr Koo Tsai Kee: Sir, the Ministry of Trade and Industry now implements a programme known as Skills Training and Retraining. Its acronym is START.

START is a wonderful programme. It allows workers waiting for retrenchment to attend a two-day course organised by the Ministry. Upon completion of the course conducted by the Ministry, the retrenched worker is given a coupon. When the worker becomes retrenched and joins one of the selected group of employers, this coupon is given to his or her new employer, and then the new employer can use the coupon to redeem the training cost spent by the new employer on the new recruit, that means, the retrenched employee who is now employed by the new employer.

This is a good programme. I think it does help to emplace retrenched workers to selected groups of employers. But like all good things, it can be made better. And there are two problems with START.

The first problem with START is that it is a non-starter. First, from the worker's perspective, retrenchment in most companies comes like a bolt of lightning. Most managements, understandably, are reluctant to release their hit list of retrenched workers because managements have their own problems. And also many MNCs receive instructions from overseas not to release the hit list of workers affected by retrenchment to the unions or to the workers. So if you were a worker, you know that retrenchment is coming, but you do not know whether you will be on the list. So you cannot benefit from the START programme because the START programme is only applicable to an employee in employment, not a retrenched worker. By the time you know you are retrenched, when you get a pink slip, it is too late to enrol for the START programme. Unless, of course, management is enlightened and tells the union or the workers in advance that they are going to be retrenched one month from now or two weeks from now, then the workers can do something, to contact the union or search for information.

One example of a good employer was Black and Decker. Black and Decker retrenched quite a lot of workers, a few hundreds. They were going to move their entire operations in Singapore to Kuantan. Black and Decker knew it was coming. It was retrenching its workers in phases and they arranged for the union and the employees to meet and arranged for the employees to undergo the START programme. So these employees were still employed by Black and Decker but they were asked to go for the START programme.

But, I think, Sir, it is too much to always expect management to be so enlightened. Most managements are so caught up with their own problems of relocation, the trauma of down-sizing, that retraining employees during that critical period of down-sizing is perhaps the furthest thing from the management's mind, because management themselves are also being retrenched. So they are also losing jobs.

So the first question I have for the Minister is: can the Ministry expand the START scheme to include workers who have been retrenched for up to one month, ie, if a worker has been retrenched on, say, 1st March, he or she has up to 31st March to enrol in the START programme. In other words, while he is applying for the START programme he has already been retrenched.

Sir, the second problem with START is that a select group of employers, usually the big MNCs, are allowed to come on board. I understand the rationale because these are strong companies with good in-house training programmes that can provide comprehensive, meaningful training programmes for employees. But I think this pool is rather small and with the large number of retrenched workers, it is difficult to match a retrenched worker with so few eligible employers.

My second question to the Minister is: can the Ministry enlarge the list of eligible employers to include not just the big strong MNCs with good strong in-house training programmes but also companies that are mid-way between SMEs and MNCs?

Dr Ow Chin Hock: Sir, the Minister's statement on 13th March 1995 on the long-term supply of water has pre-empted most of the points I wanted to raise under this issue on water consumption. However, I would like to ask him three specific questions:

(1) Is water consumption of households income elastic?

(2) Is water consumption of households price elastic? and

(3) Is water consumption more sensitive to household size? In other words, what are the major determinants of water consumption of households?

Mr Chiam See Tong (Potong Pasir): Sir, as I have already spoken on the development of water supply locally during the Budget debate, I shall not repeat myself.

I would like to touch on the recent announcement of increase in the water conservation tax. The hon. Member for Leng Kee said that he was disappointed at the statement I made to the press recently. I said that there was no danger of water shortage. Our reserves have not been tapped and that the alarm bells have not been sounded. He said that Singapore has to be prepared for eventualities.

I agree with him wholeheartedly. But what I said must be seen in perspective. Presently, there is no danger of water shortage. The possibility of water shortage can only come in the year 2011, that is, about 16 years more. To the credit of the Government, it has done everything possible to ensure that Singapore has adequate water supply to that date, at least. The maximum number of reservoirs to impound water has been built. The Government already has in place a penalty tax for over users of water.

I read that it had also entered into agreement to import water from Indonesia. The Minister has also recently announced that there shall be a desalination programme of sea water. At the moment, Singapore has two existing water agreements with Malaysia: one will expire in 2011, which Malaysia agrees to supply 86 million gallons of water a day; and the other agreement will expire in 2061, which supplies water to Singapore at 250 million gallons a day. Up to 2011 at least, we have a promise of water supply from Johor State of 336 million gallons of water a day which is more than enough for our average water consumption. Presently, our water consumption is only about 250 million gallons a day or about 1.14 million cubic metres a day.

With such an over-supply of water until 2011 ---

An hon. Member: Over-supply?

Mr Chiam See Tong: Because we were promised 336 million gallons a day. Our consumption is only about 250 million gallons a day which is about 1.14 million cubic metres. I do not think you need to sound the alarm bells. 5.15 pm

Our relations with Malaysia at the moment at least look very good and cordial. In fact, on 21st February 1995 it was reported in the Straits Times that Tan Sri Muhyidin, the Mentri Besar of Johor, immediately responded to the Prime Minister's warning, published in the local press the previous day, that we may have shortage of water in about 15 years' time. Tan Sri Muhyidin assured Singaporeans that Malaysia shall maintain a cordial relation with Singapore and abide by the two water agreements. The Singapore Government must have calculated that its relation with Johor State and the Malaysian Federal Government would remain cordial for at least the next 16 years. Otherwise, the Singapore Government would not have spent $306 million to build the Linggiu Reservoir in Johor. This reservoir was completed in June 1993 and has a capacity to hold up to 770 million cubic metres of water. Our average consumption is just 1.1 million cubic metres of water a day. So it will take 770 days, which is about two years' time, before the whole Linggiu Reservoir can go dry, and with our heavy rainfall, about 100 inches a day, I can see there is no present shortage of water.

We have got adequate supplies from across the Causeway for at least the next 20 years, of course, provided there are no unforeseen circumstances. By then, anything could happen. Since nothing has really changed as far as the water situation in Singapore is concerned until 2011, it is not justifiable for the Government to immediately up the water conservation tax just because the Prime Minister has made a warning. It should instead embark on an education programme to teach people to save water. In fact, under the penalty system, the lesson of water consumption can never be put across to Singaporeans, as experience has shown. We have already in place a penalty system and yet what happens? People just flout it and in fact use more water. Maybe, you should combine the two.

The Government has fixed the upper limit of water used at 20 cubic metres of water per family per month. Above this, a heavier tax will be imposed. If you look at the figures, this upper limit may not be fair. Because the average PUB account, at the moment, already shows that for a family, the water consumption is about 21 cubic metres per month. So in fact, the average norm today is already 21 cubic metres per family. To be fair, the upper limit should be fixed at 21 cubic metres and if any family uses above the average norm today, then he should be penalised.

Mr Chew Heng Ching: Sir, I advocate privatisation. When a statutory board is privatised, we naturally expect the former statutory board to be self-sufficient and to be no longer a drain on the Government resources, particularly revenue. We also expect the staff of this privatised statutory board to work harder, to make a success of the venture and to be rewarded accordingly. And more importantly, Singaporeans will be able to share the fruits of this success by being shareholders of this privatised statutory board and also, hopefully, pay lower cost for services rendered.

Sir, I understand that the Government has plans to privatise PUB, or parts of PUB. I have two questions for the Minister. Would the Minister tell the House the details of this plan to privatise PUB? Why, when, what and how would PUB be privatised? The second question, and this question is uppermost in the minds of many Singaporeans, is: will the price of PUB services be lower, or will it be increased after privatisation?

The Minister for Trade and Industry (Mr Yeo Cheow Tong): Sir, Dr Ow Chin Hock has raised the question of the CPI. He has asked that since the CPI for food prices went up by 3.9% we need to monitor it closely. He has asked about the progress of the plan to have the new CPI, when would it be ready, and when would the new CPI, which should be separated into three categories, ie, for the lower 20%, the middle 20% to 80%, and the upper 20%, be ready as it was promised to the CRC two years ago.

Sir, regarding the food prices, we do have a monitoring process and this will continue in terms of monitoring the food prices. In terms of the new CPI which is currently being constructed, the Department of Statistics carried out the Household Expenditure Survey in 1992/ 1993. Dr Ow has asked why the DOS took 18 months to finalise the analysis of the results, whereas the CRC only took one year.

Sir, I would like to explain that the Household Expenditure Survey is a gigantic undertaking. It is a two-year programme and there is a massive amount of data to be analyzed because the survey involved about 5,000 households and each household was required to keep a daily record of all items of expenditure. So you can imagine that there will be a tremendous amount of data to be analyzed. Secondly, because of the implementation of GST last year, the Department of Statistics was heavily involved in monitoring price changes and it has taken time because of the very limited staff that they have. This has accounted for some of the delay as well. However, the Department of Statistics expects to complete the new CPI and it should be released shortly. The three new categories of CPI for the different income levels will also be completed by July this year, as announced by my Minister of State recently.

Encik Othman Haron Eusofe has asked for an assessment of the work of the Committee on Profiteering and Inflation (COPI). Sir, COPI was reactivated in June 1993 to ensure that the implementation of GST would not lead to profiteering and inflationary price increases. I am glad to report that COPI has been very effective. The Committee, prior to the implementation of GST, met with the key suppliers to ensure that supplies would be adequate and that there would be no shortages which would lead to a price surge. It also advised suppliers that any price increase relating to GST should not exceed the 3% GST.

As a result of all these consultations, the surveys had shown that the price increases were generally lower than the 3%. There was no price surge at all. In fact, because of the discussions with the major suppliers, many of the suppliers have actually partially absorbed the price increase relating to GST. Organisations, like FairPrice, have actually absorbed the GST increase in full for quite some time. The other point is that because of the strong Singapore dollar last year, the imported inflation was diminished and this also allowed the importers to absorb part of the GST.

Sir, the Committee also set up a Price Feedback Unit Hotline for consumers to call in to complain if there were any instances of unreasonable price increases. The Committee also enlisted the help of CASE to carry out a detailed price watch survey. The surveys were published in the papers regularly and I think it helped to increase the awareness of Singaporeans on the need to shop for the best bargains. The price watch list also discouraged many of the retailers from increasing their prices unreasonably. So it led to price stability as well.

Under COPI, the Department's personnel also stepped up its price monitoring efforts through a hawker price monitoring survey, covering 1,650 hawker stalls, and this has kept the staff very busy. The survey of the hawker stalls showed that the price increases in hawker food were not as widespread as largely feared. The Committee also took action against retailers for putting up misleading GST-related advertisements.

Sir, as a result of all these efforts, although the GST involved a tax of 3%, the actual inflation for the whole of last year came up to only 3.6%. This showed that the impact of GST was not as great as we had anticipated at the beginning.

Encik Othman Haron Eusofe has also asked that we provide more assistance to CASE to enable CASE to be better organised and better staffed. Sir, the Government financing for CASE was last revised in financial year 1994. The previous amount of assistance was on the basis of 5 cents per capita and the new formula was changed to two-thirds financing for CASE based on the actual operating expenses, subject to a cap of 13 cents per capita. So we increase the financing by about 2 1/2 times. I think the increased allocation has definitely helped CASE in recruiting more staff and paying them adequately.

Sir, we need to retain this principle of partial funding for CASE, this formula of two-thirds funding. This is to ensure that CASE's credibility as an independent consumer watchdog body can be maintained. However, if CASE requires additional funding because it is undertaking more work and it can make a case for it, we will be prepared to take a look at its submission.

Mr Koo Tsai Kee has also talked about the US CPI, that Mr Alan Greenspan had stated many times and also recently that the US CPI index has actually overstated inflation in the US, and Mr Koo asked whether there is a similar situation in Singapore. Sir, it is an interesting question. I think most people tend to think that, in Singapore, we understate inflation and there is a good reason for this perception.

The situation in US is quite different from Singapore. In the US, wages have risen very, very slowly over the last 15 years. In fact, for many occupational groups and for many people, they have actually suffered drops in income.

The Chairman: Order. It is 5.30 pm.

Thereupon Mr Deputy Speaker left the Chair of the Committee and took the Chair of the House.

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to report that the Committee of Supply has made further progress on the Main and Development Estimates for FY 1995/1996, and ask leave to sit again tomorrow.

Mr Deputy Speaker: So be it.