CIVIL SERVANTS' PAY

Mr Tay Beng Chuan asked the Minister for Education (a) what is the progress of his Ministry's efforts in revamping the education system; (b) whether his Ministry has been implementing this on a pilot basis in primary and secondary schools and, if so, whether there are any specific results; and (c) what is his assessment of the revamp in terms of preparing our students to confront the new challenges of a knowledge-based economy.

RAdm Teo Chee Hean: Our education system has served us well over the years. Today, we have a fundamentally sound system where quality education is delivered to all our pupils, not just the best and the brightest.

MOE thus does not intend to revamp our whole system radically. What we seek to do is to re-position and refine the system to develop our young to meet future challenges.

Three key trends have emerged for the future: globalisation, rapid technological change and transition to a knowledge based economy. Given these trends and the challenges facing Education, we have to re-align the focus of our education system towards developing the full spectrum of talents and abilities of every child, and not just in terms of academic achievement.

The re-positioning of the education system aims to put in place ways to identify and help every child maximise his or her talents and abilities and harness their potential. As part of the process, we have identified six strategic areas of focus for the next five years. These are:

First, designing a responsive education structure. We want to be able to identify the talents and abilities of our students early, and to design educational programmes to cater to their different needs. We want to customise, as much as possible and within limits of our resources, the education being delivered to each child;

Second, inculcate values and nurture thinking skills through the formal and informal curricula. The three big initiatives that we have embarked on, namely National Education, Nurturing Thinking Skills, and Masterplan for IT in Education, are part of overall efforts to achieve this;

Third, creating a leaner-centred school environment. This encompasses MOE's management of schools, our philosophy and principles, school leadership, school appraisal and ranking, the role of the community in schools, and of schools in the community, and school infrastructural programmes;

Fourth, building a quality teaching service. The teacher is key to everything we do in Education. We need to equip and continually develop the teacher, to whom we entrust the heavy responsibility of moulding the lives of our young; and

Fifth, developing Singapore into an Education Hub. As a critical part of Singapore's transition towards a knowledge-based economy, we need to position ourselves as a talent and knowledge capital. MOE's role is to develop Singapore into an education hub through a two-prong approach: first, developing and hosting institutions that can provide an excellent education for Singaporeans, and second, to attract quality talent, both local and foreign to these institutions.

Last but not least, MOE will provide excellent administrative support to our schools and institutions.

We have embarked on the new initiatives in recent years. After some initial adjustment problems, schools are embracing National Education and the introduction of IT. Education is an investment for the long-term. We see encouraging signs of enthusiasm and change. The real benefits will come only in the long-term, when our economy remains resilient and competitive, and when our society remains cohesive and vibrant.

Mr Chuang Shaw Peng asked the Prime Minister if he will furnish statistics on the rates of increases/decreases in respect of civil servants' pay from 1988 to 1997.

Mr Goh Chok Tong: The average increase in the wage bill for civil servants for the period 1987 to 1998 is 4.2% per year. Details are given in the table below. Year Wage Bill % change over (million) previous year 1988 $ 1,840 - 1989 $ 1,935 5.2% 1990 $ 2,065 6.7% 1991 $ 2,069 0.2% 1992 $ 1,925 -7.0% 1993 $ 1,969 2.3% 1994 $ 2,244 14.0% 1995 $ 2,252 0.4% 1996 $ 2,487 10.4% 1997 $ 2,629 5.7% Average 4.2%

The change in the wage bill is a function of many factors such as the size and structure of the Service. For example, the proportion of Division I officers in the Service has doubled, from 17% of the total population in 1988 to 34% in 1997 while the percentage of Division III officers has dropped from 31% to 25%, and Division IV officers, from 19% to 10%, over the same period.

The large increase in 1994 (14.0%) was due to a major salary revision exercise in that year. The salary revision was introduced in conjunction with the introduction of co-payment of medical expenses. Civil Servants who accepted the new medical schemes which required them to co-pay medical expenses were given salary revisions averaging about 7%.

The increase in 1996 (10.4%) was also larger than normal because of the relatively bigger NWC wage adjustment (6.5%) in that year. In addition, there was also an increase in the number of Division I officers in 1996 by 16.5%, which is significantly higher than the average increase of 9.3% per year for the period 1988 to 1997. The increase of Division I officers in 1996 was largely due to an increase in the recruitment of teachers.