PRIMARY 1 REGISTRATION

Ms Braema Mathiaparanam asked the Minister for Education (a) how many of the 178 children who could not be traced for registration in Primary 1 have since been found; (b) how many of the 312 children who are still being traced are now in school; (c) what is the proportion of boys and girls in the cohort of 467 children who have enrolled into madrasahs; (d) what is his assessment of the implementation of how the Compulsory Education Act has been put into effect by his Ministry; and (e) what improvements, if needed, can be made to get more children into schools under this Act.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam (for the Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, Sir, in November 2002, the Ministry of Education reported that a total of 490 children either could not be contacted or were in the process of being traced. Of these 490, 33 children have come forward and registered for Primary 1 on their own. For the remaining 457 cases, we have managed to contact 287 of them. Of these 287, 263 were overseas, 14 subsequently sought admission for Primary 1, and four were granted exemption. The Ministry is still looking into the remaining six cases out of these 287.

As of now, there are 170 children who could not be contacted despite attempts to reach them by mail and house visits. The families of these children may have changed their place of residence, without informing the authorities, although they are legally required to do so. Most of them are likely to have left the country.

391 Singaporean children of compulsory school-going age enrolled in madrasahs this year. 134 were boys, 257 were girls.

The implementation of Compulsory Education year has been smooth. The vast majority of children continue to be registered for Primary 1 in national schools. Over 42,000 children or about 96% of the cohort have been registered for Primary 1 in national schools for 2003. This is comparable to the percentage registered for Primary 1 in 2002. Most of those who have not registered are either exempted from Compulsory Education or living overseas.

We have put in place a system of house visitation for those who have not registered their children for Primary 1 in the annual registration. For the year of admission of 2003, the house visitation managed to get 24 children to register for school. We have also put in place a counselling and community mediation process to deal with cases of non-compliance. Our officers will provide information on community organisations to those parents who need assistance from these organisations.

The processes we have put in place are working well. While we will continue to put in our best efforts for children who did not register for school, we should be mindful that it is not always possible to locate each and every child. If Members have information on children who should be in school, but are not, we will be happy to follow up on them.

Ms Braema Mathiaparanam: Could the Senior Minister of State please enlighten as to how many home visits were done, whether the officers were accompanied by any other officers to aid them when doors were not opened?

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: Mr Speaker, Sir, we visit all cases who do not respond to our letters. The first step is sending out letters to the parents. Where there is no response, we visit all cases.

Whether the officers are accompanied by specialists in door knocking or in eliciting a response, I do not have the details immediately with me, but I think the officers themselves know how to get a response if someone is at home. The real problem is more in follow-up, where we are able to meet the person at home and there is a reluctance to send the child to school. This is where we need to counsel the parents. The process is working quite well so far. Our main problem is that we were unable to locate 170 pupils last year.

Ms Braema Mathiaparanam: For year 2003, how would improvements be done in the area of locating the pupils?

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: We are trying our best. I think the processes are already improved. To begin with, before Compulsory Education, the processes were working quite well, but we have strengthened our resources. We have got many more officers now on the job of house visitations. As regards those who we are unable to locate, it is not something that we can do very much more about. Most of these people, I suspect, have gone abroad. Again, if we have any information coming from Members or any other source, we will follow up on it.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: I would like to ask the Senior Minister of State whether the 170 cases, which the Ministry could not locate, have been referred to the Family Service Centre or social workers, because some of them may be gypsies, staying in friends' and relatives' home? And, also perhaps the grassroots organisations could help if these cases are known.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: I will look into the suggestion of whether we should refer such cases to grassroots organisations, if it has not already been done. But, basically, there is a limit to how far we can track everyone in Singapore, and I suspect citizens do not want the Government to literally track them completely. We are trying our best. The number is quite small, and for this residue of cases we will see what we can do. We are putting every effort into it, but we will not be able to bring the figure down to zero.

Mr Steve Chia Kiah Hong (Non-Constituency Member): The Senior Minister of State said that it is likely that these children could have gone overseas. Has any effort been made to counter-check with the Immigration Department to see whether these children have actually gone overseas?

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: We have checked with all the available sources. In other words, where there is information in Government, we would have tapped the information. So these residual cases are cases where we really do not know where they are.

Ms Braema Mathiaparanam: Does the Ministry consider benchmarking itself against the Ministry of Defence because it is very effective in tracking, in knocking on doors, and getting guys to enlist for National Service?

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: All suggestions for best practice are quite useful, I am sure. We are making quite a lot of effort in this process and I think the process is working quite well.

Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman: Can I just confirm whether the welfare homes have already been looked at in locating these children?

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: I do not have an immediate answer to that, but I am quite sure that we have checked all available sources.