STRESS IN STUDENTS (Trend)

The following Question stood in the name of Mdm Ho Geok Choo -

Mdm Ho Geok Choo: To ask the Acting Minister for Education whether there is a trend which shows that students, especially those in the higher level, are increasingly succumbing to stress arising from relationships and studies and what are the measures being taken to address these issues.

Dr Lily Neo: Question No. 9, Sir.

The Minister of State for Education (Mr Chan Soo Sen) (for the Acting Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, Sir, a short answer to Mdm Ho's Question is "no". There is no evidence that students at the higher level are increasingly succumbing to stress from relationships and studies. Stress is, in fact, a complex phenomenon with multiple causes. How individuals respond to stress also varies widely from individual to individual, depending on their dispositions.

The Ministry of Education adopts a comprehensive approach to provide psychological and emotional support for students. We believe that prevention is better than cure. Hence, all pupils are taught lifeskills, which cover topics on personal and interpersonal effectiveness. For example, the focus of sexual education for students at the JC/CI level, implemented this year, is also on interpersonal relationships, covering topics such as self-worth in courtships, dating, conflicts and the importance of family support. This helps our students build satisfying relationships and cope with life changes effectively as they grow up. Complementing the structured teaching of lifeskills, schools also have systems to facilitate the early identification and support of students who need help, and refer them for counselling.

All teachers are now first-line caregivers and are given training in basic counselling skills so that they may provide immediate basic counselling to students in need. Students with more difficult problems are referred to teacher counsellors in their schools. In fact, there are two of them in each school. Students with severe needs are referred to the Ministry of Education's educational psychologists and guidance specialists or external counsellors engaged by the schools.

While schools provide support for the students, the support from the home is also very important. In establishing a warm and nurturing relationship with their children, and maintaining it into their late adolescence, parents lay the foundation to develop strength of character in them. Parents can help their children set realistic expectations and model healthy problem-solving strategies. Schools and parents can work together to achieve this for their children.

Dr Lily Neo: May I ask the Minister of State whether we have any schemes in place to detect early suicidal cases in students who suffer from a lot of stress in our schools.

Mr Chan Soo Sen: As I have said, this depends on the observation by the teachers. Sometimes when the students interact and if between their conversation, they detect that some of their classmates may have this tendency, they may raise this to the teachers and then follow-ups can take place from there.

Mr Tan Soo Khoon: Sir, is the Minister of State aware that there were recent cases of suicides in our junior colleges? Has it been established that there is a link between the suicides and the study stress?

Mr Chan Soo Sen: We are aware of the recent suicide cases in the JC students. Investigation is still being undertaken by the Police. So far, there is no evidence to show that the suicides were related to stress arising from school. Let the investigation go through and we will be able to answer that question. We should not speculate at this stage. The junior colleges do organise support for the families as well as the friends of the students concerned.

Ms Irene Ng Phek Hoong (Tampines): The Minister of State mentioned that there are counselling services provided to students. But I understand from some teachers that counselling services have been cut back because of the cut in the Ministry's budget. Can I seek an assurance from the Minister of State that counselling services will not be the first to go or the first to be trimmed because of the cut in the Ministry's budget?

Mr Chan Soo Sen: I am very surprised to hear that counselling services have been cut in schools. In fact, in addition to what I have mentioned in my reply, MOE has a scheme to engage part-time counsellors from the group of experienced teachers who have left the service. With their wealth of experience plus training by MOE, they become part-time counsellors. They are paid allowances for their services. And the schools find this service very good. In fact, we plan to look into expanding it.

Mr Sin Boon Ann (Tampines): Sir, would the Minister of State give an assurance that, notwithstanding the fact that there is a scheme, there would be no further cuts or reductions in the budget set aside for the engagement of counsellors for the schools?

Secondly, the Minister of State, in his earlier reply, said that a lot is dependent on the teachers' ability to spot students with such suicidal tendency. I am wondering whether the Ministry would put in place a more proactive scheme to work with the students regularly to detect and sieve out the students who have great difficulties in managing relationships or work stress.

Mr Chan Soo Sen: I do not think I can give such an assurance. In fact, I do not think anybody can. Piority in allocating budget to programmes change over time. But I would like to say that, as of now, there is no plan to cut back allocation to counselling services.

On the second question, I just want to say that teachers interact constantly with students. So students who have difficulties can raise their problems with their teachers. Or if they raise their problems with their friends, their friends may be able to raise the problems with the teachers, and the teachers follow up from there. Our best assurance is to have teachers trained in basic counselling skills so that they will be able to detect problems. This has already been done.

Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman (Sembawang): Sir, the Minister of State just now mentioned that there is no indication that students in the higher level are succumbing to stress. First, is there any difference in the incidence of students at different levels receiving psychiatric help from institutions like NUH or IMH?

Second, what are the indicators used by MOE to determine the extent to which students are able or not able to cope with stress, and whether the Ministry is monitoring or keeping track of these indicators?

Mr Chan Soo Sen: The number of students who are seen by IMH and the hospitals is not really a very good indicator. An increase in number can be due to a greater willingness to see psychologists, not the problem becoming greater.

As for numbers of the last few years, I do not have them with me at the moment, but I did see it this morning. It is more or less steady, and it has gone down a little in the last 2-3 years. If the Member is interested, we can share those figures with him.

We do not have a list of formal indicators. As I have said, we depend on teachers who are in the frontline. We teach them how to observe signs of stress as well as problems. If it goes beyond a certain level, it will be detected and follow-up action will be taken.

As far as stress is concerned, I do believe that in all forms of learning, there is some form of stress. Stress is generated as we go into areas that are unknown or uncertain. Learning, by definition, is to go into areas that are unknown so as to know more. So, a certain amount of stress in the learning process is inevitable and, in fact, necessary to provide the drive. If there is no stress, all of us will become very lethargic and lacking in drive. But the important thing is to ensure that when stress goes beyond a certain level, is becoming dysfunctional and the student is unable to cope, the case is detected and followed up on.

Stress exists in our education system. We do not deny it. But I just want to say that we have a system in place to detect and follow up.

Dr Lily Neo: May I ask the Minister of State whether the Ministry had investigated every suicide case of our students in the past, so that more precautionary measures can be taken to prevent loss of lives?

Mr Chan Soo Sen: We take all the cases very seriously and we try to learn from them. But I want to say that from the tone Dr Lily Neo has put the question, I feel she may be saying that there have been many such cases. I do not think there have been many such cases. And for those cases, the stress is not necessarily with school related. If we are talking about the recent cases, let the police investigations be completed. We will certainly learn from there. Like all Members, MOE is very concerned about each case.

Mr Steve Chia Kiah Hong (Non-Constituency Member): Sir, would the Minister of State agree with me that suicide is the result of a failure of our society to hear the last cries for help from the afflicted, and that we need to improve on our helping process to those affected who feel a great sense of helplessness? Something needs to be done more than what is currently available.

Mr Chan Soo Sen: Mr Steve Chia is assuming that before people commit suicide, they always cry for help. But in many instances, this does not happen. Sometimes there is not even a symptom that the person is about to do it. As I have said, if there are symptoms that something is wrong that we can detect, we will intervene. But in cases where nothing of that sort happens and the person just commits suicide, we will have to investigate before deciding what conclusion to draw, what to do and what lessons to learn.

Assoc. Prof. Ngiam Tee Liang (Nominated Member): Sir, notwithstanding the various reasons for a person to attempt or commit suicide, I would like to ask the Minister of State to give an idea of what the schools and MOE are doing to reach out to parents and the community to have a collective effort of trying to deal with stress-related issues of our students, because they are very precious resources for us. And I think from the indications given, more needs to be done. What is the Ministry's contribution in this regard?

Mr Chan Soo Sen: There are additional channels that we can do to work with the community as well as with the parents. For example, under COMPASS, more and more schools are forming the parent-teacher associations. This is one mechanism that we can use to work with the parents.

Schools also work with Community Development Councils and some of the CDC projects also carry a social element. And if Members have any other suggestions of what we can do, we will be very happy to look at them,

Ms Braema Mathiaparanam: The Minister of State has asked for suggestions. We have gone through this discussion a few times. Is it possible perhaps to think about conducting a proper research into this matter to see exactly how vulnerable our children are?

Mr Chan Soo Sen: Maybe the Member can be more specific about the terms of reference of the study, and we will look at them.

Mr Steve Chia Kiah Hong: A point of clarification, Sir. Are there really no symptoms expressed by the afflicted or are we, as a society, the school, the teachers, etc, not sensitive enough to the symptoms expressed by the students? Maybe the teachers and the schools need to be more sensitive, rather than saying that the students are not expressing any symptoms at all.

Mr Chan Soo Sen: Mr Speaker, Sir, I was responding to Mr Steve Chia's point about crying for help. If a person cries for help and we did not respond and the person commits suicide, yes, something is very wrong. I am saying that it is not a case of a person crying for help and we did not respond.

As for being sensitive, we have to bear in mind that if our teachers become too sensitive, they may see suicidal tendencies in everybody, and that is not the way to conduct a class.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo (West Coast): Sir, I want to check with the Minister whether there has been any survey or even a dialogue that has been organised for students to hear from them whether they are indeed going through stress of all sorts in school.

Mr Chan Soo Sen: As I have said, all these may have been happening on the ground. The Ministry did not organise. The schools and parents would have discussed this subject. I would like to go back to my earlier point and say, yes, stress is inevitable in a learning environment. And that stress is motivating. It is a drive. The point is that if it becomes excessive beyond the level that the person can cope, then intervention is necessary.

Mr Tan Soo Khoon: Sir, I could not quite understand the Minister of State's answer regarding the recent suicide cases. First, he has dismissed study stress as the cause. Then, in the next instance, he says that we should wait for the police's investigations to come out. But what I want to ask him now is that, in view of the fact that there have been several teenage suicides in past years, surely, by now, his Ministry would have come to some conclusions as to what were the causes of these suicides, and do something about it.

Mr Chan Soo Sen: Sir, if we are talking about the recent suicides, the investigations are still taking place. What I said was that there was no evidence that MOE knows of to suggest that the students have study difficulties.

Mr Tan Soo Khoon: How do you know?

Mr Chan Soo Sen: We do ask the teachers, the principals and from the schools' perspective. We did not find any evidence that it is because of a school related element from the inquiries that we have conducted internally. So, we say we will wait for the police report. It may be more comprehensive. We are prepared to look at additional facts.

If the Member asks me about the suicide cases in recent years, I do not have the information on the cases that happened in the last few years with me. If the Member is interested, he can file a separate question and we will give him the answer.

Dr Lily Neo: Mr Speaker, Sir, I want to clarify that I did not imply any number or large number of suicide cases I would appreciate for the number that happened in the past few years and the reasons why these suicides happened.

Mr Chan Soo Sen: Sir, if the Member files a Question, we will give her an answer.

Ms Braema Mathiaparanam: Sir, the Minister of State asked for terms of reference. Maybe it is timely to form a task force and I will be more than happy to give the terms of reference to the task force.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo: Sir, it would appear to me that we seem to be only responding to the source of the problem and therefore we take a very reactive approach. The Minister of State mentioned earlier that, depending on the threshold level, the individual schools probably would be organising some of the fact-finding programmes. Since the Ministry is now taking cognisance of some symptoms that are already occurring in some junior colleges, would the Ministry not consider mounting a programme where we take a more proactive approach towards some of these symptoms that we are seeing today?

Mr Chan Soo Sen: Sir, what I said was that stress exists in our system. Our proactive approach involves training all our teachers in basic counselling skills and training two teacher-counsellors per school to deal with the more serious cases, bring in former education officers who are experienced, train them and deploy them at cluster level. At the Ministry of Education, we have psychologists to give guidance as well as to deal with the more complicated cases. We do not want to see every symptom of stress as potentially serious. This is our approach. We regret that there have been suicide cases. For the recent cases, we have not established that they were due to school related issues, but we are prepared to wait for the investigations to be completed. And if there are things that we need to do, we will do it. So we do have a proactive system in place. 3.00 pm

Mr Speaker: Order. End of Question time.

[Pursuant to Standing Order No. 21(3), Question No. 10 on the Order Paper has been postponed to the next sitting of Parliament.]