There are so many reasons why having children in Singapore is losing traction

There are so many reasons why having children in Singapore is losing traction.

There is the education system minefield that keeps changing every now and then. Even teachers themselves have lost their expertise trying to keep up and needed upgrading to do so. And parents could no longer act as tutors to their kids unlike my generation.

Then there is the cost involved in bring up a child. A tin of baby milk powder costs an arm and a leg for low-income families, on top of shrinking contents. A kilogram tin has now shrunk to 800 grams; a half kilogram is now 400 grams. This is just based on my outdated quotation, as my children and grandchildren have all grown up. I still remember paying S$15 for a kilogram tin of baby milk powder in early 1980s, if I remember correctly. Now this is what the Chinese used to say - paying more money for less ingredients.

The milk powder manufacturers keep telling consumers that this and that has been added just to justify the price gorging. Some even claim that their milk powder improves intellectual competence. Can I just ask, what intellectual competence if the child is born without the brain capacity to study? Can just drinking the milk do the job? The generation of LKY and GKS did not have to rely on such baby milk powders to nurture them into such outstanding thinkers. They probably grew up on condensed milk, nothing fanciful.

This same argument can be applied to the elite schools chalking up accolades for stellar performances over decades. How can that not be so when they have the choice of the cream of the crop, leaving other normal schools to try their best with mediocre students. If students from such elite schools cannot produce stellar results based on their cream of the crop intake, something is seriously wrong somewhere.

On top of that parents have to contend with after school tuition fees in order not to land in ITE, although that route is becoming more conducive rather than a university education that is losing traction in the jobs market with AI doing the thinking. I am amaze at the number of young graduates doing hawking today, which is unthinkable in the past. However, it is quite apparent that tuition centers are a lucrative business, with even students from the elite schools needing to go for tuition and giving tuition centers the opportunity to boasts about having such elite students in their midst.

Another factor is that nowadays both parents need to work to make ends meet due to the high cost of living, thereby leaving the kids to the maids and that is another added cost that poor parents can ill afford. Not all maids are reliable and may impart different upbringing mindsets in kids. Complaints about maids can be heard more frequently than praises.


Anonymous

Trump digging a big hole in the education industry

 There are more than 270,000 Chinese students studying in the USA as reported, and when a push comes to shove, China will be the biggest beneficiary, with its universities now ranked highly in global higher studies statistics.

For Chinese parents, nothing beats having children studying close to home, at a fraction of the cost in tuition fees, savings on expenses like housing in the USA and cost of vacation travel. Cheaper, better and safer is what takes the cake, all thanks to Trump.

Again, it is going to be a huge loss for one side and a bountiful gain for the other. The tuition fees in USA universities are not to be sniffed at. And USA universities will have to find ways and means to fill up the big financial hole left behind by those Chinese students. This is on top of the losses by retail outlets and food and beverage establishments that cater to those students. The financial loss will not be confined to just the universities but is going to be more far reaching. Jobs may be lost too, for universities and supporting facilities.

Anonymous

China knows the USA is out to destroy China

As if the USA is giving free subsidized education to foreigners, especially the Chinese students. The USA has been gaining huge monetary benefits from foreign students studying in the country. USA Universities depend on full tuition fees to survive. That is the direct benefit. The indirect benefits come from housing rentals, student spending on needs, transport, travelling and vacation holidays. All these supporting activities generate jobs that runs into hundreds of thousands. They are jobs needed for those unable to make ends meet by just holding one job.

I think complete de-coupling is no longer just a possibility, but a certainty for China with the USA. China must forget about dealing the status quo with the USA henceforth and concentrate on migrating its priority towards the Global South, where its future lies. No two ways about that. The USA cannot tolerate a multipolar world and wants to remain the sole superpower. China is the USA's peer competitor in every field. One mountain cannot contain two tigers, and fighting is inevitable.

It is perhaps a good sign that Trump is destroying the USA internally and externally as well, while China is expanding its influence globally. Who will rise and who will fall is still not certain.


Anonymous

Stupid hillbillies in Washington regret for chasing away top Chinese scientists and engineers

 It is too late for the USA to cry over spilt milk. USA nuclear research and development, rocketry, cutting-edge semiconductor developments were all contributions by top-notch Chinese scientists in the past. Some may have come from Taiwan, but still also Chinese, like Morris Chang.

Most have now returned to mainland China, to teach and nurture younger Chinese scientists and engineers, in universities, research facilities and private enterprises like Huawei, SMIC, BYD, Alibaba, Tencent and others. There is no shortage of opportunities for them in China today. The sky is the limit.

When the USA talks about trying to lure these scientists back to the USA by making working environment safe and welcoming for them, I just could not stifle my laughter at their stupidity. First you chase them out with atrocious claims and punishments and now asking them to return is no more than a sick joke.

Moreover, China is building universities like no tomorrow and needs talents to staff critical departments. And these academics are well versed in the English Language, which is a bonus for China in its attempt to lure foreign students to study in China. What is now a growing stream of foreign students in Chinese universities is going to become a flood very soon. And that is going to be detrimental for Western universities charging sky high tuition fees that have become unaffordable even for USA students.

The fact that China now holds the greatest number of patents in science and technology is not lost on those scientists, engineers and academics still working in the USA. More will return, knowing that China is where the action and innovation is happening.

Perhaps the day will come when the USA might go ahead to accuse China of overcapacity in providing university education for the rest of the world. Never underestimate the mindset of the Hillbillies.

Anonymous

The day when Singapore implodes

 Who would ever think that Singapore would implode when it is now touted as one of the most successful and richest country in the world? Everywhere you turn is success in Singapore. The pay of all the elites is in the millions, multi millions just like model USA. Singapore is like a miniature copy of America in everything, following America, imitating America in practically all its policies for economic development.

When the Americans switched from a manufacturing nation to focus on the service and finance industries, Singapore followed suit. When the Americans started to sell junk bonds, introduced computer assisted trading in the stock market, derivative trading, Singapore did the same. When the Americans started to pay their CEOs in the millions, Singapore could not resist and did the same, now even chicken rice businesses also pay their CEOs in the millions. Everything the Americans did must be good and just follow blindly. When the Americans started to bring in foreign talents in droves, Singapore did the same and forgetting that the USA is a continent size country with more than 330m in population while Singapore is but a little piece of rock with barely 5m population. This did not stop Singapore from wanting to import more foreigners to make it 6.9m or 10m or 15m, as if it is of continental size like the USA, unlimited land.

America is now imploding. The facade of growth is hidden by its ability to print free money that Singapore could not. The unrestrained rise of cost of living, high property prices, high medical cost, high insurance, high legal fees, high education fees leading to students ended up in debt just in paying tuition fees, high taxi fares etc etc are now the norms in Singapore. Trump is now kicking out as many immigrants as he could for robbing the jobs of the Americans. Singapore is still sleeping and did not see that this is the same problem that would be politically very costly to Singapore. Instead of following Trump to kick out excessive foreigners, Singapore is asking for more.

Singapore is not the USA and is foolish to follow everything the Americans are doing without thinking and not looking into the mirror. The problems and crisis the Americans are facing would be repeated in Singapore. Singapore does not distill or filter out American policies that may not be beneficial to the island, and some are obviously harmful and damaging. 

China learnt from Singapore. China also learnt from the Americans and the rest of the world but very discriminating in picking only those that are useful and applicable and discarded those that are harmful. China is very conscious of keeping the cost of living low for its people, keeping the salaries of political leaders and CEOs of private companies within reasonable limits, keep transportation cost low, medical fee, tuition fee, housing low to be competitive in the world market. There is a lot of wisdom in how China embraces, follows, learns and adopt American and Singapore's ways of doing things. China is moving very fast in its competition with the Americans but would not suffer the same kind of problems the Americans are facing. The experience of Americans in their exchange with the Chinese in the RedNote app is very telling.

China is keeping the pay of CEOs and political leaders very lean vis a vis the Americans. This in a way allows the Chinese to price their products and services very competitively in the world, and keeping the cost of living low and bearable to its people.

America is imploding though they keep telling the world that all is fine, their economy is rock solid. If that is so, there would be no need to make America great again. If that is so, there would be no need to lie to the American people about how good their life is and China is collapsing, the Chinese people are suffering and having a hard life, under an oppressive regime.

When would Singapore implode under the weight of high cost of living and high cost of everything, and the load of providing good jobs and everything to foreigners and new citizens, like the USA?

Let the American clowns continue to believe they are ahead of China

 China already left the USA behind in various fields. China has built its own space station and is now operational. The USA still needs Russian rockets to send their astronauts to the ISS. Who is ahead? How did their rockets reached the moon I wonder?

In the clean energy sector, China is already far ahead of the USA, in EVs, solar panels and wind turbine manufacturing. The USA wants China to cut its domination for the USA to catch up.

China is already far ahead of the USA in shipbuilding. This is a fact that not many had noticed or are aware of, and still thinking that the Japanese and South Koreans are still dominating the sector.

Apart from the above, what else had China overtaken the USA? In the field of patents, China trumps the USA. Huawei holds patents in telecommunication that other telecommunication giants have to pay patent rights to use. China is on par with the USA in super computers. China's infrastructures put the USA in shame. China high speed rail construction is so far ahead of the USA, it puts the USA in the shade.

Chinese universities are rising up the ranks in the world and attracting students from all over, with tuition fees and accommodation on campus so cheap that it is putting some USA universities out of business or facing financial problems. Moreover, the influx of English-speaking professors from USA universities are allowing Chinese universities to conduct courses in English, a blessing in disguise again for China arising from the USA crackdown on Chinese academics and researchers.

China is thankful that the USA cannot find good people, with good thinking skills and strategic mindset to pull the USA out of its quagmire. China is just content to let the USA continue using their outdated playbook of pulling others down while putting itself in stagnation.

Yes, China should be thankful to the USA for all the help.

Anonymous

Taiwan's Secessionist DPP Produces Report to Sarbo Singapore in Eyes of West

 

A Taiwan-based research outfit has ranked Singapore as second in the world - behind Cambodia - most influenced by China. The Doublethink Lab says In technology, society and academia - but less so for domestic politics - Singapore was found to be especially susceptible to the exposure, pressure and effect of Beijing's influence

The Taiwanese said Chinese-language teachers have been hired from China to work in schools and tuition centres, along with reports of Chinese-language curriculum material increasingly following China's standards.

The Taiwanese also said in 2016, after an arbitral tribunal's ruling against China's claims to a handful of islands in the South China Sea, Singapore businesses were reportedly "warned" that Singapore's insistence on international law could jeopardise their commercial position in China.

In the domain of foreign policy, the Taiwanese claimed Singapore has become "visibly quieter" over the South China Sea dispute and international rule of law relating to China since the 2016 detention of Singapore's army vehicles in Hong Kong en route home from Taiwan.

The Taiwanese also cited Singapore Technologies Kinetics and its subsidiary Guizhou Jonyang Kinetics producing an all-terrain personnel carrier based on the Bronco armoured vehicle used by Singapore's army, as a proof point under the military domain. It reportedly saw service in Tibet recently.

In the media domain, former foreign minister George Yeo and academic Kishore Mahbubani were described as part of "an increasing number of prominent individuals" promoting the Chinese official line on current affairs.

It also identified a little-known YouTuber called Noel Lee, believed to be Singaporean, who started publishing in March last year videos on China that include denials of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

His clips are reportedly shared on messaging platforms such as WhatsApp.

Doublethink Lab describes itself as a civil society organisation investigating disinformation and information operations to safeguard democracy globally.

A committee convened by Doublethink Lab designed the indicators for the poll. The eight-person committee largely comprised Western analysts such as Ms Bonnie Glaser from the US research institution German Marshall Fund and Ms Nadege Rolland from America's National Bureau of Asian Research, with the exception of Dr Roy Chun Lee from the Taiwan WTO and RTA Centre at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research. 

 

 Anonymous 

Petrol price up, GST up, what else is not up?

Our Current Situation:
March 25, 2022 at 3:04 am (Quote)


I am 72 years old and have been unemployed. My elder son completed his University degree and also have not been able to get employment for the past two years. My younger son who completed his Polytechnic diploma is also unemployed but now trying to get admission to the local University.

My wife who is going to retire soon is doing clerical duties and is now supporting the four of us with S$3,000 salary.

My family is a good example of a local family in deep shits because of our government FT policy. Really disappointed.

Above is a comment from a reader to an article in TRE about the out of touch PAP Minister by a Prabu Ramachandran. Contrast this guy's pathetic situation to those that are claiming to be earning $10k pm or more and the ministers million or more annual income. What is real or what is fake? Both are equally real, depending on what you want to see and want to know and what you do not want to see and do not want to know.

To the 72 year old guy, every small increase in prices of anything, transport fare, kopi, chicken rice etc etc, is going to be very painful and unaffordable. To those high earners, what is $50, or what is $10m?

It is all relative depending on where you are and how lucky or unlucky you are, or like some like to boast, how smart or not smart one is.

The 72 year old guy is lucky that his two sons have completed their studies and not having to pay with the high tuition fees for our excellent quality education, the more you pay, the better the quality of education. But not necessary when applying for jobs. In the latter, the lower you pay for tuition fees, very likely it is easier to get a job in Singapore, but not in the same third world country they came from. 

Funny isn't it? Our first world country, producing A grade students and getting the best and most expensive university or polytechnic education, cannot compete with third world graduates from funny universities with tuition fees that cost only a fraction of ours, and according to our standard of measurement, lower tuition fees mean lower quality of education, but these graduates from funny universities that are supposedly lower in quality according to our definition, are the preferred and choiced candidates for employment here. And our university and poly graduates are mostly spending time tweedling their thumbs at homes, CANNOT GET A JOB! 

Whose fault is this? Anyone should be responsible for the shit that our young are facing and suffering? No, no one is at fault. If there is, it is our young, that they should not be wasting time getting that piece of paper call degrees. They should just go out and look for a job, like a food delivery boy, or guarding the entrance to a shopping mall or office tower, or if their daddy happens to own a car, go and be a Grab driver. Do not apply for permanent jobs. Those jobs need qualifications from funny and cheap universities from the third world countries.

Vote for the best political party and pay them millions, and everything will be fine. Continue to get your world best degrees and stay at home tweedling your thumbs. You are well taken care of, very well taken care of.

And do not any how spend, save for the rainy day, provided you are working and have a income to save, in this most expensive city in the world. It is a miracle how Singaporeans like the 72 year old guy could manage to survive with two graduate unemployed children. This is Uniquely Singapore, which can afford to bring in half a million foreigners, give them good and permanent jobs, but could not give jobs to its very own citizens with university and polytechnic degrees.

What the fuck is going on? Who cares? Why should people earning more than $10k or in the millions be caring when they are gloating about how lucky or clever they are? And if they did not get their million dollar salary, their lifestyle would be affected.

Collateral damage of Elitism in Singapore

 This is the COLLATERAL DAMAGE caused by the ruling elites' desire to turbo charge and punch our economy well above our natural weight.

Given that we are a tiny hub city with no natural resources, inflating the economy on “steroids” – huge overflow of multinationals and foreign talent - IS NOT A SIN PER SE.

What is sinful is when the “loot” or the “artificially inflated economic cake” created by multinationals and foreign talents – whom of course will have their generous cut – is reaped by a few elite Singaporeans while leaving the majority of Singaporeans, in particular the old and under-educated ones, to fight over the crumbs.

LKY warned that if we did not vote the PAP, our women would become maids in foreign lands. But instead, we now have 40,000 core Singaporean men driving Grab, 30,000 delivering food, 16,000 driving taxis, 40,000 cleaners and landscape personnel, 30,000 security guards etc. all of whom are lowly paid compared to the imported high-flyers.

Throw in Covid-19 stresses and the mix can become explosive.

Therefore, racism may not be all about elitism but is more likely to be substantially a part of it. The cure for racism is not so different as the cure for elitism. A more egalitarian and a fairer society is a less racist society.

To a large extent, racism is just an excuse or bogeyman used to mask the real problem of elitism, class, and caste.

And in Singapore, how can one not expect to see an elitist pecking ordered society when a certain ruling party MP once said that if a senior bureaucrat is not paid a very high salary, how can she conduct a meeting with a CEO of a corporation who is paid much more?

What a set of bollocks and false narratives.

In Singapore, money has been wrongly and conveniently used as the sole yardstick to measure job responsibility.

By this definition, Jacinda Ardern would not be able to do her job effectively because she is paid much less than many corporate high-flyers and does not live in a "good class bungalow" in New Zealand.

She earns less than $500k per annum and by our Senior Minister's definition, she is supposed to be mediocre. Yet she was voted this year by Fortune magazine as the world's greatest leader, beating all our Singapore leaders by a mile.
In Singapore, the ruling elites have inadvertently created a big elephant in the room known as elitism. The scholarship system worked well at the time when the nation was poor. Today, the same system perpetuates elitism.

Why is there a $2 billion private tuition market if not abundantly explained by an artificially created intellectual arms race?

Therefore real cancer that is permeating deeply into the Singapore society is elitism, not racism.

A highly questionable and gamed meritocratic system, where the top salaries are uncapped and gamed (with obscenely low individual taxes for the million-dollar earners) while the bottom salaries are uplifted in a miserly and calibrated way (all cleaners will eventually earn $2420/-by year 2028!).

So, the government now wishes to conflate elitism, societal stress due to excessive and unfair competition, Covid-19, loss of self-esteem amongst commoners, pretty much everything suffering caused by skewed policies, and conveniently blame it on one single issue, which is racism/xenophobia.

Racism and xenophobia are merely the external manifestation of some FAR DEEPER ROOT CAUSES that the ruling elites are slow to address. 

Anonymous

The Spread of Vicious Viruses Is Caused By Irresponsible People and Irresponsible Leaders

So far, more than 10 schools, tuition centres, colleges and kindergartens have been infected collectively.

There may be many more that went undetected or unreported.

This present B1617 series of Covid-19 viruses produced by India is notoriously much, much more infectious than their predecessors, and more deadly too.

The previous Covid viruses only killed the old and weak within a month or so. These present India-produced Covid B1617 viruses killed the old, the weak, as well as the young and the healthy within 10 days or so. And they display no symptoms until the very last moment when the probability of death is very high. Without pure oxygen pumping into the lungs to help the patient to breath, the patient will die of suffocation, brain-dead, heart attack or kidney failure.

Most of those who got infected are people who flouted the proper way of wearing their masks, or those who stubbornly refused to wear a mask - eg taking it off while talking on the phone or talking to friends; not wearing masks while playing at public playgrounds and facilities; not wearing a mask while giving Speeches of teaching; standing too close to people who are smoking at home or in public places; attending Tae Kwon Do classes at Clubs or CCs; eating at crowded popular public places (like the Changi Airport canteen and cafeteria and Kopitiams), and wearing the mask over the chin instead of covering the mouth and nose, while taking public transport.

Naturally, such irresponsible people also become super-spreaders once they have been infected.

Therefore, basically, the spreading of the vicious virus is mainly caused by irresponsible people and irresponsible leaders who allowed the virus to enter the country, despite so many warnings given by their own citizens and others. 

Queen of Hearts

PSLE - Another change in grading system

 

 Another big exercise involving a lot of expertise from the education industry has just been completed. This musical chair or merry go round exercise has been going on for years and it seems that it would never be satisfactory as far as the parents are concerned.  The results only helped to meet some of the needs and expectations of the parents but would never be enough as the demands would keep on changing as the moods and expectations of clever and rich parents keep changing.

By now the education ministry and ministers and experts must have known what the parents really want. If they are still guessing or not wanting to face the truth, or knowing the truth but trying to meet the parents half way or a quarter way but still wanting to maintain certain educational objectives and standards, then the cycle will go on and on and every new minister would have his hands full when new sets of parents would have new demands and new axe to grind.

What the parents really want are very simple. Less stress ie less work, less study, and good results and easy to get into branded schools. Actually all three demands are very easy to meet. Less work and less study can be QED.  Just tell the teachers to go slow and teach less and just pretend that the children will then learn more. As for good results for all students, this is even easier. Grades should just be good and excellent and all students would be marked Merit or Excellent. Children will be happy, parents would be happier.

The next big demand is good schools. This is also easily done by a little restructuring and renaming of schools. Pick the best 10 schools that are most desirable by the parents and children. All the schools should be renamed under these 10 schools.  As an example, there can be 50 Raffles Institutions and 50 Hwa Chong Institutions to choose from. Raffles Institution, Bishan, Raffles Institution, Radin Mas, Raffles Institution, Tanglin, Raffles Institution, Ang Mo Kio, Raffles Institution Bedok etc etc The same would apply to Hwa Chong Institution and the other top 8 branded schools.

Now, would that make all the parents and children happy?  Oh, school placement would be very much easier. Can still give preference to citizens and location of homes and the top 6 choices in order of preference.

 Now what is so difficult about this? It took me 5 minutes to solve all the angst of parents. There will be no more stress for parents and students.  No more needs for expensive tuition and spending so much time studying. Go to school and play and enjoy. Many great countries are producing great talents by just giving their students distinctions in all subjects even if they failed. This is only a piece of paper.  What is important in life is whether the student eventually can work or can bluff their way through in life.

No need to sweat the small stuff. No need to put so much pressure on the Education Minister and the teachers and principles.  Singapore will be a very happy place to bring up children and with good grades in good schools without having to study and mug.

I rest my case. It is very hard work to formulate such a big change in the education grading system to please everyone.

CCA, the one thing Singaporeans bestest over third world students

7 Reasons Why It's Worth Investing In Your Child's CCA
By Priyanka Elhence, 27 July 2020 10195
 

What is a CCA?

Co-curricular activities (CCA), also known as extra-curricular activities, are an important part of a child’s holistic development and growth. Research and scientific studies have repeatedly shown that if children are to develop into well-rounded individuals, then CCA has to be regarded as being just as important as academics. Through CCA, students can discover their interests and talents, develop their character, learn how to appreciate values, and pick up important soft skills such as leadership to prepare them for future challenges in life.

Benefits of CCAs on your child

1. Better time management and other essential life skills  Other essential life skills that CCAs help children develop include:

- Leadership
- Communication & public speaking
- Event planning
- Teamwork and relationship building
- Goal setting
- Prioritisation
- Problem solving
- Analytical thinking

2. Improves self-esteem
3. Teaches the importance of commitment
4. Broadens their experiences & views
5. Provides opportunities for social networking  

6. Develops children into being more well-rounded individuals  

7. Gives kids a fun way to beat stress

Investing in CCAs is important as it can help children connect to different communities, form different groups of friends, and build relationships that go way beyond the classroom, giving them a good social circle, while keeping them mentally and emotionally healthy. 

 

The above is from a INCOME insurance promotion. This CCA thing is probably the only thing that Singaporean students could be better than third world students. This is a privilege that only rich countries and rich parents could afford to pay to give their children better education in being developed in all aspects of their growing up and development. With this kind of extra education, there is no way our students would be worse off than third world students, at least on paper, theoretically speaking.  The more you put in, if good stuff, the better will be the student.

The only shortcoming in this push and force feeding to our young is that every child has only 24 hours a day. Take away sleep and rest time, take away time for food and travelling, all will have only X hours left. If our students are going to be fed with their school works, home works, tuition and all the CCAs, something must give. Not many children are super fit or super gifted to be able to do so much within a fixed time available.

The third world students would probably be spared with such CCAs.  Their parents could not afford to pay for them. So their X time would only be for school works. They are likely not going to have tuition.  Most of them could not afford tuition too.

This may be the reason why our super trained students, jammed with school works and tuition and CCA could not compete with third world students that only have to care about their school works. They do not need to have all the CCAs to be the all rounded and well educated student that ended up with many becoming half past six as they just could not cope with so many things within a fixed X hours.

So you can see why all the third world students are stealing our lunches, better qualified for jobs that our half past six in everything students, with a bag full of papers and certificates but good for nothing and ended up doing part time jobs or food delivery boys and girls.

Do I make sense? Too much of the good stuff but unable to digest would end up as diarrhoea, just go in and out of the system, nothing much retained.

Is it Singapore's responsibility to solve India's unemployment problem and also to provide education to Indians?

Below is from an article posted in www.theindependent in Dec 2019.

'Indian nationals who were awarded scholarships advertised by the Ministry of Education (MOE) are set to arrive in Singapore in the December-January period, in time for the next school year. The two scholarships that are administered by the MOE are the A*STAR Youth Scholarship and the SIA Youth Scholarship.

Both scholarships are open to Indian nationals only.

The A*STAR Youth Scholarship is one that allows youth scholars from India to study in selected Singapore schools from Secondary 3 to Pre-University 2, until they earn the Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (GCE ‘A’-Level) (or equivalent) certificate. The scholarship is renewed annually, subject to the satisfactory performance of the scholar.

Applications were accepted from 24 June to 28 July this year and had to undergo a selection test in Delhi in September, followed by a round of interviews in October. The scholarships were awarded last month and the scholars are expected to arrive in Singapore this month and begin Secondary 3 next year....

Earlier this year, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung revealed that MOE spends about S$238 million a year on scholarships and tuition grants for foreign students studying in Singapore. S$108 million out of the S$238 million is spent on tuition grants and the remaining S$130 million is spent on scholarships.

In response to questions by Workers’ Party (WP) politician Leon Perera, Mr Ong assured that foreign students are admitted into institutes of higher learning (IHLs) only after “all Singaporean students who meet the standards have been admitted” and that “No Singaporean is ever displaced from institutes of higher learning because of an international student.”....

The ruling party politician added that annual government spending on scholarships and tuition grants for foreign students has fallen by about 50 per cent over the past 10 years.

Responding to Mr Ong’s revelation, another WP politician Yee Jenn Jong pointed out that this means the Government used to spend about S$476 million on foreign students in the past:'

 

So much public money have been used to provide education to foreigners. $476m a year, now $238m a year and thinking this is small change. Spend OPM damn 'tua kang'. Why aren't such money be used to support our very own children? This is like coveting other people's wives. Trying to snatch other people's children and hoping that they would become useful to us. This kind of mentality/policy is nothing to be proud of. Morally not very right. Unethical, and unfair to our own people and our own children.

What do you think? Thou shalt not covet other people's children.

MOE 'long standing practice' must be good, sacred, cannot anyhow change

When this issues was first surfaced by Gilbert Goh, MOE held on to its “long standing practice” reasoning. To any layman, such an action by MOE was unkind and indefensible with no sense of empathy for the poor PSLE girl whose original result slip was withheld because her parents owed a fee of $156.

Why didn’t Minister Ong Ye Kung immediately step in to save his ministry the embarrassment?
Instead, MOE issued a strong statement later, saying that “MOE’s consideration stems from the underlying principle that notwithstanding the fact that the cost of education is almost entirely publicly funded, we should still play our part in paying a small fee, and it is not right to ignore that obligation, however small it is.”

 Now that Minister Ong is going to review this issue, can we conclude that the “long standing practice” is wrong in principle in the first place?

Similarly, when Minister defended the granting of $238 million for scholarships and tuition grants to foreign students, I have argued that such decade-old practice of providing taxpayers’ money to educate foreign students is wrong in principle and should be terminated immediately. It seems clear that he didn’t agree when he ordered the issue of a POFMA Correction Directive to Lim Tean to correct his posting to reflect that MOE is spending more than the $167m for grants and bursaries to Singapore students....

Kok Ming Cheang

The above article of Kok Ming Cheang posted in TRE takes the position that things that are not right or good must be changed. And the outdated victimising of 12 year olds is now being exposed and aired very negatively and no one I know so far has anything good to say about it. But from the officialdom, the first reaction was not to do the thinking but to defend fiercely this policy like any unthinking civil servant would do. How can they accept the criticism in the first place? All govt policies are carefully thought out by the most brilliant civil servants and must be good, especially when it has been in practice for decades. So defend they did and got to look more silly and evil by the days.

Ong Ye Kung must have many earfuls and finds it unbearable and unreasonable under any circumstances to explain this away.  So decades old policies can be bad and should be reviewed and then scrapped. Sorry for the unthinking civil servants that stood up to defend the undefendable and now would have to swallow their arrogance and non thinking mindset, defend first at all cost.

Actually I have a different take. Decades long policies, long standing practices, must be good, cannot be bad and must be defended or else look silly.  The punishment of a 12 year old child was not meant to be. It was meant to punish the parents. The little glitch is that this is not explain to the little child who, if he/she has a little intellect and a bit sensitive, would have felt it quite badly.

It is so easy to remedy this. Get all the school principals to explain this in the morning assembly, tell the children, affected or not affected, that this policy is only to punish the irresponsible parents, not the innocent children of the irresponsible parents. And also produce more media material for the press, TV and social media that this is the real reason. No one should look unkindly at the affected children of irresponsible parents. See QED. And the long standing policy can stay. No fake news.

The same applies to the annual $238m tuition fees and grants for foreigners. This is also decades long standing policy and must be good. To stop this generosity would be a slap on the face of silly civil servants that approved this policy and also an admission that so many billions of public money have been wrongly spent. This case has better merits to defend like mad, and quoting that it is decades long policy would make good sense in every sense.

In conclusion, good policies that have been implemented for decades must be kept, die die must not change. If not, some people will look very silly for the unkind policy to 12 years old, and in the case of using OPM to give to foreigners would, yes, look damn stupid and irresponsible.

So, what do you think? Civil servants always make good policies and such policies should be defended at all cost if they are long standing, or, civil servants can be very silly and stupid and unkind in making stupid policies?

PS. Just think of all the good long standing policies that would have to be scrapped, eg high HDB prices, high water prices, high school and tuition fees equal good quality education, CPF money retention and shifting goal posts, more foreigners as new citizens, CECA already more than 10 years, must be damn bloody good, millionaire ministers, millionaire civil servants and CEOs of GLCs .....

Singaporeans being shortchanged by....

To be a Singaporean is very tough and very expensive. From birth to death, it is a very expensive business all the way. Just ask how much it costs to prepare a child from conception to delivery in our world class hospitals, the prenatal visits to the specialists and consultants all costs a bomb. By the time a baby is born, it would cost the parents tens of thousands, in S$.

The next phase is the expensive milk power with special formula to make the baby grow up smart, to become not only an Einstein but also a star sportsman or sportswoman or an artiste. Of course the truth is that many would end up as security guards and food deliverers. And to make this happen, some already started teaching while the baby is still a foetus in the mother's womb. This would be followed by the most expensive childcare and pre school child development programme. The six years before school would not be cheap for sure.

The six years of primary school of intense pressure to get not only As but A stars to be good enough to be in the top secondary schools and Pre Universities. The tuition and ECA costs would be something the parents would be willing to bear to their best abilities. Never mind if the grown up child could not get a proper job but becomes temp.

And many would get into our really good polytechnics and universities, world class with world class fees. By the end of this journey, a few hundred thousands could be spent on the child from the rich families and not much lesser from the not so rich families.

Then there is this national responsibility to do 2 years of NS and reservist duties for another 20 years. Then there is this very expensive pigeon to pay for if one thinks of getting married, and the usual cost of living in this super expensive city.

The battle has just started. This super expensive young Singaporean is pushed into the deep end to compete with cheap and hungry foreigners that went through an education system, if there was one, or some fake education system with fake degrees for jobs. The cheap foreigners would be happy with anything, what more do they want when most of them don't even have a proper education or degree to start with. And they do not have to spend years in NS and to pay for the super expensive pigeon holes to live in and the high cost of living.

And they said the foreigners are more talented, willing to work for less, better than the super expensive Singaporeans coming from a super expensive education system and expecting to survive in a super expensive city with cheap third world pay or to compete with cheap third world half past six products.

Are Singaporeans being shortchanged? Is it fair for Singaporeans to compete with wildlife from god knows where with god knows what education that cost a fraction of what a Singaporean would have to pay for to start life as an adult? Is it fair to say everything is fair and square, Singaporeans have to be more competitive vis a vis the wildlife? How to, you tell me.

It is totally irresponsible to put our Singaporeans to compete with the wildlife in our home country without any protection or advantage but full of disadvantages. How could Singaporeans not gone jobless, unemployed, underemployed and eventually extinct, unable to compete in their own country with rules and systems that treat foreigners as equals to Singaporeans?

But it is ok. Daft and unthinking Singaporeans think the system is fair and meritocratic and the best man or woman, Singaporean or wildlife, deserves the job and pay he could get. There is nothing unfair to Singaporeans and those Singaporeans that cannot make it deserve to be losers, in their homeland.  Do not blame others, blame yourself for being not good enough, for spending hundreds of thousands to grow up, to get a good education and made to compete with those that did not spend a fortune on growing up and armed with fake degrees from dubious backgrounds and need only spend a fraction of what a Singaporean spent. And better still, no need to pay for super expensive cost of living that needs a comparable income to keep up with.

Thank you daft Singaporeans for being so understanding and dismissive of your own plight and taking responsibility for it. You deserve to be in this pathetic state of affair in your very own country.

What is $238m to educate foreigners?

The amount that our MOE spent on foreign students, as mentioned by OYK in Parliament, was $238 million annually. (or was it $340m or was it $680m, after reduced b 50%?). By any standard, that is alot of money especially when this comes from our precious hard-earned tax dollars and are not from some lottery windfall or inheritance wealth.

We should play our part as a responsible member of the international community by taking in and sponsoring some international students. But this PAP government must forever be mindful that Singaporeans are not suckers and the government is not a Santa Claus.

I suggest that our budget for foreign student’s scholarships and tuition grants be capped at S$100 million annually and adjusted for inflation. The leftover balance can be used comfortably to help our struggling families lighten their financial burdens and give their children a better shot at life, instead of their children starting out in life with educational debts to pay.

My daughter is an undergraduate at NTU, and I know the sad reality in Singapore is that many working class families got themselves into big debts even as OYK so eloquently put it that “all Singaporean students who meet the standards have been admitted” and that “no Singaporean is ever displaced from institute of higher learning because of an international student” etc....

Posted by Simon Lim in TRE 

All I can say is to ape some of the super rich here by uttering, What is $238m? Or shall I say it is peanuts. Remember the $200m overspent on the Youth Olympics and the hundreds of million spent annually on the F1? After all spending OPM does not hurt one's own pocket. Spend lah, what is the problem? 

Today Hsien Loong said they are thinking of reducing fees for part time students to reduce education cost for working adults. What mercy! How long have working adults and our students been suffering for paying high fees while foreigners' children were and are still having a whale of a time with our free money to enjoy our world class education without a sweat?

Maybe we need to have GE every year and more such goodies would be made available to benefit out tax paying citizens.

Hsien Loong's National Day Rally- Protecting people's livelihood

Two points were quite new in this rally other than climate change. One is lowering education cost for Singaporeans and the second, concern of workers who want to work longer with longer lifespan.

The lowering of education cost is not something new as it has been flogged like a dead horse for the last couple of decades with the govt turning a deaf ear and chose to throw more money, in the billions to educate children of foreigners. The numbers kept piling up and the Education Minister must be quite embarrassed reading the numbers in Parliament, hundreds of millions every year, and double the amount in the last couple of decades at the expense of Singaporean children in education. But I am wrong, for the govt said all the money spent on foreign children, including university places for foreigners were not done at the expense of Singapore children. No Singapore children has lost out, lost their university place because of the foreign students paid to study here. OK, I admit I am wrong, no point arguing about it as the coin has two sides and I and many Singaporeans are looking at the wrong side.

Hsien Loong in his rally speech has made right this annual grouse by lowering university and polytechnic tuition fees quite considerably especially in medicine. Students now need to pay only $5000 a year instead of &29,000 to $35,000. And poly students could pay as low as $150 per year. These are good news to the students and their parents. And to make it sweeter and to show that the govt is not wayanging, it takes immediate effect in the next academic year and for existing students unlike past policies that would take place a year later. The kpkb against the grotesque sum given to foreign children may not elicit any response from the govt, or meant nothing to the govt, nor affect a govt that would do the right thing by being deaf. But this change in govt policy should help many families in lowering their financial burden paying for their children's education.

DBS the best bank in the world

The next important point is working longer for Singaporeans that are living longer. DBS was singled for praise for job restructuring and reskilling to enable its employees to work in new jobs and to work longer. Piyush Gupta was in the audience and beaming with pride for the good job done.

The best bank in the world is not for nothing if it does not show care and concern for its workers. Not sure if this include its business partners and agents that lost their livelihood in DBS's restructuring exercise to make the bank trimmer and more efficient. DBS has a big reputation as a national bank, a national icon and cannot do otherwise. Everyone is watching DBS, including Hsien Loong on how DBS contributes positively to create employment in Singapore not just for foreigners but also for Singaporeans and not to destroy their livelihood.

The govt has taken the initiative to increase retirement and reemployment age and raising CPF for senior employees. This is a key message in this year's National Day Rally, providing employment for as long as possible for Singaporeans that want to work longer, not terminating their employment prematurely and killing their livelihood. As the population ages and with more living longer, building and protecting their nest egg is vital if the seniors are to enjoy a life of financial independence and to live with dignity.

Every employer especially GLCs and ministries would have to take note of this policy mission and not to put Hsien Loong in an embarrassing position by acting contrary.

Singapore - Do less, achieve more

'Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Nusa Dua, Bali, Mr Heng said: "I’m very disappointed to read the Oxfam report ... The report, rather erroneously attributed, measures the performance (of countries) by input and how much money the public sector is spending on education, on healthcare.

"As we know, what really matters to our people is the outcome. It's the health outcome, it's the educational outcome and those are fairly objective measures. So it is important for us to focus on the outcome and not get misled by input measures," he added. ' Quote from CNA

The economists and statisticians have certain ways of understanding an issue. One of the way that is making Heng Swee Kiat and other ministers unhappy is the correlation between input and output. The more you put in, eg money, the better will be the result. This is like paying higher and higher education fees to make sure the education is quality or paying millions if you want above mediocre ministers. You can't blame Heng and his peers for not understanding this relationship. Actually they should know better. They are the living practitioners of more money more results.

But why did Heng think otherwise, that it is not how much you put in but the outcome. The outcome in this case is not how much is being put in 'by the govt'. In this matter, you can spend less and get more, or do less or work less and get better results.

The first believer of this theory is Tharman when he was the Education Minister. He came out with 'teach less and learn more'. The trick is in the details and implementation. And this do less and achieve more catchphrase is gaining popularity. The latest from DBS, ''Bank less, live more" in a way comes from the same kind of reasoning. How about eat less and live well, eat less sugar to live healthier, or pay more sugar tax or water tax? Oops, I digress.

I am also a believer of this theory of doing less and achieve or getting more. I eat less, never full, and somehow feels healthier. I spent less on food, often a $3 meal is enough and still go kicking or running around. On this, never eat until your whole face is rough, rosy and oily. It may give one a wealthy and prosperous look, like towkays, but once lard start to ooze out from your pores and crevices, you are in deep trouble. I know it looks so rich and handsome, the wealthy and succesful look of having a good life, not the scrawny poor look, like a starving grey hound.

I digress again. I may like the do less achieve more catchphrase, but this is only good as a queer theory, an exception. In reality, in practice, it is more input, more output, more money, better quality. If not the ministers would not be asking to be paid in the millions and asking for more, or the universities would not be raising fees to improve their qualities. Same as the MRT, must raise fare to improve quality of service.

Then you ask, why they never say pay less and better quality of work and services? Should give it a try by paying the ministers less and see if the result would be better? Lower train fares, lower medical fees, lower tuition fees in universities, and achieve better results?

Would any minister be shouting,  pay less get more? This is a good topic to table in Parliament.

PS. Can daft do less and achieve more? I think super talents can.

Training to become hawkers

I read in the main media of this great opportunity to become hawkers in Singapore’s famous hawker culture business. ITE has started a new hawker course to teach and train aspiring young people, very likely armed with degrees or diplomas to become hawkers. This new profession is about the best thing that has happened in Singapore for the young and entrepreneurial Singaporeans since getting a permanent job is quite difficult as most of the jobs were taken up by the 2 million foreign talents working here, and with more coming in to become locals and Singaporeans. New Singaporean graduates are finding it tough competing with these new talents, or is it that employers for some reasons, prefer to hire foreigners instead of Singaporeans, and other than becoming taxi drivers, it is better to become hawkers.
 
The ITE course, Introduction to Managing a Hawker Business, has attracted 25 aspiring young people to learn this new trade. Among the things that they would learn other than managing a hawker stall would be things like how to source for suppliers and yes, how to formulate a business plan. This is serious business.
I am calling my grandfather to apply to be a lecturer for this course. His experience as a hawker for 50 years, from the time he arrived in this island, with out a penny, with no education, would be very useful to the new trainees that have no clues about running a hawker stall. My grandfather would be able to teach them all the tricks of the trade, including sourcing for suppliers, how to cut operating cost, how to work from 6am to 12 mid night, how to stand frying char kway teow for long hours without going to the toilet.
 
But there is a caveat. My grandfather would not know how to teach them how to write business plan. Also he would have to conduct his course in Hokien. He had never been to school. He learnt his trade the hard way or what they called, OJT. There was no one to teach him how to be a hawker then, and no hawker courses to learn how to be a hawker.
 
Hope if he got the job, the highly educated trainee aspiring hawkers would bear with him and be willing to learn from him. Hawker business is not so easy and they don’t teach them in schools or the universities. So my grandfather and his peers would be the best lecturers/trainers for such a course. They had been there and done it, no pure reading by the books.
 
This poses a new query in my mind. Who are they getting to train these aspiring hawkers, people with experience in being hawkers or text books academics? I am still puzzled by the availability of such experts in the hawker business. Would a Mat Salleh help?
 
Ok, ok, I am kidding. My grandfather must be 150 years if he is still alive. But hawker business is going to be a new profession for our young people since they no longer can become IT professionals or other professionals in Singapore. This is their best hope to earn a decent living and have a permanent job or profession. Otherwise they would likely be unemployed or underemployed.
 
The caring govt has come forward to give them a helping hand by initiating such a great course to train them to be hawkers. If not they would not have a clue how to become a hawker. Singaporeans must be taught or they would not be able to do anything on their own. This is like they said, no initiative, cannot think, cannot find out on their own, a product of Singapore’s tuition culture.
 
My grandfather did not need any tuition or training to become a successful hawker. He would faint if he knows that his class would have highly educated young people with no ideas about how to be a hawker. He would like say, seow.

Big money invest in big biz, not in kachang putehs

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, invested US$232m in a Chinese company, BYD, a Shenzhen-based battery and electric car maker. The $232 million investment in 2008 is now worth about US$2.1 billion.

“When you got over $100 billion, you’re looking at any big market. We can’t go into tiny markets and really deploy enough capital,” he said. “We want to invest money intelligently. And obviously, big economies and growing economies have the potential.” Warren Buffett Yahoo News

The above comment by Buffett is what investment with big money is all about, invest in big economies, in big companies. How silly it is to have hundreds of millions invested in kachang puteh companies in sick economies. How silly it is to invest hundreds of millions in low skill, low tech, low capital and low barrier of entry companies.

Guess what type of big investment funds, with hundreds of millions to invest, would do exactly the opposite of what Berkshire Hathaway is doing? Would anyone with hundreds of millions of dollars to play with invest in tontine companies, in low level engineering companies, in hawker centres, in bakeries, in low tech, low skill mechanical workshops or in tuition centres?

Buffett said, invest intelligently in big economies, in growing economies, and in growing companies. Growing economies and growing economies must be really growing not by shouting that the economy is growing, the company is growing when they are not, not when growth is fiddling with numbers, juggling with numbers to make the icing looks good but in reality a rotten apple, rotten economies and rotten companies.

Is it so difficult to tell whether an economy or a company is all hype and nothing else? Oh, there are fake growth economies and fake growth companies, just like fake degrees and CVs. There are many con men everywhere with slippery tongues.

Is there anything to learn from Berkshire Hathaway? Or is it too late?