What Michael Gove should know about going to school in Singapore

Children make their way to their class r

I like to tease my friend Wei about being a tiger mother. She once told me of an incident where her daughter Shu was making an artwork for a friend as a birthday present. Shu doodled for a few minutes, then showed her mother a sketch of a funny face. ‘I told her to knuckle down, spend more time, and come back with a far better drawing,’ said Wei. ‘It just wasn’t good enough.’

I said that was a bit harsh on her eight-year-old, especially since it was not schoolwork but part of Shu’s leisure time. Wei snorted. ‘It was a gift for her best mate, yet she hadn’t put any thought into it,’ she said. ‘She needs to know that you must make an effort for the things you really care about.’

Of course, Wei isn’t a real tiger mother. Truly tigerish mums are terrifying and probably don’t want their children to muck about with doodling in the first place. But I’ve been reflecting on my friend’s words ever since Michael Gove expressed the wish for British schools to emulate eastern ones.

My first reaction was to shudder — does the Education Secretary know what he’s talking about? I completed my secondary and tertiary schooling in Singapore, one of the countries he admires. Does Gove know how boring and soul-sapping rote-learning can be? Does he know how the emphasis on science, maths and IT can turn students into little robots, affecting particularly those of a more creative bent? Does he know the savagery to which competition in Asian schools can descend? Recently, there was news that the head of a kindergarten in China had put poison in the yogurt delivered to a rival school, in order to destroy its reputation. Two children died.

That’s an extreme example, I admit. Usually the downside of Asian schooling manifests itself in more subtle ways. The intense pressure to excel means students often study not for the joy of succeeding, but from the fear of failing. In Singapore they have a term for it — kiasu, which means ‘scared to lose’. It’s a self-deprecating, catch-all phrase used for all sorts of hyper-competitive behaviour, from hogging a buffet spread or the karaoke microphone to, yes, slaving for exams in order not to lose face. It’s one of the least attractive traits of an eastern education.

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 18 May 2013
to read more, please refer to the link : What Michael Gove should know about going to school in Singapore

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How many PMET jobs can S’pore support?

By Aaron Low Assistant Money Editor

THE traditional route to success in Singapore has always been to do well in school and snag a scholarship to study in a prestigious overseas university.

Even if the grades do not merit a scholarship, most parents still want their children in university at least. After all, a degree opens doors to an office job, preferably one that pays well.

This expectation is likely to intensify, according to the population White Paper released in January, which said that most workers will be in a position that requires more brains than brawn.

“Overall, two-thirds of Singaporeans will hold (jobs as professionals, managers, executives or technicians) in 2030, compared to about half today,” it stated.

But is this an unrealistic expectation? Will there be enough of what are called PMET jobs for this growing group of Singaporeans?

Great expectations

THE problem with setting out estimates so clearly is that it anchors people’s expectations.

The two-thirds estimate can be easily read in this way by many people: The majority of citizens here will have a cushy job in 20 years’ time that pays well.

But a check with the Manpower (MOM) and Trade and Industry (MTI) ministries showed that the two-thirds figure was not a projection but rather an estimate based on the expected rise in the levels of education and the kinds of jobs such graduates are now working in.

“It was a supply-side estimate based on the projected educational profile of Singaporean workers in 2030 and historical education to occupation trends,” said the ministries in a reply to The Straits Times.

“The actual number of PMET jobs available will depend on companies’ demand.”

In other words, the two-thirds figure is an indication of Singapore’s aspirations rather than a projection of how many of us will be in such jobs.

This changes things dramatically. It essentially means that the country could well be on course for a fundamental mismatch in aspirations and what the economy can meaningfully deliver.

Growing vulnerabilities

IT IS not surprising why many Singaporeans prefer to be on the paper-chasing career path. Degree holders tend to get higher starting salaries and have better promotion prospects.

Bachelor of Arts graduates from the National University of Singapore commanded gross median starting salaries of $2,825 a month last year.

In contrast, the gross median starting pay of a polytechnic graduate was $2,007.

Data does not exist for how fast a degree holder rises up the ladder, but anecdotally, they tend to advance faster than non-degree holders in the same company.

The gap in pay and prospects has naturally led to the rapidly changing education profile of the labour force, largely reflecting the demand for higher qualifications.

In 2002, just 18.5 per cent of the labour force had a degree. This had gone up to 29.4 per cent last year.

Most degree holders will eventually hold white-collar jobs and join the ranks of PMETs, which formed 52 per cent of the labour force last year.

But while getting a degree is now seen as a must-have, the simple fact is that being a white-collar worker comes with its own set of risks.

Globalisation and technological progress have undermined much of the middle class in advanced economies.

Offshoring and technologies like the Internet have displaced workers in the middle, such as sales and administrative staff.

Sales counter staff are now irrelevant for companies such as Amazon, which sells billions of dollars worth of products through its Web portal.

Salaries of the middle class have stagnated and many have been laid off amid the jobless recovery in the United States and Europe.

Singapore’s middle class, or the PMET group, faces similar stresses.

An MOM report on the labour market last year suggested that PMETs are becoming increasingly vulnerable even though they continue to earn good wages.

Last year, 11,010 workers lost their jobs, a 10 per cent rise from 9,990 workers the year before, the MOM said. About 5,960 of them were PMETs, or more than 50 per cent.

This was significantly higher than the 41.7 per cent in 2011. In 1998, just 18.6 per cent of those laid off were PMETs, about a third of last year’s figures.

Similarly, the re-entry rate for workers who have been laid off was much worse for the PMET group, with just 48.6 per cent of them finding a job within six months of being laid off.

In contrast, clerical, sales and service workers had a 60.2 per cent rate of re-employment, while production, cleaners and labourers had a 68.6 per cent re-employment rate.

The two-thirds challenge

APART from helping to address the vulnerabilities of the PMET group, the bigger challenge is providing jobs that meet aspirations.

That goes to the question of whether Singapore can continue to attract foreign investment and whether local enterprises will keep expanding.

If the economic restructuring now under way succeeds, productivity will rise and higher-value enterprises can grow and generate worthwhile jobs.

“If we make good progress with economic restructuring into higher-value activities across industries, we should see a broad-based increase in PMET jobs for Singaporeans,” said the MOM and MTI.

The second part of the solution is harder to achieve. Many capital-intensive industries require a strong knowledge base and specialised skills that a general university degree may not provide.

A case in point is Dyson, a British manufacturer. It opened a $100 million plant in February that produces four million motors a year.

The motors produced at its Pioneer Crescent facility are used in the production of Dyson’s vacuum cleaners and hand dryers.

Yet, the factory requires only 13 operators, while the bulk of the work is done by 50 or so robots.

This points to the dilemma for policymakers, says DBS economist Irvin Seah.

While productivity and high-value enterprises are good for the economy in terms of pure growth numbers, they may not generate the kind of levels of employment required to absorb the growing ranks of degree holders.

Then there is the skills gap. Increasingly, employers demand abilities that go beyond academic content.

Nee Soon GRC MP Patrick Tay, the professional, managers and executives unit director at the National Trades Union Congress, notes that even traditional jobs will require a high degree of skills.

“Increasingly, we can see those with highly specialised and niche skills getting jobs more easily. The challenge for workers is more than just getting a diploma or degree qualification but rather, the type of diploma or degree qualification,” he says.

Changing attitudes

BEYOND thinking about skills and industries, a fundamental rethink on what defines success is also essential.

Mr David Leong, managing director of PeopleWorldWide consulting, says the economy as it is now could not support having two-thirds of the workforce in PMET jobs.

“If the Government hopes to achieve having two-thirds of the local workforce to be PMETs, we need to reconfigure job receptacles and industries to accommodate the growth and aspirations of Singaporeans,” he says.

Many new graduates harbour ambitions to join the well-paid finance and banking sector, but in the future, the biggest demand is likely to be in the social, health and education services as Singapore ramps up its social infrastructure.

Likewise, transport and physical infrastructure will continue to be essential industries, but these sectors do not attract Singaporeans and remain dominated by foreign workers.

A big issue is pay, says Mr Leong. Pay enough and there will be people lining up to do the job.

But jobs in transport and construction are seen as being of low status and so pay is some way behind traditional PMET sectors such as banking and sales.

But this is not set in stone.

In Australia, electricians, bricklayers and plumbers can earn A$100,000 (S$124,000) or more a year, given shortages in manpower, according to the Master Builders Association in Victoria.

If pay does rise, can Singaporeans rewire themselves to take up the abundance of opportunities in sectors not traditionally seen as providing coveted careers?

Maybe the largest employer here can help take the lead.

While it is justifiable for the civil service to pay and hire people based on their paper qualifications, surely there are some jobs where technical expertise and experience trump educational profile? Is there an over-reliance on paper qualifications?

Parents will also have to adjust their own expectations of their children and recognise that success is not simply linked to degrees and cushy jobs.

These are not easy changes to make. But the sooner society realises that traditional notions of success are less relevant in tomorrow’s world, the better prepared the next generation will be for the new economy.

aaronl@sph.com.sg

This story was first published in The Straits Times on May 14, 2013
Source link  : How many PMET jobs can S’pore support?

Behind-the-Scenes of Operation ‘K’ (Foreign Manpower Management Division, MOM )

My colleagues and I from the Housing Enforcement Branch of MOM’s Foreign Manpower Management Division inspected a few dormitories at the Kaki Bukit Industrial Terrace area recently.

Operation ‘K’ began just after 9 pm. Together with our team of more than 20 officers, we inspected five units in the area till after midnight.

Four of the factory-converted dormitories were clearly overcrowded, had poor ventilation and unacceptable housekeeping standards.  In the other unit, we found two workers staying in a makeshift shed at the entrance with no proper sanitary facility. This is clearly wrong.

Dormitory inspection 

The employers of these workers have been told they cannot house any more workers in these overcrowded premises. We are currently investigating this closely with other government agencies. The employers were also given notices to move their workers to proper housing within the next two to four weeks.

Our work is important and we welcome the co-operation and help from the public. In the first four months of 2013, MOM conducted about 300 inspections, or around 70 each month. Last year, we took action against 1,062 employers for housing their foreign workers in unacceptable housing. They were either warned, offered composition or charged in court.

Besides proactive and targeted inspections, MOM also responds to specific complaints of poor housing from both foreign workers and the public. Operation ‘K’ was mounted as a result of a public tip off.

But it is not always the case that every public tip off will result in the detection of non-compliance with regulations. There are cases where false tip-offs are made, driven by malicious intent to sabotage or cause harassment. Sometimes it is due to misperceptions. Which is why it is important that tip-offs give accurate information about the non-compliance. In fact, we welcome good information as it helps our enforcement work.

We will take concrete actions when we assess the information provided to be useful and reliable. As you can see, we run many operations and we cannot afford to go on wild goose chases based on inadequate or erroneous information.

This is where everyone can play a part. You can tip us off if you come across poor housing conditions for foreign workers by giving us, where possible, specific information such as: 

• Addresses;
• Description of the living conditions;  
• Estimated number of workers; and
• Snap a picture – if possible.

We receive an average of 20 such tip-offs a week via email and on the phone. Detailed information allows us to sieve through the various tip-offs to find out which ones require more immediate attention, and which may be false.

Recently, a blogger who had highlighted some possible dormitory violations publicly questioned why we needed such specific information. When asked to give more information, the blogger asked us to refer to his earlier blog post.  However, the blog post only had the name of the street, where other dormitories and residential premises could be found. Without specific addresses, it would be time consuming and unproductive for MOM officers to expend resources to check every residence or unit along the same street.  The blogger knew the details but chose not to share it. And when he eventually did, he chose to publicly mock the process. It was unfortunate, but we appreciate the fact that the information was finally shared with us. 

If we feel strongly about helping affected workers, it is important to understand that more specific information means more timely interventions. With less specific information, it may take longer to locate the dormitories concerned or it would be disruptive to innocent business owners, when our housing operations team descends on their doorstep, even though they may not house a single foreign worker.

MOM officers checking workers’ identities

Although we spend much time on our investigations and inspections, often into the late hours as we have to wait till the workers come back, my colleagues and I are deeply committed to protecting the well-being of our foreign workers. We do believe in upholding the Public Service values of Integrity, Honesty, Objectivity and Impartiality.

At the end of such operations, when we see that irresponsible employers are taken to task, and the workers re-housed in proper housing, it gives me and my team a sense of satisfaction that we have made a difference in the lives of these workers. 

If you have any information, please do email us at mom_fmmd@mom.gov.sg with the specific information as soon as you can. This will ensure we are able to activate an inspection team to check on the premises, and prevent the employer/dormitory operator from getting away with such offences.

You can also watch me and my team in action, as we inspected the Kaki Bukit premises: http://youtu.be/ZO5GZiDtRVM

Yusri
Senior Housing Enforcement Officer
Foreign Manpower Management Division, MOM

Source link : Behind-the-Scenes of Operation ‘K’

I QUIT, says Singa the lion.

Singa the lion, who has been Singapore’s courtesy mascot for over 30 years. Read his resignation letter below:

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Feedback from Mr Tan Chuan-Jin

Tan Chuan-Jin:

Oh dear. Do read Singa’s farewell letter.

I’d ask Calibre Link, WDA and E2i to help you in your job search. There may be useful WSQ courses suitable for you if you are looking at switching sectors. Job market is tight so we hope there will be a good match out there. All the best!

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updates:

Singa the Lion, may not be quitting after all.

A resignation letter “written” by the famous mascot turned out to be a media campaign “to generate conversations and reactions online”.

Source link : Singa the mascot may stage a comeback after ‘quitting’

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Distribution of Wealth: Why can’t the poor be handed out lots of money to make them rich?

Because money is not wealth.

This is a fundamental misunderstanding that many people have about money, and in fact probably stands at the center of why some people are good at making money while others are not, why some people are wealthy and others are not.

(First, set aside the issues of inherited wealth, or “unfairly earned” money.  Those are distortive effects, but let’s focus on the dominant factor)

Wealth (“being rich”) means producing things of value.  It does not mean “having lots of money.”

The key word there is value.  That word is more important than wealth or money, it is the real central factor around which human endeavor and economies revolve.  Money and wealth are big words that get a lot of play, but value is a boring word that most people don’t notice.  It is actually the important one.  Value is what is produced when you do work, mine resources, develop an idea, produce an invention, engage in mutually-beneficial commerce, etc.  Value is the “thing” that humans make (out of nothing) by working, creating, trading, etc.  

Money, on the other hand, is a store of that value.  

Typically, when you create some value, you want to trade it for something else of value so you can live (or play).  But value is not always portable or fungible, so money is a technology used to store and transmit value through time and space – if you own a watermelon farm, the value you’ve created is in the form of watermelons.

The reason you can’t fix poverty by redistributing money is that poverty is not a symptom of unequal distribution of money, it is a symptom of unequal distribution of value-creating capability.  The communists called it “the means of production” – in their day, it was ownership of factories, farms, shipyards, rental property, etc.  The Objectivists call it “the creative power of men’s minds.”

Here’s what happens if you evenly redistribute all money:

Let’s say you do that, and everyone in the world has a million bucks.

The next day, it all ends up in the hands of the (erstwhile) rich again, because the rich control the farms and factories that produce food, clothing, they own all the rental properties, etc.  So prices skyrocket (because suddenly everyone can “afford” everything, so demand goes up, which drives up prices), and pretty soon all the people who own the means of production get all the money back because everyone is paying them for the things they need to live.

Of course, the regular guy (or the poor) still get paid a bit of the money for their labor in wages, but the people who own the large centers of production get paid a lot more money because they are producing more stuff that people want, i.e. value.

So “redistribution of wealth” is a tricky thing.  Money isn’t wealth, and if you redistribute it, it doesn’t really change anything.  You need to redistribute (or even out via other means) ownership of the means of value-creation, which is a far more complicated thing to do – you can’t easily tax a rich guy a portion of his factory (not as easily as you can tax liquid profits in the form of money).

Thus, the real problem you’re looking to solve is “how can I make it so that the poor control a larger proportion of value-creating power?

Source Link : Distribution of Wealth: Why can’t the poor be handed out lots of money to make them rich?

jimcarreysouce from the net

FMSS vs AIM – Sylvia Lim’s …… logic

quote from the net :
“ To complain about someone awarding a contract to a single tender, only for it to come out that you did the same thing….is embarrassing.”

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Source from Fabrications About The PAP :

overheard: [[Consider this: Almost immediately after winning the ward of Aljunied, the Workers Party's town council AHTC employed a new managing agent without a tender. The managing agent is FM Solutions (FMSS).

What is even more peculiar is how Ms Sylvia Lim, the incoming MP for Aljunied and concurrently the chairman of AHTC, defends this decision. She alleges "the decision to award FMSS the contract without calling for a tender was due to the deadline set by the Ministry of National Development".

Ms Sylvia Lim: "AHTC determined that the best course of action was not to call a tender for managing agent services for the transitional period, as there was insufficient time."

That's bizarre logic there, Sherlock! If there's a deadline that the town council can't meet, the most obvious thing to do is to retain the old managing agent temporarily for a year - not replacing the incumbent with a new managing agent!

What's even more bizarre is how the managing agent was formed and registered with ACRA only just - on 15 May 2011, to be precise. Yes, AHTC terminated the ongoing incumbent whose contract was still in existence so they could hire a managing agent that is literally brand new.

According to ACRA reports, this entity was formed with a paid up capital of $500,000 for the expressed sole purpose of providing town council services. FMSS is so certain they will land a contract with a town council? Which other town councils has it tender for?

In fact, Sylvia's logic is even more warped if you take into account the fact that AHTC did have the time anyway to call for a tender for four other contracts on 17 June, barely weeks after winning the ward. And again, it made this decision over the option of holding on to its existing contractors temporarily for a year. Yes, AHTC had so little time that it found the time to call for a tender for everything but a managing agent in this Classifieds ad.]]

fmss1

FMSS vs AIM. Pot Calling The Kettle Black.

Comments from the net :

-> More like: The pot, while acting to be clean, call the kettle black!

-> The pot scolded the kettle harshly and got everyone to make fun of the kettle being black, while they themselves were, ahem, also just as black… So bad…

->Why say others until so bad when they themselves were sama sama? All along they were doing the same thing, yet they pointed fingers, and kept their own situation under wraps? They have lost their moral bearings…

-> I don’t care if FMSS is formed by former Hougang TC employee or AIM is formed by former PAP blah blah blah, I care that Ms S Lim has no thought process and cannot be congruent!
Either she is too dump to see the connection or she is too wicked to play politics, either way I dislike people like this.
Our country doesn’t not need oppositions who do not love us! Period!

Delivering a fierce rebuttal to WP MPs, Mr Khaw said if such transactions were to be banned, then his ministry would also have to ban transactions with companies owned by former party members and party supporters – as is the case with FMSS.He spoke in detail about the circumstances surrounding the appointment of FMSS by the WP.

The company was formed by former Hougang Town Council employee Ms How Weng Fan and her husbandMr Danny Loh, a long-time contractor of services to that town council.

He said the couple are WP supporters who acted as assentor and proposer for the WP’s team of candidates for Ang Mo Kio GRC in the 2006 general election.Mr Khaw also noted that FMSS was awarded several contracts by AHTC. “When we talk about public interest, how would Ms Sylvia Lim characterise the FMSS transactions?…

Would she take the position that contracts given to close party associates be prohibited?” he asked.

Meanwhile, Non-Constituency MP Mrs Lina Chiam of the Singapore People’s Party (SPP) was appointed Potong Pasir Town Council secretary in 2010 and paid a monthly salary, he said.

Mr Khaw said his ministry did not interfere in any of these transactions as it applies the “same fair consistent approach applied to all political parties, whether PAP, WP or SPP.“

-> Reading various comments regarding FMSS, I saw one guy arguing that FMSS is just a local company trying to earn a living and by having a paid up capital of $500k vs AIM’s $2 paid up, his comments pointed that AIM is fishy while FMSS is NOT though it is proven to be set up just 4 days after the election by a pair of WP supporters and awarded the contract without tender!

Seriously??????

I am happy to have some kind of democracy.

But this kind???

Giving the same one vote to people like this will cost us our future!!

WP is empowering people like this?