21 September 2019

Forty secondary school students were recently invited to the Straits Times newsroom, to see what goes on behind the scenes in news production.

These students were drawn from among more than 300 participants of N.E.mation!, an annual inter-school digital animation competition which centres on total defence. The organiser of the N.E.mation! competition is Nexus, the Ministry of Defence department responsible for total defence and national education.

The invited students were shown around the newspaper’s video production and photo studio and its newsroom, with the final stop being Singapore Press Holdings’ (SPH) creative and content marketing unit Sweet.

The students listened to presentations by journalists, including Mrs Rebecca Pazos, an ST interactive graphics journalist who gave a talk on how visuals have become integral to newsmaking.

20 September 2019

The Singapore Institute of Technology’s upcoming Punggol campus will have a multi-energy micro-grid network, a system which draws on different energy sources.

SIT’s Punggol campus will also function as a living laboratory where students and industry workers can test distributed energy systems and implement innovations.

SIT’s energy micro-grid is a collaborative research venture between SIT and SP Group. The facility is specially designed for Singapore’s tropical climate and will integrate gas, electricity and thermal energy into one energy network.

Photovoltaic solar panels will be installed on the rooftops of campus buildings, and they will supplement the power supply to the campus. The system could help save energy and eliminate carbon emissions equivalent to removing close to 2,000 vehicles from the roads.

The upcoming Punggol campus also aims be borderless and integrated with the surrounding Punggol community and industry, sitting alongside a business park built by national industrial-estate developer JTC Corporation in the Punggol Digital District. This will enable students, faculty and industry professionals to collaborate on projects that can benefit the community.

18 September 2019

Raffles Institution gave out a record number of scholarships to students this year, each comprising of a cash award of $1,000 that helps to cover their out-of-pocket expenses, such as enrichment programmes.

Scholarship recipients are also given the opportunity to be part of RI’s mentorship programme, which gives them access to a pool of RI’s Year 4 students who organise activities like day camps, as well as share their knowledge and skills in day-to-day tasks such as studying effectively and time management.

To qualify for the scholarship, pupils should be on the Ministry of Education (MOE) Financial Assistance Scheme and do well enough in their studies to gain admission into RI.

RI principal Frederick Yeo said the scholarship is awarded to pupils from low-income families “to spur them to strive for academic excellence, ensure that affordability does not impede the pupils’ access to opportunities, and encourage them to consider schools like RI and RGS”.

13 September 2019

The latest Household Expenditure Survey conducted by the Department of Statistics from October 2017 to September 2018 found that Singapore households spent S$1.4 billion on tuition.

A media report has also noted that the number of tuition and enrichment centres has seen a corresponding increase over the years, growing from about 700 in 2012 to more than 950 today.

That being said, the average household spending on tuition amounted only to S$88.40 per month in 2017/2018, based on a survey of 1.35 million households. Tuition contributed to less than 2 per cent of monthly household expenditure.

To lessen the burden of examination stress and help students discover the joys of learning, the Ministry of Education has pledged to implement many reforms, including the removal of mid-year examinations (for selected academic levels), and the abolition of streaming in secondary school.

Because many of the changes have yet to kick in, it would be unrealistic to expect any effects so soon. We are likely to see any effects of these reforms only in decades to come, after the full suite of changes have taken place and parents have a fuller understanding of what they entail.

12 September 2019

Seven teachers were recently awarded the President’s Award for Teachers, in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the teaching profession in Singapore.

They were presented their awards by President Halimah Yacob at a ceremony at the Istana also attended by Education Minister Ong Ye Kung and Second Education Minister Indranee Rajah.

The seven winners were selected by a panel chaired by Ms Denise Phua, head of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Education, out of a pool of 3,886 individuals nominated by school leaders, teachers, parents and students.

The award winners will join an overseas conference and study trip at the end of the year as part of their professional development.

10 September 2019

According to the Meteorological Service Singapore, rapid urbanisation has led to the exacerbation of the urban heat island effect. Furthermore, by 2030, the population aged 65 and above is set to double.

A common perception is that Singapore simply needs to pour more resources into improving technology to develop solutions. But these are ultimately changes enacted on a micro level. In order to create a truly sustainable Singapore, our communities and living spaces need to be completely redesigned from the ground up.

According to the National University of Singapore’s School of Design and Environment (NUS SDE), the right way forward is a people-centric approach. SDE calls this approach Well and Green thinking. As the name suggests, it aims to redefine the way community design is approached, by placing emphasis not just on environmentally-friendly and sustainable design, but also on the well-being of residents.

NUS SDE hopes to take this concept of the sustainable integrated development and expand it into entire districts — effectively making it the future of the whole nation.

07 September 2019

Education Minister Ong Ye Kung has said that there will be more opportunities for Institute of Technical Education students to upgrade their skills.

About 1,700 ITE students will benefit from the increased number of upgrading pathways by 2030. Currently, seven in 10 ITE graduates continue to upgrade themselves over the course of their careers.

ITE graduates will have access to more places for full-time and part-time Higher National Institute of Technical Education Certificate (NITEC) and diploma pathways, with 860 more spots in the Higher NITEC programmes and 580 more places in ITE’s SkillsFuture Work-Study Diplomas.

Working adults will also have 290 more places in full-time polytechnic diploma programmes.

These polytechnic programmes recognize their competencies gained through related work experience, in addition to academic grades.