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Questions from TG 12 Pri
Questions from TG 12 Pri

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meaningless ICT lesson implementation? 
 
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Questions from TG 12 Sec
Questions from TG 12 Sec
Duo Citizenship
Duo Citizenship
Is the Singapore government open to considering duo-citizenship in light of the extend and reach of globalisation and 

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meaningless ICT lesson implementation? 
Questions from TG 12 Sec
Questions from TG 12 Sec
 
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Duo Citizenship
Duo Citizenship
Is the Singapore government open to considering duo-citizenship in light of the extend and reach of globalisation and 

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LT 12
There is so much top-down emphasis on ICT integration in lesson planning that it becomes so saturated and results in activities planned for the sake of it.
How can we as beginning/student teachers prevent this spiral toward this meaningless ICT lesson implementation?

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Is the Singapore government open to considering duo-citizenship in light of the extend and reach of globalisation and transnationalism.

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Dear Sir, what is your view on decreasing class sizes for classes with special needs students in them? Do you think this is viable and a possibility in the future? Thank you!

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Dear Sir, given so many downsides to the streaming system, do we still need the selection in our education?

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Dear Sir, in your view, what is the most pertinent global challenge that Singapore faces in the near future? And how might we as teachers rise up in preparing our students for this?

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which was established in 2007 as the ground-up national body for inter-racial and inter-religious understanding in Singapore. He is also a Member of Parliament for the Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC since 2011. 
 
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It has been difficult to explain the CIMO model to students, especially those who are racially considered as “others”. Do you think Singapore should continue to operate with this model despite it being functional?

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Given your views on the potential disruptions that technology can bring to Singaporean society and the people's daily lives, what are your thoughts on a universal basic income in the local context?

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Why did you choose to become a Singapore Citizen, and what would be your view on Singapore's (im)migrant management policies?

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What would be your view on Mr Low Thia Khiang's call for an amendment to the Singapore Constitution to allow only male candidates who have served their national service to run for elections?

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What do you think teachers can do to prepare our students as Singapore moves towards becoming a smart nation?

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It is always heard that teachers spend more time with other people's children than their own; given the hours that they are in school either for supplementary or remedial classes or CCA after curriculum hours. What's your take on this and any advice to the current student teachers?

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At which point in time is there a need to advocate against racism?

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The Survival of Singapore in the world today. 

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The Survival of Singapore in the world today. 

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With the volatile conditions of world politics today (Brexit, US Presidential Elections etc.), and the uprising of China as a legitimate global power, how do you think Singapore should align herself with respect to China and the US? One problem is that it is rumoured China sees us as being too close to America. The second problem is that we are too heavily reliant on America to distance ourselves away from them, and yet with the volatility of their President, it seems unwise to rely on America too heavily in the coming years. What are your thoughts on this delicate issue?

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The recent Singapore Presidential Elections (or the lack thereof)

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The recent Singapore Presidential Elections (or the lack thereof)

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Singapore, as a nation, has always prided herself on meritocracy and racial harmony. However, in the recently concluded Presidential Elections, these two values were totally thrown out of the window with the reserved elections. Meritocracy was not observed in full, as deserving candidates of other races were unable to participate. The fact that the mandate was drawn along racial lines also seemed racist in that the message portrayed to the Chinese, Indian and other communities was that "you can't take part in the elections because you're not Malay. Sorry." What are your takes on this issue, not as a Member of Parliament, but as chairman of OnePeople.sg? Do you think Singaporeans are able to reconcile with this issue?

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Dear sir, I would like to ask a question about the primary school registration process. Specifically, I would like understand more about the rationale for alumni priority admission and how it is aligned with the notion in education we are trying to send that “it’s not about your family background”. I.e. why should a child be given priority admission just because his or her parent/sibling studied there before? Also, phase 2B is for those whose parents has joined as a parent volunteer, and is an active community leader. I understand and completely agree that we should be encouraging people to contribute back to their schools, the community etc. but wouldn’t this create pervasive incentives for people to volunteer for the wrong reasons, and put certain groups of parents who may be unable to contribute their time to volunteering at an unfair disadvantage?

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Teachers on extended maternity leave + No-pay leave > 6months left schooless

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Teachers on extended maternity leave + No-pay leave > 6months left schooless

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Dear Sir, female teachers who go on extended maternity leave together with more than 6 months of no-pay leave may be released by their schools due to the need to replace the teacher, leaving them without a school. These teachers then have to source for a school on their own as compared to the past where MOE HR assists by posting these teachers to a school. How is this congruent to the government's encouragement to have more children when the ministry does not help its teachers who contribute to the country's birth rate but instead leaves them to fend for themselves?

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Dear Sir, how do you think Singaporeans can stay rooted despite being constantly subjected to great winds of change?
Thank you.

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Dear Sir, what do you think will be the greatest challenge to the Singaporean identity within the next decade? How can teachers play a role in meeting this challenge?
Thank you.

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Dear Dr. Janil Puthucheary, thank you for your sharing with us. How might we help students learn digital literacy to distinguish fake news, alternative facts and misinformation from the social media sites and web aggregates which they get their information from? What sort of news can be considered reliable now, particularly writeups on current affairs and politics that are rife with cynics on the internet?

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Disability and Mental Health in the Classroom

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Disability and Mental Health in the Classroom

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Dear Dr. Janil Puthucheary, thank you for your sharing with us. Given your background as a trained Paediatrician and Paediatric Intensivist, do you think the labels of autism, ADHD, and other such conditions are helpful to students diagnosed and how might it affect teachers’ expectations when teaching them? What should teachers know or keep informed on in order to help integrate students on all spectrum of disability into the mainstream? Additionally, there has been a rising epidemic of anxiety, depression, bullying and stress-related mental health concerns among students. How might teachers weave resilience training into the classroom and how might students help one another?

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Deeper conservations on Interfaith Harmony

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Deeper conservations on Interfaith Harmony

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Dear Dr. Janil Puthucheary, thank you for your sharing with us. As the chairman of OnePeople.sg which faciliates inter-racial and inter-religious understanding in Singapore, could you share with us what are your thoughts on how teachers can facilitate sensitive, religious questions that might arise in the classroom to build greater social resilience within our culture? For instance, questions that may arise in the classroom include those of inter-marriages and customs that one has to follow within the private sphere of the household, sexuality and religion, the question of leaving a religion you are born into, the question of religious rituals for funerals held for those who are not Christians and desire a Christian burial and so on? How will you respond to such questions during classroom talks, especially if students are speaking from personal experiences?

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As Minister-in-charge of GovTech, you mentioned the need to persuade people to "disrupt themselves". Could you elaborate a little more on how Smart Nation could impact education in Singapore and teachers could support current Smart Nation initiatives e.g. data analytics? Thank you!

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What is your greatest achievement and/or contribution to the education sector till date?

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What do you think has Singapore done well in and at the same time, what was something it could have been done better since it gained independence (if possible, governance-related)?

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Given the nature of the world today and the current education system that aims to prepare us for this VUCA future, do you think a humanities education is still needed/what do you think is the value of a humanities education?

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Given the rising student debt situations in other countries, do you think that MOE or the government is doing enough to help offset the costs of higher education for students? Aside from the MOE Tuition Grant, have we really made higher education accessible to people from all financial backgrounds? On that note, why has MOE not institutionalised any financial literacy programme for (all) students, an undoubtedly useful skill in today's world? Majority of youths know little about debt, insurance, investing etc. Thoughts?

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Many questioned why Eunoia JC was established if so many other JCs were facing falling enrolments. In your response to Aljunied GRC MP Mr. Pritam Singh's question on why MOE did not convert one or more of the JCs set to be discontinued so that it offered the same programme planned for Eunoia, you mentioned that MOE wanted to provide more options in the education landscape, and that there was at that point, no suitable JC to partner the 3 secondary schools (Cat High, CHIJ St. Nics and SCGS) - could you further elaborate on what you meant by suitability and shed some light on how this was assessed at HQ level? Thank you!

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By having a reserved presidential election for Malays, are we sending out the signal that we are putting more thought into a potential candidate's race over his/her abilities? What is your take also, on raising the barrier of entry for private sector candidates? Do you think this has led to people questioning the mandate of our elected president (which I am sure Mdm Halimah would still win without the raised barrier to entry)? Thank you!

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What advice would you give to a student teacher who is starting on his/her career as an educator?

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In 2016, the Straits Times reported that tuition was a billion dollar industry in Singapore. Approximately 7 in 10 parents send their child for tuition, with reasons such as trying to improve their child's grades and keeping up with the rest. Furthermore, tuition class sizes are almost never as big as the ones in MOE schools, which provides more quality and personalised attention. Do you think that it is time to shrink down the ratio of teacher to students in MOE school, especially given the rising trend of schools being merged?

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While Singapore prides itself as being a multicultural society, what is your view on the existence of 'Chinese privilege' in Singapore? Is there truly multiculturalism and harmony between the different racial groups or is it just a hush-hush issue? If so, how do you think is the role of teachers regarding this issue? Thank you.

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In view of increasing diversity in Singapore today, do you think that the CMIO model is still relevant? For example, is the Presidential Council for Minority Rights (PCMR) in the legislature effective and sensitive to the increasing heterogeneity in contemporary Singapore?

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Due to the competitive nature of Singapore's education system, most of the children and youths today are currently facing with a lot of pressure from their parents and the society. Recent news have also showed that the suicide rate of students
in Singapore is increasing over the years. What changes do you think can be done to our education system to avoid this problem?

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Should Beginning Teachers
handle a class that is made up of students with special needs? Or, should such classes be handled only by teachers with a least a certain number of years of experience, say 3 years?

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Experience as a doctor and Decision to go into politics

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Experience as a doctor and Decision to go into politics

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It is interesting that Dr Janil your background is in Medicine and you have experience working in the Children's ICU as well. Perhaps could you share how lessons from your experience in the medical field might have helped you when you entered into politics? Also, what led you to decide to move into politics? Thank you.

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What is one thing that you would like all of us trainee teachers to go back to ponder about/ take away today? Thank you.

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What is one thing that Dr Janil you would like all of us trainee teachers to go back and ponder about / take away today?

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We are moving towards an inclusive education, which means that the number of children with special needs would increase in a mainstream classroom. I feel that teachers are not adequately trained to cope with these SEN children.

In fact, AEDs are the ones who are trained to provide intervention for these SEN children. To be pragmatic, AEDs are not paid well enough for the work that they are doing. Their pay scale is a huge deterrence to attract graduates to take on the AED track. Since we are more for the idea of including SEN children in the mainstream classroom, do you think something should be done about their pay scale?

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In your opinion, what is the most pressing area in the Singapore education system which needs improvement?

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1. How do we integrate digital age into learning?
2. Is it necessary to reduce the school hour for the primary school students?
3.How do we move away from academic focus?
4. What should a teacher be equipped with to manage the changes in syllabus when we are not to teach the way we are taught

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What are your thoughts on affording illegitimate children the same opportunities and tax exemptions currently afforded to parents of legitimate children?

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What are your thoughts on affording illegitimate children the same opportunities and tax exemptions currently afforded to parents of legitimate children?

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Is a smaller student to teacher ratio per class a viable solution to the falling birth-rate? (rather than merging/shutting down schools)

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What books would you recommend a student teacher to read?

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How do you think schools can promote non-superficial concept of racial harmony and encourage inter-racial mixing outside of classrooms?

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How would you complete this sentence:

"In 50 years, education in Singapore will be ..."

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What do you think are the biggest successes and the biggest failures of our education system?

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Do you see public-private partnerships (not tuition) playing a role in the Primary- Secondary education? For instance, entrepreneurs have collaborated with the govt to set up schools in Pakistan. Similar instances can be seen in charter schools in the U.S...

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Dear Dr. Puthucheary, thank you for taking time out to address us. The Singaporean education system has long struggled with how to foster creativity and confidence in its students. Do you have any particular insight as to how we can seek to change this in today's world?

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Why do we only focus on one monolithic Singapore Story in our presentation of History to our students? Why do we not provide alternative perspectives while at the same time teaching them skills such as critical thinking, to lead them to arrive at their own conclusions without having their material pre-digested and curated for them? How can we avoid the trap of encouraging a rigidly particular and specific view of Singapore and the world?

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What can MOE do to help in changing mindsets with regard to the tuition arms race? This only leads to greater stratification in society and is there anything we can do to address this?

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With a university degree now increasingly being seen as the baseline education achievement, many who otherwise cannot gain admission to NUS/NTU/SMU/SUTD have to resort to private universities such as SIM, Kaplan, MDIS etc to attain this achievement. Yet, it does not seem that the high costs these students incur is often worth their while. Take teaching for instance. The vast majority of candidates from private universities do not even get to the interview stage with MOE. This is even despite experience teaching in schools as long-term reliefs. Are they penalized for their institute of education?

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Could you relate one teacher who stands out in your mind, who had the greatest impact on you?

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If you could magically have your wishes fulfilled, what would be your three biggest wishes for our education system that you hope will come true?

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What is being done with regard to providing EOs with training in teaching students with special needs? The presence of such students is being increasingly discovered in classrooms and for them to gain the most from their experiences, special needs students require proper guidance, which many teachers are unprepared to provide. How can we address this lack?

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Given that now there has been greater talk about the need to de-emphasise the centrality of academic achievement among students, isn't there a need to walk the talk in the teaching service itself? It is common knowledge that EOs on MOE Scholarships (handpicked at the ripe old age of 18) progress in the service much faster than non-scholars. However, it is painfully obvious academic achievement has little or no correlation to a teacher's performance in the classroom. What does one's performance in exams have to do with their ability to teach? How can we do away with this "elitist" mindset in the teaching service? How can we reward talent and ability of the truly deserving?

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Do you think the supposed gains of SAP schools outweigh the costs? Students in these schools, especially with IP, now spend close to 4-6 years of their foundational years in settings which are incredibly homogeneous and lack linguistic or cultural diversity. Growing up in silos, it is natural that these students often lack much cross-cultural interaction. Consequently, it is suspect how far such individuals have had practice in their intercultural skills. Given further that oftentimes, many from these schools progress to influential positions, whether in the Civil Service, government, or even the private sector and the like, isn't there a greater need for true exposure, rather than the piecemeal celebrations of "Racial Harmony", at an earlier age?

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Are school mergers really the best way of dealing with shrinking cohorts? The chaos and conflict that arises from these mergers have often led to much animosity and low morale amongst staff. Given that this also has knock-on effects on the school culture and atmosphere, why have other possible means of addressing these issues not been considered?

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LKY once (in)famously said that "poetry is a luxury we cannot afford". Do you think his perspective of the humanities still holds today?

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What would your advise be to the student teachers here today? And what challenges do you foresee that we need to prepare ourselves for?

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Can you recall and detail the first time you entered into politics? How did you feel?

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Where do you see Singapore heading to in the next 10 years?

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Why did you make the transition from the medical field to politics? What were your motivations then? Have they changed over time? In what ways have they changed?

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What’s the Singapore government definition of “meritocracy”? Why has the government placed so much emphasis on meritocracy?  Has this policy produced the desired results?  Will it eventually become “elitism”?

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What’s the Singapore government definition of “meritocracy”? Why has the government placed so much emphasis on meritocracy?  Has this policy produced the desired results?  Will it eventually become “elitism”?

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Dr. Janil Puthucheary has served as Senior Minister of State for the Ministry of Communications and Information and the Ministry of Education since May 2017. Prior to this, he served as the Minister of State in the same two Ministries from 2016 - 2017. He is concurrently the Chairman of OnePeople.sg, which was established in 2007 as the ground-up national body for inter-racial and inter-religious understanding in Singapore. He is also a Member of Parliament for the Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC since 2011.