August 24, 2004

National Day Rally 2004

I didn't watch it on TV. Not until the last 20 minutes or so. But, I heard about it all right. From radio, and newspaper and my Dad. And I read about it from Meisen's blog.

Haven't given deep thought about it. Just a few things that I cast some braincells to work on:

1. (my pet topic, said Meisen) Education. Specifically, Chinese language education.
The new emphasis would be on speaking and reading the language, not so much on writing. I still think that it's sad that students now can't cope with writing the language for the same reason why I feel Chinese is a lovely language - the (too many) strokes. The intriguing thing about the language is how the characters are pictograms and how they evolved and changed their form over the many many many years.
But, I guess you can't want the best of all worlds. If our students cannot cope with writing, then at least let them learn to recognise, read and speak the language properly. Let them not hate the other aspects of using a language just cos they have difficulty writing it.
However, please do not keep generating the idea that we ought to learn Chinese merely for the sake of expanding our entrepreneurship (or whatever we have of it) up north. That's a really effective but pathetic form of encouragement.

2. Education. Again.
The fleet of teachers to be increased by nearly 3000 in the next few (6??) years. Very well. More teachers, less students per class, lower teacher-student ratio, better teaching. Or not. I heard enough stories to gather that a lot of teachers teaching in mainstream schools slowly lose their faith and motivation in their once-thought-to-be-noble job 'cos the workload and the pressure of good grades is overwhelming. But I know there are still some who are trying hard to focus on the big picture - the real influence a teacher has on shaping our future - and that's encouraging.
On the other hand, the number of 'temporary teachers' have been increasing the past few years. I'm talking about people, who did not even dream of being a teacher, signing up for teaching simply cos they couldn't find a job in the 2 months after graduating and hence, grabbed at the rather big piece of monetary bait that MOE offers. The mentality is 'Just do it temporarily, maybe I will like it. If not, at least until I find a better job.' You put these 'temporary teachers' into schools, whose lives will their non-commitant mentality screw up?
So, it's really not about the quantity, the cornerstones of quality education lie in devoted quality teachers and an inclusive and supportive structural system.

3. If you want to speak at the speaker's corner, you speak. No need to register anymore. Sounds more reasonable. However, it doesn't matter anymore. Who really bothers now? Good try though.

4. Longer working hours for jobs such as cleaners. So that they can earn more (on a more skeptical note, it's also in the interests of the State to keep its people occupied).

5. Increased maternity leave.
Well, Sharifah just shared with me her opinion about this last week. Her view is, why make such a big fuss over how much maternity leave a mother gets? It will never be enough, anyway. A mother is a mother for a lifetime, not for the 3 months in a year. True. But, I still like the idea that you get paid for as many months as possible for staying home and being an extra bother (aside from your child) to your parents or in-laws. *tsk! That's not nice. Ok, they call it confinement. =P

6. Lower maid's levy for families with children younger than 12 years old.
This is problematic. Is he trying to say that families with older children can better afford domestic help? In fact, expenses tend to go up as the child grows older. Example, all secondary school children possess a handphone vs. some primary school children possess a handphone. And we all know who pays for their bills. You wanna help, help them all.
And, I was half-hoping he would talk a bit about better treatment for domestic helpers since he's on that topic. But, nay.

That's about it for now. The talk has been talked. And in my opinion, the talk had too many changes and a few rather significant changes. Encouraging, definitely. But, can the government, and the people walk the walk?

Hold your breath.

Posted by 杏 cy （Jancy） at 22:38