1 more ballot chance during 2010 P1 registration for citizen
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3Boys:
I say again, we need to get past gazing at our navels and think a little more holistically about the place of PRs and foreigners in our country. Not every one of those is here on a fat expat package and can afford to send their children to an international school. Some companies' continued existence in Singapore is predicated on the availability of talented mid-tier professionals, in their productive years.This issue of SC/PR/Foreigner is way bigger than 1 extra balloting slip at P1 registration.
IMO, S'pore, given the nature of our economy and how we drive growth and innovation, cannot afford to be provincial in our outlook. What's the point of getting admission into your favoured primary school only for your children to graduate 16 years later with no high paying jobs because industry had relocated due to anti-foreigner practices?
The role of the government is to ensure that the citizenry has access to jobs, security, health care and education, and we have that in spades. To posture aggressively and drive micro-policies like balloting for P1, IMO, is petty and narrows the political space for the govt to operate, which in my view is detrimental to good, robust policy making.
I don't support this measure......
You, as a responsible Singaporean parent, is your role as narrow as to merely ensure entry of your child to the best possible school? Or is it also to partner with the community and our leaders to build the best home for our children in this country? If the latter, why would we not seek to leverage global talent by providing them a good home-away-from-home? I believe we will not be so short-sighted, that in a knee-jerk response, immediately kill the goose for meat, that in the long term may have laid many golden eggs. -
3Boys:
No. If they want the \"prority\" then go be SC lah, else dont bother cos some of them still believe \"是金子到那里都会发光\". They could still transfer subsequently if they are resutls are good or still can get into their dream school thru PSLE .So we Singaporeans start being exclusionary, then the talented foreigners go to unloved schools like Qifa, and then they top PSLE, then there is a stampede of Singaporeans to those schools, then they are pushed out again to other schools....repeat.....
See how ridiculous it can become? Lets just get past this whole thing about getting into 'brand' schools and focus on getting the best out of our kids wherever they are. -
MdmKS:
Of course, talent is mobile. But don't you want them here playing on our side, adding skills and know-how to our companies, spending their money in our stores, patronising our services, adding to our culture, as opposed to doing in for Shanghai, Bangalore or New York? Make no mistake, it is a war for talent, one we cannot afford to lose....
No. If they want the \"prority\" then go be SC lah, else dont bother cos some of them still believe \"是金子到那里都会发光\". They could still transfer subsequently if they are resutls are good or still can get into their dream school thru PSLE .3Boys:
So we Singaporeans start being exclusionary, then the talented foreigners go to unloved schools like Qifa, and then they top PSLE, then there is a stampede of Singaporeans to those schools, then they are pushed out again to other schools....repeat.....
See how ridiculous it can become? Lets just get past this whole thing about getting into 'brand' schools and focus on getting the best out of our kids wherever they are. -
well, enrolment is still in phases. if the PR parent is engaged in PV work and lives within 1km - still has high possibility to get in many schools. End up the SG parent who lives greater than 2km will still lose out/forced into balloting. I feel that this measure looks good in theory (at least to SG) but then in practice will have limited impact.
Rgds post by 3Boys, I don’t know enough to say if it’s good or bad - there’s always 2 sides to a coin. But I have been watching those news reports about non-SC parents who are contemplating moving their kids out in view of fee hike.
I agree that not many are highly paid expat. In fact, I would feel that those highly paid expats would have put their kids in international schools - as opposed to crowding in public schools.
Sorry, but I feel good that less of my tax dollars will go to support pr/foreigner students. Some pay taxes but others may not (eg if the parents are not working here). There should still be some benefits that go only to citizens - we welcome PRs and foreigners but I don’t think we should be seen to welcome them so much that citizens are treated as the same as non-c.
JMHO, sorry if I’ve digressed from the 2 votes/1 vote thing. -
I think our gahmen gave out too many PR passes, esp in the past. Even my accounts clerk is accepted to be a PR... :?
I agree with hquek that highly paid expats prefer to put their kids in international schools. These are the ones we should be more interested in attracting them to come to Singapore right?
Anyway I am glad our gahmen has done something although it won't help much. Something is better than nothing right? -
Unlike our neighbours, Singapore do not have natural resources for us to tap on. We need human resources to advance our economy. Hence, there is a need to attract foreign talents.
Some groups of foreign talents, based on what some forummers implied, don’t seem to qualify as foreign "talent". The Singapore government, thus, have different cateogries of passes for different groups of foreign workers. If you are an employer, you will complain of the government’s stringent requirements in issuing work passes for foreigners.
Japan is another country that faces falling birth rates, but they are still sticking to their stringent requirements on importing foreign talents. However, are we willing to work as hard as, if not more, than the Japanese? As it is now, we are already complaining we do not have time for bonding, this and that, etc.
Foreigners bring in something which we may not have, such as knowledge. It is through such exchanges that we learn, grow and prosper.
For the foreigners who are not classified as "foreign talents" by some of us here, are we willing to take up their jobs?
Without natural resources, and given the limited human resources, can a country grow economically? Do we want to go back to the sixties or seventies?
If we do not want the Singapore government to be too in issuing passes, maybe we should consider increasing our birth rate. But then, there will be people bringing up things like high costs of living, blah blah blah.
So, what do you expect the government to do? Some of us will say - I don’t know. The ministers are paid millions of dollars. So, they should solve the problem, not me!
In any case, if some PRs are really thinking of pulling out from local education system because of the increased fees, there will not be that many PRs to fight for places in primary schools, eventually. -
MdmKS:
No. If they want the \"prority\" then go be SC lah, else dont bother cos some of them still believe \"是金子到那里都会发光\". They could still transfer subsequently if they are resutls are good or still can get into their dream school thru PSLE .
It is strange that we believe the PRs are \"gold\" but we do not have confidence that our own Singaporean children can be gold, too? :? -
qms:
Well said.Unlike our neighbours, Singapore do not have natural resources for us to tap on. We need human resources to advance our economy. Hence, there is a need to attract foreign talents.
Some groups of foreign talents, based on what some forummers implied, don't seem to qualify as foreign \"talent\". The Singapore government, thus, have different cateogries of passes for different groups of foreign workers. If you are an employer, you will complain of the government's stringent requirements in issuing work passes for foreigners.
Japan is another country that faces falling birth rates, but they are still sticking to their stringent requirements on importing foreign talents. However, are we willing to work as hard as, if not more, than the Japanese? As it is now, we are already complaining we do not have time for bonding, this and that, etc.
Foreigners bring in something which we may not have, such as knowledge. It is through such exchanges that we learn, grow and prosper.
For the foreigners who are not classified as \"foreign talents\" by some of us here, are we willing to take up their jobs?
Without natural resources, and given the limited human resources, can a country grow economically? Do we want to go back to the sixties or seventies?
If we do not want the Singapore government to be too in issuing passes, maybe we should consider increasing our birth rate. But then, there will be people bringing up things like high costs of living, blah blah blah.
So, what do you expect the government to do? Some of us will say - I don't know. The ministers are paid millions of dollars. So, they should solve the problem, not me!
In any case, if some PRs are really thinking of pulling out from local education system because of the increased fees, there will not be that many PRs to fight for places in primary schools, eventually.
At the end of the day, what is the message we are saying to the 1.7 million non-citizen residents in our country? Yes, come and work here, provide us your skills and knowledge, provide the labour that S'poreans can't or won't, pay GST and income tax, but please stay in your shells and don't partake in our public life or take away our places in schools, or our prime jobs. Without PRs and foreigners, the citizenry is only 3.2 million. Can we support the vibrancy of the country, create enough of an domestic market, and support the types of job opportunities that we can have with 4.9 million, with many of the additional 1.7 million concentrated in jobs that create or support the creation of value? We are not talking about the high-end expats here, we are talking about folk (like the accounts clerk), who although appear not to have very high qualifications, play a vital supporting role for key industries. If all the foreign accounts clerks disappeared, would S'poreans be able to make up the shortfall? Which foreign accounting firm could then set up shop here? These are the folk with aspirations for their families as well and will be in competition with you for places in schools. We have to allow them some space, it is the right thing to do.
Sometimes we tunnel in on a particular issue, and when taken in isolation, there appears to be some grave injustice. One needs to look at the issue holistically (a catchword that people like to bandy about when discussing what sort education their children should have, but perhaps don't apply the same principle when dissecting issues on their own). Is there differentiation between citizens and non-citizens? They are already there, in maternity leave, childcare subsidies, housing subsidies, healthcare. In my view, some of these are already unnecessarily discriminatory and are put in place to placate a fairly xenophobic public, i.e. driven by politics. Why do we choose to narrow the political space even further for our leaders/
As a S'porean parent, we have a responsibility to the community as well. We want to partner in and create a future for Singapore that is vibrant and sustainable, one that our children will be happy and proud to be part of, and not an insular and declining society that has no jobs for them after they have completed their education in their 'branded' schools. -
I think you are either a foreigner or a mum.
Although agree with your points to some extend, you have completely missed out the point that we guys need to go NS and also every year go back for NS till we are 40 yo.
Without this contribution, no matter how good the companies or schools are, they will not come either.
If you do not believe, ask this group of people to go work in those countries which are still at war or at risk of starting war.
If all foreigners must serve NS is implemented, we will shut up and we go back to 1 child 1 ballot, although I think 1 ballot or 2 ballots make little difference. -
Dear Jon
For PR, a second generation onward need to serve NS, anyway if they decided not to, they have to give up the PR status. I remember i mentioned this twice in this thread. They (PR) might need to serve NS but not able to enjoy some of the benefit which only to SCJonC:
I think you are either a foreigner or a mum.
Although agree with your points to some extend, you have completely missed out the point that we guys need to go NS and also every year go back for NS till we are 40 yo.
Without this contribution, no matter how good the companies or schools are, they will not come either.
If you do not believe, ask this group of people to go work in those countries which are still at war or at risk of starting war.
If all foreigners must serve NS is implemented, we will shut up and we go back to 1 child 1 ballot, although I think 1 ballot or 2 ballots make little difference.
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