According to Workers’ Party Member of Parliament (MP) Leon Perera, at the next Parliamentary sitting, he is set to ask questions on overarching topics such as government spending on foreign students, Smart Nation initiatives, statistics on harassment in schools and the impact on foreign events on Singapore’s employment.
He wrote, “Parliament sits again in July. Here are some of the Parliamentary Questions I have filed for the next sitting”.
His first question: To ask the Minister for Education in each of the past five years, what is the total Government spending on scholarships and other forms of financial aid given to foreign students studying in Singapore schools and universities.
Mr Perera also filed: To ask the Minister for Education (a) how many cases of parents harassing or abusing teachers have occurred yearly from 2015 to 2018; (b) what measures are in place to ensure that teachers have a safe working environment; and (c) what measures are in place to ensure that teachers who are harassed or abused have access to channels to seek counselling and redress.
Netizens who commented on Mr Perera’s post also had questions of their own, that they wished for him to raise.
Ben Lim : Are there even avenues for teachers to report harrassment, other than to their superiors ? Most likely than not, it gets swept under the carpet by the school management. Sometimes it’s the management who are the aggressors. Instead of helping the victims, they gang up to dissuade the victims from taking further action, because they are friends with the aggressor.
Jimmy Lim : Can also ask if it’s possible to use Medisave to buy insurance policies for critical illness? This will go a Long way in helping citizens cope with rising medical costs and treatments. Ok to have a cap on such usage but at least it will help us be more self sufficient in times of such needs.
Adrian Choo : Question #1 should also ask for how is success for such scholarship schemes measured, and how successful have we been, per dollar spent. /TISG