SINGAPORE: For years, policymakers in Singapore have been focusing on ways to narrow the income gap, as countries around the world seek to mitigate the side effects of globalisation.

Social inequality has become a buzz phrase among national discussions, and the issue remains a work in progress.

Of late, however, a new phrase has entered the government’s lexicon: Social stratification.

It refers to an institutionalised system of social inequality — a dire situation that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong warned about in February, but one which is starting to take root and risks becoming entrenched, as several Cabinet Ministers and other Members of Parliament (MPs) highlighted during the five-day debate on the President’s Address earlier this month.

“The issues of mitigating income inequality, ensuring social mobility and enhancing social integration are critical,” PM Lee had said in a written parliamentary reply. “If we fail – if widening income inequalities result in a rigid and stratified social system, with each class ignoring the others or pursuing its interests at the expense of others – our politics will turn vicious, our society will fracture and our nation will wither.”

And among the various aspects of social stratification, it is the “perceptible reduction” — in Education Minister Ong Ye Kung’s words — in social mixing in recent years that has gotten some worried.

National University of Singapore (NUS) sociologist Tan Ern Ser said: “The lack of social mixing may translate into a lack of empathy for and understanding of those who hail from disadvantaged families … leading to a reluctance to support policies aimed at improving the lots of the lower classes, and contributing towards their welfare.”

This lack of mutual understanding could also lead to the “emergence of distrust between classes, even class tension”, said Dr Tan, who co-authored the Institute of Policy Studies’ (IPS) Study On Social Capital with IPS deputy director for research Gillian Koh and NUS sociologist Vincent Chua.

For generations, social mixing has been a hallmark of Singapore society, thanks to the housing, education and National Service policies which encourage mixing across groups of different race, income and family backgrounds.

But at least two of these three policy levers, which have carefully nurtured and reinforced the culture, are not working as well as before — or as they should be.

The IPS study, which was supported by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, found that while there is social mixing between classes, “there seems to be a gap along two dimensions of social stratification, that of housing and education,” Dr Tan noted.

READ: A commentary on inequality across neighbourhoods in Singapore.

READ: A commentary on bridging the class divide.

Among other findings, the study — which was published last December — showed that on average, Singaporeans who live in public housing have fewer than one friend living in private housing. People who study in elite schools also tend to be less close to those in non-elite schools, and vice versa.

Make no mistake about it, the issue is receiving attention at the highest level: In a bid to “deliberately plan for a more equal and inclusive society”, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) has launched three Build-to-Order projects — in Woodlands, Bukit Batok and Sengkang — with rental and sold flats within the same block.

The authorities will also continually renew buildings and infrastructure to avoid ending up in a situation “where certain parts of Singapore are left to degrade and we end up with deteriorated neighbourhoods or towns, inhabited largely by lower-income or elderly residents”, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said in Parliament during the debate on the President’s Address.

Meanwhile, PM Lee told the House last week that the Ministry of Education (MOE) will work with Raffles Institution (RI) and other popular schools so that they never become “self-perpetuating, closed circles”.

The Government has also stressed, on several occasions, the need to level the playing field from preschool in order to tackle inequality. To that end, it is doubling its annual spending on the preschool sector to S$1.7 billion in 2022.

HOUSING: RISK OF ENCLAVES

Moving into the Ang Mo Kio neighbourhood a decade ago after her divorce, Ms Fadillah Abdul Rahman, 45, was taken aback by the lifestyles of the “underdogs in Singapore’s society”, and was fearful her children might wind up with bad company.

She lives with two sons and a daughter in a two-room rental flat in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6. Her eldest daughter has moved out after getting married.

True to her fears, her son, now 20, was admitted to a boys’ home for several months for disciplinary issues.

Still, the single mother wants to give her children the freedom to hang out with kids in the community. She also gives them free rein to manage their studies. Her daughter, 10, attends Ang Mo Kio Primary school, which is about a 20-minute walk or 15-minute bus ride away.

Her eldest son, Mohd Zuhairi Zakariya, 21, works as a technician at a company providing wire bonding services in Yishun. From Mondays to Thursdays, he takes night classes at the Institute of Technical Education College Central and is working towards a Higher Nitec degree in mechanical engineering.

Ms Fadillah said her daughter often plays at home or the playground in their neighbourhood. Once in a while, she would bring her to playgrounds further away, including those located near condominiums and private estates. But on such occasions, she noticed that there were hardly any children there from families living in the private homes. These children would probably play in the playgrounds located in their condominiums or be cooped up at home, she reckoned.

Within the Ang Mo Kio/Yio Chu Kang precinct, a private housing estate at Lentor Street is situated just 2.5km away from the block of rental flats where Ms Fadillah and her children are staying.

Homemaker Jacqueline Aw, 39, her husband and two daughters — aged 2 and 6 — are among the families living in the Lentor Street estate.

Her elder daughter is enrolled in a NAFA Arts Preschool, the first arts-theme preschool in Singapore. The child also attends various enrichment classes in abacus, gymnastics, athletics, piano, dancing, as well as English and the Chinese language.

Her girls do not play in the neighbourhood park, but instead enjoy going to the indoor playground at SAFRA in Toa Payoh and Punggol.

Ms Aw, who grew up in a rental flat and knows of friends and family who have lived or are living in such units, said she is happy to visit them if they invite her family. Nevertheless, the former flight stewardess noted that her family does not know anyone living at the rental flats at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6.

Acknowledging her children’s privileged background, she added that she tries to inculcate the right values in them, such as being grateful for what life has given them.

However, some families in Ang Mo Kio whom TODAY interviewed said they would steer clear of the rental flats. One resident, who only gave her name as Madam Tan, said she and her twins, both 7 years old, will avoid going near the rental flats as the people there may be “less educated”, and the environment looks a bit “scary”. Madam Tan works in a bank and her family lives in a five-room flat in Yio Chu Kang.

The situation and prevailing sentiments among residents in Ang Mo Kio are mirrored across the island in various housing estates.

Rental flat residents, for example, said they have few opportunities to interact with Singaporeans from different family backgrounds because their day-to-day activities are often confined within their neighbourhoods.

The IPS study found that even though the vast majority of Singaporeans reside in public housing, private-home dwellers had more ties with others who live in private homes than with those who lived in public flats.

In 1989, the Government implemented the Ethnic Integration Policy to prevent racial enclaves, by ensuring that each HDB block and estate broadly reflect the Republic’s racial proportion.

While the measure has largely met its aim, enclaves are now potentially forming along socioeconomic lines, experts said.

Prior to the Government’s recent announcement, there were no HDB blocks designed to house both rental and sold units.

Flats under the public rental scheme are heavily subsidised to cater to needy households, whose total household income falls below S$1,500 per month and have no other housing options.

According to the latest General Household Survey in 2015, 1- and 2-room flats are congregated in the Bukit Merah, Kallang and Ang Mo Kio planning areas, while a larger proportion of private houses are found in Bukit Timah, Bedok and Hougang.

Figures from the Department of Statistics also show that while the proportion of Singaporeans living in condominiums has surged from 6.5 per cent to 15.6 per cent from 2000 to last year, the proportion living in 1- and 2-roomers has inched up from 5 to 5.8 per cent over the same period.

Noting the aspirations of homeowners who desire more privacy for example, Singapore Management University sociologist Paulin Straughan said the growing proportion of gated communities could result in “unintended consequences”, such as fewer chances for social mixing to take place.

LIMITS OF ‘FORCED MIXING’

With a general decline of neighbourliness, more resources should be dedicated to organising community-based events such as block and street parties, in order “to bring people out of their sanctuary and mix in common spaces”, Prof Straughan suggested.

Such community activities go some way in bridging social divides between the rich and the poor, residents and MPs said.

Over in the Jalan Kukoh neighbourhood in Bukit Merah, for instance, ground-up initiatives such as ReadAble and Catch Plus (Children and Teen Community Hub Plus) — which are targeted at students from low-income families — are often run by volunteers from more privileged backgrounds.

Ms Lyn Razali, who lives in a two-room unit along Jalan Minyak, said Catch Plus has helped her two daughters and herself widen their social networks. The after-school care programme is targeted at students aged seven to 16 from low-income families in the neighbourhood. It focuses on the academic and socio-emotional aspects of their development.

“Through these activities, we have befriended Singaporeans who live in condominiums, and they invite us over to their homes. But ultimately, we are brought together through the community (regardless of) financial status,” said Ms Razali, 38, whose husband works as a driver.

The Catch Plus programme was the brainchild of Jalan Besar GRC MP Lily Neo, who looks after some lower income households in the Jalan Kukoh area.

Dr Neo noted that “forced mixing” is helpful only if the individuals themselves continue to foster their relationships beyond instituted activities. She added:

I feel some people may be more comfortable and at ease sticking with their own groups… We can try out different programmes, but when I leave it to them, would they hang out together? They may or they may not.

Some Singaporeans had mixed views on the extent to which social mixing and integration could be instituted.

Public relations consultant Oo Gin Lee, 49, reiterated that it is “only natural” for people to interact with others with whom they share similar preferences and lifestyles — and these would likely still boil down to their spending powers, added Mr Oo, whose family lives in a condominium in Bukit Timah.

Ms Lim Shaw Hui, 45, believes that schools are society’s best shot at promoting social mixing from young. The mother of two sons aged 7 and 9 said she made a deliberate decision to enrol her children in a neighbourhood primary school. She added:

It is too simplistic to think that hawker centres and playgrounds are sufficient to encourage mixing.

SCHOOLS: THE GREAT SOCIAL LEVELLER BEING THREATENED?

While Singapore’s schools are seen as the most effective social levellers, there is growing concern that so-called elite primary and secondary schools coveted for their academic rigour could be disproportionately attracting students from affluent families.

There is a need to relook some of the admission policies, some parents and experts said.

Mr Oo pointed out that affiliation schemes which prioritise certain students for admission because their parents are alumni, or because they themselves graduated from primary schools within the same family of schools, widen the divide between institutions.

Children whose families are living within a 1 to 2km radius are also given priority under existing policies. With some primary schools such as Henry Park Primary School, Singapore Chinese Girls’ School and Methodist Girls’ School located in or near a private estate, these schools tend to be “homogenised”, said Prof Straughan.

Such a policy has also created an unintended vicious circle: The high demand for places at prestigious schools drive up prices of nearby homes, with well to do families snapping up these flats.

Speaking in Parliament last week, PM Lee cited his recent conversation with Mr Ong, where he was told that RI — which has a strong tradition of accepting students from diverse backgrounds, so long as they make the cut — has become “less diverse” over the years.

To address this, the new RI principal, Mr Frederick Yeo, has been speaking to parents of potential students in primary schools across Singapore, to encourage them to apply to RI.

To the principal’s surprise, some of the parents told him they did not want to send their child there, because they feared he would not be able to fit in with other more well-off students, PM Lee said. But PM Lee stressed that the parents’ fear was unfounded — in reality, RI students still come from varied backgrounds, with 53 per cent of its students living in public housing, and all the students “get along confidently and comfortably”.

In response to queries, MOE cited co-curricular activities (CCAs), inter-school camps and national school games as examples of opportunities that “provide common spaces for students from diverse backgrounds to forge friendships”.

Eight in 10 schools today have a “relatively balanced mix” of students, with at least 5 per cent of students from both the top and bottom socio-economic quintiles.

“MOE is committed to an inclusive education system which ensures that all students regardless of their background and abilities are given opportunities and support to realise their potential,” said a ministry spokesperson.

Several popular schools, including RI, Hwa Chong Institution and Methodist Girls’ School, also cited inter-school projects as platforms for students to interact with peers from various backgrounds.

However, most of these initiatives involve only a small group of students from each school.

Parents who have kids in both an elite school and a neighbourhood school said they have observed a stark difference in their children’s social networks.

Mr Oo’s eldest daughter goes to a popular girls’ school in Bukit Timah, while her sister studies at a less well-known school in Telok Blangah. “Their friends are so different. My second goes to an average school, and you can see that there is greater diversity,” he said. “When you look at (my eldest’s peers), they are all rich. In the morning, the roads to her school are often congested because a larger majority of the parents drive their kids to this school.”

At the same time, examples abound of children from less affluent families who were able to get into the elite schools — but the feeling among observers is that the odds could be increasingly stacked against those from less privileged backgrounds, and the onus is on school leaders to ensure the pathways remain open to all.

A parent, Ms Anne Soh, felt that students’ socioeconomic backgrounds have a definite bearing on how well they do in schools. For example, those who are better off are exposed to enrichment classes from a young age, she noted.

Both Ms Soh, 47, and her husband work in a church, earning a total of about S$4,000 each month. They live in a four-room flat at Ghim Moh with two sons and a daughter.

Their eldest son, who is now 19, graduated from one of the top secondary schools and junior colleges here. Declining to be named, the son, who is a full-time national serviceman, said his friends from school came from “fairly similar” socioeconomic backgrounds, in contrast to his peers in the military. He said:

In our society, it’s hard to ensure mixing in schools when everything is based on academics … Because the richer you are, the more you can afford stuff like tuition.

Ms Soh noted that at her second son’s school, quite a number of students also come from well-to-do families.

However, school leaders have placed a strong focus on taking in students with special needs and learning abilities, she said. They have instilled a culture of service to the community, and students are encouraged to share the values with their family members, she added. For example, the students organise annual community service trips which their fathers are also invited to participate in.

Ms Lim suggested that schools conduct CCAs in clusters, based on their geographical locations, so that students with common interests can come together, despite their different backgrounds.

Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC MP Zainal Sapari mooted the idea of “community schools”, which do away with cut-off points and affiliation priorities for admission. These schools could offer both primary and secondary education, he suggested. He said:

We need to let our children interact with people not only from different backgrounds, but of various academic aptitudes. Instead, now, we are encouraging social stratification at a young age by streaming them, labelling some as ‘gifted’.

IT ALL STARTS AT HOME

On her decision to enrol both her sons in a neighbourhood school, Ms Lim said she and her husband “wanted them in an environment where they would get to mix around and widen their social circles”.

“We also did not want to put them in an ‘elite’ school because of the academic pressure,” said Ms Lim, a part-time assistant director at Beyond Social Services.

Having come from a privileged background herself, Ms Lim said this was why she wanted to ensure her children are exposed to people from all walks of life.

Since young, her children would accompany their parents at fundraising events. They also visit and support a family living in a rental flat within their estate in Pasir Ris, said Ms Lim. These monthly visits over the last two years have helped her children forge a strong friendship with the other family’s son, she added.

Associate Professor Chua pointed out that volunteerism is “an effective means to narrowing the inequality gap”. “Networks are conduits for the flow of resources. Mentoring relationships (for instance, free tuition) are one example, they facilitate the sharing of resources, possibilities and synergies,” he added.

Some Singaporeans from lower-income households reiterated that there are sufficient opportunities for people like them to rise from the lower rungs of society, as well as mix with people from different socioeconomic groups. It is up to the individual, they said.

Mr Mohd Zuhairi said: “We are what we are … It is about how you want to change your life. You got to be hardworking and have a positive mindset. There are opportunities, but you must know what you want your life to be.”

Dr Tan stressed that family upbringing is critical: In a situation where a child is raised in a family which has “socialised him or her to have low aspirations, to not take education seriously, to feel incapable of doing better and to see himself as a victim of circumstances”, the child is less likely to break out of his class background.

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A SOCIETAL EFFORT

In his parliamentary speech, Mr Ong described tackling inequality as an “unfinished business”.

He noted that Singapore, like other nations, had wrestled with the problem of inequality in its early days. But its journey from Third World to First had created new forms of inequalities, said Mr Ong, who also cautioned that social stratification could “poison” the society over time.

Overall, experts say the situation in Singapore is far from dire, but there are signs of social stratification taking root — and these need to be nipped in the bud.

While Singaporeans have enjoyed “a fairly upward mobility” in the past, Prof Straughan cautioned against a growing discontent and unhappiness among the younger generation who may feel that it is “almost impossible for them to reach for the stars”.

Agreeing, Dr Tan said that if the “class boundaries are not permeable” and the chances of moving up are slim, the lower classes may feel “a sense of hopelessness, discontentment, and envy”.

Given the absence of longitudinal data on the topic, “it is hard to say whether things are getting worse”, said Dr Tan.

Nevertheless, the critical question is whether inequalities are “systematically entrenched”, Prof Straughan reiterated.

Addressing the issue publicly, several national leaders have noted that social stratification is a risk for developed societies. PM Lee, for example, pointed out that “any society which has been stable for a long time tends to stratify”, citing the entrenched notions of class and caste in the United Kingdom and India.

Assoc Prof Chua noted that “an all-out meritocracy in the latter stages will produce the kinds of divides we are seeing”.

To bridge these gaps, government policies are one thing. But the public at large has a role to play as well, in terms of attitudes and mindsets.

Ultimately, “friendships are a combination of context and choice”, Assoc Prof Chua said. “The important thing would be to complement one’s social circles with bridges to others. The best networks are those that are rich in variety,” he added.

SINGAPORE: While most people take quick snaps with their smartphones on holiday, and maybe zhoosh it up with careful cropping and filters for the ‘Gram, Teresa Lim takes her time, hours even, capturing scenes from her vacations.

Armed with needle and thread, she has enshrined her impressions of everything from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, to the haphazard buildings of Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City and the farmland at her grandparents’ home in Germany, in intricately embroidered pieces.

All together, the 27-year-old has more than 40 of these charming travel “snaps” in her ever-growing Sew Wanderlust series.

Three years after her works caught the attention of international media, Ms Lim, known by the moniker Teeteeheehee, has scored an impressive list of clients as an embroidery artist. It includes the likes of Gucci, Uniqlo, Melissa Shoes, Singapore Airlines, Changi Airport and even Netflix.

SEW FAR, SEW GOOD

Speaking to Channel NewsAsia in her workshop in her family HDB maisonette, Ms Lim shared that being an embroidery artist was never the plan for her. The Fashion Design and Textiles graduate from LASALLE College of the Arts said unlike most of her peers, she did not dive into a job search immediately after graduation. Instead, she gave herself a year to focus solely on embroidery, a medium she had picked up in school.

“I think that was very important because when you don’t put pressure on yourself. That’s where you grow and understand yourself more.

“I wasn’t very sure what I wanted to do, but I was always very sure what I did not want to do,” she said, referring to a corporate job, which she thought was humdrum.

As expected, her choice to pursue art as a career was met with scepticism from her parents. While she received well-meaning advice that she might not go far and that she should stick to a more secure job, she was not deterred.

“I cannot imagine myself going through life like that. I would rather suffer doing something I like than being safe and not enjoying what I do,” Ms Lim said.

And suffer she did. She recalled being financially strapped in her first year, while she was jobless and without a steady income. She did not want to rely on her parents either, in a bid to prove them wrong.

When she realised she was down to her last fifty dollars, she decided to start giving lessons on playing the violin, a skill that her mother — a piano teacher — had inspired her to pick up from young.

Ms Lim indicated she’s embraced the harsh realities of being an artist in Singapore.

“Ultimately, art in Singapore is not mainstream. There is no fixed income. We don’t know when we will get a big project and then nothing for three months,” she said.

“Realistically speaking, when you worry too much about whether you can feed yourself, that can drown out the passion. Once you have that sorted out, you can have the space and mental capacity to create.”

Today, she brings home a comfortable income through commissioned works for brands looking for artwork for their campaigns or individuals looking for customised portraits.

A basic embroidered portrait is priced at S$250, while more elaborate pieces can cost up to S$550.

“When you do something you like, it can only take you to good places. People can see it reflected in your work and naturally people are drawn to it,” Ms Lim said.

Today, Lim describes her work as “telling stories” or “capturing moments through thread”. “I like to encourage discussion, but I’m not very good with words, so I let my work speak for itself,” she added.

Her first personal project, the Sad Girls Club, was a series of embroidered illustrations depicting the sadness she felt when she went through a breakup.

She published her work periodically on Instagram and built up a following, with some people reaching out to tell her that they could relate to her work. From there, Ms Lim’s passion for storytelling emerged.

She moved on to address bigger issues in her next series, The Twelve Rooms, after overhearing a group of schoolgirls comparing their bodies to that of perfectly sculpted models on magazine covers.

It struck a chord with Lim who remembered feeling that way when she was younger. She also took inspiration from personal stories of some of her followers.

Said Ms Lim of the project: “I started this series as a kind of conversation with my younger self. When you’re young, you think nobody understands you so you don’t share much and in the whole process you feel very alone.

“What I hope to do is encourage discussion. There is power in knowing that someone who has been through all that is looking back and saying ‘It’s okay to feel this way’.”

This year, she is busy with a personal project tackling the issue of excessive plastic use. Inspiration for it came when she realised she could never escape the use of plastics in her daily life, even when she tried to avoid it.

She now collects what she terms ‘accidental plastics’ – bits and bobs of plastic items she uses without consciously asking for them. She hopes to incorporate all these plastics into an embroidered piece that depicts the ocean by the end of the year.

Asked what the way forward for her is, Ms Lim said: “I always get that question, but I don’t even know what I’m going to do tomorrow.

“I will always be embroidering, just that the subject matter or the stories that I tell will evolve. Every year, I am excited to see what I will discover the next year.”

SINGAPORE: Ride-hailing company Grab on Monday (May 28) officially announced it is offering GrabFood in Singapore, and the food delivery service will be available in five other Southeast Asian markets “within this quarter”.

It also said it has outlasted competitors before when asked to comment on Indonesian rival Go-Jek’s impending expansion to Singapore and other regional markets.

For the Singapore launch of the GrabFood app, the company said it has signed up thousands of merchants to be on its service platform, including A Poke Theory, Hock Lam Beef Noodles, Ji De Chi, McDonald’s, Wing Zone and Yum Cha restaurant.

Asked to elaborate on the number of merchants and delivery people available, Mr James Ong, head of GrabFood Singapore, said during the media briefing there must be a balance between both. Too few delivery people, and consumers will get their food late, while too many will mean there will not be enough jobs to go around, he explained. 

“As we grow demand, we will grow supply,” Mr Ong added.

He also mentioned that there will be no minimum order requirement for consumers – a feature similar to the now-defunct Uber Eats. This is a “strong lever” to shape consumer behaviour but as the service evolves, it could be offered to certain segments of the customer base while others would get other targeted promotions, he explained.

GrabFood will also be linked to its GrabRewards loyalty platform, with Grab saying it will offer five GrabRewards points for every dollar spent on a GrabFood order.

Other regional markets to have GrabFood include Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, the company added in its press release.

INSURANCE FOR DELIVERY STAFF

Besides consumers, the company also said it will insure all on-the-job delivery staff at no additional cost to “protect them in the event of an unfortunate accident”.

Those delivering for GrabFood will also not need to pre-book their delivery slots, and all earnings for the day can be cashed out on the same day, the company added.

The GrabFood app is available now in beta, which Mr Ong explained is to let users know the company will be making many changes to the app to improve the service based on the feedback it receives.

It supersedes the Uber Eats app, which was officially shut off at 11.59pm on Sunday, according to Grab Singapore head Lim Kell Jay during the same briefing. Most of the GrabFood staff came from Uber Eats, Mr Ong added, but he declined to reveal the exact numbers.

The company acquired Uber’s Southeast Asia operations and Uber Eats in March this year, although regulators in the region including Singapore are still reviewing the deal.

“COMPETITION IS ALWAYS THERE”

Mr Lim, when asked how the company will be affected by Go-Jek’s impending arrival in the market, said “competition is always there” and it had faced competitors in the past but still came out on top.

“We are very focused on what our customers want … and we think it’s the only sustainable way to remain relevant in the market,” he explained.

Go-Jek announced last week it will enter the ride-hailing business in Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines in the next few months, investing US$500 million in its international push. CEO Nadiem Makarim said then that people in Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines “don’t feel that they’re getting enough (choice) when it comes to ride hailing”. 

SINGAPORE: In public policy, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Due to limited time and resources, choosing to do something means choosing not to do another.

In his speech to Parliament last week, Minister for Education Ong Ye Kung gave his thoughts on various policy suggestions such as the abolition of streaming and the PSLE. The underlying theme was clear: All policy decisions involve trade-offs.

Most Singaporeans seem to understand intuitively that there is no such thing as a free lunch in policymaking. At the same time, the way many of us talk about changing the education system seems to suggest that we have unconsciously “exempted” the education system from the idea that there is no free lunch.

Mr Ong had remarked that the “voice of the people” offers a diversity of views, conflicting and complex. If I may add to his words, even a single individual can unconsciously hold conflicting views.

For example, many of us would like examinations which access students’ depth of understanding rather than ability to memorise. At the same time, we lament about “strange” questions in national examinations and express our frustration at how it seems to be getting harder to do well in exams.

READ: Are we still missing the point of education? A commentary.

READ: Can a love for learning be sustained in a competitive education system? A commentary.

There is no such thing as a free lunch: Top-level learning outcomes are often related to “difficult” tasks such as analysis and evaluation and the integration of different concepts. Difficult questions are in fact accessing students on genuine depth of understanding. Are we willing to forgo that?

The point is, if we want a policy change, we must be able to name and justify what we are trading off.

DEEPENING OUR DISCUSSION

An inadequate understanding of tradeoffs in the education system is hampering our education discourse.

Every policy decision has consequences and every argument proposing major changes can be responded to by simply highlighting the negative consequences. Often, this is where the discourse ends.  

It need not be so. If they are serious about their proposals, those who seek major policy changes should respond to critics by substantiating why a certain consequence is justified. This would then prompt those who oppose said changes to review and clarify why it is not justified.

This may then lead to a deeper discussion, where we move from merely describing the benefits and costs to resolving why certain trade-offs are worth incurring, and coming to a common consensus on the way forward.

As much as policy changes are about what we want (benefits), they are also about what we are willing to forego (costs) and most importantly, why are we are willing to forgo them.

For any meaningful discourse and constructive policy review to take place, proposers of policy change cannot merely focus on the benefits. They need to consider the consequences arising from the changes they seek and why they are willing to incur them.

FOUR CONSTRAINTS

In my observations of education policy discourse, it seems the following consequences are often raised in response to new ideas. In other words, the consequences act as fundamental “constraints” on the system, against which any new suggestions should not erode. Think of them as reflecting key pillars of the solid foundation of our system.

In general, every new suggestion should not:

1. Compromise education standards;
2. Hamper students’ preparation for the future economy;
3. Unduly increase levels of stress and competition; or
4. Unnecessarily disrupt the system

These constraints are present in most education issues. Just look at the suggestion to abolish PSLE.

In his speech last week, Mr Ong remarked that many parents support the PSLE system “because the PSLE experience teaches their children to work hard, and to demonstrate what they have learned throughout their primary school years”. 

This argument implicitly invokes the second constraint, since students may be less prepared for the future if a key learning checkpoint is removed and they do not work as hard.

Earlier this year, during the Ministry of Education’s Committee of Supply debate, then- Minister for Education (Schools) Ng Chee Meng remarked that “removing the PSLE and having a through train will only transfer the stress on parents and students elsewhere, such as at the P1 registration”. 

He also emphasised that “it will make the O-Level and N-Level exams most stressful – a single exam in the whole career of a child’s life.” 

This argument invokes the third constraint, since it implies that there will be more stress overall without the PSLE.

If those who want to abolish PSLE still wish to push for it, they must be able to explain why the benefits of doing so outweighs the cost of eroding a key system constraint i.e. why a system which may less actively prepare students for the future or one with more sources of stress is justified.

If they now feel the true cost of their proposal is too high a price to pay, then they should consider more suitable, alternative proposals.

This is what quality policy discourse should look like – one based on well-thought through ideas, the consideration of trade-offs and a judgment call on what one is willing to forgo.

READ: A commentary on a parent’s struggle in picking a “good school” for their child.

READ: With less focus on grades, is PSLE still a necessary checkpoint? A commmentary.

IS THAT ENOUGH?

A conversation centred on trade-offs can advance our education policy discourse. It can be propelled forward even further if we look deeper into why different people prefer certain trade-offs over others.

Before diving into policy discourse, consider this: If policies are means to ends, then disagreements over education policies (means) can reflect disagreements over the aims of education (ends).

In education, there can only be one primary aim. Secondary aims must take on a lower priority. Trade-offs must again be made.

Thus, before detailed policy discussions, we should all ask ourselves: What is the primary aim of education? To equip the next generation with skills for the future economy? To reduce inequality? To cultivate values and unity?

Our answers will show us why we are willing to make the trade-offs we make.

If there are vastly differing opinions within the population on the aims of education, then we may also need to have a more fundamental debate on what the primary aim of education in Singapore should be, to get everyone on the same page. Otherwise, our discourse will also still remain hampered.

A BETTER DISCOURSE?

Last week, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announced in Parliament that the 4G leaders will hold a series of discussions to engage Singaporeans on their views.

I expect education to feature heavily in these discussions. The success of these discussions can be maximised if all participants are aware of the trade-offs they are willing to make and are explicit about what they feel the primary aim of education is and why other aims are of a lower priority.

In other words, understanding that the education system is not a free lunch.

Ng Chia Wee will begin his undergraduate education at the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences this August.

BATAM, Indonesia: The sex worker’s iPhone wallpaper is a wefie with her mother, both clad in hijabs and grinning from ear to ear. “I do feel sinful,” says the 19-year-old who calls herself Honey. 

Her otherwise nonchalant, world-weary bearing softens for a moment. “But I’ve already gone through with it. What can I do?” she whispers.

Honey was 17 when she first prostituted herself – older than most of her contemporaries, who were starting out at what she said was typically the age of 15. Their instructions were to add five to six years to this number when asked by customers, but even with the truth accidentally revealed, none batted an eyelid at the prospect of having sex with a teenager.

“They all like young girls,” said Honey. “Sometimes, they ask if I’m younger – if I can be younger.”

Her tale is emblematic of an island-wide issue on Indonesia’s Batam, according to authorities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who spoke to Channel NewsAsia.

In 2017, Yayasan Embun Pelangi (YEP), a humanitarian agency assisting underage victims of sexual exploitation, handled 28 such instances, of which 14 involved prostitution. Separately, the Rumah Faye agency, which aims to tackle underage sexual abuse, received 21 children last year, of which five were forced into prostitution and the rest sexually exploited.

These reported cases aside, there is no recent, reliable measure of the total number of underage individuals being sexually exploited, though in 2016 the Commission for the Protection of Indonesian Children said there were 1,000 child sex workers in Batam.

A year later, the End Child Prostitution and Trafficking (ECPAT) global network commented that the number of underage prostitution cases on the little holiday island “continues to grow”, with victims serving up to eight customers in a night.

Drefani, the chief of Batam city police’s women and child protection unit, still recalls the youngest victim rescued by her team last year: A four-year-old girl trafficked and sexually exploited.  

Was she prostituted, too? The question was asked with some hesitance, but Drefani’s response instantaneous. “Just not yet,” she said with a straight face.

“CLOSE ONE, THREE POP UP”

Sex work, in general, remains illegal in Indonesia, where there is no official age of consent but men can marry at 19 and women, 16. 

Rumah Faye estimates there are some 300 brothels littered throughout Batam, with most masquerading as karaokes or massage parlours. These are technically allowed to operate as business or entertainment outlets, but will be served a letter of notice should any “illegal activity” be detected by police. Any more than three letters and the outlet must shut down, Drefani explained.

YEP’s Irwan Setiawan, however, said these brothels simply reopen elsewhere under different monikers.

“Close down one, three more will pop up,” added Husaini Tarmizi of the Yayasan Mitra Kesehatan dan Kemanusiaan (YMKK) agency. “At first the police will conduct checks, but once they start taking money from the brothel every month, the checks stop.”

Youngsters rescued from these brothels are typically rehabilitated at a shelter first – for no more than two weeks, as mandated by the Indonesian government – before being sent home. For at least six months after, organisations like Rumah Faye will attempt to keep monitoring their progress via phone calls.

“Their situation makes them not trust other people, so it takes a while,” said Rumah Faye’s Dewi Astuti, recalling how her toughest nut to crack was a 13-year-old girl, whose pimp had also made her addicted to drugs to tighten his grip on her.

The government-funded YEP has also attempted to reach out and educate rural communities where most of these children are trafficked from.

But all the NGOs acknowledged their work has already been largely undermined by the current trend of online prostitution.

“You won’t find child sex workers at brothels anymore. They’re sent straight to hotels, and it’s harder to track down,” said Dewi.

Acknowledging that YEP has yet to help any victims of the online trade, Irwan observed: “Hotels in Batam generally close an eye to odd sightings like a grown-up customer bringing a child up to the room, or a lone child being sent to the hotel by pimps. You can do all that and the reception won’t say anything.”

“So now, we’re trying to work with hotels, to get them to tell their staff what to do.”

Drefani said her team of nine were also working with colleagues in the cyber department, while attempting some policing of their own on popular social media channels like Facebook and WeChat.

“There’s a limit to what we can do, beyond prevention and helping victims,” said Irwan. “It’s the demand side that needs to be worked on.”

SINGAPOREANS “GETTING AWAY WITH IT”

Huddled in the Nagoya city centre’s morass of dingy strips and alleyways, a crassly multi-fluorescent shopfront stands open for business deep into the night.

It is tagged as a massage destination on Google Maps, but lying in wait inside is a pushy mamasan – called a “mami” in Batam – with her offering of sex workers seated behind a glass panel.

Seconds after the mami brags about having “many, many” Singaporean customers, a pair of them, looking to be in their twenties, breeze through the door with a local driver in tow. They high-five the middle-aged mami like regulars, and survey their prospects for the night’s entertainment – but not before making sure to ask for the youngest available girl.

“This one,” the mami gestures to an impossibly petite, elfin specimen. “We usually say she’s 18 years old. One point five (million rupiah) for all night.”

“Don’t have younger?” one of the Singaporeans asks, as he sizes her up intently.

Scenarios like these are the reason why YEP and Rumah Faye have been calling for Singaporean NGOs and even Government bodies to work together on stemming the flow of sex tourists carried to Batam by the short, 40-minute ferry ride.

There are also no recent, detailed figures for Singaporeans or tourists seeking underage sex in Batam. Last year, ECPAT reported anecdotally that consumers of trafficked children were locals from Batam as well as foreigners from Malaysia and Singapore.

“Many middle-aged Singaporean men, above 40 years old, who are called ‘apek-apek’, visited Batam for sex with children between the ages of 13 and 17 years. They were usually facilitated by brokers who were taxi drivers to access these child prostitutes,” the global organisation stated. “It is hard to eliminate child prostitution in the island due to high demand.”

All the NGOs interviewed said most of the child victims they helped in the last few years had named their exploiters or customers as mainly hailing from Singapore, and Honey claimed she had entertained more Singaporean customers compared to any other nationalities.

Channel NewsAsia also obtained police and NGO reports of Singaporeans who had recently engaged in various forms of underage sexual exploitation.

Mohammad Asri Sapuan was one such case. According to court documents, the 46-year-old sodomised and forced a 12-year-old boy, referred to as 078, to perform oral sex on him several times. Asri also sent the Batam native to the hotel rooms of visiting Singaporean friends, for IDR 300,000 (S$28) each time.

He was eventually arrested in late 2017 and in March sentenced to 13 years’ jail and an IDR 100 million (over S$9,000) fine for sexual assault. His victims – 078 and two others – were counselled, sheltered and nursed back to health by YEP.

In late 2016, the agency also tended to the alleged victims of another Singaporean man. The 56-year-old ran a centre – now shuttered – which purported to send domestic workers to Singapore, but really served as a front for him to sexually exploit girls in their pre-teens.

“If they did something wrong, they would be asked to circle him and show their genitals while dancing,” said Irwan. “Some of them were also told they would be sent to Singapore faster if they let him have sex with them.”

The man was arrested but escaped due to what Irwan described as a loophole which sets perpetrators free during a particular stage in the police’s investigative process. He could even have cleared immigration to Singapore if he wanted to, and today his whereabouts remain unknown – though provincial police have since closed the case and sent the victims home.

“Actually a lot of Singaporean men do such activities, but they get away with it – because it’s Batam,” claimed Husaini from YMKK.

“LURED BY EMPTY PROMISES”

Underpinning the demand and supply factors behind underage sex in Batam are the economic reasons for individuals to be trafficked or even willingly head to the island, said the NGOs.

As ECPAT wrote in its 2017 report: “Most of the child victims were from outside Batam. They were usually lured with empty promises of jobs as shopkeepers or restaurant waitresses with a salary of IDR 3,500,000 per month, which is regional minimum wage.

“Since regional minimum wage in Batam is higher than that of in other areas in Indonesia, traffickers often use this to lure their potential victims.”

Dewi also recounted how Rumah Faye’s last batch of pre-teen victims had been encouraged to come to Batam by a 17-year-old former victim herself. The latter, in turn, had been browbeaten by a pimp who threatened to withhold her pay if she did not do as told.

“It’s really hard for them to get away,” said Dewi. “They come here by plane ticket, which the pimp pays for. Then they also must pay to stay at the brothel. The pimp will always say they owe him money, and he will charge everything at twice the normal price – while taking a cut of their pay.

“If they do something ‘wrong’ like argue with the pimp, their pay will be cut too. End of the day, it’s as good as not getting any money.”

In YEP’s most recent case, a 13-year-old sex worker who charged each of her customers IDR 300,000 rupiah had to give 200,000 to her mami each time. Part of the remaining IDR 100,000 was used to pay off a “room fee”, which resulted in the girl taking home less than IDR 50,000 (less than S$5) each time.

In Honey’s case, she works every night of the week on a three-month contract, and is largely dependent on tips to pay off an IDR 1.5 million (S$142) debt – part of which was slapped on her just for arriving late for her flight to Batam out of Bogor city, where she previously worked.

If she cannot settle the debt before her contract runs out, she will not be allowed to go home to Jakarta and her mother and five brothers, who till this day believe she works in a cafe in Batam.

“I’m just going through with it to earn money, so I can send it back to my family and support them,” said Honey, who never finished primary school. “If possible, I don’t want to carry on as a sex worker, but since I don’t have the qualifications, this is the best I can do now.

“Even if I can get out from this life, and do something else, if that doesn’t work out, will I have to return to sex work? I’m not sure … I just hope I can meet a guy who likes me and takes me away.”

SINGAPORE: The two weeks of intense discussion on the presidential address in parliament has unanimously pointed to the danger of inequality and hardening social mobility in Singapore.  

The city-state has one of the highest income disparity levels among developed economies, though not among other global cities, before taxes and government transfers. 

In the long run, this rift will undermine our social fabric and erode public confidence in our institutions.

To the credit of our policymakers and social service sectors, they have put in place policies and programmes to tackle the imbalance of opportunities and enhance upward mobility for the disadvantaged. 

Provisions of financial assistance in local schools, special housing grants for low-income families, medical subsidies for the vulnerable, and community care funds for the disabled are just some items on a long list of policies aimed at narrowing the gulf. 

Inequality can also affect social cohesion among Singaporeans from different backgrounds. Recognising this, the Government has supported the nurturing of shared experiences between communities to promote social bonding and empathy in spite of the socioeconomic plurality. 

Collective memories such as the National Day parades, and Chingay celebrations, and shared spaces like community clubs, schools and recreational parks serve to bridge social divides.

This is, however, an uphill task. Singaporeans are not immune to the visceral desire to be close to people of the “same kind”, be it based on ethnicity or class. This easily translates into a tendency to reside in locations that resonate with their own socio-economic standing. 

Eventually, an enclave neighbourhood is formed, built either on the back of economic status or ethnicity. 

GEOGRAPHY IS FATE?

Inequality has a geographic dimension – even for a small and densely populated place like Singapore. Ignore geography and we miss important drivers of inequality and lose opportunities to mitigate them.

A concentration or segregation of people based on socio-economic standing has a profound impact on the well-being of individuals.

There are broadly two categories of geographic inequalities: Disparity between and within neighbourhoods.  

DISPARITY ACROSS NEIGHBOURHOODS

In the United States, the economic status of a neighbourhood or state has a great impact across a sweeping range of well-being indicators.  

Research has found that people who live in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in their childhood tend to have prolonged periods of poor health in adulthood and are associated with a reduced likelihood of graduating from high school.

Singapore, unlike the US, is both a country and a global city. The dividends from economic development in cities tend to be more evenly distributed than nations with a larger land mass.

Nevertheless, here, the distribution of economic and social outcomes are also skewed in favour of certain neighbourhoods.

According to the 2015 Singapore General Household Survey, more than four in ten households (44.4 per cent) in Bukit Timah earn at least S$20,000 a month, the highest income bracket in the statistical classification. This proportion is eight times as many compared to households in Woodlands (5.4 per cent) or Yishun (also 5.4 per cent).

What is perhaps more surprising is that one in five households in Bukit Merah live in a rented flat, while this figure is less than one in 25 in Sengkang or Sembawang.   

Neighbourhoods also differ in terms of important non-economic indicators, such as the number of vulnerable households. Yishun has two times the proportion of people (4.8 per cent) who are divorced or separated compared to residents in Bukit Panjang (2.42 per cent).   

Worryingly, in recent times, there has been a distinct clustering of brand name schools. These include the Rafflesian schools in Bishan, the Anglo-Chinese Schools in Dover Road, and schools of the Hwa Chong family in Bukit Timah. 

It is no coincidence that resale prices of houses near elite educational schools are higher than the average. Qualified and deserving students living in less well-off estates may have to travel a longer distance to these schools, and may therefore miss out on the opportunity to attend better institutions.

DISPARITY WITHIN NEIGHBOURHOODS

Harvard University Professor Robert Putnam found that diversity of demographics such as income, race, or religion are often linked to greater distrust in neighbourhoods.  

There is less incentive among people living in the community to interact with one another if they do not share similar physical or social attributes.  

Even in a low crime society like Singapore, there are subtle differences in the quality of life across neighbourhoods.  

In a study published by the Institute of Policy Studies in December 2017, residential estates with a more diverse range of dwelling types – which include Marine Parade and Bukit Merah – are correlated with more petty crime.  

An area with a high index for dwelling type diversity would have a wider mix of high-end private housing, as well as HDB flats of various room sizes including low-end housing. Such neighbourhoods reported more transgressions than places that are either equally rich or poor. 

This appears to support Putnam’s findings that the effects of income inequality, if unmitigated, could lead to low social capital and more anti-social behaviour like crime.

READ: A commentary on tackling inequality by moving from emotion to action.

READ: A commentary on bridging the class divide.

THE FUTURE OF NEIGHBOURHOODS

How do we mitigate the challenges linked to economic disparities between and within neighbourhoods?

Across neighbourhoods, there are policies to ensure that there is a healthy mix of residents from diverse background, like the co-location of rental and the bigger HDB units. There is also considerable attention to provide a wide range of quality amenities in various corners of the island.   

We should explore and pioneer new initiatives in this area.

First, popular institutions such as good schools could be made geographically dispersed to enable bright students from relatively vulnerable neighbourhoods to have convenient access to these institutions.

Second, we need to do more to identify and provide more “class-less” touch points that can foster shared experiences. Hawker centres and recreational parks are some examples of these places. These locations provide a service that is desired by both the wealthy and needy, is non-exclusive, and all patrons or visitors are treated alike.

Within neighbourhoods, the permeability of social classes needs be enhanced. Creating opportunities for interaction alone is a necessary but not a sufficient condition to nurture understanding and empathy between the social classes. Putnam has found that having diverse people residing in the vicinity do not necessarily lead to more meaningful contact or shared experiences.

Contact must be meaningful, not superficial, and contrived. More research is needed to identify the type of facilities and the conditions of use that residents feel comfortable interacting with others from a different background.   

For instance, residents from both lower and upper class households can be brought together to tackle common problems that affect everyone living in the same neighbourhood, such as preventing mosquito infestation, traffic congestion, or errant use of personal mobility devices.  

Not every neighbourhood will be the same, but every neighbourhood can be a good neighbourhood by forging a shared eco-system that bring people together regardless of race, religion or class.

Dr Leong Chan-Hoong is the head of Social Lab, a survey research unit in the Institute of Policy Studies, National University of Singapore. He is presently the lead researcher for a national survey on how environmental features influence attitudes to immigrants and social trust.