SINGAPORE: A fire broke out at the construction site of an international school in Punggol on Tuesday afternoon (May 16). 

Channel NewsAsia understands that two workers were trapped on a gondola lift at the construction site of the Global Indian International School when the fire broke out.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) posted on Facebook that its firefighters were at the scene of a fire at a construction site opposite 17 Punggol Field Walk. 

In an update about an hour later, at 6.02pm, SCDF said the two workers have been brought to safety. Both were taken to Changi General Hospital for smoke inhalation, it added.

Photos and videos taken by eyewitnesses showed the construction site engulfed in thick plumes of black smoke. 

Members of the public are advised to avoid the area, said the police. It added that the left and centre lanes along Punggol East Road (towards Tebing Lane) were closed due to the fire. Motorists should avoid the area or take an alternate route, it added.

This is a developing story. Refresh for updates.

SINGAPORE: Channel NewsAsia recently published an article featuring the move by Nanyang Girls’ High School (NYGH) to a later school start time. As the researchers involved in this initiative, we have been following the response to this article on social media with interest. 

Feedback from the public seems to be largely positive, but there have also been concerns raised about the potential costs of starting school later. Our team is not blind to these challenges and we would like to share why we believe that starting school later is advisable in spite of them.

STUDENTS SHOULD GET APPROPRIATE AMOUNT OF SLEEP

Sleep is important for health and from the responses to the article, it seems that most readers agree with this. However, it has become the accepted norm for students to get insufficient sleep on weekdays and try to catch up on sleep on weekends. A common belief is that these cycles of short weekday and long weekend sleep will average out to a healthy and recommended amount. 

We disagree. Research indicates that sleep is like food: It is needed every day and in appropriate amounts for healthy functioning. Health professionals have recommendations for daily nutritional requirements and many parents do their best to ensure that their children get three balanced meals a day.

We might think it odd to allow children to skip a meal a day on weekdays and then make up for it by eating double the amount on weekends. And yet, this is what we expect of our students when it comes to sleep. We expect that they should be able to function optimally on an imbalanced “diet” of inadequate sleep on school nights and oversleep on weekends.

Some may subscribe to the idea that sleep restriction builds resilience. Again, we could not disagree more. Sleep loss does not confer the same kinds of benefits as exercise, where the mantra goes “no pain no gain”. It is not like willpower or discipline, where the more you train and push your boundaries, the stronger you become. We do not consider starving our children to make them more resilient, or worry that giving them their daily nutritional requirement every day is pampering them. Why should we think differently about sleep?

With their current sleep patterns, our students do get by in school and some may argue: If it isn’t broken, why fix it? However, we believe that students should be flourishing and not merely getting by. Research shows that getting the appropriate amount of sleep not only helps students feel better, but also helps them learn better – a win-win situation.

There are also those who are not genetically predisposed to function well without sleep. These individuals will certainly accomplish more if they are not struggling to stay awake most of the time and if they have better psychological and emotional health.

ADOLESCENTS CAN FIND IT DIFFICULT TO FALL ASLEEP EARLIER

Some have questioned: Instead of starting school later, why not just get students to sleep earlier? The answer to this lies in our circadian biology. The human body is governed by processes that regulate when we fall asleep (or feel sleepy) and when we wake up (or feel alert).

Research has shown that during adolescence, changes occur that gradually push the human body clock back by several hours. This means that while younger children have less trouble falling asleep earlier at night, many adolescents can find it difficult to fall asleep before 11pm.

Think about the last time you had jet lag and were trying to fall asleep when your body was telling you to stay awake. Telling adolescents to go to bed earlier is putting them through a version of that experience every single day.

Starting school later is only one part of the solution to the sleep problem faced by Singapore students. Others, which we are also working toward, include instilling good sleep habits and encouraging proper time management.

However, because of our circadian biology, starting school later remains a cornerstone of that solution.

Even in the ideal situation of good sleep habits, or even reduced workload, as some readers have suggested, most teenagers would still only be able to fall asleep around 11pm. They should therefore only wake up after 7am to get at least eight hours of sleep, which is the minimum recommended sleep duration for their age.

Yet, unless students only take 30 minutes to get ready and make their way to school, there is no way that students can get those eight hours of sleep if school starts at 7.30am.

ADJUSTMENTS AND COMPROMISE NECESSARY TO MAKE LATER SCHOOL START TIMES A REALITY 

Starting school later will come with its challenges. One of the biggest concerns that has been raised is that there will be more traffic congestion because the school crowd will collide with the work crowd.

This is a difficult problem, but not an insurmountable one. Innovative ways to relieve rush-hour congestion already exist and will continue to be developed. For example, Schoolber is a ride-sharing platform that provides carpooling for students.

Adjustments and compromise will be necessary to make later school start times a reality.

The change we envisage will not happen overnight. NYGH spent half a year in preparing to shift their start time. They went through many rounds of revising the curriculum before rolling out one that would allow school to end at around the same time without comprising curriculum coverage. 

They were aware of the potential impact on transport, so they surveyed their students to understand their transport situation and concerns. The school also monitored local traffic conditions before the change to determine how much of a delay would be tolerable.

In short, NYGH spent significant effort to figure out how to delay school start time in the most optimal, least disruptive way.

The results from the experiment were clear: Students were happier, more alert and more positive about going to school. Isn’t this something precious, even if change is hard and will lead to short-term inconvenience?

When facing pushback against her campaign for healthier school cafeteria lunches, Michelle Obama had this to say: “Don’t play with our children. Don’t do it.” We urge teachers, parents and stakeholders to come forward and say the same.

Julian Lim is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke-NUS Medical School. Lee Su Mei is a postdoctoral fellow at the same centre.

SINGAPORE: Ms Silvia Hajas was at East Coast Park taking photos with her daughter last Monday when she witnessed trouble out at sea and became a lifesaver.

The 47-year-old Australian housewife heard a cry for help and while she initially thought the four boys in the sea were joking around, she jumped in immediately after realising that they were in danger. 

She managed to save three schoolboys from drowning. The fourth boy disappeared under the water and his body was found three hours later. 

For her efforts, Ms Hajas was on Tuesday (May 16) recognised by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) which presented her with the Community Lifesavers Award.

Ms Hajas didn’t do it alone. She had help from Mr Tan Kian Choon, 53, who also received the award on Tuesday.

Ms Hajas described how she had been too tired to go back into the sea on her own after saving two boys, and approached Mr Tan’s wife for help. She couldn’t swim and urged her husband to step in.

“Initially I thought it was a false alarm when my wife alerted me of the incident,” said Mr Tan. “I saw Ms Sylvia being very busy and there were a few worried-looking boys and that was when I realised it was something serious. I saw a lifebuoy that was 10m behind me and went to take it.”

“We didn’t talk. It all happened very naturally. It just worked,” recalled Ms Hajas. “We both knew what was happening, we had the buoy, we had something that could help us. The fourth boy submerged before we even got into the water to save the third boy. No ability for us to even do anything to save the fourth boy.”

Her advice to the boys she saved: “Don’t go into treacherous waters. I hope that they will do something amazing with their lives. I don’t want them to be scarred by this experience … that they remember their friend and move on with their lives.”

On receiving the award, Ms Hajas described it as “a real honour,” adding that she’s been touched by the compassion and support she received from strangers after news of what she’d done emerged.

“I often hear that Singaporeans lack civic-mindedness but I don’t think so. I think there’s a hero in all of us,” she said.

BE AWARE OF WHERE LIFEBUOYS ARE

The incident off East Coast Park showed that lifebuoys can make the difference in saving lives.

It was Mr Tan who found a lifebuoy to help save the third boy and the SCDF said the decision was a good one. “It’s good to be aware of the locations of the lifebuoys,” said Division Commander COL Alan Toh.

Ms Hajas said since the incident, she’s been more aware of where the lifebuoys are.

“In good conscience, I couldn’t have just stood on the sidelines. I dread to think that if nobody was there, the three boys that got out would have tried to save their friends and that could have led to an even bigger tragedy,” she added.

As for Mr Tan, he said after receiving the award: “I feel very overwhelmed. To me, it’s not so big of a deal.”

The SCDF’s Community Lifesaver Award is presented to members of the public whose actions involved an element of self-risk and contributed to saving lives.

“We need more of Ms Silvia and Mr Tan. In life (and death) situations like that, we need more community first responders,” said COL Abdul Razak, SCDF’s Director of Public Affairs. “As a community first responder, your own safety is equally important. Having said that, where you can help, do help as much as you could before SCDF arrives.”

He added that lending a helping hand may not always come in the form of a heroic rescue. “(It) could be as easy as calling the SCDF … There are cases where we guide people over the phone and they end up being able to save the person’s life,” said COL Razak.

“Collectively, we can make a difference.”

SINGAPORE: Can’t wait for next month’s Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the National Gallery Singapore (NGS)? Fans of the popular Japanese artist can get a taste of what’s to come at the inaugural Gallery Children’s Biennale, which opens on Saturday (May 20).

Kusama’s Obliteration Room, which will run for four months, is one of the 10 works presented at the museum’s family-friendly exhibition.

Located at the museum’s basement concourse, the interactive installation is an all-white room, and visitors are encouraged to “obliterate” through the course of the show by sticking hundreds of thousands of coloured sticker dots everywhere.

Presented in conjunction with her highly anticipated retrospective in Singapore in June, Kusama’s children’s project was first shown in Australia in 2002 and has exhibited all over the world. The Singapore version is said to be the biggest iteration to date.

“As a child, she saw the world through dots but she has turned that into a strength,” said Suenne Megan Tan, the museum’s director for audience development and engagement.

BRIDGE THE GAP

Kusama’s artwork won’t be the only one that employs visual trickery at the Biennale, which carries the theme Dreams & Stories.

Nearby, Filipino artist Mark Justiniani’s 16m-long transparent bridge challenges you to conquer your fear of heights while you walk over a chasm, which is an illusion using mirrors.

There’s also Singapore art show regular teamLAB’s own interactive room. The Japanese collective has filled it with huge balls that pulse with different lights and sounds once they’re given a firm slap.

While it’s billed as a children’s biennale, the exhibition isn’t just for the young ones. Like Singapore Art Museum’s ongoing Imaginarium show, with its sculptures made of bombs and contemporary artist Eko Nugroho’s off-kilter creations, NGS’ first big kids show wants adults to have fun, too.

“If you look at museums all over the world, children’s programmes are mostly conceived with only one audience in mind — the children. Most of the time, these neglect the adults accompanying the child,” said Tan.

Described by Tan as a “meeting point for the child and inner child-in-us to form a bond or connection,” the biennale is the museum’s first children’s show outside of its popular Keppel Centre for Art Education spaces, which drew around 300,000 young ones last year.

This time, the works are installed all over the museum, mingling with more “grown-up” works.

FOR ADULTS, TOO

Walking around, one might come across Cultural Medallion recipient Chng Seok Tin’s five-in-one woodcut piece, recreations of some of her previous works that chronicle her struggles with losing most of her vision in the late 1980s due to an accident.

There’s also fellow Singaporean Ian Woo’s playful sponge sculptures that children can configure ala Lego pieces — or adults can contemplate as soft abstract sculptures.

While Vincent Leow’s biennale piece isn’t quite as “grown-up” as his infamous urine-drinking performance (the relics of which are at the museum’s Singapore wing), he injects social commentary about the plight of former residents of Rochor Centre in an installation of colourful bird traps and gilded everyday objects.

All three probably wouldn’t seem out of place in a “proper” contemporary art gallery setting or even NGS’ main galleries.

Meanwhile, other artists have even reconfigured their works to fit a younger audience, while maintaining the essence of their practice.

Singaporean artist Robert Zhao Renhui presents a “children’s edition” of his fact-meets-fiction musings on fauna and flora, which includes both a cutes Hasbro robot cat and a cockroach that’s supposedly remote controlled.

Meanwhile, among the works by Singaporean performance artist Lynn Lu is a cloud-shaped installation. Two people can sit underneath it and they will be prompted to answer a series of questions in order to learn more about each other — a work that echoes her practice of looking at relationships.

But even the most children-oriented work in the show evokes something more. Vietnamese artist Tran Trong Vu’s plastic garden of sorts includes flowers containing 100 poems from schoolchildren in Singapore, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

At the same time, the organic-looking installation, seemingly growing at the Supreme Court Foyer, also reminds one of the kinds of works shown in the same building, back when big brother Singapore Biennale held fort at the then-deserted space in 2008.