Those who deliberately spread falsehoods about the police and other public institutions will soon be taken to task, Minister for Home Affairs K. Shanmugam said yesterday.

“The time has come for us not to simply rebut, but to actively deal with it, so that the people who seek to profit from such conduct will actually feel the pain of it,” he said.

“We are looking at it and something will be done.”

He was replying to Mr Lim Biow Chuan (Mountbatten), who asked if the police would consider taking action to protect their reputation when false and malicious allegations are made.

Mr Shanmugam, who is also Law Minister, cited a recent public perception survey where over nine in 10 people said the police demonstrated core values of courage, loyalty and integrity.

This has led to an “enormous reservoir of trust”.

Consequently, the police will investigate any allegation thoroughly and issue a public response rebutting the allegations if they are untrue, he said.

He noted that sociopolitical website The Online Citizen “in particular glorifies in running the police down with a series of untrue stories”, and cited a recent instance where it falsely alleged that police officers had accused a wheelchair user of motorcycle theft.

Mr Shanmugam noted that the police are not immune to making mistakes, saying public servants who commit crimes have faced the consequences.

Genuine feedback could sometimes be made in error.

But what is objectionable are deliberate falsehoods, he stressed.

“If there is no wrongdoing or misconduct and you deliberately accuse to pull down the institution by manufacturing lies, and if public trust in police is eroded and they can no longer enforce rule of law effectively, all of us will be the worse for it,” he said.

This article was first published on April 4, 2017.
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The Singapore style of teaching mathematics is already being used in thousands of schools across the United States. Now, it is making inroads into British schools as well.

The Inspire Maths series of textbooks, adapted from the books here, were trialled in 70 British primary schools by the Department for Education over the past two years.

A study found that they were effective in helping children master the subject better.

Now, with another £41 million (S$72 million) from the British government – to fund a network of “mastery specialist teachers” – the Singapore style of teaching maths may reach as many as 8,000 primary schools in Britain over the next few years.

The Inspire Maths series published by Oxford University Press was adapted from the My Pals Are Here! textbooks published by Marshall Cavendish Education for schools here.

Independent research conducted by the Oxford University Department of Education last year found that British schoolchildren made more progress in maths when teachers used Singapore-style methods.

Researchers found that pupils shot ahead of their peers when taught the Singapore way, which focuses on mastering core principles as “building blocks”.

The “mastery” method, as Singapore’s approach is called in Britain, introduces core concepts such as times tables, addition and subtraction gradually, until learners are confident. Ideas are broken down into small steps, using real-life objects such as cubes and beads to illustrate a point, before moving on to drawings and then concepts.

The research combined child assessments with classroom observations and interviews with teachers.

Teachers reported that the programme could boost children’s motivation and engagement, and the evaluation found that it could be used creatively and flexibly.

Researchers also found that teachers value the professional development provided to support their use of the Inspire Maths resources.

Professor James Hall, lead author of the study and now a lecturer at the University of Exeter, said: “This boost to progress was surprising because pupils had been in a classroom setting for only a short period and because it often takes time to embed new teaching approaches.”

The study involved two groups of children aged five to six – a total of 550 – learning maths in 12 English schools in 2015 to last year.

The first group learnt maths the normal British way for the first term, then switched to using the Inspire Maths textbook in the second term. The second group used the textbook for both terms, and made better overall progress than the first group.

Oxford University Press’ editorial director for primary maths Jill Cornish said: “We now have clear evidence that a mastery approach can make a real difference to maths classrooms.”

But, she said, Singapore maths cannot be a “quick fix”.

First, the pressure on schools in England to cover a large number of maths topics in the national curriculum each year creates tension with the Singapore maths approach, which emphasises building solid foundations before moving on.

She added that teachers need more professional development and that school management teams need to be brought on board.

Marshall Cavendish Education’s head of publishing Lee Fei Chen said: “We are excited about this research and that it demonstrates the effectiveness of a mastery method of teaching mathematics in UK classrooms that has been so successful in Singapore.”

The Singapore style of teaching maths has gained attention because of the Republic’s high placings in global benchmarking tests.

Singapore students were ranked No. 1 in maths, science and reading in the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment test results released in December last year. Britain was ranked 27th in maths.

Besides Britain and the US, 15 countries – including South Africa, Brunei and the Netherlands – are using customised textbooks based on Singapore maths produced by Marshall Cavendish Education.

sandra@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on April 4, 2017.
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Younger singles may soon stand a better chance of getting hotly contested new two-room flexi flats, as the Government works to clear the backlog over the next two years by ramping up supply.

The application rate per flat last year for this group of singles aged between 35 and 54 was 6.6, much higher than the total application rate for families, the elderly and singles, which was 2.7 last year.

It means those applicants have “to try several times before they are successful”, said National Development Minister Lawrence Wong yesterday.

“If you look at the overall picture, the situation for elderly singles is getting better… The one group where the application rates are still very high is the non-elderly singles,” he said.

But the Government is ramping up the supply of two-room flexi flats – which come with shorter leases – over the next two years, the minister told Ms Lee Bee Wah (Nee Soon GRC), who asked for more measures to help repeat applicants get such flats.

Read also: Shorter wait for BTO flats for young couples

Singles have been allowed to buy new two-room flats in non-mature estates since July 2013. To address the demand, the Housing Board has increased the supply of two-room flexi units in non-mature estates from 320 units in 2012 to an average of 4,000 units per year between 2014 and 2016, Mr Wong said.

About 40 per cent of these flats are set aside for elderly applicants, including singles, aged 55 and above.

The remaining flat supply is divided equally between nonelderly singles and families.

Meanwhile, any balance flats not taken up by the elderly or families are offered to singles, he said.

This article was first published on Apr 04, 2017.
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It is one of the shortest roads with one of the longest project durations. And when it finally opens in three weeks’ time, on April 27, the 1.4km Sentosa Gateway Tunnel would have taken nearly 10 years from concept to completion.

The tunnel is open only to traffic leaving the resort island, and is accessible only to motorcycles and cars no higher than 3.5m. So it might not be passable to some sport utility vehicles with bicycles on roof racks.

A Land Transport Authority (LTA) spokesman said: “As the Sentosa Gateway Tunnel had to be constructed close to the North East Line MRT tunnels and the West Coast Highway viaduct foundations, it was designed with a height constraint of 3.5m.

“In view of the height constraint, and for fire safety reasons, only cars and motorcycles are permitted to use the… tunnel.”

The tunnel is a one-way road that connects outbound traffic from Sentosa directly to Lower Delta Road and Keppel Road.

Read also: Cycling, walking trails on Sentosa revamped

The LTA said it will help alleviate the current congestion at the busy traffic junctions at Sentosa Gateway, Telok Blangah Road, Kampong Bahru Road and Lower Delta Road, “especially during evening peak hours and the weekends”.

SUTL Enterprise chief executive officer Arthur Tay, who runs the One15 Marina on Sentosa, said: “It’s long overdue. We’re all very excited… It’ll ease congestion for people who live on Sentosa, and people who have businesses there.”

But BMW executive Sethipong Anutarasoti, 47, who lived in Sentosa Cove until last year, said: “My experience has always been okay.

“There were only a (few) times a year when there were events like golf or Chinese New Year that I experienced heavy jams.”

Construction of the new underground road started in 2010, and was supposed to have been completed by 2015.

The LTA attributed the delay of the $160 million project to construction challenges posed by the proximity of the North East MRT line and West Coast Highway viaduct infrastructures.

The road tunnel is merely 1.6m above the North East Line tunnels and about a metre away from the foundations of the West Coast Highway viaduct.

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Bungee jumping in Sentosa

Source: The Straits Times, AJ Hackett International

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In December 2015, the authority said the project would be completed by end-2016. Then in January this year, it hinted that the tunnel would be ready only in April.

Retired traffic engineer Joseph Yee said the tunnel will transfer traffic volume onto Keppel Road and Lower Delta Road because the throughput from Sentosa will be higher.

He reckons Keppel Road may become a bit more congested as a result, but Lower Delta Road has spare capacity.

“This is a known fact and not a reflection of any incompetence,” Mr Yee said, adding that “there should be improvements all round” in the vicinity of the gateway.

For instance, more green time could be allocated to traffic lights in Telok Blangah Road.

This article was first published on Apr 04, 2017.
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The cyber breach on the Defence Ministry’s I-Net system was “consistent with a covert attack, with means used to mask the perpetrator’s actions and intent”, Second Minister for Defence Ong Ye Kung said yesterday.

Investigations into the attack, which was discovered on Feb 1 and revealed on Feb 28, are ongoing, but “findings will be kept confidential for security reasons”, he added.

Mr Ong was giving an update of the incident in Parliament, in response to questions from MPs Lim Wee Kiak and Vikram Nair, both from Sembawang GRC, and Non-Constituency MP Dennis Tan.

Asked by Mr Tan if the culprit had been identified, Mr Ong said that he was unable to comment because it concerned a “security issue”.

But the minister said the information loss is basic and no passwords were lost. “I do not think that, with this information, they can conduct further hacking,” he added.

The Ministry of Defence (Mindef) said on Feb 28 that the hackers had stolen NRIC numbers, telephone numbers and birth dates of 854 personnel, through a breach of its I-Net system.

The system provides Internet access on thousands of dedicated terminals to national servicemen and other staff working in Mindef’s offices and Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) premises.

Mindef also said it had ruled out casual hackers, criminal gangs and an inside job, leading experts to believe that foreign governments could be behind the attack.

The affected server was taken offline after the attack was discovered. Affected personnel were asked to change passwords and report any unusual activities relating to the use of their personal data.

Mr Ong said Mindef’s IT systems are “no different” from others and, like them, experience “hundreds of thousands” of cyber-intrusion attempts, ranging from simple probes to cyber-espionage efforts.

But he said the I-Net system contains no classified information, and that networks which contain sensitive military information are physically separated from the Internet and protected with encryption and access controls.

This separation is critical, said Mr Ong, adding that the perpetrators in this breach “went through the window but couldn’t access the house because the house is separate”.

He also revealed that the breach occurred “weeks before detection” as he cited how the time taken before a breach is detected in other IT systems tends to be longer.

Referring to industry reports, Mr Ong said it takes an average of about 150 days, or five months, before a breach is discovered.

He listed examples such as the attack on the e-mail servers of the US Democratic National Committee in mid-2015, which was detected in April 2016, by which time all e-mails and chats had been stolen.

Mr Ong said Mindef and SAF will develop better assessment tools, data analytics and content scanning engines to fend off cyber attacks. “We will also review the storage of personal data on our Internet systems to minimise risks of cybertheft,” he told the House.

This article was first published on April 4, 2017.
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