新加坡内政部长孙雪玲、主管回教事务部长马善高回复杨益财：低收家庭帮扶、学前教育问题

主席：杨益财先生。

杨益财先生：谢谢主席，我有两个问题，第一个问题是问马善高部长的。我很高兴听到全国家庭周将延长至为期一个月，这肯定会让更多的家庭和节目参与进来。我的问题其实是关于低收入家庭的，新加坡社会及家庭发展部计划如何鼓励和方便低收入家庭，特别是租住单位的有子女家庭参加家庭月活动？也许，凝聚家庭理事会可以与社会保障机构、家庭导师，甚至人民协会合作，这样或许可以让提升版社区联系站计划的家庭，参与到这些活动中来。

我的第二个问题是问孙雪玲部长的。最近发生的一系列学前教育行业的事件，新加坡新加坡社会及家庭发展部与学前教育发展中心可以做些什么，来向家长保证我们学前教育机构的安全和标准？这些事件是否因学前教育机构资源调配不足所致？如果是的话，教育和儿童发展局可以做些什么来确保我们所有的学前教育机构都有足够的资源？

马善高先生：谢谢杨先生给我这个机会，让我呼吁在座的所有同事更多地参与进来。我希望我们在举办全国家庭日时，不是自上而下的活动，不是由家庭基金或新加坡社会及家庭发展部组织举办的活动，而是让基层组织、企业自觉参与其中。因为我认为，当这个节日在新加坡各地举行时，就像杨先生刚才提到的那样，每个人都可以参与其中，无论他们是残疾人还是来自低收入家庭，这代表着新加坡将成为一个包容和关爱的社会。但是，我们能为此做些什么，确实需要一个基础性的倡议。

给大家举个例子，我的社区俱乐部有一点盈余，打算花点钱，组织一个简单的家庭座谈会，每个人都可以参与，我们只收5新元。对于那些租房的家庭，我们会告诉他们是什么活动并让社会服务组织邀请他们来，只收取1新元的费用，我认为免费并不总是好的，这样才能表明他们会来。但是，当他们来的时候，我们并不知道某某是需要帮助的人，某某是残疾人。大家只是围坐在一起，气氛非常好的度过了一段轻松愉快的时光。所以，活动不一定要非常复杂，只要有一个乐队从5点到7点为他们演奏，还有自助餐，我想这样的庆祝活动就会很受欢迎。因此，我希望各公司，不管是在现场举办，还是作为家庭日郊游活动，都能将这种活动扩展到其他可能有需要的家庭当中，这也是企业责任的一部分。

孙雪玲女士：我感谢杨益财议员的第二个问题。我想强调一下我们对幼儿园事件的调查结果，这也是以前公布过的。我们发现，中心领导监管不力，员工也有疏忽。因此，这是一个值得关注的地方。我们已经缩短了幼儿园中心领导的任期，还积极开展监督工作，到现场监督学前班的情况。

因此，我并不认为这是整个部门普遍存在的资源不足问题，因为新加坡社会及家庭发展部对师生比例有非常严格的要求，我们没有发现违反这些规定的情况。我认为，这有力地提醒了整个行业，教师需要对自己的行为负责。他们必须知道，如果他们被发现有过失或疏忽，会被迅速追究责任，而中心领导也必须负起监督责任。

我想补充的最后一点是，正如我在前面的发言中提到，欧盟药品管理局现有的规定受到了我国现行法律的限制。这些规定正在被审查，我们将加强国内法律的作用，采取加强经济处罚的形式，以向业界发出一个非常明确的信号，我们不会轻视这种滥用行为。

The Chairman: Mr Melvin Yong.

Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye: Thank you, Chairman. I have two questions. My first question is for Minister Masagos. I am very happy to hear that the National Family Week will now be extended to a month-long festival. This will certainly allow for more families to participate and also for more family-oriented programmes to be included. My question is really regarding the lower-income families. How does MSF plan to encourage, to facilitate lower-income families, in particular, families with children living in rental flats, to participate in the family month activities? Perhaps, the FFL can work with SSA, family coaches, even the People's Association, to maybe bring the ComLink+ families to participate in these activities.

My second question is for Minister of State Sun Xueling. Given the recent spate of incidents involving the preschool sector, what can MSF and ECDA do to assure parents on the safety and standards of our preschools? Were these incidents a result of insufficient resources deployed by the preschools? If so, what can ECDA do to ensure that all our preschools are adequately resourced?

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: Thank you, Mr Yong, for that opportunity for me to call for even more participation from all my colleagues here. And I hope that when we do the National Family Festival, it is not something that is top-down, something that FFL does or MSF does, but also for grassroots organisations, corporates to participate, whether or not they get reported in media or otherwise, because I think when this festivity goes on throughout Singapore, and then, like what Mr Yong was mentioning just now, get everyone involved, whether they are disabled or from a needy family, I think this will augur well for what Singapore is about, an inclusive and caring society. But we do have to get a ground-up initiative. We want to have ideas, what can be done. 

Just to give Members an example I tried in my own Community Club where we have a simple two-hour sit-down family chillax. Just everyone can come and we just charge $5. I have a little surplus in my Community Club, I say let us spend and give families a good time. But for the families which are living in rentals, who we know are in the ComLink+ or other programmes, we get the befrienders as well as SSOs to tell us who they are, invite them and charge them maybe just $1. Because they have to show they have a ticket. And I do not think free is always good, to show that they will be committed to come. But when they came, we did not know, we did not identify so-and-so was needy, so-and-so was disabled. Everyone was just sitting around having a chill time and it was a great atmosphere. So, it does not have to be very structured. Just have a band play for them from five to seven, food truck, free flow of food, that kind of festivity I think will be very welcomed. So, I hope that corporates, whether you do it on-site or as a family day outing, extend this to other families who may be needy, as part of corporate responsibility, too.

Ms Sun Xueling: I thank the Member, Mr Melvin Yong, for his second question. I would like to highlight our findings from the Kinderland case. And this has also been published before. What we have found was that there was inadequate supervision by centre leaders and that there was oversight by the employees. So, this is a learning point. And we have shortened the tenure for the Kinderland centres. We are also actively monitoring, going down on-site to supervise what is happening in the preschool.

So, I do not see it as a general insufficient resourcing in the sector as a whole because MSF has very strict requirements on teacher and student ratios. And we have not observed that these were contravened. Rather, these were lapses in the centre. And I think it is a strong reminder to the industry that teachers need to be accountable for their actions. They need to know that they will be swiftly taken to task if they are found to be errant or negligent and that centre leaders have to be responsible and that they have to supervise.

The last point I would like to add is that, as I mentioned in my speech earlier, the current levers that ECDA has is limited by our current set of legislation in place. We are reviewing those legislation and we will enhance those levers. It could take the form of enhanced financial penalties so that there is a very clear signal to the industry that we do not take such abuse lightly.

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