Ms Carrie Tan (Nee Soon): Mr Chairman, there is great comfort in having a nice home to rest and recharge in – physically, emotionally and mentally. For some people, a restful home may be an elusive concept if there is frequent conflict, arguments or violence in their families. The roughly 50,000 households under the PRS today, do not have this luxury of a restful home because of space constraints. Another group is young singles below 35 that I meet often in my Meet-the-People sessions,....
Ms Carrie Tan: Beyond income, work raises confidence, self-esteem, provides identity, structure and purpose to one’s life. It can also provide persons with special needs with a community of support at the workplace. Persons with special needs are physically and neurologically diverse. They are not a monolithic group of helpless or disabled care recipients. The framing of persons with special needs labels them as needy. The framing of neurodiversity as a problem labels people who have them as problematic.....
Ms Carrie Tan (Nee Soon): SPARK certification was meant to raise the quality of preschools and it did help to ensure some standardisation and processes are in place. But are there now some side effects? Only 37.7% of preschools here are SPARK-certified. Some early childhood educators find being uncertified more beneficial as they have greater flexibility to do more for the children. Increasing salaries in the sector has not been enough to solve the high turnover problem.....
Mr Derrick Goh (Nee Soon): Sir, access to justice is a cornerstone of a just society. Over the years, this Government has demonstrated commitment to improve legal access for the vulnerable. A milestone achieved was MinLaw’s introduction of the Public Defender’s Office (PDO) in December 2022 – as a fully funded scheme offering vulnerable residents legal assistance. I understand that since its founding till September last year, the PDO had helped around 303 cases in Court.....