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.....
Ms Carrie Tan (Nee Soon): Mr Chairman, Singapore’s Zero Waste Masterplan aims to increase the overall national recycling rate to 70% and reduce waste sent to the landfill by 30% by 2030. This goal seems reasonable. Singapore has had Clean and Green Campaigns since 1990 and most of us recognise the 3Rs – reduce, reuse and recycle. But our actions do not mirror this awareness. Even though more than half of Singaporean households said they were recycling,....