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pharoah88
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05-Oct-2010 16:08
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ACS (I) principal resigns abruptly Zul Othman SINGAPORE The 61-year-old has been praised for taking the school to new heights in the academic and sporting fields. But yesterday, MediaCorp learnt that Dr Ong has stepped down from his post. It is understood that Dr Ong resigned after the school’s board of governors concluded a meeting yesterday morning. Sources in the school said that teachers were caught off-guard with the news — which had filtered through the school — and they were unclear about the reasons behind Mr Ong’s abrupt departure. Dr Ong’s resignation comes after a director at the principal’s office also left his post recently. The director declined to comment about his departure when contacted. Dr Ong, who is married with three children, could not be reached for comment yesterday. So far, the board of governors have not commented on Dr Ong’s resignation. MediaCorp did not get any reply to emails and phone calls to chairman Richard Seow, who is also the chairman of healthcare organisation Parkway Holdings, or other board members. Dr Ong’s career in the education sector has been illustrious. The former Raffles Institution student graduated from the National University of Singapore in 1972 with an Honours degree in Chemistry. He subsequently earned his doctorate at the University of Oxford and, on his return, became a lecturer at the National University of Singapore (NUS) until 1991. While teaching physiology there, he concurrently held the position of Vice-Principal in ACS (I) from 1988 until 1994, when he was appointed Principal. Apart from pioneering ACS (I)’s Pastoral Care and Career Guidance curriculum, he served as the chairman of the Publications Advisory Committee under the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts. It has also been reported that Dr Ong serves as an elder at Bethesda Church in Frankel estate and has served the community through his counselling activities there. — He has been the principal and chief executive of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) since 1994. Under Dr Ong Teck Chin’s watch, ACS (I) became the first school to introduce the International Baccalaureate programme, five years ago. |
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pharoah88
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04-Oct-2010 12:11
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18 home thesundaytimes October 3, 2010 They've done it their way Homeschooling isn't easy but couple made it work for their 8 children Assistant Manager Mr LEE Soo Cher [53] and Homemaker Mrs LEE Yoke Kuen [53] Eight siblings, all withOUt the usual must-have PSLE, O-level, A-level paper qualifications, have "done it their way". Precisely, their parents' way. All have been home-schooled until 18 years old and have not sat a single national exam. Typical homeschooled day included - self-study - excursion - housework - sports - midnight curfews It was based on an US High School Diploma curriculum. Next week [4 October 2010], eldest 28 year old LEE Luke will graduate from UniSIM, the only tertiary institution for working adults RECOGNISED by the Education Ministry. LEE Luke is one of the tOp stUdents in its Fifth Convocation Ceremony 2010. Currently, Senior Product Manager in a pharmaceutical firm, he will also receive the McGraw-Hill Education (Asia) Bronze Award for his UniSIM Bachelor of Science in Marketing programme which he had performed well. Another sibling was also a UniSIM scholar and a third brother is a Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) scholar. LEE LUKE's siblings are: * LEE Jared 27, senior prison officer * LEE Xun Zhong 25, personal banker and UniSIM scholar * LEE Rebekah 23, patient coordinator * LEE Xun Yong 21, national serviceman and DSTA scholar * LEE Joanna 19, Ngee Ann Polytechnic student * LEE Xun An 18, Singapore Polytechnic student * LEE Micah 16, home school student still |
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pharoah88
Supreme |
02-Oct-2010 15:18
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Oct 2, 2010Look into PSLE discrepancyI CANNOT help but agree with Madam The Ai Hwa ("Exam setters"; Monday). I am very much involved in guiding my daughter and preparing her for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) this year. I have mentioned to the teachers in charge that the material covered by the textbooks does not adequately meet the demands of the questions drawn up by PSLE examiners. Unfortunately, there are not many teachers who are bold enough to bring up this discrepancy to the relevant authorities. I, too, have often found it too difficult to answer the exam questions based on just the textbooks and have on many occasions turned to the Internet or guide books for answers. While I am fine with additional research being done by children, this often interrupts the flow of study and sometimes would also lead to other distractions. I hope the Ministry of Education will look into this matter, especially since teachers are not coming forward with their feedback. Gomez Carmael |
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pharoah88
Supreme |
02-Oct-2010 15:14
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Working in an office stinks, doesn’t it? If home working is so great, why aren’t we doing it? As usual, it’s the boss’ fault
WORK stinks, doesn’t it? Or, at least, going to the office. The good news is, it doesn’t have to. Millions of us are doing jobs that could be carried out just as well at home.
“I can’t help feeling that our descendants will look back at us and think: ‘What on earth were they thinking?’,” says Ms Shirley Borrett, development director for the Telework Association, which promotes working from home.
Whether you call this teleworking, telecommuting or home working, it’s a growing market. Banks, call centres, councils, management consultancies, software companies, law firms, PR agencies: All are increasingly allowing their staff to do it at least part-time.
Telecoms giant BT, the pioneer in Britain in the ’80s, now has 65,000 flexible workers, of whom 10,000 do not come in to the office.
Ms Melanie Pinola, who writes about home working for About.com, says jobs that can be done remotely range from accountancy to telemarketing, via financial analysis, translation, data entry, graphic design, illustration, insurance, media buying, speech-writing, research, sales, travel agency, stockbroking, website design, writing and editing.
So how do you join the home-working masses?
You have a very strong business case — if you can persuade your company to listen.
Not only do home workers reduce the need for expensive premises, they are often vastly more productive. Some American studies have shown a 30- to 40-per-cent increase in productivity when people work from home.
Mr Noel Hodson, who was one of the key figures in home working, suggests that this is at least partly down to the removal of the daily commute: “What we found was that most of the time saved went back into work.
These workers valued their new way of working, and to protect it they did more work.”
And there are bonuses for society. Home working encourages a more diverse labour force, bringing in not just carers but those who have difficulty travelling because they are disabled or live in remote locations. Then there’s the reduction in pollution and greenhouse gases. WHAT ’S STOPPING US ? So if home working is so great, why aren’t we all doing it already? As usual, it’s the boss’s fault. Mr Hodson remembers trying to sell home working to a firm of engineers. “As I went through the economics, I touched on the thought that the company car wouldn’t be necessary any more — and the managing director reached across the desk and took me by the tie in a stranglehold ... It was his big shiny Jaguar that was sitting in the car park for seven and three-quarter hours a day.”
When it’s not their cars they are worried about, it’s their empires. If bosses can’t see what their staff are doing, how will they know that they are working?
“The last barriers are attitudinal,” says Ms Caroline Waters, BT’s company’s director of people and policy . “But it’s a real myth that you have control over what your people do just because they sit in the same location.”
“Presenteeism is a really poor performance indicator. It in no way gives the kind of productivity measure that you need to run a successful business,” said Ms Waters, who works from home at least one day a week.
Firms that embrace home working have to find some better gauge. Mr Mark Thomas is chief executive of Word Association, a PR consultancy that employs 13 people, all working from home.
“We’ve managed to come up with measures of performance that are more to do with output than with the amount of time that people spend at their desk,” he says.
The logical accompaniment to home working is a more relaxed attitude to working hours. “I’ve had managers say to me: ‘But they might go to Tescos (the supermarket) on Wednesday afternoon’,” says Ms Borrett. “To which I reply: ‘If you’re truly being flexible ... then what does it matter, so long as you’re getting whatever output it is you want?’”
“It all comes down to trust,” she adds.
“Trust that people are doing what they’re supposed to be doing, though not necessarily at the same time as they’d be doing it in the office.”
The last thing any manager needs to worry about is idleness, says Ms Pinola, who works at home in the United States. “You tend to overwork as a remote worker because you don’t want to appear to be slacking off.”
Will some employers abuse this? What do you think? The same technology that makes it possible to escape the office — mobile phones, laptops, broadband — makes it that much harder to get away from your boss.
First they give you a BlackBerry, then they start emailing you at 1am. But that’s true even if you work in an office, nine to five.
Whether or not we’ve agreed to it, many of us are already on call 24/7. IT MAY NOT BE FOR EVERYONE ... While you’re whipping your bosses into shape, don’t forget your nearest and dearest. Let them
Ms Pinola says: “My immediate family knows that when the door to my home office is closed, I am really busy. I try to have them imagine that I’m not even there.”
Is there anyone who shouldn’t attempt to work from home?
Well, yes: Anyone who doesn’t want to. For some, the office is important. It provides clear lines between work from home, a break from the family, colleagues to talk to and a creative environment.
Ms Borrett says of home working: “It’s not for people who’ve got a very young family and nowhere separate to work.
It usually doesn’t suit people who are in their early 20s and still living with their parents.
“Young people also want to get a social life out of their work life.”
Not, of course, that home workers have to feel isolated.
There’s no law that says you can’t call them into the office if you have one, or find some other meeting place.
Mr Thomas holds monthly production meetings for his staff “where we get together to work through every single client, every single job”.
In between, there are phone calls, emails, instant messaging. If you’re all logged on to MSN, you can swap little messages with your co-workers all day long. If you’ve got a smartphone, you can even do it when you’re at the supermarket.
Where could this all end?
Just imagine turning up at the office one day and being sent home with a flea in your ear:
“What the hell are you doing here? We don’t want you sitting around chatting and drinking coffee. You should be at home, working.” |
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pharoah88
Supreme |
02-Oct-2010 12:44
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As Tuition Soars Globally, Schools Face a Need for Frugality By CONRAD DE AENLLE College tuition and other fees have risen for years in many countries, and the economic and financial crisis almost ensures that the trend will persist or worsen. Students and their families will have to get used to bearing a greater share of the burden, the experts say. But universities may be forced to operate more efficiently and frugally, they say, as those who pay the bills become smarter, more cost conscious shoppers. Margaret Spellings, senior adviser at the Boston Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm, and secretary of education under President George W. Bush, blames government’s failure to demand more value for the money spent, and an elitism that she says is entrenched in academia. “Affordability is an issue worldwide,” said Ms. Spellings, “People are up in arms. Tuition is going up, but an interest in reform is going up for the first time ever.” Well before the crisis, the cost of a university education almost invariably advanced at a faster pace than the general level of inflation. “There is no policy set up in any of our systems anywhere in the world to drive universities toward productivity and efficiency,” she said. “We don’t collect any data. We don’t know what we’re getting for our money, and neither do students or taxpayers.” Soaring demand for university places is also driving up costs, as is a desire by governments to accommodate the demand. “Part of the problem in much of the world is exploding enrollments,” said D. Bruce Johnstone, emeritus professor of education at the State University of New York in Buffalo. He said conditions were especially acute in developing nations. And he cited a Western penchant for academic egalitarianism, in which higher university enrollments are sought as a matter of public policy. “An expectation of an entitlement to participation in a research university is part of the problem,” Mr. Johnstone said. He noted that all secondary school graduates in France and Germany who pass a national examination are guaranteed university admission. Tuition rose 106 percent between 1997 and 2007 at American public universities and 76 percent at private universities, to $7,171 and $30,260, respectively, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. It is lower everywhere else, although it can be quite high relative to incomes, especially in the developing world. The 23 million students attending Chinese universities pay about $3,000 a year, Mr. Johnstone said; the government has warned that fees will go up. Tuition in India varies, he said, but it works out to about $600 a year for average universities and much more for the elite technology institutes. Chinese and Indian schools have no shortage of applicants, but in Japan, enrollments are shrinking. The government in the middle of the decade began cutting revenue to universities by a percentage point or two every year. In return it gave universities greater autonomy in setting faculty salaries and tuition rates. The average tuition there is about $4,500. Tuitions are assessed at much lower rates in Continental Europe, Mr. Johnstone noted. “European countries introduce tuition fees amid enormous political controversy,” he remarked. Eventually conditions deteriorate and the authorities are forced to increase fees, he said, “and then everyone really screams.” Official Europe has begun to accept the idea of tuition, with an important caveat. Dennis Abbott, the European Commission spokesman on education, pointed to “a distinct trend to increased cost sharing” between students and state sources, although he stressed that fees “should be supported by grants and/or loans to ensure that financing does not represent an undue barrier to participation in higher education.” Higher tuition is not the only suggestion for closing the funding gap. A 2006 report by the Center for European Reform, a London-based, centrist research organization, encouraged European universities to become more competitive and more entrepreneurial and, although it did not say so explicitly, more American. The authors also recommended paying faculty on the basis of merit; lobbying aggressively with state and private funding sources, like alumni; and wooing corporate benefactors. One way to improve affordability and productivity, Mr. Abbott said, is to make sure first that students at universities want and need to be there. “Too many young people are embarking upon university careers but dropping out before completing their courses,” he said. “This represents a missed opportunity, both in terms of the human potential of the individual student and in terms of the best value for money. Better advice and guidance, combined with improved support, including financial support, should be made available.” For those who do attend college, there should be more flexibility, Ms. Spellings said. She said she expected an increase in “a la carte, hybrid, technology-based education,” in which students take courses in person, online and at times of their own choosing. “Consumers are demanding it,” she said. “Things are starting to change, as prices have gotten so ridiculous,” Ms. Spellings continued. “People are starting to ask the right questions that would have been heretical five years ago. Universities have enjoyed their ivory tower status of being above it all, but they’re beginning to change and it’s happening worldwide.” |
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pharoah88
Supreme |
29-Sep-2010 19:31
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We have not considered a by-election: PM Lee HETTY MUSFIRA hetty@mediacorp.com.sg SINGAPORE He said: “We have not considered that. There is nothing automatic about calling for a by-election. We have discussed this many times.” Mr Lee said this is similar to what happened when MP for Jurong GRC Dr Ong Chit Chung died in 2008. A by-election was not called and the other MPs looked after the ward. In Ang Mo Kio GRC, the remaining five MPs will help to look after Cheng San Seletar ward, said Mr Lee, adding: “I see no difficulty.” Mr Lee was accompanied by his wife, grassroots members and residents. Dr Balaji who was diagnosed with colon cancer in late 2008 had apparently suffered a relapse and died early on Monday. Mr Lee said: “He was a good friend, very good man, good colleague on the ground as well as in the Government. And we are very sad to see him go before his time. He was a doctor, he knew what the diagnosis meant. He stayed completely calm. And he continued working and attending to his duties right up to the end. We will miss him for a long time.” In a condolence letter to Dr Balaji’s wife, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said he was “impressed by Dr Balaji’s attitude of service and grateful that he had stepped forward to be counted”. In the letter to Dr Balaji’s wife, Dr Ma Swan Hoo, Mr Goh said he had expected Dr Balaji’s death as Prime Minister Lee had told him about his declining condition in Parliament two weeks ago. Mr Goh said he and his colleagues interviewed Dr Balaji to become a PAP candidate in 2001 and found him “eminently suitable, given his high intellect, character and sincerity.” They felt he could make a bigger contribution to Singapore than being a neurosurgeon. Mr Goh said they left the decision to Dr Balaji as there was no guarantee he would become a minister. But Dr Balaji decided to serve in whatever position he was assigned. — The Government has not considered holding a by-election in Ang Mo Kio GRC, following the death of fellow MP Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told reporters after attending Dr Balaji’s wake last night. |
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pharoah88
Supreme |
29-Sep-2010 19:12
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Challenge for Singapore is to grow pool of entrepreneurs: MM Lee SINGAPORE “We’re trying to do that. But we are hampered by culture. We’re largely Chinese and Indians. And both Chinese and Indians, the best go into Government, don’t go into enterprise,” said Mr Lee at a dialogue organised by the Russia-Singapore Business Forum yesterday evening. “The economy can be structured to allow enterprise but enterprise itself must be done by entrepreneurs — people who say: ‘Ah yes, I will make that into a moneymaking venture’.” MM Lee arrived for the dialogue about an hour late as he had gone for a check-up. Moderator Michael Tay, executive director of the Russia-Singapore Business Forum Organising Council, explained that Mr Lee had suffered a fall the day before. Mr Lee looked well and he took questions from the floor. When asked about his most important lesson as a leader of Singapore, Mr Lee said for Singapore to work, the system must be kept incorruptible, meritocratic and efficient. It was these traits, he added, that moved the country from being a purely Asian one in the two, three decades after independence, to an increasingly cosmopolitan one. The hour-long session also saw questions on Sino-Japan relations, as well as the future growth of countries like Brazil, China, India and Russia. There were some lighter moments too. “MM, are you happy?” Mr Tay asked. “Sometimes, not all the time. A person who’s happy all the time, I think won’t make much progress,” Mr Lee replied, to laughter from the audience. The annual forum marks growing economic ties between Russia and Singapore. Political relations are getting warmer too. Yesterday afternoon, the Russian Deputy Chairman Sergey Sobyanin met Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Istana. Mr Sobyanin is in Singapore for the inaugural meeting of the Russia-Singapore Inter-Governmental Commission, a high level grouping whose objective is to foster bilateral trade and investment. Mr Sobyanin co-chairs the commission with Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong. The next meeting will take place in Moscow next year. — The challenge for Singapore and Russia is to grow their pool of entrepreneurs, said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.HOE YEEN NIE |
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Hulumas
Supreme |
26-Sep-2010 12:08
Yells: "INVEST but not TRADE please!" |
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Time to develope entrepreneurship with full government financial support and strong effective quantitative at the same time qualitative measure too!
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pharoah88
Supreme |
25-Sep-2010 13:22
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Forget What You Know About Study Habits Cramming the brain like a suitcase does nothing for learning. Psychologists have discovered that some of the most hallowed advice on study habits is wrong. Clear a quiet work space. Stick to a homework schedule. Set goals. Set boundaries. Do not bribe — the findings directly contradict much of this common wisdom. In fact, a few simple techniques can reliably improve how much a student learns from studying. For instance, instead of sticking to one study location, simply alternating the room where a person studies improves retention. So does studying distinct but related skills or concepts in one sitting, rather than focusing intensely on a single thing. “We have known these principles for some time, and it’s intriguing that schools don’t pick them up, or that people don’t learn them by trial and error,” said Robert A. Bjork, a psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Take the notion that children have specific learning styles, that some are “visual learners” and others are auditory; some are “left-brain” students, others “right-brain.” In a recent review in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a team of psychologists found almost zero support for such ideas. “The contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach within education and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing,” they concluded. Many study skills courses insist that students find a specific place, a study room or a quiet corner of the library, to work. The research finds just the opposite. The brain makes subtle associations between what it is studying and the background sensations it has at the time, the authors say. It colors the terms of the Versailles Treaty with the fluorescent glow of the dorm study room, say; or the elements of the Marshall Plan with the jade-curtain shade of the willow tree in the backyard. “What we think is happening here is that, when the outside context is varied, the information is enriched, and this slows down forgetting,” said Dr. Bjork. Likewise, varying the type of material studied in a single sitting seems to leave a deeper impression on the brain than does concentrating on just one skill at a time. Research also undermines the intensive immersion approach. Hurriedly jam-packing a brain is akin to speed-packing a cheap suitcase: it holds its new load for a while, then everything falls out. When the neural suitcase is packed carefully and gradually, it holds its contents for far, far longer. An hour of study tonight, an hour on the weekend, another session a week from now: such so-called spacing improves later recall. No one knows why. It may be that the brain, when it revisits material at a later time, has to relearn some of what it has absorbed before adding new stuff — and that that process is itself self-reinforcing. “The idea is that forgetting is the friend of learning,” said Nate Kornell, a psychologist at Williams College in Massachusetts and an author of a study on learning. “When you forget something, it allows you to relearn, and do so effectively, the next time you see it.” |
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pharoah88
Supreme |
25-Sep-2010 13:17
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