Parliament Questions for July 2024 Sitting

NCMPs Hazel Poa and Leong Mun Wai have filed various parliamentary questions for April’s sitting of Parliament in 2024.

Hazel Poa

1. To ask the Minister for Education (a) what is the current counsellor-student ratio in schools and whether this is uniform across all schools regardless of their size; (b) what percentage of schools have two or more school counsellors; (c) what percentage of students have sought help from counsellors; and (d) how have these metrics changed since 2020.
2. To ask the Minister for Education in each year since 2019 (a) how many (i) pre-tertiary (ii) polytechnic and (iii) university international students have been granted scholarships by the Singapore Government, respectively; (b) what is the median annual cost for each category of scholarships, respectively; and (c) what is the proportion of undergraduate international students who are (i) on tuition grant only (ii) on a combination of tuition grant and scholarships and (iii) full-fee paying.
3. To ask the Minister for Education in each year since 2018 (a) what is the overall resignation rate for the entire teacher population; (b) what is the resignation rate of teachers (i) over the first five years of service and (ii) when their bonds end, respectively; and (c) what percentage of teachers who resigned cited workload or burnout as a reason for leaving the service.
4. To ask the Minister for Education (a) what is the Ministry’s position on allowing exceptionally gifted children to (i) skip grades or (ii) attend university earlier; and (b) how many of such students have there been in the past five years.
5. To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) whether the Ministry can provide an update on the investigation of the recent incident where workers inhaled poisonous fumes at PUB’s Choa Chu Kang Waterworks plant; and (b) what safety measures are being put in place to prevent a recurrence.
6. To ask the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) how many households in Singapore currently earn less than half of the median household income of the total population; and (b) what is the profile of such households.
7. To ask the Minister for Health what is the median waiting time by ward class of public hospitals for (i) new specialist outpatient appointments for the medical oncology, surgical oncology, and radiotherapy specialties and (ii) cancer patients to commence chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery for cancer treatment respectively.
8. To ask the Minister for Education (a) whether tertiary institutions grade students according to a bell curve; and (b) if so, whether there are plans to change this.
9. To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry what is the estimated impact of the 56% rise in Malaysia’s diesel price in June 2024 on the rate of inflation in Singapore, especially on the price of food.
10. To ask the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) what is the Government’s assessment of the impact of rising interest rates and operating costs, such as electricity and water costs, on Singapore’s high-tech farming sector; and (b) whether open farm style traditional agriculture can be equally supported to meet the goal of local farms producing 30% of Singapore’s nutritional needs locally by 2030.

Leong Mun Wai

1. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs (a) whether Singapore will consider establishing full diplomatic relations with the State of Palestine; and (b) if not, what are Singapore’s considerations for not doing so.
2. To ask the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance (a) whether the Chief Justice and the Minister for Law have a role under the framework of the Judges’ Remuneration Act 1994 to determine the fixed and variable components of salaries paid to the Chief Justice, Judges of Appeal and other Judges of the Supreme Court; and (b) if so, what is the extent of the role played by the Chief Justice and the Minister for Law respectively.
3. To ask the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance for each year since 2010, what is the average and median of (i) total salary package and (ii) each of the following six components: gross annual salary, annual variable component, non-pensionable annual allowance, performance bonus, national bonus and judiciary allowance, paid to the Chief Justice, Judges of Appeal, and other Judges of the Supreme Court respectively.
4. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs whether Singapore has made any defence sales, such as weapons or any other material that can cause harm to civilians, to Israel since 7 October 2023.
5. To ask the Minister for Education what is the breakdown of the Government’s total expenditure in FY 2022 and FY 2023 on permanent resident students and non-resident students respectively in (i) primary schools (ii) secondary schools and (iii) pre-tertiary educational institutes, respectively.
6. To ask the Minister for Education what are the considerations behind the decision of Science Centre Singapore to organise and subsequently cancel a session scheduled for 14 June 2024 for persons aged 18 and above on the differences between sex and gender.
7. To ask the Minister for Social and Family Development and Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs for each year since 2020 (a) what is the amount of funds granted by the Government to Yayasan MENDAKI (MENDAKI) for the Tertiary Tuition Fee Subsidy (TTFS) scheme; (b) what percentage of the funds granted to MENDAKI are not disbursed; (c) what percentage of Malay students in tertiary institutions have benefited from the TTFS scheme; and (d) what is the median percentage of tuition fees waived for each student.
8. To ask the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance whether he will tighten the investment mandates given to the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation and Temasek Holdings (PTE) Ltd given that the amount of unquoted investments has exceeded the quoted investments as reported in the Statement of Assets and Liabilities as at 31 March 2023 contained in the Government Financial Statements for FY2022/2023.
9. To ask the Minister for Defence (a) in each year since 2010, how many National Service (NS) pre-enlistees have been exempted from NS because of mental health disorders; (b) how many of such individuals voluntarily choose to serve NS despite their exemption; (c) of these individuals, how many subsequently completed NS; and (d) how does the Ministry verify that pre-enlistees who have been diagnosed with mental health disorders by private doctors are indeed unfit to serve NS.
10. To ask the Minister for Defence in the last five years (a) what is the number of complaints made to the SAF Hotline; (b) of which, how many of such calls were made by (i) Full-Time National Servicemen and (ii) Regulars, respectively; and (c) how many of these calls resulted in an investigation where an officer or sergeant was penalised.
11. To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) whether the rules governing a change of race for Singapore citizens and permanent residents also apply to foreign pass holders; and (b) whether ICA verifies the race declared by foreign pass holders and, if so, how.
12. To ask the Minister for Transport (a) in each year since 2010, what is the percentage of land allocated to roads and carparks respectively; (b) in light of Singapore’s zero-growth rate policy for cars and motorcycles, whether the Government will also pursue a policy of zero-growth in the percentage of land allocated to roads and carparks and begin reallocating land allocated to roads and carparks for other social purposes; and (c) if not, why not.

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