School holiday? WHAT HOLIDAY?

Many students, mostly in graduating batches, have classes during mid-year break
By Jane Ng & Yen Feng

THE four-week mid-year school holiday has begun but many students and teachers will not get a proper break until one or two weeks later.

A check with 25 primary and secondary schools showed that almost all have some form of classes, mostly for graduating batches of students - Primary 6s and Secondary 4s and 5s.

Only two schools - Raffles Girls Primary (RGPS) and Hwa Chong Institution - said they are not holding classes at all.

Many parents, whose children have to return to school for such 'compulsory' lessons, say they do not see the point in them, especially when the children are not sitting for major exams at the end of the year.

A parent, whose son is in Primary 5 at Tao Nan School in Marine Parade, was upset to learn that the three-day lessons held in the last week of the holidays, were 'compulsory, with a medical certificate required if the child was absent'.

'My son is only in Primary 5. Why have lessons during the long holidays when they already have compulsory supplementary classes twice a week during term time?

'What's three days of lessons in a kid's life? I feel sorry when he asks me why he can't play,' she said.

Principal Tony Tan said the classes were to make up for lessons missed by the cohort during a three-day adventure camp last month.

Another parent, whose daughter is in Primary 4 in a neighbourhood school, said she decided not to let her go for the classes as the family had made plans to travel.

'Three days will not get her more A* in the PSLE, not when she's only in Primary 4,' said Madam Judy Chong, 39, a customer services executive, who wrote to the school to excuse her daughter from classes.

Over at Zhonghua Secondary, its Secondary 4 and 5 students have compulsory lessons from 8am to 3.15pm every day for the first two weeks of the holidays.

Principal Dolly Ong said parents were advised early in the year not to take their children on a vacation.

'Unless there's a family emergency, we want students to come back for the classes. They need the time to prepare for the examinations,' she added.

School heads say there are students who need these extra classes and who will benefit from them.

Zhonghua Primary's principal Bucktha Seelan said his teachers have planned lessons in the first three days of the school holidays for pupils who need it.

'It's in small groups and not compulsory, though we encourage them to come. It's the only time we can do something to help weaker pupils catch up with their classmates,' he said.

In Tampines Secondary, Secondary 4 and 5 students have classes every day for the first week. Principal Neo Tick Watt said he had 'mixed feelings' about having classes during the holidays.

'You want the students to enjoy, but you also want them to study. Our students need focus and motivation, and the momentum to keep studying,' he said.

That is how some parents feel as well, especially those with children facing critical examinations.

Mrs Susan Kiew, 49, a housewife who has two children in Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary, said the lessons would benefit her elder daughter who is sitting for the O levels at the end of the year.

'If she has problems she can ask her teacher - it's extra help for her, and is better than staying at home,' she said.

But students having to attend classes would mean teachers giving up their holidays too.

Schools say they are careful to set aside time for teachers to rest.

For instance, while NorthLight School has no formal classes during the holidays, some students asked for enrichment lessons like baking.

So the school found an external vendor to conduct classes, with supervision done by administrative staff so that teachers can go for their break.

Principal Chua Yen Ching said she tries to make sure the teachers get three weeks of uninterrupted rest during the holidays.

'It's important that after one semester, they reflect, recharge so they come back renewed,' she said.

As RGPS principal Tan Siok Cheng, who stopped holiday classes five years ago, put it: 'The girls get so tired, and some don't show up because of vacation plans...so we target them throughout the school year, rather than ask them to come back during the holidays.'

Trash and burn S'pore's waste problem

'Incineration does not really make the waste disappear, it transforms the problem into a formidable pollution problem,' said Greenpeace Southeast Asia Director Von Hernandez. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

SINGAPORE - CREEPING out of their condo after dark carrying illicit bags of garbage was not part of the life Ms Sarah Moser and her husband envisioned for themselves before moving to tropical Singapore.

But with recycling in its infancy on the island, such nocturnal escapades have become normal for the two academics.

Each week they dodge watchful security guards, barking dogs and suspicious neighbours to carry rubbish they cannot recycle at home to recycling bins far down the road.

'We end up storing tons of stuff,' Ms Sarah Moser said. 'Paper and cardboard, plastics like milk, juice, takeaway containers.'

'Then we have to do a huge big binge trip, and we're so embarrassed because the guards are watching us.'

This small act of rebellion illustrates the problem faced, on a much larger scale, by tiny Singapore: there's nowhere to put the trash.

'It is very costly to get rid of our waste,' said Mr Ong Chong Peng, general manger of the island's only remaining landfill, which cost $610 million to create on Pulau Semakau eight kilometres south of the mainland.

The landfill 'island,' a 350-hectare feat of engineering reclaimed from the sea, opened the day after the last of five mainland landfills closed in 1999.

Every day it takes shipments of over 2,000 tonnes of ash - the charred remnants of 93 per cent of Singapore's rubbish, burnt at its four incinerators.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) predicts a new multimillion dollar incinerator will be needed every five to seven years, and a new landfill like Pulau Semakau every 25 to 30 years.

With nowhere to site another landfill, recycling, though not yet rolled out to the masses in condominiums or state Housing Development Board (HDB) skyscrapers, is no longer just nice to have, but a necessity, said Mr Ong.

'Singaporeans have to practice the three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) to extend the lifespan of Semakau as long as possible,' he said, 'and also reduce the need to build new incineration plants.'

Dirty mess
Untroubled by the festering mounds of pungent tropical garbage that frequently pile up in its less-developed neighbours, clean, green and super-efficient Singapore's unique rubbish headache stems from its small size and high population density.

Incinerators have met with public resistance in neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia, and have been banned in the Philippines because of perceived health risks.

But the plants are sacred cows in Singapore, which opened its first in 1979, little commented on or questioned.

'Singaporeans understand and accept that because land is scarce, incineration is one of the most cost effective ways of waste disposal, as it can reduce the volume of waste by up to 90 per cent,' the NEA said in a statement.

Other proponents stress that the four waste-to-energy plants scattered in the south, centre and north, recover enough heat from the combustion process to generate power equal to lighting up the city three times over.

'Some people think that incineration is just merely a destruction method, but it's not true,' said Mr Poh Soon Hoong, General Manager of the $900 million Tuas South Incineration Plant, Singapore's largest, which burns up to 3,000 tonnes of trash a day.

'We actually generate power. The plants produce two to three percent of the total power generated in Singapore.'

For critics, however, Singapore's set-up is a dirty mess.

'Waste incineration sounds like a pretty good idea if you don't really look into it too deeply,' said Mr Neil Tangri, of the international Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance (GAIA).

'It's power, it gets rid of this problem we have... but it creates dioxins where none existed before. Dioxin is known to increase rates of cancer growth... An incinerator is a major contributor to a whole range of major health problems,' he said.

For Greenpeace Southeast Asia Director Von Hernandez, the plants fly in the face of the green goal of resource conservation.

'Incineration does not really make the waste disappear, it transforms the problem into a formidable pollution problem,' said Hernandez, who led the world's first successful campaign to ban the technology in his native Philippines.

'If you look at this model, from harvesting resources to selling them, disposing of them, it's a linear model. In fact we should be looking at circular models to bring back some of this stuff to nature, and conserve materials.'

'In a small country like Singapore, inevitably, their landfill space will run out and they will have to find other ways of dealing with the problem,' he said.

Recycling to the rescue?
With Semakau landfill expected to be full by 2040, even those who have worked for decades in Singapore's incineration industry agree the old burn-and-bury approach is unsustainable.

'We cannot keep building incinerator plants,' said Mr Poh. 'It's not really the solution.'

Like the NEA, he says Singaporeans must change their mindset.

'We need to get people aware of the environmental impact of their actions.' Convincing people to buy less in a country whose 'national pastime' is shopping is a hard win, he said.

Instead, a wave of softly-softly initiatives are being deployed to enthuse, inspire, or slyly enforce compliance.

Recreational Sentosa Island pushes edu-tainment, with a troupe of trained macaque monkeys who perform daily recycling displays.

At supermarkets, shoppers are now asked to bring their own bags to reduce the likelihood of the thousands of plastic bags handed out each day ending up in incinerators.

Another stealthy project, which began in March, targets the cornerstone institution of Singapore life - the hawker centre.

Darting between tables to snatch up dirty plates at Chinatown's Smith Street food court, the army of plate clearers are at another new frontline in the battle - food waste recycling.

Leftovers scraped into black sacks on the end of the cleaners' trolleys are trucked to a start-up food waste recycling plant that hopes to save 800 tonnes of organic scraps a day from being sent to the incinerators.

Local company IUT Global feeds the scraps into a bacteria-filled digester which turns them into biogas energy and compost.

The plant's capacity will make it Southeast Asia's biggest bio-methanisation and renewable energy plant when fully operational, said Assistant Manager Leon Khew.

In the meantime, normalising the idea of recycling through legislation would help, he said.

'Right now in Singapore recycling is not legislated. In Europe, everyone separates organics, everyone recycles, it's legislated.' -- REUTERS

Fuchun Pri pupils learn to make healthy meals

Pupils at Fuchun Primary School are taught how to prepare a healthy meal for themselves.

ALL pupils at Fuchun Primary School are taught how to prepare a healthy meal for themselves, through lessons given by parent volunteers under the school's Homeskills Programme.

Primary 1 pupils start with making sandwiches, while pupils from Primary 4 to 6 try their hand at cooking chicken rice, fried rice and chicken curry.

The dishes are made using healthier recipes provided by the parent volunteers.

For example, to make chicken rice, the skin of the chicken is removed, and no oil is added to the rice - one of the ways that parents can help their children lead a healthy lifestyle from a young age.

This topic will be discussed at a seminar organised by the Singapore Heart Foundation and the National Institute of Education.

The seminar, which is part of events lined up to mark National Family Week, will be held this Saturday at Raffles Junior College.

Up to 600 parents and teachers as well as 200 children are expected to attend.

Chemistry prodigy, 8, is youngest student at polytechnic

AINAN Cawley, eight, is now the youngest student to study at a polytechnic.

The Singapore chemistry prodigy, featured in the media last year, is studying four modules at Singapore Polytechnic, including perfumery and fragrance chemistry.

Ainan is still in primary school, but his parents plan to home-school him soon. He attends classes at the polytechnic two to three times a week.

He created a perfume for his mother for Mother's Day.

His father, writer Valentine Cawley, 39, said he had explained Ainan's needs to the poly. It proposed the modules as a start as they were 'safer'.

He said: 'Our intention is to equip him with the skills needed for a scientist... He will be doing all the laboratory-based chemistry courses.'

Life of a Bus Driver

Odd hours, long shifts, but he still has the drive



MAKE ROOM, BUS IS PACKED: On one of his trips, Mr Teo has to get off the driver's seat to ask passengers to move to the rear to make room for others.

Why are so few Singaporeans signing up to be bus drivers? The answer may lie in the long, irregular hours and low pay. SBS Transit senior bus captain Teo Cher Soon, 43, earns $1,700 a month after eight years. Reporter Yeo Ghim Lay tails him through a typical nine-hour day

5am: He has breakfast at a coffee shop near his Serangoon North home. He checks his schedule and learns that he will drive services 94 and 94A today. He has to be at the Eunos interchange to start the first of the day's nine trips by 6.32am.

He and a few other drivers are picked up by a bus for SBS employees and driven to the Braddell Road depot.

5.45am: Mr Teo reports to the office, scans his employee pass and picks up a timesheet, which contains the start and end times for the day's trips. He also picks up a checklist he will use as he inspects the bus he is to drive.

After checking for dents and the fuel and water levels, he is satisfied it is road-worthy. He boards the bus and 'logs on' with his pass. He prints out a sample ticket. The ticket machine is working fine.

6.07am: He drives the service 94 bus to Eunos interchange, the starting point. This service runs to the Republic of Singapore Air Force airbase in Paya Lebar and loops back to the interchange.

6.35am: At the Eunos interchange, more than 10 commuters are waiting. The bus fills up en route. (On his second run an hour later, more than 20 commuters are waiting.)

By the third stop, the bus is packed. Mr Teo has to get off his seat a few times to ask commuters to move to the rear to make room for others. He gives the next few stops a miss.

8.17am: He drops off his last load of passengers at the airbase and drives back to the interchange. After he checks to see that commuters did not leave anything behind, he goes to the interchange office, where he clocks in. Then, a five-minute toilet break.

8.22am: He is back on the bus to drive service 94A (the route is half that of service 94's). It plies between Eunos interchange and the airbase, and makes no stops on the return leg.

9.02am: He gets back to the interchange, slowed down by congestion en route. He takes a two-minute break.

Lunch hour: This comes after his fifth trip of the day. He has 25 minutes to eat - and not much choice by way of food at the interchange canteen. He gulps down mixed vegetables with rice and has a cup of coffee. Another toilet break and it's back on the bus.

2.40pm: He calls it a day at Eunos interchange after four more trips. It has been more than eight hours since he started work. He clocks out at the interchange office, and walks to the bus stop at Eunos MRT station to wait for the bus that will take him home.

En route, he looks at his timetable for the next day's shift, which is longer. He will drive service 63, a three-hour route.

Home!: He lies down for a one-hour nap - 'but only for an hour. If not, I won't be able to fall asleep tonight'.

His single day off a week is usually spent with his wife and daughter, who is in Secondary1.

Over the years, he has met his share of unreasonable commuters - those who take it out on him because they think they have waited too long, even when his bus is on time.

Once, he had a commuter who was so drunk that he vomited and passed out on board. Mr Teo had to call the police, who arrived with an ambulance to check on the man. Mr Teo got home later than usual that night.

Among the 10 drivers who started work the same year he did, about half have left, with most having quit or retired.

Some days, he works 13hours, depending on the shift he is assigned. Overtime pay kicks in after eight hours.

Despite the hours, Mr Teo says he does not mind the job, as he does not bring his work home. Also, the job has given him a stable income and Central Provident Fund savings, which pay for his flat.

'I plan to continue driving as long as I am able to,' he says.

Be careful! 8-year-old boy robbed of handphone!

This piece of news was reported on 7 May 2008.

An eight-year-old boy was robbed of his $200 handphone last Sunday at 10pm.

He was returning from a trip to the provision store at Block 230 Tampines St 23, when a man accosted him and demanded to see his handphone.

The man then grabbed his handphone and ran off.

The suspect is described to be of fair complexion, 1.7m in height, and having a mole under the right side of his lip. He was wearing a cream shirt and long black pants.

Anyone with information can contact the Police at 1800-255-0000.

Woman robbed at knife point at Block 544

This robbery was reported in the newspaper.

A WOMAN was robbed at knife point at Block 544, Hougang Avenue 8 on Monday.

The woman was seated at the void deck when she was approached by a man at 1.45am. He pointed a knife at her and demanded that she hand over her belongings.

A struggle ensued when he tried to snatch her bag and she sustained a small knife cut on her right thumb.The robber then fled with the bag, in the direction of Hougang Avenue 8.

The suspect is described as 1.6 to 1.7m tall, thin and in his 20s. He wore spectacles, had on a snow cap and was dressed in a black t-shirt and black pants.

Temperature's Rising

By Diana Othman

IF THE weather has been sweltering lately, it is because May is on record as the second hottest month of the year here.

The fortnightly weather forecast by the National Environmental Agency (NEA) indicates that up till the middle of this month, higher-than-average day-time temperatures can be expected.

There will be little relief from rain, and winds will be too light to cool things down.

To top it off, a slight haze is also expected on some days between now and May 15.

In the first five days of this month, the mercury hit 34.1 deg C at its highest.

The average daily temperature for those five days was 29 deg C, slightly higher than the average daily temperature of 28.3 deg C in May in past years.

Expect temperatures to climb still higher - perhaps to 38 deg C - heading into June, traditionally the hottest month here.

(April and August are the third and fourth hottest months)