Singapore Maths Tuition - University and JC

21 December 2017

By attending a 14-hour course conducted by the Singapore Management University, students of the Institute of Technical Education are now being trained to teach their fellow students financial planning.

The course equips ITE students with the knowledge to run roadshows or workshops for fellow ITE students.

A total of 42 ITE students have been trained since the programme started in the three ITE campuses this year.

Students from SMU and local polytechnics have also received the same training and they are now running programmes in their respective university and polytechnics.

ITE students who have completed the course said they found it useful.

20 December 2017

The Singapore University of Technology and Design recently held a design exhibition showcasing projects done by first-year students who are taking the Introduction to Design core module.

This year’s theme focused on technology that is wearable or related to the body.

Each team first came up with a problem statement, and then conducted research on possible solutions before working on their prototypes. Most teams took three months to complete their projects.

One team invented a device that can make wheelchair users’ lives easier, called the LambdaRoll. Wheelchair users are helped up from their chair before they are made to lean forward to get on the LambdaRoll seat. With their arms secured on the device, the caregiver then guides the wheelchair user’s feet onto a platform. Once the wheelchair user is completely on the device, the caregiver is able to move him around.

In total, 46 faculty members from various disciplines went around the booths to assess the student teams.

Women are starting to hold a larger proportion of top positions in Singapore’s schools.

For example, about 60 per cent of principals and vice-principals here are women, compared with 32 per cent in 1989.

Last year, 49 per cent of secondary schools had female principals.

One school principal quipped, “Society has evolved and there is a growing acceptance that women are just as capable as men in their abilities, work, even to be leaders.”

In response to queries, the MOE said it hires all educators and staff “based on their ability to do the job, regardless of gender, race or age”. “This ensures the best candidates, regardless of background, are always recruited for the position.”

Mr Balamurugan Krishnasamy, principal of SIM International Academy, noted that male educators “provide a balance in the service as they can be positive role models for the male students and can provide the paternal stewardship necessary to balance the school culture”.

18 December 2017

Former head of civil service Lim Siong Guan has stated that in order to ensure Singapore’s continued success, we need to groom people to embrace innovation and inculcate the willingness to go beyond one’s comfort zones.

Such a robust and forward looking mindset is needed in order to meet the challenges of the new economy.

In the past, Singapore succeeded based on values such as industry, trust, reliability and sound governance. A crucial pillar was the rule of law and the predictability of government policies including the ability to take a long term view.

As we move forward as a country, innovation, excellence and outwardness will also be needed and these values will command a premium in the new economy.

In Mr Lim’s own words, “What I am talking about is a need for a culture of innovation. By culture, I mean the spirit of innovation to be an integral part of our character and personality as a nation and a society.”

One example Mr Lim gives is Singapore’s obsession with academic grades and awards.

But he said, “(If) we want people to be innovative, which requires them to try more and to learn from failure, we have to recognise people for their effort and not only for their success — have they tried their best in exercising their talents and abilities is the critical question, and not whether they got the gold medal.”

16 December 2017

University and polytechnic students were recently asked to come up with technological solutions to combat the scourge of fake news during a get-together recently held at the Google Asia-Pacific office in Pasir Panjang.

The winning team, a group of five first-year students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design, devised an ingenious solution.

First, a web-based crawler is used to search and analyse the credibility of online articles, with the information collected stored on an online database. Then, users download a Google Chrome extension, which when activated, rates each article on its credibility. This rating is based on a sentiment analysis conducted using natural language processing.

On a platform similiar to Reddit or Quora, users will be able to rank the credibility of articles that they read (on a scale of one to 10). A higher score will reflect a higher level of credibility.

“By getting people to come together, we can encourage discussion and use that information to check for credibility”, said Mr Brandon Ong, a member of the winning team.

15 December 2017

The Ministry of Education has said that practices have been instituted to ensure that students’ physical and emotional well-being are taken care of while they take part in co-curricular and enrichment activities.

A spokesman for MOE said that instructors and coaches play a role in the students’ holistic development, and school principals have said their schools have stringent processes in hiring external coaches.

MOE has also been more stringent with the qualifications and quality of external instructors in recent years.

Since January 2015, instructors offering CCAs and enrichment programmes to schools have had to register with MOE.

From January next year, all MOE-registered physical sports CCA coaches in schools will also need to obtain at least a provisional membership with the National Registry of Coaches, a database of coaches who have been fully certified under the Singapore Coach Excellence Programme.

14 December 2017

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has defined global competence as “the capacity to examine global and inter-cultural issues, to take multiple perspectives, to engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions with people from different cultures and to act for collective well-being and sustainable development”.

In future years, OECD will be looking to assess students on these abilities, via the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) test.

Students will read about a case study and be evaluated on their ability to understand the case and suggest solutions. They will also be gauged on their ability to interact and work together with people from diverse backgrounds.

OECD hopes to assess the ability of students to address global developments, and also provide data that will help schools and teachers prepare young people for global citizenship.

In an earlier interview with The Straits Times on Pisa’s move to test global competence, Dr Andreas Schleicher, OECD’s director for education and skills, said it was important to nurture the capacity of students “to look at the world through different lenses and perspectives, appreciate different ways of thinking and different cultures”.

He also said that the Pisa test aims to look carefully at the evolution of skills demanded in the workplace and by societies.

13 December 2017

The Singapore University of Technology and Design will be forming a partnership with Duke-NUS Medical School to offer a new medical degree programme.

Under the SUTD-Duke-NUS Special Track, students will graduate with a Bachelor of Engineering or Bachelor of Science degree at SUTD after three and a half years, followed by a Doctor of Medicine degree at Duke-NUS Medical School after another four years.

Graduates of this programme will be suited for careers as clinicians who are adept at both practising medicine and harnessing technological advancements. They would have the ability to treat patients as well as create new medical innovations.

SUTD president Professor Thomas Magnanti said the programme expects to enrol 10 high-achieving Singapore Citizens and Singapore Permanent Residents a year.