Recreational Puzzle

From the Straits Times
18 April 2015

HOW many ways are there to place four marbles of different colours into four empty boxes?

More Singapore students are cracking their brains over mathematics questions like this and the one dubbed “Cheryl’s Birthday” which left adults from Britain to Canada scratching their heads.

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Summarized from CNA
07 April 2015

SINGAPORE: While the Republic’s education system has cultivated students who are top performers in international exams, this could come at the expense of encouraging innovation. And teachers here must be less risk-averse, if Singapore wants an education system that creates innovators.

These were among the views expressed by various experts at the World Educational Leadership Summit 2015 on Tuesday (Apr 7). The summit, organised by the International Association for Scholastic Excellence, was attended by about 1,000 delegates from all over the world, among them school leaders and educators.

Speaking to TODAY on the sidelines of the summit, Dr Tony Wagner, an expert-in-residence at Harvard University’s Innovation Lab, described Singapore’s education system as one rooted in a long history of “testing for meritocracy” and “testing for equality of opportunity”.

“The challenge for Singapore is to realise that the current testing and grading system is not going to develop young innovators; it’s only going to develop good test-takers,” said Dr Wagner, who was one of the summit’s featured speakers. It also encourages “bad behaviour”, where parents spend large sums of money on sending tuition classes for their children, while teachers have to prepare students for major examinations at a young age, he added.

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Summarized from ST
04 April 2015

All six local universities have raised their tuition fees for the new academic year, largely to pay for rising operating costs, including that of creating online learning systems, they said. The fee hikes for local undergraduates this year range from 0.6 per cent to 8 per cent — similar to previous years. But for most undergraduate courses, the increase is about 1 to 1.5 per cent for the new intake, the Ministry of Education said.

At the National University of Singapore (NUS), fees for most courses will rise by about 1.5 per cent for local undergraduates, but will jump by about 5 to 8 per cent for a handful of courses – dentistry, medicine, law and music. For instance, fresh law students can expect to pay about $12,400 a year — 6.4 per cent, or $750, more than the previous fee of $11,650, while new music undergraduates will pay $11,950 a year — 8 per cent, or $900, more than the previous fee of $11,050.

Professor Tan Eng Chye, its deputy president of academic affairs and provost, said the cost varies across different degree programmes, depending on the faculty, equipment and operating costs, among other things.

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23 March 2015

The Ministry of Education (MOE) told the media on Monday afternoon that flags at MOE schools flew at half-mast from the morning, as a mark of respect to the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew after he died at 3.18am. He died at the Singapore General Hospital where he had been warded for severe pneumonia since Feb 5.

Teachers, staff and students from Government schools and post-secondary educational institutions (PSEIs), and MOE headquarters staff will participate in state events such as the Lying-in-State, Special Parliament Sitting and the State Funeral Service.

Mr Lee became Singapore’s first Prime Minister after the People’s Action Party (PAP) won the general elections on 30 May 1959 by an impressive margin of 43 out of 51 Legislative Assembly seats. He was sworn in on 03 June 1959, taking over from former Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock. With a new legislature in place, Singapore gained internal self-government from the British with jurisdiction over all matters except for defence and foreign affairs. Subsequently, Singapore joined the Federation of Malaya together with Sarawak and North Borneo on 16 September 1963. But Singapore’s conflicts with Malaysia proved too much to handle. Singapore finally left Malaysia and gained full sovereignty of 09 August 1965.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew held the post of Prime Minister until he was succeeded by Mr Goh Chok Tong on 28 November 1990. He had served as Prime Minister for a total of 31 years. Mr Lee was conferred the title of Senior Minister during Mr Goh’s reign, and then, he held the title of Minister Mentor from 12 August 2004 to 21 May 2011. Mr Lee stood for his final general election in 2011, and had a walkover in his constituency, Tanjong Pagar GRC. Currently, the other Members of Parliament (MPs) for Tanjong Pagar GRC are Indranee Thurai Rajah, Lily Neo, Chan Chun Sing and Chia Shi-Lu.

12 March 2015

1. Waiver of national exam fees for Singapore Citizen students in Government-funded schools, vocational exam fees for Government-funded SPED schools and specialised schools and exam fees for Singapore Citizen students enrolled full-time in ITE and polytechnics from 2015.
2. Increased transport subsidies for students on Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS): Students who travel to and from school via public transport will be provided S$120 in transport credits per annum. For students in primary school who take the school bus, the FAS will cover 50% of regular bus fare. The FAS for students in Government-funded SPED schools will be similarly enhanced to provide S$120 in transport credits per annum for those taking public transport.
3. Raised income eligibility criteria for Edusave Merit Bursary: Income criterion for Edusave Merit Bursary raised to gross household income of not more than S$6,000 per month, up from S$5,000. The per capita household income criterion, meant to recognise that larger families often have larger financial needs, will also be raised to not more than S$1,500 per month, up from the current S$1,250 per month.

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