MP Cassandra Lee (PAP-West Coast-Jurong West) also raised suggestions to help young parents who juggle building their careers and caregiving responsibilities.
Singaporeans have “consistently” said that their careers and raising a family are equally important to them, she added, urging the government not to make them choose between the two.
Acknowledging that the suggestions cost money and may exacerbate manpower challenges, she called for mindset shifts from employers and employees to make them work in a “mutually beneficial” way.
Ms Lee proposed that childcare leave be restructured to increase incrementally with each child, and flexible work arrangements be made “genuinely accessible” to both mothers and fathers.
Contingencies for common childhood illnesses can be provided where the children are, she added.
She also proposed bringing active ageing centres and schools together to empower seniors to “find their second lease of life” and ease the load on parents.
For example, youths could teach digital skills to seniors, or take part in intergenerational sports like pickleball.
INCLUSIVE SOCIETY
MP Foo Cexiang (PAP-Tanjong Pagar) said public spaces must be the “heart” of Singapore’s communities, where people come together to partake in common interests and embrace their differences.
“We don’t have to be limited to conventional spaces such as the community centres or the basketball courts,” he said, calling for ground-up proposals for projects in state buildings or on state land that aim to strengthen Singapore’s multicultural community.
To foster multiculturalism, individuals need to put in “much more effort” to understand each other’s differences, he said.
“The more we are inundated with views similar to our own, the more we must seek out alternative, even opposing viewpoints.”
He raised the question of whether the ethnic integration policy could be more effective if priority were given to applicants of different ethnic backgrounds who pair up and apply to be neighbours together.
“Now I know this will require further study, but my larger point really is that it cannot just be the numbers that we seek. It must be the quality of the relationships forged that we aspire towards,” he added.
WP’s Jamus Lim (WP-Sengkang) suggested changes to the way mainstream schools are resourced and reiterated his call to make private transportation more affordable for those who need it – the elderly, those with many children and those with disabilities.
Currently, schools receive resources proportional to their needs, he said. For example, a school that has additional programmes like electives will receive more than the baseline funding.
This approach fails to account for how students in different schools have access to different amounts of resources, said Associate Professor Lim.
Instead, the government should “disproportionately” support weaker schools, or ensure that the best teaching graduates spend “significant time” in such schools, tying their career advancement to how much those schools have improved.
The Sengkang MP revisited his party’s proposal for a needs-based COE system, stressing that the current system does not ensure that those who own private cars are also those who need them the most.
“Accepting the COE system effectively acquiesces to an unequal outcome: that those who have more resources are able to buy more cars,” he added.
“Yet we already recognise that some groups, the elderly, those with many children, the disabled, do have greater needs that are deserving of more support from society.”
These groups already “explicitly” receive support through other government policies, and a fairer system would make private transportation more affordable for them, he said.
