Student care centres: A welcome move. What do you think about this? Quote: A HEARTENING piece of news from Education Minister Heng Swee Keat yesterday is the expansion of student care centres in primary schools. Currently some 7,500 pupils, many of them from low-income households, benefit from the services provided at these centres in 80 primary schools. Over the next two years, 40 more primary schools will set up such centres. This means another 2,500 pupils will benefit. The centres charge on average $250 a child a month. But children from low-income families receive a generous subsidy and in the end, pay as little as $5 a month. When they attend these centres - most run by voluntary welfare organisations - they receive meals and are supervised for their homework. The centres also run activities and games to engage the kids until their parents pick them up after work. The care extends to the holiday periods. Many of the centres take their charges on excursions to places such as River Safari and the National Museum and even run overnight camps and movie screenings. But beyond that, these centres have become a lifeline for children from disadvantaged homes in many other ways. The staff, trained to look out for children with social and emotional problems, have helped teachers detect problems early on and match the kids with the help they need. These could range from educational therapy to counselling and financial aid. Gavier Yee, 11, for example, was weak in his studies and had anger management issues when he entered Ahmad Ibrahim Primary. The student care centres officers counselled him and persuaded his mother to stop sending him for tuition classes which they felt were counter-productive. They offered him more help with his schoolwork and taught him strategies to manage his anger. Today, he is in Primary 6. He completes his homework on time and revises his work on his own. He was in the learning support programme in lower primary for children who lag behind in their language and mathematics, but now he only lags a little in his Mother Tongue language, Chinese, which he is taking at Foundation level. Mindful of the fact that the childrens sustained gains in development are closely associated with parental involvement, many of these centres also conduct talks and workshops to enhance parents own child-rearing skills. The problem right now is that demand exceeds supply of places, with many student care centres full to the brim and some having to put children on a waiting list. The opening of new centres announced yesterday is certainly welcome. But even as the Education Ministry moves ahead with this expansion to reach two-thirds of primary schools here, it should also look closer at the distribution of places, and make sure that no child - especially one from a disadvantaged home - who really needs a place has to either wait or go without because the centre at his school has no more places. In future, the Government should also study the feasibility of having a student care centre in every primary school, as some Members of Parliament suggested yesterday. Some may baulk at the cost, but as many studies show, the price of not providing for disadvantaged children early is much higher social costs down the road. straitstimes/premium/top-the-news/story/student-care-centres-welcome-move-20140308
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 15:03:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015