Parliament in brief: 4 things you need to know

SINGAPORE — The number of students enrolled into nursing programmes over the past five years has remained stable, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said in response to a parliamentary question.

Responding to another question, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said that an average of about 180 complaints related to workplace discrimination based on nationality were filed each year between 2017 and last year.

Other items that were raised by Members of Parliament (MP) included the number of teachers who quit due to stress, and the number of taxi or private hire car fare evasion cases.

1. Enrolment into nursing programmes

Questions by Mr Louis Ng, MP for Nee Soon Group Representation Constituency (GRC)

• What is the number of students who enrolled into nursing programmes in the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), polytechnics and universities respectively for each year over the past five years?
• What is the number and percentage of students who practice nursing after graduation?

Health Minister Ong said that the enrolment figures for nursing across the institutes of higher learning have remained “relatively stable” between 2017 and last year. This was after figures grew by about 20 per cent in the five years before.

A total of about 2,100 students are admitted into pre-registration nursing courses at ITE, Nanyang Polytechnic and the National University of Singapore.

Mr Ong said that employment outcomes for nursing graduates have also been strong between 2017 and last year.

Based on the annual Graduate Employment Survey conducted by the institutes of higher learning, 83 per cent of graduates secured full-time permanent employment within six months after graduation. Of these, nine in 10 were working as nurses.

Ms Rahayu Mahzam, Parliamentary Secretary for Health, said before in Parliament on Aug 2 that among resident nurses working in the public sector, the attrition rate was 7.4 per cent in 2021, up from 5.4 per cent the previous year. 

For foreign nurses in the public sector, attrition more than doubled year-on-year to 14.8 per cent in 2021.

TODAY previously reported that better pay and opportunities, as well as the ease of obtaining residency in other countries, were among the main reasons foreign nurses here decided to move abroad. 

2. Complaints from Singaporeans about being replaced by foreign workers

Questions by Mr Leong Mun Wai, Non-Constituency Member of Parliament from Progress Singapore Party

• What is the number of complaints received from Singaporeans about being replaced by foreign labour for each of the last five years?
• What is the percentage of such complaints, out of the total number of complaints received by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM)?

Dr Tan, the Manpower Minister, replied that the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (Tafep) received an average of about 180 complaints each year involving discrimination based on nationality, including complaints against job advertisements, between 2017 and last year.

Complaints on being replaced by foreign workers would form “a smaller subset” of these complaints, he added. However, Tafep does not track complaints on such a basis.

Complaints over nationality discrimination make up fewer than 5 per cent of employment-related complaints filed by resident employees. These included complaints over salary arrears.

"MOM takes every discrimination complaint seriously and will take appropriate enforcement actions against errant employers," Dr Tan said.

Last year, he told Parliament that an average of 379 workplace discrimination complaints against employers were sent to the authorities each year between 2014 and the first half of 2021, and a third of these were found to have discriminatory practices.

Singapore’s foreign talent policy has been in the spotlight recently, and the issue received an airing in Parliament last year and more recently when the Government launched a new scheme to attract top global talent.

3. Teachers who leave service due to mental or emotional stress

Question by Mr Darryl David, MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC

• How many educators gave mental or emotional stress at the workplace as reasons for leaving the education service in the last five years?

Education Minister Chan Chun Sing said that fewer than one in 20 teachers who had resigned in the past five years had pointed to stress or workload as reasons for leaving their jobs.

“The Ministry of Education (MOE) values our teachers and will continue to work with school leaders and stakeholders to support our teachers’ well-being, so that they can in turn continue to give their best to the education of our students,” Mr Chan said.

TODAY previously reported on how teachers are feeling overworked due to high public expectations of the roles that schools and teachers play in a child's life. 

Last month, Mr Chan said in Parliament that even though MOE has taken steps to alleviate teachers' administrative work and put in place more resources to help them manage their time, parents also play a key role in supporting teachers’ well-being.

4. Fare evasion by private-hire car passengers

Questions by Mr Melvin Yong, MP for Radin Mas

• How prevalent is fare evasion among private-hire car passengers in the past five years?
• Has there been a rising trend of fare evasion cases?
• How easy is it for private-hire care drivers to report and seek redress for such cases?

There has been a “falling trend” in fare evasion cases investigated by the Land Transport Authority from 2017 to last year, Transport Minister S Iswaran said.

There were 233 cases in 2017, 269 in 2018 and 164 in 2019. These numbers fell further to 104 in 2020 and 96 last year.

With the daily number of taxi and private-hire car trips totalling about 600,000, the figures mean that 0.00005 per cent of all trips, or one in two million trips, have reported fare evasion.

Fare evasion cases involving private-hire cars are included in figures only from October 2020 when the regulatory framework began for private-hire cars, Mr Iswaran said.

No such cases were investigated in 2020 and 21 cases were probed last year.

From 2017 to 2021, fares were recovered from about six in 10 of all cases investigated.

Mr Iswaran said that his ministry takes fare evasion cases seriously and that there are several ways that drivers can seek redress.

They may do so by reporting fare evasion to taxi or private-hire car operators who will try to recover the fares on behalf of their drivers.

If the operators are not successful, drivers may refer their cases to LTA or call the police for assistance, Mr Iswaran added.