Singapore’s education system came out tops in Asia, but hardly any of the job growth went to true-blue Singaporeans in the last two years.
I refer to the article “S’pore top in Asia in readying youth for future” (Straits Times, Sep 21).
It states that “Singapore’s education system came out tops in Asia in an index that looks at how effective countries are in equipping their younger generations with the skills needed in future labour markets.
Worldwide, it ranked fifth out of 35 economies, standing behind New Zealand, Canada, Finland and Switzerland, according to a report by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
The EIU index assesses how well governments prepare young people aged 15 to 24 with skills for their working life.
The reasons for Singapore’s ranking included factors such as a curriculum framework that supports education for future skills.
Singapore was also found to have “a comprehensive national strategy” in this area. It also holds the top spot worldwide in policy environment.”
I am quite puzzled and find it rather hard to reconcile “Singapore’s education system came out tops in Asia … in equipping their younger generations with the skills needed in future labour markets” – with the estimate that possibly, hardly any of the jobs growth in the last two and a half years until June – went to true-blue Singaporeans.
In this connection,
31,050 new PRs and 22,102 new citizens a year?
last year, we granted 31,050 new PRs and 22,102 new citizens.
How many new PRs & citizens granted?
If the rate of granting new PRs and new citizens in the first half of this year is about the same as last year’s – we may have granted about 15,525 new PRS (31,050 divided by 2) and 11,051 (22,102 divided by 2) new citizens up till June.
How many of the “jobs growth” to S’poreans?
If this is the case (estimate) – how many of the 4,000 locals’ employment growth in the first half of this year went to Singaporeans?
If 26% of new PRs working = 0 jobs growth to S’poreans?
To illustrate this with an example – if just 26 per cent of the estimated 15,525 new PRs granted were formerly foreigners with jobs – about 4,037 (15,525 × 26%) – perhaps none of the 4,000 locals’ employment growth went to Singaporeans.
It has also been estimated that from 2015 to 2016 – almost none of the 11,400 jobs growth to locals (37,300 foreigners’ jobs growth) – actually went to Singapore born true-blue Singaporeans (61,005 new PRs and 42,917 new citizens granted in the same two-year period)?
Also, as to PRs and Singaporeans – it may be interesting to note that from 2004 to 2016 – we granted 555,659 and 228,840 new PRs and new citizens, respectively.
With regard to jobs – from 2006 to 2016 – the employment growth for locals and foreigners was 376,800 and 701,900, respectively.
How many of the 376,800 locals’ jobs were S’poreans?
So, how many of the “locals” (PRs and citizens) employment growth of 376,800 went to Singaporeans, since 467,659 new PRs and 208,840 new citizens were granted in the same period from 2006 to 2016?
Leong Sze Hian
