SINGAPORE: An allegation that former Singapore politician and the nation’s seventh President Tony Tan was reluctant to fund Singapore’s technical schooling sector is recirculating on-line regardless of being rubbished 10 years in the past.
The declare was made by famed architect Tay Kheng Quickly at a Singapore Democratic Get together discussion board in 2016. Mr Tay is one in all Singapore’s most influential architects and concrete thinkers, famend for championing tropical structure and sustainable city planning lengthy earlier than such concepts grew to become mainstream.
He had been talking about his late brother, Dr Tay Eng Quickly, on the 2016 discussion board. Dr Tay Eng Quickly is extensively thought to be one of many key architects of Singapore’s technical and vocational schooling system, and his affect laid a lot of the muse for what finally grew to become the Institute of Technical Schooling (ITE).
As Minister of State and later Senior Minister of State for Schooling throughout the Eighties and early Nineteen Nineties, Dr Tay championed the concept vocational schooling ought to be valued on par with tutorial pathways.
At a time when technical coaching was usually considered as a second-choice choice, he pushed for important investments in technical institutes, improved curricula, stronger {industry} partnerships, and higher services. He believed Singapore’s financial success relied on producing a extremely expert workforce geared up with sensible, industry-relevant abilities.
One among his most enduring contributions was overseeing the strengthening and modernisation of the Vocational and Industrial Coaching Board (VITB), which was chargeable for vocational schooling earlier than ITE was established. His reforms improved the standard and status of vocational coaching, setting the stage for the creation of the Institute of Technical Schooling in 1992.
Though ITE was formally established shortly earlier than he died in 1993, lots of its guiding rules, together with shut collaboration with {industry}, hands-on coaching and a give attention to employability, had been formed by the insurance policies he had championed.
In recognition of his contributions, the auditorium at ITE School East is called the Dr Tay Eng Quickly Conference Centre, honouring his position in elevating technical schooling and serving to remodel it right into a revered pathway that has benefited generations of Singaporeans.
Nonetheless, Mr Tay says his brother’s work was not simple. Sharing that his brother had spent a couple of decade combating throughout the Cupboard for larger funding for vocational schools, Mr Tay stated in 2016 that his brother’s widow informed him after Dr Tay’s dying that then-Schooling Minister Tony Tan had repeatedly requested Dr Tay, “Why do you wish to throw good cash after unhealthy garbage?” in reference to spending on vocational schooling.
Arguing that this mirrored an elitist perspective in the direction of ITE and polytechnic college students, Mr Tay asserted, “I can’t stand this. That is the inherent elitism. It’s important to break that.”
Though Mr Tay’s declare was made a decade in the past, it started recirculating on-line this month after SDP chief Chee Quickly Juan reshared it on Fb. The declare is as soon as once more spreading on on-line boards and messaging teams, with one Fb account that reposted the declare garnering over 800 likes.
The declare, nonetheless, stays unsubstantiated and Dr Tan has categorically rejected the allegation.
Talking to reporters again in August 2016, he stated: “I didn’t make any such remarks. The declare may be very hurtful as a result of once I was a Cupboard Minister, the schooling of kids was very near my coronary heart.”
He added that in his tenure as Schooling Minister, he had elevated assist for all college students, with a specific give attention to these in polytechnics and ITEs, or what was then the VITB.
The Ministry of Schooling additionally defended Dr Tan’s report, declaring that in his time as Schooling Minister, Singapore established Temasek Polytechnic and Nanyang Polytechnic, whereas the VITB was upgraded into the Institute of Technical Schooling (ITE) in 1992.
The ministry additional famous that between 1986 and 1992, recurrent authorities expenditure per pupil elevated by 48 per cent within the polytechnics and 58 per cent in technical schooling, alongside important progress in enrolment.
Two senior ministers who served with Dr Tan additionally publicly backed him. Former Senior Minister S. Jayakumar described Tay Kheng Quickly’s allegation as “absurd”, saying he had by no means heard Dr Tan make disparaging remarks about VITB or polytechnic college students and as a substitute recalled him constantly arguing for presidency assist.
Former Schooling Minister Lee Yock Suan equally stated Dr Tan had initiated the institution of Nanyang Polytechnic and the upgrading of VITB into ITE, including that he knew Tony Tan believed strongly in giving vocational college students each alternative to succeed.
