Keep kids in school till 7pm so mums can go to work?
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Ng Kai Ling
The Business Times
Sunday, Dec 09, 2012SINGAPORE - To get more women into the workforce, keep children in school until 7pm.
And how about allowing companies that hire more women to employ more foreign workers?
These were among the radical suggestions thrown up yesterday by women MPs at a dialogue session with 80 employers.
With the current labour crunch, it is "perfect timing" for firms to think about how to get more women to enter the workforce, said Ms Grace Fu, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office.
Ms Fu, who heads a team that is working on a paper regarding this issue, said that the employment rate among women over 40 is lower in Singapore than in other Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan.
Of the 691,000 women who are not working, 43 per cent said it was because of family responsibilities such as taking care of children.
Further, 18 per cent of the 62,500 women university graduates here are not economically active.
"There is a big pool of workers to tap," said MP for West Coast GRC Foo Mee Har, who yesterday presented various ideas on how to buck the trend.
One proposal involved setting up day-care facilities at schools that would enable children to stay until 7pm so working parents would not have to worry about who was looking after them.
They would be able to stay on at school and do homework or take part in extra-curricular activities.
Other preliminary ideas floated include giving companies with women-friendly policies more flexibility in hiring foreigners and giving maternity leave to fathers so mothers can return to work earlier.
Childcare leave could also be offered to single parents and grants given to companies to help offset the cost of restructuring human resource strategies and subsidising the cost of retraining women who return to work.
Employers attending the session welcomed the ideas, but some said they lacked the know-how to effectively implement flexi-work arrangements.
Ms Laurel Loi, a director at law firm AbrahamLow, said: "It would be good if there was a grant to help companies make use of technology so that employees could log into the company server from home or do tele-conferencing."
Ms Fu, who chairs the Women's Wing of the People's Action Party, also highlighted the importance of bringing women back to the workforce.
"If they do not stay in the workforce long enough, they do not save enough for their old age. Women should be financially secure as far as possible," she said.
She added that a pro-family life-work culture and flexible work arrangements are important considerations for women, especially for mothers who are deciding whether to continue working.
In October last year, the PAP Women's Wing said it would champion women-related issues such as more flexible work arrangements for mothers and easier re-entry into the workforce.
Ms Fu said a final set of recommendations would be submitted to the Ministry of Manpower in February next year.
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I do agree with the subject heading.
But at the same time trust that the kids will be very tired.
Unless they have nap times...like back to child care again -
kids will be so no life
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some mothers really have an issue of keeping an eye over their children.
they really can't get any help in after school care at all.
like even nobody to cook for the kids etc.
referring to primary school kids i mean -
Times are bad.
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having kids is bad
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You could say that again.
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All ideas from incumbent party MPs.
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those child care centre can employ more housewives. why always must depend on foreign labor. until all ounces of our local workforce has hit the limit of employment then we consider foreign labor. this area is not like teh companies will pack up and move if no foriegn workers. its all gahmen own or local company that is not really profit related. comon not the one size fits all again, otherwise its lchui kong lanpar song only.
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Keep the kids in child/day care centre till 1900 hours.
Not a valid solution either, You look at it this way.
So if the kids are kept at the child/daycare cetntre til 1900 hours, Dinner time at 2100 and bed time at 2200 hours and parents slept at 2345 hours isn't it even tiring? It is not a healthy option either for the kids.
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Sure, I will welcome it, just making reporting time 10 am
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Originally posted by TIB783G:
Keep the kids in child/day care centre till 1900 hours.
Not a valid solution either, You look at it this way.
So if the kids are kept at the child/daycare cetntre til 1900 hours, Dinner time at 2100 and bed time at 2200 hours and parents slept at 2345 hours isn't it even tiring? It is not a healthy option either for the kids.
dinner can be at child care centre. alfter all do you really trust foreign workers to take care of local kids of local people to take care of lcoa kids. mix with so many foriegn labr kids grow up also becum like that. trust me such things happen. -
next what.......... all pri sch turn into boarding sch so the kids do not even need to go home until the hols?
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Originally posted by FireIce:
next what.......... all pri sch turn into boarding sch so the kids do not even need to go home until the hols?
We need to have more children.
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Originally posted by FireIce:
next what.......... all pri sch turn into boarding sch so the kids do not even need to go home until the hols?
bopain mah singapore small no natueral resources labor crunch aging population this and that -
I like how those people make selfish suggestions only thinking of their own situation... I pity the teachers who already have complains about their job responsibilities, only to have such suggestions pile more pressure on them... perhaps we can look forward to a day where more children AND TEACHERS commit suicide while parents happily await their children or spouse only never to see them come home.
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If you treat your kid like a pet, they will treat you like a dog when you are old.
Despite the pretentious effort to ask the people to give birth more, now they are thinking of measures of getting more people to work.
What about spending more time with your kids when they are young ?
What values are they trying to instil ? Money more important, your kid will be taken care by child care and when you are old, move to cheaper Johor to be taken care of.
Selfish individuals.
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This is completely counterproductive. Don't the MPs realise that the reason why our fertility rate is so low is that women go to work too much? I.E women work, so no time to take care of the children, so they delay getting children. And now they want MORE women to go to work so that we can have less children and the problem gets worse.
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more women (and men) need to work till 7pm (and actually officially leaving workplae at 8pm) bcos these kids are in sch till 7pm
so the children of these ppl gotta stay in sch till 8pm
and this is a vicious cycle.
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or they can let women work flexi hours.
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oh. and who do the housework leh?
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Originally posted by TIB783G:
Keep the kids in child/day care centre till 1900 hours.
Not a valid solution either, You look at it this way.
So if the kids are kept at the child/daycare cetntre til 1900 hours, Dinner time at 2100 and bed time at 2200 hours and parents slept at 2345 hours isn't it even tiring? It is not a healthy option either for the kids.
maybe in school got fellow classmates play with them
then they can get more adapt at their social life and less social-awkwardness as they grow up
and someone to coach homework, save some of the effort hahacome back home just do some family bonding ;)
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reach home too tired. KO immediately.
parents too..
bond ge pi.
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Originally posted by FireIce:
reach home too tired. KO immediately.
parents too..
bond ge pi.
being parents itself is not easy at all -
there will be massive jam outside schools at 7pm
govt shall solve the prob by erecting ERPs