Teen Crime Getting Out of Hand in Britain

It was reported in The Straits Times, 23 August 07, in Liverpool, Britain, an 11 year old boy was gunned down by a youth riding a BMX bike. Earlier this month, a 47 year old man died from head injuries after confronting a gang of teenagers. Three days after that, Mr Evren Anil died after challenging a group of youths and an elderly man who tried to help had a knife put to his throat. All these incidents happened in Britain. With the rate of teen crime getting out of hand, it seems that the youths have placed no value on human life. Teen crime is also prevalent in Singapore. Although teen crimes in Singapore do not involve guns, they are still on the rise and if nothing is done to stop it, it will just keep getting worse. A simple action such as stealing something from underneath a classmate's desk can lead to students trying to break into other people's lockers to steal valuables. Some people may deem these as trivial crimes. However, if these youths are not corrected early, they may grow confident and move on to crimes on an even larger scale. Perhaps hacking into a computer system to steal money. According to experts who were interviewed by The Straits Times, the problem of teen crimes has been building for the past 20 years. For the past 20 years, nothing or little was done to stop teen crimes. This allowed the teenagers to feel like nothing could stop them and the crimes they commited just kept getting worse and worse. Likewise, in Singapore, to prevent teen crimes from getting worse, something must be done to curb this problem. Teen crimes have also got to do with the values the parents instill in the child. If parents do not take their responsibilities seriously, the child may not respect them. There will then be a lack of discipline and respect from the child. Values such as respect should be nurtured at home otherwise, youths will carry this disrespect past the thresholds of their doorsteps. Of course, to be able to discharge their responsibilities, parents must establish a healthy parent-child relationship with their children. They must be willing to invest their time in their children and start when they are young. This way they will know what makes their children tick. A survey by the University of Leicester revealed that two thirds of school teachers had faced verbal or physical abuse, from both students and parents. I will end off with a quote from The Straits Times by Mr Brennan. "We can't persecute these teens, but we need to know what makes them tick and time is running out.".

Fourth University Coming Up

During the recently concluded National Day Rally, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong suggested that Singapore would have a fourth public-funded university, and it may not only stop at four. This university will have its own unique strengths and character. PM Lee pointed out that the three existing public universities were already large enough and should not be expanded any further. Although universities have increased the number of places, people are still fretting over admissions as there are also more applicants, as seen in the recent intake. The rising demand for tertiary education and the fact that more polytechnic graduates want to pursue degrees show the necessity for the new university. Statistics show that already 15% of polytechinic graduates move on to the National University of Singapore and many more go overseas. The government's response to the present and projected needs will prevent an outflow of local talents because most of these overseas students choose not to return to Singapore to work. Today, 23% of each batch of primary 1 students make it into either one of the three universities. By 2015, the government aims to increase the proportion to 30%, some 2400 more places each year. Again, this shows the necessity for the new university as we cannot keep expanding the existing ones. In his speech, PM Lee also stated that the aim of the government is to provide every child with a top-rate education. Lessons have also become more interesting after the implementation of "Teach Less, Learn More". Being a student myself, I too hope for the best education I can recieve so that I will be able to build a better future for myself. The "Teach Less, Learn More" scheme encourages students to explore furthur on their own and to expand their creativty and understanding, and I am experiencing it now. It also allows Principles and teachers to experiment new areas and methods. Personally I feel that this helps to broaden a student's mindset, it allows him to think outside of the box. Instead of just applying what he learns from textbooks, he is now unlimited in breadth and depth. This will teach students to be independent learners and to continue the learning process beyond their school years. Now schools are planning to implement IT learning, or using the notebook to teach lessons. I feel that this scheme will help to boost the interest of the students. It also has a wider range of information thus making learning a easier process.