Utility rebate eligibility rule tweaked
Transcription
Utility rebate eligibility rule tweaked
prime news 쐽 THE STRAITS TIMES FRIDAY, JANUARY 1 2010 PAGE A9 New home for arts school Utility rebate eligibility rule tweaked Ribbons of railing add an architectural flourish to the Sky Terrace of the new School of the Arts in Zubir Said Drive, near The Cathay. The school, which has been based in Goodman Road since its inception in 2008, will open the doors of its new campus on Monday to start the academic year. When fully operational, the 11-storey school will accommodate up to 1,200 post-PSLE students studying for the International Baccalaureate diploma. 쐽 HOME PAGE B3 ST PHOTO: BRYAN VAN DER BEEK Flats fully sublet to non-citizens left out BY SYLVIA PAIK HOUSING Board flats that are fully sublet to non-citizens will no longer be eligible for rebates on utility bills. The ruling – it comes into effect today – is similar to one that already applies to HDB flats owned by non-citizens. These are also not eligible for the rebates. The move by the Finance Ministry makes clearer the distinction between citizens and non-citizens and will ensure that Government utility rebates reach Singaporeans as intended. About 800,000 Singaporean HDB households will receive $106 million worth of U-Save rebates this year, the ministry announced yesterday. The rebates are part of the GST Offset Package announced in the 2007 Budget to help Singaporeans, especially low- and middle-income households, cope with the tax increase. They are restricted to flats owned by locals but there has been an increase in the number of Singa- THIS YEAR’S REBATES Amount of U-Save rebates for HDB households HDB Flat Type 1-room 2-room 3-room 4-room 5-room Executive Jan 2010 $100 $100 $90 $85 July 2010 $100 $100 $70 $65 TOTAL $200 $200 $160 $150 $50 $40 $90 $30 $25 $55 Source: MINISTRY OF FINANCE ST GRAPHICS porean-owned HDB homes that have been fully sublet to non-citizen tenants in recent years. These are the flats that will no longer be eligible for U-Save rebates. Utility rebates will still go to Singaporeanowned HDB flats that are owner-occupied or sublet to citizens. This means at least one tenant must be a citizen. One- and two-room households will get $200 worth of U-Save rebates this year, which will offset more than a third of average annual utility bills. Four-room households will get $150 of U-Save rebates, or 10 per cent of their annual bills. The first payout, amounting to $60 million, will be made in January, with the second in July. The U-Save rebates will be factored into the January bills of eligible households. When fully disbursed, HDB households will have received U-Save rebates worth $370 for executive flat owners and up to $1,130 for a one-room household over the five years. The rebates will cost the Government about $620 million. Yesterday’s U-Save announcement is in line with recent measures to differentiate between Singaporeans and non-citizens. Earlier last month, the Education Ministry introduced two measures in this area. One will give Singaporeans an edge when they ballot for places during Primary 1 registration from July. And school fees for permanent residents and foreigners will be raised from 2011. For more information on U-Save rebates, call SP Services on 1800-2222-333. [email protected] THE STRAITS TIMES FRIDAY, JANUARY 1 2010 PAGE B3 home 쐽 (From left) Vice-principal (academics) Patsy Ong, principal Rebecca Chew and vice-principal (development) Yap Meen Sheng will welcome 586 students in Years 1 to 4 when school starts next week. ST PHOTO: BRYAN VAN DER BEEK Three cheers for Sota’s two years Applications have doubled as first arts school gains support BY JENNANI DURAI IT IS just two years old, but Singapore’s first arts school is entrenching itself in the national landscape. And the proof is from both parents and arts practitioners. The School of The Arts (Sota) saw nearly 1,000 pupils audition for the 200 spots it has this year, nearly double the number of applicants it had in the previous year. When the school year starts next week, Sota will have 586 students in Years 1 to 4. The school has also managed to recruit prominent local artists to its staff and enticed Singaporeans practising their arts abroad – such as Dr Joyce Koh, formerly the composer-in-residence at the Ecole Nationale de Musique de Montbeliard in France – to return home to teach. Among Sota’s faculty are full-time arts practitioners who teach on a part-time or adjunct basis. They include Singapore Symphony Orchestra musicians Lynnette Seah, Chan Yoong-Han and Roberto Alvarez, as well as choreographer Jeffrey Tan and artist-designer Grace Tan. For Mr Tan, formerly the resident choreographer and principal dancer of the Singapore Dance Theatre, working with the students provides fresh motivation every day. “There is a very evident desire to dance,” he said. In addition, Sota has clinched a number of partnerships with established overseas arts institutions, such as the Chicago Academy of Art and the Copenhagen Choir School, which will allow students and staff from both countries to have opportunities for exchanges. Vice-principal Yap Meen Sheng sees the rising number of applicants as “affirmation that that we provide a positive experience”, which is one of the aims of the school. “School should be fun,” said principal Rebecca Chew. “We want to make sure every child is safe, supported and happy during the growing-up years.” Mrs Chew attributes the school’s increasing popularity to changing perceptions among parents. “There is a greater understanding, especially among the younger parents, that there are different types of school for different types of children,” she said. A parent who agrees is Mr V. Natarajan, who encouraged his son Krish, 14, to apply to the school two years ago. “He had done a lot of theatre work in school. I felt he was really good, and that’s where his interests were,” said the 43-yearold, who works in advertising. “At his age, I would have loved to have done something like that,” he said. He added that Krish has been having such a good time at Sota that his younger brother Keshav has also been inspired to apply to the arts school after completing primary school. Sota will gain more ground as general perceptions change of what it is about, said Mrs Chew. She noted that many people 쏆 FUN IN LEARNING “School should be fun. We want to make sure every child is safe, supported and happy during the growing-up years.” Sota’s principal Rebecca Chew DIFFERENT STROKES “There is a greater understanding, especially among the younger parents, that there are different types of school for different types of children.” Mrs Chew are under the misconception that Sota students spend the whole day practising their arts. “It’s not vocational; it’s about an all-round education,” she said. She sees the school as a place where artistically gifted students can thrive, with neither academics nor the arts short-changed. In order to fit both into a normal day’s schedule, the school has created what it calls a “collected curriculum”, which focuses on applying concepts to the students’ own experiences so that ideas become more meaningful to them. For example, dance students may have a physics lesson on momentum and force during a ballet class on pirouettes, said Mrs Chew. Similarly, art students could learn ceramics together with organic chemistry, and a visit to the art museum could turn into a history lesson – with a summary worksheet in the student’s mother tongue. And the time dedicated to honing their arts is not all about practice, either. Mrs Chew cites her dance students, who learn about the anatomy and kinesiology of the human body, the history of dance, and comparative ideas about dance in addition to choreography. Unlike those in mainstream schools, the students at Sota do not participate in extra-curricular activities. Applications to enter Sota next year will open on Monday, and auditions will be held during the March and June school holidays. Students shortlisted from the auditions must also qualify for the Express stream in the Primary School Leaving Examination to be admitted to Sota. On the cards is more engagement with the community, said Mrs Chew. “The role of a national specialised arts school is not only to impact every student’s life, but also to touch lives and make a difference wherever we are,” she said. Dr Yap added: “It has been the missing link in our education landscape.” [email protected]