Utility rebate eligibility rule tweaked

prime news
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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.
sylviap@sph.com.sg
THE STRAITS TIMES FRIDAY, JANUARY 1 2010 PAGE B3
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(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.”
jennanid@sph.com.sg