00:00 Children feel ignored when their parents are on their phones or when they're interacting with them.
00:05 Singaporean parents are often said to be helicopter parents and very involved in their children's studies.
00:11 Why then, in the latest PISA test, did only half of 15-year-old students here surveyed
00:16 say their parents take an interest in what they're learning?
00:20 Well, here are the stats.
00:21 While 88% of students surveyed said they had their main meal with their parents,
00:25 just 49% felt their parents showed an interest in their schoolwork at least once a week.
00:31 That's well below the OECD average of 66%.
00:34 We get to the point with Assistant News Editor Amelia Teng.
00:39 Amelia, as you well know, parental support and engagement are areas in which Singapore
00:43 used to be strong in these PISA tests.
00:46 So why the perceived decrease in support last year?
00:50 So OECD didn't really investigate or go into the reasons why students felt this way,
00:55 but we know from past research that the perception of family support
00:59 matters a lot, especially for teenagers.
01:02 So experts have said that some possible reasons why teens feel this way is
01:06 possibly the use of mobile phones, even at mealtimes.
01:09 Children feel ignored when their parents are on their phones or when they're interacting with them.
01:14 And parents, sometimes their own tightness and the mental load that they bring back from work
01:19 and other struggles sometimes leaves them with little bandwidth to support their children.
01:24 Also, it gets increasingly harder for parents as their kids get older to know fully what is
01:30 happening in their children's lives outside of the home and in school,
01:34 because what they know also largely depends on what the children tell them.
01:38 Of course, so then how can parents ask kids about their studies or school that,
01:45 you know, will let these children know that they have that support?
01:49 I think some suggestions from experts would be to seize any opportunities with
01:54 your children to chat with them, to not just simply talk at them and give them instructions
01:59 or ask them only about things that are seemingly important to you, like school.
02:03 And some good times to talk to them could be over meals or when it's a more relaxing time,
02:08 like over dessert or during car rides, before bedtime, during grocery runs.
02:14 Another reminder from a counsellor would be to not get impatient, to start lecturing or
02:19 problem solving whenever your child talks to you, because these tend to shut down conversations
02:24 quite quickly. And instead, try to practice what we call active listening. Let them share without
02:29 any immediate feedback or passing quick judgment.
02:34 All very good points. So another finding from the PISA test showed that students from lower
02:41 income families in Singapore did better than their overseas peers from poor families as well.
02:46 However, OECD's Director of Education and Skills says social disparities and learning outcomes
02:52 remain clearly visible in Singapore, and that Singapore is average as opposed to high performing
02:58 when it comes to students' sense of belonging. So Amelia, what do his observations say about
03:03 our education system and how could MOE address these possible gaps?
03:09 I think our students are top performers academically, but there are definitely many
03:14 spots for concerns. Only in 7 in 10 of them feel like they belong in school. This is lower than
03:19 the OECD average. Similarly, about 1 in 5 students feel that they're lonely in school. This is higher
03:25 than the OECD average. So we do need to think a little bit more about why our students feel like
03:30 they don't fit in at school, and if they are getting the necessary support to not just do
03:35 well in school but to also grow up well, adjusted and happy. I guess some possible ways to address
03:40 this would be through peer support, which is a very important thing, or informal ways of checking
03:45 in with students outside of lesson time, perhaps doing CCAs and other activities.
