SINGAPORE — The Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic does not involve taking any drastic measures to surprise people. Instead, the measures are aimed at safeguarding “some sense of normalcy” as the country faces a crisis, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung said at a media briefing on Friday (March 27).

“(Singapore still has options). We are not like many countries where we’re forced into sudden dramatic measures,” he said. “There are some parts of our life that we are doing our best to safeguard.

“What are these? (Being) able to go to school, able to go to work and from time to time, able to go out to exercise to walk in the park, to have a meal, to eat, to meet with some friends — small group, still possible.

“So all these are liberties we took for granted day to day. But I think now, we are safeguarding this, which is why I think when Prime Minister (Lee Hsien Loong) addressed the nation, he said that there shall be no lockdown. I think we will always try to safeguard this (so that there) continues to be some sense of normalcy, even as we face this crisis. That’s what we try.”

Mr Ong made these remarks at the Ministry of Education’s headquarters in Buona Vista, where he announced that schools here will be introducing home-based learning for students once a week from next month onwards. 

This e-learning will be implemented in primary and secondary schools, as well as junior colleges and centralised institutes, such as Millennia Institute, following a spike in Covid-19 cases here where people have contracted the coronavirus from overseas.

Explaining Singapore’s approach to the crisis, Mr Ong said that unlike other countries that have been forced to take dramatic measures such as a lockdown, Singapore’s way has been to progressively enhance its course of actions.

“Typically, we don’t do drastic — sudden measures that just surprise everyone,” Mr Ong said.

While some measures the authorities had introduced may still surprise people, they have never been as dramatic as a sudden lockdown or closed borders, he added.

For example, in terms of border control, Singapore first restricted travellers from Hubei province in China, which was considered the epicentre of the first outbreak, before extending the restriction to the whole of China, and later, the rest of the world.

This was the same procedure taken with safe distancing, where the Government first started by limiting gatherings to 1,000 people and then to 250 people last week and to 10 people this week.

“So we always do it progressively. We give time for Singaporeans… to adapt, get used to it and then we step up further if need be,” Mr Ong said.

The move to introduce home-based learning is another example of the Government introducing measures “step-by-step”, he said.

“We will not want to do something dramatic (such as) a sudden announcement of school closure that will not be in line with the principle of how we have been doing things.”

Mr Ong stressed that the Government treats school closures seriously because it can cause major disruption to people’s lives.

“Work and school go hand-in-hand. Once you close school, work cannot carry on. And if you are a frontline worker now, you're a contact tracer, you're a healthcare worker, I think (it will) weaken other parts of the system as well,” he said, adding that parents and families should be able to go to work with peace of mind, especially if they are frontline healthcare workers.

Mr Ong said that the latest introduction of home-based learning for schools here is “proportionately commensurate” with heightened safe-distancing measures taken by the Government and that it can be tightened if there is a need to make everybody feel safer.

He called on parents to have confidence in the ministry’s measures so that schools could go on.