A STUDENT GROUP, called the National Petition for Fairer Transportation Fares for Polytechnic/ Tertiary Students, will be gathering signatures for their petition this coming Saturday (7 February), 2-5pm outside the Plaza Singapura Starbucks café.
The petition will propose a more permanent concession fare sturcture for polytechnic and tertiary students.
Alternatively, you can sign the petition online at http://www.petition4fairtransport.org/the-petition/.
PRESS RELEASE:
We refer to the articles “Bus, train fares to go down” (The Straits Times, January 24) and “First of the cuts” (Today, January 24).
It is heartening to note that public transport operators (PTOs) are passing on the savings from Budget 2009 to all commuters, including the student and working population. In addition, we read with great interest the efforts made by the operators during the similar economic downturn in 1997 to alleviate the burden on Singaporeans.
These are exceptional times for all Singaporeans and this gesture by the PTOs is the right thing to do to reward fellow Singaporeans who have a played key role in the success of SMRT and SBS.However, we wish to question the sustainability of this price reduction. Is there expected to be a significant increase in transport fares once the economy recovers in the next one to three years? We cannot help but look back at the following statement in a Straits Times article dated 25 February 2005 – “New formula flexible on transport fare changes”. In this article, it was reported that “a proposed formula for calculating bus and train fares can bring reductions during an economic slowdown, but it can also give rise to bigger increments in bountiful years.”
More specifically, would tertiary students be paying more than S$97 for a combined train and bus concession when the economy recovers?
We would like to take this opportunity to make an open appeal to the Public Transport Council (PTC), SBS, SMRT and Transitlink to commence feedback gathering sessions with this student group and fellow student bodies in Singapore during this fare adjustment period.
This student group is also in contact with the various parties and is looking at arranging a meeting to present its own fare proposal to the Public Transport Council, SBS Transit, SMRT Corp and Transitlink for consideration. This student group would like to see that perspectives of tertiary students are seriously considered in any future fare increases/ reductions. We would also like to achieve a new and fair formula for determining students’ concession and obtaining mutual understanding and benefits for both parties.
Thank you.
Bernard Chen
Organiser(s) of National Petition for Fairer Transportation Fares for Polytechnic/ Tertiary Students
petition4fairtransport@gmail.com
GST hike to 9% is postponed to 2010 for now.
should hike now. then got more money to help the poor.
kids, my humble advice to you is, just stomach it and study – your tertiary tuition is a fraction of what it would cost you overseas. But please dont work in S’pore (unless you plan to run your own business or for govt) if you want a standard of living better than your parents.
study hard, earn and save up for migration as soon as you can. Its been proven that in Sg, you’ll have to work till 65 (if you are lucky to be employed) to see your retirement age and CPF be delayed to age 70, and subsequently to 75, 80, 82, …
in other word, you work till you die in Sg.
While Standard of Living is high,
Quality of Life is more meaningful and important.
Students are student whether they are primary, secondary or tertiary. They should be treated the same as long as they do not work, so they should enjoy the same concession. In fact, tertiary students’ cost of education is even higher, so no reason not to give them same concession.
The main issue here is ppl are more concerned about joblessness. If your parents cannot afford to pay for your transport fares why do they even bother to give birth to u in the 1st place?
Fulltime students are what the name implies – they are not working fulltime.
a student is a student is a student.
no income means no income.
donche influence them to find income when they are supposed to focus on their studies. But if cost of living is high for them, some who are not born like some kids with silver spoon, may need to find some money somehow to live and study here.
Let All Students be treated fairly. Somemore, tertiary students need to pay and pay more fees than younger students.
Some tertiary students who are adults of say age 30 and above can be asked to pay and pay standard price if no choice.
but i think students should fight for this right themselves as no one owes u a living and i do not expect goodies to fall from the sky. students, if you really want fairness, you need to fight for it. maybe TOC can help them?
All right student group,
you are in the right lane.
As parent i support your move.
Other wise the gov will always increase and increase and increase.
The burden will at the parent like me.
I have three school children,
One at ‘N’ level,
Two at ITE.
Good luck to you guys.
Hi everyone!
For students and Singaporeans who are interested to know more about us, I would like to invite you to join our newly set-up Facebook Group (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=46290634542&ref=mf)
Thank you.
somehow i know it will fall on deaf ears again and lip service rhetoric answers given – like? if we lower fares for the poly students then the full paying ones will cross-subsidise them. Not that they will dip into their profits but must rob peter to pay paul and don’t touch our profit margins.
so what’s the point? the end result is the same.
pent-up frustration and anger are dangerous.
Hi, I would like to contact the organiser of this petition…..
Does anyone know how I can contact them?
Thanks.
Feb 4, 2009
More choose poly over JC
By Jane Ng
A RECORD number of school leavers fresh off the O-level boat have made it to the polytechnics this year.
And, continuing a trend that began a few years ago, many of these poly students did well enough in the O levels to have gone to a junior college (JC), but chose a poly education instead.
About 20,640 of these school leavers have been posted to the five polytechnics, where they will earn diplomas in three years. The intake is 800 more than last year.
Read the full report in Thursday’s edition of The Straits Times.
The organisers can be contacted at petition4fairtransport@gmail.com
Best is to increase the GST to 20% or 30%, then the ministers can have more pay and bonuses to “help the poor”.
I URGE / Call for / hope
HIGHLY profitable companies like Transport companies
pass on the Job Credits they shall receive to
Tertiary Students for them to use as
transport credits.
Sorry, I can only urge, call for and hope for. there is no guarantee that having said these and used these words I can help anyone. Afterall, talking is easy.
yours truly
pinkie mee siam lurver
Did the students apply for a permit to assemble and gather signatures on that day???
Bravo! bravo! bravo!.
Finally! our education system may be producing the leaders that this country REALLY need in the future.
I suspect that you guys do not come from well-heeled families.
Most others that are born with silver spoons in their mouths that try to land scholarships to put silver stars on their shoulders—and learning “parachuting” skills—end up as our present kind of “leaders”.
They get from silver spoon via silver star to diamond ricebowl.
That is why,these type of leadership get sneered at; especially if they attend cooking classes in France.
For JUSTICE and “FARENESS”!
I like this partition because it is the showcase of “real leadership” and “unity” in the SG Students Community.
However, why you guys still propose the different ranges of fares for different group of students??? All students are same.. so, they should pay same fare.. right?
Did the MSM mention a word about the transport fare petition by our Poly students? they started the petition at least 3-4 months ago till now.
Have I missed anything? Were the poly students efforts mentioned?
2 cents? what effect does it have? Why just 2 cents?
19) Jargee on February 6th, 2009 3.11 pm I like this partition because it is the showcase of “real leadership” and “unity” in the SG Students Community.
However, why you guys still propose the different ranges of fares for different group of students??? All students are same.. so, they should pay same fare.. right?
This present proposal of tpt fare hikes are just one of the tactic used prior any election, and they are only temporary until they managed to renew another term, then you guys will be pluck further, this pattern has never change from any past election, in fact they got worse now.