National Support Public Education Day 2024 is on Tuesday, July 30, 2024: What are your thoughts on this year's National Day Rally?

Tuesday, July 30, 2024 is National Support Public Education Day 2024. Support Education‎ Enable students in need access to higher edcuation.

Every National Day Speech or Rally, is meant to let Citizens have some light into our Government's plans to improve our lives, instil sense of National Pride into you and give you something to dream about. In short, it is to encourage you to strive harder and be more positive of your future as a Singaporean.

Education, is key and fundamental to our country's future as our children are pillars of our future's society and supports or maintains a steadfast economic progress for our country. The crux of it lies in how much benefits will really be accorded to our own breed and creed compared to the PRs and foreign students? In addition, how equal will it really be between the gap of the rich and the poor, giving true equality and fair competitiveness? Last but not least is whether our education system is turning our future generations into paper chasers and finally ending up in a never-ending cycle of bills to get by and settle?

As for foreign workers, reducing from 100,000 to 80,000 and slowing down the influx is quite a piece of good news. But then there is the part left out which is on allowing 45,000 Bangladeshi domestic workers (maids) to be recruited into Singapore. Bangladesh is considered as a Non-Traditional Source (NETS), used to be only for the marine and construction sectors but is it not adding on of 25,000 more foreign workers than reducing?

The Government engaging in the property market by introducing more new public housing off 22,000 units, increased from previous 16,000 units is a good measure to cool off the rising prices of properties. But what type of public housing? Designed and Built which price tag is as close to the private condominiums? Or is it going to be really affordable to Singaporeans? Furthermore, new restrictions imposed like increasing the number of years to reside then owner can sell it, is good. But why decrease percentage of loan amount from 80% to 70% for second property owners? Any measures taken for Senior Citizens who wish to buy a second property for his own use or retirement stay and leaving his first property to his off springs who may not be able to buy one on their own? Or in a divorce case, a spouse may have to get a second property so that appropriate accommodation be provided when the family splits up?

Singapore have a growing population of senior citizens. Are we forcing them to live under one roof, cramped up in a small flat, with married off springs and grand children? Is this the idea of a 3 tier family, suffocating in a single unit? Should we not consider our senior citizens who have slogged their lives and contributed to our Nation, in one way or another?

With Singaporeans seeking and dreaming of the 5 "C"s, marital woes surged and divorce rates went up and causing our birth rates to go down. When that happens, either one of the spouse may have to end up sleeping o the streets? Being a Singapore Citizen, why can't they buy a second property unit and have alternatives for their lives after or during their rough patch of their lives?

The decreased percentage from 80% to 70% on loans will not only make the above 2 categories of people's life more difficult but also adds on to their burden, ending up in another cycle of bills and loans to pay and to settle till they die. Does that mean Singaporeans are going to be like what our (SMM) LKY had said that all Singaporeans should not have any retirement age?

Dreams, aspirations, hopes,... it is up to every Singaporean to go for what they want and work for. I believe all Singaporeans will only really dare to dream, aspire and hope, if it is truly equal and fair to the 100% true Singaporean whose fore fathers had contributed to the building of our Nation and made us really as One United People.

What is Secretary Day?

Administrative Professionals' Day (also known as Secretaries Day or Admin Day) is an unofficial secular holiday observed in several countries to recognize the work of secretaries, administrative assistants, receptionists, and other administrative support professionals. In North America, it is celebrated on the Wednesday of the last full week of April (April 25 in 2012). In much of Europe it is celebrated on the third Thursday in April (April 19 in 2012).

The idea began with Mary Barrett, president of the National Secretaries Association, now called IAAP (International Association of Administrative Professionals), and C. King Woodbridge, president of Dictaphone Corporation. They served on a council addressing a national shortage of skilled office workers. Together with Victor Toldoya, public relations account executive at Young & Rubicam, they originated the idea for a National Secretaries Week.

The official period of celebration was first proclaimed by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer as "National Secretaries Week," which was held June 1–7 in 1952, with Wednesday, June 4, 1952 designated National Secretaries Day. The first Secretaries Day was sponsored by the National Secretaries Association with the support of corporate groups.

In 1955, the observance date of National Secretaries Week was moved to the last full week of April. The name was changed to Professional Secretaries Week in 1981, and became Administrative Professionals Week in 2000 to encompass the expanding responsibilities and wide-ranging job titles of administrative support staff. IAAP created National Secretaries Week (now Administrative Professionals Week) with two objectives in mind: to recognize "the secretary, upon whose skills, loyalty, and efficiency the functions of business and government offices depend," and to call attention "through favorable publicity, to the tremendous potential of the secretarial career."

[edit]Modern celebration

Over the years, Administrative Professionals Week has become one of the largest workplace observances. The event is celebrated worldwide[citation needed] through community events, social gatherings, and individual corporate activities recognizing support staff with gifts. In the United States, the day is often celebrated by giving one's assistant gifts such as flowers, candy, trinkets, lunch at a restaurant, or time off. The IAAP suggests that employers support the holiday by providing training opportunities for their administrative staff through continuing education, self-study materials, or seminars.

Administrative Professionals Day is a registered trademark with registration number 2,475,334 (serial number 75/898930). The registrant is the International Association of Administrative Professionals.

who regulates public schools?

Education is primarily a State and local responsibility in the United States. It is States and communities, as well as public and private organizations of all kinds, that establish schools and colleges, develop curricula, and determine requirements for enrollment and graduation. The structure of education finance in America reflects this predominant State and local role. Of an estimated $1 trillion being spent nationwide on education at all levels for school year 2008-2009, a substantial majority will come from State, local, and private sources. This is especially true at the elementary and secondary level, where just over 92 percent of the funds will come from non-Federal sources.

That means the Federal contribution to elementary and secondary education is a little under 8 percent, which includes funds not only from the Department of Education (ED) but also from other Federal agencies, such as the Department of Health and Human Services' Head Start program and the Department of Agriculture's School Lunch program.

Although ED's share of total education funding in the U.S. is relatively small, ED works hard to get a big bang for its taxpayer-provided bucks by targeting its funds where they can do the most good. This targeting reflects the historical development of the Federal role in education as a kind of "emergency response system," a means of filling gaps in State and local support for education when critical national needs arise.

History

The original Department of Education was created in 1867 to collect information on schools and teaching that would help the States establish effective school systems. While the agency's name and location within the Executive Branch have changed over the past 130 years, this early emphasis on getting information on what works in education to teachers and education policymakers continues down to the present day.

The passage of the Second Morrill Act in 1890 gave the then-named Office of Education responsibility for administering support for the original system of land-grant colleges and universities. Vocational education became the next major area of Federal aid to schools, with the 1917 Smith-Hughes Act and the 1946 George-Barden Act focusing on agricultural, industrial, and home economics training for high school students.

World War II led to a significant expansion of Federal support for education. The Lanham Act in 1941 and the Impact Aid laws of 1950 eased the burden on communities affected by the presence of military and other Federal installations by making payments to school districts. And in 1944, the "GI Bill" authorized postsecondary education assistance that would ultimately send nearly 8 million World War II veterans to college.

The Cold War stimulated the first example of comprehensive Federal education legislation, when in 1958 Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik. To help ensure that highly trained individuals would be available to help America compete with the Soviet Union in scientific and technical fields, the NDEA included support for loans to college students, the improvement of science, mathematics, and foreign language instruction in elementary and secondary schools, graduate fellowships, foreign language and area studies, and vocational-technical training.

The anti-poverty and civil rights laws of the 1960s and 1970s brought about a dramatic emergence of the Department's equal access mission. The passage of laws such as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which prohibited discrimination based on race, sex, and disability, respectively made civil rights enforcement a fundamental and long-lasting focus of the Department of Education. In 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act launched a comprehensive set of programs, including the Title I program of Federal aid to disadvantaged children to address the problems of poor urban and rural areas. And in that same year, the Higher Education Act authorized assistance for postsecondary education, including financial aid programs for needy college students.

In 1980, Congress established the Department of Education as a Cabinet level agency. Today, ED operates programs that touch on every area and level of education. The Department's elementary and secondary programs annually serve nearly 14,000 school districts and some 56 million students attending roughly 99,000 public schools and 34,000 private schools. Department programs also provide grant, loan, and work-study assistance to more than 13 million postsecondary students.

Mission

Despite the growth of the Federal role in education, the Department never strayed far from what would become its official mission: to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.