Mothership.sg chided by MOE for publishing fake story |
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 The Ministry of Education (MOE) has lashed out at alternative news website Mothership.sg for publishing a factually false story, in which it blindly reproduced excerpts from an article published in the August edition of the Australian Teacher Magazine without proper verification of the events that actually transpired. In the article titled: "The PISA fallacy in Singapore: insights from the NIE" , MOE Director-General of Education Wong Siew Hoong allegedly informed an audience of 1,500 delegates that Singapore's education system has been "winning the wrong race". He also attributed Singapore's excellent showing in the most recent edition of PISA to standardized test drilling procedures and a culture of compliance, pointing out that Singapore is "building compliant students just as the jobs that are building compliance are beginning to disappear." Mr Wong's set of comments was initially attributed to Singapore Education Minister (Schools) Ng Chee Meng in its print edition, before being amended to reflect Mr Wong made those comments instead on the EducationHQ Australia website, which publishes the Australian Teacher Magazine. MOE subsequently furnished video footage and a full transcript of Mr Wong's presentation to demonstrate those remarks were clearly never made. "This is fake news," MOE wrote on Mothership.sg's Facebook page. "We are disappointed that your website would circulate such false comments. We would appreciate it if you could remove the article immediately or at least print a correction."  The EducationHQ Australia website has since taken down the article. This is the second instance Mothership.sg has pounced on dubious sources in a bid to capture more eyeballs with its often sensationalized format of reporting, which would almost surely diminish its credibility in an online editorial landscape where tenuous efforts are now constantly employed to weed out false news. Earlier this month, Mothership and a troll Facebook page - "Salleh Marican For President" came under fire from the presidential hopeful's team after it published remarks about the hijab under his name without authorization, while Mothership wrongly attributed those same statements to him. The remarks were on how the hijab was not part of the Malay dress code before the 1970s and increasing religiosity in the Middle East and around the region has eroded Malay culture in Singapore. |
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