Before

A shocked and surprised parent wrote to the newspaper:

May 29, 2007
A, B, E but no place in the local universities

MY DAUGHTER'S recent applications for entry to the three local universities - Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore Management University - were all rejected. The reasons given were an overwhelming response, limited places in the universities and stiff competition.

My daughter is an above-average student who had excelled in sports. She has met all the criteria for entry to a local university. Is being eligible not enough? Must one now get extraordinary grades to be granted a place in university?

Like her, many young Singaporeans her age must have had their dream of pursuing a higher education dashed recently. Ironically, the universities are still advertising for applications. Are they looking for A-star performers who have more than one option? Are they raising their standards for applicants so that they will be able to improve their world ranking - just like an elite school or junior college that accepts only the best in Singapore so that ultimately its ranking will be at the top?

The Minister for Education had said that 'no Singaporean should be deprived of a good education', so what about the many students, like my daughter, who are qualified to enter university after two years of hard slog, only to be told that they had not been selected due to limited vacancies and stiff competition?

The Education Ministry should look into this problem with a sense of urgency as it only shows a lack of planning to meet the aspirations of young Singaporeans who want to study for a degree.

Local universities are publicly funded. Isn't it about loyalty and kinship that citizens are given a chance to study there as long as they are eligible for entry?

Are my daughter's grades of an A, B, C (General Paper) and an E not good enough?

My son, who is 27 years old and had A-level grades of A, B and C, graduated with a Second Upper Class Honours degree in the Arts and Social Sciences at NUS.

See Chee Wee


In other developed countries, Miss See's result will not get her into Cambridge University, Tokyo University, Harvard University, Australian National University or the likes of them, in their respective countries. Likewise, in Singapore, her result will not - and should not - get her into NUS - the number 1 ranking university of the country.

BUT, in these other countries, there are enough universities to go around, such that Mr. See's daughter can get into a 3rd or 4th rated one.

That's what those government do with the money they collect from tax-payers: build government-subsidised universities so that X% of their cohorts can be well-educated,-- as opposed to our much-less-than X% figure.

It is a fact that this Matrix Island does not have enough universities per 100,000 population, compared to all other developed countries.

It is a fact that on this Matrix Island, university admission criteria is not based on educational principles i.e. the principle that if, from an educational point of view, such and such a grade is needed for a student to be able to cope with such and such a university course, then we should have enough universities to admit a student having such a grade.

It is a fact that on this Matrix Island, only a small percent of each cohort is allowed to enter university, the percentage being first determined by how many people our Matrix Master (MM) had wrongly predicted that the MNC-based economy needs, and then "wayang-ly" determined by artifical university admission criteria (e.g. you need to pass GP to enter certain courses, and yet to enter the likes of Harvard, you need only have the equivalance of O-level C6 or a pass on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL))!

It is a fact that we now have structural unemployment because our people, having been artifically deprived of a tertiary education, cannot find jobs in the new knolwedge-based economy - that's why 80% of the researchers at our research institutions are foreigners Meanwhile, 80% of the locals, are now "washing test tubes" for these researchers! (But no, even washing test tubes require a bachelor degree. So are they cleaning tables at hawker centres instead ? Nope, that's reserved for Ah Peks and Ah Mas. The 40-something are simply "kiao-kar-ing" at home after being retrenched!)

It is a fact that the Matrix Master now realises that his forcast is wrong and is increasing the number of universities dramatically - double, in fact, from 2 to 4. Eh, what happened - Suddenly 100% more people clever enough to go university? IQ doubled in 40 years?

It is a fact that despite realising his mistake, our Matrix Master has merely re-predicted the number of graduates the new economoy needs, He has not, and will not, ever abide by the educational principles stated earlier. That's because he knows only too well the grave danger an educated, mind-liberated, humanities-trained person can pose to his political party.

It is a fact that the above policy was started 40 years ago, had continued with no disruption for 40 years and will continue in the forseeable future, probably for the next 40 years if MM gets his way!


Just which part of the above fact does Mr. See not know?

Just which part of the above fact is new?

For goodness sake, it has been like that for the past 40 years! There is nothing new!

Has Mr. See not been living on the Matrix Island for the past 40 years?


What has he been doing for the past 20 years, since he was 21 till his daughter turned 18, while cohorts after cohorts of young men and women, whose parents were too poor to send them overseas, were denied a university education?

Has he been saying: "Why should I be bothered? So long as PAP's policy result in wealth for myself, other people's problem is none of my business. My daughter is still in primary school"?

Has he been saying: "MM said if we build too many universities, we will have too many unemployed graduates and it will be a waste of money. MM said we cannot judge our graduates-to-population ratio based on other developed countries because this Island is unique. I believe whatever MM says"?

Has he been saying: "I have never considered if there is a political reason behind the policy of not abiding by educational principles. I don't need to think - MM does it for me"?

Has he been saying: "I used to be able to vote in a single constituency. Later, I get to vote only in a GRC. And of late, I have not been voting at all. But I have never been bothered by my inability to express my stake in the country via voting, because whatever goverment policies of the day has not affected me then"?

Or, is Mr. See saying now: "Now that my own child is affected, I am starting to have an interest in politics, starting to doubt MM's ability to forcast correctly, starting to doubt the wisdom of micro-managing educational and social policies and starting to suspect that there have always been more to any issue than what he state publicly and all these, I started for the first time in 40 years after the policies affect my own family"!


If this is what Mr. See is saying, I think I have to "laugh".

But if Mr. See has been a 33.3% for the past 40 years, I will "cry" in sympathy, for then, it's not his "fault".

My point?

Human Battery: Please take an active interest in politics before it affects you and your loved ones!