Back to Basics for Education

Just under 100 (2/3 of 148) Singaporean students left out in the cold by UNSW's shock closure once again demonstrates how restricted Singapore's tertiary education system is. Restricted to Singaporeans who are trying so hard to make it in life but who may have had circumstances stacked against them in their adolescent years.

The old arguments can be dredged up again. Better genes, better environment, better address, better family, better tuition, .... better chances. These underlying factors are NOT obscure, despite the local media's inability to grasp these concepts, and do not contribute well to the idea of meritocracy so heavily harped on by this government.

I call on the government once again to open up tertiary education places to all Singaporeans, particularly returning matured students, minus all the sand traps and administrative red tape as well as policy bovine manure. These students might well prove to be the ones who can take life's experiences, since they've had a bit more then the average straight through student, and put them to really good use in our economy by becoming better managers and entrepreneurs. These are the people who are really trying for goodness sake!

Loose entry requirements, tight graduation requirements. That ought to solve issues of quality dilution. And do NOT give us citizens some more bovine manure about insufficient funds, the damned GST is going up shortly. Yes, other taxes are down - hey, that's your choice, not like us two bit citizens have a say in policy making in Singapore yeah?

Yes, an incumbent political party has no and should not have any desire to help displace itself but think of the country, think of the citizens, think of those outside your high flying circles upon whose backs this country was ALSO built.

Just let it go Mr. Government! Yes, that's you I'm talking to you big bully! Singapore's chances of survival from independence till today have been abysmal from the get go yet WE prospered. Do not visit those kinds of probabilities of success in life to your citizens. WE deserve better. And don't be too quick to point out your mega million dollar policy makers for guidance, I'd love to see you fight a war with only Majors, Colonels, and Generals.

I am proud to say I am a relic and a testament for and against all former Education Ministers in Singapore. "Once you drop out you never get back in" was the unspoken but heavily practiced motto of the Education Ministry during my days in school. I dropped out but I came back with something even better then what was offered locally then because the rules were such that I had no where else to go except down or OUT! Now its changed a little, that's good. But that's also not enough and not quick enough.

Have you policy wanking guys done enough to drive Singaporeans overseas already? If you feel you have not then please do not spend any more funds attempting to woo these Singaporeans back who failed under your perfectionist, meritocratic, mandarin system. I prefer my taxes be spent on our collective future instead of paying for your past mistakes. To be spent, for instance and precisely, on creating more University places for our local students to at least have a chance at trying for a better future.

And OI! There are people who still remember the real Nantah mind you!