There is an article in today’s ST on tuition by Nirmala, ST’s
correspondent. In the article she quoted a Professor Mark Bray on some
of the characteristics of East Asian societies and the growth and
importance of tuition. ‘These East Asian territories are highly
globalised and competitive. They stress a need for workers to remain
ahead in skills and for students to acquire skills relevant to the
global economy….the Singapore education system is a good one that has
delivered high quality output.’ She added, ‘But Singaporean parents,
like those in many other cultures, are competitive, seeking what they
perceive to be the best for their children in a competitive system, and
thus are trying to add more even though the school system is already
delivering much that is already very good, he(Bray) said.’
Now what is so silly or sickening about all these comments? Did not our
education system and the parents make them the best educated and skilled
workers for the workforce?
It is not about the inequality that tuition will cause as this is a
harsh reality that the poorer working class must get used to. The rich
will pay for the best tutors for their children. You cannot ban tuition
and tell them not to pay for tuition. Well, South Korea did ban tuition
for 20 years, but has since allowed it to practice again. There were
many ways to curb tuition to prevent it from worsening the inequality,
which is absolutely a silly thing to do and to even think about for any
govt. Forcing the people to level down is an idiotic thing to do,
really, believe me.
Then what is so silly about tuition? With so much money and effort put
in to develop the young, with such great education system and to quote,
‘They stress a need for workers to remain ahead in skills and students
to acquire skills relevant to the global economy’, now can you see what
is wrong or sickening?
Our workers lack motivation, lack drive, lack of skill, uncompetitive,
lack of talent, that we need to bring in workers from third world
countries without the competitive culture, without the resources and the
drive to do well in education or a good education system to replace
them in jobs here. They don’t even have competitive parents to make sure
their children received the best education money can buy. Basically
after all the stress and money spent, the startling result, our students
turned workers are a useless bunch for the job market. Really, trust
me.
What an irony? The less competitive societies and lesser equipped
education system are producing all the qualified and skilled workers
that our system could not produce.
Shall I laugh or cry?
What is wrong, MOE, MOM?
