4 days before the exams and some thoughts to chew on...

I'm here to talk about life. Life in general.

At 22, and an undergraduate, I know full well the fact of life that at the end of the day, every year our universites do nothing more than churn out degree holders. As lamented in my previous post, they are labelled according to 'pedigree' like 1st class, 2-1, 2-2, 3rd class or Pass (in decreasing order of quality, sadly!) And with it, the recent writer to the forum that employers prefer PRs to Singaporeans as Singapore males have ICT (oh how i thank my lucky stars that i'm a clerk, thus spared ICT (probably) and IPPT) and i guess probably Singapore females have their maternity leave (read of many companies terminating female employees before they go on maternity leave, etc etc...)

And who are the leaders of tomorrow? These ppl are the top-notch scholars. They get packed off to overseas universities, and when they come back, they have their ROA (route of advancement) all planned out for them. A returned SAFOS scholar begins his career at the rank of CPT. What does he know about the way things are on the ground? Some years ago, a former Police Commissioner began his career as a Police Constable - a situation which will never be repeated nowadays. Now, as a retired senior police officer told me 'a father mother scholar (FMS) can never become the Commissioner of Police' sad but true!

The national policy is 'meritocracy' but the irony in this is that it is ultimately a question of: who has more money?

The rich can afford to send their kids to the brand name schools which hire quality teachers and thus charge exorbitant rates. They can also afford to hire top-notch tuition teachers to drill their kids in every subject available. Not surprising that these kids, having been tutored all their life, have the edge academically over those whose families can only afford to send them to normal schools, cannot afford tuition etc etc.

Of course, there are some scholars from humble backgrounds too. But the majority it seems, are those with rich parents. Education is said to be the great leveller, but tuition again tips the scales in favour of those who can afford it, and want it.

What about university? Rich parents again can afford to send their kids to prestigious overseas universities (that's if their kid has not already won President's/SAFOS/SPFOS/whatever OS!) Not-so-rich parents have to contend with NUS/NTU/SMU. It's no secret that the mindset of Singaporeans is that an overseas degree is valued more than a local one. Even if it was from some unknown university but in US or UK, i guess it would be perceived as 'overseas degree ... so better than local degree'

No wonder a certain lawyer friend told me impassioned 'don't do your masters in NUS!'

Hell, i should have went to Aust when i had the chance (but then again $$$ was the issue)

And in those overseas universities, what do they know about what is really going on in singapore?

Vicious cycle indeed.

Yet another reason to go to Australia. I've openly admitted that I am one of those whom SM Goh labelled as quitters. But why do I want to stay when it seems we are second class citizens in our own country (the first class being the elite scholars?)

And to think a certain friend of mine told me 'there are no farmers in singapore'. Ha, well, indeed there are... and NUS is nothing more than a 'farmer training school'... cos the 'scholars' are all overseas...

To my juniors reading this, you have your whole life ahead of you. Study hard, suffer now, enjoy later, get that string of As and Distinctions, and get that PSC scholarship... don't be like me - I missed my chance.

To my poly juniors, still got chance also. If i'm not wrong some Poly grad got SAFOS or SAF merit scholarship this yr too.

To those in uni with me on Father Mother Scholarship, well, we missed our chance.