Speaking like the dyed in the wool party steward that he is, Tony Tan defended the education policy by mouthing, " 'Singaporeans first' is different from saying 'Singaporeans only'. Singapore is an international city and it would be a grave mistake to close our doors." Who said anything about closing the doors to fee paying foreigners? The outrage was always about the millions expended on recruiting students from overseas, and wasting our tax money for their tuition, food, accommodation and $400++ allowances. Just for one man's sadistic pleasure of digging the spurs into our hides.
Tan did not reveal the quota that is set aside in our local universities, allocated seats that are depriving our sons and daughters of a tertiary education at home. He should have the numbers by now, as term starts in August.
The poor girl had cried her eyes out after a difficult interview at SMU. NUS simply "ran the grades through a computer", and her 2As and a C may not guarantee her a place at NTU either. SMU was "more enlightened" in that candidates are given a chance to demonstrate in person attributes not reflected in paper examinations. All the hours put in at CCA and the EduSave funds burned up for overseas enhancement trips were all for nought. Fortunately for her, in the last week of the admissions exercise, she secured a precious place in a local U. Apparently some who were offered places arm twisted their parents to study abroad. A friend's son could study law at NUS or NTU, but he told his parents he was tired of the local educational system. Apparently the precocious kid had private plans of his own to quit the country, and he knew his folks won't have to sell the flat to finance the education of their only child.
Tan said the Government should "continue to monitor carefully the proportion of foreign students in our educational institutions to ensure that the proportion matches the present and future needs of the country, and that Singaporeans are the main beneficiaries of our education policy." We don't know if his sentiments shared are that of an aspiring presidential candidate or that of the establishment. We do know that some bright sparks may not be bothered to wait to find out.
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you should come up with a reaction box: "angry!" for us to tick
ReplyDeleteThe foreign invasion is not just limited to uni places, it starts from primary level and not just limited to the "bright" overseas students. We need hard figures to ask the right questions. Why stream our next generation, label them too early in their life, ostracise them and subsequently, take in foreigners who may not be interested in sinking their roots here? As a parent of 2 young kids, I am VERY concerned.
ReplyDelete"Singaporeans first" my foot
ReplyDelete>>Who said anything about closing the doors to fee paying foreigners?
ReplyDeleteAs usual...the "elites" ALWAYS quote the extreme to counter us lesser mortals...sigh
The question is do you want a man who does not even know the numbers in our Universities to be our President. You think he will be bothered to know the numbers of our reserves.
ReplyDeleteTalking about FTs. The new paper todays reports of the "Chinese national" who abused a student. Strange that she was trained by NIE to be PE instructer. You must be kidding to tell me that Singaporeans do not want this job.
What do expect the ruling party to do - admit they have done wrong - fat hope. They have been planning all these all along - giving ASEAN scholarship for childrend from 13 year old. They freely admit to what they are doing, so what do you say - even the Workers' Party are looking into being a coalition government with you - what then can you say.
ReplyDeleteJust vote anyone except them
Quote:
ReplyDeleteTalking about FTs. The new paper todays reports of the "Chinese national" who abused a student. Strange that she was trained by NIE to be PE instructer. You must be kidding to tell me that Singaporeans do not want this job.
Unquote:
It is not that "Singaporeans do want this job", it is because they want to be your GOD, and have you beg them for food, just like what someone says - give them enough food, and they would obey you.
Like Murdoch who sprout SG as the most open and clean society in the whole wide world, Tony Tan is also out of touch.
ReplyDeleteThis is the same person whom a decade ago tell its people not to begrudge its Leaders their high million dollars salaries. And now he's back pedaling.
Firstly (1) TT or MOE Head (aka Ms Ho Ching's sister in charge) should openly declare and share the statistics with the citizens. List down ALL the scholarships that are currently open to Local vs Foreign students, including the # of seats so we know the percentile. (2) show us the track records or past performance of such foreign students who have received aids and successfully stayed on in SG to either work or eventually turned citizens. That way we have a realistic assessment of the success rate of conversion and see the efficacy of such discriminatory policies. (3) outline yoy NTU/NUS rankings over the decades with present faculty/students ratio vs the present increased ratio to show us the qualitative enhancement is attributed to mix. As I understand it, SG universities have the highest intake of Foreign students by far amongst all leading ivy leagues.
Until they show us such data, Singaporeans should not support such policies where priorities are given up to foreigners at the expense of our local population. This phenomenon is already happening across board in our workplaces and we don't need to exacerbate the problems further for our children.
There is only ONE way to teach a govt who is the boss!
ReplyDeleteWe should all take out our sword to cut the 'black dragon' to size.
There is no better way to shut up a mealy mouthed double-talking elitist-prone EP wanna be is to show him the door at the coming election. He should never be allowed to side-step explaining his part in the GIC toxic investment debacle. Throwing him out the gate of the Istana is but the first step to this. The people should them unite behind the EP of our choice and make the govt cough out the truth if necessary.
http://veritas-lux.blogspot.com/2011/06/nepotism-cronyism-1-how-tony-tan-is.html
ReplyDeleteHahaha...
ReplyDeleteour ruling political leaders now want us to volunteer as coaches.
Volunteer boh! While they pay foreign coaches and reward sports people from alien lands handsomely and beautifully.
Wtf! Oh! me just want to shout what the fish are our leaders.
No vote for Tony Tan... he caused my secondary education hell.
ReplyDeleteI had to go for "technical training" becose he wanted the economy to go with Hitachi and Shipbuilding.. and workers were required..
Playing with my life... now is my chance to make a difference to yours... go to hell.
This is a grinning tiger which must never be trusted with our reserves. Notice where he sits during National Day Rally and you know he will never be independent and depended upon to stand up to the government when it comes to the crunch.
ReplyDeleteI know 2 foreign students, one from Sri Lanka who has been here
ReplyDeletefor years ..living off on scholarship
Another , a 25 year Danish who is thinking Singapore scholarship is a free pass for 6 month sex trip to asia
Does anyone believe that to reduce the number of Singaporeans who got qualifying grades, especially "A" level students whose papers are supposedly marked in UK, to enter local university, the students grades were adjusted/changed to lower grades? Do you believe that this is done so that these students will not be able to qualify for local university places and thus foreigner can be given the places and also to keep out anti-govt elements?
ReplyDeleteWhy is Cambridge UK examining body who is the authority in the marking, certification and appeal not allowed to comment, respond or contact the students directly even if the students strongly suspect errors in the grades released by SEAB. Why can't the grades be released by Cambridge UK if they are exactly the same? SEAB refuses to provide contact details for Cambridge UK examining body. There is no other course of appeal for the students and their parents.
Students and parents, I believe some results are not correct. So please do not blame yourself or your children, it is not your or your children's fault.
All those who are responsible for these suspected adjusted "results" - do you believe in retribution? Do you have any conscience? The students and their parents will curse you and your family to infinity.