It's All About The Money

This is just one of many reasons why our own people are crowded out by the foreigners. The freaking planners actually set a target 10 years ago to attract 150,000 international students a year by 2015. If the children of expatriate parents who are enrolled in the foreign system schools such as United World College and Singapore American School, alma mater of brats  like Michael Fay, are included, the number is even higher. The vaunted justification was to "grow Singapore as a top education hub", as in make more money from collecting fees, not furthering the acquisition of knowledge and development from an educational process.

Recent figures from the Immigration & Checkpoint Authority (ICA) released indicate that the total currently enrolled in private and government-run schools, including polytechnic and universities, stand at 84,000. In 2008, the number was close to 100,000. The shortfall was attributed to stricter regulations and standards stipulated for private schools, and hefty hike in fees for foreigners. That plus the many complaints about limited places in the university being given away gratis to scum like Sun Xu, which forced many a struggling parent to make financial sacrifices, to the extreme of downgrading their accommodation, to afford their children an expensive education overseas. Places with entry requirement of a good pass in at least 4 ‘Advanced’ Level subjects or lower, without the caveat of "Admission is subject to competition". Especially competition from foreigners, like those farmed afar from mainland China at taxpayers' expense to dig spurs into our kids.

The Economic Development Board (EDB), the agency behind the education hub plan, would not confirm or deny  that the 2015 target would be put off, maintaining stubbornly instead that it "will continue to diversify Singapore's educational offerings, with an emphasis on building industry-relevant capabilities." Well, if the foreign students, at least the full fare paying kind, are tired of being ripped off, it appears they have a ready fallback plan. Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said 1,7000 health care employees will be needed to staff the 10 new nursing homes due to be built by 2016. No way the GDP bonus will be compromised, if the young wise up to the educational hub scam, there's still the silver generation goldmine to skim off.