Anyway, my take on those who agreed and supported along the
lines of "Poly go out can earn something, A levels can't so places
should be given to A levels people."
...
This Poly/JC squeeze issue will always be there and it will come
up every year during the release of A level results. The issue is
not even primarily on the number of places available for A level
graduates in Uni, but is the number of places available for A level
graduates in Uni for the course of their choice.
Well, the complaints we are seeing in SG from A level graduates
not able to get into the course of their choice again underlines
the Complaining and Blame-Pushing Nature of the younger generation
Singaporeans.
...
In case the complainers haven't realised, we live in a
performance oriented society, be it in SG, in SEA or in any
developing/developed countries. If you're not able to best it
amount others, then, too bad.
...
Accepted that you didn't managed to achieve what you want.
Recognise you're not as good. Move on and do better in your next
stage of life.
A fair call to some extent, airgrinder, although I'd question if
we're looking at the right criteria here, and where the raison
d'etre of university education fits into the picture.
Just doing a quick recap of the proposed reasons why one group
or other should be deprived of places at university, we have:
- someone needs to do the blue-collar work
- poly grads can go and earn money so they shouldn't go to
university
- there's simply not enough space in universities
At best, these are peripheral to getting a university
education.
When I was an undergrad, a hot-button topic was "education for
sale". There were two aspect to this:
1) university places were going to those who could afford to pay
full fees and;
2) university courses were being too fine-tuned to limited and
specific industry requirements instead of providing students with
an atmosphere in which they can explore, analyse and synthesise new
ideas and concepts
Now speaking as someone who's making a comfortable living in a
specific and narrow field, I cannot fairly say that I have not
gained by said fine-tuning of university courses. However, as
idealistic as it sounds, IMHO there's much more to being in
university than getting ahead in the rat race. I spend my
spare time with formal and informal multidisciplinary groups, and
there's a certain enjoyment in stepping out of one's own field and
learning a thing or two about other subjects like law, medicine,
engineering and, dare I say it, literature. The generic
analytical skills provided through a university education open the
doors to much more than just jobs.
That being the case, should the opportunities for education be
dictated by criteria such as quotas for blue-collar workers,
whether or not someone should be working instead of studying or
inadequate access to such education? Personally, I don't
think so.
