snow leopard,
1) VS is an elite school, and the issue of elitism affects the
entire nation, not just VS. Not forgetting that, even independent
schools are tightly controlled by the government; RI's new
principal is an ex-MOE official. Being the top cluster of society
also means that in future the students will be in the top rungs of
society, and the rest that follows is common sense.
2) with regards to tt female alumnus, I believe that she is in the
same league as Frances Lim, who caused a stir in the national
newspapers when she defended the right of a husband to have a
subservient wife, stressing that women should not aim for
high-flying occupations and should content themselves with doing
their "wifely duty".
3) That was the original reason, as I gather, but since then the
focus has veered off track. nonetheless, the school admin might
have had a logical reason for its action: It is generally known
that girls perform better academically than boys, and perhaps the
school believed that this would imply that by including girls in
its admission policy, the boys would be forced to pull up their
socks, so to speak, so that they could compete with their new
female classmates. At any rate, schools in Singapore never
impelemnt changes because of concern for students; I stick to my
line tt schools only change to preserve their own reputations and
earn more profits. This is the sad state of our education
system.
4) Well, I can't really comment on this, since I was from RI
anyway...
5) Very much agreed; sadly tt's not how MOE, NUS and NTU see it:
recall the huge argument over the quality of poly students raging
on now? MOE has a long way to go, and so have NUS and NTU if they
want to be truely world-class.
the (sad) pikamaster
