robertteh SG I am not of the view that paper qualifications are unimportant. I have to agree with you that academic performance is about the easiest way out for a human resource person to do his or her job. However it is a fact that entrepreneurs in society are those with Passions, and abilities who have pursued their vocations well and established their contributions one way or another. These people are not products of our educational systems and are difficult to judge. Many businesses, industries and jobs in the market place are not as straightforward as prepared by the schools or educational system. Projects engineers, designers and managers in many fields outside are not the same as produced or prepared by construction/engineering courses from the universities. But our educational system is so general that it emphasises on narrow acquisition of certain subjects and presumes that jobs in the market place will be handled by these students so educated. If a certain broad-based educatioal approach has been adopted there would not be so much hype about scoring of grades in certain subjects of academic nature. There should be more preparations of students in general education plus applications of skills and practical knowledge in various real-life works found in the outside worlds and market place. The latter de-emphasises on academic but practical abilities in applying learning to works and actual business start-ups or projects. It will take a long time for our system to change to broad-based applications of knowledge at schooling and university educational levels. Dr. Tony Tan has probably read about many postings given to FU on broad-based education and vocational success in Finland, Sweden and Denmark and has recently taken a look there to study their experiences. Such practical preparations and vocational approaches in schooling will produce more entrepreneurs for us to compete with those other countries like Korea or Taiwan in economic competitiveness and use of future technologies. The government should reverse the over-emphasis on getting the highest academic qualifications to occupy all jobs and professions and be more balanced through broad-based education in producing more employable people to meet future demands in job markets. But our leaders are so very persistent in pursuing the academic approach that it cannot open up to broad-based education system which Dr. Tan has mentioned due to many past feedbacks to FU. In selecting talents or employees to fit civil servive jobs, other criteria for selecting candidates for a job should be open up to include:- (1) 3-5 years' track records in similar or related positions (2) Interests and related experiences can be judged from candidates' pursuits in works and study courses. Examples of (1) : Many managers/executives/technicians/ in various fields from marketing to human resource, projects and manufacturing are far more capable in doing a good job than those with certain paper qualifications. Examples of (2) : New technologies in various areas not well covered by schooling or educational institutions are occupied by persons in those positions from internal promotions or deployments. However because of over-emphasis on paper qualifications there is a persistent recognition of paper qualifications and grades as if these people are the talents in every field. Even in Human resource and simple accounting, the tendency is to ask for paper qualification and looking at grades. The people with abilities in various non-tradtional fields given a chance to enter particular fields due to initial lower entry requirements are often our entrepreneurs e.g. Hyflux boss Ms Lydia Lum does not possess the first degree or the highest grade in professional paper in water purifications but through entering her persistent passion and interest in particular field she certainly excels in building her company into our truly indigeneous MNC. Similarly The best person who discovers or designs something that finally sells in the market place are often not products of educational system but pure interests and passions. In our society, we follow the meritocracy principle and ask for specific paper qualification in employing or promoting people to the next level. It is not a system user friendly to progress or economic success. This kind of society lacks entrepreneurship and economic competitiveness. What the government does is to close doors by asking for specific paper qualification in every vocation. It should change the whole education system to allow more practical passionate people to become future entrepreneurs instead of presuming to know everything about the economic and equate it to academic abilities or formal training.
Gun SG The one who should be more careful the next is that mouth of his. This saga may not be the last, and certainly has touched raw nerves of one critical institution of Singapore. You don't talk about NS or national security matter when you hv problem within your own organisation. If Singapore male is the problem, then fix it. Change those scholarship criteria and explicitly state that "Singaporean male may not apply" or something to that degree. So why did't Chairman of A*STAR do this as he was quoted in ST ? Would that not address his "fustration" with bond-breakers once and for all ? Instead, we now see the official media caught in situation to support the official position and protect its own credibility about the interview content with Ch'ng while hving to deal with the reactions from the public on the Internet.
vito_corleone SG i guess old mr yeo made that girl his scapegoat..everyone bashed chng but nobody published reports on phillip yeo getting attacked.
timothytsgsg SG Did you know that Phillip Yeo didn't really serve his NS in a real sense? I have heard stuff from sammyboy kopitiam that PY was only a constable- those typical easy desk job- or something. So he didn't really learn how to know a gun or know how to shoot properly or know some close combat martial art skills. So now u know PY was such a wimp during his NS period. Rich pple have all the perks to avoid NS so as to be a future nerd and yes man for the PAP govt.
lwflee SG Hey, you might want to modify your post. It is one thing to say “A is an arse hole” and another to say “A did/did not do B”. THe former is a mere insult, and generally not actionable in defamation, while the latter is a statement of fact that is.
timothytsgsg SG It is true. I got it from someone(whose name I forgot) who said PY was no more then a constable in the police during his NS period. And a constable is usually a desk job, not a physical one. So I'm not defaming him that he didn't do NS, I only said he had an easy life in NS police. And considering that the majority of guys here have to go thru tough training in Tekong and other parts of S'pore, his words about local males here being 'wimps' certainly makes him a hypocritic as he himself had an easy desk job when he did his NS all those years ago.
iveco SG Is Philip Yeo downgraded? His vocation in his NS life is more or less like those admin assistants at CMPB. Even a cop needs to go through some training regimen in order for him to be able to catch criminals.
LazerLordz SG This is the reason why he seems to have been left hanging by a thread, whereas normally the establishment will back him up. Screwing around with National Security is a no-no.And not being a combatant gives you less moral latitude to deride NSmen. The press are choked on both sides.They used to be able to control the situation, now it is harder.
robertteh SG To motivate and lead a country to success, administrators and politicians alike should possess the moral authority based on objective social, cultural and people-centred principles to make decisions on such nature. Do our administrators and leaders lately have what it takes like the eminence of quality and ability to lead all to a more cosmopolitan and all-inclusive society that the new PM has in mind ?
LazerLordz SG The answer is all around us.It's a sad day when people are muzzled for trying to improve one's country.
lwflee SG Hey, i am not saying that you have made any defamatory remarks. I was just afraid that you might have made defamatory remarks. Given the government's track record in this area, i feel that extra caution is advisable. Hope you dun get the wrong idea.
timothytsgsg SG No problem. I doubt they will sue me though. I haven’t heard anything yet. And I don’t think they will.
LazerLordz SG To threaten to sue over public display of public domain info is pathetic IMHO.But then,isn't the track record enviable?
timothytsgsg SG Only S'pore courts are biased enuff to give $2m worth of damages to the PAP pple in what has been known by many ordinary people for a long time. I mean, if ur a son of a PAP minister, you are definately gonna do less tough crap in NS than those who come from poorer families.
