Originally posted by lwflee:
Phillip yeo said those things about Singapore males?
Maybe one day he would propose Singapore females do National
Service instead.
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Excerpt from the Electric New Paper
http://www.tnp.sg/news/story/0,4136,87882-1115567940,00.html:
Philip Yeo on A*Star scholars:
Forget wimps, I prefer women
IN Mr Philip Yeo's book, Singapore boys are whiny and
immature.
He said this because all government scholars who broke their
scholarship bonds since 1990 have been Singapore males.
Not only that, the occasional postings on the Internet criticising
his scholarship programmes were also from Singapore male
scholars.
He said: 'I have no bond-breakers among the girls, no bond-breakers
among foreign students.
'Maybe I should give more scholarships to non-Singaporeans who are
bright, eager and hungry, and then help them get Singapore
passports. The rest, I give to the A-level girls at 19 years
old.
'I don't want whining Singapore boys. They are not mature even
though they have national service and are over 22 years old when
they take up undergraduate studies. They give me so much trouble
and waste our precious time,' he said.
But behind these strong words is a man who clearly has a soft spot
for his scholars.
Despite his busy schedule, including travels abroad 'to chase
investment money', he spends a lot of time e-mailing his
scholars.
He banters and jokes with them, and hosts lunches and dinners
whenever he is in the vicinity of their overseas
universities.
He says he has a '4D' list.
But '4D' in this case refers to the group of top A*star scholars
who obtain the prefect straight-A scores of 4 in their US
university's grade-point average (GPA).
As of last month, 117 of its BSc scholars have obtained their final
examinations grades. About 82 per cent, or 96 scholars, have
attained a GPA of 3.8 and above. Thirty-six of the 96 even made it
to the A*star Chairman's Honours List for achieving the perfect
score.
'Of my top scholars, 23 are girls and 13 boys. Four of the girls
and four of the boys are non-Singaporeans. As can be seen, the
Singapore girls outperform the Singapore boys.'
Mr Yeo also made posters of his '4D list', which he advertised in
the newspapers, on the Internet and in various parts of the
Biopolis.
He defended criticism from former government scholars that his
minimum requirement of 3.8 GPA for overseas scholars is unduly
strict. That score requires them to get combined grades of at least
an equal mix of A (4.0) and A minus (3.67).
He said: 'The scholarship money is from my research institutes.
This is not your Ah Kong's money. So you jolly well make sure you
study hard and excel.
'My scholars can do it. Why are you complaining and b itching about
3.8? If you don't like, don't take it!'
When he is not travelling, he spends part of his time reading his
scholars' files. 'I know all their backgrounds. I have spoken to
scholars who scored below 3.8. Did I turn them away?
'You think I am so cruel? Sometimes people get lower scores because
something has gone wrong with a few papers. I understand
that.
'But I am not going to lower the standard. How low do you want to
go? You think this is limbo rock?'
