Singaporeans really have the short end of the stick. When they
want to obtain a piece of paper, called the Driving License, to be
able to drive a car here they need to go through a long process of
theory tests, practice lessons and finally a practical test. The
lessons are not cheap now with the 7% GST. Each lesson is now close
to $80 (SGD) for a student enrolled in a public-driving school.
Mind you, it's per lesson. Each practical test, which encompasses a
circuit and on-road test, is more than $150 (SGD). The first time
you didn't pass the practical test, you basically have to cough out
another substantial amount of cash to book for the next test date
(i.e. if you are still keen to have your license). Of course, it's
getting harder and harder these days to get a license.
I do know of people who come from other countries who just convert
their foreign licenses and drive on our roads here. Compare their
driving test criteria and ours, I think our criteria for passing
are much more stringent.
The objective of our stringent criteria is to control the number of
cars on the road and also to make sure our drivers are taught to
the highest level of safety awareness before they are allow to
drive on the roads in Singapore which are good.
However, do those who came here with foreign licenses which are
later converted to local ones, go through a strict criteria before
they obtained their foreign licenses? I think not. But, are they
allow to drive on Singapore roads? The answer is yes.
So, why not make those holding foreign licenses also go through our
practical tests? I'm quite certain that many of them will not even
get their local licenses on the first try.
