I have a friend like that too. Although we're all still in
secondary school and he is at the appropriate age, he has been
scoring bady even though he has a clear idea of his aspirations and
knows what he needs to do to achieve it.
I think that you should, in fact, support your BF. He has
decided to go back to school at his age after screwing himself over
in the past and like you said, it speaks highly of his character. I
myself feel that Singapore's stuent body cares too much for social
norms such as age-appropriate studies. As I recall, there was an
article in the Straits Times in the past couple of years about an
elderly woman in the US who got a degree for herself at the age of
90+. So it's not impossible for your BF to ake something of himself
at this age.
Also, the SG system focuses more on hard work and memory than
actual intelligence so if he really buckles down and gets to work,
he'll be fine.