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Pamela Lim's Facabook post
Singaporean PMETs
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All eyes were on me when I asked the Provost if the university had considered employing Singaporeans in their search to fill the academic positions.
I was curious why we were told a world-wide search was on in America, Europe and Asia, and there was no mention of a search for local talents. Don't we have Singaporeans who are capable of filling the positions of professors and lecturers?
Of course, in a room filled with Ang Mos and where I, a Singaporean, was a minority, I knew I sounded callous and xenophobic. This was four years ago when I was still a full-time faculty member. I wonder if things have changed.
Now, don't get me wrong. My colleagues were top notch in what they do, they were a great bunch and they brought knowledge and diversity to the system. But as a concerned Singaporean, I saw a different side of things and I was and am still very concerned.
Not only for the professors' jobs, but for all PMET jobs. You see, I saw first hand how hard it is for youngsters to get their degrees to become PMETs. It is a road many Singaporean parents believe will lead their children to success and are therefore willing to pay a high price for.
The price of education is deceptively high in Singapore. As a country with one of the highest tuition rates in the world at 97% (according the ST report 7 Feb 2009) overshadowing even countries like China, Hong Kong and Korea.
If the invoices readers sent to me were indications, some parents pay more than overseas private schools per subject. Does that then mean a whopping 97% of us are paying private school education prices though the kids are attending public or government schools?
Comparatively, an estimate of 24% in the US and 13% in Australia attend private schools.
Even with all the money spent to prepare for universities, there are limited places in local universities and not everyone will make it. And even if one makes it to a local university, not everyone can afford it. As a result, many Singaporean PMETs end up with a study loan at the end of the academic journey.
Now here is something I don't even get. Even with the hard earned PMET qualification, most won't even earn enough to retire.
Here's why.
Assuming people work from 24 to 65 years old and have an increment of 4.5% (as reported by Asia Pacific Salary Budget Planning Report) throughout their working lives, Singapore's risk-free interest rate of 0.9%, assuming all of us diligently save 20%* of our salaries, no lapse of employment, then a fresh graduate needs to earn $4,791 per month to achieve that desired $1.38m to retire as reported by ST.
According to MOE's graduate employment survey, it means no graduate will earn enough this lifetime to retire... either because his starting salary is too low, or he starts work as PMETs too late. Unless... he/she is an anomaly.
Does this mean there will be more and more elderly carton collectors and tissue aunties/uncles going into the future, more young PMET-qualified taxi drivers, hawkers, plumbers, electricians and construction workers?
I do not know the future, but I do know that it was Singaporeans' parents and grandparents who toiled to build a nation, it is our Singaporean boys who spend up to 2 years in national service followed by another 10 years or so of reservist to keep this country safe and sound, to protect our assets, and for economic stability, presumably.
Is it then right, that we should ensure the best jobs are for reserved for our Singaporean PMETs, and not for those who find this place a tax refuge, a quaint East-meet-West hotchpotch, or a beginner's gateway to the exotic Asia.
It is so fun and beautiful here, we not only attract the topnotch foreign PMETs, as they move up the corporate ladders, they are bringing in their mediocre friends to fill in positions that Singaporeans can do better as well. Friends whose own economies could not find good jobs for them, and who make this place home until their children are due for National Service, friends who have friends at the top which Singaporeans do not have.
While we should always embrace foreigners into our midst and acknowledge the values they bring, we should never forget who will be holding on sentimentally to their Singapore properties and who will be returning home to their free healthcare and cheap housing once their skills are deemed feckless.
Surely, these must be of some value to some of us.
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