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Feb 23, 2010
Many other good JCs for late bloomers
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I REFER to last Friday's letter by Mr Lee Seck Kay, 'Don't leave out the late bloomers'.
Mr Lee suggests that elite schools like Hwa Chong Institution should accept students with 'mediocre' grades because they may be the next Albert Einstein.
Such schools already operate at high capacity, with hundreds of students admitted each year who have worked hard to prove their worth. If such schools admit lower-performance students, they will have to lower their rigour to enable such students to cope. This would not be fair to higher-performing students who enrolled in elite schools in the first place because they wanted that rigour.
Also, there are many other junior colleges apart from Hwa Chong and Raffles Institution (JC) which offer a solid education.
National JC, Victoria JC and Anglo Chinese JC have a reputation for producing decent A-level results. Together, these schools admit more than 4,000 students each year. For students who prefer a more hands-on education, polytechnics offer valuable real-world experience. Even if students do not qualify for these institutions - the late bloomers mentioned by Mr Lee - they can still enter the Institute of Technical Education, which has won international awards and is recognised for its quality.
If only elite schools offered a good education, Singapore's workforce would be in a terrible state indeed - which is clearly not the case.
Being in an elite JC does not guarantee a stellar A-level certificate. Every year, students from such JCs fail to obtain two H2 passes, while many from neighbourhood JCs do. At the end of the day, it all comes down to hard work. Therefore, no matter which JC one is admitted to, so long as one puts in the effort, one will be rewarded.
Also, while the brain drain may indeed be partly because the education system as a whole is too punishing, it is wrong to suggest that it is because top schools admit only a limited number of students. Each country has its elite schools with their own standards. No one complains about the extreme selectiveness of the Ivy League in the United States.
There are ample opportunities for students in Singapore to excel if they put in the effort, and elite JCs should not be condemned for pursuing high standards.
Su Gi Chandran (Miss)
Many other good JCs for late bloomers
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I REFER to last Friday's letter by Mr Lee Seck Kay, 'Don't leave out the late bloomers'.
Mr Lee suggests that elite schools like Hwa Chong Institution should accept students with 'mediocre' grades because they may be the next Albert Einstein.
Such schools already operate at high capacity, with hundreds of students admitted each year who have worked hard to prove their worth. If such schools admit lower-performance students, they will have to lower their rigour to enable such students to cope. This would not be fair to higher-performing students who enrolled in elite schools in the first place because they wanted that rigour.
Also, there are many other junior colleges apart from Hwa Chong and Raffles Institution (JC) which offer a solid education.
National JC, Victoria JC and Anglo Chinese JC have a reputation for producing decent A-level results. Together, these schools admit more than 4,000 students each year. For students who prefer a more hands-on education, polytechnics offer valuable real-world experience. Even if students do not qualify for these institutions - the late bloomers mentioned by Mr Lee - they can still enter the Institute of Technical Education, which has won international awards and is recognised for its quality.
If only elite schools offered a good education, Singapore's workforce would be in a terrible state indeed - which is clearly not the case.
Being in an elite JC does not guarantee a stellar A-level certificate. Every year, students from such JCs fail to obtain two H2 passes, while many from neighbourhood JCs do. At the end of the day, it all comes down to hard work. Therefore, no matter which JC one is admitted to, so long as one puts in the effort, one will be rewarded.
Also, while the brain drain may indeed be partly because the education system as a whole is too punishing, it is wrong to suggest that it is because top schools admit only a limited number of students. Each country has its elite schools with their own standards. No one complains about the extreme selectiveness of the Ivy League in the United States.
There are ample opportunities for students in Singapore to excel if they put in the effort, and elite JCs should not be condemned for pursuing high standards.
Su Gi Chandran (Miss)
