One of side effects of meritocracy is a merciless education system

[Confuseous]

Mr. Goh is voicing what people have been complaining about for some time. One of the side effects of meritocracy is a merciless education system. Not every child is born with the financial or genetic means to keep up. But the brutal academic training we go through definitely produces results. The fruits of our labour are especially evident if you compare the average primary school student to, shall we say, America’s Honey Boo Boo Child — a product of reality TV hailing from rural Georgia, some sinister potion called Go-Go Juice, and what appears to be a descendent of Jabba the Hutt.

But as we celebrate our being A-sians and not B-sians, far flung from the Declining West and her slovenly, sugar-saturated ways, we forget that only a very small percentage of our army of multilingual mini Math whizzes and super spellers were organically generated. Behind, or rather under our gleaming society stuffed with over-achievers is a Uniquely Singaporean tuition society.

How many kids do you know could have gotten through the system without a team of private tutors behind them? Primary school Math, for example, is ridiculously advanced. I would do embarrassingly badly in a PSLE Math exam today, but then I did need a calculator to complete an activity in a Disney Princess Activity Book. And that was last week.

- http://poachedmag.com/2013/07/31/beware-of-elitism-bitch-please/?