- Joined
- Nov 24, 2008
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I read with dismay about the tragic suicide of the 10 year old student recently, and after some thought and discussions with friends including teachers, it dawn on me that this generation of school kids are really in it tough and are on the way to being a truly lost generation without their realizing it.
We start with a primary and secondary school system that is highly competitive and which already causes a fair number of suicides. Kids are under pressure to get good grades and get into good schools or the right stream. Parents, family members, teachers, principals etc. all put the pressure on them. Many do not know what a normal childhood is other than what is spend in school, doing ECAs in schools on the weekends, tutoring after school and on the weekends, etc. On top of that, they have to compete at the primary level for spots in good schools with FTs who are sending their children to school in S'pore. At the secondary level, they also start meeting competition not from their own countrymen, but also from FT secondary students given scholarships to Singapore schools.
After secondary school and the tremendous push for good O levels, they have a just as much pressure to get into the Poly or Pre-U of their choice and again fighting off the now increasing number of scholarship students from abroad. Those who are males failing to progress to the next level will risk their health and life in 2 years of national service. The rest will face the same long hours, sacrifice and mental torture in the hopes of going to a local university. By this stage in their young lives, they have lost their childhood to the books and exams. Of course, the kids will all indulge in recreational activities on the side, but the pressure will be there in the background. Too much indulging will bring on feelings of guilt over lost time that could have been spend studying.
Finally, the survivors will go to university. But what and where they want to study is not decided for them. E.G. Even if they have the fantastic grades and want to study science, they might end up in law. So, after all the years of studying very hard, their life career is arbitrarily decided for them by someone else with no regards to their input. However, places in the faculty that they want to enter but could not, have been given to scholarship FTs from PRC, Vietnam, etc. who can barely string together a coherent sentence in english. Apparently, these FT's lack of english quality and non use of the A levels results can get them scholarships while singaporean born students cannot.
But lets say after all this, they manage to graduate from university, you would think they can now enjoy and reap the benefits of all the hard work in their studies. guess again. They now have to look for jobs in an economy flooded by 2 million FTs in all sectors. There is not one sector that is protected for singaporeans. Not the civil service, not law enforcement, nothing is sacred for native born singaporeans. Into this monstrosity of an economy created by the PAP, they have to fight FTs for jobs that are rightfully theirs and for which they have worked very hard. If they do get a job, it is of a lower wage due to the FTs depressing the wage structure of that segment of the economy. Couple this with the rising cost of everything from food to flats, and its not hard to understand that their lot in life after schooling is just as tough.
In other words, they can't catch a break any where. If students were truly aware of their future as described above, they would be even more depressed. We do we thank for this sorry state of affairs. The PAP for sure, for creating the system that they have to play in. The parents for pressuring their children to play it. For the educators for making sure they play it and punish them for not playing. All of us for not speaking out.
We start with a primary and secondary school system that is highly competitive and which already causes a fair number of suicides. Kids are under pressure to get good grades and get into good schools or the right stream. Parents, family members, teachers, principals etc. all put the pressure on them. Many do not know what a normal childhood is other than what is spend in school, doing ECAs in schools on the weekends, tutoring after school and on the weekends, etc. On top of that, they have to compete at the primary level for spots in good schools with FTs who are sending their children to school in S'pore. At the secondary level, they also start meeting competition not from their own countrymen, but also from FT secondary students given scholarships to Singapore schools.
After secondary school and the tremendous push for good O levels, they have a just as much pressure to get into the Poly or Pre-U of their choice and again fighting off the now increasing number of scholarship students from abroad. Those who are males failing to progress to the next level will risk their health and life in 2 years of national service. The rest will face the same long hours, sacrifice and mental torture in the hopes of going to a local university. By this stage in their young lives, they have lost their childhood to the books and exams. Of course, the kids will all indulge in recreational activities on the side, but the pressure will be there in the background. Too much indulging will bring on feelings of guilt over lost time that could have been spend studying.
Finally, the survivors will go to university. But what and where they want to study is not decided for them. E.G. Even if they have the fantastic grades and want to study science, they might end up in law. So, after all the years of studying very hard, their life career is arbitrarily decided for them by someone else with no regards to their input. However, places in the faculty that they want to enter but could not, have been given to scholarship FTs from PRC, Vietnam, etc. who can barely string together a coherent sentence in english. Apparently, these FT's lack of english quality and non use of the A levels results can get them scholarships while singaporean born students cannot.
But lets say after all this, they manage to graduate from university, you would think they can now enjoy and reap the benefits of all the hard work in their studies. guess again. They now have to look for jobs in an economy flooded by 2 million FTs in all sectors. There is not one sector that is protected for singaporeans. Not the civil service, not law enforcement, nothing is sacred for native born singaporeans. Into this monstrosity of an economy created by the PAP, they have to fight FTs for jobs that are rightfully theirs and for which they have worked very hard. If they do get a job, it is of a lower wage due to the FTs depressing the wage structure of that segment of the economy. Couple this with the rising cost of everything from food to flats, and its not hard to understand that their lot in life after schooling is just as tough.
In other words, they can't catch a break any where. If students were truly aware of their future as described above, they would be even more depressed. We do we thank for this sorry state of affairs. The PAP for sure, for creating the system that they have to play in. The parents for pressuring their children to play it. For the educators for making sure they play it and punish them for not playing. All of us for not speaking out.
