Knowledge is power.Now who has the power?

I studied in the local schools for a good decade. I personally enjoyed it very much because of the availability to have a holistic education where a student nurtures not only in his academics but in his talents and character development.

For example, on top of my academic results, I enrolled into ACJC through Direct School Admissions (Track and Field). This gave a chance for me to go into a good college although with my points alone, I might have been to a college down the pecking order in ranking.

It is true that knowledge is indeed power. Unlike technology and other things, knowledge is something that will remain and equip a person forever. However, in my personal opinion, due to the competition and limited availability in this small nation, not everyone will get the best education that he/she can be offered.

Through elementary school till college, I constantly feel that the education system has 'successfully' filtered the students in the country. These are some of the 'filtering process' that every student goes through:

1)Streaming (EM1,EM2,EM3)
2)PSLE
3)Seconday school-Express,NA,NT
4)O Level- College, Polytechnic and ITE
5) A level- University, non university

Remember how your parents reacted when you didn't do too well in PSLE and go into a 'not so good' secondary school? I actually think it becomes a vicious cycle. Don't do too well-Lousy school-Meeting wrong/lousy friends-Not going into college-and so on. Yes there are some who worked hard, don't get influenced by their circumstances and got out of this, but many are still left behind!

Looking at this process, it is actually only a small minority that succeed to go to pursue further studies. To make things worse, in our modern society, how do we perceive someone who did not get into college, who did not get to university? No wonder that many dropped out and do nasty things outside. They lost hope probably because the society lost hope on them first. The thing is more people, especially from the polytechnic and ITE will end up going into the work force without their bachelor qualification. Though many of these friends of mine say they are working to earn money for private university, more often than not, they will be tempted to just stay in the work force, draw a comfortable salary and wait for the next phase of their life-marriage.

On the other hand, the idea of education at its highest level is very subjective. Everyone has many different talents. Children who are more inclined in Arts and Music may not do too well in the academic track, while an academically inclined child may not go too well in a vocational institute. That is why we have a good government to thank for. They have managed to ensure everyone is happy with the education they obtained and regardless the education track you got 'filtered' to, you are still assured of a comfortable standard of living in the country.