The topic of scholarships is always an interesting one and potentially a divisive one among friends and in Singapore. Given the government's "encouraging" stand on this, I am surprised to read this in The New Paper:
Rethink scholarships, give only to needy to help them climb up
THE rich give their children a leg up the beanstalk to wealth by making sure their children are well-educated - the best pre-school, private tuition, enrichment classes, overseas exposure.
Is there a way to give more people the chance to move up the education beanstalk in pursuit of their share of 'golden eggs'?... Last year , it was revealed that students from better-off families made up about half of government scholarship holders last year. ... Financial expert Leong Sze Hian has an idea: Reshuffle the chips for each generation by giving scholarships only to the poor...
I wonder how far this can go (means-testing again?). While it's probably true that some scholars that I know come from very comfortable and well-to-do families, most of my closer "scholar friends" are pretty much your typical HDB heartlanders (VS - neighbourhood school mah). They will most probably not be given this push in life if they hadn't had a paid scholarship. Moreover the state of economy and culture in Singapore is hardly comparable to the States to make meaningful analysis.
So if there are rich folks/scholars out there reading this, would you ever take a "scholarship with honours - meaning no money, in name only"?
2 comments:
If you're interested in the topic of scholarship, this post has some interesting perspectives. A more recent update is here.
And let's not forget to ask ourselves if the scholarship is given for the benefit of the sponsor organisation or the scholar.
I will read the good stuff there. Just a quick note, depending on the nature of the scholarship and sponsor, I would think benefit accrues differently.
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