Who deserves a university education?

I refer to this story on The Straits Times’ Forum: ‘JC students deserve priority‘ written by Lee Beng Tat. In it, the writer argues that polytechnic graduates should not get equal admission considerations into university, as students from junior colleges, who have been preparing for university admission, deserve priority over them.

I CRY BOLLOCKS. BIG, FAT, UGLY BOLLOCKS. YES, IT NEEDS TO BE THAT GRAPHIC.

And I have reasons, too…

Before I begin, perhaps it would be good for me to come clean with my own academic history, so everyone can judge my motives for themselves:

Although I went to SAJC for the first three months before O Level results were released, at the end of the day I went to Nanyang Polytechnic (thus the pimpin’ out of the campus in the photo). Because of various reasons I ended up leaving the diploma in Digital Media Design halfway to move to New Zealand, where I attended first the Waikato Institute of Technology, and then the Victoria University of Wellington. I am now back in Singapore armed with a Bachelor of Media Arts and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) – First Class (yes I am that nerdy). I have stuck a toe in everything: JC, poly and university.

Now that’s all in the open, let’s take a closer look into the ST Forum piece…

“How many 16-year-olds will forgo sexy-sounding courses like communications and finance over subjects like physics, chemistry or mathematics?”
Please give 16-year-olds more credit: they might not be the most mature people out there, but they do have at the very least a basic understanding of their own lives and plans. Even my brother who comes home from school to spend his time conquering Russia in Modern Warfare 2 has an inkling of what to do with his life. By Sec 4, they have had the “your choice and actions will determine your ENTIRE LIFE, get it wrong and you will DIE LONELY AND MISERABLE” speech more than once. (If I remember correctly, this speech begins in Secondary 2, when you undergo streaming for Combined Science/Pure Science.) Very, very few are going to be lured into poly because courses sound “sexy”. If they go into courses like communications and finance, it’s because they are interested and want to go into courses like communications and finance.

“Polytechnic graduates cannot have it both ways. They must know the Government spends more to train a polytechnic graduate than a junior college (JC) student. So they cannot expect a second bite of the cherry with the same priority in university admission as JC students who complete two years of school and hold only an A-level certificate.”
Yes, I know the government spends more to train a poly student than a JC student. I also know that poly students pay more fees than JC students. And I also know that poly students don’t get public transport concessions like JC students do. That means: it is more expensive to be a poly student than a JC student. Poly students don’t choose to go to poly because they want the government to spend more money on them; it doesn’t make sense because it would actually cost the student more as well. And sorry, I fail to see why that means that poly students should not be given equal standing to go to university. I mean, is there some sort of quota on how much the government can spend on each individual, and once that quota is reached, that’s too bad?

“Polytechnics pride themselves on hands-on training while JCs arm a student with more in-depth grounding in core subjects to prepare them for university.”
When in SAJC, I studied Economics, History and Literature. You might argue that because I was only in JC for three months it doesn’t count, but I did do the work. I went to the classes, I took down notes, I studied, I took the tests, I did the assignments. I put in the work, just like any other student who wanted to be in JC. But if you came up to me while I was at Vic Uni doing my Honours what JC did to prepare me for university, I would have said without a second’s hesitation: “NOT A DAMN THING.”

You see, my field of study is Film/Media Studies. In my 3+ years of study, I used precisely 0.0% of what I learned in JC. No one in Film/Media Studies gives a damn if you know about market demand and supply, or the UN’s movements during the Korean War, or whether you can write in iambic pentameter. And when you come out of study and enter the film/media industry, employers don’t care about that either. What they do care about: do you know the front from the arse-end of a camera? Do you know how to use Final Cut Studio, or Avid Media Composer? How many productions have you worked on, and are you a team player? JC has nothing to do with it.

“To JC students, university is and has always been their final destination. To poly students, their end point, in Singapore at least, should be their diploma. If they want to go beyond that in Singapore, they should choose the JC route. If they do not qualify, it is not the Government’s fault. Nothing should stop them from pursuing their dream overseas, but they cannot expect greater access to local universities just because it is costlier to study abroad.”
Correct me if I am being overly-sensitive, but what I read into this statement is this: poly students who want to get degrees, GET OUT AND GO AWAY. To which I reply, “Why, do you feel threatened?” Because if you really believe that JC students have “in-depth grounding” and are truly deserving and ready to take on university, then poly students should pose no threat, regardless of whether they have equal priority or not, right?

I was one of the lucky ones; my parents could afford to send me overseas. However, plenty of poly students in Singapore work very hard in their field to achieve excellence, but cannot afford to get an overseas degree. That is why they are looking to enter local universities. If we were truly a meritocratic society (which we love to claim that we are), we would be happy to let these students in, because they have worked hard and should reap the rewards. But what are we doing? Telling them to go overseas if they want to better themselves? And then we wonder why Singapore is experiencing a brain drain? If you’re not only not going to reward me for my hard work, but also tell me that I am not your problem and should just bugger off overseas, then why should I come back?

Everyone knows these days that degrees are more valuable than diplomas. Especially in a society like Singapore, where paper qualifications are practically the be all and end all. However, poly students still choose to go to poly not because they find the courses in poly “sexier”, but because they want to gain valuable skill sets that will help them in their chosen fields, instead of spending two stressed-out years mugging over subjects that might-or-might-not be useful. (From what my A Level-wielding friends have told me, it’s mostly the “might not” part.) In these modern times, no one’s endpoint should be just a diploma. Isn’t this why we are encouraging lifelong learning? Then why are we penalising people and keeping them from further study just because they already have diplomas?

“A place in a good local university is a limited resource and should go to the most deserving; in this case, those who qualify for JC and have consciously decided to take the JC path to prepare themselves for a university education and not a diploma.”
I especially take issue with this statement, because of its tone. Well, the tone of the whole piece is insulting, but especially this statement. It is insulting to suggest that poly students do not deserve a place in a local university, and also to imply that they are undeserving because they have not made the “responsible” life choice of choosing a path that leads to university, as if there is something wrong with choosing not to go to JC. Poly students’ choices are just as informed as JC students’. In fact, from my own experience, some poly students’ choices are made on even more careful thought and consideration than many JC students’. After all, if you have grades good enough to go to JC, it is often easier to just go with the flow and go to JC with the rest of your friends than to actively decide to do something different and go to poly.

To sum up, the writer seems to be fixed in the view that there is only one path in life-with-university: JC. There is no alternative, no room for personal preference and choice. Once again, we see the cookie-cutter ideology: if you don’t fit the mould, it’s not our problem. I’m sorry to say this, but this seems to happen a lot in Singapore. With employment, with homelessness, with education… it seems as if we should all just give up and become clones of each other, so as to ease the situation and solve all problems!

If people are so afraid of poly students getting equal priority to get into university, and want to prevent them from fighting JC students for university admission, then why not allow polytechnics the right to award degrees? It’s not unheard of: the first institution I went to in New Zealand was the Waikato Institute of Technology (or Wintec), which used to be called Waikato Polytech. After the curriculum was modified to include more theory-based courses, the institution was allowed to award degrees to its graduates, while the focus was still on hands-on technical training. In the Moving Image course I did technical camera/lighting/editing training alongside theory papers such as Documentary: A Historical Overview and Audience, Message, Context. It gave me academic knowledge of my field as well as extremely valuable skills that made me industry-ready from the moment I stepped out of the school as a graduate; a great blend of in-depth knowledge and hands-on skills. It even stood me in good stead when I moved to Victoria University; I had production experience, the university Film majors had none. I was the one Honours student who was allowed to miss practical training classes because I was already trained.

“But how can you go from high school straight to getting a degree?” you might protest. My answer: meritocracy. Prospective students would apply for the course, listing their academic history and submitting examples of their written work (or artwork, depending on the course). Local students would also go through an interview process where they met with the tutors and talked about the course and their backgrounds. Those who satisfy the tutors and the academic requirements would be allowed into the course, those who fall short would be asked to apply for a Certificate programme instead, which is a year-long introductory course that prepared students for the degree course by teaching them skills such as academic essay-writing and project work, while still in that student’s chosen field so they still get to follow their own area of interest. When they have got the Certificate, they are able to apply again for the degree course. So no student is really rejected or turned away, but given a chance to study what they want, to the best of their ability. That, friends, is what I call meritocracy. And if it works in New Zealand, why should it not work in Singapore?

I believe that this also ties into productivity. If we start viewing education as a basic right that should be available to everyone, instead of some sort of commodity that we need to pay and fight tooth-and-nail for (ridiculous bidding system for electives, anyone?), more people will start to be able to study exactly what they want and what they love, and by extension, work in jobs they are trained for and really want. If you really love a subject, and spend your university years pursuing your interest, then go into the job industry to work in a field that you really want, then it logically follows that you will work happy, and even better, work well. And TADA!!! Increased productivity! In the end, everyone wins, no?