8 Junior Colleges are Merging? Rumors or Reality?

[sharonkhoo]

lee_yl:

slmkhoo:

[quote=\"lee_yl\"]The contradiction in logic is obvious; why does your daughter need to go university if you question \"why everyone needs a degree\" and \"why should OUR kids have a degree\", yours inclusive.


The way you put it, only those who can get into university needs a degree and the corollary of this argument is that those who can't get into a university doesn't need it.

She doesn't NEED a degree in the sense that she can live her life without one, and we were prepared for her to carry on with life without one; but having been offered a place, it seemed like she ought to accept, with gratitude! When we thought she wasn't going to make the grade for a university education, I did not say that there were insufficient university places, just that she hadn't done well enough. Not getting a degree is not the end of the world.

My main point is that I don't agree that the government is being unfair to students by planning for \"only\" 30-40% to be graduates. We cannot expect every child to get a degree, or that the government should be expected to provide university places for all who want one.

Going by your logic, probably 6 years of primary school education should be enough for everyone. Your daughter can live her life without a degree, I also don't need a degree to be a SAHM but having gone through university, I value the mental training, the thinking process etc. which make me a better person than if I were to stop my education at an earlier stage.

I did not say Not getting a degree is the end of the world. I did not say every child should be a degree holder. I did not say the government is expected to provide a place in the university for all. Please do not try to insinuate and seemingly put words into my mouth.

Where did you get the figure of 30-40% to support your statement that the planning is a fair one? Because OYK said so? Or simply your gut feel? Go read up more about OECD education, at what % are other developed countries admitting their students into universities and the MOE report in 2012 prepared by Lawrence Wong and endorsed by Minister HSK. They were confident that our country and economy should be able to support more than that.[/quote]I'm sorry I've made you so angry. I responded to what I believe you mean, but I did not intend to \"put words in your mouth\". I have mentioned figures and policies based on what I have read, but don't have the time or energy to locate the sources, neither do I want to get into examining previous speeches etc of the Ministers. I think we should stop here as I don't want to get into further arguments with you. We obviously have too different worldviews to have a discussion on this.

[Daddy D]

No wonder they say Internet is serious business.

You all should chill a bit.

[Daddy D]

Don't care 3, 7 , 21...

:imcool:
http://mothership.sg/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/LKY-majulah-singapura-3.jpg\">

[lee_yl]

slmkhoo:

I'm sorry I've made you so angry. I responded to what I believe you mean, but I did not intend to \"put words in your mouth\". I have mentioned figures and policies based on what I have read, but don't have the time or energy to locate the sources, neither do I want to get into examining previous speeches etc of the Ministers. I think we should stop here as I don't want to get into further arguments with you. We obviously have too different worldviews to have a discussion on this.

No worries lah, it is very common for forummers to have different views. And we are all here to share and learn. :xedfingers:

[janet88]

if JCs can merge, polytechnics may face the danger of mergers too…especially with the falling birth rates.


how many ‘hot’ years are there to sustain schools? dragon year (there is a little boom every 12 years) and maybe the year of the horse. there was a surge during SG50. with unemployment on the rise as well as education stress, i seriously doubt couples would dare to have 2 or more kids.

[yuki2010]

hquek:

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1193950/too-many-graduates-devalue-university-taiwan-warns

good article. Thanks for sharing.

[floppy]

janet88:

if JCs can merge, polytechnics may face the danger of mergers too...especially with the falling birth rates.

While it is possible, Polytechnics, being tertiary institutions, do have some advantages over the JCs in circumventing the danger of merger. For one, they can recruit and increase their intake of foreign students to make up for the shortfall. They can also close down or reduce some schools or courses to focus on a few disciplines only.

[Daddy D]

Year 2015 article, what has changed since then?

Lesser JCs, lesser chances of entry to local university, lesser local graduates.
But many parents will still continue to pay extra $$ for tuitions or overseas degrees.
Whether our kids belong to the 30% local graduates or the 70% who are not, it is not up to the policy makers to decide their future path.

http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/singapore-wants-kids-skip-university-good-luck?page=1

[quoted from article]

Singapore wants kids to skip university: Good luck with that

Singapore’s Tiger mums are becoming a headache for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is trying to persuade the population that they don’t need to go to university to have a good career. After a clampdown on immigration and a slowdown in the economy, he needs fewer graduates and more workers to fill the shipyards, factory floors and hotel desks that keep the country going.

There is a clear international trend in the developed world to make vocational education a true choice for more young people,” said Professor Pasi Sahlberg, a visiting professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Yet, many still see it as a “secondary choice”, especially in Asia, where parents tend to believe that “higher education would be the only key to prosperity and success”.

Singapore already has a system that sorts children into different subject-based bands at school after testing starting at age 10. They’re later placed into junior colleges or technical institutes based on exams at 16 or 17. Those going to junior college have a higher chance of entry into a local university.

“We can’t become a Germany, but what we can do is adapt some of the very strong points for certain sectors and certain types of skills,” Mr S Iswaran, second minister for trade, said in an interview on Feb 24. (earn-and-learn program)

Persuading Singaporeans to go down the same route will be an uphill task after decades of extolling the importance of education. Singapore households spent S$1.1 billion on tutors outside school in the year ended September 2013, according to the most-recent survey by the statistics department.

Many Singaporeans who don’t get into a local college go abroad. Four in 10 graduates in the resident labour force last year got their degrees overseas.

“The government shouldn’t tell people not to go to university unless they can promise the same job opportunities as graduates,” said Mr Kenneth Chen, 26, whose parents spent more than S$170,000 on a sports science degree in Brisbane, Australia, after he graduated with a biotechnology diploma in Singapore. “But obviously that’s not going to happen.” BLOOMBERG

[Daddy D]

A more recent 2017 article.

Will having lesser local graduates stop this global trend of increasing graduates? I'm afraid not.
I hope we don't find overseas Chinese graduates coming to steal our lunches.
Instead, I hope to see Singapore graduates (local or overseas) with the right skills to go out and \"steal other people’s lunches.\" (PM Lee)

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/04/higher-education-in-china-has-boomed-in-the-last-decade

[quoted from article]

China now produces twice as many graduates a year as the US

A record-breaking 8m students will graduate from Chinese universities in 2017. This figure is nearly ten times higher than it was in 1997 and is more than double the number of students who will graduate this year in the US.

Underemployment

In 2013, Chinese citizens started blogging about the “hardest job hunting season in history” – and each year it seems to get harder for Chinese graduates. In 2017 there will be 1m more new graduates than there were in 2013. And yet, the graduate unemployment rate has remained relatively stable – according to MyCOS Research Institute, only 8% of students who graduated in 2015 were unemployed six months after graduating.
But if you delve a little deeper it’s clear that unemployment rates mask the more subtle issue of “underemployment”. While most graduates eventually find work, too many end up in part-time, low-paid jobs.

Wrong types of skills
Despite the rapid increase in the number of university graduates, Chinese companies complain of not being able to find the high-skilled graduates they need. The main deficit is in so-called “soft skills” such as strong communication, analytical and managerial skills. According to research by McKinsey, there is a short supply of graduates with these assets.

Two types of graduates
It seems then that the problem is not the rising number of students attending university, but that there is a mismatch between the skill composition of graduates and the skills employers need.
Demand for graduates with technical or quantitative skills has in fact risen faster than supply, resulting in attractive employment opportunities for graduates with these skills.
But for the rest, their education leaves them badly prepared for the jobs that are available. Until this changes, the polarisation in the graduate job market is likely to continue.

[floppy]

Daddy

Lesser JCs, lesser chances of entry to local university, lesser local graduates.

Sorry. I disagree with this statement. If anything, the proportion of JCs students qualifying for local university would have now increased, i.e. the chance has improved.

Number of undergraduates are determined by the universities whereas the number of JC students is determined by the number of JCs. If anything, with 4 additional JCs, a large number of JC students (report says 25%?) would have missed out. With less vacancies, the lower tier would not make the cut to JCs and is likely to avoid disappointment at the next stage (A levels). A smaller pool with the same number of undergraduate places would have meant an improvement in the number of JC students qualifying for local universities.