PM Lawrence Wong's NDR - Education Portions
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School fees by population status
Primary :
Sporean: free
PR: $305
Asean: $570
International: $985Secondary
Sporean: $5
PR: $620
Asean: $1030
International: $2050JC
Sporean: $6
PR: $700
Asean: $1230
International: $2400These info can be found on MOE site
As for foreigners taking up places in our local universities and denying places of Singaporean. And some Singaporean miss the cut off point narrowly. We could stop foreigners from coming into our local universities. But we should also be prepared other countries doing the same, stopping us from going to their universities. All our president/PSC scholars will then be the ones joining competitions for places in local universities. some of our students will be losing out again. Foreigners awarded local universities scholarships have to work 3 years in return. The group that are awarded scholarships to study in secondary/JC are not bonded. They are too young for us to put to them any bonding decision at their age. I think we should work out and secure some other forms of commitments from them as return for our investments.
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@bbbay said in PM Lawrence Wong's NDR - Education Portions:
@lee_yl said in PM Lawrence Wong's NDR - Education Portions:
@bbbay
We see a group of new migrants celebrating National Day on 1 Oct (and not 9 Aug), if you follow Rednote/XHS. We see another another group forming enclaves in the areas near Fort and Meyer Roads, keeping themselves aloof as many are from higher castes, and the examples go on and on.If they are not citizen i wouldn’t be too worry. They have no influence over Spore policies. If they are citizens they are too small minority to influence policies. There are 20k+ new citizen yearly. around 60% are from Asean. 30% from rest of Asia. A few thousands new citizen from any countries are still too small a number to influence policies.
I beg to differ on this. Singapore policies are determined or influenced by a variety of factors, including the ballot box. Minorities are influential if (1) they are able to engage in collective action, i.e. they are well coordinated; and (2) if they are loud. Not all minority groups have an outsized influence, some do, some don’t.
On the potential influence of new citizens, they could have significant influence even though at first glance the numbers suggest otherwise. Even at the ballot box, it’s widely acknowledged that about one third of voters will vote for the incumbent, regardless, and likewise, about 20-30% will vote against the incumbent, regardless. The battleground at the ballot box is really for the hearts and minds of the about 30-40% of middle ground voters who could be swayed or persuaded either way. Every party is trying their best to increase the base of their ‘hardcore’ voters as they know that the middle ground voters - it could go either way.
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@bbbay A good number of PSC scholars are already opting to study in local universities.
On these scholarships to foreigners to study in Sec Schools and JCs, it has occurred prevalently since our time though it was the ASEAN scholarships then. The ASEAN scholarships still exist today. Yes you will hear occasional complaints of comparisons especially from NS boys when they see their ASEAN scholar friends go off to university whereas they are stuck serving out NS. But the numbers were small, and the ASEAN scholars generally integrated quite well. A significant number ended up working in SG or marrying Singaporeans and then becoming SCs. My era did not have scholars from China, but there were HK scholars (pre 1997 era I guess and SG was trying to attract them?) There were also scholars from India though the numbers were small.
Fast forward to my kids’ generation, ASEAN scholarships still exist, and now there is a huge group of scholars from China.
I think I am quite undecided on this issue. To stop this flow completely, I would sort of hesitate also, because I do believe all kids benefit from some diversity of backgrounds and experiences. Yet I also see how difficult it is for our local students to swallow, seeing foreign student classmates having school fees fully covered, plus a living allowance.
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Few years back in one of my child’s secondary school classmate was a Malaysia scholar. His academic results in the secondary school were consistently good, ahead of many local students and at least clinched top in Math. My child told me this scholar times were spent either in school and during weekend, studying in public library. He roomed with another scholar and was seldom home in his room - most of the time studying somewhere outside. The recently crowned Starsearch winners, she has been in Singapore alone since 13yo, to study, not as a scholar though. She talked about her life before, has been school to home to school.
I believe most of foreigners scholars are alone here and lead similar monotonous studying life. To deal with different cultures, social norm and language of teaching. I think it is quite like our children going to a foreign country studying university, except they are sent there as a much younger 15yo. I believe it is not easy for most of these foreigners students and their parents back home, away from each other and being in a foreign country for the first time at such young age. If I am to choose for my 15yo child, between being a singaporean student, paying a little school fees for world class education just around the corners, serve NS for boys, may lose out in school enrolment to foreigners sometimes, but we get to stay together. or, sending my child alone for free world class study (an example if conditions are swop) to 重庆 or KL at 15yo and not together for 2 years straight every time, I would prefer the formal. I think we should cut these foreigner scholars some slack and not think they are served all the good times studying in Singapore. They will have their own shares of anxieties too. Social media sometimes paint one sided picture.
Some foreigners commented Singapore immigration criteria is a 玄学. They are saying Singapore immigration criteria is hard to fathom. The authorities will not tell you exactly what are all the criteria to meet before granting PR or citizenship. I think it is a good measure. It is akin to saying: I will check on you, but I will not tell you what exactly I will check on and when I will check. If the authority takes their time, which they do, high probability only the naturally fits will be granted residential status. That should minimise negative influences on society.
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@bbbay said in PM Lawrence Wong's NDR - Education Portions:
Few years back in one of my child’s secondary school classmate was a Malaysia scholar. His academic results in the secondary school were consistently good, ahead of many local students and at least clinched top in Math. My child told me this scholar times were spent either in school and during weekend, studying in public library. He roomed with another scholar and was seldom home in his room - most of the time studying somewhere outside. The recently crowned Starsearch winners, she has been in Singapore alone since 13yo, to study, not as a scholar though. She talked about her life before, has been school to home to school.
I believe most of foreigners scholars are alone here and lead similar monotonous studying life. To deal with different cultures, social norm and language of teaching. I think it is quite like our children going to a foreign country studying university, except they are sent there as a much younger 15yo. I believe it is not easy for most of these foreigners students and their parents back home, away from each other and being in a foreign country for the first time at such young age. If I am to choose for my 15yo child, between being a singaporean student, paying a little school fees for world class education just around the corners, serve NS for boys, may lose out in school enrolment to foreigners sometimes, but we get to stay together. or, sending my child alone for free world class study (an example if conditions are swop) to 重庆 or KL at 15yo and not together for 2 years straight every time, I would prefer the formal. I think we should cut these foreigner scholars some slack and not think they are served all the good times studying in Singapore. They will have their own shares of anxieties too. Social media sometimes paint one sided picture.
Some foreigners commented Singapore immigration criteria is a 玄学. They are saying Singapore immigration criteria is hard to fathom. The authorities will not tell you exactly what are all the criteria to meet before granting PR or citizenship. I think it is a good measure. It is akin to saying: I will check on you, but I will not tell you what exactly I will check on and when I will check. If the authority takes their time, which they do, high probability only the naturally fits will be granted residential status. That should minimise negative influences on society.
Firstly, nobody denies the fact that the foreign students on scholarship here are hardworking. We are not doubting their abilities, we are talking about S’pore scholarship policies.
The issue at stake is whether our policies to lure these foreign students are overly generous. The scholarships offered are full of goodies, bond free but little or no obligation. Zeit already highlighted in her post how these PRCians ride on the good name of Singapore to springboard to Ivy League schools in America. Bond free also means most will not return upon graduation (from MIT or other Ivy League schools) because there’s no obligation to.
BTW, no S’porean parent will be interested to send their kids to 重庆 or KL schools lah. On the other hand, If our Ah Gong offers bond free scholarships to Eton or Harrow, I think parents here will consider seriously.
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The pre tertiary scholarships the PRC are getting I think are the SM1 government scholarship. Believe has been replaced by Business China’s (a non profit organisation) Spore education scholarship. Come a full circle to what Zeit has shared earlier. It’s in the details.
One of the goal of Business China is to nurture Spore/China ready youth.
From their website Business China funding are from Corporate membership fees and public donations.
https://businesschina.org.sg/en-us/p/singaporeeducationscholarship
a footnote on the scholarship page states recipients need to attend events organised by Business China. Could be start of Spore’s ways of asking for commitments from these scholars.
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@doodbug said in PM Lawrence Wong's NDR - Education Portions:
@bbbay A good number of PSC scholars are already opting to study in local universities.
I think I am quite undecided on this issue. To stop this flow completely, I would sort of hesitate also, because I do believe all kids benefit from some diversity of backgrounds and experiences. Yet I also see how difficult it is for our local students to swallow, seeing foreign student classmates having school fees fully covered, plus a living allowance.
Not suggesting to stop foreign students from coming in on scholarship but think we should work out and secure some other forms of commitments from them as return for our investments on them.
At least 3yrs bond instead of bond free. The foreign students can still go ahead to Ivy Leagues schools and not return if they have a change of heart. Their PRC parents will have pay a penalty for their kids breaking the bond lor.
I know there were ASEAN scholars since 40 years ago, but how many were there? And what was their percentage as compared to the local student population? Versus how many ASEAN + PRC scholars are there today?? And what was their percentage as compared to the local student population?
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Financial bonds are not enforceable outside Singapore’s legal jurisdiction. Probably not possible to recover liquidated damages from foreigners….
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Just thinking aloud - over the years the reputation of Singapore’s schools has grown. We already have a significant pool applying via the AEIS. Is there still a need to offer that many scholarships?
Honestly I don’t think there is as much issue with AEIS kids as they do pay fees at whatever rate set by MOE - and it gets pretty hefty at the JC stage.
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Found this video on our education minister answering queries whether foreigners are displacing Singaporean in local universities, why Singapore is giving scholarship to foreigners and why we need international students in our local universities
No Singaporean students are ever displaced because of international students. Local universities set the entry standards. After all Singaporeans students who have meet the standard have been admitted, local universities will then raise the bar, to admit international students.
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