Ten Years Too Late

ST, Aug 19 2007 Fourth university to be decided within a year: PM Lee

By Imelda Saad, Correspondent

CONTINUING his theme of closing the income gap, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced several measures to upgrade the university sector in Singapore. Descibing education as the 'best way to level up society', Mr Lee said in his National Day Rally speech, that the Government is looking into a fourth publicly-funded university. But he added the Government 'may not limit' itself to just 'one new institution'. 'The aim is to get every student into post-secondary education and as many as possible into tertiary institutions', he said. Currently, 23 per cent of every cohort receives subsidised education in the three universities - The Nanyang Technological University (NTU), The National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Singapore Management University (SMU). The aim, said Mr Lee, is to get 30 per cent of the Singaporean cohort to enter publicly-funded universities by 2015. This means 2,400 more places a year. Mr Lee said the new university will have its own character and unique strengths, different from NUS, NTU and SMU. Minister of State for Education RAdm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew will chair a committee to study how to expand the university sector. Chairman of the National Research Foundation and former Minister in Charge of University Affairs, Tony Tan will be advisor to the Commitee. Mr Lee said the Government wil decide within a year, the best way to proceed with the new university. Malay language The Prime Minister also touched on the importance of acquiring new language skills as part of getting a good education. While emphasising that there will be no change in the mother tongue policy, Mr Lee also urged more non-Malays to learn Malay in addition to their mother tongue. Incentives will be introduced to encourage more students to take up the Malay Special Programme (MSP), to study Malay as a third language. Similarly, incentives will be extended to non-Chinese students who take up Chinese as a third language. .............................

If it dosnt bother me why should i care about it? Seems this is the way things work. Well, its not working. We are a cynical generation who are not shackled by the indebtness which so clouded the eyes of the previous generation and there fore resulted in the accumulation of so much power within just a space of a few decades. True, we have come a long way, but at what cost? What of the long term consequences?