First, we had that silly cow Boon Wan to talk down on university degrees. Then in the NDR speech LHL revealed the set-up of the ASPIRE committee to help those with ITE and Polytechnic education. The main stream media, maybe due to ignorance or a hidden agenda, jumped to the conclusion of a cultural shift where an ITE cert or a Poly diploma should be valued to be as good as if not better than a degree. DPM Teo Chee Hean jumped in to further degrade university degrees in a speech celebrating an anniversary of his British alma mater.
These people are really daft. Let me ask all those Ministers and the committee members of ASPIRE. Do they really believe that an ITE or Polytechnic education is sufficient for themselves and their own children?
We are talking about a knowledge economy. Knowledge is not like skill which you can acquire through constant practice. Acquiring knowledge requires a certain level of intellect. To generate new knowledge, higher level of intellect is required still. Its science and technology which drives an innovative economy. Already, despite being a well-educated population we are losing out to competition from foreign talents. Can you imagine how many more of us will be jobless if most of us possess only ITE Certs and Poly Dips?
You can always find individuals without degrees doing better than those with one. But you have to look at the average. You can ask those who have succeeded without degrees, how many would not want to encourage their children to get a degree?
One important issue about degree holders in our country is that quite often they will find that what they have learned in university is not required in their jobs. Take for example the Mathematics they learn in an engineering course. How many of them will be required to solve an equation, let alone formulate one, in their jobs? This is because our economy is still a low- to middle-tech one. Besides trying to promote ITE and Poly education, our policy makers should work harder to upgrade the technological level of our economy so that our degree holders will find the knowledge they acquired in universities really useful.
The saving grace to all these is that the Education Minister has come out to clarify that ASPIRE is not about dissuading Singaporeans from getting degrees.
frodosamo