IN HIS letter last Thursday, 'Elitist danger in Singapore education', Mr Muhammad Faruoq Osman is wrong that only the elite minority from wealthier households is more likely to 'receive value-added education at the expense of vast amounts of public funds' in our education system.

The Ministry of Education provides adequate resources to all schools and institutions of higher learning to enable every Singaporean child to achieve his full potential. For each level, we spend what is needed to achieve a high-quality education for all. For example, we spend annually about $11,300 for each student in junior college and about $10,300 for each student in the Institute of Technical Education (ITE). All students can develop themselves in music, sports or the arts through school-based co-curricular programmes.

Students, regardless of their family background, have done well in this system. The top 5 per cent of students in the 2007 Primary School Leaving Examination did not come only from a few schools with rich parents. In fact, they came from 98 per cent of primary schools - from all socio-economic groups.

Mr Osman noted that about half of Public Service Commission (PSC) scholarship recipients lived in private property. But to conclude from this narrow and single observation that our education system is therefore less meritocratic is neither sensible nor fair. It is true that in all societies, successful parents tend to produce successful children and Singapore is not unique here. However, thousands of students who graduate from ITE, polytechnics and our universities every year do not feel less of themselves or their achievements because they have not received a PSC scholarship. All of them have succeeded by their own efforts and no eligible student is deprived from entering our top schools, institutions or gifted programmes just because his family is poor. Admission is strictly based on merit and we have a wide range of bursaries and financial assistance schemes to assist students in need.

Our education system should motivate and provide opportunities for all students to go as far as each can. We have targeted programmes to assist those from poorer families and many are moving up. One of every eight undergraduates in our public universities comes from households who live in one- to three-room flats. We should celebrate when any student excels, regardless of his background. When that student comes from a lower-income household, we applaud his efforts because he has succeeded despite difficult circumstances. But we should not cavil or be envious when students from higher income households do well in our education system. Both have earned rewards based on personal effort and merit. And we hope both will feel a duty to contribute back to society to maintain our system that provides opportunities for all.

Jennifer Chan (Ms)
Director, Corporate Communications Division
Ministry of Education

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Aug 25, 2008.