WHY allow potential scholars to read our letters of recommendation?

That is what junior college teachers are asking a local university.

They are concerned that this would make it difficult for them to be fully honest in their assessment of the potential scholars.

Students applying for undergraduate scholarships from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) were told to submit scanned copies of their teachers' recommendations electronically, together with their scholarship applications.

This will mean students can read whatever their teachers had to say about them before they submit their applications.

Every year, junior college teachers write recommendation letters to help their students get into universities here and overseas.

The reports were due at the beginning of this month.

The submission process was different for undergraduate scholarship applicants at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Teachers were required to send their recommendations - known as referee reports - independently in signed and sealed envelopes.

A spokesman for NUS said it has required referee reports for scholarship applications since 2005.

These reports elaborate on students' intellectual and CCA abilities and personal qualities that may not be evident from academic or curricular records.

'The instructions provided for the submission of the report stipulate that this is a confidential report written by the teacher about the student,' the NUS spokesman said.

And as one junior college teacher told The New Paper: 'They're called confidential reports for a reason. Students should not be allowed to have access to them.

'They are asking us to comment on our students' character. If they want truly honest reports, students shouldn't be able to read them.'

The teacher added that universities should only require students to submit documents that are non-confidential in nature, such as testimonials.

She said: 'Students already have access to their testimonials, so having them submit those would not be an issue.'

NOT RIGHT

Agreeing, another JC teacher felt it was not right for students to read their recommendation letters.

He said: 'We write confidential recommendations for students who apply to overseas universities, and submit them separately from the students' applications.

'Confidentiality is essential if we are expected to write about the students objectively.'

The New Paper understands that teachers from several top JCs had raised the confidentiality issue with the NTU admissions office.

Eventually, the teachers were told they would be allowed to send their recommendation letters to NTU separately from their students' applications, via snail mail.

Said a spokesman for NTU's office of admissions: 'In order to speed up the application process, applicants can now scan a copy of the letter of recommendation if it is acceptable to the appraiser, or the appraiser can directly send the letter of recommendation to NTU.

'We will monitor and refine the process for effectiveness and speed.'

Students applying for scholarships agree on the importance of keeping recommendation letters confidential.

Said one 18-year-old who applied for an NTU scholarship at its business school: 'Confidentiality is important, to ensure the school gets an accurate view of the candidate.

'This is because most teachers probably wouldn't be comfortable writing mean but true things if the student gets to read it.'

A 19-year-old, who also applied for the same scholarship, felt it 'didn't make sense' for them to submit the recommendation letters on their teachers' behalf.

'We can't expect our teachers to write us a proper reference if we can see it. In the end, I just got my teacher to submit my testimonial.'

Additional reporting by Aditi Shivaramakrishnan

This article was first published in The New Paper on Apr 16, 2008.