"I Can't Take a Second Diploma."
According to MOE, the student grant can only be used once and I've used it for my first Diploma with Ngee Ann. Without the student grant, I'll have to pay like the foreign students which is about $21,000 a year in 2017.
It's more expensive than a degree.
Why can there be things like double degree and not double diploma? I don't get it. This is disappointing.
I had a panic attack yesterday when the email reply came back telling me I was better off not applying because priorities will be given to new students.
I had an anxiety attack yesterday when all my hopes were dashed. Cold sweat, stomachache, unable to breathe and shaky hands without a clear mind... It was terrible and I almost cried in frustration at how rigid the system in Singapore is.
This is proof that the internet deems us as one of the best countries in the world when it comes to education. Every year we have so many applications from people all over the world wanting their children to study here that our Prime Minister had to put a cap to the number of students allowed to apply each year. Isn't it ridiculous?
Yet here I am, faced with a problem getting the education I want. I met up with a teacher from my secondary school days. Seven years in the teaching line had turned her to look like a zombie. Her eye bags are permanent and happiness had been sucked out of her soul. Ignoring her mid-life crisis, she mentioned how rigid the system in the education industry with MOE is.
In order to be a teacher with the government, you have to be qualified with the right certification often a bachelor. Also, you have to undergo their training program to ensure you know how to teach according to how they want regardless of the ground situation, type of students and effectiveness of method in order to be employed with a bond. They promote teachers to make a difference for their students because of passion but truly, can passion survive politics?
The society is poisoned by the mentality of needing to obey authority. I'm not saying to go against it. I'm saying to question rules. Rules were made by man and man will err from time to time. Should we follow and do as told without questioning if it was for good or bad? What are we trying to prove with this education system? That we are better? That we are well versed with knowledge of things most people can't afford to learn? That we are far more advanced than the people who can't afford an education like us?
What is education? I believe that answer should be heard from the people receiving it. Are we listening to them? Are we doing what is best for them? Or is it simply our selfish wish to teach them what we want them to do?
Despite the government's stand that a degree is not all-important, the number of people pursuing a degree regardless of the practicality of it continues to rise. Isn't this a real concern? There is a problem with our society. There is no way for anyone living in Singapore to take it easy. There are many concerns and the most pressing one is the security of a future for a good financial standing. Why? Just take a look at our cost of living. The word retire is a legend here. No one has truly ever done it.
Although I can see a shift in the younger generation who are more daring to try what they want, according to my experiences and teachers I know, many still don't know what they want. Why is that so? And when they finally know what they want it might be too late to try anything. They would be burdened with car loans, study loans and mortgage loans.
I am lucky that I have a brother who beat some sense in me. I can't qualify for the education I want but it won't stop me from learning what I want. As long as I have an internet connection to Google and Youtube, I can help myself to tutorials and softwares that I require. The only thing is how I would be unable to get a job in designing without "proper education" which is not a very real concern for me at the moment.
I hope that the people who read this post could make a decision for themselves. What is it that is most important in life? I personally feel that recognition is not everything. Even if I would be laughed at for learning design on my own without any future for me, I would still do it.
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