Welcome to Singapore. Face It.

Its time we all face the fact that we are living in Singapore, where the standards of living is high. This is also the place where the study system is different from any other around the world. I love my country, and it is also this that we have to learn to accept the way Singapore is.

The new law in Singapore (2006) allows male citizens to go to Polytechnics after their ITE Education if they are not older then 20 years old before serving NS. This sounds fair doesn’t it, and this means that in the future, male citizens will be able to finish their diplomas before serving Nation Service or what other alias it has.

This is only possible if Polytechnics embrace this law and allows ITE Students to further their studies in their respective schools. Yes, the schools have opened up their admission through ways like JPAE, JPSAE. Now here’s the catch. ITE Students, who happens to be humans and also Singaporeans, deserve their fair share after spending 2 hard years in ITE education system. But no, they have to be behind O Levels graduates, and then they have take note of this important fact which is, the % of the course seats opened to ITE is embarrassingly little.

Some of you might be carrying the hope that they will enter Polytechnics straight after ITE, with results like 3.8, 3.9, 4.0. You might shut yourself out to possibilities that the seats might and will possibly go to O Levels students and be filled up by them. But, this is the truth, this is the education system.

Sad to say, even if you are a high scorer in ITE, it doesn’t really guarantee anything. You might have heard stories of ITE Graduates going into Polytechnics and scoring top points again in it. Ask yourself, what course were they from, Information Technology? Engineering? Go Google it and you’ll see how much the intake and Cut-Off Point is for both. Its pure bullshit. Now try to look for Stories of students getting into courses of Design, Multimedia. I’ll be glad if you could even Google 2 out.

I don’t deny that I’m nervous and afraid that I’ll not get the course that I apply for. Whats more, I applied for only 2 courses out of the 5, the reason being, why go into a course you don’t like. Time wasting, money wasting. I try not to think about the posting results, but its might be too much for me to take, with ITE results and Poly postings just 1 day apart.. In the past, GPA 3.5 will almost guarantee a seating in poly, not to mention 3.8, 4.0. Now? Even 4.0 will have to suck their thumbs and worry at home.

Its just life. Limited Slots, Limited Seats, Go to Limited O level Students, Open Limited Leftovers to ITE students. Imagine a seating of 80, competed against for by hundreds of O levels students, not to mention a whole bunch of ITE graduates. Well, I can only say, Welcome to Singapore.