Out of touch with reality

My son was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, a county in Britain, famous for its Yorkshire pudding and Tetley beer and tea and TV serial, Emmerdale Farm; Jane Austen, authoress of Wuthering Heights set in the Yorshire Dales, and many more just quoting from my memory. I could have written a whole article on this if I continue.

Anyway, with our stories about life in UK and photos to show, Cheng made up her mind while in primary school that she would have none other than UK for her further education. That really threw me off balance in my finances, if there were any to plan about. To cut a long story short, I even tried to convince her sister to think New Zealand as an option because of the lower exchange rate. But as it turned out, my wife sacrificed her savings to see them through tertiary education in UK, with some assistance from their big brother, who happened to be privileged under ‘Right of Abode’ there.

Even though my daughters could have been eligible for JPA scholarships, we were glad we did not have to go through the false hopes as evidenced from the many letters of complaints about unfair discrimination in their selection process. Under the circumstances, I would like to think that they have made possible two successful candidates who might not have been selected if they were to be vying for scholarships as well. Even though, our family has gone past the stage, I still believe in fighting for a fair system of selection for future truly deserving candidates.

I wrote to Dr. Chua Soi Lek in his blog and enquired about scholarships for Masters with nary a hope of anything positive. He was kind enough to publish my letter even though he did not comment. But days later, by coincidence, JPA published a list of requirements for different types of scholarships which provided what I needed to know. The more important part is the information must have been useful to many who wanted to apply for scholarships, and as to their chances. On the other hand, I cannot help thinking that proper rules on selection do not necessary mean proper application of the rules in practice, and sure enough, someone was quick to question, ‘why not publish the full list of successful candidates and their grades?’

I remember having read of one disappointed ex-student’s letter who sarcastically ‘thanked’ the discrimination for having given her the chance to have an overseas education.

Actually, what I meant to post was ‘how out of touch with reality our present Minister of Education is’ judging from the following article:
http://www.malaysia-today.net/2008/content/view/9372/84/
Was he being altruistic or more likely, ‘do what I tell you to do but not what I do’?
Ok, it is unfair to disallow a Minister's children an overseas education (in his case, totally sheltered from government education system), but why not have a locally educated one who is more likely and able to empathise with the problems faced by the public? When are we able to raise the standard of education so that our noble Ministers can be proud of and have confidence in?