As Singapore Globalizes Its Schools, Locals Worry

     This article is by Liz Gooch and was published on August 27, 2012.  Liz Gooch owns a blog called “The Thinking Fish Tank” which is a Singapore based blog. On it she basically complained about how the school systems give scholarships to students who are from international schools, but not to students who are from Singapore. She is not the only one who is complaining online that international students, some of whom receive scholarships, are squeezing Singaporeans out of public universities. (Gooch, “Singapore”).  Here is an interesting fact that Gooch found out; She said that Universities from around the world have made attracting international students a fundamental goal with 18 percent of foreigners making the undergraduate student population. (Gooch). She is starting to become concerned that globalization may cause the country to have more higher education standards that may cause Singapore citizens to lose a lot of money, despite the high number of university students attending colleges.  The Singapore government is creating ways to have the universities to expand so that a lot of students can go to Singapore University. “About 27 percent of Singaporean students who finish high school enter public universities, a figure expected to increase to 30 percent by 2015. Education commentators say it is a rate similar to that in most advanced economies.” (Gooch, “Singapore”). One of her instructors stated that the growth of the education sector in the community is due largely to the fact that they have a very good economy. Gooch believes and found statistics that the government has capped the number of international students at 20 percent of the undergraduate intake for the past decade. In 2011, they made up 18 percent, with most coming from China, India and other Southeast Asian countries, according to the Ministry of Education. (Gooch, “Singapore”). The ministry said in a statement that it would maintain current levels “to facilitate better integration between Singaporeans and international students.”(Gooch, “Singapore”).

      How I feel about this article is that yes, it sucks that Singapore’s University has to cut some local students, but college is so much more competitive in the last five years than it has in such a long time. I mean we are the future. We have to make this country run as smooth as possible and bringing in international students adds more ideas, more opportunities for the economy if we added citizens from other countries to the “mix”. That way more ideas could be established, and it would lead to a more efficient running economy. Plus, when those international students return to their homelands after they graduate, their economy could run  a lot smoother from all the things they learned. I mean yeah, it sucks that students are not getting accepted, but maybe that could teach students that college is extremely competitive, and they will learn that maybe they should take their high school classes a lot more serious. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/world/asia/27iht-educside27.html?_r=1