VJC mentioned in reader’s letter. From The Straits Times Forum page:
Channel IP students to new varsity for poly grads
I REFER to Tuesday’s report “New institute for poly grads” and thank the Ministry of Education (MOE) for looking into the needs of our poly graduates.
GCE A-level graduates and poly graduates possess different skill sets. Relying solely on their paper qualifications will not allow poly grads to gain admission to varsities competitively.
There is yet another group of students with different skills.
I met a group of talented students who are in the integrated programme (IP) at Victoria Junior College (VJC) two weeks ago.
They joined VJC after finishing Secondary 2 and will take the A levels after VJC trains them for four years. This is the same amount of time a Secondary 3 student will take to do his O levels and A levels in non-IP institutions.
The IP students I met possessed excellent presentation and public-speaking skills. These are skills that our mainstream secondary school students may not have the opportunity to be trained in because of the different curriculum.
It is admirable that Singapore has progressed so that students with different abilities are able to choose the path that most suits them in furthering their education.
Those who show potential at an early age now have the opportunity to be trained under the IP scheme, where they not only learn the fundamentals of mathematics, language, science and humanities but also pick up business skills.
While this progress is welcome, a system to distinguish different abilities has to be put in place, so that not everyone is “measured” by a common test – in this case, the A levels – to gain admission to the local universities.
Perhaps the MOE could consider channelling IP graduates to the new university for poly grads. This can free up more space at other tertiary institutions for other A-level graduates.
Patrick Sio
Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/ST+Forum/Online+Story/STIStory_380249.html
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One path, many avenues by Zul Othman 05:55 AM Jul 13, 2009HE CAPTAINED its windsurfing team. He played violin and viola with its string ensemble.
You wouldn't be wrong in labelling Singapore Management University (SMU) graduate Tong Junjie an over-achiever because he was also active in community work, and had been to China in 2006 to teach English as part of SMU's overseas community service outreach programme.
For all that and for maintaining a perfect 4.0 grade point average (GPA) in his four years, he was the salutatorian at SMU's sixth commencement ceremony for 1,374 graduands, the largest batch so far.
That academic title is traditionally given in the United States to the second-highest graduate of the entire graduating class of an educational institution, and is based on grades, the GPA as well as extracurricular activities.
The 24-year-old's grades also placed him on the Dean's List and helped him clinch the Deloitte Meritorious Award in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
Mr Tong, who was from Victoria Junior College, graduated Summa Cum Laude (the highest honours attainable) with a double degree in Accountancy and Economics.
"When I entered SMU, I just wanted to complete my accountancy degree and become an auditor," he said. "However, the university entrusted us to make our own choices, and our simple path to a degree evolved into multiple avenues."
His engineer father and auditor mother are both retired.
In September, Mr Tong starts work as a business analyst with management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. He is the only Singaporean hired this year in McKinsey's Corporate Finance Asia Practice.
But his involvement with SMU has not stopped. Mr Tong's graduating class is making a collective Senior Class Gift to SMU, and contributions will be channelled towards a new Graduating Class of 2009 Scholarship to sponsor the tuition fees of an undergraduate for one year of study.
http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC090713-00…