Neighbourhood or Primier Institution

This morning, I went to the the convenient shop down my block to buy a set of ' The Strait Times'. The newspaper is one my daily read and I would feel unbearable without it.

As I happily sat in front of the newspaper drinking a hot cup of tea, I flipped to the third page of the newspaper and the headlines read, " Top PSLE student switches choice to RGS". Immediately, it sparked of my interests of the article and I started reading it. I was flabberghasted... They dared to put this kind of article in a world class newspaper? Gosh!

The article was about this girl that got a top score of 273 in her primary school for her PSLE. She opted Bukit Panjang Secondary School for her first choice initially. She could easily get into top institutions like RGS, but due to financial difficulties, she backed out. She was later assured that school fees wouldn't be a problem as a large portion of it would be paid for by the Edusave Scholarship. She then changed her mind for RGS.

What sparked my fury and disgust was the sense of elitism portrayed in the article. It referred BPSS as a neighbourhood school while RGS as an elite institution. Not that I have anything against RGS or what, as a matter of fact, the school produce outstanding students that really impressed me. But it doesn't serve any purpose calling them an elite institution. The article made it sound like "Oh! Poor girl! Are you nuts! You get to go into RGS and you chose BPSS?" Hello! Whats wrong with going to BPSS? I mean the issue here is that she has financial problems and that should be the focus of the article, not about RGS or BPSS. In fact, I think the printing of the school names is uncalled for. What does it show? We are stucked with this screwed up attitude that what everybody regard as the best is always the best. Being in one of the so called 'elite' institution in Singapore since secondary and now, I definitly met a lot of people that just don't deserve to be here at all. We are not as good as we think we are. True, most people here have the brains, but they definitly do not have the attitude. They lost their emotional well being and expressiveness. Disgusting EQ I would say.

Don't get me wrong, it only represents a minority here. At the end of the day, the school only play a small role in maintaining its reputation, what really counts is the students. BPSS and many other 'neighbourhood schools' produce students that are very cheerful and expressive. Many of them are bright and hardworking too. Ask me who I would work as a team next time, it would be them. Better to work with people that have EQ than loads of nonsense in their heads and think that they have the world in their hands.

I am impressed by the girl. She said one simple statment, that hit the nail on its head. "BPSS is not a neighbourhood school" she said. It shows that she understood all the debates going around her. She understood the fact that success in life is not branded as elite but one that acquires the skill to communicate. To her, I give my salute. I wish her all the best in life.

To the people out there who think you are an elite, think again. I don't call myself an elite, because elites don't ever think they are one. That is what make them unique.