Looking for Scholars Everywhere

I have lost count the number of emails, smses and even postcards MOE sent us. Not just to my daughter but me too.

Looks like MOE really cannot interest enough students to be interested in a teaching scholarship. I read sometime back a TOC article using stats from MOE the attrition rate of teachers were quite high.

Now as I write this there is another perspective I wasn't aware. An email just came and I left to read that before coming back. It explained that the government wants to cast its net as wide as possible but I think they believe in returning to fish over and over again. Here is part of the edited email and my response.

I spoke to [redacted] and his teacher who went to his [redacted]about this. [redacted] said that it’s not that the Singapore govt can’t find scholars. They like to cast their net very wide i.e. they recruit very hard but it’s still not that easy to get a scholarship. His teacher said that most parents still regard getting a scholarship as being very prestigious whether they need the money or not, which is why quite a few end up taking up scholarships and then regretting it the bond.

and my response

LOL! Are they looking for Zhuge Liang or what? They want to make potential scholars feel like they were very assiduously pursued?

I think they just want the best but I am not sure they recognize them when they appear because these guys from what I can see is living the good is the enemy of the great. [redacted] two best teachers gave up and left. We even contribute to a fund to help one of them pay for breaking her bond!

I am not going to prove why the civil service is suffering from 'the good is the enemy of the great'. I only blog when I can do it quickly or sometimes to help me think clearly. Just make a note that our system as it is can no longer produce the outstanding principals of the past. It also cannot reproduce the Joe Pillay, Sim Kee Boon, Philip Yeo etc.,

For all our sakes I wish the civil service get a lot better never mind we are streets ahead of our neighbors already. As is, I don't encourage my children to aim for government scholarships. Come to think of it, none of my older friends with children who were government scholars are happy in their bonded careers. Of course in this instance, do not believe what the MSM interview them.

Update: 11:10am

I got a reply to my reply and I responded as follows with a better but not rigorous proof that our system being good but the enemy of the great.

But we aren't looking for a perfect system. Just good enough that people can live with without quitting. If they are happy that's a huge bonus. But how can they improve if they are serving KPIs. Any great doctor especially [redacted] would tell you how stupid it is to see a patient in terms of life signs and medical tests results only. 

How shall I make this clearer? A KPI system is like LTCM and a great system is like those inhabited by the likes of Warren Buffett or George Soros. Do we know in order to have control we could be fatally shortchanging ourselves sometime?

I can appreciate the usefulness of KPIs but always find fault with it and CLEVERLY make exceptions with them. KPIs are servants and not masters.

Look, at this very moment our in the box thinking could not help us find firm solutions for the haze problem. I wonder if the PM knows that in the box thinking is the deadliest poison to imagination and foresight.