5/31/2007

The basics of education

An educated workforce is an asset to the nation. Govt will find it to its advantage, and also its responsibility to educate its people, which in turn benefits both country and people at the same time. Educating the population is thus both a necessity and a responsibility of a govt. The investment ploughed into education will bear its fruits and the country will be rewarded with a better educated and trained workforce. Initially it may appear to be a cost centre. But it is more than just the churning out of more employable workers, it encompasses the whole well being of a nation, the quality of life and the social environment, and everything that got to do with progressing up the ladder towards an advanced country. But education has been seen as an avenue for profit by some wise guys. Which is true to a certain extent. However, when profit is the only driving goal for education, it undermines its reason to exist as an industry. The assumption of private education for profits must be quality education to befit its high price. And quality education, which culminates in producing quality students, does not depend on the infrastructure and the quality of the teachers. It also depends on the quality of the students. Another case of rubbish in rubbish out. Here comes the problem. Quality students will either be provided with scholarships to pursue their studies in quality institutions or will qualify for admission to state universities at a much lower cost. There is no need for them to pay through their nose to private institutions for a quality education. Private institutions will thus be snuffed out of their supply of good quality students. This is a simple fact that they must know. Unless private universities can provide such a high quality education that established universities cannot provide and can attract quality students to pay for it. In reality, only those who cannot get into cheaper state universities will opt for private universities and willing to pay a higher fee. What these students would expect is that the entry requirements must be lower. That is the expectation. This is the contradiction that private universities must live with. Who the hell would want to pay more for admission to a lesser private university when they can get admitted into the best universities at a lower fee? Education for profit must thus compromise the quality of the education for the students. And this has been going on in many countries when grades were inflated to keep paying students happy and coming. Exceptional cases can be made out for niche markets or for very well established universities that can still retain the high entry requirement and command a high fee. A Harvard or MIT campus here will attract some very good students who are willing to pay the high fees which again may be relatively cheaper than pursuing it in the US. Any other average brand universities must reckon with the hard realities that they will only get the second or third best candidates available if they set up business here and want to command a higher fee. Would ivory tower professors understand this simple business logic?

11 comments:

  1. The problem with state-controlled education is that choice is severely limited. The problem with a centrally planned workforce is that it can never adapt quickly enough to cope with the REAL market, which is a DEMAND DRIVEN market. Who knows what consumers will be demanding? Businesspeople are speculators and forecasters at best. If they are "right" they "win", if not the suffer loses.

    OTOH some overpaid moron employed by the MOE is not a good forecaster or speculator. In fact, the fact that he works for the govt means he is risk adverse and is unwilling to subject his "worth" to the vagaries of the free market, preferring the "safe" option of living of the confiscated property of people (taxes)

    In a private education market, there'll be some entities which of course will not live up to their intent, and thus will fail. Luckily, human beings are great adapters and efficient learners, so any of those who "lose" can change to make it right for themselves. Bad private institutions go out of business, and the good ones flourish.

    One of the great things about a FREE market is that it is a MERITOCRACY, and the market process is extremely efficient in rewarding the good, and swiftly penalising the bad. (no point in consuming valuable resources on a "loser")

    The state system is different however: if the moron civil servant makes an error, he causes losses to the students as well as the teaching faculties who all must kow-tow to the contents of the civil servant's (usually sub-par) brain.

    When the state screws up on education — and this has happened SEVERAL TIMES, but people forget, the civil servants and ministers in-charge of the central planning not only stay in their jobs, they get pay rises, and when questioned by the media, turn the tables around and BLAME the citizens...

    Outrageous.

    OK, some of you are bound to challenge me to cite recent examples of when the education system screwed up:

    A few years ago batches of locally educated university students were unable to find viable employment after graduation. Many of them were unemployed for over 2 years.

    ....but sir, the civil servants at the MOE are supposed to be ace forcasters (as reflected by their salaries)... they have "planned" the exact number of engineers, scientists, accountants etc for the future, because their crystal balls said so.

    and the civil servants and the minister were still nicely drawing their regular paycheck, whilst hordes of young people screaming out for independence were left to live off their families and miss out on a very productive time in their life. Of course the civil servants blamed the "recession". But hey, aren't they supposed to be first rate forecasters? Surely if they can plan a workforce and an economy, they can foresee a recession?

    Someone please kick these fuckers in their crystal balls!

    Talk about cruelty to children, and thats how CRUEL a state can be to our kids. For the males, a double whammy, the state steals our sons by way of conscription — but that's a separate issue.

    Anyway, so much for a centrally planned society. You lose your lives to the state. Worse still, because you support it, you damn your children to a fate worse than the present, because state power EXPANDS over time. (Just look at how much individual freedom has been lost...OK, there was never much to begin with. But look at today and the "sneaky taxes" you pay. Try taking a ride from Woodlands to town at peak hour. Your ERP charges are close to 10 bucks. State power expands, and they pick your pocket to do it)

    The ultimate in private education is of course HOME SCHOOLING, where the parents take the lead role in nurturing and educating their young.

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  2. Dear Red Bean,
    What do U think of this clean-up act from our pseudo foul-mouth here?
    Maybe U can try going to his blog n observe his true side: all soft n whimpy. Not the dunce he's showing of himself here?
    Mati la, Matilah!

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  3. What's "pseudo" about my foul mouth?

    I can assure you my foul mouth is real, you cocksucking motherfucker :)

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  4. Dear anonymous Jun02 and red bean, what's going on here? Is this a thinking blog or some loose damn of a free for all? Clean up the act I say! We'll appreciate that!

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  5. ok you guys, anonymous jun 02 has spoken.

    let's talk and avoid calling names. it takes a long time to reach a stage when you can discuss sensibly with one another without pulling your hairs off. : )

    there is no crime in disgreeing and having different views. that's maturity.

    as einstein said, the wise knows his limitations. the fools don't and will insist that his is the only right answer.

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  6. shit, matilah would think that i am calling him a fool : )

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  7. Aiyah, you can call me what you want lah... If I buay tahan, I will tekan you back.

    At least I write some shit on the blog. The annoying-mouse fathersucking motherpumpers only can tekan me (although not very well — must have been educated by The State... hur hur hur) but are incapable of writing anything of substance on this blog.

    In terms of logical fallacies this is known as ad homminem or "against the person" — very typical of loser state-educated assholes who have the emotional maturity of 5 year old Down's syndrome victim.

    One can only hope that such people consider euthanasia as their next "leisure activity", and do humanity a favour by removing bad genes from the human gene pool.

    :-)

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  8. P.S. redbean — I'm not that crazy about Einstein. He may have been brilliant at relativity theory and the E=mC2 shit, but as an economist and sociologist, he fucking sucked ass.

    God it great — he made it so that none of us are *the best* at everything.

    And yeah, I am CERTAIN I am right about some things. Fuck Einstein :)

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  9. "As einstein said, the wise knows his limitations. the fools don't and will insist that his is the only right answer."

    Much credibility is going to be sacrificed with the apparent lack of maturity here.

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  10. oh matilah,

    your taste is getting from bad to worst. when have you started to harbour lurid thoughts of having sex with a guy like einstein?

    it cannot be too much alcohol right?

    just stay sober with the pretty things and stop straying among the same sex, ok?

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