SINGAPORE: While in secondary school in Hanoi, Le Minh Giang used to have little respite on school days. Once school ended at 4pm, he had to prepare for cram classes in the evening.
The selection process is rigorous and competitive: Shortlisted applicants are required to take a series of English, mathematics and general logic tests. A small number are then invited to the final stage of selection, an interview. “Before my brother went to Singapore, I didn’t even know it was possible to study abroad before university,” he recalls.
It provides lessons in English, mathematics and interview preparation. Despite competing with a larger, more established tuition centre, it signed up 12 students within a few weeks. Tuition centres for these scholarships are “widespread”, says the 20-year-old. My parents were really happy because they’d spent a lot of effort and resources on me going for this scholarship.”
She came up a plan: Study in Singapore first, for the opportunities that would “equip better” to achieve her dream, and then go to Germany to study architecture. But it was easier said than done. “I was very awkward. I didn’t know what was normal in a dance class, and the whole lesson was me struggling to follow hip-hop,” he says. “But after that, I was excited to learn more.”
“Back in Malaysia, art wasn’t the most important subject at school. But when I found out Singapore’s O levels deemed art as a very legit subject, that gave me hope,” she says. The decision to accept the scholarship was automatic, yet he “wasn’t exactly sure of what to expect”. The 21-year-old says: “ almost like I decided to come on a whim.”
“On weekends, I spent 18 hours gaming. I’d game into the night, go for breakfast, then sleep,” he recounts. “I lost my passion for learning. Instead of trying to catch up, I just gave up.” To change his behaviour, a staff member in charge of managing scholarship recipients asked Yap’s peers to keep tabs on his movements throughout the day.
The purpose of granting scholarships to foreign students is so that they can go back to their countries to improve their people’s lives and not to compete for jobs here
Singapore is spreading its tuition disease everywhere
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