Taking a peek at the Barcamp Sessions

• Brian Koh live blogged about Coleman Yee’s session on ‘How to bluff your way through Information Architecture’.

• Ivan Chew (Rambling Librarian) gave an excellent and informative session on ‘How to produce and publish your Music Album online, practically free’.

• Cullen Hartley touched on Social Media from the Perspective of an Educator – illuminating and thought provoking stuff. I don’t know why but I can’t embed his slides here. Click on his post to view the slides. In fact, someone should write about social media from a parent’s view too (not me though, I am too lazy).

• Samantha Chan who gave an engagingly interactive session on ‘10 ways (or more) on how social media is changing your life’ to much laughter from the audience. What can I say. The lady’s personality shone through.

• Werewolf – Barcamp game
  

Great icebreaking game which led to much suspicion and laughter (I know, strange combination.) – I wish this had been introduced in the morning instead of the end of the day. Daniel CerVentus did a great job as the moderator.

• Photoshop Tips

Stefano Virgilli gave a very good talk on Photoshop tips but I couldn’t find the slides online.

***

Event Summary

All in all, pretty good sessions, easy flow, comfortable ‘messiness’, candid sharing, lunch and tea provided for (typical Singaporean ) and best of all it’s free.

Well, there were one or two sessions that made me go wtf? but as my mum always told me, if you have nothing good to say, don’t say it

***

Social Media

• Slide Share – Speakers’ slides
• Flickr – Photos from Barcamp SG 3
• Hashtags #barcampsg3 on Twitter
• Blog reactions on Barcamp SG 3
• Abhishek Kumar
• Chin Yong
• Kevin Lim
• Carlsson Chee
• Shalabh Pandey
• Thanks to Hisham for inviting me!!

I am not against having tuition for the kids if they need help but I am against having tuition for the kids if you want to ace everyone else, ace everything and to play the senseless one up game with everyone else. I know some parents who are proud to have their kids tutored in all the subjects just to be ‘ahead’ in the rat race.

This is like winning in the Special Olympics. If you need to ask why, stop reading.

I have never forced tuition on Germaine because

1. she doesn’t need it.
2. I don’t need her to glorify me with her results
3. honestly, who found the stuff they learned in school relevant when they started working? I am not the only one who feels this way. Big shot investment banking lawyer also ok.

I also rebel against positioning education as a win or lose situation. I hate the way our education system pushes parents and students to choose courses which are “useful”, “practical” or “in-demand” (rather than the courses for which the student has a genuine interest).

This education system also ostracized people who may not score well academically, but are nevertheless talented and intelligent. Now it begs the question,

“Are examinations the only way to gauge your potential, talent and intelligence?”

I have friends who will never dream of sending their kids to Sports School in case the children ‘don’t have something to fall back on’. Is this the fault of the parents? No.

This is the fault of this elitist government who has worshipped the God of Academic Results. An ‘A team‘ which has lost (only) billions in investments  and came up with gems like Job Credit Scheme.

Lastly, look at poor Rebecca Wong (or rather, poor Rebecca Wong’s parents).

ST Nov 29, 2008
Tuition not the way to success

WHEN I collected my Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) results in 1985, I was told I had been selected to attend a Special Assistance Plan (SAP) secondary school. This sudden ‘promotion’ did my parents proud but it gave me much stress. The moment I started at the SAP school, I fell from being the top girl to being among the top 15. For the first time in my life, I knew I was simply ‘not good enough’ and was bitterly disappointed with myself.

Since almost everyone ahead of me had tuition of various kinds, I told my parents I needed help too.It was not long before my single-income family began to channel huge amounts towards education investment – tuition for me and my three siblings. One day, the principal of my SAP school in Katong asked to meet my parents concerning my lacklustre grades. He wanted me to drop chemistry and English literature specifically, ’so as not to pull down the school standard’. After my mother pleaded with him tearfully, this humiliating episode ended with more tuition for me and less retirement funds for my food-seller parents. In all, I had tuition in six out of 10 subjects, not because I did badly, but because I was not good enough to achieve the As and Bs the school was furiously churning out ….

Rebecca Wang

Says the STOMPer in an email to STOMP yesterday (Jan 29):

“Today, I (I boarded the train from City Hall) met this inconsiderate and rude woman who did not offer me (who is 26 weeks pregnant) the Priority Seat she was sitting on.

“She did not offer me the seat even after finishing her sms and after one stop.

“However, she realised that I was taking a picture of her and asked me very rudely and with a hostile expression on her face if I wanted the seat.

“I answered yes and she stood up and started hurling vulgarities at me and calling me a ‘b***h’.

“I scolded her back as I thought she should be embarassed of herself!

“She walked away after about 20 seconds of cursing.

“Before she alighted at Novena station, she stopped by my seat and started cursing me and my unborn baby!

“I’m speechless as I’m wondering if she is even ashamed of herself!

“I cannot tolerate actions like this and from someone who is obviously educated.”

In a telephone conversation with STOMP, the STOMPer stood by her story.

She said that she was wearing maternity clothing and was visibly pregnant when she boarded the train and was disappointed that the woman had behaved in such a manner.

What were your thoughts after reading this? Indignation? Anger? Incredulity? This is natural if you had felt the above. After all it is minimal human decency to side with a pregnant woman who not only had been denied a seat, but also had to endure curses to herself and her unborn child. [Though as a disclaimer, I should state that I never expected anyone to offer me a seat during both my pregnancies. That is a story for another day though.]

You might even blog about it and express your displeasure/ disgust/ anger/ shock. That, too is perfectly normal. But what if you were presented with the other side of the story?

A pregnant woman earlier alleged that this woman not only failed to offer her a Priority Seat in the train, she even cursed her and her unborn child.

The woman pictured in the story has since informed STOMP of her side of the story in an email dated Feb 1.

Here’s what she had to say:

“The truth of this incident is I boarded the train before the pregnant lady did. I was tired and trying to sleep as you can see in the photo.

“I had no idea when she boarded or that she was maliciously taking a photo of me sleeping. She never once asked for the seat, nor did anybody around alert me of her presence.

“Nonetheless, I looked up after a while, and when I noticed her, I immediately asked, ‘Do you want to sit?’

“To my shock and horror, she said ‘Yes’ really rudely, glaring at me, and rushed to the seat without a word of thanks!

“I then asked her, ‘Hey I offered you the seat, why are you being so hostile?’

“She said, ‘Of course! Couldn’t you see the sign?’

“Certainly I knew I was sitting on the Priority Seat. But am I expected to be constantly on the lookout for pregnant women? I was asleep for Christ’s sake, and the minute I noticed her, I offered it to her!

“There was NO ‘20 seconds of cursing’, ’she stood up and started hurling vulgarities at me’, nor did I curse her and her unborn baby.

“‘A pregnant STOMPer says this woman not only did not offer her the Priority Seat in the train, she even cursed her and her unborn child’ – this vicious statement is totally untrue.

“If there were SMRT cameras, I would most certainly like the public to see how ungrateful this pregnant lady really was, and worse, trying to malign me on STOMP!

“I do not deny that I called her a b***h. She certainly is the epitome of the word ‘b***h’.

“The truth is, she called me one too! After I graciously offered her the seat, she called me a b***h because I said there was no need for hostility simply because I had not noticed her earlier.

“As for ‘cursing her and her unborn baby’? All i said before I alighted was that it would be terribly sad if she brought up another person just like herself.

“I am not ashamed to say this because this is the true story, and I am sure everyone would agree with me that it is a great shame that a lady of her age cannot even conduct herself graciously, and is thinking of bringing up a child.”

Ah.. feeling differently now? My point is, regardless of who you might think is telling the truth, get both sides of the story.

There are two types of trouble…one is the trouble you knowingly walk into, the other is trouble that just happens…it’s important to know the difference.

Walk softly but carry a big stick.
If you have to use said stick, make sure who you use it on, doesn’t get up.

Foul language is a sign of a limited vocabulary.

Everyone is a friend until proven otherwise.

The phrases “I don’t know”, “I forgot”, or “I tried (and failed)” are excuses.

There is a difference between an excuse and a reason, know the difference.

The world can change everything about you, except your point of view…unless you allow it to.

view more here.

Image

So far, Germaine has not had any tuition, despite her weak grades in Mathematics. She doesn’t like the idea and prefers being taught by us – conveniently ignoring the fact my blood pressure shoots up every time I have to coach her. And have you seen those Primary Maths questions lately? Still, they are trying to ‘boost primary education‘. Enough already! If this trend continues, all the monetary incentives they throw up cannot convince me to have a third child.

Anyway, my refusal to let grades define my child’s intelligence does not mean that I do not praise her when she does well.

Similarly, when she scores reasonably good marks, I don’t let up on her if I know that she can score better and has started being complacent.

My point is, grades are not a complete indicator of a child’s education. In some cases, some children cannot handle the stress and their nervousness during examinations and end up not doing as well as they could in normal circumstances.

Another reason why I feel that grades should not be all indicative of a child’s intelligence and abilities is also because some children might be late bloomers. If your child could not speak well even to the age of nine, did poorly in school and had a teacher who told you that he ‘could not amount to anything’, would you feel that he is a ‘gone case’?

Well, I would hardly label Albert Einstein as a ‘gone case’.

Not every one of our children may be gifted academically but I believe that every child has his or her own talent. I have known children who have flunked their academic subjects but who are good in the kitchen, sports or arts. And who is to say that these children are failures?

It is our society and our culture that determines academia to be the ultimate success. Don’t be deceived or trapped by the herd mentality. It is people like Bill Gates and Sim Wong Hoo who are laughing their way to the bank.

**

I have a story that I would like to share with my readers.

There was once a boy whose nickname is “Dummy”. He was in 5th grade and thought that he was stupid. Although he grew up in a very poor neighborhood in Detroit his mother, who worked as a domestic,  believed that he and his older brother could only succeed through education.  She worked 2, sometimes 3 menial jobs to take care of them.

**

Next up: Point #2 on education – stop the mollycoddling and babysitting.

CNA reports that ‘on a lighter note, the Minister Mentor touched on what he calls assortative mating, that is, finding a spouse at your level – something he strongly believes in.

He said: “I have explained this. I think I lost votes after I explained the awful truth. Nobody believed it, but slowly it dawned on them, especially the graduates, that yes, you marry a non-graduate, then you worry about whether or not your son or daughter is going to make it to the university.’

Our Minister Mentor is at it again. He had concerns about breeding a society of ‘the physically, intellectually and culturally anaemic’ in 1967. He proclaimed ‘without the slightest remorse, that we wouldn’t be here, we would not have made economic progress, if we had not intervene on very personal matters’ and that ‘we decide what is right. Never mind what people think’ in 1987.

Well, that supreme, almost egoistical confidence and absolute belief that he is never wrong seemed to be unjustified on at least two matters – eugenics/ assortative mating and population control.

He initiated the ‘Stop-at-Two’ population control campaign in the 60s. Couples were urged to undergo sterilisation after their second child. Children born after the second child were given lower priorities in education and such families received less economic rebates.

In 1983, his eugenic belief showed up when he encouraged Singapore men to choose women with high education as wives – sparking the ‘Great Marriage Debate’. He was concerned that a large number of graduate women were unmarried and thus not giving birth to babies. Incentives, such as tax rebates, schooling, and housing priorities, were reserved for graduate mothers who had three or four children, in a reversal of the over-successful ‘Stop-at-Two’ family planning campaign in the 1960s and 1970s. By the late-1990s, birth rates had become so low that Goh Chok Tong (then Prime Minister) extended these incentives to all married women, and gave even more incentives, such as the ‘baby bonus’ scheme.

We now have the benefit of hindsight. The ‘Stop at Two’ campaign and the ‘Great Marriage Debate’ were major flops. They have us clamouring madly to correct the population ratio by waving more monetary incentives and encouraging the influx of ‘foreign talent’. To bring up the idea of eugenics, social darwinism and selective breeding again is so surreal that it is anachronistic.

There also seems to be a dissonance between his stance on ‘assortative mating’ and education. In his recent speech at the Human Capital Summit, he said that talent and aptitude, and not grades should be the measuring yardstick in education systems. And yet this strange fascination with a degree, a form of certified grades, seem to have taken grip in him. A case of cognitive bias?

**

Elsewhere:

Benjamin wrote an excellent article from the socio-economic angle and Nelson asked aptly, “Is not the ability to effectively and efficiently use one’s available knowledge and resources, a better measure of success than academic achievements?”

I REFER to Wednesday’s report, ‘Fancy setting, worthless degrees’.

I was invited to the ceremony through one of my grassroots leaders who was a graduand. I checked the website of a West Coast University, an institution based in Los Angeles accredited for health-care subjects. I subsequently received an invitation printed on a West Coast University letterhead with a Los Angeles address. I have thus been misled into attending the ceremony on Monday.

I have not been associated with the West Coast University mentioned in the report. Nor was it my intention to lend credibility to its courses and degrees.

Chan Soo Sen
Member of Parliament
Joo Chiat Constituency

I have never been an advocate of degrees or graduates. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t doubt or dismiss their ability or intelligence. Rather, I feel that the existence of a degree should not be the basis on which a person’s ability and proficiency should be solely judged on.

Indeed, the feedback that I get from some entrepreneurs and business people I spoke to is that they prefer to employ people who are diploma holders with more internship/ work experience and who tend to be more humble, more open to learning and proactive in finding solutions. In other words, they tend to have a higher EQ and possess more street smarts. Graduates, especially fresh graduates, tend to be cocky, unwilling to ‘get their hands dirty’ and have a know-it-all attitude. Again, this is their observation of common traits and not a prejudiced stereotyping.

I am not a graduate (yet), but I’ve been told by people from all walks of life including recently, a senior reporter, that I ‘write very well’. This is not to toot my own trumpet. It is to say that I believe a person is more driven by his or her interest and passion to excellence than a piece of paper who merely says that you have spent a certain amount of classroom hours. I have also met many people who are not graduates but you don’t mess with them because they definitely knew their stuff – I have personally seen a few ‘old gingers’ taking quite a few pegs off some young ‘hot shots’.

There are professions of course, like law, medicine, accountancy etc, where the clients need the reassurance of that paper (though I personally wouldn’t give a rat’s ass if David Marshall had a degree or not, he was that good), but I think you might agree with me that fields like music, art, writing, social work, advertising, PR etc call for a natural talent and passion more than a mere piece of paper.

Why then do I want to pursue a honors program reading English? The reason is achingly simple. This country is obsessed with degrees to the point of ostracizing people who do not have that piece of paper, regardless of their ability or experience. Essentially, a potential employer can look at all my work (here and here), the articles I did for government agencies like NCSS, newsletters, agencies, magazines etc but it will only be magically deemed good work if I simultaneously produce that piece of paper. Of course, I am referring to big players and not dodgy agencies or websites who don’t mind paying peanuts bananas for monkeys.

And so, you will have people who are willing to go through the wayang process of getting that paper, and those who just, well, want to take a short cut.

What I found extremely amusing was that one of our dear MPs actually agreed to be the guest of honor for the ceremony of an unaccredited university (aka degree mill) and even gave speeches in English and Mandarin. He said that he had not been given any information about it and that ‘if [his] presence there had given the university credibility, that was not [his] intention,’

And therein lies my dislike of the spoon-feeding habit in our culture. “Nobody told me”, “nobody showed me” and “I didn’t know” are all catch phrases of the spoon-feeding culture that is so prevalent in our society that the MP is not exempted.

After all, he had once ingeniously said, “What can I do? I’m only an MP!” So I guess now he will also be famous for “that was not my intention”.

(Article archived in case the above link does not work anymore)

*UPDATE: The MP Chan Soo Sen had written to ST

I REFER to Wednesday’s report, ‘Fancy setting, worthless degrees’.

I was invited to the ceremony through one of my grassroots leaders who was a graduand. I checked the website of a West Coast University, an institution based in Los Angeles accredited for health-care subjects. I subsequently received an invitation printed on a West Coast University letterhead with a Los Angeles address. I have thus been misled into attending the ceremony on Monday.

I have not been associated with the West Coast University mentioned in the report. Nor was it my intention to lend credibility to its courses and degrees.

Chan Soo Sen
Member of Parliament
Joo Chiat Constituency

*****

Worthless degrees
By Sandra Davie and Cassandra Chew

Students of the unaccredited West Coast University, garbed in full academic regalia, celebrating after their graduation ceremony at Old Parliament house on Monday, which even came with an inspiring speech from the university’s honorary president. — ST PHOTO: CASSANDRA CHEW
THE ceremony in the Old Parliament House had all the pomp and circumstance associated with any graduation.

The professors and graduands were in full academic regalia. Speeches flowed in English and Mandarin. And afterwards, a gala dinner at a hotel.

Cash for paper in some cases
THE term ‘degree mill’ is used widely to refer to institutions that offer degrees to students who do not have to do much work to graduate.

Some operate with no more than a mailing address to which people send money in exchange for a piece of paper that looks like a degree. Others require some nominal work to be done but do not require college-level coursework.
… more
At the ceremony, the university’s honorary president, a Professor Bernard Cadet, delivered an inspiring speech, urging graduands to transform the world.

‘Believe nothing is impossible. West Coast University (WCU) will be proud of you in the future,’ he told the 76 graduands from Singapore, Indonesia and China, before handing them their doctorates, master’s and bachelor’s degrees.

But this was a ceremony for an unaccredited university based in Panama, not Los Angeles, as its school in Singapore had claimed.

The Asia-Australia School of Management (AASM), a Case-certified school in Middle Road, offers West Coast University programmes here with a related company, Huanyu Training Expert.

At least two American states have outlawed degrees from WCU, describing it as a ‘degree supplier’ that offers ‘fraudulent or substandard degrees’.

The Texas State Higher Education Coordinating Board warns on its website that WCU ‘is used by multiple unaccredited entities. The extent to which they are related is unknown, but more than one operator is suspected.’

In some parts of the United States, it is a criminal offence to use degrees from unaccredited institutions.

‘Dr’ John Huang, one of the owners of AASM and Huanyu, insisted that the university is based in Los Angeles and faxed The Straits Times documents showing West Coast University International registered as a business in California.

But he confirmed that it was not the California-based West Coast University reputed for nursing and health science-related degrees. He admitted that WCU was unaccredited, but said his students had been given the facts.

His doctorate is from Ashwood University, the same degree mill that granted this reporter’s pet dog a doctorate for US$599 (S$886) just two months ago.

The guest of honour at Monday’s ceremony was MP for Joo Chiat Chan Soo Sen, who delivered a speech in Mandarin and English.

Contacted afterwards, he said he had been invited by a grassroots leader and accepted as he wanted to encourage the habit of life-long learning.

Told that WCU was unaccredited, he said he had not been given any information about it. ‘If my presence there had given the university credibility, that was not my intention,’ he said.

Several graduates interviewed after Monday’s ceremony believed the university was based in Los Angeles and that it was a proper institution.

They had paid between $13,000 and $19,000 in fees to take up bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate courses lasting one year to 15 months.

Those who took up the doctorate programme said they attended classes two days a month, from 9am to 5pm.

Several said they did not know a university can be registered and yet have no academic accreditation, where it is subject to quality checks by an independent body. It also means employers may not recognise the degrees.

An electronics factory quality controller who paid $13,000 in fees for her bachelor’s degree said: ‘I was hoping to get a better job in logistics with this degree, but now it may not be possible.’

Ms Ho Fee Men, director of a Chinese medical hall, said she had heard rumours that the university was unaccredited, but continued with her PhD programme anyway. To get her doctorate, she paid $19,000 in fees, attended classes twice a month over 15 months and wrote a 50,000-word thesis.

Two businessmen said they knew their doctorates were worthless but took up the programme to learn about business management.

Mr Chang Chia Sheng, 55, managing director of X.L. Handle, which makes industrial fasteners, said he gained from discussions with other businessmen.

At least 218 people here have been found with degrees from dubious universities such as Preston, Wisconsin International and Kennedy-Western.

Business owners make up one of three groups here who have degrees from unaccredited institutions and degree mills. For many of them, an honorary PhD has become a must-have symbol of success.

Another group comprises consultants and private school lecturers who may have a first degree and some expertise in a particular area, but seek a master’s degree or doctorate to bolster their credentials.

And lastly, there are those who pay for undergraduate degrees and transcripts – usually non-graduates who want qualifications to gain jobs or promotions.

I have never had a miscarriage so I won’t purport to speak from experience. However I really don’t see how miscarriages can cause one to abuse another child. Makes any sense to you? Not to me.

To punish another child in an unnecessarily harsh manner when she perceived the boy to have “bullied” her son, makes her exactly that. A bully. An adult bully armed with authority.

Is she sorry for what she had done? Or does she feel that she is being unfairly judged? The reporter had observed her to be sullen and there was no mention of remorse.

“Hasanah sat sullenly in the dock while Mr Gill pleaded with District Judge May Mesenas for a light sentence.”

The teacher has apparently defended herself by saying that it was a private matter, and that prostitution was now lawful and legitimate work.

She apparently also told the principal he had no right to be the “moral police”.

**

I am quite disturbed by this piece of news because

1. I am also a mother of 2 in my 30s
2. I have dallied with the idea of going into teaching. What is holding me back is the 60% pay cut I will have to take.
3. The thought of part time prostitution to supplement my income if I do take that 60% pay cut to go into teaching has never crossed my mind.
4. I have a child in primary school and the thought of her teacher possibly moonlighting as a prostitute makes me uncomfortable.
5. I guess I am unfashionably traditional and conservative.

Sometimes I lament how the phrase “moral police” is being misused and even abused to defend situations in which morals are clearly questionable. Is the guise of worldliness and sophistication being foisted to excuse a remorseless lack of morality?

As a teacher, not only are her personal values and integrity questionable, the sublimate impact on those she teaches must be examined.

Sending a message that prostitution is a legal and legitimate (and therefore even honorable?!) vocation is not a joking matter when it comes to young impressionable minds of the primary school going age.

Teaching is a noble and serious vocation in which responsibility, values and integrity should be deemed important to the incumbent. To taint it with prostitution reeks of a frivolous disregard for the very institution of teaching.

What do you think?

1. Can you accept a teacher moonlighting as a prostitute?
2. Can you accept a prostitute moonlighting as a teacher?

When Professor Mahbutani made some pontifications from the comfort of his ivory tower, he had probably not even realized how far removed he is from actual reality.

I am of course smiling benignly as I read his article of academic indulgence. After all, this was the same man who declared that “There are no homeless, destitute or starving people ..Poverty has been eradicated”

Others who had been steamrolled by the NUS selection process, of course would not be silenced.

Make tertiary education available for all who qualify

Ang Kian Chuan wrote in to point out the hypocrisy -

I REFER to your report last Friday which profiled the head of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Professor Kishore Mahbubani, (‘Don’t sniff at our education system’). In the report, Prof Mahbubani said: ‘Look at the number of parents who are paying to send their kids to Australian universities when, frankly, the NUS provides a far better education than most Australian universities.’.

At the same time, Professor Mahbubani admits that his own children chose to study in foreign universities, and makes light of the fact.

Madam Lim Hui Chin writes in about her daughter’s unfortunate experience with NUS -

PROFESSOR Kishore Mahbubani’s misconception that parents prefer an overseas education to a local one for their children should be quelled. (‘Don’t sniff at our education system’, Aug 15).

Yes, we are sending our child to Australia. And no, it was not our preferred choice. The National University of Singapore (NUS) made that choice for us. They have turned away many medical school applicants who possess the criteria to apply.

How can you qualify for entry and not be called up for an interview. How are these decisions made?

In a recent newspaper report, a Singaporean was quoted as saying that one incentive to have children would be if the Government could ‘make tertiary education less expensive’. To me, that should be amended to read ‘make tertiary education possible’. It does not matter if the fees are $20 or $20,000 if there is a serious lack of places for qualified students to attend local universities.

Not all of us decide against an education in NUS. It is NUS who decides against us.

And now we hear of another (and probably many more) “NUS reject” who goes on to make good, if not better in prestigious universities abroad. And our government whines on and on about quitters who go abroad for opportunities. What do you expect when one is denied a chance here?

“NUS reject” – now a PhD student in Princeton with Oxford MBA

Was I really inferior to straight-A students?
By N Tze Yong
27 September 2008

HE has walked the same cobblestones as JRR Tolkien, Margaret Thatcher, Steve Forbes and Bill Clinton.

THERE AT LAST: Mr Lim, above, at Oxford in the UK and, below, at Princeton in the US. PICTURES COURTESY OF MR LIM WAH GUAN

Mr Lim Wah Guan, 28, belongs to a rare breed of Singaporeans to have studied at two of the world’s most prestigious universities – Oxford and Princeton.

Last year, Mr Lim, a happy-go-lucky chap with a hoot of a laugh, completed his master’s degree at Oxford in the UK. He is now a PhD student at Princeton in the US.

However, he did not take the usual Singaporean route to the hallowed hallways of these premier institutions.

He does not hold a prestigious scholarship. He is not a ‘GEPer’ (someone from the Gifted Education Programme). He does not even, well, come from a top junior college.

Mr Lim is, in his own words, an ‘NUS reject’.

He had to retake his A-level examination, after getting C, E and O grades for Mathematics C, Higher Chinese and History respectively. The second time round, he got B, D and D.

Four times, he applied for a spot at the arts faculty at the National University of Singapore (NUS) – and failed

Somewhere inside him was a hidden talent, one that was enough for the pinnacle of academia. But for a long while, that talent was undiscovered, not nurtured, and in danger of being lost forever.

Recently, Education Minister Ng Eng Hen said that it was time for Singapore’s education system to evolve, to recognise students who learn in different ways.

Shortly afterwards, The New Paper columnist Reggie J raised the question of identifying the ‘Churchills’ in our midst – students who do not do well at their O and A levels, but who excel subsequently.

Mr Lim seems to be a ‘Churchill’.

Initially, he did well in school, scoring 252 for his Primary School Leaving Examination, and 12 points for his O-level exam. But those were mostly for maths and science subjects.

It was in junior college, when Mr Lim pursued his interest in the humanities, specifically theatre, history and Chinese literature, that his grades started to slide.

At National Junior College, he was the only one in his cohort with a combination of Mathematics C, Higher Chinese and History, and spent his years there like a nomad, moving from class to class for the lessons.

His Chinese teacher, Mr Ng Thian Lye, said: ‘He knew what his interests were at a young age. Not many students can say the same. Most students just followed the science stream without much thinking.’

Somehow, Mr Lim’s passion did not translate into aces. After his first attempt at the A-level exam, his relatives encouraged him to switch to the science stream because they thought ‘it was easier to score well in it’.

Mr Lim struggled with this dilemma but deep down, he believed his goal – a spot at the arts faculty at NUS – was attainable.

‘The arts faculty was a place people criticised as a ‘dumping ground’. It didn’t matter to me, but I thought I would at least be able to make it to such a place,’ he said.

Harsh reality

His idealism met with harsh reality when, a year later, Mr Lim’s improved grades still proved insufficient.

He said: ‘Looking back, it was ironic that I got the best grade both times for mathematics, the subject I had the least interest in. But I think it was because it was the subject which lent itself best to exams.’

Mr Lim applied to NUS four times, the final time with an appeal letter from his Member of Parliament.

‘I was still trying to find my way back into the system,’ he said. ‘In Singapore, if you’re not in the system, you aren’t anything at all.’

He could not help but look at his peers.

One of them, he remembered, was a straight-A student who had never heard of the Quran.

‘I could not understand why this was happening to me,’ he said. ‘I asked myself, was I really inferior to them?’

Mr Lim’s mother, Madam Lily Soon, 57, said: ‘He doesn’t learn well in a classroom and we were beginning to think that the Singapore system isn’t best suited for him.’

Still, when Mr Lim eventually decided to apply for the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia, his decision broke his mother’s heart. It was a tough decision then but today, Mr Lim jokingly describes his time at UNSW as when ‘I turned into Cinderella’.

Four years after his rejection from NUS, Mr Lim graduated from UNSW near the top of his cohort with a first class honours in Chinese and Theatre Studies.

In a referral letter, his supervisor, Dr Jon Kowallis, wrote that Mr Lim ‘is truly a unique student of the calibre that one comes across once every 10 or 15 years’.

Another, written by his Dean of Residents, Dr James Pietsch, said: ‘…it is not on the basis of his grades that I wish to recommend him for a postgraduate program – there are many residents here who can boast high grades.

‘However, Wah Guan stands apart in terms of his attitude to his study. Wah Guan has an intellectual inquisitiveness… (he is) not driven by grades or competition, but by a genuine desire to learn.’

Still, his glowing report card was muted by personal pain. In 2003, his parents’ business was hard-hit by the economic recession and a guilt-ridden Mr Lim forced himself to accelerate his study course to save money.

During his time abroad, he also missed the funerals of his grandmother and primary school teacher to whom he was very close.

There continued to be times when he saw himself as an ‘NUS reject’. ‘It was a huge mental block I needed to overcome,’ he said.

At Oxford, Mr Lim completed a master’s in Chinese Studies, focusing on the work of Gao Xingjian, the first Chinese recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, and made it into the East Asian Studies PhD programme at Princeton University a year later.

His academic adviser, Professor Perry Link, praised Mr Lim as ‘better than the average among graduate students at Princeton – which is an extremely elite group.’

Usually eloquent, Mr Lim was stumped when asked just how exactly he made good.

‘I just don’t think a three-hour exam is the best way to test any student’s ability’ was what he finally said.

Does he plan to return to Singapore? Will he turn his back on a system that rejected him?

It is another question that vexes him. He misses home terribly, but it is evident he has not gotten over the disappointment. He will only say for now – maybe.