Scholar system
may become obsolete
Like China's imperial exam, Singapore's way of selecting top scholars will outlive its usefulness in a changed world. By Seah Chiang Nee.
Nov 27, 2005

SINGAPORE'S early successes were built largely on the back of a scholarship system that - broadly speaking - followed imperial China as a way to recruit the 'best and brightest" to serve the country.

For 1,300 years of imperial examination history, China's emperors had selected 100,000 state-level and more than a million provincial scholars to administer the vast country.

Although the details differed, the objective of ancient China and 21st Century Singapore was similar - aimed at getting the best scholars who do well in education to help run the country.

But it worked well under their respective circumstances.

For China, however, the method became outdated and was ended in 1911 because the world had changed.

The imperial exam tested only literature, poetry and essays, but not science, math or any of today's modern studies that were needed by a changed world.

The question now is whether Singapore's scholarship system of selecting the best has also outlived its days in the 21st Century that needs entrepreneurial and innovative skills.

The government spends millions to provide some 200 to 250 university scholarships each year to the best students here based on examination results, out of 1,200 to 1,400 applications received by the Public Service Commission.

Competition, just like in ancient China, is strong and the successful are chosen for the crème de la crème schools. They are sent to the best universities abroad and given high-paying official positions.

The Chinese imperial system was a method to evaluate ability and select officials in dynastic China on the basis of merit rather than social position or political connections.

Similarly, Singapore leaders also advocate meritocracy. Lee Kuan Yew was an admirer of Confucian teachings, which formed a big subject in the imperial exam.

But both systems had unintended side effects. In China, the majority of those who sat for the exam were from the wealthy class.

In Singapore, a recent report said that 75% of scholarship winners lived in private condos or landed property, the rest in cheaper public housing estates. The rich continue to have an edge.

Lee, now Minister Mentor, admits that academic grades cannot determine the best intelligence or capabilities but until a better way is found, he said they remain the criteria.

But in the innovative world, can it continue to work when circumstances are changing so rapidly? Today private enterprise and human innovation, not knowledge of science and engineering, are the new gods needed for survival here.

Some Singaporeans believe that Lee's scholars' class may also become obsolete just as the imperial examination went out of fashion.

In fact, the Lee government had exceeded imperial China in recruitment.

Over the years, the large intake of scholars into the bureaucracy and military leadership was so heavy that it has created a hole in the economy. It has deprived the state of a rich source of potential entrepreneurs.

The brightest students are filtered into a secure, well-paid bureaucracy where they developed an ability to 'play safe' and avoid taking risks so that they can keep their jobs, the opposite of the new Singaporean we need.

Despite of - or because of - the scholar class, Singapore remains sadly behind its trade rivals in entrepreneurial spirit and capabilities.

It has led Lee to get the government to release up to half of its state-supported civil service scholars to move into starting enterprises, with questionable results.

For years scholars have been running state-owned enterprises, but it is not the same as taking risks with their own money and careers. Few are prepared to take personal risks to start their own companies.

Good grades may not make good businessmen and often have nothing to do with them.

Scholars may produce good bureaucrats and administrators but they do not necessarily have sound judgment, market ideas or profits, qualities needed in the new economy.

Dr Phua Kai Lit, a sociologist who received his PhD from Johns Hopkins, wrote that Singapore had become a country "increasingly ruled by economists, engineers, and other technocratic experts with First Class Honours undergraduate degrees, Oxbridge and Ivy League Master's degrees and PhDs."

"Whether this society truly fulfils (the Singaporean) dream and meets his expectations is a question worthy of debate," he said.

Another reason why it may not survive long is that it promotes an elitist class, which despite the leaders' best efforts, is growing more unpopular with the new generation.

Actually, offering high civil service jobs to scholars is not uncommon in many countries - but not in politics. The unique feature in Singapore lies in its use to select Cabinet ministers and members of Parliament in the ruling party.

In other democratic countries winning elections is a deciding factor, but the predominant strength of the People's Action Party virtually rules out this criterion.

R.K. Vasil wrote in 1992, "The PAP has established a unique system of recruitment of its top political leaders and Ministers.

"Talented individuals are 'spotted' and have to pass through a barrage of observations, interviews, attachment to a veteran MP and, allegedly, even psychological tests before being offered safe parliamentary seats to contest (under the PAP banner) in General Elections.

"After winning these safe seats, they may be offered responsibility as junior ministers and if they pass this test, they would then be offered higher level positions with greater responsibilities"

For the present, nothing much will change but, as the leaders themselves say, nothing remains the same for long in this fast-moving world.

(This was first published in The Sunday Star).