TOC International guest writer, Elaine Toh, who is doing her MPhil/PhD in London, witnessed the protest and gives her personal take on it. (Article updated)
Elaine Toh
The muffled rumblings of a gathering, the scene of students holding banners and standing in the narrow street just outside my school became a temporary distraction from the drone of my afternoon lesson. My tutor was quickly ignored (to his dismay!) as curious yet easily distracted students in my class left our seats to witness the hullabaloo outside. Apparently, a large number of students were protesting .
As a Singaporean, what was interesting to me were the messages on some of the placards consisting of angry vulgarity, ironically painted in childish red scrawls. Is this freedom of speech at its best? I also wondered about the sudden hive of activity at that street while walking to school that day. There were more students than usual. Many were manning booths lined along half of that street with plentiful handouts for the interested passers-by. For the brave souls who had stopped to take a brochure, they were treated to a polite but animated verbal defense of the issue that these passionate students were concerned about.
Civil Demonstrations
Despite the large crowds that had gathered by noon, I was particularly struck by the peaceful manner the demonstration was conducted in (being a typical “sua-ku” Singaporean). I then understood the rationale for that lone police van parked by the nearby road that I had encountered on my walk to school earlier. Several British policemen dressed in their distinctive luminous yellow jackets stood by and watched the proceedings.
Based on my previous encounters with public demonstrations and protests in the British capital, most were conducted in a civil and peaceful manner. Policemen were present as a security measure rather than a law-enforcing deterrent but they seldom had to intervene. When overzealous protesters brandished threatening objects like metal pipes or wooden poles, they would be quickly surrendered to the police when they were asked to. If such events took place on a large scale, roads may be cordoned off, traffic diverted and public announcements on both the TV and the radio made a few days in advance. But after the protest and the chanting of slogans or intended messages have ended, life in the city reverts to its normal humdrum once again.
Free Education for All
What were these students campaigning for? Their posters read, “Free Education for All”. Aren’t these students being too idealistic, I wondered? The student organizers of the protest believe that education is a right not a privilege . Instead of paying fees, students should be given a living grant, they say. Cost of funding education would then come from the rich instead.
For the pragmatic me, my consideration would be if education is free, then governments would have to dish out large sums of money to build schools, employ teachers and administrators and buy all the equipment necessary for schools to function. Where would all these money come from? Taxpayers? Government Investments? Our national reserves?
Should living grants be paid to the students for being alive? Or are they asking for the government to pay them to attend school? Well, if the UK were a developing country, it would be a good idea since it would improve literacy rates of the general population. But the UK is one of the most developed countries in the European Union. Perhaps the living grant would alleviate problems of a different nature such as truancy?
But as an educator at heart, I do agree with their rationale of our universal rights to education but to tax the richer upper class to fund education for the masses? Hmm…now that is an interesting line of argument and belief system applied to the education context, even though it is not a new social idea. But isn’t it like punishing the rich for being wealthy and for amassing their fortune?
Summer is Protest Season
According to my tutor, summer seems to be a popular time of the year for protests and demonstrations. It seems true to some extent, see (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4198462.ece), (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3811692.ece) and (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article3987723.ece) for some examples of strikes which took place in the summer of 2008.
With the current credit crunch and economic downturn, the frequency of such events may increase dramatically. So, visit London in summer 2009 … anybody?
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Picture from The Guardian.
Some reports on the protest:
http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2009/01/16/national-student-demonstration-25-february
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=17242
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/02/422826.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/25/tuition-fees-students-protest
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Interesting idealistic students. Of course there are basic practical issues – for example where is the money coming from? But that is besides the point. Ideals are ideals you try to get as close as possible.
Take the British NHS as an example. They believe in it and went for it – every man woman and child free health care….and they ran it successfully for 70 years.
Other societies may not get there with free health care but in aiming for the ideal we can perhapse contain the greed of for-profit healthcare which has cause the healthcare costs to spiral out of control for many Singaporeans.
Why can’t Britain have free education anyway? The money they spend on defense is double that needed to fund the education of every citizen. …Finland is able to do it, Germany too. It is only when you aim for the ideal and go for it then you understand the tradeoff involved. What about Singapore? The $100B we lost in bad investment decisions could have funded the education of maybe 10 generations of Singaporeans.
It is the idealist who will bring about change because they are the ones who ask “why not”…and are not constrained by what we have been led to believe is not possible.
Not so sure about Finland, but education is no longer free in Germany. True it is heavily subsidised (approx. 650 Euros per semester, cheaper than Sg even after exchange rates), but it’s not free.
” For the pragmatic me, my consideration would be if education is free, then governments would have to dish out large sums of money to build schools, employ teachers and administrators and buy all the equipment necessary for schools to function. Where would all these money come from? Taxpayers? Government Investments? Our national reserves? ”
But that is what the Singapore government does when it pays for the vast majority of the cost of running the primary and secondary schooling system back home. Why is this a bad thing?
The argument that we should not be funding tertiary education out of public money stems from the dubious notion that if we allow degree takers to take education free of charge, they will (1) consume too much of it ( i.e. it encourages the less academically inclined to spend more years in education than necessary, instead of being economically productive) AND (2) if they go onto high paying jobs, will effectively be imposing a burden on the taxpaying public, because students spend more public money than they put in ( never mind that graduates mostly do become taxpayers themselves over the long run).
Its only a matter of Boleh or Tak Boleh, not right or wrong, i think.
Yes Jiekai. The SG govt does fund a large part of the primary and secondary education in the country, mainly because of the compulsory education policy. The belief is that all Singaporeans should have at least 10 years of basic education to ensure basic literacy and numeracy skills in the general population. Parents only pay a nominal sum of money monthly to contribute to their children’s education during these years.
This compulsory education policy doesn’t extend to the tertiary education level maybe for reasons you have stated in your comments. But the SG govt offers help in the form of large subsidies to tertiary students, who are citizens, as reported in the 2008 Forbes article on The World’s Most Expensive Universities, seen here (http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/21/education-university-globalization-biz-cx_bw_lh_0121colleges.html)
I guess the protesting UK students are just feeling the strain of putting themselves through universities as is the culture here. Especially in the light of the rising prices, credit crunch and economic downturn.
But that raises another question: should students be deprived of an education if they are poor? see the article on the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/26/university-elitism-access)
Furthermore, UK faces an added problem, being a member of the EU. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1156663/EU-students-leave-Britain-free-university-education-dodging-repayments.html)
My opinion is that
depriving poor students education
is not wise :
1. Per edu-deprived child creates a burden on the country. Unless these disappear from the country, their existence can add burden to the country.
At least basic education to enable people to read, write, calculate should be provided at all cost assuming it would be costlier if such money is not invested in the child born not to a elite home.
I would like to comment on a different perspective of the article which has been one of my key gripes about how the Singapore government views protests.
In the UK and the US, the police are always on standby during these protest events to watch out for trouble rather than to prevent the protest from happening. For the most part, things usually remain peaceful even if it is not always civil (emotions do run high). The police in the US are trained to handle hostile scenarios when peaceful protests somehow turn violent and are not afraid of these scenarios. They serve as a deterrence against violence as a first line of defense and then as a force to stop the violence as a second.
In Singapore, I am sure the police are trained to handle hostile scenarios as well but I also sense a kiasi and anti-malu mentality. They do not like to have to deal with the possibility of violence (who does?) and so the solution (uniquely Singaporean) would be a blanket ban on all protests.
In the long run, this will hurt our police force. One day, if something bad and violent does happen, I wonder if they would be able to handle it without getting a lot of people hurt or killed.
I am sure that most Singaporean students abroad have witnessed protests at one time or another, big or small. I am also sure we have witnessed how most if not all turn out to be a peaceful event (or non-event). Our government would rather have other (the majority) Singaporeans who have not witness these protests first-hand believe the protests will get ugly like the high profile riots that inevitably happen at some time or other.
i like to study in uk but not so much money that my parents can affored so i join it on scolorship for study in uk
some one give me a cahnce
i cant get enough maney to study in uk so i hope this poraplem to be fix thans
i want to study my mba in london bt i am finacialy backward if any one help me……!!!!
The deadliest people I know are those who got their scholarships revoked and had to resort to taking on two jobs and still juggle their studies. When I asked one of these fallen angels whether he felt bitter, he said, “theydid me the greatest favor in the world. I now have wings.”
If you want to know why our scholars are so useless that may go some way to provide an explanation.
i wanna study in london some one help me
i like to study in uk or us but not so much money that my parents. i am finacialy backward if any one help me……!!!!
HI how are you all. My name is Shaxriyor I wish to study in London that is why I asked that you help to me. please
Send me info
am aliu semiu pls i wish to study in london bt my parent are nt finacially ok,pls if u can help me i prmis 2 be payin 20% of my salary wen i av job
hi……….. 2 all those are here now, its my dream also that get study in London. i dont have enough money but iam trying 2 reach my temporarily destination. any way all the best 4 all seekers of this way. those who r having enough money r not.
i want to do course of MBBS in abroad but i belong to poor family background, So is it possible to study in abroad for me…please reply me………
i like sdudy in uk us or but noy so much monwey.i am finacialy backword if any one help me ….
i want study in london some one help me