one of my nephews has to go for an entrance exam to get into a top-tier government-funded primary school.

ridiculous. i pay my fucking taxes so that we have a system of public education for all, not this multi-tier bullshit where people who can afford to go to the nicest places get the best education

I'm the byproduct of private education — I spent secondary education in a private school, before going to self-funded private tertiary education, and I'll tell you this — the stuff that you can throw money at, for rich affluent fuckers like me, is like the least important thing to ensuring that we don't end up being destructive fucks.

like, funding or no, we'll get educated. whether we end up being educated to being those who bring destruction upon this world is what's more important.

like the first lesson that kids ought to learn when they start interacting with society is that it didn't fucking matter what school you went into, what you achieved academically, or what “merit” you accumulated, you're a piece of shit if you treat people like shit. even more so if you had all that privilege and all you do is shit on people who don't.

ps “meritocracy” was a term coined by Michael Young in a satire that demolishes the fact that if you select the ruling classes based on “merit” (he used the term “IQ + effort” as his criteria, but it could be anything innate and extrinsic) what you'll get is a bunch of entitled assholes who'll stop at nothing to reward themselves at the expense of others. sound familiar?

that's right I'm dissing Singapore but i see that shit replicated in the activist, NGO and corporate environments in this country. because “merit” translates to “how useful you are to global capitalism” these days and even the human-rights and NGO-industrial crowd all can't see beyond their ass. meanwhile wages stagnate and it gets harder for working-class people to make a living in an increasingly-dehumanising labour market. while everyone bends over to the great god Eff Dee Ai.

meanwhile indigenous peoples in the so-called state that is ruled by the so called party of Defending Islam get their lands sold to loggers and their children abused up to the point that they're willing to run away from RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS and literally STARVE TO DEATH rather then go back???

party leadership semua orang kaya. فَوَيْلٌ لِّلْمُصَلِّينَ

if there's one thing that I've learned about being subjected to private education is that the incentive landscape between institution and student.

you're a source of revenue when you send your kids to private schools. remember that.

@tariqk I attended both private and public schools. The only reason why parents send kids to private schools is because they want their child to receive something different than what they could get from a public school. So, believe me that parents of private schools are constantly watching to make sure they are getting that when they write the check each month. Public schools, on the other hand, have zero incentive to offer quality education, due to districts and collective bargaining.

@SteveJohnson i did both, as well. and for stuff you can throw money at? that's great. that's why people throw money at private schools, because they think they can see the benefits immediately.

but it comes at a cost, and it's a collective cost that isn't easy to see, especially if you only think at the level of the individual.