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.

also, the more exclusive the educational environment, the more homogenous the end result tends to be.

a friend of mine constantly rolls their eyes at the students my secondary alma mater brings out.

oh, they're accomplished, all right. they fit all the criteria for good critical thinkers, have the right contacts, and the right surface attitude.

“But, Tariq,” they say, “They're so... so... so *you*.”

they're not wrong 😂😂😂

I've had one senior and the head of my year go into politics for the opposition, and... for all their talk about being for the people, they're all pair of upper-middle class boys who worked in service of politicians who were kids of politicians, or who belonged to the same political class that listens to each other and treats everyone outside of that class as things to rescue or as impediments.

one time one of them said that “this educational policy is no big deal, because *I* had no problems.”

more alumni ☕:

they're​ definitely high-flyers — they went off early to school abroad, spent their career in a Fortune 500 company, then senior management in their early 30s. definitely early C-level candidate for sure.

i discovered that another friend was also their ex — amicable etc., still friends.

but then said alumni starts saying classist / xenophobic stuff? so I'll catch up with the ex and go, really?

and they go, ya, typical $alumni la. it was so annoying when they got bougie liddat.