JC students looking down on ITE people: Accusation is repulsive

Enough is enough. In response to this rant (titled" ITE STUDENT: I AM SICK OF ALL THE PROUD JC KIDS LOOKING DOWN ON US" ) posted on the The Real Singapore, Willy Tan explains in an online youth forum JC students generally do not look down on their ITE counterparts. However, at times the behaviour of some ITE kids in public places are a big turn off.

" Not trying to be offensive here, but whatever you have posted is repulsive. Before you make just write this off as from someone elitist, let me clarify that most of my friends are from the poly route and I got a couple of friends from ITE. Generally, I don't look down on poly students. When I was in JC, most of my college mates don't either.


As to your point that JC takes a lot less money to build - thats true. Polytechnics & ITEs do take up much more resources than JC but that isn't what you should be proud of. What you should be striving for is to achieve much more with less fundings.


What is more, they like to change the tuition dates closest an exam so that what their kids learn will remain fresh in their minds. The result is that the tutor has to go through the rigmarole of changing his or her timetable. When the examination is over, their kids will take a breather from tuition, during which some parents will trot out the excuse their kid(s) is too busy or not feeling well enough to study.


The main difference between JC, Poly & ITE education is that JC students are expected to pursue a degree and thus become professionals or leaders within their industry. Poly students are expected to fill the middle management roles and the better ones to become leaders as well. Poly students are giving a more focused and practical education to deal with problems that are happening or expected to happen. JC education is nothing more than a preparatory education (& thus completely pointless to the workforce) for university education. It is only via the university education are they expected to hone skills necessarily to become professionals in their field. Of course, degrees are not necessarily and that holds true in many industries. Construction, Interior Design, Programming etc are fields where your work portfolio carry more weight than a degree issued by any type of reputable university.


As for resources wise, a good number of jc students are taking economics as well. If we can find resources for our economics syllabus at the libraries, Im sure you can too. We also have computing, General Paper that includes topics as such education, social justice, science & technology etc etc. It shouldn't be any easier for JC students to obtain resources - especially since the government spent even more money on your facilities like what you said.


I know where you are coming from - about being non-judgemental based on education levels. However, there will always be a kind of social stigma with regards to the school you come from. Even within university students, they will judge each other based on the ranking of your university (Do you come from Harvard/Cambridge or NUS/NTU or some other uni?) as well as the course. I'm not saying that it is right, but it is something unavoidable. Just like how you might be naturally put off (or judging) someone with bad body odour - especially when having your life-time partner, have you considered that he/she may have a medical condition that they can't help it? What about people who have badly peeled skin with lots of rashes? Would you naturally assume that they are just unhygienic and thus the condition of the skin rather than allergy?


What really matters is how you portray yourself. I dont look down on ITE students but I inevitably stare at them because of their dressing and behaviour. I don't need to know what you have in school, or what you intend to accomplish later that day. To top it off, I certainly don't appreciate breathing in the toxins that they spent tons of money purchasing."


THANK YOU WILLY FOR ALLOWING US TO REPRODUCE YOUR POST.


The Czar (Site Founder)

Dated 19 May 2013


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