The Poly vs JC Debate

I was reading the day's Strait's Times and came across an article addressing the recent JC vs Poly Debate. It was apparently started by a JC student who posted his thoughts on the matter on a forum of a popular MMORPG game called "Maple Story". Whatever that transpired since then is a matter of public record which you can read for yourself and form your own opinion. The article I read was titled "It's no secret who is better". In it the author writes

I hate to be blunt, but JC students are better than polytechnic students, period. Politically incorrect I may sound, but here are the facts. Entry requirements at JCs are far more stringent than those at polys. As a result, large numbers of students who do not make the cut for JCs are "forced" to opt for a poly education. Those who enter polys of their own choice remain the exception, rather than the rule.

Also, when the Public Service Commission awards scholarships to Singapore's best and brightest, they look to JCs, not polytechnics.. Yes polys have improved in recent years, but there is still a long way to go before the average poly student matches up to the average JC student. Sad to say, but this is an open secret.

First of all I would like to state that I am a poly graduate and proud of it. Second I believe the perceptions and assumptions of the author are to say the least flawed. Given that admission requirements for JCs are more stringent than the poly's, there is nothing to prove that the quality of education is any different. There is also nothing to prove that the stringent admissions have any relevance to the quality of a person's character or intelligence. The JCs have their fair share of bad eggs too.

The author also mentioned how in awarding scholarships, the Public Service Commission only looks to the JCs and not the polys. Well, there are other scholarships that look for "Singapore's best and brightest" (in the author's own words) in the polys and/or the ITEs and not the JCs. So I guess that the line of comparison between them is not so well defined as the author thinks it to be.

On a more moral front, I personally think that it is wrong to degrade and demean genuine hard working people looking for an education whether they are from the poly, JC or ITE. A hardworking student is a hardworking student be it in the poly, JC or ITE and a screw up is a screw up no matter where he or she is schooling. Yet true and untrue it is still wrong to say that one is inferior to another. Especially when there is a chance that these very same people might be the people you are working with in future.

All my years in school taught me to keep an open mind. Education is not everything, a JC student can just as easily screw up his life as a poly or ITE student stringent entry requirements or not. If the author is dead set on his or her opinion on the matter despite evidence to the contrary. One would wonder what the years of education have actually taught him or her.