Poly vs JC for entry to local Universities

A great comment on the Poly vs JC on entry to local Universities.

Credits to the poster and this is a very good piece, a big wake up call to all.

Polytechnic graduates cannot have it both ways, do they want a Diploma or a Degree? If the latter, they need to know that the government needs to spend more money to train a polytechnic graduate than a JC student, as the former graduates with a vocational skill, but the latter does not. So they cannot expect a second bite of the cherry at the same priority level for university admission of JC students who finish their JC studies with nothing other than a GCE "A" Level Certificate.

Polytechnics pride their training as being more "hands on". JC prepares a student with more in-depth grounding in the core subjects to prepare them for university. For JC students, university is and has always been their final destination from the point they decided to take the JC route. For polytechnic students, their endpoint (at least in Singapore) should be getting their Diploma. If they want to go beyond that in Singapore, they should choose the JC route. If they could not qualify for the JC route, it is not the government's fault. They only have themselves to blame. However, nothing is to stop them from pursuing their dreams overseas, but they cannot expect to be given greater access to the local universities on the ground of it being more costly for them to go overseas.

A place at a good local university is a limited resource and like all limited resources, they should go to the most deserving, in this case, those who have qualified for JC and who have consciously decided to take the JC path to prepare themselves for a university education and not a Diploma. In the past JC education was called "Pre-University" education, and it is precisely that.

So it is time that Polytechnic graduates own up to and accept the implications of their own decisions made when they were at the cross-roads of choosing between polytechnic and JC education, and not continually gripe about this alleged "unfairness" of the system to them.