RONALD LEE: The two incidents couldn’t have been more contrasting.
In one, 12-year-olds were tragically slaughtered by boulders after a leadership course met at Mount Kinabalu met with an earthquake.
In the other, parents are furious that their college-going 17-year-old children will need to travel “too far” to their junior college in Mount Sinai, which was originally supposed to be situated at Sing Ming Avenue
So much so, that the Ministry of Education had to crack its head to find alternative solutions to this “faraway site” to appease parents.
One parent, Madam Loo even commented on the college holding-site that “with the site now in Mount Sinai, it will definitely be out of the way, so my daughter will have to take the MRT to school herself…”
According to the MOE, the new junior college will take in its first batch of students in 2017, from Catholic High, Singapore Chinese Girls’ School and CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School.
Makes you wonder if Singaporean children have been too molly-coddled for far too long (17-years-old and can’t take the train to school? Seriously…)
Also makes you wonder if the Mount Kinabalu climbing trip was perhaps a mountain too high for our youth.
Or whether such a leadership course would be worth its salt in the longer run.
Some 1,200 students from the three schools mentioned above will attend the junior college at the Mount Sinai holding site when it opens.
These students are currently enrolled in the Integrated Programme.
Which means, they’re very bright, exceptionally talented, and tipped to become the future leaders of Singapore, whether in the private sector or civil service.
I worry.
Let’s not talk about mountains.
Perhaps climbing up the train station stairway might be a step too many amongst our youth.
That has to change, even if it means implementing baby-step measures for some 17-year-olds and their over-protective parents.
This commentary was written by Ronald Lee.
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