The scholarship conundrum

THE EDITOR: This letter, unsolicited and unpaid, is from a concerned observer. Which prestige schools produce the most national scholarship awardees every single year? How many marks separate the other bright players at tertiary level? First, let us consider the SEA results and ponder. How many marks separated the first 200 students from the next 200 hard working children?

We cannot assume the rest of the nation's children to be stupid. Some children can retain work drummed into their heads and some cannot. Some get nervous on the date of the SEA exams and do badly. Did the first 200 SEA winners always perform well at age 18? Who dropped out of school with disappointment at not being chosen for a prestige school? What are the statistics?

Where am I going with these questions? The majority of scholarship winners, egged on by their parents, usually want to be either doctors or lawyers. So, if all winners want to study law and medicine, what do we do when these hard-working, brilliant children cannot find employment after graduation?

We presently have many over qualified desperate graduates who are underemployed. So, ask yourself this: if there is to be much needed diversity in the economy more students must study broad based subjects geared for technological advancement. Are taxpayers getting value for money? 600 medical graduates every year is disappointing heart breaking nonsense for all concerned.

Pardon the comparison to too many cars and endless traffic jams. The most beautiful vehicles are stuck in traffic same thing as the buses, maxi taxis and cheaper vehicles. Our best and brightest students need to widen their employment chances. We are oversubscribed in some avenues of learning.

Which government, in which year, is going to go brave and say enough is enough? We have to diversify the economy or perish. How many scholarships can we afford to distribute each year? Who cares about the tax payers? We just cannot go on this way.

LYNETTE JOSEPH

Diego Martin