As I mentioned before in one of my earlier entries, I went out the other night with some friends and recalling the conversations we had that night, one stands out pretty much like a sore thumb. You see, it involved some of my old classmates and a certain corupting influence. The names of these classmates I have chosen to withhold, but the corrupting influence I will state right here: JPA scholarships.
The story is a somwehat complicated one, but I'll try to word it as best as possible. It goes something like this. Apparently an old classmate (who went out with me the other night; let's call him A) of mine met with another old classmate some time in the middle of last year. Now the second guy (a JPA scholar, let's call him X) was on some fishing trip with another ex classmate of mine (a guy with some brainpower and lots of dollars who was studying in Aus; lets call him Y) when A met him. They had a chat and stuff like that, being old classmates, when X suddenly blurted out something which in A's own words said he 'shouldn't have said'. X asked A if he was going to study overseas since he's not in an IPTA. No was A's reply, to which X laughed, probably in a smug sort of way that 'of course, only smart people go overseas'.
Now if you understand the story above, you'll probably understand why I'm blogging about it in the first place. That's right. I'm blogging about the power of this 'gift' to make supposedly smart people stupid. Since when does smart = studying overseas? Is Y 'smart' then just because he had more moolah than others? More moolah that he could avoid the dour atmosphere of Form 6 and local universities? And that's not all. A went on to tell me that apparently X now considers everyone who didn't get a JPA scholarship and went to Form 6 as 'dumb'. Now you see why I'm impressed by X's 'intelligence' (or lack of it)? He actually thinks folks who study overseas are in some league of their own!
And here comes the serious part: if a few of my ex-classmates can behave in such a way after being granted scholarships, how many more out there are behaving in a similar way? Believe me, I've heard many similar 'Si Tenggang' horror stories. Are these scholarships really breeding a bunch of skilled government servants or a whole generation of arrogant, chest thumping fools? And at what cost? A hefty average of hundreds of thousands of ringgit per scholar - money which could have been poured into local universities. Money that could have been used to buy extra welding sets (we currently survive on only one) for Unimas' Mechanical Engineering workshop. Money that could have been used to repair Block P's leaking flushes and broken showers. See where I'm going now?
Perhaps it's time the government abolish it's policy of sending our brightest minds overseas. Seriously. The more stories like this I hear, the more I feel this scholarship business is going the wrong way. It does not reward 'deserving' students. It just turns our education system into a silly rat-race where students study not for the love of knowledge, but for handouts from the government, ultimately creating a sort of education class divide between local and foreign educated students. But since I can't see any of that happening soon, I'd like to say something here that I've repeated to my 14 year old brother on many occasions: make sure you study like a dog, get straight A1s in your SPMs and cry bloody murder if the government doesn't give you a scholarship. After all, if the government is silly enough to allow you to take advantage of it, why not?
And finally, if you happen to be a JPA/Mara/Petronas/whatever-agency scholar who did actually manage to finish reading this rant and feel offended, remember: I'm referring to those and only those who currently have their noses somewhere in the sky. I'm not angry. I'm just disappointed at the way this gift has turned into a curse.
