The Moley Prophet

From the Ministry of Defence to the Ministry of Education, the agencies within the Singapore government has proved to be inefficient time and again. Dealing with the MINDEF about my deferment and study plans has already been a headache. I do not understand how the government could be asking private companies to send their workers for training and yet leave the staff within their agencies untrained.

These people working at government agency call centers should have a thorough retraining program because their skills are in a serious lapse with the society. They have no proper product knowledge, no customer service skills, and if I would put it crudely, plain DUMB.

First, with MINDEF. After I got back to Singapore in January, I decided to call them up to ask for my enlistment date. It was then, about a month since my touchdown in Singapore. Guess what they told me? WAIT. Hey come on, all my other friends have already gotten their letters, and went for medical screening when they are supposed to graduate in May, and for me who has already finished my studies last December, I have to wait? What nonsense. And if they think that it is fun to be wasting time away - just like them, working as a call center boy or "auntie" in MINDEF, please do not waste mine. There are job vacancies out there which give people who give even those with diplomas or "A" levels opportunities but not me, because I have a NS liability - one which has no particular date on when they would call me up. So I bugged them, called a ton of numbers they gave me, because for some reason, they just couldn't get the right information themselves and couldn't transfer the line internally.

And so much for that, all these personnels are giving me different information from "God-knows-where". I wonder how is the government going to link up a nation when they could not even link up their pitiful agency.

With no other jobs available, and out of curiosity, I decided to try out teaching. Sure, it was tough and challenging to manage the kids, but I thought that it was quite fun. The fun part ends in school, because people up at North Buona Vista are a pain in the ass. They have no idea what they are talking about, and are ridiculously inefficient with their work. Just recently, during an interview, MM Lee spoke about the Singapore Brain Drain - Singaporeans leaving to seek better prospects somewhere else, now you know why. As a fresh graduate, if not for my family and the NS liability, I have no will to come back to serve my country, because, I feel unwanted.

In the US, SUNY Buffalo - School of Management is highly recognized. But back here, I have no idea why the people at MOE do not recognize this highly acclaimed institution that is accredited by the AACSB International (Note that NUS and NTU business programs are accredited by the same organization). Furthermore, according to the Civil Service Guide, US institutions are recognized as long as the university is accredited by an association such as Middle States Association, which SUNY Buffalo is under.

When another of my schoolmate from the same cohort first called, it took about 2 months for them to say that it is not recognized - I am still waiting. And when he provided them with the facts, they said, yes it is recognized but we are still going to pay you the same wage we pay to others who hold only the "O" levels certificate. So are you trying to imply that teaching is a non-professional job which does not require different level of skills, and as long as you can read and write, you are eligible? Therefore there is no reason to differentiate between a degree holder and an "O" level certificate holder? If that is the case, I feel embarrassed for my teachers, because I think it is an utter insult to the teaching profession to think in such a manner, Mr  Tharman Shanmugaratnam and agency.

P.S. Just a note, the money does not matter to me - seriously - and I have no qualms working for less if I feel that I should earn that much for that kind of job. But the pay is a measure of my worth, and certainly a degree holder is worth much more than a fresh "O" level graduate. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 6:00 pm and is filed under The Prophet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.