4. Scholarships Are Good

9. Singapore has been able to build on the scholarship system started during the colonial days because we have a government which believes in meritocracy and has the political courage to act on this belief. More importantly, our people have so far joined government in celebrating academic excellence and, despite some misgivings, continue to support the idea that we should develop and nurture our most outstanding students for future leadership.

Many governments do not have our system. Some do not believe in meritocracy and offer scholarships mostly to their own kind. Some may believe in meritocracy but dare not practise it because the political culture does not allow them to do so.

Over the years, our scholars have provided the pool of leaders for the public service and elsewhere. We think we have done quite well in selecting the right people. A scholarship is not an escalator to success. For a scholar to progress in his career, hard work, demonstrated performance, and a commitment to public service are required. Not all scholars succeed, but enough do to justify the continuation of the system. It must be so. If more and more scholars break bond or fail in their studies or career, then it makes no sense to continue with the system. At the same time, the system must allow nonscholars to also rise to the top, in case they are late bloomers, or we miss them out in the earlier selection process for another reason. If we look at the top of the public service today, 16 of our 20 permanent secretaries are scholars. It shows that our system is good enough to spot potential leaders from among our scholars but flexible enough to allow for those with talent to be developed and rise to the top even if they did not start out as scholars.

Next: On bond breakers and attrition