So much talk on Inequality

The current focus on the subjects of inequality and social divide must have overwhelmed me such that I had a strange dream yesterday. I dreamed that in a group therapy I spotted a girl who was my counselee when I was working in a neighbourhood primary school. In the dream she wanted to talk to me in private so she won't be embarrassed. When alone she narrated how she had fared badly having been streamed to Normal Academic (for the least academically inclined in the cohort) and even then she feared she would be at the bottom of the NA class. In my dream I was surprised that she did so badly and she kind of explained that the subject she was good at was not taken into account for determining the position in class. I can remember I was feeling at a loss on how to comfort her in my dream. I could only utter lame statements like taking things a step at a time.

The dream highlighted where I intuitively stand in the ongoing debate on whether the government has done sufficiently to help the disadvantaged including students from the lower socio economic strata. A lot of statistics has been thrown flying around and controversy abound on their methodology and relevance.

The main themes in my dream seem to be low self esteem (embarrassment) and low recognition of certain skill (subject the girl was good at being ignored). From my experience as a school counsellor in a neighbourhood primary school and engagement with children in a children's home I can fully understand how a disadvantaged family background greatly hampers the child's ability to keep up with his cohort not to mention to excel. A OECD report said that disadvantaged students in Singapore fared well in comparison to their peers globally but find it hard to match up to the top performers within the country for eg only one in ten of Singapore's disadvantaged students has scores which match their top peers (those whose scores are in the 75th percentile).

The report also found that the disadvantaged students are congregating in disadvantaged schools. The Ministry of Education needless to say came out with the defence that all schools in Singapore are well facilitated and there is no such thing as a disadvantaged school. What they seem to miss is that the segregation of schools by academic performance has resulted in adverse perverse psychological set back in schools predominated by less academically inclined students. There is a sense of shame, hopelessness and negative self image.  This negative image is in no small part accelerated by the prevalent societal disrespect for low paying jobs due to the absence of a minimum wage. Where wage disparity is less stark, there is more pride and less discouragement in people holding less well paid jobs as can be seen in countries like Japan. There is pride even if a person excels in a skill that places him in a job that pays relatively less ie. society respects every job in the market.

Educational inequality coupled with income inequality (in no small part due to the absence of a minimum wage) is a psychological backlash for students in the bottom of the cohort. Fortunately in todays news the government is finally setting up a Inter-Agency task force to find out the underlying causes behind the students lacking behind and aims at helping children from disadvantaged homes meet their full potential.

At times when engaging with children in the children's home I have been amused by their wit and laments quietly how much more they could have developed their potentials given the right environment. Hopefully if the task force is really committed I would have less of such moments of wonder.