Flaws of our meritocracy system and group think

27 November 2021

finally an objective and balanced op-ed on the flaws of our meritocracy system and group think.

"Because although we have, on the one hand, a structurally almost-perfect meritocracy, it is, in effect, no longer a dynamic meritocracy which also celebrates diversity. The end result is that we have the beginnings of an entrenched elite that self-perpetuates."

"... people who succeed in meritocracy think they got there entirely on their own, which is not true; it's often largely a function of the schools you went to, whether your parents were university-educated or not, some degree of connections, and of course, simply good luck."

no doubt, our meritocracy system allows peasants like me to get proper education, with hope of climbing up the social ladder. but this system also means my parents need to make more sacrifices and i need to work much harder than those from more well-to-do families (who has access to more resources & networks since young), so that i can compete on a more levelled playing field. also, there is almost nobody to teach/guide us on how to navigate or 'cheat' the system via scholarship or NS leadership.

"We have a system in which the top independent schools — Raffles Institution, Hwa Chong — are disproportionately represented in terms of producing elite individuals who become even more elite, because these are the President's Scholars that go on to Oxford and Cambridge, and so on. And they come back and they all know each other, and it's self-perpetuating."

"Basically, we have a meritocratic system which is still meritocratic in structure, but over time, it has led to the result that the elite perpetuates itself, and there is not enough diversity."

not every school is a good school. the teaching methods and focus are so drastically different. for example, many primary schools tend to over-emphasize the importance of spelling (vocab), whereas the focus should be on grammar, in order for one to excel in the command of english. some schools also needs to allocate more resources to resolve disciplinary issues, depleting the limited resources and energy for more productive teaching.

until the day the elites start sending their children to a neighbourhood school, the "every school is a good school" myth will remain a myth.

Response to "Banyan Tree Chairman Ho Kwon Ping: Why do many of our elites come from the same top schools?" by Mothership (original article at https://mothership.sg/2021/11/ho-kwon-ping-meritocracy-diversity).

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