Do scholars get fast-tracked to the top? Has society allocated too much reward for those with exam-passing ability? The series Measuring Meritocracy asks how we can value skills mastery and accord more workers decent pay.
SINGAPORE: His mother was a cleaner, and Mohamed Hannifa now works to empower people in her industry.
Seeing his mother return home with body aches over the years made Hannifa feel he should do something “meaningful and help her ease her burdens”.Robots can take over tasks such as floor cleaning, which could make up about 60 per cent of the daily work, allowing cleaners to “focus on the finer points of cleaning”, like high dusting, disinfecting and customer service, said Ng.
But there is something people may not know about the profession. “The secret is, there aren’t many cleaners left,” said Ng.in Singapore as at November, of whom 41,200 were citizens and permanent residents, according to the National Environment Agency. A decade ago, the reported number of cleaners here was 70,000.
The median pay of university graduates is now more than twice that of Institute of Technical Education graduates. Between 2016 and 2021, the median starting salary gap between the two groups“We’ve allocated too much reward and prestige to just one form of human aptitude … the kind of exam-passing ability that some people have,” said David Goodhart, author of the book “Head, Hand, Heart: The Struggle for Dignity and Status in the 21st Century”.
Calling England an “extreme instance of a meritocratically bifurcated society”, Yale Law School professor Daniel Markovits cited the “populist uprising” seen in Brexit, the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. “So can we think about how meritocracy needs to be complemented by other methods and programmes so that these kids gather the right work experience useful contacts, so that when they finally graduate, they have as much chance ?”
When it comes to ensuring equitable opportunities at work, a big question is whether the government, as Singapore’s biggest employer, is setting the norm. Here, the career paths of scholarship awardees including the military elite are often scrutinised. And those who were neither an overseas nor merit scholar usually achieve the rank between the ages of 43 and 46.
Questions have also been raised about the relevance of a military career to some high-level corporate or public service appointments that some retired officers get. In the wider public service, scholarships are a way of identifying leaders, said Terence Ho, an associate professor in practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. “But it’s important that this isn’t the only route.
, as the career road map should be for public officers’ next three to five years, not their next 30 years.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Vegetable prices in Malaysia set to soar again due to wet weatherPETALING JAYA - Consumers have been warned to expect a shortage of vegetables in the market as continuous rain in the last few days has caused farms to be inundated and damaged by strong winds, say farmers. Federation of Vegetable Farmers Associations president Lim Ser Kwee...
Read more »
Vegetable prices in Malaysia set to soar again due to wet weatherPrices may rise if the weather pattern remained unstable, said the Federation of Vegetable Farmers Associations. Read more at straitstimes.com.
Read more »
Vietnam Parliament elects Vo Van Thuong as new state presidentThuong said he will “resolutely” continue the fight against corruption in his speech in Parliament. Read more at straitstimes.com.
Read more »
Torture chambers in Ukraine’s Kherson ‘financed by Russian state’: InvestigatorsWitnesses described the use of electric shock torture and waterboarding by Russian forces. Read more at straitstimes.com.
Read more »
Vietnam parliament elects Vo Van Thuong as new state presidentHANOI – Vietnam's National Assembly on Thursday (March 2) elected Vo Van Thuong as the country's new president, in a reshuffle of the country's top leadership amid a sweeping anti-graft campaign. In an extraordinary session, lawmakers confirmed Thuong, 52, after the ruling Communist Party nominated him on Wednesday as president, a largely ceremonial role but one of the top four...
Read more »
Indian state broadcaster’s deal with Hindu right-wing news provider raises concerns among media playersBENGALURU – India’s opposition leaders have condemned national state broadcaster Prasar Bharati’s deal last month with Hindusthan Samachar, an agency with a Hindu right-wing history, to feed wire news to its television and radio channels. Read more at straitstimes.com.
Read more »