National Olympiad in Informatics

OFFERING winners of international science competitions direct admission to science and engineering courses at the two universities here, regardless of their A-level results, is a welcome move. It recognises their brilliance in one of the most tangible ways possible, and it should help fuel the research and development drive which is going to be critical to Singapore's technological future.

While it is unlikely for a student gifted in science or mathematics to fare so badly in the other A-level subjects that he or she fails to make it to university, this is not inconceivable. Keeping them out would amount to a terrible waste of talent in a country that depends totally on maximising the potential of its people. Wasting talent in science and technology is that much more damaging. The new scheme is a measure to avoid that pitfall, and is in keeping with the spirit of a decision last year to reserve university places for three students who were the winners of the National Science Talent Search Awards.

Some may ask whether such privilege should be limited to science students. In is a fair question, but the difficulty in extending the scheme to the humanities is that rigorous measures of ability recognised world-wide, on par with the international science olympiad, are not readily available in the arts and social sciences.

For the time being, therefore, it might not be practical to offer direct university admission to junior college students who wish to go into those disciplines. This is not to denigrate either their subjects or their achievements, but merely an acknowledgement that the scheme is best targeted at those students who wish to make a career in science, particularly in research.

Editorial
The Sunday Times
January 12, 1997