Whilst she made it clear that she was happy to help me understand the issue better, she was not willing to do a Q&A type interview with me. Her reason was simple: there have been some incredibly nice people at the Singapore Association for The Deaf who have been extremely helpful to Lisa and her family and she doesn't want to appear ungrateful by complaining publicly about the system. However, she made it clear that the system itself was woefully inadequate and the government really doesn't give a shit about disabled people in Singapore. Please note that this is not a Wikipedia type entry to tell you everything about the hearing impaired in Singapore - I am just here to explain why Laurentia Tan's parents felt she had a much better future in England than in Singapore.
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| How are deaf people treated in Singapore? |
I exchanged many emails with Lisa over the last few days and we started with the case of Laurentia Tan who has cerebral palsy and is profoundly deaf. In Laurentia's case, her family decided to settle in the United Kingdom as they felt she would be better able to reach her full potential with the medical facilities and specialist educational support available there. Laurentia attended the Mary Hare School in Berkshire - it is a specialist school for deaf students and globally recognized as one of the best schools for deaf students in the world.
Lisa made explained that there are schools for deaf people in Singapore - but the choices are very limited. The one that most people know is Singapore School For The Deaf which is a primary school for deaf children. Then there are some mainstream secondary schools which have provisions for deaf students: Balestier Hill, Boon Lay, Outram and St Anthony's Canossian. There's is also the Mounbatten Vocational School, which works in conjunction with ITE to help deaf students gain vocational qualifications. For more info on these options, click here.
Some students who are not profoundly deaf are able to integrate into mainstream schools - but it all depends on how much hearing they have left. There are a lot of hearing aids that can help deaf people make the most of what little hearing they have left - not all deaf people are totally deaf. There is a wide spectrum of deafness ranging from mild, moderate, severe, profoundly and totally deaf. For those who have very little hearing left, there's only so much hearing aids can do for their ears.
Singapore is a small country - so there are only so many deaf students in Singapore, hence there are very few schools for the deaf. Also, as a small group of students, their needs are often ignored because they are a small community who are often ignored. Lisa couldn't go to the secondary school of her choice because "they just didn't want anything to do with a deaf student like me" despite the fact that she was smart enough for the any of the top secondary schools in Singapore. Instead, they told Lisa to go to one of the four secondary schools who do make provisions for deaf students. In a much bigger country like America or Japan, there are so many more deaf students so there are more schools around to serve the deaf students - as a result, a hierarchy appears amongst these schools for the deaf.
So if you have 20 schools for the deaf in the country, then you can rank which one is the best and which one is the worst. Every deaf student would want to get into the best school and this healthy competition amongst the deaf schools would drive up the standards. Competition is good for standards and we have that amongst the secondary schools in Singapore - but just don't have enough deaf students in Singapore for there to create a similar kind of competition amongst the schools for deaf students. Lisa said, "People go on about how good the education system is in Singapore - well, Singaporean deaf people are excluded from it, pushed to the very periphery of it and given so little choice. We are not even given a fair chance to shine as students - how do you expect us to go on an shine in the working world when the system discriminates against us like that?"
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| Schools for the deaf need competition too to raise standards. |
Lisa stressed to me, "I'm deaf. I'm not stupid. There's something wrong with my ears, not my brain - but the system in Singapore doesn't recognize that. Why didn't they get one of the top secondary schools involved in the education for deaf student programmes? Why did they only select very mediocre neighbourhood schools? Why aren't any JCs involved in the programme? Did it occur to them that perhaps deaf students can be brilliant and want to do A levels as well, then go on to university? Do the local universities give deaf students enough help and support?"
Laurentia was lucky - she got to go to Mary Hare school in England, it is very expensive. A year's school fees there is £27,394 for day students and if you attend the boarding school that is £32,044 a year. That's like S$64,000. Ouch. S$64,000 a year for a primary school. And if that's 6 years of primary school, 4 years of secondary school then 2 years to prepare for her A levels - woah, that's a lot of money. Hence it's clear that Laurentia has super rich parents. Note that this school is even more expensive than any university in the UK. Let's not forget, equestrian has always been an activity for the mega-rich. Horses, stables and trainers are very expensive and you just don't have poor people participating in this sport. It's clear that the Tans are very wealthy indeed.
Rich people have always been able to buy their children a better quality of education - that is a fact of life. All the top public schools in England like Eton, Harrow and Charterhouse are super expensive. They may give away a few scholarships a year to some poor kids for good PR but the vast majority of the kids there come from super rich families. When I asked Lisa how she felt about the opportunities Laurentia had, she told me she must admit that she feels envious, jealous even, adding, "Who wouldn't feel envious? Don't we all wish we had super rich parents who could afford to buy us anything we want, including a better education? If all deaf Singaporeans had rich parents like Laurentia, we would've all left Singapore too because the system here sucks."
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| The richer you are - the better your education, fact of life. |
The problem is that from a young age, we're given the false promise that as long as we study hard and do as we're told, we would have a great future - but of course, the playing field is hardly equal. I have actually witnessed a major change in the education system in Singapore as a student: Limpeh was in the last batch of students in RI before they went private in 1990. (I started there in 1989 and thus avoided paying private fee rates.) As private education was introduced into Singapore, a huge gulf emerged between the private schools charging around S$300 a month compared to government schools charging $5 a month in school fees. ($5 does not include the supplementary miscellaneous fees which varies from school to school). Even amongst the secondary schools in Singapore, this divide between the rich and the poor has emerged and it is only going to get wider with time.
Rich people are always going to have a head start and a much easier ride than those of us from more average backgrounds in a place like Singapore. When it comes to education, rich deaf children have far more options than poor deaf children - it really should be up to the government then to step in and help deaf children from poorer families who cannot afford the more expensive options, but the Singapore government simply does not do enough. People like Lisa feel terribly let down and disappointed.
"My parents tried their best and my family have been wonderful," Lisa told me. "But there's only so much they could've done for me on their limited income and the help I needed just wasn't available in Singapore and it was frustrating - especially since I had a brother who had all these wonderful opportunities at his school to do all these things I couldn't, just because I am deaf and he isn't."
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| Yup, life isn't fair. Didn't you get the memo? |
Lisa then told me a lot more about her personal story about how she had a really difficult time in Singapore as a student and it was thanks to a few really kind people who went out of their ways to help her that she managed to get through her A levels (as a private candidate) and then to a British university. (Sorry I cannot reveal any more details as she wishes to remain anonymous.) But she was happy for me to share the following story on my blog - Lisa did well enough in her A levels to earn herself a place at NUS. She had an initial meeting with the people at NUS regarding what adjustments she needed as a profoundly deaf student.
"Well we had this long meeting to decide what kinds of provisions and adjustments were necessary for me to do my course and it was suggested that in order for me to participate in my lectures, I had to appoint my own note-taker at my own expense, to transcribe the lectures for me. Their attitude sickened me - there was no compassion, they just saw me as a bother, like somehow it was my fault that I am deaf. They had clearly not dealt with a deaf person before in their faculty and my parents were apologizing and I was like, "why are you apologizing for me being deaf?" They were making all kinds of excuses - they basically expected me to solve my own problems, to either borrow the notes from my peers or to tape all the lectures and then pass the tapes onto someone else to transcribe them for me professionally - all at my own expense. And I was like, what if the lecturer uses some technical term which the transcriber doesn't understand or cannot spell? And they were like, "ask your classmates for help". Unreal - so the onus would fall on my classmates to help me, rather than a tutor. Unreal!
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| How many deaf students are there at NUS? |
I'm sorry, but NUS sucks so bad when it comes to their attitude with deaf people. They were saying all kinds of things about me being able to cope There's something wrong with my ears, there's nothing wrong with my brain . Come on, I'm not stupid! I'm deaf! But they don't seem to know the difference. After that I decided she wanted to go study in the UK and my brother supported my decision. Our parents were against the idea at first but when they found out just how great the university was in terms of catering for deaf students, then my parents were assured that I would be better off there than in NUS. Having said that, this was quite a few years ago, so I really hope that they have improved their attitude towards deaf students today."
Special thanks to Lisa for her insight into her experience - it's a shame I couldn't share more of her story with you but I have to respect her wish to remain anonymous. But there you go, I hope I have helped explain why Laurentia Tan's parents chose to settle in the UK in order for her to have a much better education in England, given her deafness. Credit to her parents, Laurentia has done extremely well - she is a graduate, a working professional and has won 4 Paralympic medals. She is such a wonderful role model to young people everywhere about overcoming life's obstacles to make your dreams come true - but let's not forget that Laurentia had a lot of very expensive, specialist help along the way, which was paid for by her very rich parents. The more help you get, the richer your parents are, the easier it is to overcome the obstacles you face, c'est la vie. Here's an interview I found of Laurentia in the run up to the London 2012 Paralympics: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00v0y4v
I shall leave you with this question which I also asked Lisa. If Laurentia Tan had stayed in Singapore, was educated in Singapore and never lived in England, do you think she would've become the outstanding Paralympic silver medallist she is today? Lisa's response was simple: No. No way. Not in a million years. Not without the kind of education she had at that specialist school in England. What do you think? Leave a comment, thanks!
At my previous part-time job at a retail chain in Canada, there was a new employee who was deaf. He has an assistant who was around to translate for him and help him fit into his new job environment. Gradually the assistant came less and less often as the deaf employee became accustomed to his work environment. According to my Canadian colleagues, the assistant is paid for by the government as it is the Canadian policy to facilitate those with disabilities to fulfil their potential.
ReplyDeleteOK this is in really bad taste but a friend of a friend made a short film about this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us7nAFSfo1U
DeleteIn all seriousness, yes this is the kind of assistance that one can expect in Canada and the UK, I would verify with Lisa if one can expect this in Singapore.
Hi LIFT,
ReplyDeleteI have been reading your blog since last year and I agree most of your opinions. I am surprised to see the current topic of your blog article.
I am hearing impaired, living in Singapore. There is one point I do not agree with her about how the lesson should be conducted.
Regards,
Tony
Dear Tony,
DeleteHello and thanks for your comment. Lisa did express a lot of opinions and we exchanged many emails over a few days - if I were to cut & paste everything, this article would be way too long and I had to play the role of the editor and so many things were left out.
Yes I was trying to give my hearing readers a brief insight into some of the frustrations faced by the hearing impaired in Singapore - but on the other hand, I didn't want it to be like a wikipedia entry on deaf people in Singapore. I wanted to explain WHY Laurentia Tan's parents chose to educate her in England to respond very specifically to the haters who have attacked her as a 'quitter'. I don't see her as a 'quitter' - rather, it is the Singaporean state who has let her down by not providing for her adequately as a disabled person.
Now we did talk a lot about how deaf students are taught and she did explain to be the difference between total communication and the Natural Auditory Oral Approach - but I chose not to include that in this article. We also discussed in much greater detail about the difference between NUS and the British university she ended up in; again, I left out some details and maybe I had left out the wrong details in my editorial, but I didn't want this article to be too long. It was merely meant to get people thinking about the issue and then they could then find out more via the internet, their friends etc.
I think she was attacking NUS's attitude per se, rather than the methods she was expected to use to adapt. I'd love to hear from you to see how you feel about how lessons should be conducted for the hearing impaired in higher education, eg. a university.
Thanks and best regards.
LIFT,
DeleteI am fine with your summary on the article. It is good start.
The public needs to be aware as follows:
1) any type of hearing aids amplify sounds. Unfortuntely, they does not produce similar effects to spectacle. Anyone wear specs and will definietely see the same image as people with 20/20 vision. Hearing impaired people with hearing aids will never be able to
- tell the distance from where sounds are coming from,
- distinguish texture of sounds (e.g. all people's accents sound the same to -- filter noise out in the noisy environment in order to hear the voice I want to hear
2) hearing impairment people can never catch up words from people who talk so fast like machine gun.
3) those hearing impairment people can catch certain range of decibels. For me, I cannot hear the sounds with extremely low decibels such as whispering. Thus, they may not be able to catch certain sound, for example,'th' and their speech appeared to be 'foreign' to Singaporeans.
In Singapore, there is one more school for hearing impaired other than Singapore School For The Deaf. There are few more secondary schools other than listed schools in your articles. I suspect that the ones Lisa approach is not well equipped/prepared for deaf/hearing impaired people. When I was in secondary school, I had interview with a staff from MOE to discuss how hearing impaired people can thrive in such learning environment. I am not sure how they used my feedback since then. It was more than a decade ago.
I see utilitarianism in Singapore society. When I read Lisa's opinion about NUS's suggestion, I feel she wants first class treatment. Typical stuck up lady. From that statement, I am under impression that normal unversity student will understand somehow after listening the lesson. In reality, she and those normal university students face the different degree of problems at the end of the class. I could be wrong here interpreting that statement.
She can have that first class treatment by paying costs herself to have sign language interpretator. I rather not have government's tax revenue to spend on insignificant services like that. Most hearing impaired people cannot cover whole 'words' of sign language. There will be bound to have problem when there is no sign language for complex words. Not only that, the interpretator must have certain knowledge of the subjects. Otherwise, he/she cannot interpret on the same wavelength as professors. That only applies in university. I remember one guy who has profound hearing tackled the problems in NUS and LSE by using similar solution suggested on your article - checking classmates' notes or asking them what the professor is saying. Naturally, I don't see any problem with that. This solution enables him to 'network'. It is really win-win situation.Although SNEF provide incentives to companies to hire, there is limitation to how many hearing impaired people will be hired in what type of companies. The wages of most hearing impaired people is not on the same level as normal people.
Hearing impaired people is better to hear at short distance and lip-read - they must sit in front of the lecturer rooms rather than at the back. Front seats should be reserved to them, if possible. In primary education, I endorse Natural Auditory Oral Approach. It will enable hearing impaired to intergrate smoothly with normal people with few minor problems. It is because I have seen the result of Natural Auditory Oral Approach and Total Communication by seeing two different people from two different primary schools for hearing impaired. The former 'click' very well than the latter with normal colleagues in the working environment. It is ok to do sign language because it is like another language to us. I prefer to see hearing impaired to talk more often than sign language, if possible.
DeleteThese problems mentioned on the article are temporary problems to any hearing impaired. They will disappear after they are done with education. The major problem is actually employment which affect their rest of the life. That problem does not go away.
That is the limit I can write here. Too many things to write.
Thanks Tat Yan, I just want to point out that Lisa is around my age (36) so she was talking more about her own experiences rather than what the current situation is.
DeleteIt is interesting to hear your insight - thank you for that, like I said, the whole point of my article was not to do a wikipedia style A-Z about what it means to be deaf in Singapore, but to answer a very specific question; ie. why did Laurentia move to England?
I would like you please to read Chem Poupee's account about his brother's experience in Australia - quite a contrast to Lisa's experience with NUS (Lisa gave up on NUS and went to a British university instead).
I have read. It is true that hearing impaired people get better treatment in Australia. I have primary school classmate whose nationality is New Zealead. She told me that the government recognise sign language as national language. Furthermore, there are better welfare benefits. Welfare systems have its funding limitation over few decades. Pros and cons here and there, you see. Just that how accommodating we want? We have different wants and needs.
DeleteI merely point out the factors that contributing to such situations. The situation for hearing impaired people in Singapore is no different from her. And yet, they come by well. Just 2-4 years apart. Not very significant different at all.
Thanks for your insight.
DeleteInteresting entry.
ReplyDeleteMy brother is hearing-impaired, and he went through the same system in Singapore before leaving for a top university in Australia (for good? who knows). He gets a lot of support here. There's a department to help disabled people at on the university's dime, and as a whole the entire community is much more educated about the needs of disabled people than in Singapore. It's very inclusive and accommodating.
Contrast that to Lisa's experience... and I'm glad my brother didn't apply for NUS.
Singapore still has a long way to go in treating the disabled.
Hi Chem Poupee - could you have a read of Yong Tat Yan's reaction to Lisa's outburst at NUS, what do you think of him labelling Lisa a 'typical stuck up lady'? Thanks.
DeleteLimpeh, Twenty-tree here. I would really like to know if the majority just like Yong Tat Yan is unwilling to pay for "first class treatment" services and facilities, wouldn't that mean that there would be none for people like Lisa or Laurentia Tan to exploit in the first place? So what Stuck-up lady? LOL! The lack of logic baffles me. If he/she knows I had cerebral palsy and have gotten through his "we want to help but we don't want to pay for it" education system with the exact same condition that Laurentia Tan has, I wonder what some of your readers will think. Is it any wonder one trains in UK full time and Lisa your interviewee long out of the education system or whatever system here in Singapore. The inferiority-complex just leaks out of Yong Tat Yan's and many of those "oh fuck you quitters" comments that you've gotten.
DeleteThanks for your insight. It is very interesting to compare & contrast the attitudes of people like Yong Tat Yan and yourself - maybe you'll like to share more stories about your experiences with the system in Singapore please?
DeleteMany thanks again.
It is quite disappointing to learn that it is just inferiority-complex issue in my case. It is really about cost issue whereby some people may not afford.There will be different groups having different opinions.
DeleteI took this view because i was inspired by blind lady who is paying volunteers to read research papers while recording. With that sheer hard work, she succeeds as fund manager.
If you cannot see the logic of those who is in their shoes, then it is hard to understand,
I'm sorry but you've confused me: "paying volunteers"? Surely by definition, volunteers are unpaid, when you volunteer for something, you are doing it for free, out of the goodwill, for charity. Paid work, on the other hand, refers to a commercial service performed in exchange for money. So if this blind lady is paying people to help her, then these are not volunteers, but members of staff or contractors employed by her.
DeleteSorry to split hairs, but I've just had this whole big thing about me choosing not to be an unpaid volunteer for the Olympics and I ended up working instead for one of the sponsors, doing the same thing at the end of the day but getting paid for it.
Good question. The reason why I choose this word is because he/she is willing to do mundane work but he/she should be modestly compensated for work rendered. He/she was under verbal contract and was not under any organisation. The blind lady paid out of her pocket and her employer was not paying.
DeleteOK, thanks for the clarification. Sorry to play the part of the English teacher, but under such circumstances, that person is still not a volunteer, by definition.
DeleteOk, it is fine with me.
DeleteRe: Limpeh
DeleteI have no right to judge Yong Tat Yan because he probably went through his own set of struggles, but I don't agree with that label. Lisa has undoubtedly faced her share of disappointment with the system and to feel that kind of dissatisfaction is understandable.
I don't feel that my brother faced that kind of open discrimination. In fact the schools he went to were pretty supportive, but then again he left before university/work life, and that's probably where things start to get more difficult...
FYI:
In Australia they have their own sign language called "Auslan". Finger spelling is based off the British sign language system, but it's a separate language of its own, and trained interpreters can be arranged relatively easily if you need one for a doctor's appt etc. I think hearing school children are taught a bit of Auslan in school too to promote communication with the deaf/hard-of-hearing community, which is good.
Thanks for your response Chem Poupee. I'm glad your brother is happy in Oz.
DeleteHaving been through just about the entire education system; primary right up to university and out of it prematurely by my own choice to UK to pursue my interest, I immediately could tell the marked difference between what we have here and what is mandated in UK. I'm not sure what Yong Tat Yan is driving at, but surely he knows that in Singapore NONE of the schools, any school at ANY level is actually obliged to give you any sort of help and surely he must know that dependance on friends notes is one of the sure fire ways you won't get any given the competitive environment? No. It strikes me that it is exactly people like Yong Tat Yan that my government likes to use as examples to say--if he doesn't need it then people like Lisa wouldn't need it would she? This is the sort of attitude and ableism that infects the disabled community that I find the hardest to combat to be perfectly honest. I'm not sure what Yong Tat Yong's experience is, I don't fault him for making do with what the system has to offer; but when you move somewhere else and you see the Disability Centres or rather even at face value that there is a physical building with people employed full time to listen to the problems that you have, you start to wonder what the 14, 15 year battle you fought back home with your own education system means. The fact that I had to talk to a building management manager to find out if there are any disability access routes for 20 minutes over the phone only to find out even he didn't know if there were any goes to show just how far we lag behind really. UK has really opened my eyes and even then, the Brits will tell you that the facilities there are piecemeal. Just ask the Baroness that had to crawl off the train cabins. I think she would find NTU a horrible place and maybe a large part of Singapore equally as bad as the worse non barrier-free things she can find in London and elsewhere. Maybe she'll get a chance to see just how piecemeal things can really get. For example, Stairs with handrails only to go without handrails right in the middle of nowhere with an entire lunchtime crowd waiting to stomp all over you should you fall and then with handrails again just before you reach the topmost or bottom level of a particular building; curbs everywhere was my nightmare and still is. Granted I know NTU is an old building, but I also know I made it through your admissions by sheer grit so who gave them the right to make my daily life in there more difficult than it already is? Given a chance, I would really like to scream at the top of my lungs for all parents rich enough to send your kids overseas, get PR-ship or whatever. The mental battles are tough and I thank my lucky-stars that even though I'm not from a well-to-do family, I have a "like i give a fuck what you think attitude" or the system would have chewed me right down through my brains and bones really. Singapore's education system is not for the faint-hearted normal kids. Now think of it as Singapore's education system is REALLY not for the faint-hearted of disabled kids. And yes, you could change Lisa's million to billion years and my opinion would be, Laurentia Tan won't stand a chance in Singapore and her parents were smart enough to figure that part out and fast. Many kids with Cerebral Palsy don't stand a chance at the means testing into mainstream schools. I know. Because I myself almost didn't make it. Fast forward years later I was in a UK Law School and I'm proud of that even though I had to abort that idea and return home given how difficult living alone with a disability was be it in Singapore or UK.
DeleteBest comment left on my blog - and that's no mean feat, considering that there have been 2685 comments so far. Award for you coming up.
DeleteI strongly agree that there should be facilities for people using wheelchairs because they don't get obsolete and the average cost bore by government or organisation is easily spread over the numbers of people using it - disabled people using wheelchair, mothers pushing child pram, etc. The tangible and intangible benefit for these facilities are quite large, exceeding costs. I have a sister who has muscle problem, which doctors could not solve. My mother rely a lot on slope to push customised pram. It does get them from point A to point B easily.
DeleteWhen comes to some people like me, getting sign language interpreter does not yield better result than listening directly from lecturers/professors. I benefit the most by asking questions directly to lecturers/professors after lessons. I don't have to spend anything that yield me no obvious benefit. I can only be grateful if the assigned lecturers/professors are caring enough to take time to explain the nature of the topics. It boils down to whether you are interested in learning.
There was a time when I spent my parent's money to buy specialised microphone for hearing aids upon primary school's suggestion for normal school. It didn't help me that much. Money was wasted. Such technology that aid disabled can go obsolete that easily and they want new technology which may cost a lot of money. Purely waste of public money if they are not used any more. We have to bear in mind that some parents may be earning gross pay of $800-$1000 per month. Because of that, I prefer government to enhance real wages to everybody including parents so that they can take care of their disabled children better. I prefer to have disabled people learning towards being able to work. Big problems only lie on job designation towards disabled people who wish to work on the same level as normal people.
It is the big picture I thought of. Again, it boils down to whether you choose utilitarianism or egoism. For me, I took utilitarianism view which I am comfortable with.
Thank you once again Tat Yan - I shall invite Muchopunk and the others as usual to respond to your points.
DeletePlease refer to my blog for reply. Free to repost it here, correct the english if you want. But please keep the meaning the same. 3 pages took me 10 or so years to figure out. Toddles. First day of university starts tomorrow and I write a 3 page essay that has nothing to do with getting a first class degree...
DeleteHi LIFT,
ReplyDeleteGreat read as usual. Must say I did not expect an entry about this topic. Again, your entry are more 'cheem' than the usual entries/comments out there. Since I noticed nobody has done it yet, I would like to say Thank you for bringing up the plight of the less-abled. (is this the correct term?)
Especially highlighting their challenges undergoing the education system in Singapore. (And their no less challenging conditions in the working world)
Any entry that brings attention/focus on the issue is better than none.
I have a nephew that suffers from muscular dystrophy. My sis says she remembers Mr Goh CT promising at least 1 special school in every HDB town. However, like the Swiss standard of living, it was all talk and no school. She even brought up his promise when Mr Goh CT did a community dialogue in her estate. That was about 10 years ago. I still don't see his promise being fulfilled.
"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." : Mahatma Ghandi.
Hiya E. Thanks for your kind words.
DeleteOh I wrote this because so many Singaporean idiots out there were saying all kinds of bullshit about Laurentia Tan and calling her a 'quitter' etc, when they have absolutely no idea what kinds of challenges deaf people face in Singapore. So in a small way, I wanted to redress that balance through my blog.
I do have an autistic nephew and have written a lot on the challenges faced by people with autism in Singapore - but I was so nervous about writing something about the deaf community as I had to do my research on it first.
"Laurentia had a lot of very expensive, specialist help along the way, which was paid for by her very rich parents." You are wrong, Laurentia's education was paid for by the UK taxpayers as education in UK is free. Also, Laurentia would have benefitted from the generous disability allowances that UK as a welfare state gives out. Would Singapore have invested so much in a disabled person?
ReplyDeleteLaurentia is indeed fortunate to have her feet in both UK and Singapore. She enjoys UK's Disability benefits while as a Singaporean Paralympian, she receives the monetary award given for her success.
Yong Tat, u have good points, but if the whole point of the article is why did Laurentia move to England instead of stay in Singapore for her education etc - then the answer is simple
ReplyDelete1) Better access to education through better acceptance of disabilities/inabilities
2) Her parents are able to afford her that experience with education and her chosen sport.
good on them and good on her!
You really can't say that the Singapore education system allows for the different learning rates of people able bodied or otherwise. Yes we have better opportunities and more doors are opening now, but it's still very lacking.
The acceptance of sign language as a national language is awesome in NZ, but not true in Australia or even the USA where Deaf Pride is strong. Even so, look at Singapore.. we have 4 official languages, but how many actually speak our NATIONAL language which is Malay ~ only about 13% of the population?
Easy to assume then that Laurentia has UK PR which gives her access to "welfare" in the UK, but for her to have gotten there, really based on her parents and them being able to get PR.
But the best part in all of this that people are missing is that.. Yes Laurentia is in the UK and getting a good education etc, BUT she's representing SINGAPORE in the paralympics and she's still proud to be SINGAPOREAN.