Drop ungrateful scholarship holders
WHILE funding for the local arts scene is always welcome, it is disappointing to see Dr Eng Kai Er use her one-woman arts grant as a thinly veiled attack on her scholarship agency ("A*Star scientist starts arts grant in protest against six-year bond"; Tuesday).
WHILE funding for the local arts scene is always welcome, it is disappointing to see Dr Eng Kai Er use her one-woman arts grant as a thinly veiled attack on her scholarship agency ("A*Star scientist starts arts grant in protest against six-year bond"; Tuesday).
Depicting herself as the hapless victim of a scholarship bond and describing her scientific research as "narcissistic, masturbatory work" that she is not interested in show a shocking lack of appreciation for the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on her doctoral studies, not to mention the academic and professional opportunities afforded to her.
It would have been far more honourable for Dr Eng to resign her scholarship once she had resolved not to pursue a scientific career. Remaining employed in the field while publicly sniping at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) and the scholarship system is simply biting the hand that fed her.
I hope Dr Eng's example will not deter public and private agencies from offering scholarships to deserving students. Many scholarship holders, myself included, served out their bonds with dedication and gratitude to the last day.
Parents and schools need to help teens develop the maturity to be clear-minded about the scholarships they choose and the work they wish to do in future.
Eighteen is not too young an age to make a commitment for the next decade of one's life. A six-year bond is hardly indentured slavery: The savvy scholarship holder who dislikes his job would use the opportunity to hone his professional skills and position himself for his post-bond career change.
Since Dr Eng is unlikely to remain in the scientific field beyond her bond, A*Star might be better off terminating her bond immediately and channelling the estimated $700,000 in liquidated damages to a more deserving party.
Companies should not feel obliged to keep employees who make no bones about their lack of commitment to their jobs.
Estella Young (Ms)
ST Forum, 28 Nov 2014
Estella Young (Ms)
ST Forum, 28 Nov 2014
How successful have programmes been?
I READ with disbelief the article ("A*Star scientist starts arts grant in protest against six-year bond"; Tuesday).
I READ with disbelief the article ("A*Star scientist starts arts grant in protest against six-year bond"; Tuesday).
How could someone be so cavalier about the use of public funds and ignorant of the fact that the Government's budget is largely a zero-sum affair - for every dollar spent on funding Dr Eng Kai Er's education, one less dollar was made available to another government agency to perhaps upgrade our infrastructure, help the less fortunate, or shore up our reserves against some future catastrophe?
She has the gall to bemoan that she has been all but forced to live in pain as she serves her bond, severed from complete immersion in her interests.
I am not quite sure how much suffering she is undergoing compared to more existential sensations stemming from hunger or chronic illness, but it must be quite painful indeed - at least enough to numb her sense of duty or shame.
I hope Dr Eng is an outlier in the greater scheme of things, and that the various scholarship programmes have had far greater returns from our scholarship holders as a whole.
Perhaps government agencies could share with the public
some metrics on how successful their scholarship programmes have been, as well as what action is being taken to utilise individuals like Dr Eng who have become disengaged with the line of work to which they have been bonded.
Justin Wang Qi Wei
ST Forum, 28 Nov 2014
Justin Wang Qi Wei
ST Forum, 28 Nov 2014
A*Star scientist starts arts grant in protest against six-year bond
By Sandra Davie Senior Education Correspondent, The Straits Times, 25 Nov 2014
By Sandra Davie Senior Education Correspondent, The Straits Times, 25 Nov 2014
A RESEARCH scholar from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) who strolled naked through Holland Village five years ago is creating a buzz online with another radical move.
Dr Eng Kai Er, 30, now a scientist in an A*Star laboratory and a dancer-choreographer, has launched an arts grant to protest against her six-year scholarship bond with the agency.
Under the No Star Arts Grant - which she initially called the A*Star Arts Grant - she has pledged to give $1,000 a month from her salary to support arts projects for a year.
In her blog post before it was edited, Dr Eng, who studied at Cambridge University and Swedish medical university Karolinska Institute on an A*Star scholarship, explained why she decided to give out the grant.
"Eng Kai Er is not interested in science at all, but has to serve her bond or pay, as of 30 September 2014, around $741,657.37 in order to quit her job," she wrote.
"Since she understands the pain of having a paid job that is not aligned with her interests, she wishes to change the world by having more instances of paid jobs aligned with people's interest."
She went on to say how she prefers to support arts projects that are unlikely to receive other sources of funding.
In 2009, the former Hwa Chong Junior College student was fined $2,000 for stripping and walking down Lorong Mambong with Swedish exchange student Jan Philip "for a thrill".
She was given a warning by A*Star but allowed to keep her scholarship, which paid for her studies up to PhD level. For that, she was bonded for six years.
It is believed that Dr Eng - who is part of a programme to groom directors at The Substation Theatre and recently staged a play titled Fish - tried transferring her bond to the National Arts Council but was unsuccessful.
Her latest stunt has provoked mixed reactions from the public.
Business development executive Malcolm Tan, 44, felt Dr Eng should have refused the scholarship early on and should now bear the responsibility for her privileged education.
"It would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. There should be a bond."
Others though felt that the Government should be flexible and allow scholarship holders to serve out their bonds in their areas of interest.
Another bonded government scholarship holder, who declined to be named, told The Straits Times: "Really, what do you know when you are 18 years old. It's only later that you get a feel of where your interests truly lie. But by then it's too late."
The Necessary Stage's artistic director Alvin Tan said Dr Eng's grant "makes possible an alternative form or platform of giving to the arts".
The Straits Times asked A*Star about its policy on transferring the bonds of scholarship holders and on Dr Eng originally naming the grant after the agency, but it did not get back by press time.