Education not only for privileged

The many demands for places in our universities, the exodus of students overseas and the thriving private education industry point to a pressing need to make education even more accessible to the masses.

The elitist slant to education through the limiting of places in local varsities and through the need for significant funds or scholarship to acquire expensive education abroad has been central in perpetuating the perception that education is the bastion either of the intelligent or the rich.

Economic and social weightage is attached to educational qualification because it is out of reach of the masses, notwithstanding the fact that among these "masses" are people who may have great potential.

-- The New Straits Times, Singapore