Thursday, 11 August 2011

Meritocratic Singapore

Meritocracy is by far the most successful in ensuring equality to all. With this system, everyone who deserves respect and praise gets it because they earned it, and not because they were born with it. This gives people the chance to choose who they become with their achievements and accomplishments determining factors. This is also supported by the quote :" An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". It is a fair reward for the amount of work that one does in life.

Next, Meritocracy takes into account a holistic list of talents and strengths of people. In a meritocratic society, a person's merits are judged based on one's IQ, in the form of academic work, as well as EQ, in the form of character upbringing. As quoted from Dr. Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, :" IQ accounts for 20% of a person's success in life, while the rest largely attributed to emotional intelligence". Meritocracy captures these two main traits and thus gives fair chance to all no matter their area of strength.

Although some people argue that Meritocracy is a haphazard thinking with the reason being  that in order for equal opportunities to be ensured for all in society, the pre-requisite would be that people in society must enjoy equal access to these opportunities, one cannot expect a system to be perfect. At present, it has to be admitted that meritocracy is the best systems that reaches the highest level of equality coupled with one of the highest level of productivity.

 Now, let me introduce the topic of a successful life. Broadly speaking, someone who has a successful life must be able to set goals and accomplish those goals in one's life. Usually, there is a common denominator for a truly successful life, and it is to include wisdom, faith in a higher being, and peace with oneself and the environment.

Indeed, meritocracy is backed by the definition of a successful life. Therefore meritocracy is the best way for schools in Singapore to enable the brightest and best to rise to the top to reach a Utilitarianistic future.

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