References and interviews are key to scholarship selection
I'm referencing the Elton John classic, but I think that this is the exact problem Singapore has. The recent case over the MOE scholar who got a teaching scholarship and was later found to be an avid fan of child pornography caused widespread horror and revulsion, not least because it was a teaching scholarship he was offered.
Parents were left asking, what if he had become a teacher? And I do believe that MOE has to come out and say sorry about the whole affair, that they had selected someone like him to become a future teacher.
Not because they should have seen that he was that perverted or depraved. I will give you that, such behaviour is often hard to detect, even if he had a bad record in secondary school. I actually remember this guy, because he was a junior in my school when I was studying, and the severity of his peeping offence then had sent shockwaves throughout the whole school. But he managed to live a pretty normal life for almost 10 years after that, which kind of hints to you just how difficult it is to really judge the contents of a book if all you can see is its cover.
The whole secondary school affair was hushed up, and he was given a chance to repent, to move on from the whole incident. The fact that he did not take it means that he will live out his life in shame and ridicule, and that is his price to pay.
The current selection criteria does not give any weight to one's disciplinary record for scholarship selection, and I think perhaps that should change. For one, someone who has a record of voyeurism should definitely not be considered ever for a teaching scholarship, no matter what his merits. Perhaps another scholarship, but not teaching, because I think we do expect teachers to have a certain level of moral standing.
MOE should apologise, because like any process, the selection of scholarship candidates is ultimately fallible. MOE needs to come out and say sorry, we screwed up, but we will make our selection criteria stricter in the future.
An apology conveys a genuine recognition that one has made a mistake and is willing to do something about it. Not doing so only gives people the impression that they are unwilling to acknowledge that they had screwed up, that they want to remain immune to criticism, that they hope this whole thing will blow over.
They just want to make it seem like its not us, its just him, when we all know its more than that. I'm not baying for blood here, I just don't want another pervert in our schools. Who knows how many more there are out there, or whether they are already teaching in our schools.