CIP

Now, I was thinking this morning, and one thing led to another, and then, I arrived on the topic of CIP.

Now, is it really all that sensible a decision to make CIP compulsory? I understand that the Government is simply trying to make Singaporean students more civic minded, but, is it really working?

By making CIP compulsory, they are in fact making most students look at community service as a bother, something they HAVE to complete to make the cut for their CCA grades. As such, they begin viewing it as an irritating task that they have no choice but to do.

Also, by making CIP compulsory, the students embark on community service with a grudging heart, and is that really what we want? If you go and do community service unwillingly, doesn't it lose all meaning altogether?

Sure, there are the exceptional ones who do it with all their heart and soul. But those are only the minority.

Shouldn't Community Service be done as such? To treat it as a chore, something one HAS to complete, doesn't that defeat the original intention of the Government?

On to how universities of today look at Community Service records. Now, that is all fine and dandy, as we want more people of fine morals in our universities. But isn't it ridiculous if you look at it from another angle?

Before university application period, there is a flurry to do CIP. And after that? What happens? Suddenly, all the men and women of fine substance who were let into the universities lose their substance. Ok, maybe not all. But most.

What about those who do not glorify their deeds?

Are we not forgetting them?

For are the best people not those who do community service willingly, and do not announce how good they are to the world?

What of those people?