[Manthink]

Below is a speech by LKY on 10 Feb1978:
Nanyang University’s fatal error in adjusting to this drop in students was to lower standards in order to keep up the size of the student population. It became so bad that for Malay Studies, students who had been rejected by University of Singapore....

I am curious if you even bother to read LKY's entire speech!

Lee shared his 3 conclusions observing how Nanyang U students struggled with the English-language. He ended with optimism how Chinese-educated can adapt and excel even in the most difficult environment...Perhaps you forget many of our early days Pioneers are Hokkien-speaking elites who were one of the champion to remove British colonialsim.

Here is the full script of the 1978 speech from Gov archive
https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/da...80210a.pdf

REASON FOR OPTIMISM

Despite all the difficulties of converting from Chinese to English as the language of instruction and examinations, the results in University of Singapore,
Polytechnic and Ngee Ann show that there are few or no failures because they have come from the Chinese stream.

I believe this is because the students admitted to University of Singapore, Polytechnic and Ngee Ann are those with ability, and higher scores in ‘A’ and ‘O’ level examinations. In other words, they are the abler students, who are also able to master the second language, English, despite initial difficulties