Amrin Amin, Senior PArliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs recently shared that 34 inmates under the Tanah Merah Prison school received their A-Levels behind bars. 61 students also sat for their O-Levels while serving their prison terms in the same school.
Take a look at his post below:
His post reads:
34 inmates from Tanah Merah Prison School sat for A-Level examinations in 2018. Results out today.
Our top scorer got five As and one B!
5 inmates qualify to apply for full-time local university courses. 16 inmates qualify for polytechnic and private degree courses.
All winners. Results matter, but what matters more is their fantastic effort and never-say-die attitude.
I am very proud of our inmates – all 34 of them – for attempting A-Level examinations. It shows great spirit and character. Bravo!
He has been actively sharing about his office’s efforts to rehabilitate inmates, and that more than 300 prisoners take their N, O, and A-Levels while serving their sentences. They do this through the schools and rehabilitative programs present in so many detention centers and halfway houses. To better understand the plight of these prisoners, Minister Amin published his video too:
One of the achievements he boasts about is that one of the inmates definitely received better results than we did! According to his post, one received five A’s and one B!
In a report from TODAY Online, you can see that prisoners going on to have better careers and being able to turn their life around is not as uncommon as you think. The report highlighted 39-year-old Darren Tang who even got a law degree and a job straight out of law school after spending more than 12 years in jail!
The reports said that he had even received caning for drug offenses. But the National University of Singapore said that his results on the exams were good enough that he warranted an interview, which is why they gave him a chance. The Dean of the Faulty of Law at NUS even mentioned that a special provision was given at the time of his interview, where a faculty member went for a prison visit to interview Darren.
This just proves that rehabilitation does have good effects on offenders, offering them hope and a second chance–if they’re willing to work hard and are remorseful of their actions. For other inmates, though, this may not be the case.
What do netizens have to say?
Count on Singaporean netizens (who have no doubt gone through their A-Levels) to give their opinions on the efforts of these inmates:
Some mentioned that prison could be a very good study environment–and possibly the best in Singapore.
Others marveled at how they were able to get such high levels without the use of modern day study tools and the internet.
While others already knew what helped these inmates get such great results.
Some expressed that these prisoners did better than they did and they know why.
This commenter pointed out that the scores were good enough for very difficult courses of study like medicine and law.
Some had a great joke at their own expense to praise these prisoners.
While others had a suggestion for parents who want their kids to get good scores.
Is prison the answer? Or maybe Zoe Tay’s parenting technique may be better for getting good scores for takers who aren’t in prison.
Header image from Amrin Amin’s Facebook post.
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