According to reporters from Chinese papers Lian He Zao Bao, two N-level students from Juying Secondary School were not allowed to receive their official certificates because they owed school fees. The two Normal Technical-stream students with extreme poverty family background each owed the school S$540 and S$1,696, and only received their exam transcripts during the release of N-level results yesterday (Dec 19).
It is understood the two poor students were embarrassingly shamed by the school when their fellow school mates heard of the real reason why they were the only ones not given their N-level certificates.
An anonymous part-time teacher was enraged by the school’s mercenary actions and immediately went around the school collecting donations to crowd fund the amount to pay the school. The anonymous part-time teacher raised the full amount in less than a day, but the school refused to take the donation money – embarrassing the two poor students who were eagerly wanted their certificates back to join in the celebration with their friends.
The school then forced the parents of the students to meet, and discussed options to recover the school fees before finally returning their N-level certificates.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Education (MOE) did not deny the incident and only repeated himself saying the government has a lot of financial assistance plans to assist local students.