I refer to Chua Chin Leng aka redbean’s article “Tuition grant, how much did we give away?” (Jan 22)

More money for universities?

I would like to also refer to the article “S$100m grant to help local universities build research strengths” (Channel NewsAsia, Jan 19).

Spending per university student?

According to the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) Education Digest 2013 – Government recurrent expenditure on education per university student in 2012/2013 was $20,978.

According to the Department of Statistics’ (DOS) Singapore 2005 Statistical Highlights – the above was $13,420 in 1985.

Spending declined by 7% last 27 years?

So, it has increased by about 56% in the last 27 years or so. However, inflation increased by about 63% from 1985 (CPI 69.3) to 2012 (CPI 113.1).

Does this mean that in real terms, it declined by about 7% over the last 27 years or so?

In this connection, GDP growth was about 457% from 1985 ($54.8 billion) to 2012 ($305.2 billion), or about 6.6% per annum.

Spending was 464% less than GDP growth?

Does this mean that relative to GDP growth, real education spending per university student was about 463% less than GDP growth?

In other words, GDP growth was 6.6% per annum and real education spending growth was about minus 0.25%?

Are there any countries in the world that has such a dismal record of education spending relative to GDP growth?

Uniquely Singapore

Leong Sze Hian