What more can you do?

Me and my other half are at our wits trying to impress upon our kid to make full use of the golden opportunity given by the gomen for him to further his education. From what we had gathered, the gomen has agreed that all students who have been given this opportunity will be sponsored for whatever courses approved by them at local public universities and selected private universities, and also at prestigious universities including Ivy League universities overseas, if they managed to get accepted into such universities. How often do you get such offers! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and it is better than striking a lottery. That is why we spent so much time to lobby for it and also took the effort to go all the way to Putrajaya to do it personally. Credit should be given to my other half for her untiring and relentless effort to chase for it and this is something I admire about her.

We have seen time and again that 'bright' students with straight A's have not been given scholarships and places in universities to pursue their choice of courses and a dream career. Our gomen practise a certain degree of bias in the award of scholarships and 'who you know' is critical in the selection process. But sometimes due to circumstances, the gomen do provide some 'cheers' to soothe protesting public demands, especially close to election times.

What do you do when such scholarships are given, and especially two years ahead of entering universities. IT GIVES YOU A TWO YEARS PERIOD TO PLAN AND WEIGH YOUR OPTIONS. How many people are so lucky! Thousands of other students are studying for their exams not knowing where, which and what universities they are going to and on top of that, whether they have the financial means to do it.

So please 'find info' on which are the prestigious universities being recognised by the gomen and what are the application procedures and the respective timelines for application and acceptance. An executive summary of your application timetable would be a basic need in this instance. You would also need to have a preview of the courses offered and shortlist your few preferred courses and thereafter, you need to get the gomen to confirm whether such courses would be acceptable to them. There is no point in applying into courses which are not acceptable to the gomen as they would be the financiers of your studies.

We really hope that he would take the lead and we can then provide him with the necessary back-up support. He should also understand that what he needs to do now will benefit him much in the near future.

Please understand that this is nothing compared to what you need to do when you are into your working life. Your superiors may push many assignments to you to take advantage of you and at the end of it, to reap the fruits of your labour when there are rewards.

So please do the needful. You will be the main beneficiary of your own responsibilities and your future is all in your hands. We can only do as much though we would like to do more.