News

Your Ref :
Our Ref : CIRD5/2-05

21 Sep 2006

The Editor
TODAY
Forum Page

Dear Editor,

In his letter "Lure for foreign scholars" (TODAY 21 Sep), Mr Leong Sze Hian noted from media reports that the Public Service Commission (PSC) had reduced its scholarships from 253 to 39.

We would like to inform Mr Leong and your readers that the newspaper quoted had made an error in its report and had since corrected it.

The reason for the change in the number of PSC scholarships is due to the delegation of ministry specific scholarships (e.g, teaching) to the ministries. The total number of public sector scholarships has however remained at 250 or more for the last 5 years.

We would also like to add that PSC scholarship applicants must be Singapore citizens or Singapore permanent residents with an intention to take up Singapore citizenship.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Choo Lee See
Director
Public Service Commission Secretariat
Public Service Commission

I refer to your article “Scholar Under Fire For Racist Blog Entries” in the Sunday Times dated 17 April 2005.

PSC has investigated the issue and Mr Chua Cheng Zhan has given us his explanation for this incident.

PSC does not condone the making of any racist comments by our scholars. PSC views this matter seriously and has issued a letter of reprimand to Mr Chua. We note that Mr Chua has taken full responsibility for the comments made on his personal blog and has apologised publicly for his insensitive remarks.

We would like to take this opportunity to remind all PSC scholars to conduct themselves in a manner becoming of holders of a PSC scholarship at all times.

Mrs Choo Lee See
Director, Public Service Commission Secretariat
for Secretary, Public Service Commission