We've hit 1,000! Ready to send to Minister Ong Ye Kung?

Final petition draft for tonight. **If you've signed, please check my Facebook post (facebook.com/tansipeng) to see if you're ok with the format used (those identifying with Singapore come in the first thousand names). 39 signatures couldn't be used due to anonymity or an alias I can't find online. Feel free to DM or email tehsipeng@gmail.com if you want to suggest amendments.

"To the Minister of Education and MOE,

We, the signatories, refer to the Ministry of Education's explanation regarding its 'longstanding practice' of denying original PSLE certs for children whose parents or guardians have defaulted on their wards' school fees and that a copy is provided instead (Today, 26 Nov 19), and the honourable Minister's hope for the government "to always engage the people" (Straits Times, 4 Dec 19).

We, the signatories utilising the online petition platform change.org, represent numerous Singaporeans who disagree with this policy and its basis. A child's completion of school cert, report books, and other testimonies are demonstrative of Singapore's meritocratic values. They have come to symbolise personal progress, and the ceremony of receiving a PSLE cert has become a large part in our children's sense of worth now.

We therefore ask MOE to abolish this practice of holding back certificates starting 2020, and that certs, report books, or any other low-cost items for school be made available to all children and young students regardless of monies owed or other financial and family circumstances, arrears, and challenges faced or caused by their guardians/parents. Our grounds for this are: that they are small-cost items with marginal implications on state expenses, that parental defaults are a matter for other ministries to resolve, and that MOE needs to develop our country's belief in equal opportunity from a Singapore child's young life.

We disagree with MOE's stand that doing so is "educationally sound" for the child (CNA, 26 Nov 19). At this young age, their egocentric associations are still inductive, independent of external circumstances and legal contracts that surround them, yet greatly affects their teenage and adult lives. We believe MOE should not implicate children with the 'education' it wants to bestow their parents or guardians; this is neither the duty of MOE, nor effective as the latter's incapacity to parent or be accountable to the public service has nothing to do with the child's education or personal development.

We ask for an MOE that helps educate its young citizens and residents not only in academic knowledge and skill, but also helps form healthy social experiences, relationships with authorities, and other norms and personal expectations.

We, the signatories, thank you for considering our request."