DISCLAIMER : I have previously received education in Singapore up to a pre-University level, and have spent the entirety of my childhood there for over 10 years. This is an account of both my experiences and opinions; they may not be in line with what most others educated in Singapore may believe. The education system in Singapore in my time is still markedly different from that of the United States. The official policy of the Government of Singapore is that the education system was originally meant to prioritize the acquisition of relevant skills for work for its population, in order to facilitate the competitiveness in a period of industrialization. As a result, tertiary education is actually intentionally limited, resembling the Scandinavian countries in this respect. However, at the turn of the millennium, various measures were implemented to phase the education system into the so-called knowledge based economy, thus tertiary education became an acknowledged goal that the government stated for its citizens to obtain. However, the previous measures present within the education system (the japanese-style multitude of tests/streaming/talent sorting) have already marginalised the society, even resulting in the local film scene producing a number of popular features on the subject. Further information regarding this Singaporean celebration of its 'oppressed' students can be found by googling "I not Stupid". The viewpoint that you express borders on astroturfing and will most likely be regarded by most Singaporeans as an extract taken from the scholarship information pamphlets so regularly distributed to students. The hegemony of the Singaporean government is not widely explored in Western media, but the abuses of the administration are well documented, the least of which unearthed again by the death of recent opposition activist Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam (forcibly expelled from political participation, not unlike the actions of neighbouring Malaysia). In summary, your post contains a heavily biased perspective regarding the situation in Singapore. In my opinion, it is not much better than the United States, with the "guaranteed life of success" mostly an indoctrination strategy meant to control the ideology of those intelligent enough to possibly pose a threat to the existing establishment. The Singaporean system and culture has its own serious flaws, and it is a severe detriment to this discussion to not bring them to light.