The best students in Singapore.

Who are the best students in Singapore? Are they bright, young, privileged things? Are they teenagers with shining eyes and fertile minds? Are they, in fact, Singaporean?

The answer to all of these questions is a surprising no.

Today, I had an interesting conversation with a member of the management of a Singaporean private school specializing in IT and other technical subjects. She told me something which, for me, was utterly surprising. She confided: "Our best students are maids."

Maids are the best students, in Singapore, according to this one senior staff member of a Singaporean school. That is quite a surprise.

These maids come from other countries in South-East Asia that are less developed, such as the Philippines, and Indonesia. These maids are really not paid very well - in fact, you would be shocked if I told you how little they are paid. They receive about a $193 US dollar a month salary. That is for a twenty-four a day, seven day a week job, with perhaps as little as one day off a month (it depends on the employer, some are more generous, giving a day off a week).

They therefore work hard for very little. Yet, compared to what they would earn in their home countries, they are paid handsomely - and so there is no shortage of volunteers for these positions. They save up, many of them, and go back to a much better life. Most of them are supporting families back home by wiring money.

Now, Singaporeans don't really think highly of their maids. Most of them look on the maids as some kind of lower lifeform. Perhaps this arises from their low social status and their differences in customs and behaviour.

So, I was rather surprised to learn that the maids at the school were the best students. The school manager told me that they are very serious about their studies, they pay attention, they work hard - and they outperform the Singaporean teenagers working alongside them. That would be a real culture shock, if widely known by Singaporeans. It would be difficult for them to comprehend how the maids, who many look down upon, could do so much better than locals. It is, in a way, really telling. Quite a few of the local teenagers were, according to the school manager, demotivated. They didn't make an effort. The maids, on the other hand, were highly focussed and dedicated students.

Ultimately, it was the maids who did well in their studies and went home better qualified than when they arrived. Most of them chose to study computing skills. They would then return to an office job, of some kind, in their home countries: certainly a step-up from domestic work.

The secret of their success may lie in one sad fact: many of the maids paid for the courses themselves out of their own meagre wages. That would mean setting aside months of earnings, to pay for a course for themselves. That is dedication for you. (Though some were lucky enough to have kindly employers who paid for the course for them).

Having made the financial sacrifice themselves, the maids are determined to do well - and ultimately they do.

I am glad I had that conversation today. It has altogether put the common view of maids into perspective. All is not as it seems - and neither are they. I wish them well on their return to a gentler life than the one that they led, here.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eleven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and four months, and Tiarnan, twenty-one months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)