As Singapore Polytechnic Students’ Union (SPSU) gets ready for the Freshmen Orientation Camp (FOC) which commences next week, I am reminded of something interesting.

You know how junior college (JC) students gets the cheaper education since they just spend money on their uniforms and books and, perhaps, really cheap school fees, but polytechnic students have the more expensive education. Poly students have to spend a rather large sum on school fees. One semester (which is six months) alone is about SG$10,000. But thanks to the government, they subsidise most of the fee, and we pay only about SG$1,300.

It is not just the school fees though. We still have books to buy, notes to print, miscellaneous stuff to get (goodness knows what) and not to mention, clothes to wear. You simply cannot be caught dead with the same clothes within a week. Else people would think that you don’t wash your clothes, or you can’t be bothered to.

To avoid accidentally wearing the same shirt/pants/jeans, I faithfully wrote on my handbook what I wore for the day. I made sure to wear each clothing at most once bi-weekly.

The thought of that made me smile today.