paper qualification- necessity or alternative?

So which certificate you will show to your prospective employer? The PSLE, O Lvl, A Lvl , Diploma or degree? If on your degree was writen a four letter word, PASS but your Diploma got the word: Certificate of Merit writen on it, will you be at the cross road of which certificate to show? I wonder how the employer will react, if he see my Diploma is more "powerful" than my Degree. So will he still accept me? Will i get a less pay or what? And also, do where the degree come from matter? I mean, if you got a pass from let say....NUS compare to you getting a First Class honour from some 3rd division overseas University, which paper do you think will your employer like the best? I think the only answer is wait for him to use it after the toilet bowl is flushed!

Our parents, teachers, man on the street, the taxi uncles keep telling us:" ah boy ah, paper qualification is very important in Singapore ah". And you ask them why, the typical answer is:" with a degree or just a piece of thick paper that is laminated, you can get a job plus good pay". So you ask another question:" Sim Wong Hoo leh?" Most likely he will know the answer but he will ask you back:" whos Hoo?"
We have seen Bill gates dropping out of college, our very own Sim Wong Hoo not getting a degree, but are elite in their own area. The chairman or the big shot of DZT Tie Leung( pardon for the spelling if wrong) is also a poly grad. So is getting a paper qualification, especially a degree all that important? Or receiving some valuable knocks from the school of hard knocks more important? I can only quote my lecturer Mr Teng:" It depends".

Having a paper qualification is like an safety net. It ensure you that while you fail in the school of hard knocks, when you can't own the masterplan, you can, well, still be part of your master's plan. It is a safety net that your parents rather, cast over your bum to cushion you when you fall from being an entruprenuer.

However it did lead to one thing which luckily our government discover it early, people are studying for the sake of scoring in examinations, people thus are lacking of creativity due to blindly studying which thus they lack the courage to go and enrol themselves in the School of Hard Knocks.

But, can we blame the students and the teachers who indirectly cast the net for them? Absolutely not! This is because getting a paper qualification is a necessary thing to do. And the more you score good results, the bigger you will weave your safety net and the bigger your safety net is, the more you will be safe, not necessary feel safe. Giving the economy now, having a standard retangular shaped net over your bum may not work. You will need different shapes, colors and sizes of your net, which means constant upgrading, constant improving.

However as a safety net is, well, to cushion any impact, obviously if you throw a tennis ball, it won't bounce! To those who strike it out without a safety net like Bill gates, it get the tennis ball inside them to bounce for so many times such that for once, they can bounce to such infinity that it is impossible for them to hit the ground again! But for someone who has been cushioned by paper qualification, if their net suddenly got a hole and if they are lucky enough to fallen from that hole, it is very very less likely they will bounce as they have loss the touch.

So is paper qualification a necessity or alternative, i have not quite answer the question isn't it? This is because instead of preparing a net, i am packing my own parachute which in case after i bounce, and fall, my parachute can open up and slow down the impact.