The pressure on Singaporean students to do well has been covered repeatedly over the years. Prolonged pressure can push some students to extreme measures such as running away from home, and, in this particular case, forgery.
According to Today Online, 24-year-old Kieffer Tay Kai Xian was charged in court on Thursday (19 Dec) for forging his polytechnic transcript while applying for undergraduate positions at SIM and SUSS.
Tay’s lawyer defended his client in court, saying he did it under pressure to please his mother.
It was heard in court that Tay submitted his forged transcripts in 2016 and 2017 to the 2 universities.
In one of the submissions, he changed his polytechnic Grade Point Average (GPA) from 1.76 to 2.76 to stand a better chance of getting accepted into SIM.
However, SIM’s management found out that the transcript was forged and rejected his application.
In March 2019, SUSS filed a police report claiming that Tay repeatedly sent in forged transcripts to gain admission.
Tay’s lawyer, Jeffery Soh, described Tay as the only child in the family and, as a result, was always pressured by his mother.
Mr Soh claimed that Tay’s mother was materialistic and class-conscious, and that she repeatedly abused Tay and his father. During Tay’s polytechnic days, she often scolded him for poor results and pressured him to enrol in a “respectable local university”.
Tay’s claim was supported by his father who submitted a statutory declaration to the court.
The court found Tay guilty after deliberations because, despite being caught the first time for forgery, he was “determined” to get in and repeated his offence.
Tay pled guilty to one count of forgery and will have 3 other counts taken into consideration. He was ordered to pay a fine of $5,500.
Tay could have been jailed for up to 4 years and fined for forging his transcripts.
District Judge Samuel Chua told Tay’s father that he had arranged for a court counsellor to help the family.
We hope that Tay has learned his lesson. If you feel pressured by your parents and have no one to talk to, you can reach out to your school counsellors for help.
Featured image adapted from The Straits Times.
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