Let us not be frustrated and blame others for our low performance.
It is true that the payment of allowance for SIG sponsored students is always late, but I think it is a bit unfair to use that as an excuse for students' low performance. If it is really true that there is a direct relationship between the timing of the payment of our allowance and our level of performance, then the case should be that majority of SIG sponsored students would perform poorly. However, from my understanding, lots of SIG students had performed fairly enough last semester regardless of the very late payment of our allowance. I guess the reasons for the poor performance of others are due to factors which are beyond the control of our sponsor (NTU).

As students we should be grateful to have a sponsor to help us achieve our goals in life by obtaining a qualification, which we ourselves cannot personally afford. Thus, instead of blaming NTU for nonperformance, we should appreciate what our government is doing for us.

Regarding student performance, there are only two factors which I believe could lead to poor academic performance of students. First, is the ability of the student himself/herself, and second is the performance of lecturers and the quality of course materials. Therefore, we as students, should be held responsible for our own academic performance, rather than blaming it on other factors.