It's been some time since I last write something in the blog. Just a reminder, if you are a government supporter and you can't take criticism, then you better close this page now.
This time regarding the education system in Malaysia, government education in particular. As we all know, the education system in Malaysia tends to side with versatility. The government planned & tried to create students and younger generation that is good in everything, but regrettably most of us end up good in nothing. How ironic, lol.
From primary education to secondary education. We have been exposed to numerous subjects such as languages, sciences, geography, history etc. I admit, for primary and lower secondary, an introduction into these areas are essential. They give us the basic introduction of 'what is X and what is Y'. However, such exposures heavily burdens the students, giving them ample amount of subjects like 10 subjects or maybe more.
The sad thing about Malaysia is that, people tend to evaluate an individual's academic performance with the amount of A's. They have the impression that students with a high amount of A's are smart students, and those who have less are not-as-smart students. Sadly, these naive bunch of people (sorry for the harshness but I found it appropriate) includes parents, schools and colleges, employers and the public in general. They are either unaware or ignorant of the fact that the 'graphs' for government exams are so low that an A doesn't worth an A in truth. For instance, last I heard, you can pass the Add. Math with something like 6 or 9 marks? How much does an A worth with such passing mark I wonder? I'll leave the answer to you.
Also, the thing about examinations is that it's not purely based on thinking and smartness alone. Luck, mood and examiner's mood all affects the results. No doubt, students with straight A's are more hardworking than those with let's say 3 or 4 A's in general. However, hardworking is one thing, smart is another thing. Talents should not be evaluated based on exam results. Furthermore, the examination system in Malaysia is poorly designed. SPM (secondary school final government exam, for non-malaysian readers) for example, is much of a 'memorise and pour out' exam than testing on a person's critical thinking, e.g. History exam. Therefore, as long as you are hardworking and you master the 'exam technique of answering questions', getting an A is not too hard to be honest.
Despite my argument, this impression and general consensus has produced some sort of moral force, which has acted upon the people into getting as many subjects and scoring as many A's as possible. The more A's you have, the higher chance you will have in terms of getting scholarships, securing a seat in local university or a job, which is true, but sad. Meanwhile, interview is an alternative to evaluate a person's performance, but the tension and pressure of an interview will likely affects a person's thinking, but at least it works better than a plain paper written with the amount of A's a person has.
Personally, I think versatility and intensity is a trade-off, else there won't be such a thing called specialisation. Yes, we have 10 subjects or more for our SPM and we can actually brag about it, but consider the depth of our subjects. How much do we actually study in each subject? The textbook is full of unnecessary crap, mostly from the narrator, probably just to fill the length of the content. Try and do a personal note from the local textbook and you can find that at least half of the content are more decorative than educative.
For those who have graduated from secondary school, ask yourself, other than maybe languages and math, is there anything in particular that actually benefits you currently, in your further studies or careers etc. Perhaps History is necessary since we are Malaysians but frankly, the textbook itself is biased to a large extent, and why is Islam involved so much in the textbook but not any other religion is questionable. The thing is, is that fair for non-Muslims?
Other than that, personally I think the government over-emphasise on Sciences. An ideal example is from my former secondary school, whereby there's 6 Science class and 1 Art class. Well, basically the 'smart' students are assigned into Science classes and those who are weak in academic performance will be assigned to the Art classes. Things work in this way in general in Malaysia (Not sure in other states but KL definitely). This created an impression that Science students are smart students and Art students are dumb students, which is very bad, because students tend to choose Science even though they prefer Art because of this impression. Besides, I don't think it's that much of 'Art' anyway, it's more to business after all.
Indeed we need scientists to develop Malaysia, engineers for examples. However, don't we need entrepreneurs, accountants, economists, financial and investment analysts etc. to strengthen the local economy before we plan to develope new technology or 'scientifying' our country? I suppose if the government can give an equal share of emphasis on both Science and Art stream, it will be better for our economy and country in the long run.
My suggestion to our current education issues is that the government should let the students pick which subject combinations they prefer to a certain extent, much like the private or oversea tertiary education system. Narrow down the subject amounts and cut off the crap of the textbook, give it more depth instead. Also, improve the standard of the exam 'graph'.
I apologise for hastily drawing suggestion regarding the issues. Not really in the mood for blogging today lol. I might write in detail of how to improve them if there is demand for it. That's all for today I guess. Enjoy.
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This may be a little off-topic, but I really think the government should impose the new pass English for SPM rule.
ReplyDeleteThe new rule will only affect people in kampungs who might actually fail SPM. These people only want the SPM so that they can get a vocational education, like wiring, plumbing, or farming. Knowing english is not necessary for any of those. The new rule will only make it more difficult for these people to get proper jobs.
I also do not see how the quality of english in our country is bad.
Removing absolutely ridiculous subjects like Pendidikan Moral is more important.
If that minister doesn't know we don't need to pass english for SPM, maybe he doesn't know how ridiculous Pendidikan Moral is either.
I don't see a problem with the number of people getting A's too. Its not the scoring system that makes it hard to evaluate smartness, it's the questions. The questions are designed in a way that rewards memorizing.
That is why i switched myself from sub-science to arts class. Even people i ask know for a fact that most of em are gonna end up workin in a corporation which doesnt have a shit to do with the sciences. Yet, they say it is easier to get into universities or colleges by taking the sciences as these institutes of higher education rate the sciences above arts. Why so? I dont ee any point whatsoever. Our current secondary school systems gives higher weightage to the sheer ability of memorizing useless facts rather than creativity, teamwork etc etc which are what these future workers need in their respective industries. Not a bunch of useless, biased, altered facts. God, i can rant forever and ever on this nonsensical education system. Enough said. Lets just send these smart asses who like this system to hell :P
ReplyDelete1. if i dont personally know you, i'd think that u werent one of those straight-As students, and hence this post xD
ReplyDelete2. "Well, basically the 'smart' students are assigned into Science classes and those who are weak in academic performance will be assigned to the Art classes."
Putting this after relating to our former secondary school is actually a "shadow"(unimportant but somehows affects) mistake. As far as I know, we weren't assigned but its totally on own will. Due to the kiasu-ness of students/parents, students tend to choose Science than Art. But again, I didnt say its wrong, just that it doesnt happen to our school, and most of the control school that I know of ;)Also, its not "assigning students" that created the impression but the wrong mindset of local employers. We cannot deny that local employers actually take into consideration that Science grads tend to show faster learning process than Arts grad. Not stereotyping, but if two were to show up for interview with equal result, I believe employer will give extra point to Sc grad, which leads to govt. wanting students to have more job opportunities =)
3. "Narrow down the subject amounts..."
If I'm not mistaken, I believe our MOU has alrd announced that the limitation of subs that can be taken in spm is 11? correct me if i'm wrong okay ^^
4. "For those who have graduated from secondary school, ask yourself, other than maybe languages and math, is there anything in particular that actually benefits you currently, in your further studies or careers etc."
I think geography is, but i would strongly suggest that they teach student more on coordinates ^^
5. Compulsary pass for English is totally unnecessary. A mere pass means nothing if students know only how to pass the test with flying colors but not orally. (ps: I do not agree this commentor 1 on vocational thing :p there are loads of sekolah teknik around to help them i believe)
6. Personally, I believe the issue with Msian Edu lies more on scholarships and local uni's intake. Scholarships, especially, has been totally wrongly misused especially here in msia. 10 yrs ago, financial status of a student was considered greatly apart from result. I really pity students who can do well (not straight As but at least good enuf) but is unable to pay for tertiary education. Local uni intake wise, I believe there's no need to bring it up because it's alrd on hot debate recently though its alrd obvious that nothing will be done to improve... =\
sorry i have abit more to add LOL I think with the long long comment i shared, i can even blog bout it alrd xD
ReplyDeleteanyway, the fact that sc grads are preferred is due to the ability of mind to absorb and understand harder analytical facts than business where u can twist what u want, wherever u want~ but then again, personal opinion~
also, i think the end result of our edu system has alrd shown itself, just hidden by govt. the embarassment the msian "scholars" caused us in overseas is alrd widely spread in other ppl's newspapers ^^
"We cannot deny that local employers actually take into consideration that Science grads tend to show faster learning process than Arts grad. Not stereotyping, but if two were to show up for interview with equal result, I believe employer will give extra point to Sc grad, which leads to govt. wanting students to have more job opportunities."
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, it's not appropriate to compare art stream students and science stream students as they are not on the equal playing field. You can see that generally pure science students are those smarter and more hardworking students than art stream's.
And if an art stream student has the same result as a science stream students, then there is no evidence to show that science stream students have higher rate of learning. I have a friend which is from art stream and he can do physics in A-levels, and he is equipped with high political and economical awareness, and his math is much better than mine. This 'discrimination' is originated from the moral
force that I talked about.