The Pondering

As I am about to wrap up my college days in the next couple of weeks, I began wondering, much like a dying man would of his life, about my own journey through schools, what it has made me today, and the effectiveness of our country's education system in general.

Just like many other kids being raised in a typical chinese family, I was trained to think that scoring high grades and attaining good results in examinations is the [only] key to a bright and secure future. However, as I grew and inched my way through school, I began to feel wronged by this misconstrued 'fact of life'. With our local schools and unis spewing out bucketloads of A-grade scorers year after year, I ask myself why, if A's were everything, are there no Nobel Laureattes in our country? Why do we still have rampant corruption in our country? Why, if we have so many "bright brains", does our country not come up with such globally recognized brands as Google, Facebook etc? The list goes on.

First, we have to take a look at the education system. Yes, it is derived from the British style of teaching about half a century back, and is a rigorous system for even the smartest of minds. But because of our society's over-emphasis on examinations, the education system has become so exam-oriented that students go to school not to acquire education, but to acquire ways to ace exams. In the process, the entire system has also become extremely rigid, leaving no room for critical thinking, both on the students' and teachers' part. In many subjects, recalling facts takes precedence over actual problem-solving, which is fine, until we have a perfectly logical answer given the axe because "it is not in the marking scheme". Such flaws in the education are detrimental as it will lead younger students to adopt a similar one-way thinking approach later in life.

How to create high-moral students, according to the Ministry of Education of Malaysia.

Society's fetish on scoring marks spills into other non-academic areas as well, with marks being used as a performance-indicator in just about anything, including participation in co-curricular activities, reading habits (nilam). Now, instead on focusing on character building and training leadership qualities, our dear students are racing each other to get more marks in their "co-curricular report book" by signing up for as many clubs and societies as they can. The effectiveness of this scoring system is further reduced by the lack of a standardized grading system, leaving a huge disparity between marks given for different activities.

In Malaysian schools, students are not taught to explore their interests, but are instead pushed to take on challenging science subjects regardless of aptitude. Further down the road, students are then streamed according to examination performance, with those excelling in the sciences being placed in the Science stream, and those who do not, in the Arts stream. These Arts students, who has had no chance to prove themselves in other areas, fall under the discriminative eyes of the Malaysian society and are often perceived as underachievers. The lopsided public perception and discrimination against the Arts stream is arguably the single greatest educational problem in the country, as this may later contribute to greater social imperfections, such as the stagnating local entertainment industry, a general lack of artistic presence in the country, and to some extent, a widening income gap.

Will I be in ISA for drawing this?

Without the freedom to explore their innate interests and passions, most students here are blindly making misguided and uninformed career decisions. With the typical one-upmanship mentality of people here, many have chosen their paths based on the job's status in society's eyes, or the prospect of being in high-paying jobs, only to discover later that their talents lie elsewhere. When switching paths is no longer an option, they end up being stuck in a long, painfully frustrating working life. In any education, it is always more important to bring out what is best in a person, than to try and make the person best in something.

With all these flaws in place, it is no wonder that those who can afford it do not think twice about sending their children for overseas education. However, for some of us here who are less able, always keep in mind that when more people realise the truth, the easier it is to bring about Change! Spread the word! In time, we hope that our society can purge itself of its useless mindsets. Until then, we should dream less about being a First World Nation. Lol.