Education in Malaysia III

Public secondary schools are regarded as extensions of the national schools. They study in five forms, for five years. Some students, however, will have to study in "Remove" before they can study in Form 1 because of the poor academic results, or simply choosing to do so, which is possible in some schools. At the end of Form 3, the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) is taken by students. Based on choice (more on their results and the standards of the school), they will be streamed into either the Science stream or Arts stream. The Science stream is generally more desirable (students get more subject choices for their further studies). Students are allowed to shift to the Arts stream from the Science stream (only at the start of the year and when they found that they couldn't cope with it anymore!), but rarely vice-versa...as Art stream is said to be easier to study than Science stream.

At the end of Form 5, students are required to take the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM), before graduating from secondary school. The memorization technique still rules here, even in language subjects. We were still required to memorize essays. The Memorisation Legion practices, or Spot Questions Lottery practices, or National Tests Divination practices is the daily routine in school then, and one that is still enforced now. More on it at Alex Allied.

One must wonder, if one does not memorize the essays, will one fail in the tests? Then, the unfair random selection of topics for evaluation in the national tests is compounded by the paradoxical fact that the topics aren’t really that “random” after all. There is also the problem where tuition centres offer "crash courses" for most of the central exams where they offer "tips". These so-called “tips” that turn out to be true are usually obtained by unscrupulous means, but so far the control of leaked questions by the government has been reasonable (with an average of only one or two leaks every year!).

Studying in school seems to be just for passing their time (they're too young to work!) and sitting for tests seems to be just for the benefits of society and their parents. Sure, exam's not the only way of proving that they have learned something from the 5 hours plus of weekdays mental stimulation marathon, but so far, it’s the most effective.

For example, take creativity. How do you measure creativity? Creativity is in the syllabus, but most teachers don’t swear by it. After all, it’s safer to let the kids pass. I’m sure parents won’t want a totally creative genius who may sweep all the awards in every art competition but never ever scored beyond a "D" in each exam. Society expects teachers to make the would-be future leaders of Malaysia gather straight As in each and every exams, if possible...and this expectation makes the teachers condone any other method, aside from the tried and tested method of memorization.

I can still "recall" (Ok, ok...so, I memorized it!) what my favourite English teacher used to tell us, "After 24 hours, you remember 5% of what you hear, 10% of what you read, 15% of what you study...but, you remember 100% of what you memorize." Hmm...I have always doubted it and have always wondered who her source was...but honestly speaking, that method don't do much for me...cuz after more than 24 hours, all the facts that I painstakingly memorized end up being scrambled by my short-circuited brain! Another thing, I think most students have this problem as well...ask any student regarding topics that they sat for, a month after the SPM and most will know nada about it! They have returned everything back to their teacher! So what are they studying for??? Have our education system REALLY prepared them for their future?

Back to Malaysia's Education System, the over-emphasis on As by our society is one that appeals to the egoistic nature of students, evermore justifying grounds for taking an extraordinarily excessive amount of A's. Take, for instance, the recent trend of fifth formers taking up extra subjects for their SPM examination (Honorable mention: my friend's younger brother got 13A1s in his SPM!). Noteworthy is the fact that such a trend did not manifest in the late 90s, at least not until the acquisition of A’s of a surplus amount elicited public attention and highlight. Since then, the race for A’s has seemingly been on an inexorable, exponential rise. What happened to school heroes who were not those with 10As or 11As, but those that were the great debaters, those that were good in speaking, in sports, and those that were leading the Brownies?

Is our current evaluation of individual achievement based on straight A’s an embodiment of justice? Does a scholar who obtains straight 10A1’s merit more attention and consequently take precedence over his or her “less perfect” counterpart who secures 10 A1’s and an A2? This is something we have to ponder about...