Rethinking the education system?

When we first heard about the abolishment of the Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) and Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR), I believe that most parents were thinking “What now?” Well, that was actually the exact thought that ran through my head. My daughter that was due to take her PMR exam in October this year was elated while my son, taking the UPSR jumped for joy at the news. My retort was “Hold your horses; you will not see that happen in your lifetime, well at least not this year”.

I say this with skepticism because there have been so many changes to the education system in past years. As a parent I have gone through the heavy bag syndrome, subjects changes, textbook changes (which have caused added cost for parents), changing from the use of Bahasa Malaysia to English for Mathematics and Science (another added cost), then talks about reverting back to Bahasa Malaysia and now this.

Since the Education Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said that he would hold a round-table discussion to allow stakeholders to deliberate on whether the two examinations should be scrapped, many quarters including educators, scholars, teachers and parents have responded overwhelmingly. So this debate is far from over.

Some agree vehemently that the exams need to be abolished. Former education director general and UCSI University’s Chancellor, Tan Sri Dr Abdul Rahman Arshad welcomes the proposal to abolish the exams but said that the alternative must be better. “The curriculum must state what students should be able to achieve at each level and include the necessary components to ensure their physical, intellectual and moral development” he explained (The Star, 4 July 2010).

Tan Sri Dr Abdul Rahman who is also Clusters of Excellence Advisory Board chairman, said the board had presented to the Education Minister then, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussien in 2008, a report containing 75 recommendations to ensure how cluster schools could be more effective as compared to normal schools. He further recommended that this could be a starting point to review the whole education system (The Star, 4 July 2010).

Professor Tan Sri Datuk Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, vice-chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) questions whether the education system is worthy of its purpose? If not, what should we do about it?

According to him, three things that matter most are: getting the right people to become teachers, developing them into effective instructors and ensuring the system is able to deliver the best possible instruction for every child. Examination per se is not part of the three factors (New Sunday Times, 8 August 2010).

Professor Dzulkifli further suggests based on Hong Kong’s New Academic Structure introduced in 2009 which breaks the barrier of traditional arts and science streaming. This is done with diversified subjects that suit different students’ interest, aptitudes and abilities. This new curriculum also fosters a broader scope of views and lifelong learning abilities (New Sunday Times, 8 August 2010).

This does sound like a doable system since most private institutions also follow this formula. Students are given the responsibility to map out their own learning schedule based on interest, aptitude and ability although we do give them a limit on the duration of study based on the guidelines governed by Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE).

On the average, parents that have written to the media have also agreed that the education system needs to be holistic with broader skills like communication, critical thinking and teamwork, not just textbook skills. Without public exams, kids would have more time to explore areas like music and arts, which could help instill creativity.

Other parents feel that there is no harm in sitting for exams but suggest that the weightage be reduced. If the goal is to make the education system more holistic, there should be more activity-based learning in the school curriculum to balance it up.

Exams in the Malaysian education system are designed to pick-up the best rote-learners, although memory work is only one small aspect of the learning process. Most students study for exams and not ‘learn’. Every year we hear of best students scoring a string of A’s and we wonder if those distinctions accurately reflect their capabilities. It seems that we’re big on quantity rather than quality.

As an academician, I have come across these students. They get distinctions in English for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) but most of them struggle to speak and write in the language. The syndrome goes something like this – in their first year they get by, in their second year they struggle to pass and in their final year they just don’t make it.

I wonder if the distinctions would be at least equivalent to a B for the English 1119 that we took from the University of Cambridge during our SPM days. This was the English paper that students needed to pass to enable them to study overseas.

Overall exams like the UPSR and PMR also serve as an entrance examination of sorts to residential and some elite schools. So abolishment of these exams would mean other assessments need to be derived. PMR is also used as a tool for schools for streaming purposes and as a broad assessment of the students’ abilities before they sit for the final public examination which is SPM.

The Sun newspaper feels that if the ministry is inclined towards doing away with these exams, then it must examine these questions raised before going ahead. Some say an all-round education system is still possible under the present system but it depends entirely on teachers, good teachers.

This was also Professor Dzulkifli main point – getting the right people to become teachers. Teachers who are passionate about the learning process, teachers who inspire students to develop their full potential and teachers that are passionate to see their students’ become future leaders. Not because being a teacher is the last resort.

I believe I speak on behalf of many parents when I say that it’s very very worrying when we speak to the English teachers during report card day and they cannot even string a grammatical sentence correctly. Where did it go wrong?

I concur with Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai in his column “On the Beat” when he says, “Every new Education Minister seems eager to leave a mark behind and even if their decisions come with the best of intentions, they could be disruptive to our students if they are changed every few years.”

He also questions why politicians commended the move to teach Mathematics and Science in English then the same politicians found reasons to argue against it later.

It does make us Malaysians wonder why they did not have the hindsight of all these arguments before the decision was made and implemented. Yes, why indeed? Datuk Seri Wong calls this a flip flop in decision making.

What is obvious is that based on the many arguments and suggestions by all sectors, the education system seriously need fixing. This maybe a first step to many more to come – to rectify, make better and enhance the education system. All views need to be taken into consideration before a permanent decision is made and not to double back and cause our children to suffer because they have been the guinea pigs in this experiment.