Educating Malaysia

A few days ago the result of UPSR for the Standard Six pupils in Malaysia was announced. Nothing is really shocking. As usual, similar to previous 8-10 years ago, the result has shown massive improvement with 48,171 kids secured all A’s. This is the phenomenon in Malaysia right now. Every single year, every single major general examination – result has always been very encouraging to say the least, and more and more students securing strings of A’s.

I happen to be surrounded by teaching professionals. Two of my sisters are teachers at secondary schools and some of my close friends are lecturers at public universities. We do engage ourselves in discussion around the level of education these days, what is going on and where this will lead us into the future. Generally, as the ones who are getting their hands dirty and deep in the jar, with consensus – the result has always been moulded, tampered and altered in order to portray that there is nothing wrong with the system.

This simply means; bumping up marks in order to get more students securing A’s. Hence, mass public will not be asking for answers if the outcome is not as good as expected. Ironically and sadly, this scenario is taking place in all levels of education chain. Be it primary school, secondary or even universities in Malaysia. I think this is very irresponsible and alarming. The result is now apparent – a lot of graduates are unemployed, under-skilled, graduates fighting for jobs that are meant for SPM-leavers etc. Hands down, this is the result of the misguided classification of “Outstanding/Excellent”, “Mediocre/Average” and “Downright-Below-Average” all in the name of getting good press when the results are announced.

I am strong supporter for “education-for-all”. I for one am the result of education-for-all. At the same time, I do not agree at all that everyone needs (or wants) to become engineers, doctors, accountants or everyone must have a degree. I also believe that education is the ticket to springboard someone (thus, a family) out of poverty or hardship. I am ALL for that. But along the way, we do not wish to misguide the young with something that we call a degree. Something has gone completely wrong when we have thousands of graduates with no jobs and refuse to settle for less, believing that their degree/diploma is priceless and they have sweated blood in gaining it. Not to mention that he or she has been on the Dean’s list throughout his/her tenure at the university/college.

It is not uncommon to encounter university students who are arrogant these days. They believe that they have earned some prestige when they become a university student. They really live in their own cocoon. University is supposed to be a formative years for oneself and by no means it should be a turf to nurture arrogance. Arrogance is reflection of how mediocre and uneducated one is. And more seriously, this will be the product that is brewed at the universities. Hence, as uttered before, we will proudly produce graduates who feel so superior with their “worthless” degrees.

The word worthless is definitely too harsh, there is no other words that fits. Just think, most of these people think that all degrees are the same and all universities are the same as well. I have news – it is not. If one is getting a first class honours from a university A, it does not mean it is of the same standard with the first class from university B (for many reasons, for instance university A is less established than B etc.). To put it in a context and to be politically correct, citing an example from the UK, a third class graduate from Oxford University would be more sought-after compared to a first class graduate from Sheffield Hallam. I do not have to get into the mechanics of this. I assume you get the drift now.

So, put the two and two together to get a five!

The whole idea of bumping up results and misleading the mass public about results and performance of students has resulted in irresponsible act of creating a generation of delusional graduates or students. There is nothing wrong with poor performance in major examination if the situation is managed carefully. We should run away from the mentality of wanting people to succeed at tertiary education (read: gaining a degree) while sidelining the importance of skilled workers. We have never given importance to vocational training and even vocational institutes are seen to be the dumping ground for students who do not get placements at universities etc. It has always been taking the passenger’s seat for far too many years.

If we look at more advance countries, UK for example, if you ask students after getting their A’Levels results, the students who plan to pursue nursing or teaching studies at a training college would take as much pride in choosing his/her path as the other person who will read theatre or medicine at their tertiary level. This is due to their clear choice of path by following their interest and the ability of the government to offer ready and mature infrastructure when they leave the college of training for placement in the job market.

Malaysia should follow this example. The days of wanting to become a doctor, an accountant, and a computer scientist are over or at least numbered. It is not cool anymore. There should be a revival of vocational training college concentrating on special skills for school leavers and this path should be taking prime seat the same as the courses offered at typical public universities. At the same time, there should be a meditated master-plan around creating industry for these skilled people.

For instance, we can aim to be number one in health tourism in Asia (sorry, Thailand has announced this a few years ago, so has Singapore), but for the sake of argumentation, I will use this example anyway. So with tip-top health infrastructure laid out to accommodate foreign patients, it creates demand for skilled health workers and this can be supplied by those who “choose” to become nurses, technicians and other support staffs. The salary can be made competitive since we are charging premium to the foreigners who have no problem to pay for excellent service which by far still is significantly cheaper compared to their own country – Malaysia to take advantage of the poor or failing health system in countries like USA or the UK.

This strategy can be replicated around other industries – tourism, automotive, agriculture to name a few, but still with the aim of producing skilled workers.

In conclusion, there is a need to face the music and send the newsflash. It is not cool anymore when you own a worthless degree and not being marketable in the job market out there. Who do you want to blame? Obviously the graduate will not blame themselves since they think they are super-good (hence the arrogance!). Obviously, the system has failed. How can it not fail, when the practitioners in education field claim so? Therefore, there is serious need to go back to the root of the problem – stop magnifying the results and stop mixing the mediocre in the excellent lot. Once we are able to identify and categorise these people without misleading them, we can therefore maximise their potential by addressing what they really need and what they are capable of. More importantly that they are as cool as what they want to be! And it does not necessarily mean becoming a doctor, an accountant or computer scientist.

PS1: When I saw the footage of the girl who braved the mud in the rice field to get his dad to show that she achieved 5As in her UPSR, I just wished that “really is a great beginning” for her to get her family out of the hardship. I seriously did not want her to be misguided later when it takes more than just those 5As to strive and survive in this world.

PS2: I cannot stop but to think – around 48,000 sets of parents are hoping that their “smart” son/daughter will be offered a place at a Sekolah Berasrama Penuh or SBP (government boarding school) when there are only around 6,600 places on offer. From this observation alone we know that the outcome is nothing but misleading. As parents, there should be a mindset shift already by now to console themselves that 5As is no longer the yardstick to gain a place at SBP or even, there are some good ordinary schools out there instead of flooding the SBP gates. What makes it worse, some of the placements at these SBPs are already “reserved” for “children with connections” – do not ask me how this is done. It is another article altogether!