Malaysian Education System
Another exam question leaking incident made it to the headlines, and made me re-evaluate the Malaysian education system. If my memory serves me right, back in my secondary school days, some of my friends had some "last minute exam tips" from their tutors a few hours before the exam. Other cases were such as the science laboratory practical exams where the school teachers checked the equipment and items that they had to prepare, and predicted the exam question. These cases are not new issues to most of the students but somehow the society only started to show their concern after the major incident concerning the UPSR question that happened a few months ago. The government seems to be aware of the situation and implemented a stricter system, including heavy fines and punishments to those who leaked the exam questions. Is that the best solution for this matter? Checking on the Malaysian education department is like opening a can of worms, question leaking is just a small fragment of the whole issue. Plagiarism, exam cheatings, bad teaching material, and other bad things do exist in the nation education’s system, but the situation is so awful that most people just gave up hope in it.
The root of them problem is that we are using the wrong teaching methods. Have a look at the primary or secondary school exam papers; you will understand that students are not required to think, but rather to memorize the whole textbook in order to get a good grade. Example:
Textbook: Timothy delivered the letters by using a carExam question: How did Timothy deliver the letters?
If the question was “Why did Timothy deliver the letters by using car, is there any other better way?” that would encourage the student to think, and question leaking wouldn’t be an issue because the student can only find the answer from their brain. And this kind of problem exists in science subjects such as mathematics and physics, which is bad because what the student learnt, is not useful knowledge, but rather just a line of meaningless sentence. How do you expect the younger generation to contribute to society if all they manage to do is to memorize others’ solutions and not being creative? Perhaps this is why plagiarism is so common among Malaysian students in foreign universities because they don’t have the ability to produce their own answer, and using the solution of others’ seems like a perfect option. I have seen so many Malaysian students (including myself) struggle in colleges or university because of the totally different system. Instead of looking for the answer in notes or textbooks, we have to come up with our own solution; instead of waiting for the lecturer or tutor to tell us what to read, we have to look for the suitable material ourselves. I don’t know what the situation in Malaysian local universities is, but I have been to one of my friend’s class in TARC (Tunku Abdul Rahman College) and it was just like a secondary school teacher teaching bunch of kids.
The education system is not the only thing to blame. Our society plays a critical role in giving bad edification to the younger ones as well. We seem to accept our country’s neighbor’s kiasu-ism and make it as competitive as possible for the kids. I don’t know about you guys, but I do not want to spend my childhood and teenage years on endless tuition, ridiculous amounts of homework and extra activities such as piano lessons (unless I am interested in it). Parents nowadays just want their kids to do everything, and their children suffer through a life of boring routines, without getting much knowledge out of it. Most of my friends who took piano or ballet lesson in the past told me that they did it only because the parents wanted them to do it, just so they can show off in front of their adult friends. Go to any Chinese school open day you will meet some parents who are only interested in your kids’ school results.
Most of the children who grew up in this environment end up to be an indecisive person, and tend to be very dependant on their parents. You can see that most of the Malaysian students who went overseas for studies started complaining about their daily life. A lot of them who can’t take care of themselves, have no idea what they are doing, and are unable to make up their minds. The same situation goes to the younger ones back in Malaysia. What is the most common thing to do during the holidays? Spend a day in the shopping mall. What is the common thing to do at night? Having a drink at the “Mamak”. I am not saying that you can’t relax after so much school work, but if your kids’ hobby is to walk around aimlessly in the shopping mall then you really have a problem. I don’t blame teenagers for behaving this way because seriously, what is there to do? I know a lot of teenagers love to play snooker, skate board, or play music instruments (these are the popular activities among K.L boys). Sadly, the snooker centres in Malaysia are filled with gangsters and cigarette smells, and they closed down the only skate park so the only place to show off your tricks is in the back alleys. The government does not encourage rock and roll or jazz music because it is a symbol of western culture invasion. Parents don’t support all these sorts of activities because school work is “larger than life”. How many major national exams are there from primary school till the end of high school? 5? 6?
The effects of the bad education system have already taken place in our society. Most of us are unable to think or make a decision for ourselves that we just blindly follow what others say or do. Don’t believe me? How many times that you have been in a situation where 4 people are in a car and can’t decide where to go for lunch? “Anything la” seems to be the most common answer when you give a Malaysian a choice. Worst of all, we believe everything we read and listen to and never show our doubts on those news. Call me paranoid but I’d rather spend more time looking at things from a different angle and come up with my own opinion. Changing the education system is not something we can do, but if you have kids, you might want to listen to what they have to say and encourage them to be creative.