Malaysia - Exam-Oriented Nation?
Whenever the word “kiasu” is mentioned, people will immediately think of Singapore and of course Singaporeans’ all-must-win attitude. But hey, believe it or not, i think Malaysia is now overtaking our neigbour as far as the level of kiasuism is concern. First, we “build” our own cars, then we have the world’s once tallest building. After that, we send our first “angkasawan” to ISS. But those are all the bigger picture, there are more signs of kiasuism in every tiny spectrum of our daily life. One of them is in our education system. Schools are perhaps no longer the “breeding” place of little Einstein, Picasso or Newton. They have been now converted to human factory that produce students for the sole purpose of excelling in various public examinations. Allowing the “good ones” to make the school proud by scoring straight A’s and leaving those “bad ones” rotting at the back of the classes. Even when they are good in other co-curricular activities like sports, those so-called bad students cannot get as much fame as those who score straight A’s. In the need, that put pressures on students as they are “rigidly” trained to believe that results in exam are No. 1 priority, never mind how they get that “A” as long as they get it! This injection of “unnecessary pressures” last for as long as they are in the “learning institutions” from kindergarten to Universities. One side-effect of such injection is as highlighted in the news below:
Girl disappointed with UPSR result dies
A 12-year-old girl is believed to have committed suicide at her home here yesterday over what she felt was a poor result obtained in this year’s Primary School Assessment Test (UPSR). Subashini Sivakumar, a pupil of Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan (Tamil) Ladang Sempah, is believed to have hanged herself with a blanket tied to the grille of a window at her house in Changkat, Sungai Jawi. - Bernama Read Full News Here
Something need to be done, and the MOE proposal of introducing a new assessment system should be backed by teachers and academics. The introduction of 40% school-based assessment and 60% central examination (which will be different from the current public exams and includes EQ and co-curriculum assessment) is right on time. The proposal of abolishing UPSR and PMR is also a good sign as I personally think those two exams are not a clear indicator of one’s learning capabilities and capacity. Let’s bring the fun back to learning in schools. Let’s make sure human capital building is not just about producing straight A’s students!
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