Exams may be scrapped

The MOE has announced (21 June 2010) that the UPSR and PMR may be abolished to remove
pressure of an exam-oriented education system in Malaysia. It sounds okay but the implication is anybody`s guess because we know that our teachers and headmasters are busy with many things except teaching.

Further more, the government has been toying with the education system since Merdeka with no suitable one in sight. So our schools today are huge and modern but with no good racial mix to reflect the Malaysian society. There are still several forms of discrimination in these schools.

Many have voiced their views that the present system forces the teachers and students to forcus only on achieving excellent results in the examinations. Parents send their children for tuition to make them excel in examinations. The students produce a string of 'As' in their early educations
but not in the colleges and universities.

The main objective of education is for children to gain knowledge in a holistice manner creativity innovation and good thinking power. We are producing 'Robots' in our institutions. It is not
surprising that our students cannot get jobs easily when they come into the job market.

We are not doing well in the skill market as well. Our Sekolah Teknik and Polytechnics are not
doing enough to produce the necessary man-power for the country. Parents have no confidence in these institutions as they do not produce skill man-power for the job market. The MOE must call for a complete over-haul of these instuitions to match those in Singapore and Australia

We cannot abolish all public examinations. The UPSR for primary schools should be retained as a yard stick to measure the achievements of the students. It is also a good bench-markfor MOE to separate the students into accademic and skill groups. We must teach them problem-solving skills instead of parroting what is in the books. The teahers must be well qualified for the job.

By reducing the school exams the pupils can have time for other activities however, there must
be other ways to keep the teachers on their toes. There must be proper supervision from the school management and the Education departments to ensure that the schools do not derail
from the plan.