Delusional Standards in Education
In my contact hours with college students, I have been appalled by the horrible scenario whereby 10A students, even 12A1 JPA scholars cannot string a proper sentence.
By Masterwordsmith
In the materialistic world that we live in, one can see that greed has reared its ugly head in many areas of our lives. Propelled by an excessive desire to possess wealth and goods, greed blinds many in their pursuit of wealth, status, and power – usually at the expense of lives and other social costs.
For instance, in the current row over the PSD scholarships, many are barking up the wrong tree. Far beyond the debate about the distribution of scholarships to local and foreign universities, the core issue is the declining standards of education in Malaysia. How many actually question why it is so easy to score distinctions and why there is the ridiculous introduction of A* in the grading system?
Our youth are being led by their noses, lulled into thinking that they are good when they receive their result slips when the grade is meaningless compared to standards years ago. Take a look at the current syllabus for English and Sejarah. Compare the literature component with that which was taught five years ago and you would be shocked by the disparity in standards! Compare the sejarah syllabus with what was taught in the 1970’s and one can safely conclude that our youth are not being educated properly.
Tragically, many just look at their own needs and desires. That is understandable because it is survival for the fittest. So they attend tuition classes, memorise answers, abandon critical thinking skills, participate in extra-curricular activities just so they have the edge in scholarship application etc etc and lose sight of what it means to be educated, to be nurtured because such processes are ABSENT in our system.
How many of our elected leaders actually realize that the education system is the key to the nation’s development? How many actually lobby to RAISE standards by making it MORE difficult to score? How many actually scrutinize the way examinations are being planned, prepared – especially with regards to marking schemes, syllabus content and pedagogical skills?
In the 1970’s, we had the MCE and it was tough to score. Only a handful in each state could score straight A’s unlike the current ridiculous trend. And those in my cohort who scored straight A’s at MCE and HSC levels, are now Associate Professors/Professors at Harvard University, University of Edinburgh and other Canadian/Australian/American/British universities. In my contact hours with college students, I have been appalled by the horrible scenario whereby 10A students, even 12A1 JPA scholars cannot string a proper sentence.
Recently, I was asked to help three adults – one a PhD student from a local university, another a Dean’s List winner from another local university and the third – a graduate in Human Resources. I was horrified when I discovered they could not write a simple essay about themselves and was absolutely appalled at their inability to make sentences simply because they had no idea of the difference between a noun, an adjective, a verb or an adverb. I only had three sessions with them and that was enough to give me migraines, heartaches and deep disappointment at the realization of how deep was the rot and how impossible is the uphill climb to make things right in our education system that has gone so wrong.
Some examples of their work:
The PhD student wrote: 4a) Beautify (V) – My dad beautified the garden with the new buy Christmas tree.
The Dean’s Award winner wrote: d) considerately (Adv) – He is considerately scolding me by raising up his voice.
The other 25 year old graduate wrote: 4)Competitively(adv)-Rapidly growing in technologies had make the industry competitively.
Shocking, isn’t it? Sadly, not only are they unable to write properly, they cannot articulate themselves orally as well. Sighs.
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