M’sian universities fall out of top 200 in QS World rankings 2010

Prof Ghauth inherited deep-seated problems

Lim Kit Siang

Malaysian universities have again fallen out of the top 200 universities in the latest QS World University Rankings 2010, with University of Malaya falling from last year’s ranking of 180 to 207.

This is the latest proof that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s New Economic Model are just empty words lacking the political will and leadership necessary to effect Malaysia’s economic transformation to escape the decades-long “middle-income trap” to become a inclusive and sustainable high-income developed country by 2020.

The Najib premiership is fast developing a split personality – plugging the NEM for international consumption with its recognition of human talents as the most valuable national assets in the era of globalization while ignoring NEM locally for fear of evoking extremist opposition to its proposals on new affirmative policies based on meritocracy and needs.

During the Sibu by-election in May this year, I had referred to the latest QS Asian University Rankings 2010 where the country’s premier institution of higher education, University of Malaya had dropped two places to 41st this year from 39 last year while Universiti Sains Malaysia, which was granted Apex status in 2008 only managed to maintain its ranking at 69, and lamented Malaysia becoming the “sick man of South-East Asia”- with a decade of economic stagnation and national decline in all aspects of national life, whether educational excellence, good governance, institutional professionalism, human rights or environmental protection.

The warning by NEM, crafted by a panel of local and foreign experts that “We must act now before our position deteriorates any further” had failed to make any impact or impression whatsoever as far as the government leadership is concerned.

I have today received an email from a post-graduate student in University of Malaya expressing his concern at my lamentation.

The email reads:

I’m a postgrad student in University of Malaya.


Prof Ghauth Jasmon was appointed as a Vice Chancellor of UM two years ago with a great vision to make this university a world class university. Being the vice chancellor of the oldest university in this country which is also well known of producing many great and famous leaders, is a heavy burden.


I completed my bachelor degree in this university and registered my PhD right after that which was in the same year Prof Ghauth Jasmon was appointed as the VC of the university.


In that time, I had witnessed a great change and improvement he had implemented in this university in a goal to improve quality and the world ranking of the university.


Prof Jasmon is a meritocracy oriented academician and he has opened up a vast opportunity to many lecturers and famous researcher to join this university regardless of their ethnicity, complexion or religion.


A series of good but strict rules and policies had been made to achieve the goal. In the eyes of some profs, academic and admin staffs who used to live an easy life, appointment of Prof Jasmon as VC has become a nightmare to them. Thus, some resistance force has arisen and stood against his way but yet he is still standing firmly and continue doing his job to make this university a better university.


I notice there is a drop of ranking of UM this year but the ranking is disputed and it cannot be fully used as a reference in judging the quality of the university.


I support Prof Ghauth Jasmon and I think he deserves more support from the government and all the political parties in this country to achieve the goal.


I hope DAP can go easy on the drop of the ranking of local universities this year.


In fact, compliment and credits should be given to him for all his hardwork in improving the university in terms of increment in number of publications and number of academic staff.

If this post-graduate student is right, and I know many who have the interests of University of Malaya and the nation at heart share this view, it only means that University of Malaya would not have just plunged 27 rankings but probably double the drop if not for Professor Ghauth Jasmon at the helm of University of Malaya.

This is indeed serious food for thought.  – http://blog.limkitsiang.com/

(Lim Kit Siang is the DAP adviser)

Behind the Chinese school controversy :Ong Tee Keat

Ong Tee Keat

The dire need for a new Chinese primary school in any community is sure to attract support and will hog the limelight as far as the Chinese community is concerned. Politicians from both sides of the political divide will clamour for a piece of the action in the hope of winning the hearts and minds of the ethnic Chinese voters. In their minds, this is a short-cut that will catapult them into political stardom.

The scenario in my constituency, Pandan, is no different. Several months ago, my service centre received complaints from the public of a alleged misuse of public donations collected in 2007 purportedly for the building of a new Chinese primary school on a plot of land which was known to be a “green-lung” of Pandan Perdana. We were shocked to learn of this. However, no action could be taken as there was insufficient evidence to prove any misdeed or misappropriation.

Recently, the issue came to light again when a few individuals, including local residents who used to champion the said cause alongside the then potential DAP candidate for Teratai state constituency, Jenice Lee Ying Ha (present state assemblywoman for Teratai) came forth with more startling expose. They brought along hand-held fans bearing her portrait which they bought in the name of supporting the said school project. They parted with their hard earned money by buying the fans primarily to support a noble cause — the school project — not so much to support any individual personality nor was it to cool them from the hot weather.

That was when their dreams were dashed and nightmare began. Many politicians merely pay lip service to their claims of transparency and accountability. To date, no account of the donations was published, and the generous donors were kept in the dark of where their money had gone to. What is obvious is that there is no sign of any Chinese school in the area concerned.

The complaint was lodged at my service centre, and I was alerted to this incident by my constituency service assistant Cindy Leong. I promptly advised the complainants to lodge an official report to both the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police. (Cindy Leong was merely escorting them to do the needful. She was not one of the complainants as was erroneously reported in certain media).

This has touched a raw nerve from the other side of the political divide and Jenice herself has come into the open to attempt to explain her stand, which has raised more questions than answers.

1) In the first place, why were the purported funds raised for a new Chinese primary school in Pandan Perdana championed by Jenice declared as DAP Party Funds? I, for one, am not against anyone raising funds for their own political interests and needs. However, collecting money from the public by claiming that they are being raised for a non-existent school reeks of abuse and is in bad taste. The education ministry record shows that such a project had never been approved.

2) Even if the funds raised were meant for her party, the donors and general public have a legitimate expectation to know the accounts such as the amount of monies raised and how far has it being used for the desired purpose of school project. This is not forthcoming.

3) The explanation that the status of the said plot of “green lung” had yet to be converted for use as school reserve is no more than a flimsy excuse. Jenice was successfully elected as the state assemblywoman in Teratai and has since been serving as a ruling party legislator in Selangor (presently under Pakatan Rakyat’s rule). Has she ever initiated any attempt to do the land conversion in her capacity of state assemblyperson in Teratai under the Pakatan held state of Selangor ever since she assumed office? Much to the chagrin of the complainants, the status of the said plot of land has hitherto remained unchanged. No applications for conversion had ever been made, making a mockery of the school fund raising project.

I am not interested in politicising the issue. However, as a responsible elected representative, I am under an obligation to get answers for the people who came to me for help. As bona fide donors and supporters, they had a legitimate expectation to know the truth. The way to resolve this is for my fellow elected state representative, Jenice Lee, to come forward by providing a clear and logical explanation about what happened to the monies raised and where they went. I am merely echoing what the people want and expect.

However, instead of providing valid and logical reasons, Jenice did exactly the opposite by further clouding the issue by resorting to name calling and smear tactics. She labelled me a “butcher” (when she called me to lay down the butcher’s chopper in Chinese) for no apparent reason. Furthermore, Cindy Leong’s good name was also dragged into the mud when she was accused of committing “political immorality” whereas she was merely facilitating the complainants’ legal and moral right to lodge a police report.

She also attempted to confuse and hoodwink the people by shifting the blame squarely on me and the federal government, knowing that powers of land conversion come under the jurisdiction of the State authorities of which she is now attached to. She can easily bring this issue up to the state government in her capacity as state assemblyperson but she has not done so in the past three years.

Jenice is free to say anything she wants but I am confident that the people are not as blind as her. I have always maintained the importance of walking the talk and have tried to fulfil what I’ve promised the people, especially on an important issue such as building of schools.

I am not part of her “buying a fan in support of a school” ploy and prefer to focus on my own initiative in securing the approval for relocating an under-enrolled Chinese primary school, SJKC Choon Hwa ( Batu 18, Hulu Langat) to Pandan. The initiative first began in 2006 and approval was granted in 2008.

In addition to this, a government allocation of RM3 million was successfully secured in 2009 for the School Building Committee and the Board of School Directors to build the school premises during my tenure as president of MCA. The committee comprising the community activists and educationists had in the past few years never burdened the public by calling for any form of fund raising. As an MP myself, I strongly maintained that government fund has to be solicited for the building of a government-run Chinese primary school.

As for Jenice, a former DAP supporter has candidly opined that she does not need to be fearful of any public scrutiny so long as she upholds the principle of transparency and accountability in dealing with public funds. Indeed this should be our common concern irrespective of party affiliation. Any ill-conceived contemplation to demonise the rightful complainants would render no service to protecting one’s credibility though it may help gloss over the issue for the time being. We’re still waiting for answers. — http://www.ongteekeat.net

M’sian universities fail to make Top 500 list for 8th straight year

Lim Kit Siang

For the eighth year in succession, Malaysia has been left out of the World’s Top 500 Universities ranking in the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s “Academic Ranking of World Universities ARWU 2010” released yesterday.

This is the latest proof that the long-talked about higher education reform based on meritocracy and academic excellence is not making much headway.

It underlines the economic and nation-building crisis confronting Malaysia and the warning of the New Economic Model (NEM) that the “human capital situation in Malaysia is reaching a critical stage” because “We are not developing talent and what we have is leaving”.

Singapore has two, Taiwan four, New Zealand five, Hong Kong and Israel seven each, South Korea ten, Australia 17, China 22 and Japan 25 among the 106 Asia-Pacific universities in the lastest 500 World Top Universities ranking, which is dominated by US universities Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford and MIT occupying the top four places followed by Cambridge University in fifth place.

Among the Asia-Pacific leaders in the ranking are: Tokyo (20th), Kyoto (24th), Australian National University (59th), Melbourne (62nd), Jerusalem (72nd), Osaka (75th), Nagoya (79th), Tohoku (84th), Sydney (92nd) and National Taiwan, Singapore, Seoul, Tel Aviv, Queensland, Western Australia, Tokyo Institute of Technology (all seven in the 101-150 category).

When will Malaysia be represented in the Shanghai Jian Tong University’s annual ranking of 500 Top Universities to demonstrate that Malaysia, which had an internationally-recognised premier university in the first decade of Independence half a century ago, has finally redeemed our international academic reputation?

A statement by the Higher Education Minister Datuk Khalid Nordin on the failure of a single university in Malaysia to get recognized by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s annual Top 500 Universities Ranking would be in order as to what Malaysians can expect to look forward in his higher education reform programme.

(Lim Kit Siang is the adviser for DAP)

Mahathir disagrees with move to abolish UPSR, PMR

KUALA LUMPUR (Harakahdaily) – The government’s proposal to abolish UPSR and PMR public examinations has been criticised by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who argued that there was nothing wrong with the examinations.

“We need to study the kind of examination and improve it rather than simply abolishing examinations,” Mahathir wrote in his blog on Thursday.

Mahathir’s opposition echoes the call by political parties and educationists during a recent dialogue with the Education Ministry.

Earlier, Petaling Jaya Utara member of parliament Tony Pua, who participated in the roundtable dialogue on the issue organised by the Education ministry, said the government seemed to have decided to go ahead with its plan despite the on-going debate about the proposal.

Pua said majority of participants were not in favour to the proposal, as was DAP, because research showed that students performed better when subjected to public examinations.

He said the real problem lied with the examination process which required most of the students to focus on memorising answers rather than inclucating analytical thinking skills in students.

Sharing Pua’s sentiments, Mahathir said the government must improve the quality of education.

“It is not having examination which is wrong. It is the kind of examination we conduct which is wrong,” he wrote.

The Education Ministry said the proposal was to prevent the national education system from being too exam-oriented. While many agree that the ministry’s reason is valid, they disagree that abolishing the two examinations would provide a solution.

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Teachers and politics

Thomas Lee

Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan has announced that graduate teachers on grades DG41 to DG48 are allowed to play an active part in politics, effective from August 1, 2010.

Sidek, in explaining the new policy, pointed out that in the early days, teachers had played an important role as community leaders in the local political scenario, and it was time that they be given the opportunity to be involved in politics again.

Sidek said the federal government has obtained the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to amend Regulation 21 of the Public Officers (Conduct and Discipline) Regulations to facilitate the implementation of the new policy.

The new policy has several far-reaching implications for the education of our children which the federal government should seriously study and evaluate before adopting and implementing it.

In the first place, allowing teachers to join political parties, which is what the new policy is all about, will render them subservient and obsequious to their parties, meaning that their neutrality and impartiality in teaching is suspect. There will certainly be the tendency, or even deliberate attempts, to indoctrinate the students under their charge.

Within the school classroom situation, a politically partisan teacher may manipulate the young innocent children into believing that his rival political parties are demonic and that the children should tell their parents about it. This is especially true in the rural areas and the urban squatter areas where many parents are illiterate and take the words of the “guru” as gospel truth.

The classroom is a powerful venue for manipulating, conditioning, and indoctrinating young minds, and a charming, charismatic, articulate teacher can easily mould and shape the innocent children to follow his way.

Secondly, those teachers who hold important and powerful positions in the political parties, especially those connected to the ruling coalition, may use their political clout to bully the school heads and other teachers.

Such a possibility should not be dismissed as it well known, even in the private sector, that there are employers who would flex their muscles to force their employees to support the political parties of the employers’ choice. Many years ago, I was at a briefing of one big estate when I heard the company boss telling his illiterate workers that if a certain political party loses an election, they stand to lose their bonus, or even jobs.

Thirdly, teachers who belong to the opposition parties may be victimised for their political beliefs, and allegiance to their parties. The methods of victimisation include making their life and job difficult in school, sidelining them when there are opportunities for development and further studies, depriving them of promotions, and transferring them to cause hardship to their families. This will create bitterness and poor morale among such teachers, and their work as teachers will certainly be affected, resulting in the students being short-changed.

Finally, teachers nowadays have very heavy workloads, and if they are allowed to be actively involved in politics, they may neglect their responsibilities at school.

Hence, I feel that the federal government should reconsider the decision to open the floodgate for teachers to flow into the political arena.

However, if the federal government still insists that teachers be allowed to be involved in political activities, then certain essential rules should be imposed on them:

• The teachers can be members of a political party but should not be allowed to be office-bearers of the party;

• The teachers cannot talk politics at school, especially in the classroom, and disciplinary action, including sacking, would be taken if many complaints are received from other teachers and parents; and

• The teachers cannot speak at political ceramahs in the town they are teaching, but will be allowed to do so outside the town.

Such rules should be imposed to prevent the teachers from exerting their authority, influence, and pressure on the families of their students. — mysinchew.com

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Shall we kick out UPSR and PMR?

Dinesweri Puspanadan, Malaysia Chronicle

As the issue of PPSMI (English for Science and Mathematics) walks off, the issue of scrapping UPSR and PMR lands. As PPSMI, this issue has been receiving mixed responses from parents, NGOs, academicians, and some other relevant authorities.

The heat kicks on when Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin , Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, announces the proposal to scrap these two Public Examinations.

This call as claimed is a parallel proposal in the effort of the Ministry of Education to restructure the education system which is stamped as ‘Examination orientated’.

Private sectors, specifically in many events highlight that our education system
has been producing ‘generating machines’ and not street smart human capital.

Is scrapping our UPSR and PMR a good measure to generate a flexible and balanced
education system?

Putting it in a technical mode, an assessment is required to assess and evaluate
students’ performance. This either can be on-going assessment or summative
assessment where the students are assessed at the end of term or at a particular
year, with the assessment aimed to measure the students’ overall understanding

Writing it in a comprehensive form, UPSR is aimed to evaluate students’ performance in Primary school while PMR is not only to assess the students’ performance at Lower Secondary but also to channel them to the respective streams. It is either they end up in Science or Arts stream.

Both of these public examinations have their purpose. However, the ministry states that instead of major public examination, school-based assessment is used where school takes over the job of UPSR and PMR. Perhaps this sound good but we need to consider some other external factors. School exams undoubtedly are not reliable.

Exam papers designed by schools differ according to the school’s current benchmark, quality of students, geographical distribution and some other factors as well. Schools exams are definitely not a preferable choice if we want to gauge the students’ performance at a national level. It is not valid when it comes to setting the benchmark.

Besides that, we also need to consider some other reasons where bias, unwanted political drama, and corruption which may occur at schools if the school is given the authority to coordinate examinations replacing UPSR and PMR.(We have these things happening now but they are still under control.)

Ministry’s concern that we are drifting far away from an actual education system is definitely given attention. However, abrupt decisions like these are not in favor. So how we can go about this?

The answer is a cliche(as many leaders suggest). The questions in these exams have to change. Questions should be constructed in a manner where students have to think. Furthermore, these questions should not be fit to the category ‘MEMORIZE AND VOMIT’ as how have been in the current UPSR and PMR. The questions should not be rigid but should able to stimulate and promote higher
thinking order.

The final grade should be given not only based on the exam results but also including some other elements like co curricular activities, sports, leadership, communication skills, and voluntary work.

With this, definitely we could prevent the phenomenon of producing ‘nerds’. We need to plow a structure in students’ mind that learning is fun and not a burden. This is possible only if the ministry, schools, and teachers are willing to work on a mutual thought.

So scrapping out UPSR and PMR is not a desired option

PM’s son shows off proficiency in Mandarin by delivering speech

ONLY IN BOLEHLAND! Beijing: A three-week course to enhance his proficiency in Mandarin proved fruitful for the Prime Minister’s son, Norashman Razak, when he delivered a speech in the language, winning applause from his teachers and fellow students at the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU).

Norashman not only pronounced the words correctly, but also used many phrases in his speech and was hardworking during the course, said BFSU president Prof Chen Yulu at a special course-completion ceremony for Norashman, here, on Friday.

Norashman who carries the Chinese name, Ji Ping, was awarded with a certificate and recognised as an alumni of the university. Also present at the ceremony were the Prime Minister’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and officials from the Malaysian embassy here.

“Although I am here for only three weeks, my command of Mandarin has improved a lot. I have also learned more about Chinese culture and the Chinese community here,” said Norashman in his speech.

He said that during his three-year study in the United States, he only had the chance to speak Mandarin in class and had little opportunity to practise it outside class.

“Mandarin is a language that needs constant practice because incorrect intonation of a word carries a different meaning altogether for the word. I have the perfect chance to practise the language at BFSU, as I have many local Chinese friends and Malaysian students studying Mandarin here. Some of the Malaysian students here have only been learning Mandarin for a year but they are good,” he said.

Norashman felt that three weeks here was rather short for him, and he wished to come back to BFSU for an advance Chinese course later on.

His wish to return to BFSU would be fulfilled, according to Rosmah, as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had agreed to send Norashman for a one-month course at BFSU next year as well as to celebrate BFSU’s 70th anniversary as an alumni.

She said Najib wanted Norashman to master Mandarin so that it would be more convenient for him to communicate with the Malaysian Chinese in the language. – Bernama

Challenging Ibrahim Ali’s view of scholarships

Helen Ang
 
Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali has proposed that taxes from haram activities like gambling and liquor sales be increased so that the surplus can be used set up a scholarship fund for non-Malays.

Ibrahim said his proposal made sense because gambling and liquor were industries that Muslims stayed clear of, and that while he is not against non-Malays receiving government funding like from JPA, they should
heed the warning “cuma jangan mengganggu hak pelajar bumiputera”
(only do not disturb the rights of bumiputera students).

Non-Malay students with excellent results could apply for private scholarships which he suggests to be created by soliciting contributions from businessmen like Robert Kuok and other prominent non-Malay cartels.

Stressing that every excellent bumiputera (he means Malay) student must be given a scholarship “tanpa mengira jumlah ataupun kuota tertentu” (regardless of how many applicants there are or any quota limit), Ibrahim announced last Friday that his movement will sue the government if any one of them should fail to get the scholarship – which he deems their constitutional right.

Two days later, Muhyiddin Yassin said that UPSR and PMR could possibly be abolished as public exams. The deputy prime minister-cum-education minister said on Sunday that Std 6 and Form 3 students may in future be tested only internally for the purpose of streaming into Science/Arts or for places in residential schools.

Residential schools, elite schools, Mara Junior Science Colleges and matriculation centres are run – at exorbitant cost – to specially cater for Malays.

Muhyiddin’s statement begs the question: If the Std 6 exam is only to determine who gets into privileged schools, why should non-Malay pupils bother to be tested at all?

Ibrahim’s idea of ‘excellent’

Cemerlang means excellent. It is necessary to make a distinction between achievement and excellence. For example, it was doubtless an achievement for Abdul Malik Mydin (left) to be the first Malaysian to swim the English Channel.

However, his time of 17 hours and 42 minutes is short of excellent if we keep in mind that a 12-year-old girl Samantha Druce managed 15 hrs 28 mins. Even a 70-year-old, George Burnstad, did better at 15.59 than the 29-year-old Malik at 17.42.

The Malay hero was nonetheless conferred a Datukship for his exploit, such ‘excellence’ as KPI-ed by our self-calibrated measure. Was it worth all the state-sponsored expense of Malik’s training under an Australian coach and ‘airflown’ to England for his almost 18-hour swim when the best channel crossers can complete the distance in under-seven hours?

For that matter, why not carry out the Malaysia Boleh stunt, if they must, swimming from Langkawi to Kuala Kedah instead?

It was however a different case with the second Malaysian to swim the channel that same year (2004). Lennard Lee was already based in England – at Cambridge University doing medicine, and at least his swim met a more useful objective, i.e. to raise funds for a cancer hospital.

Clocking 9.45, Lee was faster than Malik by a whopping eight hours.

More importantly, Lee did not land Malaysian taxpayers a hefty bill for ‘Satu lagi projek Barisan Nasional’.

Ketuanan chest-thumping

Relating the above swimming anecdote to education, ask if it is worth your money splashed (pun intended) on Malik-type students to send them to England immediately after Form 5 and all those other places with expensive currency exchange for such mediocre returns?

The politicisation of education has lowered the bar and a significant part of SPM presently comprises objective questions where students tick A-B-C-D from multiple choice options.

In 2007, one boy broke the SPM record with 21As, including a distinction for the High Arabic language paper (Communication Arabic is a separate paper). One gets a better perspective if you were to compare that candidates apply to Oxford University with only three A-levels.

SPM As are multiplied with Islamic Studies separated into many papers – Pendidikan Islam, Pendidikan Syariah Islamiah, Pendidikan Al-Quran dan As-Sunnah as well as Tasawwur Islam.

The exam grading is now A-, A and A+. Refining the ‘A’ into three tiers has become necessary because too many students are striking As like bowling pins. The passing mark for some of the papers is now very low, and others are so easy that my 10-year-old niece can score A* & A-moon for SPM English.

Sidenote: Inversely, the standard of Malay language, though, has risen and someone with a BM credit in MCE would have a hard time of it today.

Sensible policy on scholarships

In other countries, university scholarships are given to those at A-level, not O-level by the way.

If Malaysia must award public scholarships, let it be for critical science-and-tech courses that are not available locally, conducted at the most prestigious and cutting-edge universities, and preferably at Masters level for those in government service with lecturers and researchers given priority.

Sidenote: The two Japanese and one Japanese-American scientists who shared the Nobel Prize for Physics all got their first degrees in Japanese universities.

The double standard viz. STPM and matriculation is another contentious higher education issue. Not only does the STPM take a longer time, there’s another six months wait for placement in local university.

But what galls the most is the spin Ketuanan Melayu puts on the disparity. Higher Education Department director Hassan Said once disclosed that “a matriculation student with a grade B would obtain the same points as an STPM candidate with a C.” (‘Ministry reveals formula on grades’, The Star, May 15, 2002).

This asymmetrical grading is due to the STPM being a more difficult exam. Now, following the education ministry formula revealed by Hassan, the next correlation would be that a matriculation ‘A’ is equivalent to an STPM ‘B’. But where does that then logically leave the STPM ‘A’?

By the education ministry’s own admission and anyone’s calculation, there is no way for a matriculation top scorer to match someone with 5As in STPM. Entry into local university is via two paths. Those who have done well in matriculation are graded at the maximum 4.0 CGPA – a bumiputera accommodation that not only places the STPM straight As scorer at a disadvantage but also puts his A to waste.

Chinese education boom

Perkasa’s scaremongering spiritual guide Mahathir Mohamad has accused those who support Chinese education as “racialist”. The ex-premier’s persecution of the Chinese educationists during his tenure is a matter of record.

Yet nowadays, almost everybody I know who is non-Malay has enrolled his/her child in Chinese school.

There’s nothing stopping the Malay or any parent either from enrolling their children in a vernacular school whereas the mollycoddled MRSM, residential and elite schools remain strictly Malay domains.

And if in the past these kids from SRJK (C) proceeded to national school after Std 6, trending now are private Chinese secondary schools and the UEC exam. Parents who pull their kids out of the kebangsaan system are merely making a rational decision.

The bottomline is some non-Malay parents have resigned themselves to zero expectation of this apartheid country.

Non-Malays do not expect their brilliant, hardworking children to get fair treatment from the government. They see and are dispirited by the annual pantomime of poor but clever kids crying and begging, unlike the Perkasa wards who loudly demand state assistance as their federal constitution-given dues.

To sidestep the guaranteed frustrations, the middle-class non-Malay starts saving for his child’s college education when the baby is still in the crib.

Since they realize that they have only themselves to depend on, their rejection of the national school is therefore most logical. Moreover, the Biro Tata Negara-ish environment in School Kebangsaan sends some of the more vulnerable young children home in tears, especially over complaints of bullying in matters of religion.

Why don’t Chinese and Indian parents want to send their kids to national school? The answer in two simple words: What for?!  –  http://english.cpiasia.net/