After 13 years Malaysian public education, I have come to realise that the majority of our students will never be able to stand on their own later in a life. Since primary one till form five, we were not really guided to become good thinkers, leave alone great ones. We were spoon fed entirely.

This was different when I did my Form Six when I felt the teachers pushed us to think out-of-the- box and approach studies in a more creative way. Well, maybe not all Form Six teachers.

After achieving excellent results in my STPM, I managed to get into the top university in Malaysia that is Universiti Malaya. After being in there however, my perspectives of its medical faculty have really taken a turn. It is not about the academic staff which is no doubt excellent.

The worrying issue here are the students of the faculty in particular the medical students. The standard of our students are nowhere compared to any top university in the region.

This despite the fact we are so-called the top achievers in the pre-university exams which, by the way, is split between the STPM and matriculation exams which have a world of difference between them as afar as standards are concerned.

Leaving the difference in the pre-university exams alone, we have at least one common exam which is the Muet (Malaysian University English Test). I was told that in order to get into a course such as medicine, one will need to obtain Band 5 and above with six being the maximum.

However, that was not the case for when I arrived here there were students pursuing medicine with a Band 3. Band 3 represents a modest user of the English language on the score sheet. That is the ‘capability’ our so-called ‘top’ students. I question then, why have the double standards?

Why push Form Six students to get a minimum of a Band 5 while matriculation students get in with a Band 3. Or was this not considered during the admission process? Lately, the standard of our English has been deteriorating and vital resources have to be spent on English classes for medical students.

English classes are important in order to improve the student’s proficiency; however definitely could have been avoidable if they had met certain requirements before being accepted into the university.

In the light of the science and mathematics in English controversy, I would like all those people who are pushing so hard for the policy to be abolished to look at the standard of our English. These individuals have absurdly nothing better to do than criticise the policy rather than to help meet its objectives.

Besides the NGOs which have been opposing the policy, the biggest surprise to me was when there was circular by PIMUM (a society in UM) in which our recently-elected head of the student council called it a jenayah (crime) for this policy to be implemented.

First of all, I doubt he can read and write in English satisfactorily but is all out to deny his younger brothers and sisters the chance of proficiency in the language. His statement is not representative of the students in UM and is definitely not the reason why the students elected him.

I guess he better buck up and stay only within his responsibilities of looking after student affairs and needs.

Besides the English scenario, the medical faculty has an extremely racist orientation where everyone is segregated along their racial backgrounds. This is due to the fact of fear of failure and the dependent mentality of the undergraduates who cannot fend for themselves.

The tradition of this racist orientation has been long ongoing and is slowly spreading to other faculties and universities. The racism is so bad that even during eating hours, you see the people sitting according to race.

Books, elusive past-years questions and information are only shared between a particular race. These include after class stay-backs for the Malays, meeting outside lecture-hours for the Chinese and many more.

They are also against briefings by a person from another race and scare those from their own race who want to attend. Mind you, these people are going to be future doctors and they are being brought up in this manner.

There is much more stuff to be mentioned but I think if these issues mentioned here do not get any attention, then what is stopping us from seeing separate lecture halls for the different races in the years to come?

Those in the medical faculty can deny all they want to but this is the truth. To be honest doctors we should start to change and see through all these menaces.