Recently, Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that his ministry has decided to do away with the open certificate system which allows students to sit for as many subjects as they wish and to limit students to taking 10 subjects or less for their SPM.
Why must every newly-appointed Education Minister try to prove how ‘smart' he is by fixing something that is not broken? In the end, the decision is usually a bad one. Then the next Education Minister will also want to show everybody that he is smarter and change the system again.
Everything from changing the school holidays to teaching Science and Maths in English. The Education Ministry has time and time again implemented policies without consulting with the right person or without studying the matter thoroughly.
Our new Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is no different from his predecessor. Has he got his ministry to consult with all parties regarding limiting students to taking 10 SPM subjects? Has he done a through study on the effects of his policy change?
To limit students to only 10 SPM subject is a major change to everyone in Malaysia and this decision should not be made lightly just to gain political mileage or be made a publicity stunt.
The Education Minister gave three reasons for the change in this policy. However, if he had really took time to reflect on this problem, he would have realised that his reasons do not hold water and the change in policy will not solve the problem after all.
First he said, ‘We want to streamline this as it will also be an easier way to determine the awarding of scholarships.'
The JPA scholarship selection is one issue. The number of SPM subjects a student takes is another. The Education Minister should not mix up the two issues. The main issue here is the selection process for JPA scholarships which is unjust and unfair.
Limiting students to 10 subjects still does not solve the problem of the selection process. Is the Education Minister going to award every student who gets 10As next year with a JPA scholarship?
Surely there will be students who will get 10As but who will still be left out from the JPA scholarship list. So he still has not dealt with the selection process which is the real problem.
The Education Ministry's solution is like sweeping the problem under the rug. Obviously, his ministry has failed to study the implications of those students who are taking Chinese and Tamil subjects.
Even the MIC has admitted that the ruling would deter Indian students from sitting for both the Tamil Language and Tamil Literature papers in the SPM examination. Under this new policy, students can only sit for one of the (Tamil/Chinese) papers as they have to also take the mandatory five compulsory subjects and the four science subjects.
With the limitation on the SPM subjects, all the Education Minister has succeed in doing is to create more problems and to suppress the right to gain more knowledge and talent.
Muhyiddin's second reason is to help the teachers to be able to ‘focus better'. If students were only allowed to take up to 10 subjects for SPM, the teachers would not be burdened with teaching other subjects.
Again, Muhyiddin fails to see that the problems are two separate issues. Teachers being overburden with the extra subjects is a separate issue. That is a teaching load management issue. You could limit the students to eight subjects and this could still be a problem.
What's more is that most students taking extra subjects usually take coaching for the subjects outside of the school and do not use the school's resources anyway. Again, he would know this if he had taken time to consult the principles and the various parties involved.
Finally the Education Minister said that, ‘Parents will also not have to rush their children for too many tuition classes.'
Well, isn't that up to the parents? That is their choice. Why should you limit them when the students and parents would like to do it and are capable of taking on more subjects? Why are you bothered if they rush to tuition classes? That is also another separate issue.
If the Education Ministry had more quality teachers in the public schools, parents would not have to rush to send their child for so many tuition classes, isn't it?
With Education Ministry consistently making rash decision like this it is no wonder we have little faith in our education system.
Case in point, even our former education ministers like Najib Abdul Razak and Hishamudddin Hussien have no faith in Malaysia's education system as both decided to put their own kids in private schools!
