While I appreciate MK's good intentions in defending the need for moral studies in school ( ' Pendidikan Moral' in school still essential '), I cannot agree with the following paragraph he wrote:

"It is necessary that all members of our society conduct ourselves in a moral and ethical manner. Thus the government, in order to provide for the moral demands of the society, deem it necessary that the Pendidikan Moral subject is taught in all schools."

On the surface, MK is right and kudos to a government that is sensitive to the moral demands of the society. But if you look at the way that SPM's Pendidikan Moral is examined and marked, you cannot help but feel that the government didn't really introduce the subject to instil moral uprightness in students.

There's really nothing much to Pendidikan Moral other than being able to memorise, by rote (any other way fails), 16 major and 64 minor moral values along with their definition - word for word, punctuation for punctuation. Any deviation will attract deduction of marks, as our teachers told us and demonstrated to us while marking our Pendidikan Moral exam scripts. If this is the government's response to "provide for the moral demands of the society", one cannot underestimate its capacity for the absurd.

I agree that scoring an A for Pendidikan Moral does not mean one behaves morally nor failing the subject would mean that one lacks moral uprightness. The literal meaning of Pendidikan Moral can be interpreted as meaning the one who scores an A understands moral principles better than the one who gets a C. This is akin to scoring an A for mathematics interpreted as being more competent in maths than the one getting a C. But it does not mean that the A student loves mathematics and the C student hates it.

Since we cannot use the exam results of Pendidikan Moral to determine one's moral behaviour, we can at least use them as a guide toward one's understanding of moral principles and ethics. But our current Pendidikan Moral accomplishes no other goals than to divert students' resources of memory and time from Biology or Economics while preparing for SPM. My personal experience tells me that the opportunity cost is unjustified.