Saturday, June 13, 2009

What do we learn in school ?

I was reading a blog post in Che Det, the blog by our former PM & actually, the only blog that I follow & read. It was about his meeting with a parent that has some problems: his kids dunno nuts about history of Malaysia. I feel very sad about this. What has become of our education system ? What do kids learn in schools nowadays ? & then there was this news about ppl calling for the govt to make it easier for students to get certificates in school, PMR, SPM. What is this ?

I left school 16 years ago. I left the education system 7 years ago. My schooldays was one of the sweetest memories of my childhood. I wasn't really that good in school. But I faced my weaknesses, not run away from them. My favorite subject was History. It still is my favorite subject now. Why do I like history ? I believe we shud learn from what happened in the past, & analyze our mistakes & learn from them, so that we won't repeat them. My life has been about mistakes & learning from them. I believe the best quality in a person is to learn from our mistakes & to avoid doing them again. If I dun believe in that then I'd be a Mat Rempit after I failed my first degree course in UTM 14 years ago.

Those who dun believe in History, they will not know why some things are the way they are now. Those who know but choose to forget their history, they tend to repeat the same mistakes again & again. Some things in our country now, the way we live, the way our great society was formed, originated more than 50 years ago, well before our independence. Our great forefathers made deals, took risks, & our society today is the result. It is sad that some of our so-called leaders nowadays question their decisions.

Now, I'm quite puzzled why some ppl want to have the govt make it easier to obtain school exam certs. To me, it is similar to the case of the durians. I remember when I was a little child, every durian season is like a festival in my kampung near Pasir Salak, Perak. My arwah Atuk had many dusun. During the durian season, these dusun owners can live like a king until the next durian season. Why ? Becoz back then, durian season only comes once in a year, & the fruit was so expensive. Then the smart ppl in MARDI decided that becoz it's so good, they did research to enable the durian to bear fruit all year long, instead of having to wait. The result ? Becoz durian is available all year long, nobody appreciates them anymore. It becomes a common fruit. All those dusun owners cannot make a living out of selling durians alone. MARDI: ooops !!

If the UPSR, PMR, SPM & STPM certs are so easy to get, then nobody would appreciate them no more. We can even see the effects now with Degree holders. There are sooo many degree holders seeking for jobs that companies have started to look for Masters holders. A degree alone won't suffice. U must have additional advantage, becoz everybody has a degree. I learned this the hard way after completing my degree. Companies would look if U have this MCSE or CCNA when applying for jobs in the IT industry.

For me, it's okay to make it a little bit harder to get the SPM or PMRs, as long as the quality is there. There's no point in getting 15 As when later U struggle in the varsity. Quit chasing those A's, & start focusing on getting real education in schools.

Livestrong.

No comments:

Post a Comment