mamakk!!!

via Lim Kit Siang’s blog:

I’m a former student from a famous high school in Bukit Mertajam. Each year, my school ‘produced’ many excellent students and intellectuals such as doctors, engineers, lawyers, etc, for the community and nation.

This year also the same. My school achieved most satisfactory results in both SPM and STPM. But sadly, among those ‘good’ students, more than half will pursue their studies at private colleges, such as Inti, Nilai.

Most of them have done the same thing after receiving their results. Guess what? Yup, they applied for Singapore’s universities. I guess about 15 people got the offer from Singapore. I think all of them will accept the offer, no doubt. What is so surprising about the small number of 15 students?? All of them are top students in my school!! According to the Singapore government’s policy, they will be bonded for 3 years. As they will receive attractive salaries and stable permanent jobs in Singapore, few of them will come back to develop their career in Malaysia.

We hear this every year, the stories are all about the same and they are sad in a way BUT honestly speaking, do TOP students guarantee Malaysia continued economic growth and more jobs for the people? Excuse my pessimism, but do our public universities even have the capability to nurture these students into a great engineer, scientist, economist or what not?

So what happens if the government starts offering scholarships to these top students but send them to some universities in the world which couldn’t even make it to the world’s top 100? Is that more prestigious than NUS or even UM? Do the students themselves even want these scholarships or would they think Singapore offers a better education (NUS at 19th place surely says something about their quality isn’t it)?

Ultimately, think for yourself: does Malaysia owe you anything?

Link

The Star Online reported:

A source said that some students had told their teachers that taking more subjects at no additional cost meant they could sit for them without preparing and hope to score if they were lucky.

“Some say they can also skip the papers as nothing will be wasted. They have everything to gain as they just might do well. This is the wrong spirit but we can’t stop them as it is their choice,” a teacher said.

Malaysia Students blog has a writeup on this.

The Star Online reported:

As of June this year, 9,372 students from Form One to Form Three studied Bahasa Iban in 55 schools, with 165 teachers available.

For Form Four next year, it is estimated that 1,440 students will take the subject in 48 schools under 144 teachers.

Malaysia Students blog wrote:

I urge all non-Malay students to take the respective native languages as a subject and sit for its examination, be it in PMR or SPM. If we do not speak and preserve our own native languages, who should we hope for doing so?

Links:
Malaysia Students: SPM – Iban as New Subject
The Star Online: Iban to be SPM subject

Chong wrote:

SPM and STPM examinations are just around the corner, have you prepared yourselves for them? There’re some SPM and STPM 2006 tips posted around the Malaysian blogosphere recently. Well, though you shouldn’t depend too much on these tips, I do think that knowing the exam hot topics won’t hurt you!

Link