I think that it is dumb. According to TheStar, our government is considering to limit the number of subjects taken by SPM students to ensure fairer scholarship selection. Although I do not think that the current free-for-all was a good thing to have, I do not agree with this methodology to address the issue of PSD scholarships.

It also raises the issue of fairness. While our DPM said that it was unfair on those who are forced to take less subjects because of economic or administrative reasons. However, the suggested policy would take away the option of taking more subjects from those who may wish to do more. Personally, I like the idea of having the freedom to pick and choose subjects.

However, what the PSD should do is to only consider results from a set number of subjects. This is fair, transparent and simple to do. As a criteria, the PSD should just list down the subjects needed. Having A1s in other subjects can be ignored totally for the purpose of scholarship selection. There is no point adding in an A1 in Science I/II when you’ve already got an A1 in Physics, Chemistry and Biology separately.

If the student wishes to take more subjects in order to pad up their results, they are free to do so as long as they understand that only the results that are requirements will be considered. In fact, the students should only be evaluated based on the pre-requirement subjects. So, the student should not be penalised for getting a bunch of A2s in other non-requirement subjects.

However, it doesn’t surprise me that the government can come up with such dumb solutions to the simplest of problems.

PS: In other news, our PM has said that he intends to dismantle the decades old system of preferment for ethnic Malays. I wonder why it has not been picked up by the local press.

I attended the scholarship forum organised by DAP yesterday, mainly because I am personally interested in education matters and also because I was curious as to what kind of things does DAP have to say about it. They managed to present some data and I actually thought that things weren’t as bad as it may seem.

You see, if we consider only the top 2% of our students as the creme de la creme, that’s about 10,000 people coming out each year. JPA only gives out 2,000 scholarships and that is spread across multiple disciplines and countries. Obviously, many people will just fall through the net. There just isn’t the budget necessary to fund everyone. Personally, I think that we should all be thankful that our government actually bothers to fund anyone at all. There are not many governments that do that.

The DAP worked out the number of places available for non-bumi to be about 1080 places. To me, that is a fair number. Things have changed a lot. In my days, we were competing for double-digit spaces. The trouble is that these places are spread over a wide number of courses and countries. If everyone wants to study medicine in the UK, there aren’t enough places obviously.

An MP mentioned that the interview process was flawed. Students were interviewed in large groups and hardly given any time to speak. I went through those in my day as well. There is nothing wrong with group interviews. It is all about group dynamics. You just need to understand how to make yourself stand out in the ‘right’ way. If you are quietly sitting at the corner waiting for your turn to talk, obviously, you are not going to get anywhere with the interviewer.

Another MP mentioned that considering someone with 12A1 as equal to a 9A1 is not right while considering someone with 12A1 and 1A2 as worse than a 9A1 is wrong. Personally, I beg to differ. I think that having a 9A1 criteria as a clear cut-off point is good. That is a perfectly quantifiable criterion. Considering someone with 1A2 as less than perfect, is also fair to eliminate those who take more subjects as a lottery to simply increase their number of As. You may not agree with the fact that 12A1 + 1A2 is worse than 9A1, but that is a crystal clear criterion. At least it isn’t subjective.

Of course, there was a fair bit of politicking at the event. However, I turned off most of that by merely closing my eyes and taking a break. The speakers spoke for about 2 hours. So, my attention span was dwindling anyway. Luckily, those which had anything to say, got to say it first.

I found it particularly interesting that a politician can make his ‘last point’ extremely lasting.

Since this is an annual thing, I thought that I should just put a few words down to tell the kids who got rejected by JPA – Don’t Give Up!

Dear JPA Reject,

I shall use the words that I had once heard, from a good professor of mine: “Although you may feel dejected, do not feel depressed.” The reason is really simple. The JPA scholarship is not the be-all-end-all of your dreams. Your dreams are yours to keep. So, keep them alive!

I have been fortunate enough to get multiple education scholarship offers in my life and I had turned down a few of them. I have also made many friends who are both government scholars and non-government scholars alike. So, I would like to share some of these experiences.

First and foremost, the JPA scholarship scheme is just one of the many scholarships available, both local and overseas. You should realise that there are many scholarship awarding bodies in Malaysia. For those who will be facing their SPM examinations in the future, please remember to apply for multiple scholarships, if only to increase your chances of actually getting one.

You see, everyone has a different set of criteria. You may not agree with the JPA selection criteria and you may not fit in with it. However, there are also other scholarship bodies who do not agree with the JPA selection criteria and apply their own criteria in scholar selection. So, while you may not fit into the JPA mould, you may actually fit into some other mould.

There are also many overseas scholarship schemes available. In fact, many foreign universities are able to provide some sort of financial aid for their students. You should check to see if you qualify for these. There are also various international foundations and bodies who offer scholarships. This is particularly true if you are able to secure a place in a top university.

This brings me to my second point. This is not the end of the road. You can still try again at the post-STPM (and equivalent) level. There is nothing to stop you from continuing your education to a pre-university level and trying again. There are plenty of Malaysians who have done exactly that – do their pre-university education themselves and re-apply for scholarships again.

If you cannot afford to study your A-Levels/IB at a private institution, you can always do your STPM. You may not realise this but the STPM is actually a very well recognised pre-university level qualification. You will still be able to apply for various foreign universities with the STPM. Do not always believe what the private colleges tell you about the STPM.

However, some of you may be turned-off by the lengthy duration of the STPM exam. For this, I have only one advice – a single year is nothing, in the larger scheme of things. Think about this for a minute. What is a single year difference when compared with an entirely lifetime. In fact, it is a common practice to take a ‘gap-year’ to go explore various avenues in life. This can even help you figure out what it is that you actually want in life instead of blindly going with the flow.

This brings me to my next point. Not everyone is made out to be a doctor. In fact, you are probably not made out to be a doctor. The medicine path is a long and arduous one and if you are not made out to be a doctor, studying medicine is going to be hell. I have seen this happen to many friends. So, you should really ask yourself if you really love medicine or if you’re doing it just for the heck of it.

You can be a success, if you do something that you truly like – be it something as dull as accounting or something as exciting as engineering (alright, I’m biased!). But seriously, you need to think carefully of your career choice. It is something that you will be living with daily for the rest of your life. If you find that you hate medicine after so many years of study, you will lose more than just a couple of years.

And finally, do not let this little hurdle stop you from pursuing your dreams. There are many paths that can lead to your dream. Sometimes, it may actually be better to take the path less tread. So, do not think that your world has ended as a result of this rejection. Learn to handle rejection and to use it positively to improve yourself so that you will ultimately, still achieve your dreams.

PS: Do not stop dreaming!

with metta,
Shawn Tan.
(Still trying to achieve my dreams!)

Education scholarships. Our government disburses many of them through its many agencies and government linked companies. We are fortunate in that we have one of the most generous national governments, when it comes to educational funding. However, there are many things about these scholarships that trigger an emotional response when people talk about them.

This reminds me of a TehTarik session that we once had where someone, who had clearly a lot of anger for our government, claimed that he was denied a scholarship because the government was ‘racist’ (or something like that). I was rather taken aback that he could claim that in a room full of non-bumi government scholars who have all been given full scholarships by our ‘racist’ government. So, being the tactless person that I am, I asked him why he thought he deserved a scholarship.

He had this bewildered look in his eyes like I was challenging him (okay, so maybe it did sound like a challenge). His answer surprised me as he mentioned that straight A1s is the reason in a room full of top students of all shapes and sizes. Thankfully, a few people then asked him: “so, what?” Then, he started mentioning other things (possibly head prefect or something) in a room full of people who had represented their states and even nation. Now more people asked him again: “so, what?”

In retrospect, I guess it was harsh to have been taken down like that but he had it coming. Most people think that they deserve a scholarship without asking themselves why. While I may have slighted him personally, he had slighted many others with his allegations. He doesn’t seem like the kind of person who can keep an open mind so I won’t be surprised if he does not speak to me ever again but here is the thing.

Perceptions are flawed as they require us to view things through the lens of our own personal bias. In fact, my own perception is shaped by my personal experiences (i.e. bias). My personal bias has shown me a different facet of our government that most others see. I personally know five Malaysians whom had recently gotten into a PhD programme at Cambridge and tried their hand at applying for Malaysian government sponsorship.

From this group (and my previous experiences of others), I can say that there is no such thing as a sure thing or guarantee of a scholarship. Being a top Cambridge graduate is no guarantee, regardless of whether you are a Malay or not. Being an employee of a government agency is no guarantee, even if it is your turn to go for your PhD studies. Being an existing government scholar and a top student is no guarantee either. All this during a time when the government is trying it’s best to increase the number of PhD in the country.

In the words of a Singaporean mother I once met, you have to be really good to get a Malaysian government scholarship. Personally, I think that you need to be extremely lucky to get a single scholarship and in order to be able to get multiple scholarships, you need to be touched by the gods (especially if you are a non-bumi). There is actually some truth in that and a Malaysian scholarship is just like any other scholarship. Some people get them, while others don’t.

The recent suggestion by our Selangor MB that UiTM (Universiti Teknologi MARA) open up it’s doors to people of other races and foreigners, has been met with all kinds of responses. To those who do not know, UiTM is pretty much a single-ethnic university, which was founded by MARA, a government agency created to funnel direct aid to a specific race. So, suggesting that the university turn away from its founding objectives is practically blasphemous, especially since it involves a racial right.

On one side, we have the people who believe that UiTM is the last bastion of education for their race. It provides its students a university degree and a chance at a life that many may not have otherwise. There is no denying that MARA serves a function. I was initially surprised when I first met several SPM Grade 3 holders who were on MARA scholarships, but after thinking about it a bit, I realised that MARA had a different set of objectives and criteria when awarding these scholarships.

Although such cases are extremely rare, MARA has already opened up entry to its junior colleges and also offers overseas scholarships to non-bumiputera for a decade. So, it is perfectly understandable that some people will feel threatened by the very suggestion of opening up a ethnic based university that is seen as many, as the last chance for some down trodden kids to do good. But what confuses me is the type of response that has come from the non-bumiputera side.

Many have taken this opportunity to vent their frustrations. The credibility of its VC has been challenged, the quality of its students have been questioned and the university itself has been a target of ridicule. Most have taken the stance that the university itself is useless and serves no purpose. Under such intense bias, I can perfectly understand why some 9,000 students of the university have come out in protest and promised to take further action if the sanctity of their institution is threatened.

Personally, I think that none of it is called for. The university has a function and a role, which many of us may disagree with. But while it is performing it’s duty, there is not reason to call it (or any of it’s members) names. The question of opening up UiTM affects more than just a single university, it questions the very existence of MARA. MARA has done a lot of good work in helping the bumiputera out of poverty. So, suggesting to dismantle such an institution, would obviously need to be thought through first.

Additionally, I feel that the very people calling it names and ridiculing the actions of its supporters, would do the very same thing if the situation was reversed. Assuming that the MB had called for the closing down of all vernacular schools instead, I can see the very same kind of irrational behaviour coming from the non-bumiputera of the country. In fact, I can imagine the whole thing flaring out of control, if it were to actually happen.

Personally, I see the MARA educational institutions in the same light as any other vernacular institution. Both sets of institutions are seen as the last bastion of whatever racial identity that they are designed to propagate. This is the crux of the problem. If we are to take apart one, it is only fair that we take apart all the others as well. In fact, I would strongly support this idea, if it was ever mooted. But it will take a suicidal politician to actually suggest standardising everything.

I’ve just recently read an article in TheStar about something that is usually bandied about as meritocracy. Then, there has been a recent blog entry that showed the results of the “meritocracy” based university entry system that was imposed several years ago.

meritocracy
n 1: a form of social system in which power goes to those with superior intellects
2: the belief that rulers should be chosen for their superior abilities and not because of their wealth or birth

From the second definition of the word above, the real problems with meritocracy are evident. A person’s intellect/abilities can never be disconnected from the circumstances of their birth or wealth. If one argues that nature (i.e. genes) determines our intellect/abilities, then birth circumstance plays a role. If one argues that nurture (i.e. upbringing) determines it, then wealth will certainly play a role. Therefore, I present that true meritocracy can never exist.

Once we accept the fact that meritocracy does not exist, then we can get that out of the way and think about the real problems in Malaysia. With regards to the Malaysian education context, this term is usually applied to the inequality in scholarship disbursement and university admissions. Our problem is the perceived inequalities that seem to be endemic in the system, due to racial profiling. This has nothing to do with meritocracy at all. It has to do with the concept of fairness, which is an interesting study to economists.

Most people come up with a very simplistic (whilst unfair) solution to the problems. They often call for scholarship disbursements to be given based solely on academic performance and university entrance to be based on only one standardised exam. Both these solutions are thoroughly flawed as it depends on one single thing – an accurate examination system.

Anyone who knows standardised examination systems will see this problem. Every standardised exam is prepared by a team of humans, all of whom are fallible. They are in turn, taken by a large number of fallible humans and marked by a number of equally fallible humans under impossible time constraints. So, if the exam questions, examination and examiners are all fallible, then so are the results.

As the root problem is perceived unfairness, I suggest using technology to solve the problem. None of you should be surprised with this by now!

I suggest that the clearing houses for scholarships and university admissions, set up websites for people to make applications. Provide an interface that will allow the applicants to quickly sort and filter the data by different criteria so that they themselves can see where they stand, as compared to the rest of their cohort. The criteria should not include things like race/gender/religion or any such personal matters. Obviously, any identifiable things should be removed as well, like IC numbers and such.

Then, on one final day/week, allow each applicant to vote for which ranking criteria they think should be used as a measure. The idea of this exercise is to let the students themselves decide on what is “fair” and “meritocratic”. If someone thinks that academic results should be used, then let them vote on that. If someone thinks that some other criteria should be used, then let them vote on that instead. At the end of the day, the computer will tabulate the results and make offers based on the available places and who has “won” the vote.

This is just a rough idea and of course, if it is to be implemented, people with the relevant expertise should design the specific criteria and voting system. I would certainly be interested to see the results of this peer-reviewed scholarship award and admissions process. I wonder if it would change anything at all. In the end, the people who get offers will be the ones deemed to deserve them, by their own peers. There is full transparency involved and everyone should be happy (or not).

PS: We may just discover that the fairest method to use when deciding on making offers, is the venerable Monte Carlo method.

In case nobody got it. I wanted to point out that there is no such thing as meritocracy nor fairness in this world.

Annual scholarship rejection time. This is a drama that our country goes through every year and personally, I’m getting a little sick of it all. There is a problem and the problem needs fixing. Let’s put on my engineering hat and try to figure out what to do with it.

According to TheStar, the PSD DG said:

The most common misunderstanding is that academic excellence will guarantee them scholarship. However, the fact is that many excellent students have to compete for a limited number of scholarships and those awarded will be the ‘cream of the crop

Personally, I have a beef with a lot of people. So, I’m just going to lash out here. If anyone feels offended, please feel free to leave some comments.

• Cream of the Crop.
  What a load of hogwash. With so many 1As being bandied about, it merely dilutes the value of the result. So, there is no possible way of actually telling who are the smart ones and who are the dumb ones. Just because someone gets 20+ 1As does not mean that he/she is actually smarter than someone who only got 8 1As. It just means that he/she had more 1As, that’s all. As a result, scholarships sometimes end up being given in an arbitrary manner, resulting in many unhappy and dissatisfied kids.
• Sad Stories.
  I’m really fed up with the kids who whine about not getting a scholarship to study their dream course overseas. For goodness sake, it’s time to grow up. The world does not revolve around you. Grow a back bone. Yes, it’s an extra hurdle that you’ll need to cross to achieve your dreams. But overcoming it will just make you stronger. The PSD scholarship is only one of the many ways to land your dream career.
• Sad Parents.
  I place quite a bit of blame with the parents. I know that every parent thinks that his/her kid is the sharpest tool in the box and he/she wants to give the kids the best. Since they’re almost 18 anyway, it’s a good time to stop shielding them from the harshness of the world. Let them know that there are lots of other options in life and sometimes, they just need to roll a hard six.

As a possible solution, I would like to propose something to the government. This is an idea that came to me at 2.30am. So, it may need to be fleshed out a little.

Scrap the whole post-SPM scholarship awards craze. There is little value in the diluted result anyway. Instead, force every kid to go onto Matriculation, STPM, A-Levels, IB or equivalent programme, on their own. Then, let them all apply to the universities and courses of their choice. Rich kids can go to private colleges and do their A-Levels while poor kids can go to public schools to do their STPM.

The PSD must release a list of approved universities and courses, based on the country’s needs. The approved universities can just be picked off the THES Top 100 universities or some other ranking. The approved courses will be based on the country’s needs.

Once the students have secured a place with a foreign university, they can then be awarded scholarships. Scholarships can then be allocated on a needs and reward basis. On a rewards basis, anyone who secures a place in the Top 50 university, is automatically given a scholarship. On a needs basis, anyone who secures a place in the Top 100, are given a scholarship, based purely on financial need. Anyone outside the Top 100, can kiss their scholarships goodbye.

You see, in this way, it will help the PSD save a lot of time and money.

• The responsibility of vetting the students will be outsourced to foreign universities. Let the educators decide who is good enough, and not a bunch of bureaucrats. Scholarship interviews can be done away with entirely.
• The students will no longer be subjected to arbitrary criteria. If the students get rejected by the universities, it is less likely that they will whine. This outsources the liability and saves the PSD from having to make “corrections”.
• If the foreign universities decide to offer the students a scholarship or aid, this saves the PSD more time and money again. They won’t need to consider these people anymore and can divert their limited funding elsewhere.

So, what do you think?

UPDATE: Another radical 2.0 idea. Why not let the kids decide among themselves, who deserves the scholarships? Set up a website where the kids can all make their scholarship applications. Then, list out some basic features, such as their results, activities and what nots. Nothing that can be made to identify an individual directly. Then, let the kids and other Malaysians vote on whom they think deserve a scholarship. The top 1000 or something, gets offered a scholarship.

Seems like a recent development, but the Public Services Department, has announced that they will be offering scholarships to anyone, who scored 9As and above, in last year’s SPM examinations. In addition, anyone who manages to secure a place in a top international university, will also be given scholarships. All this is regardless of background. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing overall.

Something similar actually came up in our TehTarik discussions yesterday. There are many weaknesses in the system that need to be addressed but I won’t go into them, as we’ve already talked about it yesterday. When the write up is ready, I might link it in here. However, there are some things that I would like to look at:

1. Purely results based award.
   This is a two edged sword. On the one side, it cuts through all sorts of arbitrary ethnic discrimination policies, which is a good thing. However, it cuts away all discriminatory policies, including the positive ones. Now, a 9A student from a rich family will be funded, while an 8A student from a poor one won’t be, which I think is not a great idea. The whole idea of getting an education is to gain social mobility. I also feel that a well-rounded 8A student deserves the scholarship more than a 9A bookworm. So, that is why I’m not sure if a totally blind policy, is a good thing.
2. Publicly funded education at the university level.
   The new policy gives the students a lot of options in getting into university. They would be fully funded if they get into any of the local public universities, local foreign universities, and top international universities. So there should not be any complaints from any quarter. However, I’m only worried about where all this money is going to come from. The funding for public universities could be diverted from the existing PTPTN scheme. I’m a little concerned about the ones who get into top international universities.

Well, I’ve always been an advocate of our government’s policy of funding education. We are one of the few countries in this world, with such a generous government, when it comes to education. I also agree that we need to build human capital, in order to develop the country. However, one of the issues raised yesterday, was what to do with all these graduates.

We need to really ask ourselves if the existing job market is capable of absorbing all these people. With the numbers of unemployed graduates coming out each year, numbering more than 60000, we need to really ask ourselves what are we going to do with these people. I cannot help but wonder if the civil service actually has enough vacancies to staff all these scholars.

What will most likely happen, as has always been happening all this while, are that these scholars will not be absorbed into the civil service and be cast into the wind, so to speak. In the end, it wastes the tax dollars and the scholar’s time. So, maybe it’s a better idea to divert all that cash, into improving the economy and creating a job market first.

Some will say that this is a chicken and egg problem. But I think that it’s not and the evidence speaks for itself. The fact that our graduate unemployment rates are so high, means that there aren’t enough jobs for us. It is telling when we are importing foreign labour, to fill up all our low level jobs. When we start importing foreign nationals to fill up our professional jobs, that’s when we have a need for more graduates.

I’ve recently read a blog (here and here) about the problems facing students who take the Chinese language paper for SPM examinations. The blog discussed the perceived problems with the difficulties in scoring a 1A in the exam, which leads to students losing opportunities for scholarships. So, I did a little bit of haphazard research and I found that there are bigger problems in the issue than just the question of results.

I looked up the Education Ministry’s latest guidelines for exam registrations and found that the Chinese language paper was a totally optional one. The only compulsory languages are Bahasa Melayu (isn’t it supposed to be Bahasa Malaysia?) and English. Every other language is optional. I’m actually happy to find that French is still offered as a language paper, alongside Mandarin, Tamil, Arabic and Iban. I personally know someone who did French in secondary school. While I was digging around the document, I also found that Pendidikan Islam is wajib (compulsory) for Muslims while non-Muslims were wajib to take Moral instead. Plus, it is stated in the official guidelines that a student can only take either one of the two.

Firstly, it surprised me to learn that in vernacular Chinese schools, the students are forcibly coerced into taking the Chinese language. In fact, a common excuse used is that if the student does not want to take the language, the student should just go to a national school. When I heard that, it brought about images of certain parties waving the keris and telling everyone else who doesn’t respect Malay rights to keluar (get out) of the country. School principals who behave so irresponsibly little Napolean and abuse their powers, should be stripped of their positions and never be allowed anywhere near an educational institution again. If a student is not interested in taking the subject as an exam paper, he/she should not be coerced to do so, by any means. A school should be a place for learning and allowing students to explore different areas of interest.

Secondly, it surprised me to learn that non-Muslims were essentially barred from taking Islamic studies. I know for a fact, that this was not the case in the past. I personally know someone who got an A1 in Islamic studies and whose parents were both Chinese school teachers. If it was possible in the past, there is no logical reason for it not being so today. In many parts of the world, people are beginning to realise the importance of having different points of view. So, learning how Islam sees the world will help us understand each other better especially since the Islamic countries are beginning to feature more prominently in world affairs. Furthermore, nobody should be denied the right to learn anything in school. It is against the whole idea of education, if someone is not allowed to take any subject due to his religion.

So, I wondered what could be a way to solve some of these problems.

Obviously, the very first thing would be to allow anyone who wants to, to take Islamic studies as a paper. Nobody should be denied the right to learn anything in school. This artificial and arbitrary restriction should just be gotten rid of. It cannot possibly be healthy for the nation as a whole, when students are segregated in such an arbitrary manner. It might even be unconstitutional, to deny someone their right to an education in school. Maybe some brave soul could challenge this decision in the courts.

Next, would be to do away with vernacular schools entirely. A common reason why students are forced to take the language paper is because the schools wish to retain their cultural identities. I am surprised by the fact that an inanimate object has the right to assert any form of identity. We already have an existing system in place to teach vernacular languages in national schools. I would think that this should be improved upon instead of just being like detention classes that force you to stay back in school for.

Instead, have the languages offered as an officially time-tabled subject in all schools, alongside every other non-national language and allow anyone to take it regardless of race. We could have a period for international languages and have all the students file off to different classes for their language lessons. There is already precedent for this, our Islam/Moral classes. So, the system is already in place to allocate time-tables and classrooms for such a thing.

Finally, just get rid of the Moral paper because I have a personal beef with it. It is such an idiotic assumption that there is such a thing as a universal moral standard that can be preached in a classroom. The only way that anyone can score for that paper is to blatantly lie and/or just memorise the answers. A common quip during my time in school was that when you accidentally killed a chicken in a village, the morally correct course of action is to run away (something about not being berani membuta tuli).

But as usual, the solutions sound very simple here but are almost impossible to implement on the ground. There are just too many entrenched interests in the problem to come to a lasting solution. The extremists on both sides of the fence would not be willing to let go of their outmoded ideas on identity. But in the mean time, let us start moving in the right direction.

PS: It should be blatantly obvious from this post which side I am on.