Month: June 2010

A friend sent me a link to this song today. Just reminds me of how great Jacky Cheung is. Thought I’d share.

The cake scholarship is a lie!

At least that is what our government seems to say. I am just thoroughly confused with the statements from Datuk Seri Nazri Abd Aziz. One day, he says that our government gave out 2,000 scholarships last year and cut it down to 1,500 this year. Today, he says that our government gave out 2,850 scholarships last year. I am thoroughly confused.

How can 2,850 be equated to 2,000 scholarships? Even my lame engineering mind cannot fathom that.

Simple – by inflating the figures in order to justify his stand that, “If based on merit, only a few Bumiputera succeeded in getting the scholarship, thus, next year, Bumiputera students need to study harder.” Unless of course when he said that 1,500 were given this year actually meant that 2,137 scholarships were given out this year!

So, what this article basically claims is that Bumiputera students are unable to compete based on merit alone and that they needed the ethnic scholarships to back up their numbers. Okay, let me try some magical mathematics to see what happens if we take out the ethnic based scholarships.

If we took out 900 (557+343) ethnic based scholarships, we would be left with 1950 scholarships (now, that’s closer to the 2,000 scholarships quoted earlier) given out based on non-ethnic criteria such as merit and social background. Of this, 1050 (150+841+59) were given to Bumiputera while and the balance were given to non-Bumiputera. This means that 54% of the scholarships were given out to Bumiputeras, even without any ethnic criteria!

This is an excellent number! It proves that things can work fine even without the ethnic based criteria.

I would also like to point out the the needs-based scholarships are further evidence that the poor and marginalised are found in every race. From the statistics given there were 991 (150+841) poor and deserving Bumiputera and 675 poor and deserving non-Bumiputera, which is about 60% and 40% respectively.

This is another excellent number! It proves that poor and deserving people come from all ethnic backgrounds equally. Magic!

It’s real. Our PM says that the government will be reducing overseas scholarships for students at the undergraduate level and focus instead of the post-graduate level.

Okay, while I have already commented about this earlier, I forgot to add that there is also another annual drama – the post-STPM drama – where students cry foul over university admissions, where top students are unable to secure places in the courses of their choice, and where the same issues crop up again but at a higher level.

So, by phasing out overseas scholarships, our government is now putting pressure on the local universities to absorb these students. I don’t think that it is a bad idea but I think that admissions policies have got to change as well. Just like the scholarship issue, there has to be more transparency with admissions. Furthermore, universities will need to accept all pre-university qualifications and not just limit themselves to the STPM and/or matriculation.

I think that our education system is quite frakked in this respect.

This is priceless.

Honestly, I think that our government has its priorities wrong when it comes to allocating funds. While I do think that our annual scholarship award saga is quite banal, I do not think that the solution is to take away the scholarships like one of our ministers suggests. According to the online paper, The Malaysian Insider:

We have to tell the truth. We just cannot afford it. Just like how a parent cannot afford to send their children abroad to further their studies, the government cannot afford it. We do not have the financial capacity that permits us to send every good student abroad.

Sigh.

We do not have money to invest in our children’s education. We are considering the removal of education subsidies for primary and secondary schools as well as reducing the number of scholarships or dropping them off altogether. However, we are also thinking of building a new parliament building in Putrajaya at the cost of RM800++ million.

Now, I understand where the government will be getting its funds for the new building. It costs several hundred thousand to fund a student overseas. So, dropping about 1,500-2,000 scholarships will help generate the necessary funds to build our new parliament building! Yeay!

While I do think that the scholarship saga is unnecessary, I blame the problem on the selection process. So, this is where I think that our government has at least got one thing right:

Nazri said more students would be placed in local universities, while only those applying for postgraduate studies or who obtained a place in an Ivy League institution in a critical field would be sent overseas. The intention is, firstly, to reduce expenditure in sending students overseas. Secondly, we must ensure that local universities have bright students. Why are we doubting the quality of local universities?

Our government will be out-sourcing the selection process of students to the overseas institutions. Only undergrads who have obtained a place in a good university will be given a scholarship. This, I can totally agree with. Our government wastes too much money sending students to just regular foreign universities that are no better than our local ones. So, I think that this is fair as long as students who obtain places in top universities are guaranteed a scholarship – based entirely on merit and not the colour of their skin.

Then, there will be emphasis placed on sending people overseas for further studies. I would recommend that the government only consider sending people overseas for PhDs. The primary reason is because our local universities may not have the necessary facilities nor faculties to provide research opportunities in all areas. We have some things we are good at and many other things that we are not.

In summary, I do agree that the scholarship system needs to be fixed and that some of the ideas are good. However, I doubt the reasons behind the government fixing it. I get the sense that this is the lazy man’s way out. There are other ways of fixing it – by introducing more transparency into the system and the students will not complain.

Most students complain when they know that someone far inferior to them get a scholarship when they don’t. They feel victimised for no apparent reason. I don’t know if the government can ever fix this. I would hazard to predict that not every student who gets into a top university will be able to obtain a scholarship. Some will just be rejected without any apparent reason as they are now.

So, this means that there will probably be more business for our local private colleges preparing students for pre-university courses. Students who cannot afford private education would be able to go to form six and take the STPM examinations instead. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Unless of course, the government intends to game the system by allowing students from certain schools to take the IB examinations instead of the SPM:

Students of Malay College Kuala Kangsar and Tunku Kurshiah College may soon choose if they want to sit for the International Baccalaureate (IB) or the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia. The IB diploma programme can be used for entry into major universities around the world. Education Minister Datuk Seri Hisham?muddin Tun Hussein announced that both schools would be offering the IB from 2011.

Somehow, I just doubt that the government has my best interest in mind.

I read in TheStar today that our government is studying a proposal to make vernacular languages compulsory in national schools. Personally, I think that this is a great idea and is the first step necessary to shut down government vernacular schools nationwide.

I have generally been of the opinion that these schools contribute to the general problem of racial segregation in the country. While it is not the only contributing factor, it is a major one. Students who grow up in an environment where 90% of their peers are of the same race as them are just not prepared to enter a world where they are not surrounded by people of the same colour. Therefore, it is imperative that our government shut down vernacular schools as soon as possible.

By making vernacular languages compulsory in national schools, it would silence critics who defend the existence of vernacular schools due to Constitutional guarantees that students will have access to vernacular language education. There is no better way to push for vernacular education than to give them the same standing as the national language and English in our national curriculum. It’s better to be tri-lingual than bi.

So, I whole heartedly support this idea. Shutdown those vernacular schools.

Now, as for the next step – please shut down all them religious schools as well. Religion should be taken out of national schools entirely. Introduce civics and ethics into schools instead of focusing on Islam and morality. I would think that an ethics course would be a very good place for students to explore philosophies and expand their minds beyond the obvious.

I have read that our government is interested in improving the software of the country and wants to attract top talent to Malaysia to work. There were several measures announced by our PM during the unveiling of our 10th Malaysia Plan. Personally, I am not quite sure if the government is going to succeed in an area that they have been trying to address for a long time.

The reason is simple – you cannot attract talent with money alone.

As shown in the video, while money is important, it is not the prime motivator for talent. Once talented people have enough money to sustain their lifestyles, it ceases to be the primary motivation and is replaced by autonomy, mastery and purpose. This is where I think that we fail in Malaysia.

For one, it is not easy for us to find an organisation that eschews autonomy in Malaysia. Our mentality has always reflected a more ‘top-down’ approach that rewards ‘yes men’ and punishes ‘rebel leaders’ that are viewed as ‘difficult to manage’. This is a problem that exists in both the government and private sector and is partially due to our cultural inclination to listen to our seniors.

However, the biggest problem is a lack of purpose. Ever since our dear old TDM vacated his seat, our country seems to have lost its purpose. Our previous PM tried to move us towards agriculture that the present PM does not seem that focused on. We seem to be a ship without a rudder and that has got me a little worried. However, without an overarching purpose, it will be difficult to retain talent. These people need to know that what they do will actually affect the lives of other people and create an impact.

Personally, while I think that the idea is good, it will join the ranks of all other great Malaysian ideas.