edukasi

it is undeniable that the lingua franca of the world right now is english. a medium of communication that is perhaps, arguably the most important tool a human can learn in order to effectively communicate and express him/herself. there is no doubt that the very essence of english or as a matter of fact, the very essence of language itself is to enable people to be able to willfully transmit in the best way, what is going on in their intricate minds.

now, one might think the purpose of an education is to enable members of a society, a state, and even a nation to be able to benefit from it. that is the basic and best advantage of having an education. one is taught how to think analytically and creatively, and progressively using their skill in expression to exchange ideas and ideals with people. this is an important part of the development of civilisation, as it is to be noted that civilisation is not the product of any one man, but the evolution of thinking, sharing and expressing.

the education system is said to be failing when there is a obvious similarity in thinking of the students undergoing that education system. the same can be said when there is an obvious flaw in the ability of the students to express and to give opinions. it can be postulated that spoon-feeding and an exceedingly unhealthy reliance on an exam based evaluation might play a part in the degeneration of a system of education. this postulation apparently proves to be true in the nation of malaysia.

a nation where national exams are made the 'make or break' benchmark for students, this allows for a situation where the student would try to 'make' it using whatever means possible. the result of this? a student that is learning often by memorising and not understanding, their ability to express rendered useless and replaced by their ability to memorize.

and the result of being not able to express efficiently? the students rapidly degenerate at language skills. this, a nation where students who are well into their tertiary education could not even form a simple sentence in english is utterly embarrassing as the language has been taught in schools since they were a child of 7. is this the way to go?

do not be mislead by the notion that this nation is full of morons as this is not true. in fact, malaysia has produced excellently capable individuals who have left their mark in time. this can yet again be proven by the fact that this year's top scorers for the cambridge A levels (worldwide) are malaysians. the background of their education is unclear, but rest assured that the educational facilities from which they hail from are not public, but private.
yet again, the product of the public education system cannot be written off as mere thrash as it does indeed proves to excel as can be seen particularly in certain STPM top scorers.

the real question is, where is the malaysian education system headed? to certain doom, or for the better? this remains to be seen. as a product of this very education system, i am of the opinion that this could still go both ways. drastic measures need to be taken for our future. we need to learn our lesson.