Students Are Too Exam-oriented
The problem of education system in Malaysia is that the students are too exam-oriented. Due to societal pressure, the result is the sole indicator of determining your performance in the school. For many innocent students in Malaysia, education means scoring the test papers, acquiring more knowledge for the exam, and of course, aiming for higher number of As! There is a misconception that higher number of As indicates the person is smarter. For example, parents and relatives like to compare their own children with the number of As in result slip or how much salary they can make per month. Why are they making us so stressful? I had heard numerous comparisons throughout my schooling year (even now). My aunt did that by comparing my cousin and me in SPM. With an extra A in my cousin’s result slip, she is assumed to be better. It is not because I am jealous or what (maybe I am?), this should not be the way to gauge the students’ ability. This is because the quality of As would be affected. I still remembered that she is still struggling with Chemistry questions during her foundation year. So, is this the right way to compare? Would you compare a student with a very strong foundation in Physics gets mediocre result in other subjects, while another student who is just barely good at every subject gets straight As? Would you expect Albert Einstein to be good in every subject while his expertise is Physics? I believe his research ability would have suffered if he did that. This is the problem with the parents. They do not utilize the talents of the children. The children might be good in drawing, handcrafting, or sports. Instead, they put too much emphasis to create Jack-of-all-trades students in term of academic examination. When students are too exam-oriented, they are unable to utilize their talents by being productive in their fields. Because after all, they just want more As in exam slips.