R. Nadeswaran, The Sun Daily
UNTIL 1968, those in Form Five in government secondary schools in Klang had to sit for the Form Six Entrance Examinations if they had wanted to further their studies. Each year, a handful of students from the five secondary schools in Klang would get places in five secondary schools in Kuala Lumpur.
“Those are the studious ones,” we would remark of the qualifiers. The majority of us went to work after leaving school and only went to university late in life, or took up part-time courses or never at all.
In 1968, the Education Ministry announced the setting up of Form Six in Klang High School and it welcomed students from other secondary schools in the area and became a co-ed school about 40 years after its founding. One from the pioneer batch of students is Court of Appeal judge, Datuk Varghese George.
A good result in the Higher School Certificate examinations was a pre-requisite for tertiary education. These days, there are Form Six classes in most secondary schools but entry into universities no longer required students to have good grades in the Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia examinations.
With four credits at Form Five level, any college, university college or university would welcome you with open arms as education has turned into a big money spinner for entrepreneurs.
Every year, thousands of “graduates” are churned out by these educational outfits and very regularly, we hear of graduates who have not found jobs after graduation. They fall into two categories – unemployed and unemployable.
In the case of the unemployed, they may have done courses in areas for which there is scarce demand or in disciplines where supply has outstripped demand.
In the case of unemployable ones whom I have come across, is a case of having a piece of paper as a qualification but with no substance.
They have no communications skills and are unable to relate their course work to the job requirements. To the interviewer, they appear to have “passed by memorising” rather than having applied what they learnt at lectures.
In the past, I have been given copies of answer scripts where students’ answers showed they had no clue as to the questions. Besides, the spelling and grammar were horrendous, to put it mildly.
Against this backdrop, the government’s plans came as a shock. In a letter published in this newspaper two weeks ago, the Education Ministry wrote: “In an attempt to increase the national competency and capacity for higher level research and innovation, the National Higher Education Strategic Plan has initiated a High Impact Agenda; namely, MyBrain15. This programme has been developed to enhance research, development and innovation by increasing the number of highly knowledgeable human capital with world class researchers and doctorate holders within 15 years.
“The government wishes to create a pool of brilliant human resources among Malaysians and aims to have 60,000 PhD holders by 2023. MyBrain15 will embark on coordinated efforts in human capital development with a common goal of enhancing national competitiveness, innovation system and wealth creation.”
It is not my intention to pour cold water on such ambitious plans but we need to bear in mind that we have to sieve and filter the applications so that only the best are chosen. If those magic numbers have to be reached, look no further than the degree mills which have grown around the world.
I have nothing against late bloomers or those who choose to further their education later in life. But we often come across some which stick out like a sore thumb.
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