Education Talk

The Prime Minister has announced on the establishment of new merit-based category of Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships starting next year. Eventhough, no details has been released on the criteria of selection etc, this has received overwhelming support from various quarters.

On Saturday, Dato’ Seri Najib had said that the move was in tandem with the plan to limit the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examination to 10 subjects for a more level playing field.

“The most deserving and the best of Malaysian students must be assisted to further their studies in the respective fields irrespective of race,”

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Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has made it official that all students will be able to take a maximum of only 10 subjects in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examination from 2010 onwards The only exceptions would be students in the joint science and religious stream who will be allowed to take 11 subjects next year until the curriculum is streamlined by 2011, after which they too will be able to take a maximum of 10 subjects.

Muhyiddin, who is also Education Minister, said the six core subjects in the SPM — Bahasa Melayu, English, Islamic Education or Moral Studies, History, Mathe­matics and Science — would remain the same. those in the science stream are exempted from taking Science so this means they take five core subjects and can choose five elective subjects
The same applies to those in the religious stream as they would be exempted from taking Islamic Education, while those in the joint science and religious stream were exempted from Islamic Education and Science.

Muhyiddin said the rationale behind the decision was to ensure students had more time for extra-curricular activities.

What do you think of this ?

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This is the problem when we have frequent change of Minister of Education. Every new Minister will try to implement or introduce new things. But this one not bad either as before he implement, he try to get people views on to make English a “must pass” SPM subject.

My personal opinion is this will be a major disaster especially those students from kampung, estet etc. Students in town I don’t see any problem but not all are good in english too. Anyway, lets see the end of this proposal.

Many object to making English a ‘must pass’ SPM subject
By KAREN CHAPMAN

PETALING JAYA: Most of the 500 views received by the Education Ministry as at the end of office hours yesterday are against any move to make English compulsory in order to obtain the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) certificate.

A ministry official said those who contacted the ministry wanted the status quo to remain.

“We started receiving telephone calls from 10am until 5.30pm yesterday,” she said.

From today, she said people could telephone the ministry’s hunting line at 03-7723-7070 with their views from 8am to 5.30pm.

“There are 27 lines and we have enough people manning them,” she said.

People can also e-mail their views to kpkpm@moe.gov.my or send a fax to 03-7710-8880.

On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had said he was surprised to learn that English was not a “must pass” subject for SPM and wanted public feedback on the matter.

The Education Minister said it was a revelation to him as he had always thought that it was a prerequisite since students had to learn English in school.

He said he was also shocked to learn that national schools no longer taught English grammar.

Muhyiddin said students were now merely learning communicative English.

“This means they are picking up the language for communication purposes only,” he said, adding that almost 70% of students who take English passed the subject.

A pass in English has never been compulsory for SPM. Since 2000, a pass in

Bahasa Malaysia was sufficient to get the SPM certificate. Previously, a credit was a must.

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Beginning next year, students sitting for SPM will only be allowed to take a maximum of 10 subjects.

Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said this was because 90% of all students took a maximum of 10 subjects or less.

“We want to streamline and also make it easier when it comes to giving out scholarships,” he told reporters on Thursday after laying the foundation stone for the new Tunku Kurshiah College.

He added the grading system for the examination will also be improvised to better reflect the academic achievements of students.

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The Times Higher Edu­­cation (THE) Quacquarelli Sy­­monds (Qs) has recently released the Top 100 Asian Universities List. This is the first regional ranking The Times.

Universiti Malaya leads four other universities at 39th spot. The other four universities were Universiti Ke­­bang­­­saan Malaysia (51st), Universiti Sains Malaysia (69th), Universiti Tek­nologi Malaysia (82nd) and Universiti Putra Malaysia (90th).

QS managing director Nunzio Quac­­quarelli said the result of the QS.com Asian University Rankings was based on regional relevant mea­sures of excellence.

“The top performing universities were distinguished not only by quality but also by high productivity of research, compared to their regional peers,” he said in a statement here yesterday.

He said Malaysian universities per­formed well, with high numbers of international students and faculties, which made Malaysia an attractive option for international students.

The Top 10 ranking as follows :

1. University of Hong Kong
2. The Chinese University of Hong Kong
3. University of Tokyo
4. Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
5. Kyoto University
6. Osaka University

You can view full ranking here.

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