Ridiculous Exam Grading In Malaysia

AM a mother of four children, two in university and two in secondary school. I am writing to ask the powers that be to get real.

Year in, year out, parents lament, go to the newspapers, politicians, etc, when their children do not get Public Service Department scholarships. How does someone console a child who has worked so hard to get a string of A1s and yet has not received a PSD scholarship?

To me, it's simple. Only two groups of students should be given scholarships: the ones who need them (because of financial constraints) and the ones who deserve them on the basis of merit. I will not argue about the first as it is plain for all to see that a child's education should not be derailed simply because his parents cannot afford it.

It is the second group that should get sorted out. What does it take to get an A1 these days? A score of 70 per cent and above? What does it take to pass?

I used to teach Mathematics in a secondary school. In my last school, I taught Additional Mathematics. Over the years, none of the students I taught has ever failed the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia paper, not even the girl who consistently got zero for my test papers!

How could she have passed?

My daughter cried the whole night after sitting her History paper. She said she would not be able get all As. I had to ask her to go to bed and forget about studying that night.

Guess what? From afar, the scores in her transcript looked like a straight line. Did she get a PSD scholarship? No, we asked her not to apply. She's now in her second year at the National University of Singapore.

We didn't think the whole PSD scholarship exercise could be fair. How can you tell who is the best of the best? Thousands of candidates get straight As year in, year out; every Tom, Dick and Harry.

Worse still, Tom, Dick and Harry's parents believe their children truly deserve the scholarship. You can't blame them. The powers that be graded them as geniuses. This is getting out of hand. Throw a stone and we hit a Malaysian-made Einstein!

So, let's get real. Raise the bar and we will have fewer problems awarding scholarships. What's more, fewer hearts will be broken and we can all have our feet firmly planted on the ground, where they should be in the first place.

Let's award those who obtain scores of 90 per cent and above A1, 80 per cent and above A2, 70 per cent and above B3, 60 per cent and above B4, 55 per cent and above C5, 50 per cent and above C6, 45 per cent and above D7 and 40 per cent and above E8. Those with lower scores do not deserve to pass.

Let's get the grades right so that we can get back on the right track. Until and unless we do that, we are doing ourselves and our country a disservice and those who truly deserve scholarships a gross injustice.

Only when we have the best serving the nation, can we honestly and steadfastly say: "Malaysia Boleh!"
By : MAY CHEE CHOOK YING, Bukit Beruang, Malacca