Who Has Failed Whom?

This is an interesting comment written by Mr. Liong Kam Chong, a former principal of a premier secondary school in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan and now a retiree. His comment was published in NST (letters, page 19) yesterday, 1 Jun 2010. At the end of his comment, Mr. Liong challenges us to look into our education system whether our school system has failed our students or the students have failed our school system. Please read on...

In the past, access to education was limited, more so schooling in the English language. However, petition writers trained in English were there to help ordinary folk with their documentation needs.

These included filling all kinds of application forms, writing replies to government departments, and preparing simple declaratory notes that were to be brought to the magistrate's court for endorsement.

We can still see petition writers in the alleys and basements leading to government premises. These 'senior' writers are still using typewriters and type in English. But, they have also picked up enough Bahasa Malaysia to continue doing their job.

An interesting, but surprising, observation is that quite a number of young people (mostly non-Malay) can be seen milling around the petition writers' desks. These are young couples or schoolchildren accompanying their parents.

So, we see a senior writer serving mostly young clients. This is not the scenario we should be observing if we are talking about our country progressing towards developed nation status.

Are these young (mostly non-Malays) so deficient in their mastery of BM that they need the services of a petition writer? What did they learn during BM lessons in school? Has sufficient emphasis been given to the learning and mastering of BM from Year One?

A student may not have done well in the Penilaian Menengah Rendah of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examination and subsequently dropped out of school.

 
But, he should by then have sufficient mastery in BM. He should be confident enough to fill in forms and write simple letters in BM.

 
Has our school system failed him or has he failed our school system? This is something that everyone in the education sector needs to look into.