FIRST of all, I would like to congratulate all the candidates who did well in their Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR), Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) examinations last year.
To those who did not perform well, it is not the end of the world. You are still very young and you have the chance to try again this year.
Do not despair. I would like to raise the issue of how society, and maybe the authorities, assess the performance of schools in the major examinations.
The percentage of passes has always been used as an indicator of a school’s performance. Based on this indicator, fully residential schools such as Maktab Rendah Sains Mara, Sekolah Menengah Sains, Malay College
Kuala Kangsar and Sekolah Dato’ Abdul Razak always top the list with 100% passes.
We tend to perceive these schools as good schools. Parents look up to these schools and hope to enrol their children there.
This is a rather misleading evaluation. It should not be a surprise that these schools achieve 100% passes in the major examinations.
A full investigation should be conducted if a residential school does not achieve a perfect score.
These schools are places for the cream of the crop. Their students are selected based on their outstanding performance in UPSR and PMR.
Therefore, it is expected of them to do well in the examinations. On the other hand, we have every reason to worry if a student who scores five As in UPSR and is accepted to a fully residential school gets all Bs in his PMR.
Please don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against fully residential schools. The Government deserves all the credit for developing such schools.
I was a product of a fully residential school too. My batch scored 100% passes in the SPM (previously called
the Malaysian Certificate of Education).
But were the headmaster and teachers pleased with the results? I didn’t think so.
Displeasure was clearly shown on the face of the headmaster as despite the perfect results, several candidates only managed to get a pass with a grade three.
Nevertheless, we have to admit examination results are not the sole determinant of our future.
I have met some of these third graders who are doing very well in life today. So, should a school’s performance
be assessed based on examination results only?
Is it really important to send our children to fully residential schools?
Statistically speaking, school performance is determined by a combination of factors. In addition to the overall results, other factors such as the ability of students, the facilities, the quality of teachers and the role of parent-teacher associations need to be included in assessing a school’s performance.
This will provide a fairer basis for assessment. Otherwise, we will see more examination-cheating cases, like what happened in a school in Kedah recently. If we continue to assess the performance of a school based on examination results, we will be putting non-residential schools, especially those in the rural areas, at a disadvantage.
These schools take in students who are weaker and not qualified to go to fully residential schools.
Theoretically, it is impossible for such schools to achieve 100% passes. Feeling disadvantaged has led some teachers and even schools to systematically cheat to achieve good results in major examinations.
It is important to send promising students from rural areas and those from less affluent backgrounds to residential schools.
They must be given priority in admission to boarding schools. Otherwise, their full potential will never be realised. For example, candidates from Kapit, Sarawak or from Grik, Perak, who receive only three As in their UPSR should be given priority over candidates from Petaling Jaya or Shah Alam who score five As.
After all, fully residential schools share the same curricula and syllabi with all the other schools in the country.
The situation changed tremendously since our country achieved independence in 1957. During my school days in the 1970s, secondary schools still lacked well-qualified teachers. Even a secondary school with 1,500 students in Kajang, about 25km south of Kuala Lumpur, had no more than just 10 graduate teachers.
Nowadays, even primary schools are equipped with graduate teachers. Coupled with the physical development of schools, especially in urban areas, I don’t see the pressing need to send our children to fully residential schools.
We should find ways to better educate disadvantaged students from the interior parts of our country and those who are from less affluent families, wherever they are. Finally, we should reconsider allowing fully residential schools to be dominated by students with well-off parents.
When I was a student, my school looked like a car exhibition centre during the weekends when parents came to visit their children.
Gleaming Mercedes Benzes, BMWs and Volvos lined up in the school grounds next to the teachers’ Ford Escorts and Volkswagon Beetles. I wonder how it is today.