An Education Diatribe

Well, results are out, and they're pretty much as i expected. An A (for english naturally), couple of Bs and one sweet Fantastic for my Chinese for Comm.1 (see how much i loathe this subject? i don't even care what result i get already.) I really don't plan on being a straight A student; there's really no point in putting so much effort into something that only gets an alphabet on a sheet of paper, but nothing much else. As i see it from a point of experience, the most important things about life, you learn it as you live.

The emphasis has been placed in the wrong place; as evidenced by the shockingly high "grape-ing" rates (pengangguran for those who don't get it.....) among grads, which is around 30-40% EVERY YEAR and we are suffering for it today.

Our institutions of lower and higher education are slowly, slowly shifting their focus as modern, "empowered" companies who value performance and skills above such superficial paper qualifications are putting demand into such people. But imo, these changes are too slow and too little to do much good, as those who control the examination and accreditation systems are reluctant to change from their exam-oriented system to a more practical-oriented approach to education. Most if not all courses are judged according lines such as this: 40% practicals, coursework and any other "fun" activity the lecturers can cook up to distribute marks, and 60% on the final exam alone.

Now, it might be just me, but i can see clearly what is wrong here.
You spend hours, spread over several days or weeks even to complete practical assignments which actually benefit you in the sense that it can be applied to real future work, which you will remember simply because you did it. But, you only get 40% for it.

BUT, you cram all the bullcrap theory in your brain, trying to remember every single point (and god help you if there's no "tips") for a paper that is a few pages long, lasts 2 hours or so at most (and you forget everything you crammed after it anyway); weighs in at a hefty 60%.

Am i the only one who thinks this is ridiculous? It should be 70% practical and 30% exams. Placing more emphasis on practical coursework lessens study stress in the sense that there'll be no "exam fever" sessions, gives students a chance to train their hands-on skills.

Of course, for more technical fields like engineering, accounting, law studies and medical sciences, exams should naturally have a higher emphasis on exams, maybe 50/50, but for social sciences subjects, following that system is just turning out graduates who "grape". One size does NOT fit all, and here is where education screwed up big time. That and the pitiful art education makes me sad.

Another issue i want to put over here is the teaching of English.
It is indeed gratifying for the government to realise the importance of English, especially since the Asean Free Trade Agreement going into force very soon, but its too little too late.

Why? Its the lack of competent English teachers that is the Numero Uno problem. And by 'competent', i don't mean teachers with a half-past-six command of english (i'm not exaggerating nor am i boasting, but i've had several teachers throughout my primary and secondary school whose english was worse than mine... in fact i had to make an appeal to the exams dept once when i got a B for an English test cause the teacher didn't really understand the essay i wrote and thought i was bullcrapping), its those rare ones with a perfect command of the language, both written and spoken English.
But those who have a good command of English don't choose to teach it in the first place, choosing higher paying jobs in the private sector or teach private tuition where their monthly earnings is higher than their salary.
Just a quick browse of the papers the other day, and i saw this amusing (or really sad, depending on how you look at it) story about some teachers in some school not wanting to teach it because they were shy of showing how bad their English is.

Those who rant, rave and decry the language and say it degrades our own native tongues, say that its cultural imperialism, fail to see it is already inseperably intertwined and assimilated ito our lives. More and more, we are conforming to Western standards, culture etcetera. Almost all our popular consumption media comes from the West, with American sources being the biggest contributor.

Beating on empty walls.