Materia Medica Malaysiana

The angst of having a perfect score

Entrance to public universities has long been a simmering issue. It came to the boil again in the last two weeks over the failure of 128 top students to gain places to study medicine. ELIZABETH JOHN, K.T. CHELVI and YONG TIAM KUI examine the reasons behind this seemingly perennial problem.

A FEW days ago, the perfect score and a string of As meant so little to Kua Wei Sun. It could not get her what she wanted most — a coveted place in University of Malaya's medical school. Before that ray of hope came this past week for her to get a place in medicine, she and her family were just devastated. This is the second time the Kua family has had to wrestle with the demons of the system. A few years ago, their eldest daughter Joanne failed to make it into any course despite scoring 5As in the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia exam. She had to appeal and wait, just as her younger sister has had to do this time.

Their story sadly shows how the same scenes of anger and anguish are replayed year after year, and how problems identified in the analyses that follows never get fixed. In arguments throughout the week, columnists and commentators showed how unhappy everyone was with the meritocracy system.

Malays claimed their representation in critical courses was falling, the Chinese were suspicious of the formula used to make matriculation and STPM results comparable and Indians were concerned about their poor overall representation in public universities.

The core problem is the two-track system.

As Rajendra Ramalu observed, the two systems were all that students discussed after receiving their offers.

He is a classmate of Kua's and one of seven straight-A students in the school who did not get into medicine.

Matriculation is essentially a one-year, semester style pre-university course, where examinations are held immediately after the subject is taught. Questions are set and marked internally.

In STPM, exams are held after almost two years of comprehensive studies and exam papers are set and marked externally, on a national level. "An A in one system cannot be equated with an A in the other as the systems differ greatly in teaching methods, content and how the exams are set and marked," says Yayasan Strategik Sosial executive director Dr Denison Jayasooria.

To introduce a merit-based system with two very different exams creates doubts that will polarise children for a long time to come.

"Instead of skirting around the issue, let's call a spade a spade," says UKM's Prof Datuk Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin. "The dual system is seen as a problem in Malaysia because one system caters for a hand-picked Malay majority whereas a large majority of the non-Malays take the STPM," adds the social anthropologist.

The problem lies not just with the education system but society, where almost every aspect of life is seen from the ethnic point of view, he says.

Tertiary education in Malaysia has been coloured by ethnic considerations for more than three decades; in the allocation of university places, in the award of state scholarships to study locally and overseas, says political scientist and social commentator Dr Chandra Muzaffar.

It is understandable therefore why non-Bumiputeras and even Bumiputeras view issues related to tertiary education through ethnic lenses. Chandra says it is indisputable that this has had an adverse impact on ethnic relations in Malaysia.

If nothing else, the debates over this issue this week have shown how true this statement is. Possibly the greatest disservice has been done to good Bumiputera students whose achievements have been viewed with suspicion because of ethnicity-linked entrance to universities.

It is this that has given rise to much of the vitriol in Malay language dailies of late.

Some called on non-Bumiputera students to accept what they were offered and not be demanding, but top scorers like Soo Hui Fang say that she had worked hard for her 4.0 and deserved a place in the medical faculty. While the full glare of public attention has been on the 128 top students who failed to get into medicine, several other issues have also attracted comments.

For instance, the phenomenal number of straight A students in recent years has also called into question the standards of the current grading system and its ability to discriminate between the good and the excellent.

Academicians have called for a review. Newspaper reports and educationists have also pointed out the high number of students who have met minimum requirements, but have not made it into public universities.

A large number are from poor families or rural areas, say bodies handling appeals.

STPM students have also pointed out how little they knew of the matriculation results before they filed their applications. Those interviewed said they may not have risked applying for some courses if they had known they would be facing such stiff competition.

"If everyone had known that 1,774 had achieved a perfect score, many would not have applied in blind faith for medicine," says Hui Fang. University admission is a perennial problem because the number of students getting good grades has risen tremendously while the number of seats has not risen in tandem, says education activist Datuk N. Siva Subramaniam.

It is puzzling how we know the exact number of doctors needed yet are unable to plan for it, he says.

"We now finally have a separate ministry for higher education. "They should be able to sit down with the Human Resources Department and decide on the numbers we need in critical courses and what it will take to make it happen." The issue of cost is the second reason why there is so much debate, Siva Subramaniam notes.

A medical degree in a private university that used to cost parents about RM150,000 now costs RM300,000 or more. Five years at the International Medical Universiti in Kuala Lumpur will set parents back by RM270,000 in fees alone, says May Ling Young, Provost of the medical school.

If the student were to study in the UK from day one, a parent would have to budget for about RM1 million, says May Ling who is also deputy secretary-general of the Malaysian Association of Private Colleges and Universities.

A lack of qualified staff and training facilities are the biggest problems for private and public medical schools.

If these are not addressed, the situation is going to get worse as medical colleges proliferate to meet needs, she adds.

Another issue that needs to be looked at is the lack of career counselling for students. Every year, students who excel automatically gravitate towards Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Law and acCountancy.

Are they being advised that these are the only courses worth considering? "At that age they do not understand the career options that are open to them," says Prof Datuk Dr Ibrahim Ahmad Bajunid, dean of Universiti Tun Abdul Razak's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The booklets which help student fill university application forms could also carry course summaries.

This is one of the many suggestions that would go towards relieving tensions surrounding admission to university.

Others that have been proposed to help put an end to the annual national debate on admissions include settling for one entry system to universities and reviewing grading systems.

On the thorny issue of race and university entrance, Shamsul says, it will never go away because the problem is inherent in our society.

Chandra, however, says it is still not too late to make amends.

An overhaul of the present university entrance system is urgently needed to ensure that the demands of meritocracy as well as social justice are met. There have also been suggestions that candidates undergo aptitude tests or an additional entrance exam set by the university they have applied to. There is also a call to increase opportunities for tertiary education across the board.

Education is a right, says Denison, and governments worldwide are moving towards allowing as many people as possible, at whatever age and under all sorts of circumstances, to pursue tertiary education.

When this is done, admission will no longer be a sensitive issue. "It's really about providing every child who has done well, a place to study in this country," says Siva Subramaniam.

This is the thought to hold on to as the country works its way to a permanent solution to the problem.

A solution that will keep us from saying: "We'll see you again, same time next year."



Not a level playing field out there for the underprivileged

CONSIDER the case of two young students, Abel, the son of an engineer, and Muthu, the son of a labourer.

The hard-working Abel, who attended an urban secondary school and tuition classes, obtains a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.0. On the other hand, Muthu, woke up at 5am everyday and rushed through his frugal breakfast to fuel his four-mile 6.6km cycle to school.

He could not afford tuition classes and each night he studied under the dim bulb. Muthu only manages a CGPA of 2.5.

Though a CGPA of 2.5 is higher than the minimum entry requirement for most universities, meritocracy and the abundance of top scorers have made it impossible for Muthu to achieve his long-time ambition of being a graduate. Meritocracy's biggest flaw is that it promises equal access, assuming that everyone has equal opportunity, says Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Professor of Social Anthropology, Datuk Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin. However, in reality, it is not a level playing field out there, he adds.

Muthu may well be as intelligent and hardworking as Abel, but his socio-economic background had become a huge stumbling block. Hope for underprivileged students like Muthu would only come in the form of a special concession like a quota. The quota system of the past, says Prof Shamsul, had to a certain extent given people like Muthu a chance.

"A few years ago when I was the dean of the Arts Faculty, I was asked to lower the entry requirement for a certain quota and this provided many poor students a place in university." However, political scientist and social commentator Dr Chandra Muzaffar says that the quota system could only do good if implemented from a socio-economic perspective, whereby the disadvantaged from all communities were given special assistance in securing university places.

"This way there will have been much less unhappiness among non-Bumiputeras as well as some Bumiputeras, who for years have felt the ‘Special Position' provisions in the Constitution have sometimes been abused to favour well-endowed and well-connected Bumiputeras," says Chandra. But is the quota system the best solution for underprivileged students kids?

The executive director of MIC's Yayasan Strategik Sosial, Dr Denison Jayasooria, argues otherwise.

"If there is a section of a community that is falling behind, then offer these students extra classes and any other help they need, but don't lower the standards. We should help them, not reduce their competency."