so, all the top scorers are doctors?

It seems that all our top scorers only see medicine as the only choice for them. I really don't understand why they have to limit the sky and opportunity in other fields other than medicine?

Are our top scorers only a bunch of nerds who are only good in memorizing medical terminology but not good enough to make millions of ringgit in the business world?

There are variety of careers out there. Besides being a doctor, wouldn't it be great if we have some of the brainiest people to be the best archeologist who made important and historical discovery to our country or to the world? Or perhaps becoming an economist who win the first Nobel Prize for the country? Or even a geologist who constantly appear in National Geographic to share his expertise?

In the end, it really makes no sense to me that top scorers only wants to be doctors.

SPM is not a record-breaking ground

I'm totally agree with V.K. Chin's comment in The Star today. It is definitely the time to give scholarships to those who do well in STPM and who have been offered places at local and foreign universities. It is time for us to recognise STPM instead of focusing and giving all the credits at SPM level.

Each year we generate a long list of students who score strings of As (and not to mention the increase of passing rates in almost all subjects). And each year, we can also expect students breaking records with the most number of As. I was wondering since when we have turned SPM into a record-breaking event. Perhaps early next year, we are going to witness another great story about our SPM 2005 top scorer who strikes 18As or more.

STPM losing it's value

Recently there's a lot of debates about the transparency and credibility of PSD. So, I'm not going to talk about that issue but rather discuss on the quality of SPM and what is the value of STPM.

Each year the Minister of Education will announce good news on how students improve in almost all the subjects. We all know how the scoring system works. And each year, we will read in the paper how students breaking records by scoring strings of As. I'm not sure if this is only happening in our country. Probably in the coming years, we will have a top SPM scorer achieving 20As. It's not impossible, really.

Although STPM is known as one of the toughest examination in the world, I really believe that it's losing it's value in our very own country. We emphasize too much on SPM and life after that which is going to college or doing matriculation. In the end, STPM is like the last choice.

It is the time for the Ministry of Education to uphold the standard of STPM. Instead of focusing on SPM students and its problems each year, PSD should emphasize on STPM high achievers by increasing their chances of getting scholarships. PSD should make it necessary for their scholars to have a better foundation through STPM before sending them off to overseas. STPM students are more mature thinkers and have better understanding of their dream career. An extra 2 years of studies do make a lot of difference in a person character. After all, PSD is not only looking for high achiever but someone who's a well-rounder with good personality.

advance in technology but not quality?

Yesterday, I read with interest the report on “E-report card” (Sunday Star, May 15).

Credit should be given to the Ministry of Education (MOE) for initiating to build a comprehensive database of all primary and secondary students. Being an educator who are technology savvy, I truly support this project. Similar concept has been widely used in higher education institutions and proven to be successful.

However, there are a couple of things that MOE should look into when implementing this project.

If you ask any teachers why he or she choose to teach, the answer is most likely the same: they love to teach and want children to learn through the process. The first thing that I learned (and will always remember) during my first lecture was the mission of a learning institution.

Teachers’ job function is to ensure effective teaching and learning. As mentioned by the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary-general Lok Yim Pheng, teachers should focus more on teaching and less clerical and non-professional work.

Database entry and information updates on monthly basis are tedious work. Moreover, teachers are used to record students’ attendance, grades and co-curriculum achievements manually.

It is not clear if this implementation will transform these tasks from manual to paperless. There should not be double work whereby teachers have to upload and transfer their manual records into their individual school’s server. If these need to be done, teachers’ assistants should be appointed to do the administrative work instead.

While it is convenient for parents to check their children’s performance online, we should continue the tradition whereby parents are invited to attend schools’ Open Day to get their children’s report cards.

This is a better way to keep an excellent two-way communication between parents and teachers. With the many issues revolve around the schools, personal touch is still the ideal medium for information exchange between the two parties.

We are slowly transforming our education environment to become technology-enabled. While there are many positive changes taking place, teachers should remain focus on their core duty and build better relationship with parents to ensure effective teaching and learning.