Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email MIC is adamant to get 11 or 12 subject limit. The Education Ministry is not budging from its stand. So, how long is MIC going to try talking before giving up? Would it go to extreme measure and quit from BN since it is unable to fulfill the community demand? Radio, newspaper, Internet group, Facebook – most comments is for 12 subject limit. The Education DG proposed the below idea, which was rejected by MIC’s Dr Subra:
To overcome this, the education ministry today suggested that schools conduct their own vernacular examinations for students who were unable to sit for it at SPM level.
Director-General of Education Alimuddin Mohd Dom said, by doing so, school teachers could gauge the ability of the students concerned and issue certificates based on their efficiency and proficiency in vernacular languages.
“I suggest students take school-based vernacular examinations if they are not able to sit for it when the 10-subject limit for candidates sitting for SPM begins next year.
“Learning is an ongoing process and students intending to take vernacular subjects can always continue, upon completing their school,” he told reporters today.
He also said this:
Alimuddin clarified that certain elective subjects could be dropped.
“For instance, if students are interested in pursuing medicine, they have to take mathematics, biology and chemistry but can drop physics.
“So, they can pick any other elective of their choice to replace physics,” he explained.
Would a student risk dropping physics in hope that he will surely get place for medical studies? If forced to chose between physics and chinese/tamil language, what would the student do?
I think this will be a failure for MIC. There’s one other alternative – postpone the implementation until 2011 (similar for the religious stream students). In the meantime, merge the two Tamil subjects into one. Another extreme possibility is to remove Moral as core subject and replace it with vernacular language (but will be a problem since for Punjabis, Thais etc, their vernacular language is not Tamil or Mandarin). Anyhow, removing Moral won’t be considered by government even though its an useless subject. A case of failing to admit one’s mistake.
Or, this could be some sort of drama, and later the approval will be given so that MIC gets some brownie points. You never know. 🙂
I asked myself, why would a student take language and literature subject for SPM?
1. If Science stream background, then most likely for the love of the language, and obviously, if the students is good, then to gain an extra A or two.
2. If Arts stream student, then its to apply for education line (teaching) or social studies/media. However, since the places for these courses are extremely limited (I checked with UM and there’s only 3 programs that list Tamil as one of the subjects at STPM level. I’m sure you know non-bumiputeras cannot enter UM using SPM results), the students also need to take other subjects like Accounts, Economy, English Literature, Arts, etc so that can have more choices at IPTAs (diploma programs) politeknik and private colleges. So, if a student takes Tamil at SPM level, most likely he/she will take it at STPM level too, if the results are good.
For case (1), the students may accept to take the language as non-examinable subject, maybe subject to school level accreditation (or even from a reputable organisation).
For case (2), the subject must be in SPM certificate in order to apply for certain courses in tertiary education (teaching courses).
For me, as more students enter Tamil schools nowadays, they will be deterred in taking both the Tamil subjects at secondary school level since it will affect their career options. Sooner than later, interest and love for the language will give way for need to score good results in examinations.
But to develop students with more capability, i like to reiterate my suggestion: have a combination of core, elective, and “interest” subjects. It can be 5+4+2 or 4+4+2 (dropping Moral and Agama – if the students are interested in these subjects, can take it under “interest category.).
Poobalan
My question remains…why would a science stream student want to take both Tamil and Tamil Literature ? How many did this in the past ? My guess is this is a very very small %. As such all these arguments are just a waste of time.
I would agree and support if this is the case for Arts stream but it doesn’t make sense for Science students.
The argument that Science students might take Literature as for the love of the language is faulty since students don’t take exams for fun and love but for their career and further education purposes.
I think MIC better off doing something more worthwhile. I see that they have started an on-line campaign. You can bet you won’t see my name in it.
One of the reasons why we Indians are still backward is due to our tendency to focus on emotion than logical thoughts. This is one good example.