Backwaaaaard, march! Hup, two three four...

A student from another school told me he has an exchange student from Belgium in his class. His name is Tom something-something. They called him Amir.

Once, the teacher was teaching about ogives. The Belgium guy looked nonchalant. Thinking that maybe he couldn't follow the lesson, the teacher asked him, "Can you understand what I'm saying?" The Belgium guy said, "Yeah. I already learnt that since... ummm... 5 to 6 years ago?"

*Shocked silence*

Well. That means, in their "UPSR", they are already doing our SPM questions. What do they do for their "SPM" then? Our college or university level questions.

The Belgium guy explained that for them, when they reach high-school (something like our secondary school), they already start specializing their subjects. Say, for example, you are interested in engineering. So, you take the subjects that are geared towards engineering since high-school level.

How progressive are we in our public schools? We'd like to think that the subject matter gets increasingly difficult as you progress. But the fact is, things don't really get much harder. Try to think back to your primary school years. In Maths, as you progress through each year, you basically deal with bigger numbers. That's all. From puluh, you deal with ratus. From ratus, you deal with ribu. From ribu, you deal with puluh ribu. Mathematical operations remain the same. How much math do you really learn over 6 years?

While we're busy tackling bigger numbers, kids from the West are already dealing with elementary calculus.

How much choice do we have in our public school system? Everyone has to take their UPSR. PMR doesn't give you any choice of subjects. You may choose the Science stream or the Arts stream for SPM. But even so, there is too little specialization to be called a "real choice".

How do we view the "great divide" between the Science stream and Arts stream? We have not understood the concept that intellectual abilities come in different aptitudes, and none is superior over the other. In our system, we put the smart ones in the Science stream. Because smart = Science. We put the not-so-smart ones in the Arts stream. Because not smart = Arts. And we look down condescendingly on Arts students. (Now Arts does not mean drawing, painting and dancing class. Arts also means finance, commerce, accountancy, literature, humanities, etc. Even law! Are all those types of knowledge inferior to that of Science geeks?) We have not matured in our thinking.

How many students do we have who can get through their SPM, and still do not know what they want to do? Hordes. Why? Because our system does not encourage people make proper choices, just general ones. "Better to be safe and don't choose now, so we can have better options later." Our system produces people who can score strings of A's in its exams, but yet be as directionless as a person who never went to school.

Speaking of A's. The standard of our A's mean nothing anymore in the international scene. Our A's are helpful only if we wanna work in our local kampung. The last reliable yardstick we had to represent a student's academic prowess was the SPM. Now, it no longer qualifies as a yardstick.

Think about it. Our Form 5 Add Maths today is actually the Form 5 Modern Maths syllabus, way back then. Our Form 6 STPM Maths today is actually the Form 5 Add Maths syllabus, way back then. How would other countries dare to give serious credibility to the standard of public exams in Malaysia?

Not only that. The questions we have for SPM gets progressively easier every year. I've compiled a collection of past year questions for SPM Add Maths questions. The trend can be clearly seen. The newer the questions, the less analysis is required. You can even see the answer before you start solving the question.

So, are we moving forward, or backward?

What do you think Amir will do when he goes back to Belgium? If I were him, I will kutuk lah! Surely wan, rite? Here, smile smile first. When go back, kutuk la... "Hey, you know what those guys in Malaysia are learning at age 16? Hahahaha..."

Here's what I think. If it's true that the West is always a decade ahead of Malaysia, then what is happening now in the West will happen in Malaysia 10 years later.

Currently, home-schooling is already very developed in the West. It is an option that many parents take for their children's best interest. There is nothing left in public schools that are more advantageous, compared to home-schooling.

When we finally realize the rot in our public school system 10 years from now, we may start to have a home-schooling system. If those guys up there don't realize it... Then I'll home-school my own kid.

There is too little hope left in our public schools. Even today.