Do we really understand what 'meritocracy' means? Do we know what 'intelligence' means and how it is to be measured? Are we making the right connection between intelligence and merit and determination and cultural diversity and intelligently link these psychological constructs with the idea of "meritocracy" that is becoming increasingly political.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is a poor measuring tool of human intelligence. It's a paper and pencil test that has cultural biases. It is a political tool in the field of schooling as social reproduction. The French, through Alfred Binet used it to recruit soldiers who could read manuals. The Americans, through Lewis Terman used it to test thousands of Californian kids. The Stanford-Binet test evolved into the present test of IQ, and became a model for test developers to construct present-day high stakes/state standardized tests. Testing has become a huge industry.

In America, standardised exams/test scores decide which school district will get the most funding from the state. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (the SAT) is another big one that determines if one gets into an Ivy League or elsewhere. Bill Gates, the Harvard dropout had a perfect score on his SAT.

Our education system, borrowed from the colonial era and transposed into IQ-based selection and filtration system such as in the early MRSM system, is based on an outdated assessment of the human intellect. Dr Siti Zaharah Sulaiman's University of Michigan dissertation on the selection process of Maktab Rendah Sains MARA (MRSM) Kuantan students of the 1973 intake addressed this dimension of IQ testing.