I am actually quite intrigued by the call from the writer of Rescue UM from freefall. The declining standard of universities in Malaysia is so glaring that everyone knows about it but does not wish to talk about it.

Every educated man on the street knows about the double standards in our education system. We hear the Education Ministers comparing matriculation and the Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM) stating that they are comparable in standards.

Most educationists know that they are not of the same standard but the question most people would ask is if they are of the same standard why not have a common entry examination for all Malaysians?

When students go to University Malaya (UM), the man on the street hears rumours that to maintain the quota of students that should come out with a degree, the passing marks are lowered.

To top this, the Malaysian public were recently shocked by the scandal of a school head getting senior students to sit for examinations in place of weaker students. With this sort of nonsense in our education system, what can you expect of the quality of students going into our universities?

The above scandal was all over the press for a short while and as sure as night will follow day, the whole matter is now no longer an issue. The Education Minister made an often heard statement especially favoured by politicians, "We will investigate the matter." Can you then blame the public if they tend to believe that there is some truth in the above-mentioned rumours?.

Let us be realistic, UM's ranking in UM has deteriorated badly and the computer terminology 'GIGO' holds very true in this case - 'Garbage In Garbage Out.'

The standards will continue to slide until someone in power realises that the degrees of our university students are the same or no better than those being offered over the Internet.

All we can do is pray that those in power will arrest this dangerous problem in the education system immediately.