Deputy Education Minister Datuk Noh Omar says schools may expel students who take part in illegal motorcycle races or join Mat Rempit groups. This, I am afraid, may not be the right move and, in fact, may be counterproductive.

It is the flaws in the education system over the last two decades or so that has given rise to a new culture among youths that has manifested in the form of Mat Rempit. This has to be recognised and accepted as a fact.

These misguided youths need education and rehabilitation and there is no better place to do that other than in schools. Expelling these wayward students would be alienating them from the means that could be used to reform them.

What is needed is the revamping of our education system so that our schools become instruments of wholesome education and not a place to collect 'As' for exam papers as it is now. More emphasis must be placed on extra-curricular activities, sports, moral and civic education. Religious and cultural activities are important but care must be taken not to over-emphasise them. Doing so may be counterproductive as it tends to be an obstacle to curious and experimenting young minds.

Our youth in schools must be allowed to freely compete with one another without favouritism. They must be forced to strive for excellence based purely on merit. Without this unbiased competition, there is no real challenge in the lives of our youngsters.

On the contrary our youngsters today lack this real challenge in life. Due to over-protection and spoon-feeding, they seem to have developed a false confidence that they will be given everything without any genuine effort on their part.

Outside schools, more recreational activities should be made available. Sports and social activities which were the passion of youth in the 60s and 70s are not available freely to our youth today. Excellence in sports is not as it used to be. There are no real incentives and no great rewards for those who perform superbly in either sports, social or literary activities.

As a consequence of this lack of need to strive, today's have a lot of free time which they idle away doing nothing. This is an important cause which has resorted in undesirable and immoral activities like 'lepak', drug abuse, illegal racing and the formation of Mat Rempit gangs.

There is a dire need to create a culture of work and healthy competition for our young men and women and reward those who succeed. Unless we can provide that environment and engage them in healthy and fair competition, they will be devoid of the real challenges in life and ultimately succumb to undesirable activities to the detriment of the nation.