The education minister must be in the dark. Otherwise he would have noticed the runaway robber-philosophy of the tuition industry. Perhaps his officers are not feeding him with the latest social audit.

Look around the country. Billboard-size banners and signboards are proclaiming how big the tuition industry has grown into. Some unashamedly scream that they offer ‘100% passes’. Others boldly post ‘Tested and proven spotted questions’.

How could the education ministry live with such shame affecting the honoured tradition and pursuit of humankind?

By the looks of these banners and signboards dotting the entire country, and the increasing number of shop-lots with mounted signboards announcing the thriving tuition centres all over, one cannot help thinking that the schooling system is a gross failure.

Why do children have to go for two hours tuition per week to cope with their studies when they have been having some 25 hours of learning in schools per week?

What teachers did out of commitment and care thirty-forty years ago by providing extra coaching for weaker students for free, today has turned into another operation of greed thriving on neglect.

Honourable minister, you have to eat humble pie because the normal schooling system is so downright rotten that parents today have no choice but to resort to tuition classes just to ensure that their children understand their subjects in school.

And worse, the very claim that one should study with ‘spotted questions’ for grades is most disgusting. Have we lost all honour and pride in education that we have now to resort to such cheating to get by? Even our religious teachings would not support such sin (or would they now?).

Does the government not realise that parents have to fork out hundreds of ringgit every month for tuition just to ensure their children can pass exams?

Is the ministry not guilty of condoning, if not promoting, a scam education strategy that is today permanently ‘killing’ the very noble purpose, importance and privilege of normal schooling?

And how many government schoolteachers can stand up before God and profess that they are not moonlighting for profit but have taught well in their government schools out of duty, care and concern for our children?

Or are our teachers saying that the education system is so downright rotten that it is impossible to learn even with 25 hours per week?

What has the minister got to say now? Or would he point the finger at his predecessors and claim that he, too, needs time to solve this 25-year scourge?