YOURSAY ‘If only the Education Ministry had conducted this survey itself, then we would have been on the top of the list.'

Malaysia stuck at the bottom in student test rankings

Doc: As our national education level deteriorates further under the care of this Umno government and the lacklustre education minister, it looks like students graduating from the national school system will only be good for jobs in the manufacturing sector. Poor English and Science skills are to be blamed.

The current education minister seems to think that History and Bahasa Melayu are the subjects of importance. Educated non-Malay parents and those from the middle class and above are aware of the deterioration in the national education system and are taking painful and invasive steps in sending their children to private schools to ensure they get the best form of education possible.

The other option available for the non-Malays are the Chinese schools, which provide good education in a competitive environment and are affordable. In most national schools, it's the Malays that make up the majority of the student enrolment. Therefore, Umno is to be blamed for the poor standard of education among the Malays.

BernieBaby: If only the Education Ministry conducted this survey itself, then we would have been on the top of the list. Pre-answered survey questions would have been leaked, and our brilliant Malaysian students would have aced it. Next time, have the ministry conduct this survey and we will win.

Adsertor: Congratulations to the education minister, Mr Mule! Indeed we have "best" education system in the world. Like the BN cabinet, our education system is the "best" from the bottom of the ladder.

Multi Racial: It is unfair! Based on the Umno practice, Malaysia students should be given 30 percent marks added on top of the marks they obtain or Malaysian students should be given the test questions ahead of time. See what we have done to our children? We have been aiding them so much so that without aid, they are lost.

Another point is that if we have second grade ministers, administrators and lecturers, etc, we will get second grade results.

Sunflower11: I suggest sending our students to work as intern coffee boys in Chinese coffee shops to brush up on their maths. The abilities of these coffee shop attendants to take up to 10 orders or more at one shot and calculate the bills instantly without using calculator never cease to amaze me! There must be something missing in the way we taught maths in schools!

Ex-PJ: An observation: take 75 percent of Indonesia's score (Maths or Science) plus 25 percent of Singapore's score equals Malaysia's. Sunflower11's suggestion merits a study?

Fair Play: And of course, the Education Ministry will say that if the tests are conducted in Bahasa Melayu, the results would be very much different.

My Opinion: Fair Play, they will also say that actually, many students and teachers in Singapore are from Malaysia.

Battle Station: Maths, Reading and Science skills aren't important here in Bolehland. Our students are well honed in the "You Tolong I, I Tolong You" skill.

Pemerhati: A recent Fareed Zakaria show on CNN discussed education. It showed that a comparative study of the various education systems revealed that students from Finland produced very good results in various subjects when compared to students from the United States and other countries.

This was attributed mainly to the fact that in Finland, the very best graduates are recruited to become teachers.

Unfortunately, this is not the case in Malaysia. Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad destroyed nearly all the important institutions in the country, including the good education system Malaysia inherited from the British.

Previously, only the best Malaysians were recruited as teachers in schools and tertiary institutions. After Mahathir became PM, the standards plunged because the main criteria for selection became race and religion.

Now, the whole system is rotten to the core and a lot of money is wasted on half-past-six teachers who are not only incompetent but also do very little work.

EvenSteven: There you have it, Mr DPM! Still want to claim we have the best education system in the world? We may have a wonderful blueprint for our education system but we will be going nowhere without the will and resolve to truly implement it. For starters, we should practise meritocracy - a most frightening word - and no two ways about that.

Onlooker: The Australians are whinging about how badly they've done. From the ABC website: "It found Australian teens placed equal 17th in maths, equal 10th in reading and equal 8th in science. Asian countries like China, Singapore, Korea and Japan are pulling ahead of Australian students in maths and reading."

The Australians are streets ahead of us. We're right near the bottom, but just ahead of Indonesia, though. So all is well, I guess.

Oriole: Should we send congratulatory messages to the Education Ministry and to Muhyiddin Yassin, Mary Yap and P Kamalanathan for these outstanding reports? Or should we send the message on to Putrajaya in general?

Anonymous$&@?: This confirms our suspicion that Malaysia's education: 1) Produces only Jaguh Kampung Students. Only looks good in Malaysia, for every year we have so many students with 10 As!;

2) Confirms that the Umno government's intention to have Maths and Science taught in English is to ensure Malay students remain behind and can't compete with others, making them weak and dependent on Umno for handouts and thus ensuring Umno remains in power with this vote bank of Malays, especially those from rural areas; and

3) That Malaysia's education is the best, even better than America as stated by our education minister, is just a load of BS!

Annon77: Surely not! But we have so many As! We probably have more As per capita than those other countries, which everyone knows in itself proves that we are very clever. If you don't believe, ask our (lack of) Education Department.

Hill: If the ranking was that of Japan or South Korea, their education ministers would commit suicide. Let's see what our education minister's comment will be.

Sideview: Pity the survey is not on corruption, rent-seeking, freeloading and the looting of national coffers. We would have come out first in any of these.

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