I grew up in a rubber estate in Johor during the 1970s. My immediate neighbour and my family reared a total of six dogs. Rubber-tapping and latex harvesting chores were usually over after 2 pm.

The favourite past time after this hour were like fishing by the streams or small game hunting. No firearms were used as none of us possessed any. We usually took our dogs to the fringe of the jungle to chase after and catch small game like monitor lizards and civet cats. We at times also with the help of our trusted pack-of six sniffed and dug pangolins out of their burrows.

Small games were no match for them. Every expectation of the masters was accomplished with ease on each encounter. This pack-of-six was simply invincible in their own eyes until one afternoon.

A black juvenile Malayan sun-bear was spotted at a distance for the very first time by us and our pack. This pack-of-six instinctively charged at the target with us in hot pursuit from behind trying to restrain them but in vain.

Without hesitation the leader of the pack confidently leaped and pounced onto the bear expecting another easy meat. What happened next was not totally out of our expectations. The black bear swung its paw onto the jaws of the leaping leader. The leader gave out a loud shriek and fell to the ground.

The rest of the pack instantaneously stood rooted to the spot where they were, with their tails tucked between their hind legs, shivering and retreating gradually backward. The bear just moved coolly back into the bushes and disappeared.

My neighbour and I had a big laugh. We saw that our pack had finally met its match. The injured leader was carried back home and fortunately, was able to be nursed back to health from its injury a couples of weeks later.

When we resumed our favourite afternoon past time we noticed that our pack-of-six had certainly learnt a very useful lesson after the encounter with the black bear. Now, before they pounced onto their prey, however small it may be, they would first test its strength by either executing a false charge or by barking furiously.

This would be followed by a close observation on the reaction of the prey before proceeding with either an attack or a retreat.

I told my neighbour that had we taught our pack this before the bear encounter, the leader of the pack would not have suffered its painful jaw injury. Anyway, they learnt their lesson, albeit in a painful and almost life-threatening manner.

Obviously, over the years before the bear encounter, they had unconsciously developed in them what I called ‘a false sense of superiority’ over their adversaries which can be fatal at times depending on the circumstances.

Every year, I just cannot help but reminisce on this three-decade-old experience when I read about the huge numbers of high achievers in our public examinations. But how are these two related you may ask?

A large majority of these high achievers will fare very badly and demonstrate half-baked prerequisites during job interviews hence rendering them unemployable. Our education system, with its questionable benchmarks, has brainwashed them into thinking that they are ‘high achievers’.

That they are the best and they are now ready to face their adversaries and the world outside. In actual fact, the opposite is true.

These high achievers, when they graduate with their certificates in hand and with a false sense of ‘achievement’ will strut out confidently into the society ready to serve but to their great dismay they will be told that their ‘achievement’ is no achievement at all.

Pity these young and aspiring ladies and gentlemen who have to face this agony and botheration at such an early part of their lives through no fault of theirs.