Dear Muhammad Abdullah , I am in fact 17 years old. I would give you my IC number but I am afraid that the government might penalise me since I am sitting the SPM examination now and there have been many cases in the past where straight A students suddenly receive Fs or the results go missing conveniently.

There are many people of my age who are more mature than I. You just have to be aware and be prepared to listen to what they have to say. Ask any respected teacher who teaches secondary school students. They will know.

As I had written in my previous letter, the fact that I know about our present education system is because I am a product of it. I sat in class. I read the ugly books and I took/am taking the exams. If I were to depend on the English lessons that only my teachers can provide me with, I am sure I would not be as confident as I am today writing to malaysiakini .

My English is passable because my family speaks mainly English. Luckily they were educated in English before Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the Malay ultras bulldozed the education system and made Bahasa Melayu the prominent language.

Funny how Dr M is now seen as a hero bringing back the role of English into the education system. The lack of marketable skills among local graduates is a symptom. If they had learned proper English in school, they probably wouldn't be as unemployable as they are now.

What we learn during our years in school should be something that is worthwhile and meaningful and able to serve a purpose. I don't see any purpose in studying Moral Studies. It serves no purpose at all.

Why don't we ask criminals in jail now? Would Moral Studies have done anything to change their decision at the time they committed the crime?

Students today need to go for tuition or buy extra books just to be able to fill in the gaps of an inadequate education system. That is a lot of money for parents to spend. I don't think Australian or British students take extra tuition. Singaporeans just take it because the competition is tough.

I don't feel liberated by the education I have received. I don't feel that there is any intellectual discussion going on in school. Luckily, I have access to the Internet and foreign publications to have a more balanced view about Malaysia and the world.

I know about the (STPM/Matriculation) double standards because a person who taught me in tuition was a marker for both the STPM and Matriculation. So, it is first hand information. Too bad the people with the truth can't speak out due the Officials Secrets Act.

Regarding the history books, I know of it because I can't hand down my old history books to my friends in Form 4 ... they already have a different syllabus and they complain that they have so many Islamic names to memorise, which is quite difficult since they tend to sound the same.

I guess parents will have to buy more new books for their children. I wonder how much money the crony publishing companies and the education ministry make each time they change the school syllabus.

The books get thinner and the information is slowly reduced. This is why our maths and science achievements are far behind that of Singapore. Every time a revision is made to the syllabus, a bit of information gets discarded. Maybe it is because the government wants us to have lighter school bags and lighter brains.

I don't believe in utopia. I don't believe everything I read or hear about in the media. And I sure don't believe what politicians say regardless whether they are from the government or the opposition. It is just that the government is in a position to mess up more often.

Hopefully the youth of the nation will be more politically aware. We tend to ignore the political reality around us. That is indeed the goal of the government, which is to keep the students blinded from the government's failures.

But deep down inside, the youth of the nation are patriotic. We want what is good for the nation. You don't need a national service project to make the youth feel that way. If the government wants the youths to mix among the different races, then the quotas should be dismantled to enable a better racial mix of students to be achieved in the local institutions of higher learning.

Finally, perhaps malaysiakini letter writers are mostly Chinese. But just because we are the minority it doesn't mean we have to accept Ketuanan Melayu and keep quiet about the issues that trouble us.

We are not immigrants. Malaysia is my home and I wouldn't trade it for anything else. I just hope that the bumiputeras may excel and be progressive until they reach a stage where they need no more crutches and handouts - and that the term bumiputera will be a thing of the past.