I refer to the letter Sistem peperiksaan sekolah perlu reformasi. Alias Mohd Yusof has hit the nail on the head here. Our education system is essentially examination-oriented though this in itself need not be a bad thing provided our examinations are prepared correctly. Our exams, unfortunately, are highly formulaic - anyone with enough time and effort can easily score an 'A' by going through a stack of workbooks.

Students need not even understand the material to score; I know of youths who will be sitting for the SPM next year who don't understand the material in their additional mathematics syllabus. The only reason they are scoring 'As' is that they've practiced so much that they can create the appearance of understanding, when all they have done is to memorise formulas of little applicability or relevance to the real world.

If we want to reform our examination system, it might be a good idea to see how other countries implement their education systems. Japan and Korea will likely be out, since their systems are known for inducing even greater amounts of stress with little gain in terms of mental capacity. It might be interesting to see how Finland prepares its examinations - their education system is one of the best in the world, and our education minister himself was recently quoted as suggesting we ought to look to Finland for ideas.

Aside from that, the US also has a rigorous examination system that focuses on critical thinking and real-world applicability. However, American secondary school students are actually generally behind students in the rest of the world, according to some studies. It's been suggested that Americans catch up at the university level - so this would be a case study for the higher education minister.

At any rate, something must be done to correct our education system's course - and soon. The children of today will be the leaders of tomorrow, as we all know and for some reason I don't have much confidence in the leadership of tomorrow (although at times the present leadership can make me doubt that anyone could do worse than them).

Let's not reinvent the wheel. Let's see how other countries run their education systems so we can reform our own.