Ill-advised of Muhyiddin to make History a compulsory pass

Muhyiddin Yassin

Nga Kor Ming

Education minister Muhyddin Yassin's announcement at the UMNO meeting recently that his Ministry will implement a new policy in 2013, where History will become a compulsory subject in the SPM examination may again prove to be more flip-flop policy.

His hasty announcement came as a surprise as it was made during UMNO General assembly, but not after a Cabinet meeting.

It was also made without the consent and knowledge of the education bodies such as NUTP, Dong Chia Zhong etc. It was made even without prior discussion with the Deputy Education Minister, Dato Dr Wee Ka Siong!

Muhyiddin 's conduct again proves that UMNO's political hegemony has marginalized all other component parties in Barisan Nasional. Just imagine such important policy can be formulated overnight at a political party's meeting but not at legitimate platforms, such as the Cabinet.

It must be noted that at present, almost 30 percent SPM students fail their History subject. If the new policy were to be implemented in 2013, it means that more than 500,000 students will find their future in limbo and it will be disastrous for them when they cannot qualify for any higher-learning institution.

It is most unfair that the ministry focuses on a single subject to evaluate the student's academic performance. The Ministry has also failed to learn from past mistakes where RM5.2 billion was spent to teach Science and Mathematics in English but later only found it to be a complete failure.

(YB Nga Kor Ming is the MP for Taiping)