PETALING JAYA: The current streaming system for Form 4 and Form 5 has restricted the potential of schoolchildren and led to a lot of wasted talent in the past, says Education Minister Maszlee Malik.
Many of those in science streams could have become artists or linguists, while there were students in the arts stream who were meant to be scientists.
He also gave the example of a fellow MP who graduated as a doctor following his parents’ wishes, but switched to law and ended up a parliamentarian.
“That’s why starting next year, science and philosophy students can take subjects according to their preference. It can be combined,” he said while meeting members of the Malaysian community in Frankfurt, Germany, yesterday.
Maszlee, who is on a working trip to Germany, said the current basis for a student to enter a particular stream was flawed.
“If you get good results in the Form Three Assessment (PT3) you go to science stream. If you do a little worse, you go to accounts. If a lot worse, you go to arts. We’re wasting a lot of talent. Trust me, we’ve wasted a lot of talent all these years.
“Of those taking science, many could have become linguistic experts, Hollywood actors or good musicians, but ended up being doctors spending most of their life doing things they’re not talented at.
“How many who did science should have become chartered accountants? How many who took law might have been inventors? But because they were not that good in Add Maths (the Additional Mathematics subject), they couldn’t.”
Maszlee said that in future, big data technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) would help students to choose the right subjects and career path.
“Who’s going to guide the children? Believe me, machines don’t lie. We’ll use AI. We’ll use big data. In the future, whenever kids take PT3, it’s not only about PT3. It comes with psychometric results. It comes with all their activities and coursework from Standard One until Form Three. That will all be counted and we leave it to the machine to analyse and come up with options.
“Option one: you take this course and if you take these subjects you have the opportunity to go to these universities. And if you go to these universities, you can end up being so and so, and according to the job market, in the year 2025 (for example), this is the demand level for these jobs.
“So when they’re choosing their options, they are well aware and well informed on what they want to be … This is the future of Malaysia,” he said.
Maszlee said there were very few school counsellors available, while some parents force their children to pursue certain subjects because it was their dream, not that of their children.
“I have a friend who’s now one of the MPs. He spent more than six years wasting his life learning medicine because his parents forced him. After he graduated, he didn’t do his housemanship. He went to study law and now he’s an MP. Same goes to many who were forced to study what they didn’t want to because their parents forced them.” - FMT
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