Moving without Moving

I wrote Lydia's school principal the following email today after reading the papers:

Dear Ms Julia,

With the latest ruling of teaching of Maths & Science in BM from Year 2012, I write to enquire if Sekolah Sri Sedaya is required to follow this ruling and if so, would Lydia be affected?

Please advice.

Yours truly,

Barbara Er

A lot of angst have been expressed in the media over our government's latest decision. I too am questioning the rationale of the decision and the justification given. As our former PM rightfully said - we appear to be moving backwards! And he could not be more right on this account!

For my office has just received the results of the coming batch of scholars admitting into our unis and only half of them made the entry grade. Surprise! Surprise! The other half that did not make it was due to a poor Math or Science or BOTH score! And these are the cream of the crop - the best of the lot in their year which is why they are deserving of such huge tax-payer's investment in the hope of them advancing our country's growth.

While I am pleased that the schools would be re-introducing English Literature as a subject - I honestly doubt that my kids (if they have the misfortune of still having to follow the mainstream system) would be engaging me in a discussion of Yeats or Joyce (which makes me question the point of enrolling in next year's summer school on the works of John McGahern in Ireland even if the EUR 550 is being paid for me!!!)

At the end of the day, in my humble opinion, education today is wasted cos children are not nurtured to think for themselves which in turns translates to applying the knowledge they receive. It's not just in the poor scores that are being produced by our nation's top scholars but in the overall way of our system - and I can rant cos I was just sent from one end of a public hospital to another and back, despite my uncertain infectious condition, just so the pharmacist dispensing the drug could have 5 more minutes on her mobile with whoever it is that requires her attention! Which is a fine example of not applying knowledge received.

We talk of being a developing country. Perhaps the powers-that-be have mild dyslexia, getting their spelling wrong cos we seem to be more of an enveloping country - folding ourselves in.

We are told that our thoughts and opinions would now be taken into serious consideration under a certain concept - yet decisions still sway away from the cry of the public.

Maybe in time to come, I would be able to escape all these by putting my kids somewhere else to study tho if you were to ask me, there is no one perfect education system that exist in the world today! And if that be the case, then perhaps the only escape route would be to put them in an apprentice trade and say "Heck care!" to a paper qualification!

Afterall, it's pointless having a string of letters to your name if you can't think for yourself and contribute towards the betterment of society.