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ASSIGNMENT 1
SEPTEMBER 2012 SEMESTER

SUBJECT CODE : EEA 622

SUBJECT TITLE : EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT

LEVEL : MASTER OF EDUCATION

STUDENTS NAME : BAKIALEKSHMI V.SELVANATHAN

MATRIC NO. :

PROGRAMME :

ACADEMIC FACILITATOR :

LEARNING CENTRE : KUALA LUMPUR

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Assignment 1: (20%)

The Malaysian Educational System is too Examination

Oriented

Critically discuss the above statement. It should be your

thoughts on the subject and you do not need to make any
references.

You can agree or disagree with the statement. Provide a

convincing argument for either side.

It should NOT be a statement of good educational practice

as if written by a textbook author but rather should reflect
on views.

Remember it is not what others think, but what you think

and why,

Your paper should be between 4-5 pages (1 spacing).

END OF QUESTION PAPER

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Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him
for a lifetime and this is how the old saying goes. Each and every individual created
by god needs to be independent, should be able to stand on his own, able to support
himself and apply the knowledge he has learnt in life. Unfortunately how far is this
situation true in the current situation especially with the advancement of technology?

With the advancement of technology, everything has advanced, has changed, has been
redesigned, and has been revamped in order to suit the need of human beings to
correlate with the advancement but unfortunately not the Malaysian Education System
especially since Razaks Report. It is a sad thing that the heart core of development
that is Education is left untouched, is left undeveloped and to a certain extend it has
become too exam oriented!

Since a child is born and till the day he dies, everything is based on examination,
assessment, test or evaluation ranging from what to wear, what to eat, who to marry,
which job to go and etc. What is an examination? According to the Wikipedia,
Examination is an assessment intended to measure test-takers knowledge, skill,
aptitude, physical fitness or classification in many other topics. It can be either
conducted orally, on paper, computer or even in confined area. As mentioned earlier,
how many exams are actually designed to fit the above description?

The Malaysian student became the guinea pig of each and every individual who
becomes the Education Minister. Each and everyone only wants to impose or
implement what they think is right but no one seems to improvise what has been
implemented. They failed to look into the need of the developing country and the
advancement of economic. Changes are only done when things go wrong or when
student do not perform well in the exam or even when the nation has failed to set a
record in something. So much so, this mentality is also being absorbed by the
students.
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More and more students are not excelling in the field of education with the thirst of
knowledge or the hunger to strive for a better future. More and more students are
moving forward with the thirst and hunger for excellence in the name of competition
to count the number of As they have achieved compared to their other friends to the
extend some parents even goes to the extent of promising their children of RM1,000
for each and every A that they score in their examination and thus it has given no
value to the A scored in the name of education!

Before advancing further, lets have a look at our National Education Philosophy;

The National Philosophy of Malaysian Education (NPME) as stated by

Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) 1988 is as follows:

EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA IS AN ON-GOING EFFORT TOWARDS

FURTHER DEVELOPING THE POTENTIAL OF INDIVIDUALS IN A
HOLISTIC AND INTEGRATED MANNER SO AS TO PRODUCE
INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE INTELLECTUALLY, SPIRITUALLY,
EMOTIONALLY AND PHYSICALLY BALANCED AND HARMONIC,
BASED ON A FIRM BELIEF IN AND DEVOTION TO GOD.

SUCH AN EFFORT IS DESIGNED TO PRODUCE MALAYSIAN CITIZENS

WHO ARE KNOWLEDGEABLE AND COMPETENT, WHO POSSESS HIGH
MORAL STANDARDS AND WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE AND CAPABLE
OF ACHIEVING HIGH LEVEL OF PERSONAL WELL-BEING AS WELL AS
BEING ABLE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE HARMONY AND BETTERMENT
OF THE FAMILY, SOCIETY AND NATION AT LARGE.

If we were to look carefully and list down the essence of the above National
Philosophy of Malaysian Education, we could list it down as follows;

To develop the potential of individuals in a holistic and integrated

manner
To provide individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally
and physically balanced and harmonic based on a firm belief in and
devotion to god
To produce Malaysian citizens who are knowledgeable and competent
To produce citizens who possess high moral standards
To produce citizens who are responsible and capable of achieving high
level of personal well-beings
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To produce citizens who are able to contribute to the harmony and

betterment of the family, society and nation at large.

Now, if we were to analyse each and every statement above critically, how many can
we or have we achieved? Can we achieve our goal with the current education
system? With the current education system which is too exam oriented, can we
produce an individual with all the criteria above? Definitely NO! If we were too look
closely, what is it that we lack in the education system? Lets reflect back to our
current education system.

A child is exposed to examination as early as they join the kindergarden. A child

starts her formal education at the age of 7 (Standard 1), when she is enrolled into
primary school. She learns subjects like English, Mathematics, Science and etc till
she goes to Standard 6. Then she has to sit for a major examination in primary school
that is Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) when she is 12 years old (Standard 6)
to test her knowledge and ability at such tender age. At that age how many children
really knows the meaning of examination? Why they are being tested? Why do they
need to sit for this exam? Perhaps only 20% but what about the remaining 80%. Why
are they being tested? What is the purpose of the score? All they know is that they
have to score and get A. The more As that you get shows your intellectual level. It
is also a ground for parents to boost about their childrens achievement or for relatives
to compare the achievement of a child with another child. Little do these kids know
that they need to score for the betterment of their future so that they could go to
vocational schools or boarding schools.

This brings me back to my childhood, back in 1989 when I sat for my UPSR exam,
little did I know the meaning and purpose of this exam. I didnt know that if I were to
do well, I could actually apply for vocational or boarding school. Little did I know
that I could apply for the ASIAN Scholarship to study in Singapore. All I know was
to score and get As for all the subject I took. My parents wanted me to score all As
(5 subjects) so that they could boost about me to their siblings, friends and even to the
neighbours. Since I was the eldest, I also had to set example to my siblings. I had
pressure from all side but no one could actually tell me the right way to do and why I
had to do it. I studies and scored all As, I applied to boarding school and I got it but
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my mom did not allow me to go as she said I can always do that later and too young
to be sent to a boarding school. So, what was the meaning of my 5As? Nothing! I
was able to achieve the 5 As but I was not able to apply it into my boarding school
application. Isnt that being exam oriented?

This practice continued to secondary school and even here we had to sit for PMR,
SPM and even STPM at the lower and higher secondary. At PMR level, students who
scored very well are able to join the science stream. These students are given the
priority and its undeniable that these students could score the number of As required
but what is the value of the As achieved? Are these students able to think critically,
to use their creativity knowledge or even achieve or do a simple problem solving
task? Many of them cant as they were all merely being spoon fed. Exam oriented
approach has blocked our students from creative thinking or even thinking out of the
box. Therefore it is true and an undeniable fact that our education system has created
a limitation to our students mind due to support from the teachers and the education
system and thus is a failure in our education system.

Structure and organization of the education system

Malaysia: structure of the education system
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This does not stop in secondary school, it continues to even college and university.
Many students leave college or university with flying colours and some even to the
extent of graduating with a first class honours but how many of them could actually
secure a decent job? Many of our graduates are unable to secure a good job due to
lack of knowledge and skills. For example; ten years ago I was trained to train our
local graduated under the Unemployed Graduate Scheme to help these graduates to
improve on certain skills which could be useful to their working life for example,
accounting, telephone skills and even communication skills. The saddest and
depressing moment was when I had this batch of students who just graduated from the
public university. There was this one student who graduated from UUM in the field
of accounts which a first class honours, unfortunately when he was called forward to
introduce himself in front of the class, he was unable even to say My name is.
Now, how is possible for a first class honours students in the field of accounting
unable to communicate in English? Who failed? His parents? His teachers? His
school? The university? I would put the entire blame on the Malaysian Education
System!

If the right emphasis was given on language I am sure this student would have
mastered the language since the beginning but due to flexibility and importance being
given to the score rather than the knowledge thus we tend to have more and more
students who are passing the exam and scoring for the sake of As rather than looking
or thinking of their future which is due to the education system being too exam
oriented.

We dont have to go for to support the above statement as this can be clearly in the
achievement of Malaysian students in the TIMMS and PISA examination which is
conducted worldwide to analyse the students score in Mathematics and Science and
unfortunately the result speaks for itself. TIMSS and PISA are two international
comparative studies in educational achievement. TIMSS is Trends in International
Mathematics and Science Study while PISA stands for Programme for International
Student Assessment.

Average Scores for Mathematics and Science for 1999, 2007 and 2011.
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Subjects 1999 2007 2011

Mathematics 519 474 440
Science 492 471 426

It is crystal clear with the evidence above that our Malaysian students are unable to
score as well as students from other countries. Though we took the step of using
Razaks Report after independence together with a few other others but even the
countries that stated after us are already leading in the aspect of education. If truly
our students are thought the way they should be taught without giving much emphasis
on examination then YES, our students could score and achieve the target or grade
that we want. But our students are like the fish swimming in the aquarium with all the
fake ornaments and they are so comfortable with their surrounding and the moment
you remove them from the aquarium and put them into the sea water, they began to
suffocate for breathYES these is actually how our Malaysia students are! They are
so comfortable in the Education System designed in Malaysia and using the
curriculum in Malaysia, the moment they are put into another situation or scenario as
seen in the PISA and TIMMS examination, they collapsed and unable to perform. If
only our Education System is well rounded and touches on every aspect as stated in
the education philosophy, thus our students should be like the cactusable to
perform, able to score and able to survive in whatever soil they are on!
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With all the number of failures, it is only now that the government has taken one step
forward by revising and revamping the National Philosophy of Education with the
Blueprint 2013 2025 and can this Blueprint find the solution for this problem? We
need new approach to alter the education system in order to provide a multi-talented
and holistic generation. According to our Prime Minister, the blueprint outlines
required strategies and plans to transform the national education system, over the next
13 years.

In conclusion, education system is actually doing their best to move forward. In fact
the aim for Malaysian education system is to be centre of excellence in education by
2020. I do agree that it is vital to get good grades as a stepping stone to further
studies and to earn better living, but the ability to apply this knowledge is also vital.
Its no point we teach our students to dig for diamonds without teaching them to use
the tools properly.
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We do not need this blueprint to produce excellent students.

What we need is a revival of the old education system...
meaning the education system we had before 1957. That
was when we saw dedication from the teachers. The
Malaysian education system then was second to none in
Asia. We did not have sports schools but we produced
citizens who were Asian class, if not world class

Academic Khoo Kay Kim

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REFERENCE(S)

https://www.google.com.my/search?q=Blueprint+2013++2025&sugexp=chrome,mod
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NaLCY6nrAeniICwAw&biw=1264&bih=647&sei=v5nUUP6xLIuIrAe35oCgBA

www.nationmultimedia.com

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students-on-all-their-abilities-1.5875

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIMSS

http://www.slideshare.net/lizhiao/an-analysis-of-exam-oriented-education-system-1

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Malaysia-launches-education-blueprint-
30190503.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trends_in_International_Mathematics_and_Science_Stu
dy

http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/political-news/227180-maths-science-malaysias-
performance-plunges.html

http://www4.unescobkk.org/nespap/sites/default/files/Preliminary-Blueprint-
ExecSummary-Eng_0.pdf

http://poobalan.com/blog/borninmalaysia/2012/01/16/malaysian-students-ranking-in-
pisa-survey-for-reading-mathematics-and-scientific-literacy/

http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/2008/12/singapore-performs-well-again.php

http://www.moe.gov.my/

http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/2279.html
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_(assessment)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Malaysia#National_Education_Blueprint

http://www.etawau.com/edu/Department/EducationSystem.htm

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/transforming-our-educational-
system-the-brutal-truth-dr-ranjit-singh-malhi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razak_Report

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnes_Report

http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2010/11/13/malaysian-education-system-in-emergency/

http://education.701pages.com/articles/revamping-the-malaysian-education-system-
193.html

http://www.mysarawak.org/2010/06/27/exam-oriented-or-just-simply-overly-spoon-
fed.html

http://www.ipbl.edu.my/portal/penyelidikan/seminarpapers/2007/Action%20Research
/lucychuo.pdf

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http://drca.wordpress.com/2006/04/01/exam-oriented-education-system/

http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/

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http://kheru2006.webs.com/apps/forums/topics/show/4182212

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oriented-education-system/
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http://blog.japhethlim.com/index.php/2011/08/01/if-i-can-change-the-education-
system-in-malaysia/

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/07/01/malaysia-education-ministry-plans-to-scrap-
two-exams/

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http://anilnetto.com/democracy/workers-rights/unemployed-graduates-in-malaysia/

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