Educational Discrimination of a Different Kind

An issue which is commonly blogged about is educational discrimination on ethnic lines.

With such volatile competition, it is no wonder that another form of educational discrimination is normally ignored by the masses...

This is none other than discrimination by educational stream.

The following quote tells all:

"At lower secondary, students who score a string of As are considered suitable for the Science stream and the rest are placed in the Arts stream." - NST Report

'Tis indeed a sad but true fact in our country that the Arts stream is seen as a receptacle for "second-grade students". The world of education in Malaysia is divided into those in the Science and Arts streams, with the former being exalted far above the latter. All students who do well in the PMR are siphoned off to the Science stream, while those regarded as less academically-capable are sent to the Arts.

The notion that the Arts is less academically-rigourous than the Sciences has no basis whatsoever. To be frank, it's a load of rubbish. Yet many Malaysian parents continue to steer their children in the direction of engineering and medicine (with its related counterparts: dentistry and pharmacy). [it should be noted that most do not aspire for their children to be real scientists, with the exception of the field of biochemistry, which has received much press and government propaganda] And what of economics, sociology, anthropology, literature, history, et al? These are for the less intelligent, the less gifted... in other words the lower-class of the educational pyramid.

It evades me how and why this unacceptable state of affairs could come to being. Indeed, it has become a system that discriminates against those who are intelligent, but are more suited for the Arts. They have been told from the moment they step into school that physics is the realm of geniuses (Newton! Einstein! Hawking!), while literature is for idiots (or weirdos like Shakespeare, Chaucer and T. S. Eliot). [And what about Philosophy? It's no wonder that there are zero faculties for the study of this vital subject in our local universities. For shame! For shame!]

But for sure, the infamous Dasar 60-40 (60-40 Policy) of the Ministry of Education has contributed to this completely flawed system. The unimportance of Arts to the policy makers is evident in their dismissal of the stream as only worthy of 40% of all upper-secondary students, while 60% must be channeled to the Almighty Science. My secondary school principal was so proud of the school's policy of 100-0. Yes, there was no Arts classes in Form 4 and Form 5 in my school, and that was something to boast and celebrate about.

We now face the same question as Lenin, "What is to be done?"

First, we must reverse the damage of the ridiculous 60-40 Policy. By forcing more students into the Sciences, we have spat on one half of the whole world of education. Equality of the streams is vital for our survival!

Second, I propose the setting up of schools in the vein of the Maktab Rendah Sains MARA (MARA Science Colleges), but dedicated to the study of the arts. Yes, it is time that we have Maktab Rendah Sastera MARA (MARA Arts Colleges). If seperate institutions are unfeasible, then we should introduce arts subjects in these institutions. [Implicit in this proposal is the opening of these institutions to non-Bumiputras, but that is a issue that needs an article of its own.]

Lastly, and most importantly, we must rid ourselves of the stigma against Arts students. It is now the case that a student is automatically looked down on if he or she divulges that he or she is studying Arts. Parents must cease from discouraging their children from pursuing Arts subjects. Teachers must do the same for their students.

Let us hope that it is not too late. The time is ripe for a counter-revolution!