MCE Results-Ministry of Education must take the blame for the low percentage of passes
It has been more than a week since the shock MCE results were released-showing a higher percentage of failures in many of the leading schools in the country than previous years.
It is clear tat the main reason for the higher percentage of failures is because of the introduction of the compulsory Bahasa Malaysia paper last year, a failure in which means the failure of the entire examination.
Wherever one goes, throughout the length and breadth of the country, the centre of talk is the MCE examination results because in every town there are large numbers of students who had done well in the examination but still failed the examination because of the compulsory Bahasa Malaysia paper. Many of these students even scored a number of distinctions in other subjects like science, mathematics, hostory, geography, English.
It is already a week since the examination results were released, but the Ministry of Education has not been able to let the Malaysian public have an explanation and analysis for higher percentage of failures in the leading schools in the country. In fact, the Ministry of Education has not been able to tell how many students had failed merely because of the compulsory Bahasa Malaysia paper.
We call on the Ministry of Education to immediately let the country the number of condidates who had failed because of the Bahasa Malaysia paper, giving the information in the following categories:
(1) No. of candidates who would have secured Grade One but for failure in Bahasa Malaysia paper;
(2) No. of candidates who would have secured Grade Two but for failure in Bahasa Malaysia paper;
(3) No. of candidates who would have secured Grade Three but for failure in Bahasa Malaysia paper.
It is unbelievable that students who can get distinctions in more difficult subject like science and mathematics cannot even get a pass in Bahasa Malaysia paper. What is the actual reason?
From inquiries we in the DAP have conducted throughout the country, we have come to the conclusion that the Ministry of Education must take the blame for the higher percentage of failures in the MCE examination arising from failures in the Bahasa Malaysia paper.
The basic problem is tat there are not enough qualified and competent Bahasa Malaysia teachers in the secondary forms to prepare the MCE candidates for the compulsory paper.
The result is many fail this paper, leading to failure in the entire examination, although they did well in other subjects.
It is the duty and task of the Ministry of Education to ensure that there are qualified and competent teachers in Bahasa Malaysia in secondary schools before it introduced Bahasa Malaysia as a compulsory subject in the MCE examination.
I call on the Minister of Education, Inche Hussein Onn, to urgently took into this matter. This is an established fact known by all, but the teachers and school principals dare not speak out in the present atmosphere of fear and terror.
What surprises is that we have heard nothing from the National Union of Teachers, whose members come from the schools affected, and who should be able to make positive suggestions as to how remedy this deplorable state of affairs.
Apart from conducting an inquiry as to how to ensure that the secondary schools have adquate qualified and competent Bahasa Malaysia paper,
Inche Hussein Onn should also look into the question of students who had failed the MCE this year because of the Bahasa Malaysia paper.
In view of the fact that this is the first year the compulsory paper is being conducted, I urge the Minister of Education to take a more lenient view, by
(1)allowing those who failed the MCE examination because of the Bahasa Malaysia paper but who had the other qualifications for proceeding to form six studies to join form sic classes with the proviso that they repeat the Bahasa Malaysia paper at the end of the year;
(2)to set a repeat paper of the Bahasa Malaysia the nest few months for those who had failed the examination because of their failure in the Bahasa Malaysia paper.
In conclusion, I again urge the Minister of Education to conduct an urgent inquiry into the readiness and preparedness of all the secondary schools to prepare students for the compulsory Bahasa Malaysia paper in terms of qualified and competent Bahasa Malaysia teachers.
School children should not e made to suffer and have their future wrecked just because of the inadequacies of the education system.