PBS INFO UPDATE

There is a modification to the PBS from the test questions designed by each individual school to the question from the Examination Syndicate. Question papers are to be sent to schools two or three days before the test date. Each school will print these questions. 30% of the marks are from school's own tests. They said it is just the same old public examination with a little transformation. Erase the name SPM and change it to PBS.

When a knife is in our hand we can use it in anyway we want despite the clear instruction of it's usage. I was talking about a school which care about standard and about the future of the kids. You can be very strict and  have 80% of the students fail. You can device a magic formula to make your students pass. The former follows rule and the later use imaginations. We open up opportunity. Like banking and ATM machine; now that we allow the third party to manage the ATM more counterfeits came out from the machines. The accessibility to corruptions increase. I am not going to elaborate on it. Wise people would know how to prevent freak and office financial thefts.

The time table for the test must follow the public examination schedule. They must start and stop at the same time. Otherwise questions will travel fast by the wonder of technology. In addition the printing machine must be in good order at all time. Papers must not be printed at the private shops.

If the PBS is held at different time following each school's time table and convenient then questions will travel fast again.

I already heard of students who were asked to sit for the test again by an external officer. This of course can carry  legal implications and will become a political issue. A student who scored A may reject a second test. If somehow he sit for the second one and he fails, are we going to fail him. If the answer is YES then you have to re-test all of the students in the whole nation again. Random selections for the test do not prove anything. It is a pure discrimination. What if your kid is asked to go for a second or third test and the others are not ?

PBS will be the exam solely base on trust. How many promised an took oath to be honest and to keep secrets ? It would be like trusting your beautiful wife to a friend whom you think you can trust. I won't trust my wife even to a Haji or a 80 year old man. The MOE think it can trust the teachers like a man giving his wife to a friend for safe keeping when he is away.

The whole description above is under the premise that 70% of the exam questions are from the exam syndicate and the exam is run concurrently following the same table throughout the country. If each school's individual test is used to issue the certificate then the chaos will be certain in the job market and inefficiency in the human resource allocation.

PBS is evil because it is the dead end for a school leaver. Ahmad who is working in KFC will not be able to sit for an exam to improve himself so that he can switch to some other better job. If the PBS had been implemented 35 years ago, I will not be able to go to university and earn a degree.

Who gain and who lose from our education system ? To answer the question we need to look at other private education system here.

There are two main categories of private schools and colleges; the professional colleges that private vocation courses and the schools and colleges that prepare the students for oversea education. Schools that provide the A and O level and schools that twins with foreign institutions are expensive for the normal students. Many more will be establish to twin the colleges in China. American firms prefer American graduates from well known institutions in USA, the Koreans prefer the graduates from Korean colleges. If you have money and afford to send your kids to aviation and medical colleges it is better than sending him to government schools.

There will be at least 40% of the school leavers at the age of 17 or 18 will be looking for the dead end jobs.

Try to figure out by yourself who will gain and who will lose.

08/04/2013