KUALA LUMPUR – Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman (Muar-Muda) has proposed for the government to provide an option for 16-year-olds or Form 4 students to choose a diploma course that would allow them to possess a higher diploma by the age of 18.
When proposing his idea to Education Minister Datuk Mohd Radzi Md Jidin (Bersatu senator) through an additional question, Syed Saddiq said studies found that two-thirds of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) graduates in Malaysia now want to work in the gig sector instead of pursuing their studies in higher learning institutions.
He said the majority of those who feel that way are from the M40 and B40 categories.
“Three factors youths feel are that it takes too long for them to get a degree, they will be burdened with education loans between RM50,000 to RM100,000 when they graduate, and the salary they get (after graduating from higher learning institutions) is too low.
“They want a quick win and don’t want to pursue their studies,” he said.
Syed Saddiq asked if it would be reasonable for the government to provide an alternative by allowing students to choose a major and get a diploma in Form 4 and Form 5 so that they will have a higher diploma in their hands by 18. This will enable them to land jobs with a starting salary of RM1,800 to RM2,100.
He said the government should consider this as it has been imposed in the German education model.
Radzi replied by saying that he had taken note of Syed Saddiq’s suggestion.
Meanwhile, relating to another question, Radzi stressed that the Education Ministry (MoE) was not racist for not preparing primary schools’ final year examination question banks for Chinese and Tamil (Bahasa Cina, Bahasa Tamil) language subjects.
Answering a question raised by Teo Nie Ching (Kulai-PH) on why only certain subjects have question banks for final year exams, Radzi explained that only question banks are only prepared for core subjects in primary schools – Bahasa Malaysia, English, Mathematics, History, and Science.
“There is no element of racism here. We (MoE) only prepare question banks for core subjects for primary schools because we don’t want to pressure the primary school students into thinking that this is a big exam.
“For primary schools, what is important is we ensure literacy and numeracy in core subjects.
“Questions bank is prepared for all secondary subjects,” he added. –The Vibes, October 5, 2022.
