BY: SARA ANUAR

The story never changes every year as the SPM results are released, there is joy and celebration over straight A’s achieved by students and there are also the detractors and the less sanguine, the doubters, who highlight the number of failures.

Whichever way you look at the SPM, now the only examination for school children, there is much controversy and there is the feeling that for some reason all this pulling and pushing in different directions is nothing more than a farce.

The reality on the ground is the bare fact that, in comparison with advanced and developed nations, or First World countries, the SPM examinations pales in comparison and is seen as a shallow test by independent educationists.

The SPM achievements of straight A students are nothing to shout about as the quality of the examination is poor and promotes mediocrity. This is why it is time to overhaul the Malaysian schooling system.

The value and prestige of the SPM examinations over the last few decades have frittered away and now candidates who sit for these exams do not need to apply themselves through diligence, hard work and industry.

In the best interests of the future of education for Malaysian school children, it is important for all stakeholders to set aside their personal agendas, call a spade a spade, and work for a more valued and real education for boys and girls.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher