"Only 4 As?", a father queried.
"7 As out of 8? What's wrong with you?", scorned one mother.
"Great! I'm really proud of you!", I congratulated my younger daughter last Thursday on her SPM results.
Now, what's wrong with the picture? The picture is only wrong if you paint your own picture and hope your son or daughter would end up exactly like the picture you've depicted. What's worse is if you screw them for not ending up like it in the end. You ought to be screwed upside down for de-moralising your own child, who, after having tried their best, (and you even compared their 'best' against your own level) and having endured the agony of waiting for the results, got a slap from life with your cruel and "un-parently" remarks.
Look at some of the rich and successful individuals all around the world. Delete from this list all who are rich by virtue of inheritance. Delete also those who are successful as a result of puppeteering, meaning those who are lucky to have good connections. Lastly, look up those who have only hit a low passing mark, or none at all. There you are..
I could name some names, but it would take me some hours of research, and I bet you wouldn't even try to cross-reference and validate my findings. But you and I already know that there many out there who work hard and smart and have become successful, and for some, way too successful!
What I'm trying to present here is to express my deepest condolence to the death of a strong team of people whom we once called "teachers", comprised of selfless individuals dedicated to the noble profession of educating the young all the values of life and providing them the means to tackle life after school.
What we have now are mere staff, who after having sufficiently obtained their minimum grades for graduation, being employed by the education ministry, and being paid on meagre salary, which is not really commensurating with the dynamics of this economy, struggling to impart the syllabus, "cleverly" frameworked by the so-called scholars, to the pupils, whilst juggling with the ever-increasing administrative functions.
It is no wonder that many pupils are forced to make extra sacrifice attending out-of-school tuition till late nights. Tell me, who actually are the real teachers, those employed in school or from the tuition centres?
The irony is every year certain schools are proud to claim that so-and-so number of their students scored the most number of As, when the students actually got around to understand the concept and fundamentals from the tuition centres. Can I deduced that they practically learned nothing from schools!! Or rather, what did they learned from schools?
Too much hype is place on the number of As. But what is the "essence" of As? Are there any built-in survival kit with which school leavers can equip themselves and live in the cruel world of employment? Or do they continue to attempt to score more As by enrolling themselves in higher education? Get a degree, perhaps? A Bachelor after that? Or a Masters? So long as they could avoid employment cos they're not ready yet?
Do the As contain EDUCATION? Or are they just results of good memorizing techniques?
When they grow up in the employment world, having scored several As, and having claimed a Diploma, a Degree, or even a Masters, what would You and I think of this fella who, as a result, drives a Benz, or Camry, gets spotted throwing a soiled tissue out the window on a highway, or refused to offer a seat to an elderly person? For all you know, this "successful due to great scores" fella, who lives in an expensive house behind you, gets spotted one dark night throwing a plastic bag of rubbish into the monsoon drain at the back of your home? Do you really think 18 As means a person received 18 times the education?
3 As, 2Bs, 2 Cs & 1D. I really felt so overjoyed and on top of the world! My daughter's happy too.
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