It is really disheartening to look at the latest universities ranking provided by Times. As an 18 year old, my focus is just on the top 20 universities in the world - to look at it and make a decision in 1 year time on which university I should go to.

Because it is the school holidays now, I have cut down on reading the newspapers from daily to every few days. And I did not realise that the universities ranking had been released. That was till I talked to a Malaysian friend in NUS (National University of Singapore) yesterday.

He told me about how NUS had dropped down the ranking from 19 to 33. And how Malaysian universities – UM, UKM, USM had dropped even further down the list. It’s so bad that now not a single Malaysian university is in the Top 200.

Looking forward to find out how bad the situation was, I hopped on to Lim Kit Siang’s (Malaysia’s opposition leader) blog to got a fuller picture from his post.

It’s really shocking to see the extent of mediocrity that Malaysian universities have come to. Reading the comments on the post is even more depressing. Skimming through only a few of the comments is enough to make me feel sorry for my own country.

I’m now in Singapore doing my A-level under the ASEAN scholarship. My exams are at the end of next year. Although I could have done Form 6 which is equally hard (mind you A-levels in Singapore is NOT easy, it is super hard), I feel really bad that my own home land is doing so bad.

Over here in Singapore, everyone is striving to be the best with talks of globalisation, competition, talent being the talk of the town (government, teachers, students etc) daily.

I can’t help but feel sorry about Malaysia’s universities. I knew from last year when I was doing my SPM that I will never ever set foot on a Malaysian university. And with the new ranking list out, it’s becoming real evident that entering Malaysian university is not really an option.

The brain drain is for REAL. Young people like me, we are going away. I’m already technically out of the country. I’m going to pursue an overseas education in US or UK or worse come to worse in Singapore. And whichever country that I study for my university I’ll stay there for a few years to work. Only after that I’ll consider coming back to Malaysia to work.

I’m still young. Years of patriotism lessons in schools had certainly had in impact on me. It has certainly instilled a sense of love for holding on to the Malaysian citizenship. Although I must say I’m ashamed to talk about my country’s state of education or politics whenever we have discussions in my school or hostel with Singaporeans or other fellow international students.
I don’t like to discriminate people, but what do you want me to tell others of our Government’s policies? Yea I know History text books will say it is like our safety net to ensure racial stability, but why are young Malaysians feeling left out in their own country?

Staying in Singapore undergoing their intense public education system definitely puts great stress on a young person. It is really hard work, hard work and hard work over here.

You can see students working so hard to chase success. You can sense the hunger and desire to be the best, to chase for glory. Everyone is in a race. You are either in it or left to rot at the sidelines of society.

I can certainly feel the heat of global competition over here, albeit with mostly Singaporeans. Recalling back my secondary days in Malaysia, I can barely feel all these heat.

Education and life in Malaysia, where is it heading?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 10:10 am and is filed under Current Issues, Diary, Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.