DISADVANTAGES IN STUDYING IN THE SO-CALLED PRIVATE AND INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS IN MALAYSIA: HAVE ALL THESE SCHOOLS BEEN OVER-RATED?

…SO WHERE ARE THE FORMER STUDENTS OF SUCH SCHOOLS?

By Mansor Puteh

Parents send their children to the so-called private and international schools because they thought they were more superior compared to the Sekolah Melayu.

But the truth is that this may not be so.

The only reason why these parents send their children to these schools is because they are exclusive and mostly, because they can afford it.

There are many hidden and unaccepted disadvantages of such schools and these parents do not want to be fully aware of what they are. They want to be aloof from them and continue to assume that these schools can give their children the best education in the country.

There are even some who sent their children to Singapore and also to England.

So far no one has ever tried to study what are the advantages and also mostly the disadvantages of such schools and what they can do to the students when they are studying in them and mostly when they are done with studying there and have to be on their own joining the hoi polloi in the universities in the country and also abroad.

Chances are the students are not able to relate with the simple things and the normal persons they would meet at the universities and in the societies they are in.

And they may grow up feeling detached from the society and country and also the world.

Worse, despite them having studied using English as the medium of instruction, some of them may not be able to speak in the language or write much in it later on in their lives other than to use the language for social communication.

A lot of misconceptions have been created of the private and international schools where the medium of instruction is English.

Some of them were established to cater the needs of students who came to live in the country with their parents from abroad who are here to work in international companies or embassies.

But over the years, some Malaysian parents found it expedient and convenient to send their own children to study there, even when the fees charged by such schools are exorbitant.

The students are said to be getting first class education and when the medium of instruction is English, many assume they speak the best English in the country compared to the students who study in the sekolah kebangsaan or national schools or more exactly the Melayu schools.

And the students are said to be better of academically and they are able to converse in English more fluently and expressively.

And better, they are also said to be very liberal and who often manage to obtain better results in their examinations compared to the students of the Sekolah Melayu.

These are mere misconceptions.

And one can’t blame anyone for harboring such misconceptions. Because they had been misled into thinking that they are so.

The truth will shock many.

The truth is that most of the Malaysians who had studied in such schools are not outstanding. They are not able to get better grades in the national examinations compared to those who studied in the Sekolah Melayu, even if they are from the rural and remote areas.

Most, if not all of the students of the private and international schools have parents who are better off economically and socially so they are able to afford to be sent to such schools.

On top of that they are also able to use the latest electronic gadgets and take tuition to supplement their education.

But this does not mean that they are any better than the students of the Sekolah Melayu in many ways.

The shocking truth is that the top students in any national examination are those who studied in the Sekolah Melayu, with some from those in the rural and remote areas and whose parents are simple kampung folks who operate food stalls or tap rubber and so son.

The children of the wealthy in the urban areas and other exclusive residential areas in Lembah Kelang including the children of the titled, seldom, if ever, managed to get a string of As for their examinations.

And most of those who went on to pursue their education at the master’s and doctoral degree levels are the students from Sekolah Melayu.

In fact, most of the scholars that we have in the country are those students from such schools.

So where are the former students of the private and international schools in education? Nowhere.

Most of them go into the private sector by getting their first degrees and this is when they stopped studying altogether.

They have no need to further their education.

They end up no excelling in their own chosen profession.

None of them are capable of excelling in the arts. None became artistes or are engaged in the creation of literature and art.

Some of them may have taken music lessons, but they also do not excel.

And what can they do with their English that they are said to be fluent and proficient in? Nothing.

They use English for social communication and not to acquire further knowledge; worse they are also not able to impress anyone in England and America and the other countries where English are the main medium of everyday communication.

Some of them do English language theater but not in those countries but in Malaysia for a small crowd.

Many of the former students of such schools seem to have lost touch with reality. They live in a world of their own amongst themselves and cannot relate with the majority.

In fact, most of them speak in pidgin or Funny English amongst themselves. They write better than they speak since they have to abide with grammar and the dictates of the language, which they do not have to do if they are communicating amongst themselves when they discard linguistic propriety.