School, Uni, Politicians - Warning: This is an incoherent post

*Taking a break from studying digestive system (more like copying answers from the textbook...)*

Had a long chat with a friend yesterday (will not be named here, so let’s just call her Anonymous) via MSN. Seriously, I was taking a break from studying Pharmaceutics’ calculation test and then there she was, calling out to me in Facebook. For someone whom I haven’t chat (or met) ever since we left school, it was definitely a surprise. She was bored – I can tell, and despite having a test to study for, I chatted with her anyway.
*And I screwed the test... if only I wasn’t distracted by the Internet...*

Anonymous talked about her life in college... how she loves what she is studying at the moment (she is studying business stuff). And the conversation reverted to the days back in Convent. I felt nostalgic about those days because absence does make the heart grow fonder. But it was very different for her. She told me she was miserable in school, because she was being retained in the Science class instead of studying Arts. She described her life back then as “going through the motions”. And she said that after graduation from Convent, she wouldn’t want to make the same mistake again and off she went to college to study business. She said she felt “chi pei” compared to the rest of us – not being able to score well in Science subjects and all that.

I mean, who wasn’t feeling the same way? Who wasn’t feeling “chi pei” back then? I felt so inadequate compared to J, who scored way higher than me in all subjects – and that was very frustrating. The gap between her and me was so huge – to the point that I detested her at that time (sorry! I love you now! XD). It was only recently in her blog that I found out she is human too. There is a reason why she worked hard at that time. At that point, I realised what I saw back then in school are so multifaceted – things were not as simple as they seem. I was so silly back then. Even J, the top student in our batch, was feeling “chi pei” in her own way.

Hah, now I know that for most of us, we felt trapped in school. Studying subjects that we didn’t have interests for; teachers who sucked at teaching and killed off the remnants of passion left in us for anything academic; the monotonous way of life back then –tuition, school, tuition, school (well, it is for me!). The saving grace back then was probably the silly moments we shared. Now that all of us are heading into uni (some already do), the vast majority of us are going to pursue arts-related careers.

To the Government, politicians, educators in Malaysia, is your action of maintaining the 60-40 policy justified when most of us students are suffering? I am speaking for my friends here (Science subjects do make sense to me... at least more than business-related stuff). We lost 2 years of our youths, studying the stuff we won’t even pursue in the end. And oh yeah, don’t get me started on the public uni thing. You let us “choose” the courses we want to study and in the end, handing to us our so-called “choice” and chuck us into a god-knows-where-god-knows-what uni in some god-damn place. Way to go people! Great way of making our life “more interesting”! Ah, no wonder private colleges and unis are mushrooming everywhere!

Oh why can’t you let us choose where and what to study? Where is the freedom? Most politicians can’t understand because: (1) they are all rich buggers; (2) all their kids either go to international/private schools or packed off to boarding schools overseas. Kudos people! You let your own people survive and the rest suffering. And people wonder why Malaysians pick useless politicians (who behave as apes when they don’t get what they want) up there in the Parliament. It’s because we couldn’t get sound education!

Let us choose what subjects we want to learn in school. Please improve the universities in Malaysia and allow students to choose which course they want to study and which uni to go to. Let there be competition among the public universities, so that the standard of our education can improve.

*I realise I have REALLY diverted from the main theme of my post – no thanks to our politicians. And finally, I wish all of my friends, most notably those who belonged to 5 Physics Class of ’06, good luck in their pursuit of knowledge (regardless of Science or Arts). Let’s us all be contented with the choices we make. Don’t let the damn politicians screw our lives for us!*