Thinking About Thinking

 Thinking About Thinking

M. Bakri Musa

Excerpt #11 from my Qur’an, Hadith, And Hikayat:  Exercises In Critical Thinking

 

“All cultures, whether Arab, Asian, or Western require a critical and self-critical mind.”  Tariq Ramadan (What I Believe)

 

When Malaysian students first took part in the Program For International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2009, their scores were abysmal. Their performances in subsequent tests were no better. Malaysian students are two to three years behind their peers in developed countries. The only comfort, if that is the right word, is that Malaysians are still ahead of the Malawis and Indonesians.

 

         This decline was evident as early as the late 1970s when I visited local schools and examined their textbooks and workbooks.

 

         Those abysmal scores prompted policymakers to do major rethinking. Unlike PISA, Malaysian national school tests rely on recall and regurgitation, with minimal thinking skills needed or exerted. Nor are those attributes encouraged.

 

         The government claims that higher order thinking skills (HOTS) are now emphasized with the national curriculum revamped. The impact however, had been minimal. Perhaps the low 2022 PISA scores could be excused because of Covid-19, but the general decline continues.

         

         Today everyone is concerned with HOTS, that is, to go beyond mere regurgitating of what had been forced-fed into the students. Concerns about students’ ability to think now grab national headlines as well as the public consciousness and educators’ attention.

 

         Brochures of universities are laden with promises to teach students critical thinking, with schools and educators undergoing accelerated or culup courses on HOTS. Company recruiters and human resource personnel too are looking for candidates with critical thinking skills so they could solve novel problems facing our ever-changing society.

 

         “Thinking outside the box,” an expression of higher order thinking, is now the new slogan and favorite exhortations of superiors to their subordinates, and teachers their students. However, the best way to achieve that would be to demonstrate and reward those desirable traits rather than through endless exhortations.

 

         Before one can think outside the box, one must be familiar with what’s inside. Not only the contents but also the box’s natural rhythm and internal frequencies, to borrow metaphors from physics.

 

         The importance of HOTS goes beyond the classrooms, lecture halls, or recruiters’ interviews. HOTS impact our everyday lives. I remember as a youngster clearing the stream leading to our rice field in preparation for planting. I came upon a large fallen tree that had obstructed the flow.

 

         I was about to saw off the trunk and drag it away, a formidable undertaking, when my father stopped me. Cut and drag the log in your head first, he told me, and then see whether that would be the solution. If it would not, then you would have saved yourself much wasted work.

 

         As it turned out, I did not have to saw the huge log off but merely dig a channel underneath it, a much simpler and not such a back-breaking chore. Had I cut and dragged the tree, it could then have blocked the path below or worse, have a nasty spring-back action when cutting it, thus injuring me.

 

         Thinking the problem in my head first not only spared me much wasted work and possible injury, not to mention creating another problem as with obstructing the path below, but that mental exercise of downstream analysis led me to a far superior and safer solution.

 

         That in essence is critical thinking, and its value. Think of the problem clearly and rationally first so as to understand it better and gauge the boundaries as well as assess the applicability of one’s solution. That involves questioning one’s earlier assumptions implicit in framing the problem. Then after considering all these factors one could then reach the most effective and workable solution as well as help save time and effort. Help but not guarantee. Nonetheless after having done the critical thinking ahead, one could better justify one’s action even if that would later be proven erroneous or unworkable.

 

         What applies to a problem is also applicable to an assumption, assertion, or belief. Critical thinking helps one accept, reject, or be circumspect and withhold one’s judgement until one could get a better assessment.

 

         Einstein once remarked that if given an hour to solve a problem, he would spend the first fifty-five minutes thinking about it. The only difference between Einstein’s wisdom and my father’s observation is that the former, being a physicist, put it in quantitative terms. My father illustrated it qualitatively or metaphorically. First, imagine lifting the log, never mind how long that would take, before attempting to do it physically. That may not even be necessary after you have solved the problem in your head.

 

         The carpenter’s aphorism–measure twice (or more), cut once–comes to mind.

 

         When it comes to an idea or assertion, think or analyze it first. Consider its other meanings and various implications. Do a downstream analysis of the consequences of your accepting the idea or an action before executing it. Then even if you could not ascertain the truth of the assertion, you would be in a better position to at least evaluate its consequences.

 

Next:  Lessons From A Sophomore Philosophy Class

Religious Texts As Exercises In Critical Thinking

 Religious Texts As Exercises In Critical Thinking

M. Bakri Musa

 

Excerpt #10 from my Qur’an, Hadith, And Hikayat:  Exercises In Critical Thinking

 

The literature on critical thinking is written mostly by Westerners, using examples familiar to their societies. As such it would be difficult for Malaysians, Malays in particular, to relate. If you cannot relate to a problem or material, it becomes less meaningful and those exercises become less relevant or appropriate for learning. This was the early challenges faced by the American Philosophy Professor Edward Muad Omar teaching at the University of Qatar. By using examples and materials Malays and Muslims could relate to, I hope to reduce those difficulties and increase their relevance.

 

         I am not trying to give commentaries or translations. There are already volumes devoted to that. Rather I am using those texts as exercises in critical thinking, and only that. Those ancient scholars have done their part with their encyclopedic contributions, and we owe them a huge debt of gratitude. However, they were addressing the ummah of their time. Their challenges were very different from ours. So should be the solutions.

 

         We must be prepared to accept the fact that the burden they carried was salt while ours, cotton, as per the earlier fable of the two donkeys. If we were to blindly follow the edicts of the ancients, we may in fact not be lightening our load but the very opposite. Hence the need to exercise critical thinking on reading those ancient texts; likewise when we unthinkingly apply those ancient edicts to contemporary problems and challenges.

 

         Engaging our critical faculties would help us better appreciate the message of the Qur’an and the wisdom of our Prophet. That could only enrich our lives. Those texts would then become more meaningful instead of being mindless incantations in ancient Arabic. On a personal level, using those examples as well as our lores, novels, and hikayat is also my way of getting reacquainted with my faith, culture, and literature.

 

         Like any skill, critical thinking can be learned and strengthened. Once acquired it becomes habitual or automatic. As such it would be useful and appropriate to first review as well as understand the learning process.

 

         There are many obstacles to critical thinking, some obvious and others less so. A major and indispensable component of critical thinking involves asking questions and evaluating the responses. Unlike in debates where the concerns are with such superficialities as displaying one’s oratorical prowess and scoring points, critical thinking is concerned with enlightening the issues and elevating one’s understanding of them. It is not a contest.

 

         The obstacles to critical thinking specific to Malays include our religious beliefs and practices; our socio-cultural elements, in particular our deeply entrenched feudalism; and our narrow, destructive language nationalism.

 

         Malay leaders may take umbrage to my assertion that religious beliefs are significant barriers to critical thinking. Islam, at least during its Golden Age, robust discussions were very much the norm; hence the encyclopedic productions of those early scholars. They were critical thinkers. Today’s Muslims would do well to emulate them. Nor were those ancients afraid of learning from the atheistic Greeks. Knowledge is knowledge; they all originate from Allah.

 

         In exercising our critical faculties, we would not be imitating the secular scientific West, as many contemporary Muslim leaders imply, rather the best of our illustrious intellectual ancestors.

 

         Peruse Imam Ghazzali’s severe criticism of Ibn Sini and Ibn Rashid in The Incoherence of the Philosophers, and the equally pungent rebuttals in Ibn Rashid’s The Incoherence of the Incoherence. Those intellectual battles would make the current discussions among Third World Muslim intellectuals more like junior high school debates.

 

         It is this glaring deficit of critical thinking and rational analysis (and with that the consequent vigorous differences in views and opinions) in contemporary Muslim discourses that have yet to be appreciated much less remedied. As per Shabbir Akhtar in his The Quran and the Secular Mind:  A Philosophy of Islam, “An important intellectual deficit in the Modern House of Islam is the lack of a living philosophical culture that could influence its narrowly religious outlook.”

 

         We have created this unnecessary but formidable psychological barrier to critical thinking by dismissing it as “un-Islamic” or alien, specifically Western practice. This is the conceit behind the “Islamization of Knowledge” fad. It is part of the current general antipathy towards the use of reason (akal).

 

         It is the supreme irony that while the Qur’an emancipated the ancient Bedouins, making them give up their many odious personal and cultural practices, today it has been degraded into an instrument to repress its believers. The American Muslim leader Ingrid Mattson referred to that as “spiritual abuse.” How apt!

 

         The scientific method or way of thinking is not Western rather that those who conceptualized and practiced it first were from the West; likewise with capitalism and free enterprise. The West introduced both but does not own them. Had the Islamic civilization of yore not crumbled, then critical thinking would have been an Islamic concept as those ancient Muslims practiced and were adept at it. As for capitalism, Benedict Koehler asserted in his book, Early Islam And The Birth of Capitalism, ancient Muslims practiced a primordial form of capitalism.

 

         Remnants of our feudal culture are among the many impediments to critical thinking. In feudal culture you do not question your fate; that is fixed and determined at birth. At the top of the feudal heap are the sultans whose positions are sanctioned by the Malay version of Islam that considers sultans as Allah’s representatives on earth. As you do not and cannot question God, you cannot likewise challenge His representative on earth. Unasked is why does God need any representative.

 

         Malay language per se is not an obstacle to critical thinking except that language nationalists have subverted the school system such that this skill is not valued or taught.

 

Next:  Excerpt #11:  Thinking About Thinking

Pertukaran Suasana Belajar Yang Penting Di Universiti

 Pertukaran Suasana Belajar Yang Penting Di Universiti

M. Bakri Musa

 

Petikan # 8 dari buku saya Al-Quran, Hadis, Dan Hikayat: Latihan Dalam Pemikiran Kritis akan di sambung minggu depan.

 

Pertengahan tahun pertama di Universiti Alberta, Edmonton, Kanada, saya terkejut apabila diberi ujian "untuk di buat di rumah" manakala di kursus yang lain pula peperiksaan "buku terbuka." Bayangkan, melakukan ujian di rumah dengan nota serta buku teks yang sedia ada! Begitu juga dengan peperiksaan buku terbuka. Tidak pernah terdengar di tanah airku. Sekali pandang itu adalah galakan untuk pelajar menipu dan meniru!

 

            Jelas profesor di Kanada tidak hairan dengan kepintasan atau berapa cepat si pelajar boleh memuntahkan apa yang telah diajar atau diluapkan dalam kuliah atau apa yang telah terbaca dalam buku. Mereka ingin mengetahui bolehkah pelajar berfikir dengan sendiri.

 

            Kejutan ke dua pada saya ialah ini. Selepas ujian pertama dalam kelas kimia, profesor kami ingin memulakan satu program makmal istimewa untuk pelajar yang mendapat keputusan terbaik. Saya bertuah kerana dipilih. Saya bukan bermegah sebab selepas melalui Tingkatan Enam di Malaysia (13 tahun persekolahan), tahun pertama di universiti, sekurang-kurangnya dalam bidang sains, adalah mudah sahaja. Alberta hanya mempunyai dua belas tahun persekolahan.

 

            Kami dipasangkan dan diberi masalah eksperimen yang berasingan. Untuk saya ialah mengukur sebatian yang diberikan. Kami diberi semua kemudahan dan peralatan yang sedia ada. Pasangan saya ialah pelajar dari sekolah menengah luar bandar di Alberta.

 

            Kami bermula dengan memeriksa alat penimbang dan bagaimana untuk menimbang satu bahan yang hanya berat seberapa geram sahaja. Dacing biasa terhad gunanya. Kemudian kami pergi ke dacing analitik yang lebih sensitif. Itu juga ada hadnya. Kami masih tidak dapat mengukur berat benda yang terlalu ringan. Penat memikirkan bagaimana untuk menyelesaikannya.

 

            Selepas setengah jam, profesor kami, seperti yang sudah dia janjikannya, meminta kami membincangkan masalah kami di hadapan seluruh kelas. Sejurus sebelum perbincangan itu, salah seorang pelajar lain mencadangkan kepada saya jangan menggunakan alat menimbang tetapi melarutkan benda ke dalam air dan mengukur ketumpatan warna dengan menggunakan alat spektrometer.

 

            Sesaat sahaja dia berkata "larutkan . . ." otakku mula mencurahkan penyelesaian. Dia tidak perlu lagi melanjutkan fikirannya. Apabila profesor kami datang, kami menerangkan langkah yang kami akan ambil. Yakni melarutkan sebatian dalam isi padu air yang diketahui, kemudian mencairkan sampel secara bersiri, dan memplot bacaan ketumpatan warna dengan pencairan. Dengan itu kita boleh mengukur kepada penurunan lebih seribu kali ganda jumlah melalui pencairan bersiri tersebut. Nasib baiklah bahawa bahan yang kami diberi adalah sebatian kuprum yang berwarna biru bila dilarutkan. Kebiruan itu boleh di ukur dengan alat spektrometer dan juga ternyata di pandang.

 

            Walaupun saya berasa seronok serta bangga sebab dapat mencari penyelesaian kepada masalah yang diberikan, namun saya masih terseksa dengan pemikiran bahawa saya telah gagal untuk memikirkannya sehingga rakan sekelas saya mencadangkannya. Perasaan kecewa saya ditenangkan sedikit apabila saya mendapat tahu bahawa rakan saya yang bijak itu telah menuntut di sekolah menengah bestari. Mereka sudah biasa diajar untuk berfikir dan menyelesaikan masalah, bukan hanya dengan menghafalkan buku atau apa yang diajar oleh guru seperti apa yang sering berlaku di sekolah biasa, termasuklah di Malaysia.

 

            Peristiwa itu menjadi penunjuk bagi saya. Yakni saya juga boleh mempelajari kemahiran untuk berfikir dengan teliti dan luar berkas. Pemikiran kritis, seperti kemahiran lain, boleh diajar dan diperkukuhkan sepanjang hidup dengan menggunakan dan mengamalkannya.

 

            Peristiwa itu juga memberi saya dua hikmat. Pertama, berhati atas gangguan yang mungkin mencabar anda apabila hendak menyelesaikan sesuatu masalah. Saya terpikat dengan istilah tugasan. Ia berkata untuk mengukur, dan oleh kerana saya diberi sampel yang di beri beratnya, saya terus berfikir tentang gaya menimbang dengan mesin timbang. Saya tidak dapat keluar dari kurungan atau landasan itu. Mungkin saya akan mempunyai fikiran yang terbuka dan tidak dilandasi sekiranya istilah "kirakan" dan bukan timbang digunakan.

 

            Ke dua, kejadian di bilik makmal itu menyadarkan saya tentang nilai dan apa sebenarnya makna markah ujian. Betul anda perlu mempunyai keputusan yang cemerlang untuk mendapati biasiswa atau hadiah akademik yang diidamkan, tetapi itu tidak langsung bermakna jika anda tidak dapat menyelesaikan masalah. Mendapat markah tinggi hanya bermakna anda hanya pandai menjangka dengan betul apa yang si pemeriksa inginkan daripada anda. Ini tidak lain daripada tabiat saya semasa sekolah menengah untuk mengagak atau meramalkan soalan yang mungkin timbul dalam peperiksaan hujung tahun.

 

            Pelajar yang mencadangkan penyelesaian itu kepada juga mempunyai markah tinggi walau pun rendah daripada saya. Sebagai penunjuk kemudian, beliau terus menjadi Profesor Kimia ternama.

            

            Berbalik kepada nilai peperiksaan dan markah ujian khasnya dalam kehidupan sehari, tamadun Cina kuno tahan berabad sebagai mercu sistem pentadbiran yang cekap dan beres. Sebabnya ialah Maharaja Cina memilih calon terbaik daripada peperiksaan perkhidmatan awamnya yang terkenal. Betul pentadbiran Cina cemerlang selama beberapa abad, tetapi tidak selamanya. Negara Cina kemudiannya dengan mudah dikalahkan oleh tentera Penjajah Barat. 

 

            Sebabnya? Sebahagiannya ialah pegawai pentadbir Cina dipilih hanya melalui ujian tersebut. Ini bermakna bukan calon yang terbaik atau paling bijak tetapi hanya mereka yang dianggap atau difikirkan oleh si pemeriksa sebagai terbaik dan paling cemerlang. Itulah istilah “merit” dan meritokrasi yang biasa di fahamkan. Maknanya, yang paling bijak meneka soalan peperiksaan atau boleh memberikan jawapan yang dikehendaki oleh si pemeriksa.

 

            Seabad kemudian, Amerika akan mengulangi kesilapan Negara Cina itu. Menteri Pertahanannya, Robert McNamara, seorang lepasan University of California, Berkeley dan juara lulusan Harvard Business School, mengambil hanya mereka yang berkelulusan "terbaik dan paling pintar" ("Best and brightest” atau “Whiz Kids") untuk membantu dia melaksanakan Perang Vietnam pada 1960-an dan 70-an. McNamara juga menggunakan istilah "bilangan badan" (body count) sebagai ukuran kemajuan perang. Malangnya, seperti yang telah dibuktikan oleh peristiwa kemudiannya, pelajar terbaik dari Harvard tidak dapat menandingi pemimpin militer Viet Cong yang telah diterajui oleh hutan belukar dan berbaju tidur.

 

            Bagi kebijaksanaan menggunakan ukuran "bilangan badan" sebagai petunduk kemajuan peperangan, itu sama juga dengan meramalkan kedahsyatan banjir hanya dengan kehitaman awan. Dinamik peperangan, seperti juga cuaca, boleh dan mungkin berubah dengan cepat dan mendadak.

 

Seterusnya: Petikan #10: Kitab Agama Untuk Latihan Berfikir Dengan Teliti

Dramatic Intellectual Shift At University

  

Dramatic Intellectual Shift At University

M. Bakri Musa

 

Excerpt # 8 from my Qur’an, Hadith, And Hikayat:  Exercises In Critical Thinking

 

Midway through the first semester of my freshman year at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, I was stunned when given a “take home” test, while for another course, an “open book” one. Imagine, doing a test at home with your notes as well as textbooks readily available! Unheard of back in my native land; an encouragement to cheat and copy!

 

         It was obvious that those Canadian professors were not interested in how well or fast we could regurgitate what they had taught us or what we had read in the textbooks. They wanted us to think.

 

         That was not my only surprise. After the first test in Chemistry, our professor decided to start a special experimental laboratory program for the few top students. I was fortunate to be selected. I am not bragging here. After going through Sixth Form in Malaysia (13 years of schooling), the first year of university, at least in the sciences, was a breeze for me. The Albertans had only twelve.

 

         We were paired and each group was assigned a separate experimental problem. Mine was to measure minute quantities of a given compound. A sample was given to us. We had all the departmental facilities and equipment at our disposal. My partner was a student from a rural high school in Alberta.

 

         The first thing we did was go over the balance scales and to see how we could adjust it to measure tiny weights. That had its limits. Then we were on to the sensitive analytical balance. That too could get us only so far. We still could not accurately measure minute amounts. We wracked our brains but could go no further.

 

         After about 30 minutes or so our professor, as he had promised, stopped all of us and asked us to discuss our problems with the rest of the class. Just before that discussion, one of the other students suggested to me that instead of using the weighing scale, I should dissolve the compound and measure the color density with the spectrometer.

 

         The moment he said “dissolve the . . . ,” a light bulb switched on in my head. He did not have to go further. So when our professor came by, we told him that we would dissolve the compound in a known volume of water, then serially dilute the sample, and plot the color density readings with the dilutions. We could thus measure to more than a thousand-fold decrease in amounts through such serial dilutions. It helped that our material was a copper compound so we could see the visible blue of the solution lightened with subsequent dilutions. The spectrometer quantified our visual assessment.

 

         Pleased as I was in finding the solution to our problem, nonetheless I was still tormented by the thought that I had failed to even think of it until my fellow classmate had suggested it. Later I learned that he was a graduate of an elite magnet experimental high school in the city where they were taught to think and solve problems, instead of the usual memorization regime at schools elsewhere, Malaysia included.

 

         That was a salve of sorts for me. The corollary to my insight was that I too could learn that skill. Critical thinking, like other skills, can be taught and strengthened throughout our life by using and exercising them.

 

         That episode early in my undergraduate years taught me two lessons. First, be aware of distractions when trying to solve problems. Mine was with the wording of the assignment. It said to measure, and because I was given a sample with a known weight, I immediately thought of weighing and the balance machine. I could not get off that track. Perhaps I would have had an open mind and not been sidetracked had the word “quantify” been used instead of measure.

 

         Second, that incident disabused me of the value and meaning of test scores. Yes, you have to have sterling scores to get that coveted scholarship or academic prize, but that means nothing if you cannot solve problems. Getting good test scores simply means you have correctly anticipated what the examiners wanted out of you. It is but a variation of my earlier successful high school exercises in spotting likely questions for an upcoming examination.

 

         That student who had suggested the right solution had test scores lower than mine at our first test, though still up there. As an update, he had a long and distinguished tenure as Professor of Chemistry at our alma mater.

 

         As for the value of examinations and test scores in real life, the ancient Chinese civilization lasted for centuries as the beacon of an efficient administrative system in part because the Imperial Palace would select only the top candidates from its famed civil service examinations. For centuries, but not forever. The Chinese were later easily outclassed by Western forces. The reason? In part the candidates selected through those tests were not the best or smartest candidates but only those whom the establishment thought were the best and brightest. Or the smartest who could “spot” the questions or could give the answers that the examiners had wanted.

 

         A century later, America would repeat that same mistake. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, Berkeley alumnus and star Harvard Business School graduate, recruited only the “best and brightest” (his “Whizz Kids”) to help direct the Vietnam War of the 1960s and 70s. McNamara also instituted his infamous “body count” as a measure of the progress of the war. Unfortunately, as events later proved, Harvard’s best was no match for those pajama-clad jungled-tested Viet Cong generals.

 

         As for the wisdom of “body count” as a measure of progress of a war, that would be akin to predicting the ending of a football game by counting the number of first downs or yards gained early in the first quarter. The dynamics of a war, like a football game, can change quickly and dramatically.

 

Next:  Excerpt #10:  Religious Texts As Exercises In Critical Thinking

Bereskan Tahun Selepas SPM

Bereskan Tahun Selepas SPM

M. Bakri Musa

 

[Petikan dari Al-Quran, Hadis, dan Hikayat: Latihan Dalam Pemikiran Kritis, akan disambung minggu depan.] 

27 April 2025

 

Keputusan peperiksaan Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) yang diambil oleh 403,000 pelajar dari Disember 2024 hingga Februari 2025 telah dikeluarkan pada 24 April 2025. Ujian itu diambil pada penghujung tahun persekolahan ke-11.

 

            Seperti biasa, surat khabar dibanjiri dengan cerita mereka yang mendapat keputusan cemerlang. Kurang perhatian ditumpukan kepada mereka yang gagal atau terus ponteng peperiksaan tersebut. Agak terkilan sebab kebanyakan mereka adalah pelajar Melayu. Sebaliknya perhatian ditumpukan atas kartun jalur gemilang dalam laporan Kementerian itu.

 

            Sungguh pun SPM peperiksaan terakhir bagi aliran sekolah kebangsaan, tetapi ia bukanlah ujian matrikulasi. Maknanya, penuntut yang berjaya tidak boleh terus masuk ke universiti hanya dengan kelulusan itu. Dari segi mutu pula, mengikut kajian dari Program For International Students Assesments (Penilaian Pelajar Antarabangsa), SPM hanya sama bertaraf dengan Tahun 9 persekolahan di negara maju.

 

            Mereka yang bercita selepas SPM untuk masuk universiti menghadapi banyak pilihan yang membingungkan. Ini termasuk matrikulasi, kursus asas, dan Tingkatan Enam. Itu semuanya anjuran kerajaan dan khusus untuk Bumiputera. Mereka yang bukan Bumi diambil hanya buat syarat sahaja. Program tersebut juga tidak bermula sehingga Julai. Maknanya, murid terpaksa bercuti panjang lebih enam bulan. Dalam masa itu banyak pengetahuan dan tabiat belajar yang baik akan hilang. Tambahan pula tiada satu badan pusat untuk menyelaraskan cara permohonan masuk. Akibatnya banyak wang, masa, dan tenaga terbuang.

 

            Bagi pihak swasta juga terdapat banyak aluran seperti program berkembar dengan universiti antarabangsa (“twinning programs”), kelas untuk kelulusan British GCE A-Level, International Baccalaureate (IB), dan beberapa peperiksaan matrikulasi negara asing. Mereka biasanya bermula pada bulan Januari selepas SPM, sekali gus memastikan kesinambungan yang lancar. Memandangkan program ini mahal, penyertaan orang Melayu adalah rendah.

 

            SPM adalah untuk aliran kebangsaan sahaja, maknanya, murid Melayu. Murid Cina (dan kini semakin ramai orang Melayu yang mengikutinya) mengambil Sijil Peperiksaan Bersatu (United Examination Certificate) selepas tahun persekolahan 12. Ia merupakan peperiksaan matrikulasi yang diiktiraf di seluruh dunia melainkan Malaysia. Pelik!

 

            Berbalik kepada kekurangan murid bukan Melayu dalam program kerajaan, beberapa tahun yang lalu saya mengambil bahagian dalam satu seminar yang dianjurkan oleh Kelab UMNO New York/New Jersey. Saya mengritik dan menolak teori genetik separuh masak yang dikemukakan oleh Dr. Mahathir pada masa itu yang kononnya kelemahan Melayu dalam pendidikan adalah disebabkan oleh baka kita yang kurang cerdik.

 

            Selepas ceramah itu seorang pelajar Melayu muda tersipu mendekati saya. “Tuan Doktor, . . . ” dia teragak-agak hendak bersambung, “Saya ingin mempercayakan pendapat Tuan, tetapi bagaimana hendak menjelaskan . . . .” Beliau seterusnya menerangkan bahawa dalam kelas asasi yang dia sertai di universiti tempatan sebelum di hantar ke luar negeri, walaupun kebanyakan pelajarnya adalah Melayu, tetapi mereka yang mendapat keputusan yang baik kebanyakannya adalah murid bukan Melayu.

 

            Dengan segera merasai dirinya dibebankan dengan apa yang diistilahkan oleh ahli psikologi Stanford Universiti Claude Steel sebagai "beban ancaman stereotaip" (burden of stereotype threat’). Saya terus bertanya kepada pelajar itu apa yang dia buat selepas menduduki peperiksaan SPM. Tiada apa-apa, seperti kebiasaan kebanyakan murid Melayu. 

 

            Sementara dia bercuti panjang, saya terangkan, rakan sekelasnya yang bukan Melayu telah menghadiri kelas persendirian yang mahal mulai bulan Januari. Kemudian apabila mereka dipilih untuk masuk program awam, mereka sudah enam bulan mendahului rakan sekelas Melayu mereka. Itu satu kelebihan permulaan yang amat besar terutama dalam kursus yang biasanya berlangsung selama hanya 12 ke 18 bulan.

 

            Tirai tebal keraguan semangat dirinya hilang dengan jawapan saya. 

 

            Sejak tahun 1970-an Malaysia telah menghantar beribu penuntut Melayu ke luar negara dan dengan harga yang amat besar untuk hanya mengambil Tingkatan Enam. Sementara itu sekolah lama saya di Kuala Pilah yang kebanyakannya pelajarnya Melayu telah bertahun memohon untuk mempunyai Tingkatan Enamnya sendiri. Tetapi oleh sebab kekurangan dana itu tidak dapat dilaksanakan.

 

            Yang lebih lagi sukar difahami ialah sekolah seperti Maktab Melayu kemudiannya telah menamatkan Tingkatan Enamnya, menjadikan institusi itu sebagai sekolah menengah rendah sahaja dengan hanya nama yang hebat. Penuntut Maktab Melayu terpaksa pindah ke sekolah lain untuk masuk matrikulasi selepas SPM. Hanya pada tahun 2016 Kolej Melayu mula mengadakan program IB sendiri. Malah pada hari ini itu pun bukan pilihan utama pelajarnya.

 

            Pada penghujung 1990-an, Maktab IB MARA Banting di bawah ketuanya yang bukan seorang Bumiputra memperolehi keputusan terbaik di seluruh dunia. Hari ini Maktab itu kembali kepada taraf MARA biasa sahaja. Amat sedih!

 

            Krisis Ekonomi Asia 1997 terpaksa negara berjimat sedikit dan mengurangkan bilangan pelajar yang dihantar ke luar negara untuk kajian taraf Tingkatan Enam atau pra-universiti.

 

            Jauh lebih murah serta cekap jika Tingkatan Enam di luaskan kepada semua sekolah menengah. Alur kan ke jurusan akademik (untuk terus ke universiti), am, dan vokasional, seperti cara pendidikan di Negeri Jerman. Ubahsuai peperiksaan Sijil Tinggi Persekutuan supaya mereka yang tidak mendapat keputusan yang memuaskan pada kali pertama boleh mengulanginya peperiksaan enam bulan kemudian, dengan sijil akhir mencerminkan markah yang lebih baik daripada kedua peperiksaan itu.

 

            Walau pun SPM khasnya dan aliran persekolahan kebangsaan amnya merupakan satu kelemahan pendidikan yang besar, yang lebih teruk lagi dan menghampakan bangsa kita ialah pendidikan aliran agama. Di situ indoktrinasi menyamar sebagai pendidikan. Aliran itu adalah satu pemusnahan terbesar minda anak Melayu. Itu tidak semestinya. Lihatlah banyak sekolah teragung yang berkaitan dengan Gereja di Amerika seperti Sekolah Groton di Massachusetts dan Georgetown Prep, atau pun lebih dekat lagi, Madarasah Al Junid di Singapure.

 

            Dengan keadaan pendidikan anak Melayu yang sudah dan terus terancam, Menteri Pendidikan kita agak sibuk hendak memperkenalkan Bahasa Khmer. Begitulah cabaran yang dihadapi oleh pendidikan di Malaysia.

 

Streamline The Post-SPM Years

 Streamline the Post-SPM Years

M. Bakri Musa

[Excerpts from my Qur’an, Hadith, and Hikayat:  Exercises In Critical Thinking, will resume next week.] 

April 27, 2025

 

The results of the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM, or Malaysian Certificate of Education) examination taken by 403,000 students from December 2024 to February 2025 were released on April 24, 2025. The test is taken at the end of the 11^th school year.

            As usual, the media were inundated with profiles of those who had excelled. Little is written on or attention paid to those who did poorly or skipped the test entirely. Sad, as most of them are poor Malay students. Instead, much ink was devoted to the cartoonish depiction of the national flag in the report.

While SPM is the terminal examination for the national stream, it is not a matriculating test. As for standard-wise, as per the Program for International Student Assessment SPM is but Year 9 in the advanced world.

Those aspiring for university face bewildering choices post-SPM. These include matrikulasi, foundation courses, and traditional Sixth Form. These government programs cater primarily for Bumiputras, with only token non-Bumis included. These programs do not begin till July. With the long hiatus, considerable attrition of knowledge and good study habits occurs. There is also no central coordinating agency, hence duplicative application processes and interviews, consuming precious time, efforts, and money.

There are many private alternatives as with “twinning programs,” classes for GCE A-Level, International Baccalaureate (IB), and other foreign matriculating examinations. These typically start in January, right after SPM, thus ensuring smooth continuity. As these programs are expensive, Malay participation is low.

As SPM is for the national stream only, its victims are mostly Malays. The Chinese (and now increasingly also Malays) have their United Examination Certificate (UCE) taken at Year 12. It is a recognized matriculation worldwide. Perversely Malaysia does not.

As for those few non-Malays in the government programs, years ago I was in a seminar organized by the UMNO Club of New York/New Jersey where I debunked Mahathir’s half-baked genetic theory to explain Malay underachievement in education.

After the talk a young Malay student gingerly approached me. “Doctor, . . . ” he hesitated, “I like to believe you, but how do you explain . . . .” He went on to say that in his foundation class, while most of the students were Malays, the top scorers were mostly non-Malays.

I immediately sensed in him what Stanford psychologist Claude Steel termed the “burden of stereotype threat.” I asked that student what he did after sitting for his SPM. Nothing, as is typical with most Malays. Meanwhile his non-Malay classmates had attended expensive private classes in January. Later when they were selected for public programs, they were already six months ahead of their Malay classmates. Substantial head start in what typically would be a 12 to 18-month course.

The heavy curtain of self-doubt expressed in that student’s earlier enquiry lifted with his silence.

Since the 1970s, Malaysia has sent thousands (mostly Malays) overseas and at considerable cost to do essentially Sixth Form. Meanwhile my old school in Kuala Pilah with its mostly Malay students was begging to have its own Sixth Form but was thwarted by, what else, lack of funds. Worse, schools like Malay College later discontinued its Sixth Form, reducing that institution to a glorified middle school. Its students had to go elsewhere to matriculate. Only in 2016 did Malay College initiate an IB program. Even today that is not the preferred choice for the students.

Meanwhile back in the late 1990s, MARA Banting’s IB under its non-Bumiputra head was the top performer globally. Today that institution is back to the typical mediocre MARA mode.

The 1997 Asian Economic crisis knocked some sense into Malaysian officials, forcing them to reduce the number of students sent abroad for pre-university studies. 

Expanding Sixth Form would be far cheaper and more efficient. Stream it into academic (university bound), general, and vocational, as with the German system. Tweak it so those who do not perform well the first time could repeat it six months later, with the final certificate reflecting the better of the two scores.

As dysfunctional as SPM is, there is an even greater tragedy with the education of Malays. That is the religious stream. With indoctrination masquerading as education, that stream is the greatest destroyer of Malay brains. It does not have to be that way. Emulate the many exemplary American Church-related schools like Massachusetts’s Episcopalian Groton and the Jesuit’s Georgetown Prep.

With such daunting problems, the Minister of Education sees fit to introduce Khmer language. Such are the challenges facing Malaysian Education.

Penghormatan Yang Tidak Bermakna

Penghormatan Yang Tidak Bermakna

M. Bakri Musa

23 April 2025

 

Banyak penghormatan telah diluahkan kepada Allahyarham Tun Abdullah Badawi, Perdana Menteri kelima Malaysia yang meninggal dunia pada 14 April 2025 lalu. Antara yang menarik perhatian saya ialah ini:  Dia memberi peluang berkerja kepada ribuan guru agama.

 

            Bayangkan akibat sebaliknya kepada Malaysia amnya dan orang Melayu khususnya jika ia mengambil seribu guru Bahasa Inggeris dan STEM serta membiayai seratus profesor dalam bidang STEM untuk universiti tempatan.

 

            Pemerhatian saya juga ialah satu ulasan tentang pemimpin Melayu semasa. Mereka mudah syok dengan masalah remeh dan lebih bersemangat dan beria untuk menyelesaikannya. Pengikut mereka juga pula mudah berpuas hati dengan perbuatan sedemikian. Memandangkan bahawa pemimpin kita dipilih dengan secara bebas oleh rakyat, itu pula mencerminkan budaya kita.

 

            Sebenarnya Malaysia tidak pernah mengalami kekurangan guru agama, dulu dan sekarang. Maknanya, Perdana Menteri Abdullah bukan menyelesaikan satu masalah yang mendesak. Sebaliknya dia heboh berbesaran untuk memberi kerja untuk mereka berkelulusan Pengajian Islam yang menganggur. Tidak payahlah disebutkan, mereka semuanya Melayu.

 

            Masyarakat Melayu semasa mengingatkan saya kepada negeri Cina pada zaman Mao, kecuali satu perbezaan yang ketara. Tidak seperti pemimpin Melayu sekarang, Mao dan kumpulannya tidak pernah dipilih oleh rakyat. Pemuda Cina juga senang terpesona dengan Buku Merah Mao dan tidak segan berdemo di jalan raya sambil melaungkan fikiran Mao.

 

            Orang Melayu kini (dan bukan sahaja remaja kita) terpesona pula dengan zikir dan Hadis Empat Puluh Imam Nawawi.

 

            Pada zaman Mao, pemuda China yang bijak dan cemerlang dihantar ke kem pendidikan semula di luar bandar. Anak muda Melayu yang cerdik sedikit sebelum dihantar ke luar negara terpaksa menghadiri kursus Biro Tito Negara (BTN). Dari segi kebersihan serta keselesaan, kampus BTN jauh lebih unggul daripada kem pendidikan semula luar bandar Mao, tetapi kerosakan minda dan intelek yang terakibat adalah sama.

 

            Terlalu awal untuk meramalkan hasil atau akibat pertempuran semasa antara Trump dan Xi, tetapi ini sudah pasti. Amerika atau sesiapa pun tidak lagi boleh mengaibkan Negeri China, seperti yang dilakukan oleh orang Eropah seabad dahulu.

 

            Pemimpin China hari ini lebih bijak dan negaranya kini merupakan kuasa besar jika tidak yang paling kuat. Mereka juga bijak dan tidak menganggap Barat sebagai satu blok. Sebaliknya, negeri Cina sekarang merapatkan pakatan dengan Australia, Kanada, dan Kesatuan Eropah untuk menentang Amerika. Contohnya, Negeri Cina sekarang membeli daging lembu dari Australia dan tenaga elektrik dan minyak dari Kanada.

 

            Cabaran negara lain semasa ialah kurang memilih pihak dalam pertengkaran antara China dan Amerika tetapi untuk belajar daripada ke dua pihak.

 

            Berjuta karangan telah ditulis mengenai kenaikan China semasa. Yang penting dan awal sekali ialah Deng Xiaoping meminta bantuan daripada Presiden Carter untuk menempatkan lebih kurang 300 pelajar Cina di universiti elit di Amerika. Sedekad kemudian, negeri China telah menggantikan India sebagai negara yang mempunyai bilangan pelajar terbanyak di Amerika. Sebaliknya pada hari ini Amerika menganggap pelajar Cina sebagai satu ancaman keselamatan!

 

            Pada masa Deng menghantar beberapa ratus sahaja pelajar Cina ke Amerika, Malaysia juga telah menghantar ribuan pemuda Melayu ke Amerika dan negara lain. Perbezaannya yang ketara ialah Deng menghantar pelajar Cina ke universiti bermutu tinggi di Amerika seperti Harvard dan Berkeley, sementara Mahathir berpuas hati dengan menghantar anak Melayu ke Universiti Utara Oklahoma dan seumpamanya.Negeri China pula menghantar pelajar cemerlang mereka untuk pengajian pos siswazah, manakala Malaysiapula berpuas hati dengan ijazah pertama.

 

            Fikirkan sedikit. Dengan perbelanjaan AS$100K setahun kita boleh memperolehi seorang profesorterkemuka dalam bidang sains dan teknologi (STEM) dari Amerika. Itu sama harganya dengan menghantar seorang pelajar Melayu ke luar negara untuk mengambil ijazah pertama. Profesor itu pula akan membelanjakan sebahagian besar daripada gajinya di tempatan untuk sara hidup seperti sewa rumah dan makanan sehari. Perbelanjaan itu memberi manfaat kepada ekonomi tempatan. Habis banyak dia akan dapat hanya AS$10K pada akhir tahun untuk dibawa balik ke Amerika.

 

            Sementara itu si pelajar Melayu akan menghabiskan keseluruhan US$100K di luar negara. Itu samalah nilainya dengan negara mengeksport sepuluh Proton atau seratus lori penuh dengan kelapa sawit.

 

            Maknanya, dari segi keluaran mata wang negara, harga menghantar seorang pelajar ke Amerika adalah sama dengan mengambil sepuluh profesor dari Amerika untuk mengajar di Malaysia.

 

            Saya doakan supaya Perdana Menteri Anwar berpanjang umur, selalu sihat. dan banyak membawa kebaikan kepada negara. Bayangkan Malaysia satu keturunan masa depan, masyarakat Melayu khususnya, jika Anwar dikenang sebagai seorang pemimpin yang membawa seribu guru Bahasa Inggeris dan STEM ke negara serta ratusan profesor STEM dari negara maju!