By TAY TIAN YAN
Sin Chew Daily

Two weeks ago, education director-general Datuk Dr Amin Seni announced that Malaysia had improved on its PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) performance and had closed the gap with OECD countries.

The news looked spirit-lifting at first sight, but a better look at our students’ PISA scores and ranking showed otherwise.

Staring at Dr Amin’s smiling face on the newspaper, I wonder what made him feel so delighted.

Let me make it very clear that PISA is no magic potion. It is just an internationally recognised reference for the academic performance of students in various countries.

PISA evaluates 15-year-old high school students’ ability in three areas: reading, mathematics and science, categorising them from the lowest level 1 to the highest level 6.

Of the 77 countries providing complete data, Malaysia was ranked 56th in the latest report, being at the bottom third. Be it in reading, mathematics or science, we were at the lowest two levels.

Indeed, we managed to close the gap with OECD countries compared to three years ago, but that gap is nothing like the Straits of Melaka, but the Pacific Ocean!

Sailing a couple of nautical miles into the Pacific should not be reason enough for anyone to feel excessively excited. Our real rivals are still many many more miles on the other side of the ocean.

On top of the table were students in China’s Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Their scores in reading, mathematics and science were 555, 591 and 590 respectively. Coming close at second place, Singapore’s students scored above 550 in all three parameters.

Malaysians’ scores, meanwhile, were 415, 440 and 438 for reading, mathematics and science respectively.

So, what do the scores actually mean? Scholars say a difference of 39 points marks the equivalent of roughly one year of schooling!

The scores of students in China, Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong were between 110 and 150 points ahead of Malaysians in each of the parameters.

A simple calculation should reveal that the academic standard of a Secondary 1 student is Singapore is roughly that of a Form 4 student here in Malaysia!

Should such a gap good enough for our education DG to feel so proud and smile?

The students’ ability in reading, mathematics and science should constitute their foundation for their absorption of knowledge and a force that will thrust them and the nation forward.

A student’s ability in reading, mathematics and science will determine how well he or she will survive in this world, and how strong the nation’s global competitiveness will be in future.

We don’t need a crystal ball to reveal to us that the Chinese, Singaporeans, Koreans and Europeans will dominate in our world in future. All we need is a PISA table!

Being at the far bottom of the table, we can safely say that youngsters of this country can only manage low-productivity jobs due to lack of competitiveness and competency. Many may even work oversea to make a living. And we will still not make it to the league of developed countries by 2030, as we will get stuck in the low- to medium-income trap.

With ethnic Chinese Malaysians being three levels below the Chinese in Mainland China, Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the future of this country is anything but promising.

The reality here is that our education ministry has done nothing to improve our students’ ability in reading, mathematics and science, but has demanded our Chinese primary school students to learn the outdated Jawi script.

I would like to ask our minister as well as other government big shots who wholeheartedly endorse the learning of Jawi whether Jawi competency will help lift our students’ performance in reading, mathematics and science, and significantly boost their PISA scores in the next report?

Our Chinese primary school students already have too many things to learn, and the teaching method is way behind time, not to mention the hurdle of connectivity they have to cross when they proceed to the secondary school. As such, their performance in reading, mathematics and science has become poorer and poorer over the years.

Instead of tossing lifebuoys to save our drowning students, the government is throwing them an additional burden in the form of Jawi calligraphy as if to make them sink further.

And the distance between us and the world is getting further and further apart!