I was reading with great interest these past few days about the saga of the 128 "top scorers" that didn't get admittance into the local universities to read medicine, and also didn't even receive one of their top 6 (or was it nine) choices of courses to study. Actually i have a several points that i read that i feel are very very interesting points to ponder about.
Firstly, why on earth did it have to go all the way up to the Prime Minister to make the decision on whether to take them all in or not. I mean we already have a Higher Education (and Lower Education mind you) ministry already to handle all of this. Can't these people handle it themselves? Also, what steps are being taken to prevent this from happening next year? Will the PM have to step in again next year and do this all over again? This situation has happened so many times before and still i do not see any change in the situation, and from the way i see it, it will be happening time and time again until someone just bites the bullet and makes some changes.
Secondly, there obviously is a very valid reason why the universities have what they call "quotas" on the number of students that they are going to admit in a year and I am pretty sure, before the 128 students are being admitted, they have already filled up their quota of the year. So the "soalan cepu emas" here is, where on earth are the 128 slots to cater for these additional students are going to appear from? Are building and labs going to miracilously appear out of nowhere? Will there suddenly be huge increase of medical lecturers that will just drop from the sky? In reality, what will eventually happen is, classrooms in the universities will have to cater for more students and the lecturer / tutor to student ration will decrease, and hence universities *might not* be able to produce the quality of education that might be required to nurture these young medical students into future doctors. Universities have a right to decline additional students, top scorer or not, as the number of places allocated in the universities have been filled up. It happens everywhere else in the world.
Thirdly, what about the other top students that wanted to do subjects like engineering, or business and were not given a place in a university under the same circumstances? I am sure there are MORE of these students out there and what will happen if suddenly all of them decide to go to the papers with some other politician. Will the government bow again and make the classes in universities even more cramped and tutors and lecturers even more stretched out?
I am extremely happy for the 128 students do eventually get to study the course of their choices, and i am pretty sure that they are top students in their field and all. However, I am a bit alarmed at the way that some of them have reacted throughout the whole saga. I mean, everyone has disappointments (and i am sure the possibility of not getting to read medicine IS a HUGE one for them), but what makes a person is the way that one would act in the face of adversity. Sometimes you just need to accept the fact that you wont always get what you want to do, no matter how hard you try. That's a fact of life. There are other career paths out there that are just as honorable as being an MD, it's just the way you see it. You can only play with the cards that you are dealt with. It does't mean, though, that if you come across the first hurdle, just accept defeat and get on with life, but only after trying your best, and you still don't succeed, it's not the end of the world, and life does go on.
These 128 students can consider themselves extremely lucky that the government did them a major favour by re-opening the doors for them and i hope that they do eventually end up being good ethical Malaysian medical professionals that contribute to the country and society. In another country, like in UK for example, they will have been so lucky. I know a LOT of people, some of them my friends, some are not, who were top scorers as well, who didn't get admitted to medical school there since the universities there are extremely strict when it comes to admitting a student for medicine and are also very strict when it comes to their quota, since they do not want to compromise the quality of the education that they offer. When someone comes into an interview and says "Hey, i am a top scholar with straight A's", they will come back and answer "Whoopeedo... So what? We have thousands of other straight A applicants. What makes you stand out from them? What makes you think you will become a good doctor just by getting straight A's?"
That, after a few years out of studying, I myself have come to realize. Living life is not just about getting your straight A's and your top marks, but it is also about how you react to adversity and failure that is the true judge of one's character. Do you go home and cry to your mummy complaining that the world has some grudge on you, or you stand up and face it all like a man and move on. It's these times that seperate the weak from the strong.
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