Introduce sandwich year instead!

Now the Higher education Ministry is considering that Undergrad courses may be lengthened by a year.

Time do flies, histories are madew, written and studied, but rotten politicians never learn!

In 1995, a graduate of Nottingham University (someone also claimed that he never really graduated!) proposed that universities shorten the undergraduate courses so that graduates can enter the employment sector faster. This chap, the current deputy Prime Minister, in his capacity as the Education Minister made local universities authorities shorten their 4-year-degree courses to 3 years and as a result, 1999 saw the introduction of half-baked local graduates to the employment! This persist for 3 donkey years!

Now that the industry is facing acute shortage of vacancies for graduates, another hair-brained idea is cooked-up. Admit it! The real reason is there are no jobs for the prospective graduates.

Universities prepare graduates to handle all sorts of jobs in the market, but, none is specific. It is the graduates themselves who are supposed to adapt the knowledges that they gathered through-out their academic years to excel in their employment.

The fact is this is not the case! Most of the local graduates are only memorisers of facts and duplicate these during university exams, securing good grades. They are merely memorising machines, not learned individuals who managed to gain knowledges that could be used as their trade-tools. Without these tools, these memorising machines failed miserably at work!

However, the root of the problem actually starts earlier on. Malaysian school system has failed to produce thinking Malaysian, generally. Thinkers that went through the same system are actually geniuses at their own making. They made themselves thinkers and not the education system. These thinkers also have their good parents or associates to thank for their achievements.

On the aspect of internship, a-year out can help the needy. Let students go for a year out if they need to prepare themselves with industrial experience. A compulsory industrial year should never be a solution, it should only be an option. The practical experience of 10 to 12 weeks (some universities insists on almost 24 weeks) should also be made an option rather than a graduation requirement. Most industries are incapable of accomodating short-terms trainee!

Overhaul the education system, right from bottom, all the way up. At the same time, overhaul the government. Elect correct politicians to power and dump all the BN stooges!


The Star Online > Nation

Wednesday April 20, 2005
Undergrad courses may be lengthened by a year

SEPANG: The Higher Education Ministry is considering extending undergraduate programmes in public universities by a year in its bid to equip students with practical skills demanded by the workforce.

The additional year will be used for a longer internship programme for students to get on-the-job training and experience before graduating.

Minister Datuk Dr Shafie Mohd Salleh acknowledged that the existing 10- to 12-week internship was not long enough and that employers did not take the students seriously, given the short stint.

“They end up asking the students to do things like photocopying and making coffee,” he told reporters yesterday after chairing a dialogue session between his ministry and industry representatives.

He added that the matter would have to be studied and brought to National Higher Education Council as it would involve a change in policy.

“We have to find some sort of balance between training through internship programmes and university-learning,” he said, responding to a memorandum by the Malaysia International Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI) presented at the meeting.

The MCCI said it supported longer corporate attachments “that can genuinely deliver some work environment experience to students rather than the notional periods so often seen at present.”

However, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Salleh Mohd Yasin, who was also at the press conference, said certain corporations had worked out programmes for the short internship stint that had benefited students.

“Some of them know it is only 10 weeks so they prepared a very intensive module for students,” he added.


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