Malaysian Examination Syndicate's Big Bluff

Yesterday, I blogged about the concern raised by parents with regards to the fact that the religion of a student sitting for the PMR examinations being printed on the candidate's slip. The excuse which was given by the director of the Malaysian Examination Syndicate (MES), Dr Salleh Hassan, was to determine the number of Moral and Islamic Studies examination papers to print and “to prevent candidates who are non-Muslims from sitting for the Islamic Studies paper whether by accident or design”.

The reason given wasn't reasonable because you don't have to print the student's religion on the candidate's slip to determine the quantity of examination papers. Neither are candidates required to state their subjects on the slips to know whether they are taking those subjects (e.g., Sejarah), so why the need to print the candidate's religion?

The reason provided was silly enough to justify MES officials' incompetence and hence I didn't "dig" further. But little did I know that the officials' incompetence was so astounding that it appears that the reason given was a total fabrication!

As reported in the Star yesterday, Moral Studies are not taught or examined at PMR level! Moral Studies is only examined as an SPM subject for non-Muslims! What was Dr Salleh Hassan talking about???

Parents are rightfully angry with the reasons provided.

[They] are calling on the Cabinet to explain why PMR candidates need to indicate whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims in their registration slips.

“We demand to know what exactly is going on,” said an irate parent from Penang who was shocked to learn that Moral Studies was suddenly “included” in the PMR examination.

M. Gnanasegaran, a parent from Shah Alam, said the ministry’s explanation was not acceptable in a multi-racial nation and the Cabinet must discuss this serious matter. “People fear that there is a hidden agenda behind the requirement.”

MES, having now dug a deep hole for itself, have no choice but to dig deeper. It continued to reiterate it's stand, but this time removing the "Moral Studies" reference.

“In order to avoid incidents whereby the Islamic Studies paper is administered to a non-Muslim candidate without the parents’ written consent, the MES requires that the registration and pre-printed identification slip placed on each candidate’s table contain information on his religion.”

You know what's wrong with the above? Students not taking the Islamic Studies paper would NOT be sitting in the examination hall for that paper. So how in the world would these non-Muslim candidates be administered with the Islamic Studies paper is completely beyond comprehension.