LIMIT OR UNLIMITED????

Recently the Ministry of Education announced that Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia candidates will only need to take ten subjects for the exams. This proposal creates controversial discussion citing pros and cons.The Minister of Education cited that the reasons being(a) the need for students to focus on ten subjects thereby giving opportunity for other aspects of development (b) a more systematic criterion for entry to universities(c) a more varied evaluation or grading (d) deployment of teachers to overcome shortage and (e) reducing urban-rural gap.While i must say there's some form of standardization and streamlining and that the reasons are themselves commendable we also have to look at the implications of such proposal when implemented. This is to ensure we can be ready with countermeasures.One point that needs to be taken is that the country is now pursuing the philosophy "the child is the jewel of the nation" and that academically talented children need to be given every opportunity to excel.This proposal would be regressive in the sense that we are not championing the said philosophy of the academically gifted. Secondly only 10% were said to have taken more than ten subjects ; they must be the superbly academically talented . Even if we limit to 10 subjects the normal curve will still appear with 10% achieving very good grades and 10% achieving extremely poor grades.We must also consider the group that has been taking more than ten subjects such as from the religious schools who will be left with no choice but to choose ten subjects.Definitely in terms of knowledge acquisition in a knowledge based society this group will be so deprived except if they venture outside the system to gain more knowledge.We do need statistics to show that indeed the 10% who took extra subjects did indeed tip the balance in terms of university entrance or they did not. If it is the latter then it would not be fair to deduce that the 10% who took more subjects created an upper elitist strata. If we believe in democratization of education we should allow flexibility in choosing the number of subjects.Parents being very demanding and aggressive nowadays will always looked forward to furnishing extra input for their children especially from the higher affluent groups. Yes indeed the same vicious cycle of the better will be best will be maintained. I should stress here whether one should indeed practice a more differentiated curriculum to cater a more varied group. I believe that the Ministry has the best of intentions but it is of paramount importance to determine the criterion of selecting ten most preferred subjects . In other words the Ministry will have to establish both the theoretical and working framework to establish this. Uniformity and homogeneity can be the order of the day but it should not stifle creativity in the long run after all the Vision 2020 takes care that all child will be given the fullest opportunity to excel in their own right.