KULAI MP Teo Nie Ching urged the Education Ministry (MOE) to clarify whether it indeed had posed a question on what are the students “dream wedding” in its SPM Bahasa Melayu oral test.
“I urge the MOE to verify whether the question was really asked in the oral test for SPM. If it’s true, then those responsible should apologise to all Form 5 students and their parents.
“At the same time, MOE should also work towards coming up with questions that will improve students’ thinking skills in the future,” she said, in a statement.
Recently, social media went abuzz when several students and parents complained that they were asked to talk about their “dream wedding” during the SPM Bahasa Melayu oral test.
The incident drew ire from Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) president Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim and Sisters in Islam executive director Rozana Isa.
“It was totally outrageous that in the 21st century these were the kind of questions students in the Malaysian school system had to deal with.
“Given that we are in 2022 and have recently gone through a global pandemic that impacted everyone, surely the SPM oral questions can be more creative and relevant to the context that students are facing in their daily life,” New Straits Times reported Rozana as saying.
Echoing the duo’s sentiments, Teo said that such questions were not supposed to be asked to Form 5 students as they were only 17 years of age.
The former deputy education minister added that teenagers should not be even thinking about marriage as they should be focused on their studies instead.
“Students should be thinking about whether they have excelled enough in their studies and whether their families can afford the fees of their dream universities,” Teo stressed. – Feb 13, 2022.
Main photo credit: Borneo Post Online
