Higher education over-commercialised

Higher education too costly

I refer to your report “Education fair a huge success”(Star,Feb21).

Yes, the fair was a great service for our students and their parents for providing the opportunity to scout for the institutions of higher learning and enhance their career. Come beginning of each new year parents and students are thrown into confusion of what course and which university to choose. Today there are so many such institutions of higher learning offering so many courses that the confusion becomes even greater.

The sad thing is nowadays our students are not provided career guidance when in schools. The system just encourages excellence in examination only, so much many of our school-leavers are uncertain of what course is suitable for them.

The rapid privatization of our tertiary education, I feel, is disastrous for the future on the nation. Most of the private institutions of higher learning (IPTS) are not fully equipped to conduct the courses that they advertise. They try to overcome this inadequacy by establishing twinning programs with foreign universities. The phrase “get British degree right in Malaysia” is a familiar advertisement in our papers these days.

Today, parents have to come up with huge sums of money to provide decent education for their children. This may go into hundreds of thousands of ringgit and not many parents can afford that. Even pre-university courses have become expensive.
Why can’t our own public universities twin with these private institutions to provide their degrees at an affordable fee?

The system of encouraging private universities and colleges has made the once popular local STPM examination irrelevant. STPM is a time-tested and reliable examination which has been there for so long. It is now replaced with the A-level and matriculation examinations which are foreign and costly.

The government should check the haphazard growth of private universities and colleges. It has the responsibility to ensure that both the public and private institutions provide quality education at an affordable cost

Dr.C.Anthony