SHAH ALAM: Secondary school students will have more streams to choose from if a proposal to that effect by the Higher Education Ministry goes through.
Deputy minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said that students would be better prepared for tertiary education if they were given more options beyond Science or Arts subjects.
"We follow developments by the Education Ministry to review the national education system.
"We have proposed that they re-look at the science and arts streaming in schools," he told reporters here.
Saifuddin said with more diverse streams, students would specialise in their areas of interest earlier and make them more employable.
"We can have a stream specifically for art and design, and other disciplines. There was a time when some schools had engineering classes," he said.
He added that some schools already offered a "non-Science, non-Arts" stream, where students could pick subjects such as economics and accounts.
He said although science stream students could take up extra subjects, they did not have the flexibility to drop a science subject such as biology, chemistry or physics.
"They already have the six core subjects (for SPM). Science students cannot drop (science subjects) but can take up extra (subjects) such as economics or accounts. But it is very heavy for them to take on so many," he said.
Asked if having more streams would confuse the students, who may not yet have decided on their career path, Saifuddin said it was the contrary as students nowadays were more decisive.
"Parents are more educated now compared to two decades ago, so they can help. And talking about choice, they always say that my child wants to do this and that, but there is not much choice and the student ends up having to pick either science or arts," he said.
