Students gripe over extra lessons

KUALA LUMPUR: Not another moral subject, sighed secondary and Higher Learning Institutions (IPT) students upon hearing about plans to have anti-corruption modules in their studies.

While students interviewed by The Star said they admired the effort to teach anti-corruption to youth, especially in light of reports of corruption in the country, the students felt this would be yet another subject for them “to remember for exams”.

College student Christopher Wong, 21, said the description of the new modules reminded him of the secondary school moral subject, which he felt was too rigid and flawed.

“The approach is wrong. In school, we were just given 36 values to remember for exams but there are more than 36 values in life.

“The way it is taught is like students are being forced to believe what the value is. Everyone has different values,” he said.

Form Three student Matthew Liu, 15, said modules on ethics that were taught in school are rarely applied after the exams.

“They have been doing a lot of campaigns to encourage people to stop bribery but you can still see it happening. So, what are the chances that this will be effective?” he asked.

University student Joylene Ling, 21, said higher education students might view the new modules as a compulsory “throwaway” subject like Malaysian Studies.

“Half the time, we don’t even attend the classes,” she admitted.

“Corruption depends on the individual and how they were brought up. They should be teaching this to primary school pupils because by the time we are in university, we already have our values set in,” Ling added.

Students Grace Leong and Cassandra Anne, both 15, felt the modules might benefit socie­ty as a whole but dreaded the extra studies.

“The adults taking bribes are setting an example for the children, they do it so we may end up doing it. So it’s a good idea because most students may not understand this is wrong. But the extra subject is going to be a burden,” said Grace.

Cassandra added: “We are already so stressed for our PT3 with all these subjects and now they want to add on another one?”

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said it was working with the Education and Higher Education Ministries to include anti-corruption modules in school subjects like language, moral and religious studies from the primary level.