The press statement by the education minister, ‘CGPA is not everything’ has triggered anger in the community. As we are all informed, the Unit Pusat Universiti-universiti (UPU) result has been announced and a lot of dramas are being staged. As usual, this year, too, we have witnessed students who complained and shed tears for not securing their choice of courses in public universities.

In such a scenario, the minister has released this statement that academic qualification solely is not sufficient enough for one to enroll in public university. Yes, totally agree with the objective which is to form a holistic community by setting challenging entry requirements for one to enroll in tertiary level public institutions.

But I am very much bewildered by the education system which cultivated a non-holistic stratum of students and finally expects a product encompasses extra curriculum activities including volunteerism. Quoting the National Blue Ocean Strategy in the sector of education looked beautiful and attractive. But is that what is really happening on the ground level?

It is senseless to see the entire system which has sowed cactus seeds and waiting to harvest edible fruits. Now it is easy for any ministry to introduce captivating policies to be implemented but what is being implemented is the most crucial part of the system. Unprepared teachers for the system, inadequate teaching and supporting materials are the greatest setback for the new complete and whole system to be implemented.

Government is pumping in millions of ringgit to strengthen the system every year. Sadly, every new education minister will have his new plans to be implemented and now education in Malaysia has become an experimental subject and the students are being the guinea pigs.

This scenario is definitely avertable under the very fair meritocracy system but all of us know that this ‘soft quota system’ is still in practice. In sum, the capability of qualified students has been questioned or doubted. Well, this is very common and the issue will be ‘solved’ or ‘cured’ by time. Yes, the problem will be forgotten in a few weeks’ time. We are losing high-calibre students and the nation doesn’t seem to be bothered by that.

Education is the key factor of the human capital development of a nation and definitely not the right platform to practice discrimination. Using words such as ‘competent’, ‘holistic’, ‘sustainable’, etc which indicates the roaring spirit of a policy is insufficient and the execution of action plans matters the most.

Now it is a fairy tale if one says that the system is being fair in fulfilling the needs of the students to pursue their tertiary level education. I am being realistic and it is time for us to see a transformation in the sector of education. Change or you will be changed.