When Nur Amalina Che Bakri made history by scoring 17A1s in the SPM examination, she was given celebrity treatment by the government and media. But what about those at the other end of the spectrum?

The nation appears to have forgotten the underachievers or slow learners, a discussion in Kuala Lumpur heard yesterday.

"Despite all reforms and changes in our education system, underachievers and dropouts in primary and secondary schools still pose a serious problems," said T Kuna Cegeram, deputy secretary-general of the National Union Teaching Profession (NUTP).

He said the main concern was not about the dropouts, but students who were physically present in classrooms but mentally absent.

"These mental dropouts or functional dropouts are of real concern," he told the one-day roundtable discussion on education for underachievers and school dropouts in Malaysian schools.

According to him, the rate of 'mental dropouts' had worsened over the last few years in all schools.

For this year alone, he estimated that out of more than 200,000 primary school pupils in Perak, about 16,000 will proceed to secondary schools without being able to read or write.

As for the secondary level, he said at least 50 to 80 students in most schools were 'mental or functional' dropouts.

The NUTP also has recorded cases of students completing secondary school without being able to read or write.

Five aspects

Panelists and experts at the discussion agreed that the problem could be divided into five aspects, namely the students themselves, their family background, teachers, school management and the education system as a whole.

Kuna Cegeram said there were teachers who concentrated on bright pupils alone and have no time for the slow learners.

Among the other problems, he added, was the classroom-based teaching method as well as students not going through pre-school.

When these underachievers move on to secondary schools, the problem is aggravated due to the curriculum content and since there is no remedial teaching in schools, they become further alienated from their peers.

Ineffective approaches

Another panelist, Dr A Aziz Ibrahim, the former chief executive officer of technical training school Giat Mara Malaysia, said the traditional approaches towards this problem are 'entirely ineffective'.

As a result, he added, these students become invisible in classrooms and wish to remain so. The reward and punishment system no longer motivates them.

He said these underachievers must be hooked with things that are of interest to them such as vocational subjects.

Aziz also called for the examination oriented system to be scrapped and replaced with a competency-based assessment system.

The formality of classroom learning must also be reduced while training centres must employ a creative form of learning that identifies the students' talents and provide opportunities for them to explore and develop, he added.

Also speaking at the discussion, Senator Lee Sing Chooi said the 'remove' class - a transitional class for students from vernacular primary schools who enter national secondary schools - must be fully utilised and applied to weak students from national primary schools as well.

Political will

Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) commissioner N Siva Subramaniam noted that the long school break after the UPSR (standard six examination) results are announced should be seen as an opportunity 'to do something' for the underachievers.

He also stressed on the need for a strong political will to implement drastic changes in the education system and a committed teaching force.

Academic Dr NS Rajendran touched on the importance of conducting an in-depth study on the problem and taking the appropriate action.

The 80-odd participants at the discussion also felt that the government was not giving the due attention to this problem and called for a revamp of the education system.

Early detection

In his keynote address, Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister G Palanivel acknowledged that immediate action was vital since there is no 'early detection system' in schools to assist underachievers.

"When they are detected, it is too late, it is mostly after the juvenile court orders them to be sent for counseling. Many issues connected with this problem have to go back to the Education Ministry and the families concerned," he said.

However, he said these were merely his viewpoints and not a proposal to the Education Ministry as the matter does not fall under his ministry's purview.

Speaking to reporters at the event later, Deputy Education Minister Mahadzir Mohd Khir said Palanivel's comments need to be studied as parents could misinterpret the 'early detection system' as another form of examination.

When asked, the deputy minister said he has no information on the current situation or possess statistics of underachievers because it was difficult to identify them.

"It is not right to blame us (Education Ministry) and say we are not doing anything. In every corner of the world, there will be slow and fast learners. We still need cooperation from parents, don't just leave the problem to us," he added.

The one-day forum was jointly organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute and Yayasan Strategik Sosial.