This point interests me, because I keep hearing comments about how
"Malaysia's secondary school syllabus has been watered down", and I am actually wondering how true that statement really is.
I have been exposed to both the SPM and Cambridge GCE syllabuses before, having done my secondary school both in Malaysia and Singapore in the early-1990's:
1. I took Malaysia's
Matematik Tambahan and Singapore's
Additional Mathematics textbooks and past year papers (i.e. SPM vs. GCE 'O' Levels), and laid them side-by-side. The syllabus was
almost exactly the same.
2. SPM Biology required students to study most of the bones in the human body. Singapore's G.C.E 'O' Level Biology covered only four (4) bones on the arm.
(I am aware that G.C.E. and IGCSE are not the same thing, but I am guessing that they should be at least comparable in standard.)
Does anyone have any concrete data and information to support or debunk the claim that Malaysia's secondary school syllabus has really been watered down, at least for Mathematics and Sciences? Note that I am referring to the
syllabus content and
level of difficulty, not the
marking scheme (which is another big topic for debate) or the
quality of teaching (which is highly-dependent on individual schools and teachers).
I agree with the first part about the optimum combination being SJK©+SMJK©. When I was doing my senior high school in Singapore, one of my schoolmates was ex-Catholic High School PJ. He was winning Chinese essay awards, trouncing his Singaporean classmates, and his English was strong enough to keep up with the Singapore standards.
On that basis, I personally believe that more SMJK©'s are required to meet the high demand (I saw two newspaper articles about Catholic High School appealing for a branch school to be established, as it is the
only SMJK© in the whole of Petaling Jaya, and has to turn away a large number of applicants).
My friend a PhD holder work as private tutor for secondary school physics. He said spm syllabus is tougher than International school (he did not quote which international syallbus, but surely not UEC). however, he said international student tends to be more creative when they are approaching the question, vs SPM holder are straight to the answer with no bullshit.