Lately, i read few columnists in the papers commenting that Malaysian is having world class infrastructure but with 3rd class mentality. I pondered on this simple but striking metaphor and think it is quite true based on many examples we have today.

To cite a few, we have one of the best airports in the world, first security chip embedded passport in the world, state of the art flood mitigation project-SMART tunnel, KLCC, KL Tower, LRT, Monorail, and many more prominent architectures. But how frail we see the airport management & utilization after > few years in use, just look at the passenger volume generation, the recent disclosure of the passport faking incidents, and the flash floods haunting the capital city like an annual event, the sudden electricity outages in major cities or industrial areas, the occasional landslides which never fail to prevail!!

Last week, i read a news about Malaysia is going to  have the First Gifted School by 2011,another first world’s infrastructure.  See news excerpts:

The Stars (Thursday April 16, 2009)

School for the gifted by 2011

KUALA LUMPUR: The country’s first boarding school for gifted and talented children will soon be set up in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia with co-operation from the Johns Hopkins University Centre for Talented Youths.

The school, expected to be operational by 2011, with an enrolment of 80 Form Four and Form Five students, is part of the National Permata Pintar programme.

The programme’s patron, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, said the school would only accept gifted children with an IQ of above 130.

“The boarding school will be for local students and it is located in the UKM campus,” she told a press conference. She said the Government would allocate RM20mil to build the school and the centre would train the teachers. The project is expected to cost RM80mil. (TK: For 80 pax admission,thus each student is spending taxpayers’ money of RM 1 mio in this.)

Children aged between nine and 15 can take the online IQ test at www.permatapintar.com.my where they need to answer 60 questions within an hour in English or Malay.

Upon passing the test, the student would then sit for another test and interview. Only 300 students would be chosen for the holiday camp.

The Permata Pintar programme aims to search, identify and mould gifted children intellectually and socially.“But when they come to programmes like these, they are valued for being smart and nurtured to be smart.”

This is the news and you can see the serious emphasis given by the First Lady in this project,but not from the Education Minister or his officers,what a joke to me really!

Well, I am not against having the gifted school for our children but is this needed now?Are we having a lot of gifted children around us? I do not know of any in my neighborhood, do you?

- Then, what do you think about our current education system and its quality? Have we produced enough world class academicians,scientists, IT innovators or a single Nobel laureate who can create an impact to the world,like Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Mark Zukerberg, Steve Jobs,Rev Jesse Jackson, Anthony Robins and following list of people?

The most gifted people we have till today are mostly good in politicking like Khairy J, Buang Mohktar, Elizabeth Wong, Mohd Khir Toyo, Karpal Singh, and maybe some good businessmen,athletics, singers,entertainers but not scientists, inventors except only a handful who are famous in the regions.

- What about our slacking university performances in the areas of researches,innovations,least in the world rankings of all universities in the world.Our very own Top UM is not even in the list yet!

See last year list:

To see full list: check out this link: http://www.topuniversities.com/university_rankings/results/2008/overall_rankings/top_100_universities/

- Even on which language to be used as the teaching medium for the certain subjects, the government is also indecisive till now!

I guess our First Lady is an ardent fan of the X-Men in which X Mansion for the gifted children in the movie could be the one giving the idea of this Malaysia’s first gifted school! I wish we can have some Y men in future. But i wondered why the Opposition never disputed this idea at all. Luckily,a fellow Malaysian is having the same thought as me and had his opinion published in the Star earlier,see his intelligent and professional views which echoes my TK senses on this nonsensical project from the Government! Opps! Wait! No ler, this is from a housewife ler…..“beh pai mah”! I think our First Lady deserves a better role in this government,maybe should emulate the wife of Singapore PM, being the CEO of the State owned Temasek,though recently resigned unexpectedly! Ours can be the chief of Khazanah or PNB or equivalent weighted GLC.

IQ test not an accurate indicator

SCHOOL for the gifted? Since when is IQ an indicator of “giftedness”? Coming from a psychology background, IQ is not an indicator of anything, the least so smartness or success.

To screen children through an IQ test conducted online is not at all an accurate and reliable indicator. Proper IQ assessment looks at a few components, including verbal skill, processing speed, general knowledge, mathematics, and logical/perceptual reasoning skills.

These tests are highly intensive and lengthy, not to mention that it can only be conducted by professional therapists and psychologists.

Creating a school for the gifted will have more aversive than positive effects on society and the future generation. There may be a sense of elitism, even a sense of rejection and inferiority for children not accepted into the school. Why reinforce elitism in our already very segregated society where emphasis on success and power dominates?

And what is the definition of being gifted? How do you explain a child who obtains an IQ of 140 but fails his subjects in school because he is not motivated to learn? Or a child who falls in the superior range of intelligence on a non-verbal intelligence test but has a learning disorder and therefore, is unable to read or write?

Why the sudden need to emphasise on smart children to be nurtured to be smarter when for a long time we have cases of individuals with learning disorders being neglected. The RM80mil channelled to making smart children smarter also neglect other children who are average or less smart.

Let’s not leave out the fact that average people make up the majority in any population.

Modern society has understood and accepted the fact that EQ and social intelligence is a much more promising indicator of success.

Let’s face it, the key to being successful is having the ability to understand and to connect to people, not just by calculating mathematics the fastest or trying to explain abstract visual shapes and dots logically.

Let’s move towards equipping our children with people skills. The money invested in gifted schools could be used to add a syllabus of psychology in mainstream schools, or help children with learning difficulties instead. Let’s build a greater nation as a whole, not a partially great nation.

FUTURE PSYCHOLOGISTS,

Kuala Lumpur.