Let’s start with the achievement that I opine is a wise decision which deserves compliment from all of the Malaysians. I’m sure all of the students in Malaysia rejoiced when they heard that starting from next year onwards all the students in Malaysia will not need textbooks anymore as the textbook loan scheme will be made available to all students regardless the amount of income of the family. This is really a wonderful step to improve our education system. This should alleviate the burdens of impoverished students who are unable ineligible to get the textbook loan scheme either because he or she is an immigrant or because the textbook stock is limited. Even so, I’m sure that there also many students who prefer buying their own textbooks if they really use them to do their revision considering the advantages having your own textbooks. When you buy your own textbooks, you can do whatever you want with your textbook. You won’t need to be afraid of sketching it or damaging it as you are not obliged to pay for it if you damaged it or lost it. There are so many thing that you can do to the textbook that you own to help you to improve your revision. For example: you can highlight the keywords in the notes of your textbooks and you can also jot down extra notes during class. I think that one should not be afraid to fork a few hundred ringgits to buy textbooks because they are one of the best and reliable sources of knowledge when compared to other revision books. One should not be thrifty when it comes to knowledge as they are also a type of worthy investment for our future. People who prefer using textbooks to other revision books in the market should have realised that some of the notes in certain revision books are incomplete while some other have additional notes that are not in our syllabus. If you bought the wrong revision book, you will encounter some problems when revising. I’m telling you this because I myself have encountered this problem before. Plus, reading different types of revision books at the same time can also get you confused because their styles are different from one another. Here are some of the books that I regret buying and I strictly recommend other not to buy also. Do not believe in what the publishers usually claim such as “We are the no.1 publisher in the country” or the comments from teachers that are printed on the back of their book because normally they would only choose the compliments out of all the comments by the teachers.
Below are the books that I have blacklisted:
Don't trust the award printed at the front of the page. This book does not deserve the award.
If you want the formulae to solve your maths questions, you can refer to your textbook.
Instead of making it easier for you to understand Biology, this book makes it harder.
Don't believe what they say. These teachers are probably bribed.
After considering all the advantages of having a textbook, I would recommend students to buy their own textbooks if possible unless you really cannot afford to buy them. Since the textbook loan scheme will be made available to all students starting next year, most book stores such as “Popular” have removed their textbooks from their shelves. So, it would be a little difficult to buy textbooks next year.
Now let us proceed to the next agenda. A while ago, I was being more of supportive citizen, now is my turn to be a critic. While everybody is cheering for the launch of our first astronaut into space, I was not happy about it. I don’t criticizing the first launch because the first RM3.42 billion cost of training and transport was sponsored by Russia. I was referring to the plan of second launch of our astronaut into outer space again. I don’t think our country should be involved in any space research or activities yet. May be I would advocate this project after we reached the year 2020 but not now. Keep in mind that our country is still a DEVELOPING COUNTRY and not a DEVELOPED COUNTRY. That RM3.42 billion budget can be used on so many sectors and fields to improve our country, our nation. Does our country really have the capabilities and technology to send our own astronauts to outer space? The answer is obvious! No!!! We don’t even have our own control centre to monitor the development at space. We don’t even have the technology to build a spacecraft. The satellites that our country launched into outer space were built by other countries. Our country still doesn’t have the basic necessities needed to indulge in space exploration. Before we should even think about space exploration, we should first use the public funds wisely to develop the country especially the rural areas in Malaysia such as Sabah, Sarawak, Terengganu and Kelantan. Instead of using the public funds to provide our country with space exploration technology, why don’t we use the money to provide our universities with better infrastructures and facilities? Do you know that our universities rank lower than 300 among all the universities in the world? That means that our universities are inferior to many other universities in the world. How are we supposed to compete internationally in terms of education? That huge sum of money should also be used to increase the salaries of the public servants such as teachers, police officers, etc. I do really pity our teachers. Some of them have so many impressive degrees and diplomas but the wages they receive every month are even less than the salary that my father receive. Some of them have taught for so many years yet their salaries are only around RM2000. The situation aggravates when the government prohibits teachers from working as part-time tutors to earn extra income without permission. The government fears that the teachers will neglect their duty at school if they are too busy with their part-time tutoring. This isn’t the right thing to do. Think about it rationally. How does a teacher with a miniscule salary of RM2000 can cope with highly-cost lifestyle in the city? Everything sold in the market is getting more expensive every year. According to a newspaper report, our living expenditures have gone up by 120% since the 1999. The prices of our basic necessities such as petrol, food, flour, water and electricity have soared so high over the past few years but their income still remains the same. So, the government should raise their salaries instead of preventing them from giving part-time tutoring. In my opinion, our teachers should be given higher salaries because their occupation is a noble job which will shape the fundamental pillars of our nation. Those fundamental pillars are our youths who will determine the future of our country.
