Computer Constraint Behind Race Blunder

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Computer Constraint Behind Race Blunder

Written by Peter Boon and Margaret Apau

Saturday, 04 December 2010 10:52

William Ghani Bina

Kuching: When parents receive their children's report cards, they're usually concerned over grades but last week, six parents were fretting over race when their children received their mid- and yearend report cards.

In a letter to Sarawak Teachers' Union (STU) president William Ghani Bina last week, the parents complained that their children's racial status had been changed from Lun Bawang, Kelabit and Iban to ‘Keturunan Melayu'.

When contacted yesterday regarding the race discrepancy in the six students' report cards, principal Robin Udau explained that the submission of the students as ‘Malay' was non-political, but a makeshift remedy to an administrative problem with the computer programme.

"Since the exam analysis software that we are using is from Johor, it only provides four columns for race: Malay, Chinese, Indian or Lain-Lain," he said.

Since ‘Lain-Lain' did not include non-Muslim Bumiputeras, the school put them under the Malay category for the MoE's statistical purposes.

"That way they can see how each race group fares academically. While the system give us an overview of individual student performance over the course of the year, it also can help us gauge the whole school's academic performance," he said, adding that information on the latter would be forwarded to the MoE.

The computer system has been used for a year now, over the course of which they usually revert back the student's race to the original denomination on the report card.

"Within our own school's registration system, students are registered according to their birth certificates," he assured, stressing that the information on the exam analysis programme would not change the information on the birth certificate.

Ghani took immediate action, meeting up with the deputy director of the State Education Department, Jaidah Alek to discuss the matter.

"On Thursday, I sought clarification from the director-general of education Datuk Ghafar Mahmud on the matter and was told that this was due to the results from the examination analysis system or Sistem Analisis Peperiksaan (SAP) sent by the examination unit of MoE," he said yesterday.

As such, parents need not be unduly worried over the matter as it would be amicably resolved soon, he assured, thanking parents for highlighting the matter.

"We respect Islam as the official religion of Malaysia and, in this country, all races live together harmoniously like brothers and sisters," Ghani noted, thanking Ghafar for his rapid response in the matter.

He appealed to the parents not to blame the school or teachers on this matter as rectifications were underway.

"But I do hope such things will not happen again and hope that MoE will be more careful in handling such matters in future," he said.

Nonetheless, he believed that some schools still face such problems.

"Check with STU or the department concerned," Ghani advised. -- Courtesy of The Borneo Post Online