Ｎａｆｉｓａ Ｎａｚｒｉｎ＇ｓ

Unequal achievement at school among students is mostly caused by 'social class' factor. It means that students from upper class often receives privileges in education and career opportunities rather than students from lower class. Hence, the social class issue has hampered students' ability to achieve academically. According to Bernstein, children from the upper and middle classes have an easier time adjusting to the school system. This might happened because they were exposed to early education at home which is similar to school's academic subjects. Unlike students from lower class, their first education is primary school. Only some of them have great parents that prioritize early education at home.

In addition, students from lower class are more likely to drop out of school earlier and disinterest in pursuing their studies in tertiary education because it requires large sum of money to spend on a child's education. The parents will not take the risk for that. Thus, the lower class students did not get the opportunity to change their family socioeconomic status by getting better and secure job. 

In my opinion, it is understandable for the parents for not supporting their children in education because of their financial instability. However, the bigger risk we are willing to face, the better result we might get. Plus, government has provided some incentives and supports for B40 family in many areas. For example, PTPTN and various scholarships to assist the students from lower class. Therefore, we can conclude that unequal achievement among students causes by social class are no longer valid since the era has changes. Parents has no reason to obstruct their talented and genius children from education just because of financial problem since there many ways to overcome that one problem.

Malaysia is a country with a multicultural society. Thus, we need to have an education system that equally meets all races' needs. However, before the Independence Day of Malaysia, the system was biased as the British Colonization implemented the Divide and Rule Policy. As a result, several education systems were used during that time, such as Chinese and Indian vernacular schools, madrasah and tahfiz, and English schools. The opportunity for some races to pursue studies in education is plenty since some of them comes from unfortunate family. 

Nonetheless, the Malaysian government keeps upgrading the education system following the current changes starting with a few reports; Barnes Report 1950, Fenn-Wu Report 1951, Education Ordinance 1952, Razak Report 1956, and Rahman Talib Report 1960 draws an outline, objectives, and policies of education. Malaysia's education policies always highlighted the importance of societal peace, harmony, respect, and togetherness between its people. 

Hence, the national education system holds an essential role in achieving the main objectives of our country, which is to promote unity between races. The education reform as proposed in the current system, KSSR and KSSM (upgraded version of KBSR and KBSM), to some extent helps unify the education system as it opens wider opportunities for students regardless of races to various elective subjects and become familiar with the university system (e.g., collaboration programs between High School and local universities). Through these opportunities, the students could explore their passion in many fields as well as mingle with various types of people at school.