Rohaya - PhD student

Ehem ehem, first blog!!! yeeeppaaaa!!!!

ok, to be serious now,
a bit of background info,

Rohaya is one of my PhD friends in UM, she is doing a PhD in instructional design. A lady with several years of experience behind her (won't say how many, lest i betray her age) in the field of education, she had some views on some issues...

Conversation began with a discussion regarding my scholarships application. My reaction was a very upsetting one, (of course, you'd be upset if you got 9As and no one wanted to give you nuts cos ur freaking BM was a stupid B!!!!!)
anyways, Rohaya says that A lot of kids who 'so called' score hebat are getting called for so many interviews, so im thinking, there would be free space left... why not me?????

No doubt, said Rohaya, its frustrating, she had to do Form 6 during her time, and that time, despite her results, even UiTM didn't call her. Apparently its just about whether god wants it for you or not. Eventually, though she did get called for an interview, one of the last batches and she got it. Good for her i thought.

You know what the problem is with today's education system? Too many kids are getting too damn many As. They are learning how to beat the system!! Eventually there will be so many kids with so many As, who will the scholarships go to??? How are they gonna shortlist candidates??

Rohaya says perhaps the system should be upgraded, the marking scheme be made a bit harder. Back during her times, 7as or 8as are like national stories, Nowadays its like 15as... bleah... But the thing is perhaps, everyone keepas flocking to scholarships like Petronas, JPA so they get backlogged. Other things have to be considered, not just the As. They begin to look into the nitty gritty of the subjects, the As, the Bs, which subjects..... they should give the applicants a chance to prove themselves in the interview, beyond the fact that they may have gotten a few Bs. They are just looking at academic, is it an A, is it a B?? But sometimes perhaps it is just better to not get a scholarship, you get the freedom to do whatever you want, study where you want, (assuming you are well off). On scholarships (especially JPA) you get tied down working with the government maybe for the next 7 years or so. She cited the example of her sister, who took a loan from JPA and is now working in a private firm, she is earning more than herself (Rohaya), who got a full scholarship from the government, despite the fact that they have the same academic qualifications. (BTW, Rohaya is working with the government). So, in other words, you took the choice of taking the scholarship with the government, therefore you have obligated yourselves to tie yourself to the government.

From there the conversation veered into government/private sector job pros and cons. Rohaya says that perhaps, she herself might be more suited to be in government, maybe other people might be suited to be in private sectors. Once again it gods will coming into play.
So between gov and private, both have pros and cons. If you want to be part of decision making, maybe the government is a better choice. Perhaps you feel more responsible because you have that power, so to speak. Furthermore, government is more secured. Unlike the risky private sector which can fire you at a whim (economic downturn etc..), but the remuneration is good. (higher risks higher returns lah).
Private also has better training facilities. According to her, a number of private companies are retraining their non-exec staff to become executives to cut costs on recruitment of new executives. In other words, semi-skilled workers are trained to become skilled workers/supervisors/production managers.

Then from there the conversation turned to the issue of graduates not finding jobs.
Rohaya says that its not the fault of the employers, perhaps the main reason why these kids can't find jobs is the fact that they are just not trying hard enough to find it. They are not willing to sacrifice enough time to look for that job. When they go for job interviews, the interviewers are looking for job experience, which they don't have, so they lament that how can they get experience if the interviewers don't give that job to them?? The thing is, if experience is the problem, then the graduates just have to set their sights lower and work as perhaps, clerical staff just to gain experience and work for a year or so, rather than just sit at home and mope. You have to start somewhere. Don't blame the system, blame yourself if you are out of a job.

At this point, Rohaya ditched me because apparently a lecturer she was looking for had walked into the building.