KUALA LUMPUR: "What is your dream wedding?" is now an SPM Bahasa Melayu oral examination question and parents as well as students are scratching their heads over the poser in the backdrop of Education Ministry's pursuit to incorporate higher order thinking skills within the curriculum.
One parent said her son's friend received the question, one of the few that were handed out during the recently-concluded tests.
"The child, who is a boy, was stumped for a bit. He was frustrated when he came out. Even I was stunned.
"This is the first batch of students of KSSM (Secondary School Standard Curriculum), they didn't have much time in schools (due to the pandemic) and as soon as they got in, the question is so explosive."
Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) president Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said she did not think that a 17-year-old should be thinking about marriage due to the prevalent issue of child marriages in the country or students marrying immediately or shortly after leaving school.
"Oral is about articulation and you can say why not, but I think questions should be on more relatable subjects. There is child marriages; they could have asked what's the right marriageable age instead, climate change, recycling, public transport, even Undi 18 which directly affects them as some of them would become the first batch of 18-year-olds to vote in the Johor state election."
"However, now since this issue is gaining traction among parents and students, the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate should come up with an articulate explanation as to why they chose this."
Sisters In Islam executive director Rozana Isa said it was totally outrageous that in the 21st century these were the kind of questions students in the Malaysian school system had to deal with.
"Given that we are in 2022 and have recently gone through a global pandemic that impacted everyone, surely the SPM oral questions can be more creative and relevant to the context that students are facing in their daily life. "
She also said it was worrying that this was the best that the ministry could come up with especially when students were facing grave academic and economic concerns with regards to access to virtual classrooms, internet facilities and gadgets as well as sustaining themselves throughout the period of movement restrictions.
"This question also seems to give emphasis to being marriage-centric, when we should be opening all possibilities to youth and letting them do what they want with their life in the future."
On social media, the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate also came under fire for the choice of question.
On Twitter, aemi7 said she had prepared for tough higher order thinking questions by reading up on facts and was given the poser instead. She also clipped her tweet with clown emojis.
bungaq l ia cuz work on Twitter said: "I found it so unnecessary why minors were being questioned these kind of things."
She also asked who came up with the question and how a child was expected to answer it.
Little Minx said: "Our birth rate too low is it that our edu(education) system has to impose Qs(questions) related to marriage to SPM takers."
She asked what the examination board meant by 'dream wedding', while listing out a host of more appropriate questions such as issues related to public transport and so on.
Others were also at a loss for words. batrisyia7 said: "Bro, if they asked me what was my dream wedding for my oral test, 3 minutes is not enough for me to explain."
feafea also expressed surprise: "I thought my oral questions (previously) were hard. wdym (what do you mean) 'perkahwinan idaman' (dream wedding) is a legit (legitimate question)"
nao!! who sat for the oral test said that she heard about the question and was wondering whether it was true.
Others such as khadija also took to Twitter to tell off the ministry by saying: "Sapa cakap aku nak kahwin (Who said I want to get married)"
However, Twitter user bibimbap believed the question was not unnecessary, adding that it fell under cultural themes.
"The answer should be like this (if you are a Malay), my dream wedding should be according to the Malay customs because I do not want the custom to be forgotten."