LETTERS: Many dreams were either made or crushed around noon on Sept 25. It is the time when the results of public university intakes are released online. The mood in my house was sombre when the results came out.
My youngest daughter, who scored a CGPA of 4.0 in Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia and 9.2 points on her extra-curricular activities, learned that she was only offered her fifth and last choice of university courses, which she had applied for the sake of filling in all the slots.
Mind you, she did not even apply for the top three universities: Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) or Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for fear of being rejected.
Now she must decide whether to accept a course that is not in line with her dreams or pursue a costly private education. At least she has the luxury of choice. Most don't.
The daughter of my late friend, who also scored a CGPA of 4.0 and had an outstanding co-curriculum score, was offered to do an international studies course despite putting law as her top choice.
Now she has to abandon her dream of becoming a lawyer as her single mother can ill afford costly private education. She has a younger sister waiting in the wings.
There is something terribly wrong with our education system when the dreams of our brightest youths are crushed at the threshold of adulthood.
I am writing this in hope that the next generation will not suffer the same fate as my daughter and her friends.
The quota system has been strangling our nation since the 1970s. It is time we face the problem head on and abolish the system for higher education.
In school, students of all races study, play and compete with each other without distinction of race or religion. However, come university intake, they are segregated into groups that compete amongst their own race.
How can we ever foster true national unity when students at their most impressionable age are told that their efforts and scores mean less than their friends? That some are more privileged than others?
It is like clipping the wings of a hatchling when it is about to take flight — a scenario most non-Malays in the country would have experienced or seen at least once in their lifetime.
The quota system is also unfair for Malay students, who want to be recognised on their own merits.
But, because of the system, no matter how good they are in their own right, they have the nagging feeling that others will look at them as a product of hand-outs.
My own circle of Malay friends have told me how they feel about this invisible banner hanging over their head.
Quota system in our education has been slowly killing our national spirit and unity. We have lost our smartest and ablest students to foreign countries due to this system.
It is time we do something to fix the situation that has been slowly suffocating our nation.
My generation had suffered this, and now, my daughter's generation has also become a victim. The pain is a hundred-fold more when you see your children suffer the same fate as yours.
And if we don't do anything about it now, my daughter's children will suffer the same fate too.
MURUGESAN SINNANDAVAR
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times