This year intake to local universities is dominated again by girls. It is not surprising that 65% or 2 out of 3 successful applicants this year are girls since girls work much harder than boys. Boys are playful and not serious enough in their study. Imposing quota will only create ill-feeling and injustice since those girls that we are talking about might be our daughters, nieces and girl-friends.
There are many reasons why girls seem to dominate university entrance. I believe, our educational highway provides lot of exits for boys to stop by. Take for example, GIAT MARA, community college and polytechnic. To some extent, it is good to provide vocational training for those who cannot pursue their study in a scholarly pedantic way. Unfortunately, many would just stop over and find easy way out to earn little money to support their life. In doing so, many find hard to pursue their study as a result of heavy commitment to the new life.
Malay society in particular impose many rules and restrictions to girls. They are expected to behave in some particular ways. In many situations, girls are expected to help raising younger siblings when parents go to work. They clean the house, cook food for their family and complement domestic duties of the mother. When they grow-up, they seem to master their live in a short span of time. As we were told by a scholar, “If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.” Responsibility makes girls work hard in school. As a result, many earn good points or CGPAs which entitle them to take up good courses in university.
Epidemiological studies on the prevalence of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders world wide revealed that boys outnumbered girls in the prevalence of externalizing problem behaviors such as ADHD, conduct and oppositional defiant disorders as well as substance abuse and dependence. Many of them would be school drop-outs and would likely to acquire low salary jobs and suffer tremendous life events such as financial and marital problems which later lead to substance abuse and dependence. The figure released by National Anti-Narcotic Agency showed that majority (97.3%) of drug addicts in rehabilitation centers throughout the country are male.
So, let us resort back to the statement released by Datuk Dr Radin Umar Radin Sohadi, DG of Higher Education Dept, Ministry of Higher Education that the Ministry is not gender biased and there is no way the ministry can stabilize university intake involving genders as admission is strictly based on meritocracy. So keep the status quo, please..
Idea-logy 