Govt: Form 4 Students Can Choose From 89 Elective Subjects Starting 2020

About a week ago, the government announced that there will no longer be science/arts streams for Form 4 students. Instead of streams, the students will be given the liberty to choose their own subjects and they will have 89 elective subjects to select from. Wew… so. many. choices. 

NST wrote that the 89 elective subjects will help students figure out their preferred career path. Here’s the number of subjects offered in the STEM and Arts & Humanities packages:

• 36 subjects – STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) 
• 53 subjects – Humanities & Arts 

According to the Education Ministry’s deputy director-general (policies and development) Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim, the new curriculum (Secondary School’s Standard Curriculum, KSSM) will group students according to the subjects which they choose from the above-mentioned packages.

On that note, Dr Habibah advised students to pick their subjects wisely because it paves the way for their future. She also added that the students can change subjects midway through schooling, but noted that it will not be an easy feat because there will be a lot of catching up to do. That said, the setting of classroom will remain the same as they will be seated in fixed classrooms. She was quoted as saying,

 “Meaning, instead of having students move from one classroom to another to attend lessons for different (elective) subjects, they would still study in the same classroom.”

Therefore, these students will no longer be separated by “their capabilities”; but nonetheless, she said that some schools in Malaysia will not offer all 89 elective subjects. They will have to cater the programs according to the man-power and facilities available in their school.

On the other hand, the Curriculum Development Division director Dr Mohamed Abu Bakar shared,

“If some students are looking at furthering their studies in medicine, the civil engineering subject may not be suitable for them. Input from experts, including those in local higher learning institutes, were taken into consideration when formulating the content of the elective subjects.”

What are your thoughts on this new information? Let us know in the comments below!