THE report, "Revamp for Form Six" (NST, July 6) on the Education Ministry's rebranding of Form Six to make it an attractive pre-university proposition will be a welcome relief for Form Six students.
Under the new structure, students will be taken out of schools and pooled in an independent learning system. They will have a different set of teachers and a revamped learning timetable to better suit its status as a pre-university course.
To shed the school image, Form Six students would no longer be wearing uniforms. A modular three semester system similar to pre-university and matriculation courses would be adopted.
Hopefully with this move, more Form Five students would opt to pursue Form Six after the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination. Today, many students after finishing SPM opt to further their tertiary studies in local and foreign universities.
There have been cases of many SPM high achievers who attend foundation programmes in universities and face problems and fail their studies. This is because these school-leavers do not have the maturity or the study skills of higher learning.
In secondary school, these students are practically pampered with extra classes and tuition.
However, in campus, students will find that they have to manage their own time and engage in independent study most of the time. The students are responsible for their own learning and it takes self discipline to do well in their studies.
And many students lack this knowledge and skill in adapting to university life.
Students after SPM do not have the required maturity and ability to study independently and, therefore, it would be advisable that all high achievers take the traditional route to university that is to take the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia examinations.
Form Six education would expose the students to the required transitional strategies to adapt to university life.