BACHELOR OF PSYCHOLOGY

SEMESTER 2 SEPTEMBER 2019

OUMH1203

ENGLISH FOR WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

MATRICULATION NO : 911120025999001
IDENTITY CARD NO. : 911120025999
TELEPHONE NO. : +6011-10026389
E-MAIL : faiezmuszafa@oum.edu.my
LEARNING CENTRE : ALOR SETAR LEARNING CENTRE
TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………………………………..i

ESSAY OUTLINE ………………………………………………………………………………ii
INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………………….1
COMMUNICATION OBSTACLES ……………………………………………………….….2-3
SCHOLARSHIPS OR GRANT PROMOTION …………………………………………….…4-5
MINDSET OF PEOPLE FROM RURAL AREAS ……………………………………..……..6-7
UNIVERSITIES REGISTRATION FEES ………………………………………………..…...8-9
CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………………………………10
BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………………………...……..11

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ESSAY OUTLINE

Education Inequality in Malaysia

- Students in Rural Schools Does Not Aware of Scholarship or Grant That are Available

Introduction

Communication Obstacles
- Bad reception of internet network coverage
- Unstable electric supply
- Limited facilities

Scholarships or Grant Promotion

- The education carnival
- Education carnival in rural areas

Mindset of People in Rural Areas

- Parents do not agree on their children furthering studies
- University graduates hard to get a job
- Unchanged lifestyle even if furthering studies

Universities Registration Fees

- Preparation before entering university
- Deposit money before getting the scholarship
- Financial issue

Conclusion

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INTRODUCTION

Inequality or being unequal in term of social, economic, healthcare or specifically in education

(Inequality, n.d.) does exist in Malaysia. Inequality in education system appeared when the income
inequality arose either in urban or rural schools in Malaysia (Tan, Ho, & Pang, 2016) which then
divides the income inequalities into two different groups. With these inequalities, a lot of the
students from the rural area schools were isolated and thus unaware of grants and scholarships that
might be available.

I agree with the assignment statement that there is a gap between urban and rural schools in
Malaysia. Few issues need to be surcease either in economic, social, cultural or even educational
(Lynch & O’riordan, 1998). As a student myself, I would like to propose a few suggestions that
Malaysia can apply to our education system which can make differences to these students from
rural schools to achieve their goals towards higher education.

Aside from how isolated rural school is doesn’t defined how bad it is from the urban school. Some
people might say those stay in rural areas should stay there. There is no need for them to migrate
from rural to urban areas. Well, that does sound a bit single-sided right? And is it true that people
in rural areas are being discriminate even in the education field? Thus, a better explanation will be
elaborated in this essay besides the solution that we should find to overcome this issue.

People also might wonder, is this situation happen in rural schools? Some may say that they
already encountered people from rural areas to receive great scholarships and others may say some
students from rural schools even manage to further their studies overseas. So, does the issue
relevant enough to be brought up? Does it need to involve the higher authorities to take actions on
people who responsible for sending out the scholarship or grants to these rural schools or these
students?

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COMMUNICATION OBSTACLES

Communication can be defined as a process of transferring something to another person, for

example, a message. Then the message will then receive by another person who is called a receiver.
The person who sent the message will then be called the sender. When a sender sent a message,
the receiver should be able to interpret the message well ("Definition Of Communication English
Language Essay," n.d.) but in our case, it isn't. The rural schools are unable to interpret the
information due to the receiver does not receive any information about grants or scholarships
because of a few factors that need to be explained later in this essay.

Internet or in other words are information that can be produced, transmitted and even received by
other people through computer system by a certain network (Slevin, 2007). However, the network
coverage in Malaysia itself is horrible when making phone calls in rural areas and for information
sharing through the internet also makes it more difficult thus to even share the information about
the scholarships to students in rural schools through the internet seems not reliable enough.

Addition to that, to use internet students need to access to a computer which is also difficult
because the cost of a computer can be considered not cheap and access to cybercafé itself is hard
for these students due to transportation issues. Even if in some rural areas are equipped with
internet and computer for these students to use, these things are limited which also makes thing
less difficult but inconvenient.

And now let's talk about the electricity supply to these rural areas. Even though Malaysia is a well-
developed country, there are also some issues about the electrical supply in rural areas. It can
sometimes out of electric supply in certain rural areas and sometimes it is even not an issue at all.
When this happens, the information about the scholarship might not be able to reach them before
it's time. What does it mean by this? Maybe when the access to this information is available, the
offer for certain scholarship had already been closed and this is certainly not fair for these students.

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Solution:

The intervening of the higher authorities such as the government to equip the internet and computer
in rural areas is indeed a good idea. However, if the network coverage itself is not good enough to
support the system that offers the scholarships then those computers and internet that had been
provided is a waste of time, cost and energy.

The government also already making sure that the electric supply to the rural areas had been
upgraded from time to time, but the upgrading also takes times which these students have lost a
few chances along the way from achieving the scholarships they deserved. In the worst-case
scenario, students that eager to further studies could take another financial solution and that is
education loan. Even though the education loan is not as bad as the loan from the illegal loan
sharks, students from the rural areas should grab the opportunities within a good network coverage
and fully equipped computer and internet throughout all rural areas in Malaysia.

For students from rural areas to receive information on the scholarships, steps that can be followed
in my opinion is back to old ways which are sending a letter to the school or even to their home to
aware them about the scholarships that are available to them before they proceed to another
financial education plan.

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SCHOLARSHIPS OR GRANT PROMOTION

Promotion or in other words an entire set of activities which offer services to people ("What is
Promotions?," n.d.). In educational promotions, besides to promote the benefit and the list of
programmes that had been offered to the future students, financial aid also makes people more
interested in applying to a certain university or even college.

How does this educational promotion occur? This is usually happening when a certain organization
would find sponsors and call letters to all universities, colleges and even every financial aid for
furthering studies involved in these particular events that could be called as Education Carnival or
maybe people are more familiar with "Jom Masuk 'U' Karnival".

This type of carnival is good for all students who want to further their studies to a higher level of
education. However, the majority of students that attend this carnival are students from urban
schools in the urban area. How can this happen? This is happening when this carnival likely being
held in a big city which student from rural areas can't attend due to a few factors.

When this is happening, students in urban areas will have more opportunities to grab the
scholarships that been offered at the carnival. I am not saying that this is wrong but when the
opportunities are being grabbed by a certain group and the other group can't grab the opportunities
that they even don't know about, this will lead to the gap among these two groups. More than that
in my opinion, students in rural areas needed the scholarships more than students from urban areas
based on poor family background.

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Solution :

To overcome this type of problem, the contribution of all universities and also education financial
aid organization need to cooperate with the institution who organize this type of carnival to make
it happen in rural areas. People will give a lot of excuses not to do in rural areas due to limited
space and many more. More likely about the participation of people who might be attending the
carnival is not as much as the carnival that is held in a big city.

If the carnival can be held in rural areas, this is just another step of changes for these students. The
students from the rural areas will have the opportunities to grab the scholarship or even the grant
to further their studies. In addition to that, when students from rural areas been able to apply for
the scholarship like the students from urban areas, the gap from these two groups will likely be
overcome by competing in a fairway.

Despite from all of that, when these students from rural areas had been able to further studies they
could have been able to change the surrounding of the place they live in or maybe the place they
learned something and this will lead to rural areas will slowly changing to urban areas when the
students himself have the spirit to change the surrounding of the rural area as a better place to stay
and to learn something that will benefit for future use.

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MINDSET OF PEOPLE FROM RURAL AREAS

The old mindset or mentality that refused to move forward mostly are related to the Malays
(NASURUDDIN, 2019). Rural areas in Malaysia consumes 24.0% whereas urban areas cover
76.0% in 2018 ("Malaysia—People," n.d.). This shows that only 24.0% of the demographic is hard
to open their mindset to an open opportunity who might their children get.

How does the people mindset of the rural areas affect awareness of the scholarships or grant that
might be available to them? Truthfully, it does not affect too much about receiving information
about the scholarship but a problem might exist when the parents are not supportive enough about
them furthering studies and even for them to applying scholarships seems even more impossible.

What it is actually might these parents thinking when their children want to pursue their studies in
a certain field? Parents who did not agree to them about their decision maybe because of the fees
even though they might be a scholarship that might help them with the financial issues. In other
cases, these parents also might think that by furthering studies, not all graduates could be able to
work in their respective area.

Despite the hindrance from the guardian itself, the students also may not be interested in furthering
their studies. And why did this happen? These students may think that by not furthering studies,
they can also work, earn income and build a family like their family did. Maybe by furthering
studies they think that life isn't going to change so much.

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Solution :

To change the mindset of the people in rural areas, a lot of effort needs to do and this is involving
people in the education field such as the teachers and as well as the government. Malaysia is in its
way towards the well-developed country. For Malaysia to go forward to reach its goals, the higher
authorities need to distinguish these rural areas by changing their mindset as well as their way of
living and this is also going to take a long time to be accomplished.

To change the mindset of parents of the students in rural schools, in my opinion governance need
to organize some sort of seminar or a talk to these parents by the teaching staff or much better by
a credible motivator to show them that universities or even college graduates have a bright future
for them if they grab opportunities that been given to their children during the PIBG (Persatuan
Ibu Bapa dan Guru) meeting. This will show them, how much we want them to change their life.

Aside from talk into senses from the teaching staff or the motivator to these parents, the school
also have to slipped into an assembly or even while teaching a lesson, give a direct way to these
students what might change when their furthering studies. Show to them that when they graduates
and starting the career of their life, they are not only can change their family lives but even the
hometown they lived in.

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UNIVERSITIES REGISTRATION FEES

Registration is a process where an information of certain things been recorded on an official list
("Registration (noun) definition and synonyms | Macmillan Dictionary," n.d.) where fee can be
explained as a certain amount of money that an organization charged for service they provided
("Fee definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary," n.d.).

Registration fees are a compulsory item when furthering studies and even the secondary schools
need to pay for the registration fee but of course, it is not as expensive as the university registration
fee. Aside from these registration fees that parents need to pay when their children furthering
studies, personal equipment also needs to be settled before their children entering university life.

This could be a problem to parents who don't afford to spend the money on these things which are
also might cause the hindrance for the parents to agree on their children to pursue their studies and
even apply for the scholarships. When some people say that scholarship is a way to help the
students to overcome their financial issues but when the scholarship is getting after a month or two
in university, this is actually would cause a little problem to their guardian. This is not happening
because the guardian is not supportive enough but the circumstances that made the situation harder.

When this is happening, either the students or the guardian of these students will take an easy
approach like not applying for any universities and when this is happening, the application of
scholarships also does not happen and the aim for us to close the gap between urban schools and
rural schools is even hard to accomplish. Some parents even have to borrow money from other
people and even worst the loan sharks.

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Solution :

Financial is indeed a bigger issue when furthering study. This also doesn't happen in rural areas
but also in urban areas. However, people in urban areas can always opt for another option. Unlike
students in rural schools, they have limited access to a financial option that might be available to
them when in aspects of furthering studies.

To solve this problem, I would think that the universities need to tolerate more on students with
scholarships with an exception to pay for the registration fees until the scholarship is available to
them. This way, people in rural areas might feel at ease when they might depend on the scholarship
that they are going to get.

In another way, the government could interfere with the financial issues so that these students from
the rural areas being able to get some deposit to buy equipment that needed when starting
university life. This is going to help the student in a lot of ways and even the parents for these
students. When these opportunities might be able to get through to them, I think that the gap
between rural and urban areas might be closed and Malaysia will reach its targets to eliminate the
rural areas could be achieved even faster.

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CONCLUSION

Scholarship or grant in Malaysia could be considered that not all students are aware of the
availability. Sometimes to know about these scholarships when they heard about it through friends
or even relatives. This shows that the scholarship or grant that are available in our country does
not know well enough by our citizen. Even though the education carnival and the information from
the internet is a way to know about these scholarships, in my opinion, scholarships should be well
promoted so that people will be able to grab the opportunity like this.

In summary, the gap between schools in rural and urban areas could be closed when the above
issues could be solved within a time frame that had been finalized by someone who has the power
to control the regulations of issues stated. Hopefully, when the issues had been overcome Malaysia
could be a country well-known for its excellency in educations.

(2598 WORDS)

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