I refer to the letter Why I send my kids to national schools .

I would like to point out that many of us also went to Chinese or Tamil schools. And over there, we learnt how to compete with one another. We learnt the hard facts in life that in order to excel and to stand out among ourselves. We needed to put in extra effort as the standards were much higher.

If the national school are such a resounding success, than the country should be in much better shape considering that so many of the present leaders and top government officials are the product of such schools.

The fact that Malaysia compares poorly with others in many areas (except the wrong ones) goes to show national schools have not produced the intended results. Its pupils are not well-trained to face the challenges in life and worst of all, they may be indoctrinated with the wrong philosophies of life.

While non-Malays enrolling in national schools are taught to accept that there are opportunities out of their reach due to their race, the Malays are taught that they can be more superior than others if they belong to the right group.

If the writer sincerely thinks that the national school system is the best for him best for his children, so be it. But to those who sincerely aim to achieve excellence in life, much thought and effort will have to be put into revamping the entire system, from primary school right up to the government and political arenas.