PETALING JAYA: Not scoring straight As in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examination did not stop Matthew Ong Bin Han from being among the stellar Malaysians to be accepted into Harvard University.

       The associate editor with a US-based health publication is among 60 students worldwide who has been accepted by the prestigious university to pursue a Master’s degree at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

       Ong, 32, said students should be encouraged to be curious and think critically outside the box.

       The Melaka-born, who was also offered placement in US institutions – Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – said SPM is not the best tool to gauge a student’s leadership quality and critical thinking.

       “Aiming for straight As in examinations is unfavourable to students, especially people unprepared in exam-oriented education.

       “Students are told to memorise all types of information and such a scenario favours those who can afford tuition,” he said, as reported in MySinchew, the English portal of Sin Chew Daily.

       Ong completed his 12 years of education in Malaysia at Melaka’s St Francis Institution and Nilai University in Negri Sembilan before leaving for the United States, where he majored in Journalism, Psychology, Women’s and Gender Studies at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

       He will be leaving for Harvard in June.

       According to the report, Ong will finance his RM337,000 tuition and accommodation fees independently, as the university did not offer him any financial aid or scholarship, but is actively looking for sponsors for his studies at Harvard.

       He is currently an associate editor at the Cancer Letters – an independent weekly news publication and the leading source for information on the issues that shape oncology, according to its brief – in Washington, DC.

       Ong has won numerous awards as an investigative medical journalist and has been recognised by the National Press Club, Society of Professional Journalists, Association of Health Care Journalists, Poynter Institute and other organisations.

       His stories have been cited in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, ABC News and others.