Putrajaya looking at ‘1School’ for unity, harmony

Putrajaya is to study a proposal for a standardised school system dubbed “1School” which is set to re-ignite debate over the necessity of vernacular schools, similar to the arguments when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad initiated the Vision School to enhance unity.

The Malaysian Insider understands that the Youth Development Lab in the Ministry of Youth and Sports has recommended the establishment of a standardised school system called “1School” to promote unity and diversity.

The lab also has requested the Ministry of Education to draft an education standardisation roadmap that will be divided into four phases against the current national primary school system which has parallels with the Mandarin and Tamil school systems.

Sources said the first phase will be a co-ordinated exchange of programmes between vernacular and national schools while the second phase will be the introduction of a third language in both schools.

He said the programme will initially start in selected schools and later implemented at all schooling levels. The choice of a third language will however be based on the school demography.

The third phase will be co-locating of schools and the final phase is the implementation of the 1School system.

Dr Mahathir’s administration had proposed the formation of Vision Schools to group national, Chinese and Tamil primary schools in one single compound, but his idea was opposed by vernacular educationist groups and only a few such institutions were ever set up.

The Vision Schools envisioned children learning together within an area without regard for race or religion to foster solidarity, integration and respect among them by sharing school facilities and implementation of other extra-curricular activities.

His son, Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir, has also been lobbying for the unification of the education system and said that that it is an idea that was first proposed in the Penyata Razak (Razak Report) of 1956.

He made reference to the report by former Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, the then-Education Minister, which was to “unify students from all races with one education system that covers all races. We are of the opinion that to carry this out, we need to integrate the syllabus of all schools.”

Mukhriz had suggested that the current dual-stream system of national and vernacular schools be scrapped and be replaced by one which would use Bahasa Malaysia as its medium of instruction in all subjects except science, maths and language subjects.

However, his suggestion came under heavy fire from both Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) parties to the extent that he was accused of sedition, with a police report filed against him.