‘Education shouldn’t involve politics, religion’

As scepticism prevails over the effectiveness of the National Education Blueprint, participants of a forum in Sarawak were told that some existing SPM 'graduates' could not read or write.

KUCHING: The current education system which suffered from political interferences, and religion and racial quota syndrome is detrimental to the development of the nation’s “malleable” young and unless urgent changes are made the country will have to “pay” a heavy price for the eventual “defects”.

This warning came from Henry Lau, the managing director KTS Group of companies, who was speaking at a one-day education forum titled “Education in Malaysia: How Do We See It? The Sarawak Perspective” held here yesterday.

According to Lau, the claws of political interference and racial quota had also stretched to the country’s institutions of higher learning where innovation and intellectual freedom, which should in essence be the primary thrust of education, was being hijacked.

“Each year, we are spending billions on education nationwide.

“But after more than four decades of almost free education in primary and secondary schools, we are still baffled and unable to distinguish the differences between language and knowledge learning.

“Education should be limited to knowledge and should not involve politics and religion. We should refrain from raising the issue of politics or religion or any other issues except education in its pure sense,” he said.

Lau added that the country’s “malleable young” should be taught to recognise the multicultural origins of the various ethnic groups, appreciate each other’s religion and show respect and understanding for one another.

“If our education system does not inculcate these attitudes in our students, it will only tend to polarise us.

“Getting a string of academic As is meaningless if the students fail to understand, appreciate and practise good moral values,” he said.

He also warned that the country will have to “pay for the defects, if we do not correct” immediately the prevalent malaise affecting the education system in the country.

SPM ‘grads’ can’t read, write

Seven speakers gave their views on the issue, among them was Open University Malaysia’s Professor Dr Selvaraj Oyyan Pillay who shocked the 300-odd participants when he revealed that some SPM “graduates” he had met “couldn’t even read and write”.

“I have come across school leavers wanting to do a certificate programme. And we found out that some couldn’t even read or write.

“They are usually children of illiterate parents. It happened in Sarawak and in Peninsular Malaysia. These are cases which I have personally come across.

“What about the cases which I don’t see? We must look into why this is happening.

“The government is putting an all-out effort to make good education policy but at the executive level, but something must be wrong. If a student has gone through our school education system, then he or she should be able to read and write.

“But since they can’t read or write, they can’t even fit into the vocational education system, ” said Pillay, who is a director in the university’s Institute of Professional Development.

Pillay’s observation seems to lend weight to the commonly held views that something is acutely wrong with the Malaysian education system.

According to the Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013 released by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Malaysia slipped four notches from last year’s 21st spot to the 25th this year.

Also to note is that none of the Malaysian universities was ranked among the top 200 universities of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

Education activists are of the opinion that there are loopholes in the current education system, which the National Education Blueprint must rectify.

But this, they said, was not happening. The blueprint, they added, was still stressing language education, reading, writing and calculating, without fully “utilising the advantages of diversity in education”.

Flip-flop policies

Meanwhile, Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen, who was also a speaker, said the government’s flip-flop policies had led to the federal administration being forced to spend some RM200 million in re-training its graduates.

Chong was alluding to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s recent Budget 2013 speech in which he announced that the government will establish the Graduate Employability Taskforce with an allocation of RM200 million.

He said over the last few decades, the government had introduced different education policies but none seemed to have been successful.

“Why can’t we go back to colonial times where the Chinese schools and national schools taught Bahasa Malaysia and missionary schools taught English?” he asked.