Some badly needed changes in education system

It seems like the education authorities are keen to get some feedback as to the suitability of their curricula. This is in the form of a survey which will only provide aggregate data of what people think about the curriculum.

However, the curriculum is just one part of the education system, albeit an important one. The quality of teaching, the monitoring and evaluation, corrective measures, teacher training, and many other factors are important considerations.

Changing a national education system requires a broad overview from which specifics have to be formulated in detail for meaningful implementation together with a mechanism for evaluation and correction. Otherwise, it’s of no use to anyone, least of all our students.

But first, we need to understand in which areas education has failed us before we can propose remedial measures. Here are a few important areas where education has failed us.

• The major failure is that national education has declined in terms of its value in providing our children and youth with knowledge and experience to become useful adults who can take care of themselves in a changing environment.

• It has failed to develop as a unifying force in a diverse community, instead promoting divisive elements within the school system in terms of language and emphasis on Islam.

• The politicisation of education such as the emphasis on Islam and Islamic values, and allowing a decline in standards among both teachers and students in the name of affirmative action has degraded the education system. This has led particularly to non-Malays seeking alternative vernacular and private schools to get a better, more wholesome education for their children.

• The de-emphasis on English and too rapid a switch to Malay has caused a disconnect whereby rural students and the urban poor are badly handicapped in terms of finding jobs and adapting to international education. When once the ability of many to understand and use English was a competitive advantage, it is now degrading fast with no improvement in sight.

• Poorly trained teachers, too few hours, limited resources, corruption, and questionable practices in supply and procurement etc have set back the quality and efficacy of the education system considerably, with no sign of a turnaround.

• The curriculum places little or no emphasis on living skills such as citizenship training; teaching of genuine Malaysian history; economic, financial, and investment basics; and basic health and psychological knowledge. No, we are not talking about deep expertise but a base from which you can build in later life to become better persons all around, which is the ultimate purpose of education.

Multi-pronged approach

There are, of course, other areas but these are some of the problems which are obvious to many of us already. The solution then has to fit in with trying to solve the problems and reverse the direction to a more positive one going forward. Here are some of the measures that can be taken, in broad terms:

• Make education more relevant to life. How many people need to know Einstein’s theory of relativity, or differentiation or integration, or Avogardo’s Law? Surely, it is more important to know how to save your money and budget for saving for instance. We need to see a major change in the curriculum but it is not going to be easy. There are many other questions which can be asked as well.

• Move towards secular education at all levels. Keep religious education separate and make it non-examinable except for those who choose to take it as an examination subject. And let parents decide how much religious education to have for their children. This will also help curb religious and racial polarisation in schools. We are different enough already without emphasising differences in school.

• Depoliticise education. Stick to established facts when teaching history, politics (as in the parliamentary system, state assemblies, the constitution, citizenship duties, etc) the sciences, or any subject. If religion and race are allowed to creep in here, objectivity goes out the window. Keep religious and theological studies separate.

• Reemphasise English. English is the best language to acquire knowledge and expertise. It is criminal not to ensure that all our students have an excellent command of spoken and written English because lack of it will hamper almost every career path they embark on. It’s already happening - many local graduates are unemployable because they have no working knowledge of English.

• Improve the quality of education. This covers so many areas and controversial issues which are impossible to cover here. Suffice it to say, it starts with the recruitment of the best for the teaching professions with appropriate rewards and training them exceptionally. It will probably take a couple of decades but we have to make a start now to arrest our continued decline.

• Cut corruption in education. Education gets the largest allocation in terms of budget but much of it is frittered away through poor procurement and outright corruption. As in all other areas, we need to root out corruption to make progress.

So far, no government since teaching moved away from English to Malay in the seventies, has been able to arrest the alarming and sustained rate of relative decline in our educational standards. Dare we hope that this government will do better? - Mkini

---

P GUNASEGARAM began working life as a Physics and Maths teacher in 1977.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.