EDUCATION in the context of Malaysia seems to be on the road of regression, where politicians have taken on a prominent role by either viewing education through ethno-nationalistic lens or adopting a form of particularistic ethnic sentiments related to political revival.
The third way would be to address an education issue through a whole nation approach where experts play a role in education and politicians play a facilitative role and seeing what is best for the nation without being cocooned on particularistic ideology or agenda.
The Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) recognition issue has become a tool of politics devoid of holistic understanding of education that resides in recognising and acknowledging quality in diversity.
The UEC recognition aspiration is a reality of a diversified private ethnic education in the nation over the decades and one cannot deny its existence.
In essence a diversified education system allows a nation to address the unique learning needs of its multi-ethnic population, combining academic rigor with vocational training, creative thinking, and inclusive support. It should not be narrowed down to language survival.
It is in this principle that parties that are involved in education should come forward and seek consensus that recognises something that is good without jeopardising the constitution guarantees in relation to the national language and other languages.
Education should not be seen from a binary lens when it has value in complexity.
A synthesis of excellence could be found between the current national education and the private education systems.
One could learn from countries like Germany, Singapore, Finland and Canada on how to synthesise and leverage diverse education systems and dimensions.
Therefore it’s time for the Education Ministry to facilitate a dialogue among educationists from various schools of thought on UEC recognition and come up with a synthesis and consensus that places educational excellence above narrow nationalistic and partisan politics.
Ronald Benjamin is a human resources practitioner based in Ipoh. He is currently secretary of the Association for Community and Dialogue.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
- Focus Malaysia.
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