Education has always been close to Dr Mahathir Mohamad's heart but due to Pakatan Harapan's manifesto which forbids the prime minister from holding other portfolios, he was forced to shelve his plan to serve as education minister as well and the post went to Maszlee Malik.
However, Mahathir stressed that his administration seeks to reform the education system to revive the quality of national schools.
"Key steps...include reforming the curriculum where the national civic and religious education curriculum are currently under review to ensure values are practised and inculcated.
"In other words, let's make national schools great again," he told the Invest Malaysia 2019 conference in Kuala Lumpur today.
Mahathir said this is to achieve quality, future-proof and values-driven graduates through three main outcomes - emphasis on values in education, increasing quality across the system and more autonomy and accountability.
Aside from reforming the curriculum, he said the government wants to increase the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates by making these subjects more accessible, experiential and meaningful.
He said a single technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system would be developed to ensure standardisation and make sure it is industry-driven.
The amendments to the Universities and Colleges Act (UUCA) was meant to provide more freedom for students, he said, but moving forward, he expects bigger reforms after a special task force completes its review of education policies across the board next month.
"The reforms, among others, will touch on several key areas (such as) English language, quality of teachers and the employability of graduates," he added.
However, he did not elaborate on how these areas would be reformed.
[More to follow] - Mkini
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