Fadhlina should go back to school

 Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek should ditch her 40 Hadith module and focus on a total overhaul of the education and training of our children so that employers have the skills they need for the economy to grow and children have a good start in life.

With several universities and colleges set up as a pre-election promise by former prime ministers, do we know if these institutions have delivered good results for the communities they serve? Do they provide high-quality education and training which is relevant to the labour market?

Talk to anyone involved in education and you will understand that the issues about schooling and education in general are huge.

In the past, academically poor students were forced to take up teaching as a career. We end up with teachers who hate their jobs to help shape our children’s future. How clever is that?

Many teachers are demotivated and lack support, or have a multitude of administrative duties that distract them from teaching.

Teaching assistants of children with special needs are taken advantage of by both teachers and parents of the child with learning disabilities.

Teachers are just as bad, if not worse than students, at playing truant (ponteng). The recent case of students taking a Sabah English teacher to court is one such example of teacher absenteeism. He drew a salary at taxpayers’ expense despite being absent.

When children are sexually abused, the allegations appear to fall on deaf ears. Is it any wonder that many sexually abused victims suffer in silence? They range from primary school pupils to university students.

Teachers who “misbehave” are either transferred to rural schools or schools in the interior for the Orang Asli children. Universities clam up or sweep things under the carpet. What is the outcome of university student S Vinosiny’s untimely death on campus?

Encourage critical thinking

The hours dedicated to STEM subjects and topics like Geography are nothing compared with the time allocated for religious studies. This is a common complaint of both parents and students. Moreover, more religious teaching does not equate to more virtuous students.

Children are taught parrot fashion, and discussion is rarely encouraged. We are nurturing adults whose curiosity and critical thinking skills are stifled.

Some schools are breeding grounds for racism, with the perpetrators being the school’s administrators and teaching fraternity.

In some schools, Malay students are allegedly allowed out of their classrooms first for break. After that, is the turn of the non-Malay pupils. This has bred resentment and ill will.

During break, Malay pupils who share their food with their non-Malay friends are told off in public by their (Malay) teachers for mixing with the “kafir” (infidels).

As a result of retribution, few children dare to complain to their parents, who in turn will have demanded an explanation from the head teacher. Teachers often target the students who told their parents about the incident.

All these seemingly simple social indiscretions have huge consequences. It continues into their adult life and affects how they interact in public and in their community. The culture of the Biro Tata Negara (BTN) is destructive.

This may help to explain why many children, especially non-Malays, have no love for their school in later years, unlike those of my generation, who rarely miss school reunions.

Some nationalists moan that vernacular schools are divisive, but there is probably more racism in national-type schools.

In addition, few dare to question what happens in tahfiz or religious schools, some of which are not registered and are therefore not regulated by the ministry. What do they teach these schools about nation-building?

Bullying is a huge problem in some schools, and it is alleged that teachers are afraid of disciplining badly behaved children because they fear legal action and retribution. Outside the school compound, car-keying vandalism does happen.

On the other hand, physical abuse by teachers of their pupils is another common allegation. Students are reluctant to complain because the system does not appear to protect them.

Some parents take their children out of the school system altogether because their children are bored and will skip school. Is compulsory schooling for children up to the age of 16 ever enforced?

Some government-sponsored students claim that they were forced to change their course at university to ones that had little bearing on their community.

Graduates from particular Felda schemes alleged that they were encouraged to read aeronautical engineering, and returning home meant that they were unable to serve the needs of their community or were forced to relocate to the city in search of suitable employment, in a place where they had few family members are friends for support.

Headteachers including school administrators who lack imagination and courage, in their reluctance to voice their complaints and articulate the school’s needs to the Education Department, spoil it for the rest of the teaching staff and the school population.

These are some of the more common complaints about the Malaysian experience with their schools.

Meritocracy and accountability are crucial. Will Fadhlina acknowledge that we do not need extra religious scrutiny, quotas, little Napoleons or more bureaucracy? - Mkini

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MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army, and the president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Blog, Twitter.

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