HOW TO LOSE ELECTIONS 101 : WORLD BANK KATA ANAK KITA MASUK SEKOLAH JADI DUNGU

 Two days back I had a long chit chat with Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz at her home. But two hours were certainly not enough time to discuss so many things with her. 

We spoke about education too - perhaps the biggest breakdown of all the breaking down that is going on in the country. Tan Sri sent me some of her comments about that most worrying (and embarrassing) World Bank Report about Malaysian education which appeared in the Press. 

First here are Tan Sri Rafidah's comments.

No. 1  Kanak-kanak Malaysia tidak cukup belajar di sekolah - Laporan Bank Dunia 

Saya merojok kepada Laporan Bank Dunia yang menunjukkan KELEMAHAN, KEKURANGAN serta unsur-unsur yang menyebabkan keadaan yang membimbangkan itu.

Kerajaan PERLU mengadakan BRAINSTORMING, atau pertemuan Minda denagan...PAKAR2 PENDIDIKAN
...PAKAR dalam bidang Pendidekan...terurama Practicioners
...Wakil2 Pengajar
...Serta Pakar dalam bidang PEDAGOGY
 

PERLU DIADAKAN " REFORMASI " SEGERA dalam bidang:
...Dasar PENDIDIKAN
...Struktur sector Pendidikan
...SISTEM PENDIDIKAN
...KANDUNGAN/CONTENT Pendidikan
...PEYAMPAIAN KANDUNGAN Pendidikan tersebut

SANGAT PENTING ialah LATIHAN GURU2 dan Tenaga Pengajar.

SUPAYA tidak ada JURANG , antara apa yang di KEHENDAKI oleh keperluan semasa, serta masa depan, dan PERMINTAAN / Demands Ekonomi Negara, dari segi TENAGA MAHIR dan BERKEUPAYAAN, selaras dengan kKEPERLUAN PASARAN. 

Kanak-kanak Masa kini adalah TUNJANG Tenaga Pekerja masa akan datang.

Maka Mereka MESTI di lengkapkan dengan PENDIDIKAN, LATIHAN serta KECEKAPAN yang di perlukan olih Persekitaran Operasi EKONOMI dan SOSIO-EKONOMI, yang semakin khusus dan menghadapi Perubahan pesat.

Kegagalan memperbetulkan Keadaan akan menyebabkan MALAYSIA ketinggalan jauh kebelakang dalam aspek penting saperti DAYASAING dan PEMBAGUNAN Sosio Ekonomi.

Komentar atas oleh Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz.

No. 2   Here is Astro Awani on that World Bank Report  :

https://www.astroawani.com/berita-malaysia/kanak-kanak-malaysia-tidak-cukup-belajar-di-sekolah-laporan-bank-dunia-468353

 

• Laporan Bank Dunia “Bending Bamboo Shoots: trengthening Foundation Skills"  
• memberi gambaran membimbangkan sistem pendidikan Malaysia
• Laporan itu menyerlahkan ketidakcekapan yang membimbangkan 
• pelajar M'sia habiskan 12.5 tahun di sekolah tetapi pembelajaran hanya 8.9 tahun
• pelajar Vietnam mencapai 10.7 tahun pembelajaran dalam 12.5 tahun juga 

OSTB : Maksudnya dalam 12.5 tahun, pelajar Vietnam memperolehi 20% lagi banyak ilmu berbanding anak-anak kita.

• Walaupun 3.2% GDP diperuntukkan untuk pendidikan namun masih ketinggalan
• Hanya 58% pelajar M'sia mahir membaca akhir Darjah 5
• jauh lebih teruk daripada rakan serantau   
• Vietnam dgn sumber lebih sikit, menunjukkan hasil lebih kukuh

OSTB : Tapi Dato-Dato yang hidup mewah makan kontrak untuk publish dan cetak buku teks sekolah untuk Kementerian Pendidikan semua happy-happy sahaja. 3.2% GDP dibelanjakan untuk pendidikan tetapi 42% pelajar Darjah 5 fail baca dan menulis. Dato-Dato publisher dan pencetak buku teks sekolah dapat duit besar. Anak kita pula dungu lagi.

beberapa punca antaranya akses terhad kepada pendidikan awal kanak-kanak yang berkualiti, kesediaan guru, dan kekurangan sistem penjejakan prestasi yang mantap.

Bank Dunia mencadangkan memperluaskan akses dan kualiti pendidikan prasekolah, melaksanakan penilaian pembelajaran dan menyediakan pembangunan profesional berterusan untuk guru berdasarkan amalan terbaik antarabangsa

Laporan ini berfungsi sebagai seruan untuk M'sia menangani isu sistemik dan memastikan perbelanjaan pendidikan diterjemahkan kepada penambahbaikan yang ketara untuk semua pelajar.

OSTB: dI sini saya rujuk komen sinis oleh Ramendran Ulaganathan seperti berikut: 

 

Ramendran is being sarcastic. But spot on. 

My Comments : 

Forget about the teachers. Currently there are approximately 418,000 teachers throughout the country in 10,225 primary and secondary schools (18 Sept 2023).

The government teaching profession is a way to provide employment for hundreds of thousands of people, especially from poor and impoverished States. Of the RM59 Billion Budget for the MOE, about 70% or more goes to paying teachers salaries.

The vast majority of these teachers are Malays and are therefore a significant vote bank for the Malay political parties. Sadly nobody knows who these 418,000 mostly Malay teachers will vote for anymore. Will they vote for PKR, UMNO, Amanah, PH? Dont know. Will they vote for PN? Cant say.

Up to the late 1970s (when I finished schooling) our education system was still in English. In the Science Stream all my Science subjects (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, Additional Mathematics) were in English.

Then that Rahman Talib report kicked in and everything was switched to Bahasa Melayu. That is also when our education system began going down.

And when I was in school we had only one single kelas agama (religious class) per week up to Form 5 only. There was no kelas agama in Form Six.

Today there are up to NINE Agama periods per week involving multiple textbooks. So the Datp-Dato who make money publishing and printing the agama textbooks are very happy.

The more agama classes there are the more money they will make from all those agama textbook contracts. It runs into the hundreds of millions of Ringgit. Maybe billions.

The school textbook publishers lobby is very rich and is a very powerful lobby. And in our system of political patronage they exert significant influence on the politicians.   

And they also dont like the English language because they do not have the requisite kemahiran in the English language. Plus it is more expensive to hire English language text book writers, editors and proofreaders.

Creating mass employment for the Malay vote bank, overdose of religious education and not giving much, much more time and space for English language subjects has cost the country plenty.

2018 UMNO got kicked out, 2020 Dr M 2.0 got kicked out, then TS Muhyiddin, then Ismail Sabri got kicked out and now this group is also on their way out. The people are fed up of their unworkable policies. Now the World Bank says 'anak-anak kita masuk sekolah jadi lagi dungu'.

All this can be overcome.  But who does the gomen (all the gomens from BN, PH, PN until now) care about?

Do they worry more about the future of the country or do they worry more about what the school textbook publishing lobby says? 

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.