By S.Ramakrishnan | JANUARY 09, 2014
The Malaysian Insider
It is no longer a point of contention: Our education system is indeed failing and failing the economy.
Even a member of the cabinet, International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mustapha Mohamed, has called for a total overhaul of the education system if Malaysia were to reach the goal of being developed by 2020.
The 2012 international student assessment (Pisa) results point to the stagnant bottom position held by Malaysian students in mathematics, science and reading. The Pisa results rank Malaysia at 52 out of 65 countries.
Even the launch of the Malaysian education blueprint does not seem to make any impact to allay the fears that the education standards are slipping and slipping badly. All the Economic Transformation Programme and Government Transformation Programme initiated by Pemandu since 2009 have not brought about any significant achievements.
Bottom of the class
Malaysia came out 55th out of 74 countries in terms of reading literacy, 57th in Mathematics and “only marginally better” in 52nd position for Science literacy.
How can we achieve vision 2020 developed status when we are languishing at the bottom of the world’s classrooms in our education standards?
The irony is that the Education Ministry is always considered the stepping stone for all our prime ministers. A country in search of growth must invest in education. And the double irony is that ministry receives the highest allocation in every budget.
Despite the generous spending on education, Malaysian students are getting a poorer and poorer quality of education, says the World Bank report. The Ministry of education is more focused on schooling the students then educating them. I wonder whether the ministry ever thought what education is.
Emperor with no clothes
Malaysia urgently needs to revise the ways it formulates and implements education system. So much is written in the media about the shortcoming in the Malaysian education system. Much like the emperor with no clothes, the Education Ministry appears oblivious of the situation and goes about as though all is well in the system.
Education policymakers do not seem to pay attention to the numerous works, writings and positive contributions by people outside the ministry. Indeed it’s such a pity that many people who can identify and articulate well about the problem are outside the system.
And people who don’t seem to understand the problem, or uneducated about the problem, are in the system and holding high positions. In this stalemate and mismatch, the ministry ignores the services of people who can turn around this dire situation. The ministry is all for indoctrination to make the whole education system dogmatic inculcate a non-questioning attitude among students and regurgitate what has been given in notes and lectures.
Perpetuating ignorance, not education
Good teachers and real educators could never survive in our backward education system that seems to perpetuate ignorance rather than knowledge. In this highly centralised system, only the mediocre and those that slavishly follow instructions will thrive and even get promoted to their level of incompetence. Creativity, skill, original and critical thinking are alien concepts in our system.
Vietnam, which was war torn for decades, has overtaken Malaysia in the Pisa assessment and even the recent SEA games medal tally. Foreign investors too seem to be moving to Vietnam and Myanmar.
Garbage in, garbage out
While others are running forward, Malaysia seems running on the same spot, or even running in reverse and watching other nations pass by. Malaysia is already a facing brain drain and lacks skilled workers. One thing consistent in the ministry of education is the flip flops in policies despite having spent billions setting up the hardware and software.
It is also puzzling that all these shortcomings and failures do not seem get any counter or corrective action or open consultation. There is no learning, relearning and unlearning by the education ministry.
The World Bank report also highlights that “Most countries whose students perform well on international student achievement tests, give their local authorities and schools substantial autonomy over adapting and implementing education content or allocating and managing resources”.
The Malaysian education system is too centralised, with schools and teachers having very little autonomy. In the 1960s and 1970s Malaysia had headmasters who were par excellence and made their schools the envy of others. Alas, those bred of educators faded away with heavy heart with what is coming in the later years.
Can Malaysia become a developed nation come 2020? A failing education system can never lead the country to developed status. But the Umno-led ruling coalition will never admit that our education is substandard. If the others don’t agree with them, they will be asked to migrate. And this is an incentive for the very brain drain they are trying to prevent. Irony of ironies!
Quo Vadis educare? (NB In Latin, Where is the education system going?) – January 9, 2014.
*S.Ramakrishnan is a former senator.
#1 by waterfrontcoolie on Thursday, 9 January 2014 - 6:40 pm
Dear Rama, I believe many of us even with our HSC or even Cambridge SC of the 60s understood the issues facing this nation but a bloke with the Honour degree in Malay Studies from MU just refuses or maybe cannot understand your message. It has been a political programme to ensure complete control over the mind; hence the current politicizing of faith. Any means will do as long as the majority can be led by their nose. After all these years, one cannot be surprised by such behaviour. The depth of cronyism and corruption is reflected just the other day when I had my evening walk. 2 Malay youths were talking about the standard of sport in the country. One of them asked the other: ” I thought you wanted to try your luck at football”. Reply> ” I am not wasting my time unless I can accept the crony practices!”. So even in football, to play for the State, you need crony’s connection! So our national football is right at the bottom of the FIFA listing! Likewise, in the PISA parade, we are also down there; notwithstanding all the A-es that they have created every year. What is disheartening is a programme I saw in the Asia-News-Channel on the worsening scene of the drug addiction in this country. The situation is definitely alarming though the power-that-be does not even bother to admit this. Combining these factors, would anyone be surprised that come 2020, we may be at the bottom of the Asean parade? Maybe we can only pray though we have to be mindful of how to address HIM!