by Richard Teo
Make no mistake. Contrary to what our DPM said in NST on 10th August, our country’s education is one big flop. Najib would be deluding Malaysians to say that the education system was a big success and attribute this success to his father.
Tun Razak, the father of Najib was the culprit responsible for the current malaise facing the present education system. As the Education Minister, he abolished the English medium of education and introduced the Bahasa Melayu medium. In one stupendous decision his action caused the loss of one generation of English-speaking students.
Prior to the abolishment of the English medium of education we were the envy of many countries in Asia. Foreign tourists who went to the most remotest part of our country were pleasantly surprised that practically everyone they met could converse in the Queen’s language. That was in the early fifties.
Today, even top government civil servants and the judiciary can hardly string two words of English. Is this how we define success in our education system? If this is Najib’s definition of success then either he is blind to the pathetic state of the education system or he is totally oblivious to what is happening in the country.
On reflection it would be fair to say that the failure of the education system gave a life -line to vernacular schools.
Prior to the change in the medium of education from English to Bahasa Melayu, vernacular schools were closing down for lack of student enrolment. Slowly but surely many of the vernacular schools were decimated.
However to be fair it was not the change in the medium of instruction that caused the popularity of vernacular schools. It was the slow and not subtle degeneration of the National Schools to religious schools that caused the mass exodus of Chinese and Indians to their respective vernacular schools.
Today, remnants of the failure of our education remains like a sore thumb.Teachers and headmasters of one race dominate every school. Not ordinary teachers but staunch religious teachers who never miss an opportunity to extol the virtues of their religion. Every morning and every recess, prayers are recited and non-Muslims students are expected to tolerate such feverish display of religiosity.
Today, our education system churns out 80,000 unemployed graduates. All of them bear living testimony of a failed education system. And yet our DPM has the gall to say that our education system is a big success. Wake up Najib. No matter what yardstick you use, the education system is a big failure.