Archive for category Education
Malaysian universities losing out to Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines
Posted by Kit in Education, university on Sunday, 16 November 2008
Malaysia is losing out in the unrelenting battle for international competitiveness among nations, with Malaysian universities even losing out to universities in Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines – something completely unthinkable in the first three decades of our nationhood.
For the second consecutive year, Malaysia had fallen completely out of the list of the world’s Top 200 Universities this year in the 2008 Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) – Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings.
The national shame of Malaysia falling completely out of the list of the world’s Top 200 Universities this year in the 2008 Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) – Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings is being compounded by the ignominy of Malaysian universities losing out not only to top universities in Singapore, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea but also to other South East Asian nations like Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines.
The 2008 THES-QS rankings should be a “wake-up” call to the Higher Education Minister and the Cabinet of the advanced crisis of higher education in Malaysia, but I have given up hope that the Barisan Nasional government is capable of “waking up”!
For the second consecutive year, there is not only not a single university in the 2008 THES-QS Top 200 Universities list, there is also not a single university in the separate ranking of Top 100 Universities for five subject areas – Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities; Life Sciences and Biomedicine; and Technology. Read the rest of this entry »
Tajuddin of Pasir Salak – “tak sekolah ke?”
Posted by Kit in Education, nation building, Pakatan Rakyat, Parliament on Friday, 7 November 2008
Before the disgraceful “bastard” episode in Parliament on Wednesday (5th November 2008), the Barisan Nasional (BN) MP for Pasir Salak, Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman was involved in an earlier parliamentary row when I was speaking on the Prime Minister’s Department on how the Biro Tata Negara (BTN) was poisoning the minds of the new generation of public servants with racist, communal and unMalaysian propaganda.
This was Tajuddin’s “tak sekolah ke?” expose.
Many MPs, not only from Pakatan Rakyat but also from BN, have been wondering why Tajuddin had been enjoying immunity not only for showing utter contempt for parliamentary decencies but even for openly challenging the authority of the Chair, as happened on on 29th October 2008 when the Deputy Speaker Datuk Dr. Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaffar was presiding, and Tajuddin threw the gauntlet:
“Kalau macam ini saya tidak setuju kalau Tuan Yang di-Pertua hendak ambil tindakan kepada saya, ambillah! Betul, ambillah, ambil! Come on. Let’s be fair dengan izin. You dengar ini dengar!”
DAP MP for Bukit Gelugor Karpal Singh was suspended for two days over the “main, main” issue but Tajuddin got away scot-free for unprecedented open defiance to the Chair except to subsequently withdraw the statement.
Three Higher Education Ministers in 4 years
Posted by Kit in Education, Parliament on Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Three Higher Education Ministers in 4 years while universities continue plunge in international rankings and losing out to Indonesia after left behind by Singapore/Thailand
Posted by Kit in Education, Parliament on Monday, 3 November 2008
Three Higher Education Ministers in four years while Malaysian universities continue the plunge in international university rankings – this is the second consecutive year Malaysia is excluded from the Times Higher Education Supplement’s (THES-QS) World’s Top 200 Universities.
Are these two matters inter-related?
This is the question I posed to the third Higher Education Minister in four years, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin in Parliament this morning when he replied during the winding-up of the 2009 Budget debate, but as expected, he could not throw any light on the conundrum.
It is a sad reflection of the “paradigm shift” in university quality and excellence in Malaysia that while the first two Higher Education Ministers (Datuk Dr. Shafie Salleh and Datuk Dr. Mustapha Mohamed) talked about how to defend Malaysian university rankings in the Top 200 World Universities, Khaled spoke with pride this morning at the inclusion of Malaysian universities in the Top 500 world universities! Read the rest of this entry »
Another case of Deepavali insensitivity by Education Ministry under Hishammuddin
Posted by Kit in Education, Letters, nation building on Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Letters
by Disappointed Teacher
I’m currently teaching in a secondary school in Johor and I am totally dissatisfied with an issue so I am writing this complain hoping that it will make a difference.
As most of you are aware of, we had just completed the PMR examinations throughout Malaysia. We as teachers also look forward to marking the PMR papers, as we will be able to gain experience and insights, which will be useful when conducting the Form 3 classes for the coming year.
However, all the hopes of Indian teachers are dashed to the ground as the meeting with the heads of the marking group is being held on the eve of Deepavali in some places.
These meetings are held over a span of two to three days so that each group is able to discuss with their respective group leaders on issues concerning the marking of the papers.
The examiners will also be given their scripts and briefed on the issues of marking. These meetings are essential and if they are held during the preparations for Deepavali, many Indian teachers will not be able to attend and thus they lose out as they won’t have the chance to mark the papers. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia out of THES Top 200 Universities for second consecutive year – another fall of domino
Posted by Kit in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Education on Thursday, 9 October 2008
In his press statement to announce his decision to step down as Prime Minister next March, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi spoke of the initiatives to “regain our country’s competitiveness” which are “necessary to enable our nation and our society to face the challenges that the world has in store for us”.
But in actual fact, under his five-year premiership, one domino after another of our national and international competitiveness has been collapsing one after another.
Two weeks ago, one such falling domino was Malaysia’s ranking on the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index 2008 which plunged to No. 47 placing, a fall of ten places from No. 37 in 2007.
Another domino has collapsed today when it is revealed that for the second consecutive year, Malaysia has fallen completely out of THES-QS 2008 World Top 200 Universities – further testimony of the country’s deteriorating competitiveness. Read the rest of this entry »
What do we do with our “Churchills”?
(Good Hari Raya read and food for thought)
Was I really inferior to straight-A students?
The Electric Paper
September 27, 2008
By Ng Tze Yong
HE has walked the same cobblestones as JRR Tolkien, Margaret Thatcher, Steve Forbes and Bill Clinton.
Mr Lim Wah Guan, 28, belongs to a rare breed of Singaporeans to have studied at two of the world’s most prestigious universities – Oxford and Princeton.
Last year, Mr Lim, a happy-go-lucky chap with a hoot of a laugh, completed his master’s degree at Oxford in the UK. He is now a PhD student at Princeton in the US.
However, he did not take the usual Singaporean route to the hallowed hallways of these premier institutions.
He does not hold a prestigious scholarship. He is not a ‘GEPer’ (someone from the Gifted Education Programme). He does not even, well, come from a top junior college.
Mr Lim is, in his own words, an ‘NUS reject’. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia: This Is Only The Beginning
Posted by Kit in Education, Farish Noor, nation building on Thursday, 18 September 2008
By Farish A Noor
Recently I found myself in an open discussion with some of my students in the university I am based at in Indonesia. At the tender age of 18, this first-year student demonstrated both the intellectual acumen and political commitment I have come to expect from those twice his age, yet he was just one of the many students whom I am proud to say have come under my care and tutelage. After ten years of teaching experience, I have come to the simple conclusion that my Indonesian students are by far the smartest, gutsiest, honest and dedicated compared to the students I have taught in Malaysia, Singapore, Germany, France and Holland. Why?
That an 18 year old can begin his university life equipped with enough political knowledge and commitment is a testimony to the success of a primary and secondary educational system that got it right. This boy is the product of the post-Suharto educational system of Indonesia, and living proof that the reformasi (reform) movement of the 1990s in Indonesia has succeeded.
Yet the success of reformasi in Indonesia depended upon the quiet dedication of a legion of activist-academics who toiled day and night to dismantle the hegemonic structures of power and knowledge that were developed and consolidated during the three decades of Suharto’s rule. This meant that they had to confront not only the hegemony of the old regime, but also replace much of the human and ideological resources that had been put in place between 1970 to 1998. Ten years later, the results are only beginning to show and it has proven to be a worthwhile endeavor after all.
Malaysia today is at a similar crossroads where Indonesia was a decade ago. With the febrile grip of the Badawi government growing weaker by the day, there is much speculation that Malaysia’s former Deputy Prime Minister and now de facto leader of the opposition, Anwar Ibrahim, is poised to take over the reins of power. It is widely speculated that Anwar now has more than forty members of Parliament who are prepared to leave the ruling UMNO party and join his People’s Alliance to take over from the unpopular and discredited government of Badawi. Anwar has written to Badawi and called for a dialogue between the two to discuss a peaceful transition of power: something that has never happened in the course of Malaysia’s 51-year history. Read the rest of this entry »
Continue Teaching Science and Mathematics in English
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, Education on Monday, 15 September 2008
by M. Bakri Musa
In May 2003, five months after the government started the teaching of science and mathematics in English in our schools, the Ministry of Education produced a “study” with the incredulous findings of significant improvement in our students’ achievements! All in five months!
Now five years later, research from the Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) showed the very opposite results. What gives?
Both studies were prominently and uncritically reported in our mainstream media. That first study was presumably swallowed whole by our policymakers to justify continuing their policy. Rest assured that this second one too would be used for a similar purpose, as an excuse to jettison that same policy.
Despite many attempts I was unable to get a copy of that first study. Nor have I seen it published in any journal, or find any paper credited to its author, raising questions on the credibility of the “study” and competence of its “researcher.”
To the credit of its authors, this later paper is freely available on the Internet, all 153 pages of it. Its lead author is an emeritus professor, a title reserved for retired accomplished scholars, with a dean and deputy dean as his coauthors. Despite its impressive authorship, this study is deeply flawed in its design and conclusions. It does however, expose many weaknesses in the implementation of the policy, in particular the lack of teachers fluent in English. Read the rest of this entry »
Horror of Malaysian Education System
ADVERTORIAL
New Straits Times
23 August 2008, page 43
HONORARY DEGREE AWARD
7TH CONVOCATION CEREMONY UNIVERSITY TUN HUSSEIN ONN MALAYSIA
TO
YANG AMAT MULIA RAJA ZARITH SOFIAH BINTI ALMARHUM
SULTAN IDRIS AL-MUTAWAKIL ALALLAHI SHAH
D.K.II, S.P.M.J., S.P.C.M.Yang Amat Mulia Raja Zarith Sofiah binti Almarhum Sultan Idris Al-Mutawakil Alallahi Shah has born on 14th of August 1959 in Hospital Batu Gajah, Perak. Yang Amat Mulia Raja Zarith is a third son to Duli Yang Maha Mulia Paduka Seri Sultan Perak Darul Ridzwan and Duli Yang Maha Mulia Raja Mazuwin binti almarhum Raja Arif Shah.
Yang Amat Mulia Raja Zarith Sofiah get early education in Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan Datin Khadijah Kuala Kangsar in the state his birthplace namely in Perak. After end of the education in primary school, Yang Amat Mulia continue the education to form one at Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Raja Perempuan Kalsom Kuala Kangsar, Perak.
In the month of September 1972, Yang Amat Mulia Raja Zarith Sofiah have set forth to England for further education in Chaltenham Ladies College, Gloucestershire to form six. Then, Yang Amat Mulia continue learning it in Davies College London in September 1977 and his following year in receive enter to Somerville College, London after having passed Oxford Entrance Examination.
After graduated at Oxford University with Bachelor of Art in June 1983 and follow the traditional University of Oxford, Yang Amat Mulia Raja Zarith will receive Master of Art after three years in 1986. Yang Amat Mulia also is a linguist follow several courses including language Mandarin at the tertiary level, French and Italy language.
Read the rest of this entry »
Silver lining to black clouds – something for keris-wielding Hishammuddin to learn
Posted by Kit in Education, nation building on Tuesday, 2 September 2008
Mike Lee emailed me a blog hoping I could put it up here.
I read it and agreed. It provides a silver lining to the black clouds of nation-building a-gathering in recent months. An example of what every Malaysian can do as Bangsa Malaysia in everyday life to make the new generation feel that they are one united people instead of a separate divided nation.
It is something the keris-wielding Education Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein can learn from ordinary but conscientious and patriotic Malaysian teachers who care for all students regardless of race, religion or class instead of just wanting to be a communal hero!
This is a blog by a self-confessed “very stressed out English (PE) teacher who feels she is about to collapse with all the work she has” but has never lost sight of the responsibility and vision as a “human engineer” for the new generation of Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or class. Keep it up, Chris Chan. Dedicated teachers and nationalists like you keep alive and strong the hopes of a Bangsa Malaysia.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Majlis restuToday marks a very important day in Sri Aman. Most people probably did not see its significance. But here it is …. why it is significant. Majlis restu has always been held for the PMR, SPM and STPM candidates in this school … ever since I could remember … for Muslims only. It was done with the purpose of encouraging the students and to remind them to turn to God at this time of severe stress and anxiety. For the first time, today, a separate majlis restu was held for the non-Muslim candidates. Why? Because ALL Sri Aman students deserve to have one done for them. ALL Sri Aman students are nervous, stressed and anxious about their public exams. So, under the Pendidikan Moral panel, the first ever Majlis Restu was held for the non-Muslim students. Read the rest of this entry »
MARA is progress not fascism
Posted by Kit in Azly Rahman, Education, nation building on Wednesday, 20 August 2008
by Azly Rahman
Mara means “to advance (forward)”. It is the opposite of “retreat” and the declaration of defeat. It does not mean Undur.
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) must live up to its name. So must its younger brother Maktab Rendah Sains MARA. It is in the interest of the public to suggest good ideas for reform – and to advance.
In my lifetime I have been affiliated with both organisations. I taught in the former institution and I was schooled in the latter. Whether a product of historical accident or not, I am proud of my experiences in both. There is a reason for things to happen. I came from a poor family and was given the chance to have an education I wish many more Malaysians, my parents included.
But I wish to share my view on this troubling phenomenon that is plaguing a certain segment of the Malays. My argument will be largely linguistic.
What is the Malay view of the recent protest of UiTM student – of those young “men-in-black” whose are mourning and calling for the death of reason and rationality and for critical sensibility?
I think Malays in general are angry at the protesters. I think they are embarrassed that those few thousands of Malay students were displaying their ignorance of what Universiti Mara means. Read the rest of this entry »
An Open Letter to UiTM Vice Chancellor
Posted by Kit in Dr. Chen Man Hin, Education on Tuesday, 19 August 2008
by Dr. Chen Man Hin
AN OPEN LETTER TO UiTM VICE CHANCELLOR , DATUK SERI PROF IBRAHIM ABU SHAH
UiTM VICE CHANCELLOR SHOULD THANK MB KHALID FOR GIVING HONEST, SINCERE ADVICE TO IMPROVE STANDARDS.
The whole country is aware that the standards of institutions of higher studies are quite low when compared to international universities in developed countries.
Thousands graduate every year, but not all can find jobs because prospective employers are not impressed by the quality of the graduates, and they are passed over. Not many have the qualification to go for post-graduate studies.
If it is any comfort to UiTM vice chancellor, well established universities like Universiti Malaya, UKM, USM have also been found wanting by world ranking bodies like the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
In an examination of the world ranking of Malaysian universities by Times Higher Education Supplement Top Universities 2007, Universiti Malaya was ranked 246 and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) ranked 364.
In the academic ranking of World Universities 2008 by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, not a single Malaysian university achieved ranking among the survey of 503 universities. Read the rest of this entry »
Hishammuddin should explain why Education Ministry condoning the racist and unprintable slurs of a history teacher
Posted by Kit in Education, nation building on Tuesday, 12 August 2008
The New Straits Times today carried the following report:
Racial abuse teacher gets ‘a better deal’
By : V. Shankar Ganesh
BANTING: It obviously pays to hurl racial abuse at students, going by what happened to the teacher who did so at a school here.
The 35-year-old history teacher from SM Telok Panglima Garang was not only transferred to a smart school but to one located nearer her house.
To add insult to injury, no disciplinary action was taken against her.
It is understood that her letter of transfer stated that she was being transferred due to concerns for her security and not because she had committed an offence. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia’s educational reform: can the yellow states lead the way?
Posted by Kit in Azly Rahman, Education, Pakatan Rakyat on Tuesday, 29 July 2008
by Azly Rahman
[email protected]
http://azlyrahman-illuminations.blogspot.com/
“To evolve into wiser individuals with enquiring minds, we must ask questions and reflect upon the answers suggested to us. If we are afraid to ask questions, our mind and consciousness will be owned and manipulated by those who think they have the right answers, or by those who wants to use force to tell us what the right answers shall be.”
– My thoughts on the nature of learning
“I currently firmly believe that education should first be a dialectical and dialogical tool to mediate and resolve the contradictions between Existentialism and Cyberneticism, and of Cultures of Disabilities, …and next be a Deconstructive-Reconstructivist tool and social force to engineer personal and social revolutions and progress towards the realisation of a personal republic of virtue, ethics, multiculturalism, and metaphysics; so that human beings endowed with the Natural Rights to be free may collectively become educated to rise above hegemony, domination, and oppression and in the final analysis, journey towards a Pastoral and Natural self .”
– my personal philosophy of teaching
Let’s take a break from thinking about Malaysian politics. Justice will take its natural course, the natural “way”, like how Lao Tzu would philosophize.
Let us talk about the possiblities in education.
I have some ideas on how we can evolve out of this current political quagmire and focus our attention to an ever-pressing national question: how best to educate the children of our nation.
We need to have the states governed by Pakatan Rakyat to experiment with a new paradigm of educational reform. To showcase what “human capital revolution”, “education across the life span” and “education for creative and critical consciousness” means. Read the rest of this entry »
How to radicalise our universities
Posted by Kit in Azly Rahman, Education on Tuesday, 15 July 2008
by Dr. Azly Rahman
My parents, like those of many of you readers too, only managed to complete Darjah Tiga/ Standard Three of their education. Poverty and the nature of ‘human capital revolution’ during the 1940s did not afford them the luxury of being in an ivory tower. Hard times.
One became a taxi driver and the other first, a seamstress and next, a factory worker in Singapore assembling microchips for a German multinational corporation. They would leave for work at four or five in the morning and come home at seven at night. That was the story of their lives. I am sure they too had the dream of entering a place called the “university.”
They spent their time -hard times- that took toll on their personal lives, raising their children to enter the university.
But they had an intelligent hunch, they believed universities will make everybody come out smarter and able to think critically, creatively, and altruistically. They did not have the knowledge of political economy to decipher the fact that universities are closely linked to the politics of the day. Read the rest of this entry »
JPA scholarships – why, why, why?
Letters
by A student
Dear YB,
I have some question to ask on JPA Scholarship which I don’t understand.
1. Perkongsian kuasa dengan kaum-kaum lain di dalam pilihan raya 1955 membuktikan bahawa
i. orang melayu berupaya menwujudkan perpaduan antara kaum
ii. tindakan pemimpin pada masa itu adalah keterlaluan
iii. orang melayu sanggup berkorban demi mencapai kemerdekaan
iv. orang bukan melayu terhutang budi kepada orang melayu
– This is the sample question of “mock examination” for JPA Scholar students who are to be sent to Canada sponsored by JPA. The choice number iv. is most racist and offensive, as without Orang Bukan Melayu, i.e. Chinese and Indians, Malaysia won’t get independence. Read the rest of this entry »
“First-world infrastructure, first-world mentality”?
(This is from the blog of Hannah Yeoh, DAP Selangor Assemblywoman for Subang Jaya)
SMKSU Prefects’ Reunion
Friday, June 20, 2008
Few months ago, I was invited to the Prefects’ Reunion of SMK Subang Utama to be held next week. I just received news that I could no longer attend the function because I’m an assemblyman from Pakatan Rakyat.
Two prefects have confirmed that the teachers have issued a threat to the prefects to withdraw their invitation to me and if not, the event would be cancelled.
I am upset with this. Let me explain to you why this threat by the teachers is so fundamentally wrong:-
this is a private function to be held outside the school; every past and present prefect is entitled to attend this event; and
I was the Head Prefect for 1995/1996 and was one of the pioneers to start this yearly reunion for the prefects.
I am not a criminal or a bad role model. All I did was this, exercised my right to vote, exercised my right to stand for election, to stand up for my generation and to fight corruption. As a young person, I am not afraid to stand up for righteous principles, not afraid of intimidation by the ‘supposedly powerful’ groups but today I am told that I am not a welcoming sight at a function which I championed and fought for many years ago. Read the rest of this entry »
Smart schools vs sick schools
Posted by Kit in Azly Rahman, Education on Sunday, 15 June 2008
by Dr. Azly Rahman
I read this excerpt of a news story below with disgust.
‘… One-third of Malaysia’s schools do not have water and electricity, a minister said, pledging to fix the problem by 2010….
‘Deputy Education Minister Razali Ismail told Bernama that all 9,806 schools will have access to basic utilities by the end of a four-year education development plan….70 percent of schools already have access to water and electricity. The other 30 percent are mostly located in rural areas, but “we are confident the problem will be solved by 2010”.
…Malaysia has implemented a series of five-year development plans with the aim of reaching developed-nation status by 2020..In the last national blueprint, announced in 2006, the government said RM1.15 billion would be spent to upgrade schools.’
All we continue to hear are slogans such as ‘2010’, ‘Vision 2020’, ‘developed-nation status’ and ‘billions of ringgit of funding’.
These cloud our vision of what schools ought to be. It is as if there is a ‘manufactured crisis’ going on: keep schools impoverished so that the government can keep making promises using empty slogans. The aim: only this government can continue to help those poor schools. This is the nature of mystification we have been fed with all these decades.
recall then education minister Najib Abdul Razak making a statement about “smart schools” –
“…that the first Smart School is being built at a cost of RM144.5 million. Apart from being wired, it would have a hostel for 800 students, an Olympic-size swimming pool, a hockey pitch, a hall and other facilities. Eventually all Malaysian schools will be operated on this concept. …”
Now we hear that many schools do not have water and electricity supply, let alone computers to make the schools and students smart. I think our children deserve better than empty promises by the ministry in charge of human intelligence and social reproduction. Read the rest of this entry »
Continue Teaching Science and Mathematics in English
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, Education on Saturday, 14 June 2008
by M. Bakri Musa
The government’s decision to revisit (and most likely do away with) the current teaching of science and mathematics in English is an instructive example of how an otherwise sensible policy could easily be discredited and then abandoned because of poor execution. Had there been better planning, many of the problems encountered could have been readily anticipated and thus avoided, or at least reduced. The policy would then more likely to succeed, and thus be accepted.
Ironically, only a year ago a Ministry of Education “study” pronounced the program to be moving along “smoothly,” with officials “satisfied” with its implementation. Now another “study” showed that there was no difference in the “performance” (whatever that term means or how they measure it) between those taught in Malay or English.
The policy was in response to the obvious deficiencies noted in students coming out of our national schools: their abysmal command of English, and their limited mathematical skills and science literacy. They carry these deficits when they enter university, and then onto the workplace.
The results are predictable. These graduates are practically unemployable. As the vast majority of them are Malays, this creates tremendous political pressure on the government to act as employer of last resort. Accommodating these graduates made our civil service bloated and inefficient, burdened by their deficient language and mathematical abilities.
This longstanding problem began in the late 1970s when Malay became the exclusive language of instruction in our public schools and universities. Overcoming this problem would be a monumental undertaking. Read the rest of this entry »
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