Revamping our Education System

This week, the Edge published an interesting article written by Khairy Jamaluddin entitled ‘Time to Consider a New Social Contract’. He opined that “we need … a new concord … (to) address not only the never-ending parallel-lives issue but also deal with other fundamental issues regarding preferential policies”. His take on the need to reform the Malaysian education system is both bold & far-reaching. As a politician, he deserves praise for this serious proposal which would earn him more criticisms than accolades in his party.

A Typical Educational Journey

Let me firstly tell you a bit about my personal educational background. I studied in a missionary school, St. Mary’s in Sandakan, Sabah. My father sent me to this school because he’d studied in St. Mary’s and he felt that if it was good enough for him, it should good enough for his son. My father rejected my mother’s request for me to study in a Chinese primary school in order to learn Mandarin.

I joined St. Mary’s in 1970 when the medium of instruction was switched from English to Malay. My classmates & I learned, spoke & joked in Malay for 13 years. It was a fun group comprising mostly Chinese with a few from the other races; just enough to make up a football team which we called MCKIP. MCKIP stands for ‘Malay, Chinese, Kandazan, India (actually a Sikh) and Philippino’. Strangely, these days I can go for one whole week without speaking a single Malay word. After I’ve completed my Form Six, I applied to University Malaya to study either law or economics. I was only given a place to study Bachelor of Art which I did not apply for. I opted to study accountancy in Tunku Abdul Rahman College.

When my wife & I have our first child, we decided to send her (and her siblings) to a Chinese school because we felt that the standard of teaching in the Kebangsaan schools was lower than that of the Chinese schools. We were also motivated by our desire to have our children learn their mother tongue, Mandarin. All my children went to Chinese primary school, with my youngest daughter about to complete her Standard Six this year. Next year, she would proceed to a Kebangsaan school, like her sisters before her.

Living in a Parallel World

I agree with Khairy when he lamented that our children are living different lives- a kind of parallel world where they hardly interact. This is something which we need to address. I believe that our education system, from primary school level to the tertiary level, should strive to produce well-rounded graduates with the necessary skills to compete in today’s globalized economy. The education system should be cost-effective and also promote fairness & unity among the different races. I do not however agree with Khairy’s suggestion of completely phasing out the vernacular schools from the system, even gradually. Instead we should work to strengthen the Kebangsaan schools to such a level that even the non-Malay parents would not hesitate to send their children to these schools. Let me explain how we can achieve a cost-effective world-class education system with fairness to all & unity in mind.

Suggestions for Improvement

Firstly, promote Vision schools. We can do this through publicity but it would be more effective if we can show results instead. What we need is to enhance the effectiveness & efficiency of the teachers in this schools as well as the level of proficiency of the students entering such schools. Make these schools the elite schools and offer the students something special. For example, we can keep PPSMI in the Vision schools. I believe there are many parents who have seen the benefit of their children studying Science & Mathematic in English & they want their children to continue to have access to this medium of instruction. I daresay that even the Chinese parents would put PPSMI ahead of studying in a Chinese school. The government should also emphasize one important feature of Vision schools which should appeal to non-Malay parents- the teaching of the mother tongue in these schools. This may satisfy many parents who are not too demanding about their children studying every subject in the mother tongue. I could have been one of them.

Secondly, reduce the Bumi quota for our universities. If you believe that our lack of unity comes from the different races starting their educational life in their respective vernacular primary schools, then how is that any better when they complete their educational life in separate colleges or universities. Today, we can observe that most of the Bumi students study in local government universities, while the non-Bumi students study in private colleges or universities. The reason is simply because the chance of gaining entry in the government universities for non-Bumi is very low due to the quota system which limits the available places for non-Bumi to only a handful. This system promotes unhappiness among the non-Bumi as well as lowering the standard of graduates in these universities as many talented non-Bumi students are turned away. We clamor loudly about the problem of the poor ranking of our universities when the elephant is standing right in front at us.

Thirdly, terminate all the Matrikulasi & Asasi courses which are nothing but backdoor entry to local universities for Bumi students. These pre-university courses are of lower standard than the STPM certificates and yet they are given preferential treatment in application to our local universities. Instead the government should set up pre-university colleges for the teaching of Form Six for all students. Everybody should be treated equally.

Fourthly, reduce the role of UPU to a coordinating body, like the US’s College Board. When the role of selecting students is taken away from the universities, what we have is simply ‘garbage in, garbage out’. When students have no say (or, very limited say) in which university he or she is assigned to, how important is the choice of university in the application. When the customer (the student) and the seller (the University) cannot freely determine their choices, then the seller cannot be held accountable for sub-standard performance.

Finally, reduce the number of scholarships to be awarded to Form Five students for overseas tertiary education or abolish them completely. By giving out 500 scholarships (each costing RM500,000) each year, the government is committing to spend RM250 million for only 500 students for the next 3-4 years. The same amount of money could be better utilized to upgrade our local universities or to pay for the tuition fee for 5000 students (each costing RM50,000) to study in our local universities. While studying overseas is undoubtedly a good experience, it is a luxury that we can hardly afford in a time when our fiscal deficit is so high. Instead we should send only our graduates for post-graduate studies when they are matured and are able to learn new things that would benefit our country upon their return.

The Right Time for a Change

I hope our Prime Minister would take up Khairy’s suggestion to set up a national consultative council to look into this problem quickly. As we celebrate our 54^th year of independence, Malaysians are hungry for more changes to improve their livelihood & the future of their children. Our Prime Minister has shown his mantle as a visionary leader by introducing a bold economic program, the New Economic Model. He has also taken brave political decision such as scrapping ISA and other draconian laws. Now is the time to do right for our children, by revamping our dysfunctional education system.

(This is my latest article in Merdeka Review. For the Chinese version, go here).