WHAT'S AILING OUR NATIONAL SCHOOL?
EXCERPTS FROM THE STAR, 23rd. MARCH 2005
Barisan MPs and oppositions' showed their concern over the MCA’s proposal for more Chinese Schools under the 9MP during the parliamentary debate on the royal address yesterday.
Datuk Rosli Mat Hassan (BN-Dungun) said the govt should consider setting up a special committee to find out why non-Malay parents were reluctant to send their children to national schools.
“Are the parents reluctant to send their children to national schools because these schools have turned into national religious schools?” he asked.
Datuk Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) said national schools were synonymous with Malays rather than Malaysians.
“Is this the reason or is it the teachers are not up to standard and are unfriendly?” he asked.
Mohd Alwi Che Ahmad (BN-Ketereh) said there was no question about the identity of national schools, when he was a student. He said the reason national schools were accepted by all races then was because teachers there were from the various races.
“Why are the non-Malays uninterested in teaching? We should find the answer,” he added.
COMMENTS:
What then was the problem? Is it because the schools had turned into a unitary religious platform? Is it because the standards of teaching is low or are the teachers in national schools unfriendly? Or it is because the composition of teachers are no more multi-racial and that non-Malay are not interested in teaching in national schools?
These were some of the questions posed by the parliamentarians to the education ministry. What then is the problem?
I believe, all the hypothesis posed by the parliamentarians are part of the reasons, but not absolute.
From my discussions with parents and childrens of those in Chinese schools, one of the major factors is the quality of education. It is believed by those parents that their children will perform better in selective Chinese schools because of the perceived higher quality of education (from track records). It is not that there are no quality national schools in Malaysia but that there are far away from the homes of some families, and parents are not happy to see their children being posted to some remote schools which have track records of poor quality education. We must understand that children are posted to national schools at the discretion of the education ministry, and it has over the years being perceived that Chinese childrens are posted to schools of lower quality and are situated in remote isolated areas. At such, these parents would want a better choice by sending their childrens to selected Chinese schools which have better track records of their quality in educational excellence.
It must be remembered that these parents had to pay far higher school fees in Chinese schools compared to national schools; yet these middle income and lower income parents were prepared to foot the cost which caused them great financial distress. Presumably, if the education ministry had been seen to be fair and reasonable officers, these Chinese parents and those potential ones would want to sent their children to national schools too. The negative attitude towards the education ministry is not without basis and the government had never paid any attention to this problem over the decades, except to throw criticisms and to construed them as unpatriotic and disloyal citizens (metaphors).
Why are the non-Malays uninterested in teaching? This question was posed by Mohd Alwi Che Ahmad (BN-Ketereh) at the parliamentary session. Is it true? I DON'T THINK SO! Many Chinese and Indians love to be teachers and lecturers. Me too! But the system of educational administration left much to be desired. Many of these teachers felt that promotions and posting are tinkled with cronism and nepotism, often based on colors of skin. Would the government consider promoting non-Malays to post of Directors and Director-generals in civil services, and that include GLCs?
We do respect that there are many Malays that are capable and qualified. But there too, are many non-Malays who are qualified, experienced, competent and long-serving loyal civil servants. Will they be given near-equal (or quota-based) opportunities? Lets look at the case of Perwaja Steel's (criminal case) reported yesterday where a question was posed to former director of Perwaja Steel, Datuk Nik Mohd Affandi Nik Yusoff. Asked by counsel Datuk Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, whether he had said to Eric Chia, "By right, you were not supposed to be sitting in this chair, this is a Malay chair", Nik Mohd Affandi replied: "No, Your Honour, never."
Datuk Nik Mohd denied vehemently that he made that statement. But this question does loom in the mindset of many non-Malays. Why? Because, our system is a caste system! We are divided within the system and classified as first-class and second-class citizens. Is it unreasonable that non-Malays are suffering from paranoia?
Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said people should not be too nationalistic when seeking knowledge. He said knowledge came in all forms and languages, and sometimes the native language needed to be learned first before the knowledge could be acquired.
"We should not be reluctant to learn other languages because they can help us gain access to the knowledge," he said in his speech when opening the abacus and mental arithmetic campaign at Wisma MCA Tuesday night.
The government, he said, had decided to implement the teaching of mathematics and science in English as it is the universal language. "We will not lose our national and racial identity if we speak in English," he added.
There is no question that all Malaysians, irrespective of races need to learn Bahasa Malaysia and be competent to speak and write in the language. But this is not the reason why Chinese are electing Chinese school education.
Marina Mahathir, the daughter of Tun Dr. Mahathir, in her article entitled, "Unequal learning in our education system" published in The Star (9th. March) made a statements that deserved critical thinking:
"When we think that education is the key to our children’s future ... It is one thing to give our kids the basics, it is another thing to try and unearth from them their true potential as thinking, living, breathing and creative human beings. And to do this, we have to expose them to as much of the world as possible, to allow them to assess, evaluate and judge for themselves. But if our education system does nothing more than force-feed them what we think is right for them and leave them no room to explore ideas on their own, then all we are doing is creating a whole bunch of automatons who are not going to know how to live in this changeable globalised world. It is a system that only breeds inequality. If our education system leaves no room to think, and only one type of thinking is allowed, then discrimination against anything different will naturally set in. That’s the first type of inequality. Then the parents who don’t like this type of education will look for ways out of it, by firstly going to private schools within the country. This then creates another sort of separation and inequality, where our kids will then only mix with certain types of kids, and grow to believe that that’s all there is in the world. Then the next step is for parents who can afford it (and more and more seem to be able to) to send kids abroad at earlier and earlier ages. This then creates even more separation and inequality with kids who have to remain at home ... We’ve only got one chance to get it right with our kids; how much longer are we going to blow it?"
EXCERPTS FROM THE STAR, 23rd. MARCH 2005
Barisan MPs and oppositions' showed their concern over the MCA’s proposal for more Chinese Schools under the 9MP during the parliamentary debate on the royal address yesterday.
Datuk Rosli Mat Hassan (BN-Dungun) said the govt should consider setting up a special committee to find out why non-Malay parents were reluctant to send their children to national schools.
“Are the parents reluctant to send their children to national schools because these schools have turned into national religious schools?” he asked.
Datuk Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) said national schools were synonymous with Malays rather than Malaysians.
“Is this the reason or is it the teachers are not up to standard and are unfriendly?” he asked.
Mohd Alwi Che Ahmad (BN-Ketereh) said there was no question about the identity of national schools, when he was a student. He said the reason national schools were accepted by all races then was because teachers there were from the various races.
“Why are the non-Malays uninterested in teaching? We should find the answer,” he added.
COMMENTS:
What then was the problem? Is it because the schools had turned into a unitary religious platform? Is it because the standards of teaching is low or are the teachers in national schools unfriendly? Or it is because the composition of teachers are no more multi-racial and that non-Malay are not interested in teaching in national schools?
These were some of the questions posed by the parliamentarians to the education ministry. What then is the problem?
I believe, all the hypothesis posed by the parliamentarians are part of the reasons, but not absolute.
From my discussions with parents and childrens of those in Chinese schools, one of the major factors is the quality of education. It is believed by those parents that their children will perform better in selective Chinese schools because of the perceived higher quality of education (from track records). It is not that there are no quality national schools in Malaysia but that there are far away from the homes of some families, and parents are not happy to see their children being posted to some remote schools which have track records of poor quality education. We must understand that children are posted to national schools at the discretion of the education ministry, and it has over the years being perceived that Chinese childrens are posted to schools of lower quality and are situated in remote isolated areas. At such, these parents would want a better choice by sending their childrens to selected Chinese schools which have better track records of their quality in educational excellence.
It must be remembered that these parents had to pay far higher school fees in Chinese schools compared to national schools; yet these middle income and lower income parents were prepared to foot the cost which caused them great financial distress. Presumably, if the education ministry had been seen to be fair and reasonable officers, these Chinese parents and those potential ones would want to sent their children to national schools too. The negative attitude towards the education ministry is not without basis and the government had never paid any attention to this problem over the decades, except to throw criticisms and to construed them as unpatriotic and disloyal citizens (metaphors).
Why are the non-Malays uninterested in teaching? This question was posed by Mohd Alwi Che Ahmad (BN-Ketereh) at the parliamentary session. Is it true? I DON'T THINK SO! Many Chinese and Indians love to be teachers and lecturers. Me too! But the system of educational administration left much to be desired. Many of these teachers felt that promotions and posting are tinkled with cronism and nepotism, often based on colors of skin. Would the government consider promoting non-Malays to post of Directors and Director-generals in civil services, and that include GLCs?
We do respect that there are many Malays that are capable and qualified. But there too, are many non-Malays who are qualified, experienced, competent and long-serving loyal civil servants. Will they be given near-equal (or quota-based) opportunities? Lets look at the case of Perwaja Steel's (criminal case) reported yesterday where a question was posed to former director of Perwaja Steel, Datuk Nik Mohd Affandi Nik Yusoff. Asked by counsel Datuk Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, whether he had said to Eric Chia, "By right, you were not supposed to be sitting in this chair, this is a Malay chair", Nik Mohd Affandi replied: "No, Your Honour, never."
Datuk Nik Mohd denied vehemently that he made that statement. But this question does loom in the mindset of many non-Malays. Why? Because, our system is a caste system! We are divided within the system and classified as first-class and second-class citizens. Is it unreasonable that non-Malays are suffering from paranoia?
Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said people should not be too nationalistic when seeking knowledge. He said knowledge came in all forms and languages, and sometimes the native language needed to be learned first before the knowledge could be acquired.
"We should not be reluctant to learn other languages because they can help us gain access to the knowledge," he said in his speech when opening the abacus and mental arithmetic campaign at Wisma MCA Tuesday night.
The government, he said, had decided to implement the teaching of mathematics and science in English as it is the universal language. "We will not lose our national and racial identity if we speak in English," he added.
There is no question that all Malaysians, irrespective of races need to learn Bahasa Malaysia and be competent to speak and write in the language. But this is not the reason why Chinese are electing Chinese school education.
Marina Mahathir, the daughter of Tun Dr. Mahathir, in her article entitled, "Unequal learning in our education system" published in The Star (9th. March) made a statements that deserved critical thinking:
"When we think that education is the key to our children’s future ... It is one thing to give our kids the basics, it is another thing to try and unearth from them their true potential as thinking, living, breathing and creative human beings. And to do this, we have to expose them to as much of the world as possible, to allow them to assess, evaluate and judge for themselves. But if our education system does nothing more than force-feed them what we think is right for them and leave them no room to explore ideas on their own, then all we are doing is creating a whole bunch of automatons who are not going to know how to live in this changeable globalised world. It is a system that only breeds inequality. If our education system leaves no room to think, and only one type of thinking is allowed, then discrimination against anything different will naturally set in. That’s the first type of inequality. Then the parents who don’t like this type of education will look for ways out of it, by firstly going to private schools within the country. This then creates another sort of separation and inequality, where our kids will then only mix with certain types of kids, and grow to believe that that’s all there is in the world. Then the next step is for parents who can afford it (and more and more seem to be able to) to send kids abroad at earlier and earlier ages. This then creates even more separation and inequality with kids who have to remain at home ... We’ve only got one chance to get it right with our kids; how much longer are we going to blow it?"
I can add nothing more to what Marina had said. The statement speaks for itself the state of affairs in our educational system; except that she did not comment on the administrative aspects of the education ministry.
Does the education minister and his officers read this article? If they do, do they understand it? If they understand, will they listen to her wisdom and act to make things right? Do the government and in particular, the Ministry of Education, want a solution to this problem, or are they paranoid?
Does the education minister and his officers read this article? If they do, do they understand it? If they understand, will they listen to her wisdom and act to make things right? Do the government and in particular, the Ministry of Education, want a solution to this problem, or are they paranoid?
The new hypothesis should be: "If only Marina Mahathir is our Education Minister, then can we see radical change for the better". But, she won't be! (as she had not contested in the general election).
Maybe, Pak Lah should consider offering her a senatorship and make her the Education Minister (in the same manner when PM appointed Second Minister of Finance).
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