<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="gmail-title" id="gmail-page-title">Evolution of the Malaysian educational system – A scenario of uncertainty and turmoil</h1>
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Posted on 21 December 2017 - 05:23pm<br><em>Last updated on 21 December 2017 - 05:45pm</em> <div class="gmail-article-byline"><strong><p>Mohamed Ghouse Nasuruddin</p>
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<p><strong>OUR</strong> educational system has undergone many
changes from the pre-colonial era informal Arabic based madrasah system
of education. It later evolved into the Malay education system that
incorporated elements of Islamic religious education, featuring the
Koran as the focal point of learning with the Jawi script as the main
written form.</p>
<p>With the advent of the colonial era, the British introduced the
English school system that ran parallel with the existing Malay and
Arabic schools. Later the Malay schools were integrated into the English
school system through the special Malay classes exclusively for
students from the Malay schools in transit for two years before being
absorbed into the English medium stream.</p>
<p>These English medium schools were established and spearheaded by
missionaries as in the case of Penang Free School, Saint Xavier's
Institution, the Convent schools, La Salle schools, Methodist schools,
St George's School together with government English schools such as The
Victoria Institution, Johor English School, Malay College Kuala Kangsar,
the Military College, Anderson Schools, among others, which formed the
backbone of the pre- and post-war Malayan educational system. They
continued to dominate and set the standards of Malayan education even
after independence and the formation of Malaysia right up to end of the
1960s.</p>
<p>The Razak Educational Report set up the blueprint for the
post-independence National Educational System. It proposed a single
stream education system with Bahasa Melayu as the main medium of
instruction and vernacular schools at the primary level. In addition, it
also proposed for the existence of English schools at the secondary
level. The Raman Talib Report, which was incorporated into the Education
Act of 1961, stressed the fundamentals of reading, writing and
arithmetic, the development of a Malayan curriculum, academic and
vocational streams. </p>
<p>The two reports articulate the basic tenets of a national educational
system stressing Malay as the main medium of Instruction with English
as a second language and vernacular schools confined to the primary
level. At that juncture, vernacular schools were more of feeder schools
in nature that integrated into the national school system.</p>
<p>But then vernacular schools, Chinese and Tamil Schools, began to
mushroom especially when Malay became the main medium of instruction in
the national schools which were regarded by the other races as being
exclusively Malay oriented.</p>
<p>This point marked the fracture of our educational system, which
progressively became worse because of the lack of political will and
professional policymakers and politicians to solidify, unify and
integrate the educational system. Political leaders sacrificed national
unity and integration for political expediency and vested interests so
as to maintain power.</p>
<p>Our fractured educational system led to the polarisation of the
races; Malays go to national schools while many Chinese and Indians go
to vernacular schools. In the end, such a situation negates the national
aspiration of integrating the young through education.</p>
<p>Besides this dissonance, our education system suffers from a
perpetual state of experimentation in respect of curriculum, teaching
methodology, evaluation and the medium of instruction. We experimented
with using English for science and mathematics, then after two years
reverted to Malay, the original language of teaching these two subjects.</p>
<p>There is a vocal segment of society who have been rooting for the
return of English medium schools. They feel that Malay schools have
limited capacity in exposing students to the larger spectrum and breadth
of knowledge compared to English medium schools.</p>
<p>Even after 60 years of Independence we are unable to settle the
language issue even though Malay is constitutionally sanctioned national
language. The existence of the vernacular school's system and the
demand for the return of English medium schools undermine our national
language policy.</p>
<p>A number of Malaysians claim the National Language is not a viable
commercial or academic language. Our universities require lecturers to
send their articles to high impact journals, which are exclusively in
English. They frown on articles in Malay for local journals, which are
not considered in the ranking exercise.</p>
<p>Thus, the education ministries have failed to encourage and instil
love and respect for the Malay language. Worse still, Dewan Bahasa dan
Pustaka, which is supposed to be the custodian of the sanctity of the
Malay language is impotent in carrying out its responsibilities. It is
merely a ceremonial white elephant, unable to enforce the use of Bahasa
Melayu.</p>
<p>This reflect the dilemma of our education system that seems to be
going nowhere, forever living in a world of academic pretence, more
concerned with form rather than substance, revelling in numerical
positioning rather than the quality of teaching and students'
performance. This is confounded by the fact that every minister, rightly
or wrongly, wants to leave his imprint and legacy on the educational
system prompting changes in the curriculum, method of assessment and
other pedagogical aspects.</p>
<p>Currently, the ministry has embarked on a slew of fundamental
changes. One is the replacing of local English text books with books
from England in line with the move to implement the Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages developed to gauge foreign language
proficiency. It is too early to pass judgment on its effectiveness but
various interested teaching and learning organisations, including the
Johor Language Teaching Association, have expressed caution in
implementing this move, which may adversely affect Malaysia students
especially rural students who find difficulty with foreign content.</p>
<p>Another significant change is the move from the exam-oriented
evaluation of year 6 UPSR pupils to a holistic approach called the
Primary School Assessment Report that incorporates additional elements
of sports, physical and curricular activities and psychometric
assessments.</p>
<p>The ministry has de-emphasised the long-standing criteria of academic
achievements that is reflected in the number of As that a student
achieves. It has lowered the academic requirements to achieve at least a
D in the exams. With this change students may no longer be motivated to
pursue academic excellence.</p>
<p>Teachers would be further burdened to execute the new criteria of
evaluation, which they may not be familiar with. The ministry may have
to retool these teachers to effectively carry out the assessments
objectively and professionally.</p>
<p>The effectiveness of this new evaluative process is yet to be seen
for it will take a host of factors and time to ascertain the viability
of this experiment.<br>
But the standard measure of scholastic achievement is the academic
performance, which should be given its due weightage in this new
evaluative process. The other variables of psychometric, sports and
co-curricular activities should be an addendum to reflect the holistic
character and personality of the pupils.</p>
<p>Yet another element that influences the minds of policymakers is the
4.0 Industrial Revolution, prompting politicians, corporate figures and
academics to embrace this so-called revolution into their sectors
without actually knowing the nature and implication of such action. </p>
<p>The latest exhortation came from the deputy minister of international
trade and industry, urging education ministries to embrace this
revolution and change their curriculum accordingly. This mantra is
echoed by Datuk Dr John Anthony Xavier, who recommended that the
curriculum of schools and universities be redesigned to incorporate
creative and design thinking. </p>
<p>Quite so often there is a disconnect between policy changes and the
implementation on the ground, which may not be ready for it. The most
important interface is the transfer of knowledge by the teachers who may
not be equipped to affect that transfer. And students from varying
background must be phased in before they become receptive to new content
and modes of transfer.</p>
<p>Another element that reflects the fractious nature of our education
system is the examination certificate issue between the government
examinations and those conducted by vernacular schools. The mainstay has
been the government examinations, but the Chinese Dong Zuang Group is
demanding that the government recognises their own Unified Examination
Certificate that is based on Taiwan's education syllabus for entry into
universities or as a qualification to apply for government jobs.</p>
<p>The national education system is in a state of uncertainty and
turmoil with so many unresolved issues that tend to rend it apart. And
the authorities are in a quandary to develop a cohesive and stable
education system because of conflicting interests. And these issues will
not iron out by themselves without professional guidance and a firm
political will towards achieving an excellent education system based on
the national ethos, aspirations and innovation.</p>
<p><em>Professor emeritus Datuk Dr Mohamed Ghouse Nasuruddin is an
honorary fellow at the Centre for Policy Research and International
Studies at Universiti Sains Malaysia. Comments: <a href="mailto:letters@thesundaily.com">letters@thesundaily.com</a></em></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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