[lg policy] Evolution of the Malaysian educational system – A scenario of uncertainty and turmoil

Fri Dec 22 15:22:25 UTC 2017

Evolution of the Malaysian educational system – A scenario of uncertainty
and turmoil
Posted on 21 December 2017 - 05:23pm
*Last updated on 21 December 2017 - 05:45pm*

*Mohamed Ghouse Nasuruddin *

*OUR* 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

*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: letters at thesundaily.com
<letters at thesundaily.com>*

-- 
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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