jeffooi
04-12-2002, 12:26 PM
NEW STRAITS TIMES
Wednesday, December 4, 2002
On The Record:
<font size="+1">Just give us a good education</font>
Abdullah Ahmad
The ink of a scholar is more sacred than the blood of a martyr. Prophet Muhammad
LET me use George Orwell’s example and begin this column with an arresting generalisation: Malaysian education is a mess.
There is little common ground between the national, vernacular and the religious schools; each of whose vested interests resists any meaningful convergence of the system as anathema.
Obviously, the present situation is untenable, the more so given the utmost importance of education for the future of the country — not just to equip Malaysians with the knowledge to prosper in a globalised economy but with the living skills to succeed in a multi-racial society.
The national priority of education is not something that the country has just woken up to. The education portfolio has been a necessary stepping stone for our prime ministers (with the exception, of course, of our first, Tengku Abdul Rahman Putra). It has been a tacit requirement in Umno and in the Government that they must first be able to run the country's fretful education system before they take on the rigours of running the country.
Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad was Education Minister, in 1974, and so have been his anointed successors Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. They continue a long tradition of managing Malaysia's future on the basis of a first-hand acquaintance with the means to achieve it.
Now, however, education has gone all the way up the hierarchy of national interest. The Prime Minister himself is heading the effort at empirical reform, after decades in which politics had been allowed to do more harm than good.
The aims of national education have been challenged, corrupted and diverted by radicals and reactionaries with their own narrow agendas. Politics was what sustained the divergence between national and vernacular schools, as evidenced by the controversy over the use of English in Science and Mathematics. If that wasn't bad enough, the separation of interests between national and religious schools is probably worse.
...To me, education is simple. Now, more than before, it should clearly cultivate the triple objective: education for living, learning to make a living and to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.
As John F. Kennedy said: "A child miseducated is a child lost." We have seen it happening to our young during the last two decades, the last couple of years especially.
It is sad to admit but own up we must, that Malaysian education is a mess of conflicting interests and competing aims. The national agenda has suffered as a result.
The politics of education which preaches racial or religious exclusion has no place in a multi-racial Malaysian society. We must stop the rot now or forever keep our peace.
FULL STORY:
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/Columns/20021204082310/Article/
_____________
Abdullah Ahmad (Tan Sri) is Group Editor-in-Chief of NSTP.
Wednesday, December 4, 2002
On The Record:
<font size="+1">Just give us a good education</font>
Abdullah Ahmad
The ink of a scholar is more sacred than the blood of a martyr. Prophet Muhammad
LET me use George Orwell’s example and begin this column with an arresting generalisation: Malaysian education is a mess.
There is little common ground between the national, vernacular and the religious schools; each of whose vested interests resists any meaningful convergence of the system as anathema.
Obviously, the present situation is untenable, the more so given the utmost importance of education for the future of the country — not just to equip Malaysians with the knowledge to prosper in a globalised economy but with the living skills to succeed in a multi-racial society.
The national priority of education is not something that the country has just woken up to. The education portfolio has been a necessary stepping stone for our prime ministers (with the exception, of course, of our first, Tengku Abdul Rahman Putra). It has been a tacit requirement in Umno and in the Government that they must first be able to run the country's fretful education system before they take on the rigours of running the country.
Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad was Education Minister, in 1974, and so have been his anointed successors Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. They continue a long tradition of managing Malaysia's future on the basis of a first-hand acquaintance with the means to achieve it.
Now, however, education has gone all the way up the hierarchy of national interest. The Prime Minister himself is heading the effort at empirical reform, after decades in which politics had been allowed to do more harm than good.
The aims of national education have been challenged, corrupted and diverted by radicals and reactionaries with their own narrow agendas. Politics was what sustained the divergence between national and vernacular schools, as evidenced by the controversy over the use of English in Science and Mathematics. If that wasn't bad enough, the separation of interests between national and religious schools is probably worse.
...To me, education is simple. Now, more than before, it should clearly cultivate the triple objective: education for living, learning to make a living and to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.
As John F. Kennedy said: "A child miseducated is a child lost." We have seen it happening to our young during the last two decades, the last couple of years especially.
It is sad to admit but own up we must, that Malaysian education is a mess of conflicting interests and competing aims. The national agenda has suffered as a result.
The politics of education which preaches racial or religious exclusion has no place in a multi-racial Malaysian society. We must stop the rot now or forever keep our peace.
FULL STORY:
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/Columns/20021204082310/Article/
_____________
Abdullah Ahmad (Tan Sri) is Group Editor-in-Chief of NSTP.