The Powers That Be!

In October 2011, the Ministry of Education (MOE) launched a comprehensive review of the

education system to develop a national education blueprint. The decision was made in the

context of raising international education standards and to better prepare Malaysian

children for the needs of the 21 st century. The increased public and parents’ expectations on

our education policy has certainly played a part in this education spring. The Malaysia

Education Blueprint 2013-2025 (MEB) was developed with input from education experts and

stakeholders following many townhall, roundtable and lab sessions where their opinions

were obtained. The target was set, in that in 13 years, the country would achieve this

intended path. With the MEB, left only a year to go of its runway, how much have we really

achieved?

In year 2024, 12 years post the implementation of the MEB, we are still grappling with the

same issues and challenges of 2011, devoid of evidence of any substantial outcomes. The

MOE would be selective, to share the good news of the pockets of progress, celebrating the

small ‘wins’ but remain silent on the bigger problem areas. Teachers confess to recording

false positive data, to make the school look good, as reported on their social media posts.

This is done, apparently to satisfy the higher ups in the ministry, that all is good at school

level. However, problems do find a way to surface. Data collected internationally by OECD,

UNESCO, and the World Bank for instance, would show the real situation with more

balanced and critical views, analyses and recommendations. The MOE is aware that it has

fallen short in the promises made in the MEB and fixing the problems remain a Herculean

task. It takes great pains, a lot of work, care, risks, and effort to put right. Heads too, must

roll!

The education stakeholders, academicians, industry experts, think tanks and parents have

played a part over the years in keeping MOE on their toes to ensure that the country gets

the quality education deserved. Yet in spite of that, we are seeing recent news headlines

again of education rot, low achievements, below average performance in the PISA test,

below average reading proficiency, learning loss, learning poverty, absent teachers,

insufficient teachers, high student dropout rate, higher non completion rate of SPM,

unknown standards and grading of SPM, race, religion and language segregation and

polarisation in schools, low English proficiency, poor take up of STEM subjects for the

benefit of the country and various other problems plaguing our education system.

Blueprints, policies, roadmaps are easy to do. The implementation on the other hand, needs

a lot more work with all the cascades and layers in the MOE working together. Thus each

level must own some kind of accountability. Education ministers come and go: there have

been 5 ministers so far within the lifespan of the MEB - Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Dato Sri

Mahdzir Khalid, Dr Maszlee Malik, Dato Dr Radzi Jidin and Fadhlina Sidek. Each one has

tremendous power, to make or break the path of our education, as their discretionary

powers are provided for in the Education Act 1996.

What if decisions made, by one powerful individual, acting on sentiments and unbacked by

evidence and data? What if they are motivated to pursue their own self-righteous agenda

and political goals rather than what the country really needs? We have seen that with Tan

Sri Muhyiddin when he abolished the teaching and learning of science and mathematics in

English, PPSMI, but not without public outcry. He also made the decision that students

sitting for SPM must pass history, announcing it at the UMNO General Assembly, without

any consultation or agreement of MOE nor stakeholders. Going further back, the abolition

of the English medium schools (EMS) by Tun Abdul Rahman Ya’kub on national TV, was

without consultation with the cabinet.

Are we better off as experiments of social engineering? Is that decision progressive for the country? It was certainly an easy thing to do, to please the ultra-nationalists post May 13, 1969, justifying nationalism and a Malaysian identity. Whether it was the right thing to do or not, we are still having the debate 50 plus years on. But the motivation of such decisions was certainly based on sentiments. We can only look back at those days of EMS where it was the era of better racial

mix and integration in schools, and our education system was top-notch producing many

civil servants and professionals who were of high calibre and ready to take on the world. It

was also easier to produce highly proficient English language teachers without much

training required. Our schools were also not obsessed with matters of race and religion.

On that note, His Majesty the King has decreed that he is very much in favour of the EMS.

His Majesty is very much aware that, it is because of EMS that his subjects would seek

better education opportunities further south.

We are concerned that this time around, the minister of education is taking that same path

in exercising discretionary powers to act based on sentiments. It may seem trivial to reduce

the number of the dual language programme (DLP) classes where STEM subjects are taught

in English which is an option given to parents. However, the justification to protect the

national language and mother tongue seems superficial and merely rhetoric.

There are larger issues and challenges in our education to fix. Let the DLP continue to be the

choice of parents, allowing it to remain status quo as per the 2020 DLP Guidelines. It would

be best to further expand the programme which may serve as a school that mimics the EMS

of yesteryears in promoting unity, diversity and integration. The DLP may not be the magic

bullet that will fix the education system but certainly reducing its importance is regrettable.

The Edge