Re: Malaysia’s Education System Polarises?
Elanjelian Venugopal
Re: Malaysia’s Education System Polarises?
( http://www.malaysiakini.tv/video/16797.html )
It was indeed a great effort on the part of Malaysiakini to produce a
video that sought to understand the nexus between the national type
(the ‘vernacular’) school system and lack of integration among the
citizens of Malaysia.
While the video captured a number of contending viewpoints rather
well, I felt it failed to touch on the real debate that we as a nation
ought to be having -- i.e. how do we provide quality education to our
children given our nation’s multicultural, multilingual background?
Research shows that children learn better if taught in their first
language, and the longer the medium of instruction is their first
language, the better. After all, homes are the first schools; and
parents are the first teachers. Formal schooling builds on the
foundation that was laid by parents.
Now, how do we implement that in Malaysia given our multicultural
background? During the colonial era it was much easier because we were
all living in our own little enclaves, but that is no longer true; we
increasingly live in mixed neighbourhoods. And schooling becomes an
issue.
Take my case for example. I live in Putrajaya and the nearest school,
a large complex in fact, is a National School located few hundred
metres away. Whereas Tamil Schools -- there are three close-by -- are
all outside Putrajaya, around 10 km away. Will I be considered a Tamil
chauvinist were I to send my child to one of the Tamil Schools, or a
traitor if chose the National School complex?
Ideally, there should only be a single system -- a national system,
which (note this point) will have different mediums of instruction.
The vision schools, in that sense, are a great concept, but like many
things in Malaysia, they translated into something else on ground --
where the Tamil and Chinese medium schools were treated like a
‘pendatang’ with limited access and rights.
So, it isn’t about culture, really.
We want to give our children a great, well-rounded education that
equips them with the skills, attitude and awareness needed for the
21st century workforce. We live in an age where information and facts
are available just a few mouse-clicks or screen-touches away. So,
today’s education shouldn’t be testing students to see if they
remember this or that date or fact or definition or contributing
factor or, even, consequence; all easily available (in Wikipedia, for
example). Instead, the system should equip our children with the
skills and discretion needed to search, sort, store, analyse, and
communicate information.
But sadly, in an age where the debate should be about interactive
whiteboards and technology integrated classrooms, we are still
debating about tables and chairs and bricks and mortar. (Very much
true as far as Tamil School are concerned, anyway.)
Coming back to my earlier point, even though Malaysian parents are not
all that gung ho about culture per se, we do not trust the government
and the civil service (both in the thrall of a racialist party for
half a century) to protect minority interests, which also include our
language and culture. Language and culture, to me, are the visible
markers of our rights. We are hyper-sensitive because we know -- at
least we feel -- that once the floodgates are opened, then there is no
telling how further marginalised, and alienated, we’d become.
To recap: children learn best if taught in their first language; but
ground realities complicate. Government could perhaps help -- if it is
trusted...
Ve. Elanjelian