The prime minister's statement that the quality of our education policy at national schools will be revamped to attract students from various races should be applauded.

The drop in both the standard of teaching staff and the quality of students, both in the primary and secondary schools, is a well-known fact and shouldn't be swept under the carpet.

There should be a paradigm shift in our way of thinking. Students must be trained early not to pass their exams merely by rote learning. They must not be pawns of teachers who for the sake of having a higher pass rate, ask bright students to take exams on behalf of their less bright peers.

Schools labs should be properly built so that our students can catch up with the IT world. The National Service programme should be scrapped and its allocation be diverted to rural schools that have seen better days and lack funds for repairs and upkeep.

Let us hope that those who are involved in this revamp of our education will put politics aside. Hopefully, recalcitrant students who are involved in undesirable activities can be reformed and will turn over a new leaf.

The education of our youths should be of concern to all parties. This issue should not exploited by politicians wanting to reach the upper rungs of the power ladder. It is a well-known fact that those who aspire to the number one post in Umno must first undergo the trials and tribulations of being education minister first.

And the teaching profession shouldn't be the last choice of those who can't find employment elsewhere.

Schools should not be for one race only but open to all creeds. We need national schools rather than vernacular schools. The latter do not help in nation-building among the various races in this country.

Hopefully, the national education revamp will produce quality students who can think out of the box, have good emotional IQ and who can differentiate right from wrong. These youngsters must become world-class graduates with good communication skills in their mother language as well as in English, the language of choice in a borderless and business-minded world.

Let us hope the prime minister's noble intentions will kick-start a journey for excellence in our education system which seems to be in the doldrums at present.

Ministers come and go but it is our youth who will be our future leaders and they need a sound education system to become first-class thinkers and inventors who can take our country to new heights.

For their sake, don't mess with our education system. Those in charge mustn't play to the gallery in order to wins votes at the coming Umno polls.