Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein Onn said in a press interview early this month that he wants our schools to cultivate 'people with new ideas, who are critical and creative, adept at problem-solving, able to create new opportunities and adaptable to changes. We do not want human capital that is self-centred and lacking in values. They need to be principled, respectful of differences in others, and be good and effective leaders'.

Wow, such fine and dandy words. But, moving beyond platitudes, these questions immediately popped up:

What will he do if the people who graduate from our schools are critical of his policies and suggest different creative solutions than his?

What if they adapt to changes in the world by taking advantage of the opportunities of information technology to express their views, such as on blogs or Internet sites?

Will he welcome their input and engage with them in debate, respecting differences of opinion?

Or will he excoriate them and label them unpatriotic ingrates, shooting down those who disagree with him?

Unless he can answer an unequivocal yes to questions (1) and (3), he has not understood the role and value of human development, and the Education Blueprint 2006-2010 will amount to a superficial makeover.

Everybody can agree rather, no one can dispute that our schools are not stimulating young Malaysians to think at all, let alone critically or creatively. But Hishammuddin expresses a rhetorical high road, seemingly believing we can engineer critical thinking and character development through programmes and schemes.

Dear Education Minister, we need less lofty rhetoric, more earthy grappling with the decline of the teaching profession and reversing the continual creep of authoritarian approaches to education. Let's not shoot for the stars; indeed, we need to take a deep breath, make a U-turn and rebuild from the ground.

The goal of expanding student participation beyond the classroom is noble and undisputed. I do not have a problem with making student involvement in co-curricular activities compulsory and more systematically facilitated and evaluated by teachers, and I fully support increasing the allocation of public funds towards activities beyond the classroom.

But the next phase in the Education Blueprint is yet another demonstration that the thinking of the Education Ministry is still totally inside the box. First, the programmes are thoroughly at odds with the objectives. Hishammuddin wants innovative students, but he wants to dictate what to innovate. He wants critical thinking to emerge out of a system that does not stomach criticism. His attitude is akin to a person who wants to be more patient and wants it now!

Second, teachers fit into this grand plan as appendages to a top-down, as the lackeys of political masters. Soon enough, teachers will be burdened with yet more training programmes to attend and more paperwork to file. There will surely be loads of money splashed on equipment, construction of facilities, and other hardware.

But who will be there to guide young minds and mould their character to a higher degree of maturity? The teaching profession needs to attract top graduates, pay better and be unburdened from the agenda upon agenda being recklessly and patronisingly imposed on them, such as teaching maths and science in English, Education Blueprint projects, and the phasing out of the PMR.

Much more than better programmes, our decrepit education system needs teachers who can demonstrate critical thinking and instill a creative, cooperative and dynamic ethos in our youth.

Ultimately, critical thinking hinges on a culture and attitudes - not just skills - that sustain it.

This culture must percolate all layers of society. It must be demonstrated by our leaders, through an appreciation for difference of opinion, a commitment to back up policy debates with argument and evidence, and to be uncompromising about substance and not be easily besotted with appearance.

All our best intentions and blueprints will amount to pitifully little unless and until we rescue the teaching profession from the abyss it is in.

Where you find top students wanting to be teachers, there you will see youth who are better taught, more vibrant and confident, who grow to be adults who think critically, and are allowed to think critically.

As I am about to wrap up this letter, the latest bluster from Hishammuddin arrived just on time to show why he is totally incapable of leading our education system forward. His intolerance of difference of opinion to the point of warning people who express a critical position is a reflection of all that is wrong in our schools and institutes of learning.