YOURSAY 'We can have any blueprint, but if it is hijacked by the politicians then we are wasting our time and money.'

'Only Dong Zong unhappy with Edu Blueprint'

James1067: Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan, it is not about learning Bahasa Malaysia (BM), English or even Chinese, it is about the whole education system.

We have deteriorated in our education system because it has been hijacked by the politicians. They do not have the interests of the public at heart but their own future political career.

Why bother whether they want to study in whatever language, after all it is not their children's future at stake. The Education Ministry's duty is to upgrade the quality of the education system.

In the 60s and 70s, we were among the top countries in Asia. There were thousands of Malay, Chinese and Indian students who were world beaters. What happened and where have we gone wrong?

The politicians have politicised the system. We will never recover so long as politicians control the system. We can have any blueprint, but if it is hijacked by them then we are wasting our time and money.

4W4K3N1N6: Isn't 3.5 hours of class a week sufficient for a student to learn to communicate in any language?

I can understand some officials in the ministry policymaking body may require special attention and additional classes to learn a language, but most Malaysians are smarter than that and 3.5 hours a week is more than sufficient for them.

Fair Play: I suppose from the Chinese education group Dong Zong's point of view, they never did trust the powers-that-be from past dealings.

They are unhappy and they have the guts to express their unhappiness. On the other hand, what does a hand-kissing leader know about speaking up for his community?

Stories: How can they claim to protect vernacular schools when schools are left alone to survive with meagre and insufficient funding?

Anonymous #40538199: The Education Ministry should reveal the percentage of students coming from vernacular schools who pass the SPM Bahasa Malaysia examination.

Zen: Dong Zong is no longer effective in helping BN, based on the Chinese votes in the last general election (GE). That's the reason Umno just couldn't be bothered with organisations like this anymore.

Fairnsquare: Whatever number of hours are spent in BM will not necessarily bring in the desired better results in the language. The attitude of the pupils towards the language is where the matter lies.

We should encourage the speaking of BM. Our media is misused for political reasons but never used to encourage the use of it. Having TV programmes that have an infusion of Bahasa in Chinese and Indian programmes will go a long way to promote BM.

We need to get creative and not just make laws to see better results. We should learn from other countries and not keep on shoving it down the throat like it was some bitter medicine.

RA 1: A total of 240 minutes/5 days comes to 48 minutes per day. It must be six periods of 40 minutes each. No wonder the Bahasa is so bad among SRJK(C) pupils. It was probably one period a day before this.

An extra 60 minutes in Malay comes to an extra 12 minutes per day. It is a small thing.

MalaysianGuy: Decreasing the 60 minutes of Bahasa Malaysia will not make you less Malaysian either. Indian and Chinese vernacular schools have already agreed to increase to 210 minutes a week. Apa lagi mau?

Jaguh: Why must the issue be at the school? At school, we are to learn the basic grammar. Teaching begins at home. And learning another language is by mixing around. That's how we did it 50 years ago. What has changed?

Blind spots in Education Blueprint

Onyourtoes: Even if the education authorities are genuine and sincere, the implementing apparatuses within the ministry, schools and universities will ensure that whatever that was agreed upon will be completely screwed at the implementation level.

You will not miss it - just look around the amount of bigotry, incompetence, stupidity, poor work culture, racism and hatred being portrayed in the ministry, departments, schools and universities. That's the Achilles' heel of this nation.

My4HOPE: First chapter of educating the BN government: Be fair and just to non-Malays. Don't bully the non-Muslims. Without this, all are mere self-deceiving words. How can you promote sound education of Malaysia by being a bad example?

Dizzer: Well said, Dr Kua Kia Soong. I'm a supporter of a single system but the religiosity of the sekolah kebangsaans is pretty shocking (and I speak as someone with Muslim kids in the system).

It is a very serious error to teach religion as fact rather than faith/belief because you have the ridiculous situation of science teachers, for example, telling pupils that evolution is wrong and that Adam and Eve were the first people.

Fogbom: Do you weep for the zoo animals? The big cats, they who roamed freely in the forest. When first captured, they longed to be free again, roared in rage at their grinning captors. Then, they give up. Depression, apathy follow. The smell and sight of human spectators first disgusts them, then indifference sets in.

They live out shortened lives, always encaged. They die, and at last receive the freedom they had always sought; their cold corpses taken out of the cages and interred in the damp, fragrant earth.

Do we not also imprison our minds? Barriers of religious and racial ascendency, of ‘them' and ‘us'? They think we must teach our children to live well in these cages: it is best for them! they cry out heartily.

Even as they lead them into the cages, the officials smiling say, "See how free we all are. Now we shall all have our place in the Malaysian sun!"

Only behind the invisible bars, like the zoo animals, I long for all of us to be free. Such a distant goal; will we ever get there?

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