COMMENT | "An inch ahead in politics is complete darkness," goes one Japanese proverb. Given the extent to which parents, teachers, and educationists are concerned with the state of the education in Malaysia - they should be - it goes without saying that Malaysia is close to embodying that proverbial inch ahead.

Clamours for reforms have led to fear, perhaps white panic, that Malaysia is getting education wrong at least three levels, even as the world is becoming more knowledge driven. Primary, secondary and tertiary education outcomes seem to be more and more dysfunctional.

Worse, Malaysian education officials in charge of nominating and testing our schools according to the world-renowned (Programme of International Students' Assessment (Pisa) test, ostensibly, seem to be skewing the assessment to get a better score too; as revealed by Bangi parliamentarian Ong Kian Ming

Indeed, instead of allowing at least 85 percent of Malaysian schools to take the once in three years Pisa test in 2015 - this measures the learning outcomes of a normal 15-year-old student in a knowledge society - the Education Ministry only allowed 51 percent to take part; thus invalidating the objectivity of the score entirely since 30 percent of the schools that participated in the 51 percent sample came from fully residential schools.

The latter tend to have better learning facilities and infrastructures that make learning measurable, which in turn, creates room for quarterly improvement.

When secondary and tertiary systems of education, paid for by taxpayers, are not able to operate accordingly, it goes without saying that there will be a serious skill mismatch. Thus, the unemployment rate of Malaysian graduates is three times the national average of four percent.

When Malaysian graduates, by the age of 23 to 24, cannot gain stable employment, they will be looking at an abyss that includes the inability to afford a first home, to support his or her parents and indeed, the inability to have his or her own family, too.

But when officials from the Education Ministry cannot get it right, nor the university administrators, then it goes without saying that Malaysia is practically in a black hole. Why?

In the QS University ranking two weeks ago, Universiti Malaya (UM) was in 87th spot. Before one starts celebrating that this was a marked improvement from before, look at the ranking of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). 

UKM was built in 1980 to promote the use of the national language. And, for those not in the know, Bahasa Malaysia can indeed be a very scientific language. Some of the best Malaysian doctors were trained in UKM in the 1980s and the trend remains. Many went on to become specialists too. Yet UKM is sliding badly.

UKM is at 184th position now, while Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) is ranked 202nd and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), which used to be an "apex" university in Malaysia that deserves higher funding from the government, is 207th.

One doesn't even need to talk about International Islamic University (IIUM) which was pioneered by Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim in the late 1980s which uses English as a medium of instruction.

One of Najib Razak's advisors can't even converse well in English. Another former political secretary of his, while competent in English, could not complete his law degree in that medium at the IIUM.

Not surprisingly, Mahathir, aware of this problem, has insisted that senior government officials who want to remain in the government need to have their English proficiency tested.

Indeed, Mahathir, himself an avid reader, was sufficiently concerned to want to be the education minister, too, albeit concurrent to his own premiership. He knows that the Education Ministry is in deep creek.

Finding truth from facts

One would assume that after one month at the job, Dr Maszlee Malik (photo) the new education minister would know it too. Among others, he has called for the use of teaching assistants to reduce the workload of teachers.

While this is a viable suggestion, it is a serious kink. In the 1990s, Harvard University introduced the Core curriculum which means curriculum of readiness. All undergraduates who were enrolled at Harvard would have to take some courses in Foreign Cultures, Quantitative Reasoning, Moral Reasoning and Historical Studies.

Sensing that this was a major education revolution, the National University of Singapore (NUS) did the same too. It urged all its undergraduates to take the Core curriculum at NUS too.

However, while the professors at Harvard had a bevvy of sharp PhD students to be their tutors or teaching fellows and invariably several battalions of teaching assistants to enhance the learning outcomes of the 5,000 odd undergraduates at Harvard, NUS did not have the same. Thus, the Core curriculum at NUS was not a compelling success story as compared to what Harvard was able to achieve.

When NUS wanted to bump up their university rankings, senior academics and professors were hired from abroad, thus, beefing up the number of citations and refereed publications by NUS when the latter was competing in any university ranking assessment.

What is needed at our Education Ministry is honest and hard-working officials who do not dread the prospect of increasing the sample of school testings to 85 percent of what Pisa demands. This is a test that is held every three years which gives the Education Ministry the chance to prepare for reading, comprehension and even financial literacy exams.

The Education Ministry also has to be more sensitive to global education trends, especially online learning, which will soon become three-dimensional. A one-to-one interaction with the computers may soon be a thing of the past. Indeed, a mere 3D goggle which can be bought online is about RM50 or less including doorstep delivery.

If the Education Ministry knows how to work with the member states of the Organisation of Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD), potentially seconding a senior official in the Education Ministry to its headquarters in Paris, there is no reason why Malaysia cannot catch up by 2021 when the next Pisa test is to be held.

Indeed, the World Development Report of the World Bank in 2018 had this to say:

"Vietnam’s 2012 results from an OECD test for high school students in maths, science and reading test … showed that its 15-year-olds performed at the same level as those in Germany even though Vietnam is a much poorer country."

The same press release had this to say:

"Between 2009 and 2015, Peru achieved some of the fastest growth in overall learning outcomes due to concerted policy action. In several countries (such as Liberia, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga) early grade reading improved substantially within a very short time, due to focused efforts based on evidence."

All of the above was summed up by Paul Romer, chief economist of the World Bank:

“The only way to make progress is to ‘find truth from facts.’ If we let them, the facts about education reveal a painful truth. For too many children, schooling does not mean learning."

Among the key facts needed to improve the school system, especially the secondary schools, involve:

  • measuring the learning outcomes of the students regularly, not necessarily through testing but with close observation of his or her mental adjustment to homework;
     
  • making it worthwhile for citizens of the country to be teachers, not unlike the prestige that comes with teaching in Finland, coupled with good pay; and
     
  • ultimately encouraging all students, parents, teachers to participate in the conversation on what makes for a good education model.

More importantly, the Education Ministry cannot ignore the source materials that can be used or earned online, such as through EdX or Coursera or indeed, even Central Class.

These are meaningful, and content-rich courses with due recognition from all the top universities in the world, too. And, they can save the fees of any ministry by 80 to 85 percent.

PHAR KIM BENG is an expert on EdX and has been credentialed by EdX of the University of Tokyo, Japan.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.