I refer to the Malaysiakini video Malaysia’s education system polarises?

It was indeed a great effort 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 ie, 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 in 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 multi-cultural 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 these 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.

The Tamil and Chinese medium schools are 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 21 st 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 are 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 when the debate should be about interactive whiteboards and technology- integrated classrooms, we are still debating about tables and chairs and brick and mortar (very much true as far as Tamil schools 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 hypersensitive 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. The government could perhaps help – if it could be trusted...