Since the country gained its independence from the British more than fifty years ago, the past two decades have seen the education system go downhill.

The system is not only seen as rigid, old-fashioned and unsuitable for a country that claims to be developed, but is also producing graduates who can't think outside the box or compete at the international level.

In addition, the education system is overly exam-oriented and focused on rote-learning and spoon-feeding.

It emphasises too much, as well, on the sciences while withholding recognition of the arts and humanities. Malaysians have subsequently become obsessed with scoring As in exams.

It is no surprise that our foreign counterparts say we have failed with trying to mould capable graduates.

The growing incidences of students in tertiary institutions plagarising and  unable to string together even a few words of spoken and written English when applying for a place at university or a job should be cause for alarm.

We cannot ignore which calls for a revamp in our education system.

As the deterioration of the standard of English standard continues, we are called upon to revive the use of English within the education system. We cannot deny the fact that English is now a global language used all over the world in information technology, mass media, the arts and the sciences.

To learn English as a second language is all about enabling students to enter the gateway of globalism beyond Malaysia.

Whoever claims that learning English is about discarding one's Asian heritage has gotten the wrong idea and is denying our future generations of the right to embrace globalism in their lives.

It is very disappointing to hear Malaysians talk of how ‘useless’ the arts and humanities are, or that arts students are not as smart as their counterparts in the sciences. To say that the arts and humanities do not require thinking is nonsense.

The arts and humanities require not just as much, when not more, thinking, but also requires more 'outside the box' approaches.

It does not take a sociologist to tell us that an overemphasis on the sciences will only throw society off-balance. Society will also become a very boring place to live.

What will be of society if its future generations talk only of science and maths all day?

We should do away with rote-learning and memorisation as it is not beneficial for our students. It saddens me to note how some Malaysian students overseas cannot cope with the learning environment that requires more on thinking outside the box and depends less on textbooks and the spoon-feeding of notes.

It is alarming how  students ‘copy and paste’ their assignments in order to pass a paper rather than face failure and make mistakes but with their dignity intact. We should start at the primary school level to replace the rote-learning method with the creative, critical-thinking approach.

The creative thinking method will not only encourages students to think independently but also be unafraid to commit mistakes so as to learn from them.