After reading LCH's Meritocracy or no real achievements

, I am pleased to note that the 'silent majority' has decided to speak about the serious deterioration in the quality of education in our country.

We have for far too long left this vital matter to the wisdom of the people in politics, and our educational establishments. We have given them a field day to experiment with their pet educational theories, and unwittingly permitted them to manipulate our young for their own ends under the rubric of promoting national unity.

A reasonable mandate, I guess, from their point of view — political types by natural instincts tend to be control freaks.

I am particularly delighted to see that we have come to recognise that education in our country is in a total mess. Some credit for this, like it or not, must go to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. More importantly, we are now prepared to make our views known, and to signal to policy makers that this state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue ad infinitum , if Malaysia is to develop into a K-Economy by 2020.

I agree with LCH that the time to address the issue of meritocracy has come. It is now because the political climate is quite conducive. This debate, however, must not be a "flash in the pan". It has to be a sustained collective effort by all concerned about our national competitiveness in an era of globalisation, where knowledge and innovation will increasingly fuel economic growth.

In this context, I regret that Professor Emeritus Dr Khoo Kay Kim, a respected historian and academic, seems to have decided to withdraw from the debate with a sense of hopelessness. I would have expected him to be among those in the forefront of a new movement to 'reform' (a dirty word in the context of present day Malaysian politics) our education system. Our education must be more relevant to the new realities of rapid ICT-driven technology, and knowledge-driven change, and intense competition.

Surely education of our young and ourselves must concern us all? The benefits go directly to us, as we are driven by our self-interest. As I have intimated earlier, it is dangerous, as we have found out to our horror over the last four decades, to leave education in the hands of experts.

These experts tend to look at education from a strictly technical and rational perspective on the assumption that people are as pliable as machines. Wrong, we are complex, and certainly not interchangeable parts. Furthermore, it takes years and lots of public and personal money to develop the human mind.

Our country continues to invest heavily in educating our young and the not-so-young like me as well to engage in lifelong learning. This is a good thing. The newest initiative by the government is the Open University of Malaysia (Unitem). I am very hopeful that the men in charge and the women at Unitem will make the difference for it is usually easier to begin afresh than to transform existing institutions.

Education starts at home. We cannot begin to talk about changing things that we may not have a direct influence or the power to change unless we have to reassert ourselves in our homes. Parents must inculcate the right attitudes and habits toward learning, and interest in reading, writing and counting in our young and the motivation to seek knowledge, especially in the early years of a child's intellectual development.

It is not fair to expect the schools and universities to do this for us. This must remain our primary responsibility. Our kids are our own responsibility, and that cannot be delegated.

Formal institutions (as most of the learning, in my experience, is at the informal level) can merely reinforce those positive values, which are formed at home and by the community. To me, the culture of excellence, the desire to compete and win and moral rectitude in the face of adversity must start from the cradle, and that must find constant reinforcement through a lifetime.

Having said that, I do not mean to suggest that formal institutions do not have a role in shaping character and values of the individual. Teachers and professors and our bosses, as mentors and role models, do have enormous impact on our lives. I can still recall my teachers and professors (and also my bosses) who made a difference to my life. Institutional changes are, therefore, desirable.

In this regard, I hope some serious attention should be given to restoring pride and commitment of our future teachers and professors in their work. For example, professors should focus on research and publishing their works in referred journals and books. In this regard, their teaching workload should be reduced.

In this way, we can ensure that only the best individuals are chosen to teach in, or enter our universities. A university is at the apex of any educational structure, and can be likened to a funnel through which only the best-qualified minds can pass through. Sounds elitist, yes, but isn't it true?

Right now, I know that some of our best brains in our universities are marginalised for reasons best known only to the authorities and those who are good at lobbying are promoted and given the perks. When this happens, bad blood pollutes and destroys the good. Our educational institutions need clean blood.

I welcome to hearing views that differ from my own and would like to believe that there will be people out in cyberspace who are prepared to react to what I have written.