Recently, the Asian Strategy and Leadership Initiative (Asli) organised an important event, the Malaysian Education Summit 2004. We, a number of Malaysian students studying both locally and overseas, would like to congratulate Asli for making this summit possible.
We are very glad that Asli has taken the initiative to address the various critical issues plaguing our education system. It is a great event to be celebrated as it brings together all the different people who are directly or indirectly engaged in the education system and share a common interest in creating a better education system for all.
As a generation of students who just went through the Malaysian education system not too long ago, we are now voicing out our demands for change, hoping that the new administration of the country will hear them.
The success of our education system is a subject very close and dear to our hearts. We think that by sharing our first-hand opinions, we can do our part in guiding policymakers towards the right direction.
We wish that concrete changes can be made so that our education system continues to provide a foundation on which our nation's wealth and happiness thrives. Among these changes are:
- Schools should teach students how to acquire skills, not just the skills itself;
As demand for graduates in Malaysia increases, employers' expectation rise too. Excellent graduates are deemed to possess the ability to communicate and think critically, to be independent and disciplined, to have practical experience, and also to be aware of current global trends.
But as more and more graduates are being produced locally to meet this demand, preference for overseas graduates still prevails as a substantial number of local graduates fall short of employers' expectations.
Mimos Bhd CEO Dr Tengku Mohd Azzman Shariffadeen said in an recent interview that the present illiterate are those who cannot read and write but the future illiterate will be most likely those who cannot learn, unlearn and re-learn.
It is more important to create young minds that have the ability to pick up the necessary skills required when the need arises, rather than to ingrain in them a fixed set of knowledge and skills.
While the quantity of graduates continues an upward trend, the same cannot be said of their quality - lowering of entrance qualification requirements coupled with inadequate teaching staff have produced graduates of insufficient quality.
Furthermore, many non-teaching obligations have caused lecturers and teachers to lose focus and therefore be unable to provide quality teaching. As far as producing quantities of quality graduates is concerned, a happy balance has to be struck.
A certain level of quality should be maintained by controlling admission criterion at institution of higher learning, but certainly, this should not be too rigorous till only certain segments of population are admitted. Such as situation would discourage social mobility.
To speed up the process of creating qualified graduates will mean upgrading Malaysian education at all levels. From young, students should be exposed to a more holistic and critical education. The current bias towards science and maths and the craze regarding examinations have created a generation of bookworms who memorise rather than understand.
On the other hand, universities can do much to upgrade themselves too - take in better qualified local and international students, ensure that the system is fair and provides for various different communities, and to specialise in certain areas.
Universities can choose to concentrate in certain disciplines to provide depth and quality, which in turn will attract good students from the region to study those disciplines. These local universities will then become universities of choice.
Teaching awards, better pay and remuneration schemes and a less non-teaching workload will not only inspire teachers to provide better a higher standard of education, but will also attract intelligent and talented people to the teaching profession.
Topic-relevant courses and seminars will also help teachers to handle students and to present materials more efficiently. Programmes like 'Teach for America' where fresh graduates in the US are recruited, trained, and then sent around the country to teach for two years is one model that can be emulated to help ease the current shortage of teachers in Malaysia.
Not only that, new technologies like e-learning will also alter the way things are learnt. E-learning provides various ways of learning new stuff and gives many opportunities to the ambitious.
As such, the society has to be open to knowledge and be aware of the potential of the Internet. Not much sharing is currently being done in Malaysia, in contrast to some overseas universities which provide their course websites on public domains.
However, e-learning in Malaysia will be unable to take off if students are not eager to learn. While the common misconception is that learning ends when one leaves school, it is actually a life-long process. The industrial sector can do its part by encouraging employees to further their studies, while the government must cultivate a culture of reading and learning amongst its people.
Not only that, universities can also co-operate with the industrial sector in providing a continuous learning environment. For instance, Universiti Sains Malaysia, which is situated next to the Bayan Lepas Industrial Area in Penang, could provide classes for professionals to upgrade themselves either after work or on weekends.
And with R&D being increasingly emphasised by the government it is worrying to note that certain issues have caused a shortage of quality researchers in Malaysia - the general disinterest and prejudice about research, the lack of undergraduate participation in research and the lack of funding and grants for various scientific projects.
Researchers who are based overseas are often unable to return to Malaysia, as funds, equipment and expertise in their respective areas are sorely lacking.
As we continue to listen to the Education Ministry's mandates, we would also like the ministry (and the Higher Education Ministry) to listen to our feedback.
To participate in further discussion, please visit http://www.recom.org and enter the forum entitled Malaysian Education Summit 2004 'Let's Participate'. ReCom is a diverse community of students and professionals deeply concerned about our country.
We believe that with the active participation from students and teachers, constant reviewing and monitoring efforts by the government and with the foresight of our industries and the support of the general public, we come together to create a synergy that will inevitably improve our Malaysian education system.