LETTER | Dear YB Maszlee Malik, first of all, I would like to congratulate you for holding the position as an education minister. I hope you will do extremely well in your future endeavors.

There are a few pressing issues regarding about Malaysia's education system that needed to be addressed:

1. Reduce emphasis on rote-learning in all levels of education.

It is a well-known thing that rote-learning has no more place in learning certain subjects, especially STEM-related. Many of the students are not being properly graded due to this outdated system and they could not progress well in furthering their education or careers.

During my tenure as a lab technician in an engineering campus, I have noticed that the students are struggling to get their lab works done. Besides lacking motivation, these students are also lacking basic knowledge despite being graded decently in their GPAs.

As a curious person, I took some of my time to talk to these students, and I found out that these issues are stemmed from excessive rote-learning during the undertaking of the course. I am genuinely concerned that if this goes on, the graduates will not become employable and they will face a risk of creating more social problems in the future when they could not secure a job well.

The other problem is the current system does not help in teaching students with learning difficulties. Most of the times, they are not properly graded and then resulting in school dropouts or social issues. In the end, we need full cooperation to support students with such neurodevelopmental issues so that they can contribute to the society.

2. Universities and colleges should be built with certain minimum requirements.

As the population grows, the demand for higher education increases. Higher education encompasses the nurturing and building of good foundations in people who are about to join the workforce – namely physical and mental. These institutions should not only be focusing on the academics and forgoing the other aspects and facets of life.

There, students are granted the freedom to acquire different kinds of knowledge so to expand their horizons. This is important to them as being well rounded individuals, they have lesser chances to perish in the fast-paced society. However, the current trend of some of the higher learning institutes in Malaysia is very worrying that they are being erected only for profit and not for the overall well-being of the students.

Therefore, with such mentality of some unscrupulous developers, many of the graduates are also having problems fitting into the demanding working world due to the weak physical and mental health. To avoid having these problems, higher learning institutions should be built with certain minimum requirements, such as:

Having a sprawling area of a few km-squares: Walkways, gardens and parks must be present and well-maintained. A brisk walk for the staff and students in an open area is definitely a healthy thing to do, and best of all, new ideas come by when they are in the relaxed state. (Scheffer, 2014; Root-Bernstein et al, 2008).

New ideas are vital in research and development, which is what the university/colleges also thrive on. Best of all, exposures to green space improves the health and increases brain development of the student and the staff in the schools. (Gies, 2006)

Sports and recreation center: At least one sports center with gymnasium or swimming pool and a large hall for common activities such as yoga and martial arts training. Brushing off physical activities for the sake of improving the academics is a dangerous and a haphazard idea. Students who have participated in the college/university sports are more employable and earn more than the peers who do not engage in sports. (Allen et al, 2013).

Apart from that, performing physical activities in a regular manner minimizes severe health problems such as diabetes, obesity and mental illness. (Ward, 2015) As a result, students with good health are more likely to perform better than those who aren't.

Dormitories: For the students who are not residing in the institute's region, they have a choice to stay in the dormitories. Living in dormitories has many benefits to the students – mainly to forge relationships between the students and the staff, and also to provide a safe environment for them to learn. Furthermore, he also mentioned that the dropouts could be reduced when students are placed in the dormitories. (Koon Y. Y., 2010)

Emblem: Traditionally, a higher learning institute should have an emblem. A college/university qualification is not a product to be sold in a market, but an identity with honour which is granted to the students. Emblems which looks like product logos does not totally reflect the true intentions of the higher learning institutes.

Food courts/Cafeterias: After a tiring pursuit of knowledge for the day, everyone deserve to have a good access to food and drinks to recharge themselves. It is also a good place for the staff and the students to exchange information and perform meaningful discussions while having a meal.

New and existing higher learning institutes in Malaysia should adhere to these standards and not fulfilling any of these will risk heavy penalties or closing down of the institutes. Any universities found lacking one or more of these components should also be required to upgrade or face closure. There are no excuses for not providing such basic facilities in the institute that are listed if our main goals are to shape talented workforce.

3. Decouple political parties from higher learning institutes

We all know that politics also do not mix well with education. The last time it did, it had made a dangerous concoction which is fatal to the citizens' wellbeings. Now, having that knowledge, we should chop off the tentacles which have been creeping and strangling the education system in Malaysia for decades. The tentacles are those political parties which are tightly gripping both public and private universities.

A big reason for such move is this: political interference is very damaging to the college/universities' standards and reputation. To add insult to injury, the politicians are also running wild with getting more profits and it leads to lowering of the standards of these institutes so they can get more "customers" without proper screening of the student intakes.

The excessive amount of interference has also resulted in building colleges/universities which are not up to standards and does not fulfil minimum requirements (as of point no. 2). When this happens, the victims are the students, and workforce/industries suffer due to the poor performance of the graduates. In this age, there is totally no room for complacency if we want our best education system to our folks.

Therefore, we should not let our new generation of citizens being held hostage by these greedy and unscrupulous politicians. We need to remind the politicians that schools are not the place for buying votes or to fill their pockets.

In conclusion, these are the pressing issues that should be addressed by the Ministry of Education. The major issue we have seen so far is the quality of the higher learning institutes in Malaysia and this requires a lot of attention as the commerce and industries are heavily dependent on them. In the meantime, let's hope for a better Malaysia!

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