LETTER | Maszlee Malik once again gave an “opportunity” for people to degrade his credibility with the students' socks colour issue.

Of course, living in a country called Malaysia, you will encounter a lot of makcik/pakcik bawang who love to focus more on petty issues rather than on knowledgeable and relevant issues.

This in addition to several newspapers who just fancy having a clickbait headline to sensationalise matters.

Despite all the sensation involving Maszlee, his 12 initiatives for education reform in 2019 are enticing. The initiatives go by the theme of Love, Happiness and Mutual Respect and are something that Malaysians should anticipate more rather than the colour of schoolchildren's socks.

Our education system has been based on exams for decades. We have so many smart and ingenious youngsters but they lack respect, kindness, honesty, courage, perseverance, compassion, generosity and dependability.

We want to produce a generation which has good grades academically but also good values as an individual. Doing so will protect them from developing potentially negative societal influences and help lay the foundation for them to become good citizens.

Being smarter sounds appealing but living everyday life as an extremely intelligent person can throw up some very real, but rarely acknowledged, challenges.

The minister's idea to introduce a values manual (Manual Nilai) and civic education is something that we should celebrate. Given their importance, it makes sense to nurture such values in our children as early as possible.

Education has both extrinsic and intrinsic values for individuals and for societies as a whole.

As the US Supreme Court stated in its unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), “In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education”.

Every individual and every child regardless of their economic or social background deserves a good education system. This basic principle of equality applies to our education system as well.

Credit should be given to Maszlee for allowing children with no nationality to have a chance to go to school like other normal children.

Education is a great equaliser. It opens opportunities for girls, boys and disadvantaged people. The said initiatives will give benefits to all children and promotes the value that we rejoice in education for all.

Access to school for students with disabilities remains low. For example, many schools still do not provide access and facilities for students who use wheelchairs.

Maszlee has an agenda to make our schools as disabled-friendly. It is something notable, as I have mentioned.

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