Malaysia’s Education Disaster: The power to change the system is in our hands

Newsflash:

Malaysia’s Education Disaster: The power to change the system is in our hands

edu As election day draws nearer, we will be asked for reasons as to why we should want to change the Barisan Nasional Government (BN). When the question is put to me, I tell people that there is no need to enumerate three, four or five reasons. One reason alone is sufficient for Malaysians to elect a new government.

The reason is that the BN has ruined our educational system and put us back at least one generation in our educational standards and standing.

When the country became independent in 1957, our educational system was acknowledged to be among the best in the region. Today, after the introduction of NEP policies in education, we are scraping the bottom of the barrel in our standards of educational achievement at all levels.

BN’s record

Whether it is in primary, secondary or tertiary education, the rot is clear. Half-literate primary school products that cannot write or speak properly in either English or Bahasa Melayu and drop out early; secondary students with abysmal standards in Mathematics, Science and other core subjects; tertiary students who are provided with university degrees but in fact are unemployable except in the civil service.

This is the disastrous outcome of BN rule. This is the result of the politicization of the educational system and Umno’s cynical use of it as a political and racial football.

Whether it is with regard to mission schools or vernacular or SRJK schools; teaching of science and mathematics; teaching of English; appointment of administrators and heads of schools; the curriculum; examinations; vocational education; funding and allocations – Umno has inserted its racial and political agenda to debase and corrupt the system.

If readers think that I am over critical of the BN, let me provide two pieces of evidence on the disaster in our education system.

The first is from the government itself. According to the national education blueprint (preliminary report, Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025, pp, E4-E5):

Malaysia was ranked in the bottom third of 74 participating countries of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009+.
60% of the 15-year-old Malaysian students who participated in PISA failed to meet the minimum proficiency level in Mathematics, while 44% and 43% did not meet the minimum proficiency levels in Reading and Science respectively
A comparison of scores shows that 15-year-olds in Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Shanghai are performing as though they have had three or more years of schooling than 15-year-olds in Malaysia
Low achievement standards in TIMSS (Maths and Science): far behind first tier; now comparable to countries such as Indonesia
By 2007 (last published cycle) 18% and 20% of our students failed to meet the minimum proficiency standards in Maths and Science.

The conclusion of the blueprint is shocking. Not only are the gaps between Malaysia and other countries in our region growing, international assessments also revealed that Malaysian student performance is declining in absolute terms.

This damning conclusion – that we are going backwards in our education standards and achievement – shows that the problem is not a new one. It is a long standing crisis which the BN has successfully concealed from Malaysians thanks to media manipulation and its diversionary focus on language and Chinese school issues.

But it is no longer easy to fool Malaysians thanks to the Internet media and the availability of international assessment results.

Hence the latest educational scandal in which the Ministry of Education is accused of lowering the maths and science standards for the PMR and SPM examinations to artificially increase the pass rate does not shock me in the least.

Such efforts have been taking place for the past 30 years, especially in the public universities. How else then to account for the hundreds of thousands of graduates who are unemployable?

My personal experience

The second piece of evidence is one derived from personal experience. For several years now, I have been providing scholarships to poor young Malaysians so that they will be able to go to the university to improve their life and career opportunities.

Below are examples of letters I have received from two applicants requesting for financial assistance (details of my scholarship program are available from http://english.cpiasia.net/).

What is important to note is that although these are written by pre-university students, the level of English language competency attained is lower than that of a primary student during my time.

Sadly, they are not isolated cases – in fact they are typical of students who have been through our educational system and whose decline in standards has been due to BN rule.

Letter 1:

Mr.Koon,

I am ____________,I already take my SPM resul t~ I'm interest on account. Can you sponsor me about the study fees at Utar?

BM:B
BI:B+
PM:A-
SJ:A-
MM:A+
MT:A+
BIO:B
CHE:B
PHY:B
BC:B

This are my SPM result.

Letter 2:

Mrs.Koon, i am October Intake UTAR new degree student, my name is
______ from kampar, i am facing financial problem after i successful
register Utar degree course, now i am stay at Kampar and open school
already. As i know UTAR can let student to borrow PTPTN loan to
complete Degree. But after i successful register Degree course, UTAR
stuff just tell me UTAR are not offer student to apply PTPTN loan on
this semester, and i need to pay course fee and register fee first.

Sure i come from poor family, my family income below RM1600 per
month. My family never and not able to pay my fee around RM4000 at my
first semester, i need to pay the bill before 23 october, if not i forced to leaving school, i am very anxious now!

Before I am getting news from Mr.__________, may be i can
getting financial aid from Mrs.Koon, so the purpose i send the gmail
to Mrs.Koon is i requesting for financial aid to start and continue my
degree course program in UTAR, i really want to start my study life
and dream at UTAR.

Reminder to all when at the polling booth

In conclusion, private education has become a very profitable business as parents scramble to remedy the damage in the public system and use up their precious savings or mortgage their houses to enable their kids to get a decent education.

For this reason too private universities and colleges are springing up like mushrooms. All of them are lowering entry requirements to capture more students. As a result, students like the two above were accepted to study in Utar.

Many people have the wrong impression that MCA’s Utar is a charitable organisation set up to help the Chinese. In fact if you examine MCA’s annual report, you will see that Utar is one of the best profit-making ventures for MCA.

Remember, the power to change the rotting education system is in your hands when you go to vote. This message is especially directed at all parents and students – Malays, Chinese, Indians and other Malaysians – who have suffered as a result of BN incompetence and bad governance.

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Comments (7)

05-01-2013 | Zaki Samsudin - Get politicians out of education

I've been teaching at a public university for the last 8 years so I can certainly say the samples of writing provided by the author are true reflections of the standard of writing of the majority of university students today. The tragedy here is every single student who go through the national education system has eleven years of lessons for English (from Standard One to Form Five), yet most them are unable to write even one paragraph without basic grammatical errors.

Personally, I am of the opinion that politicians should not helm the education ministry. It should be administered by professionals whose soul job purpose is to improve and maintain the quality of education for our children. Politicians tend to look for ways to enhance their own image hence are not able to think long-term. Even when a blueprint is produced, something seriously wrong tend to happen when it comes to implementation. The new KSSR system is a prime example.

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23-12-2012 | burungmarah - The coming end of English as lingua franca?

Reading manaukau's post makes me think of one thing - I fear that at the rate of divergence of English variants throughout the world as many people cannot cope with the idiosyncracies and grammatical confusion of English and likewise Indo-European languages, and given the scarcity of resources to spread English throughout the world, I fear the days of English as the world's lingua franca are numbered and the end could come this decade.

This English problem is not exclusive to Malaysia. Indonesia has reportedly scrapped it from its primary school core curriculum. Standards are also dropping in Hong Kong and Philippines... and given the severity of things I say more English is not the solution anymore.

You might say that most scientific literature is in English but the number of native speakers is dropping due to low birth rate in US, UK, Canada and ANZ, combined with the aforementioned problems in world English, it's time for institutes around the world to find an alternative, a substitute, a way to wean out of English.

I think I know one solution - lernu.net

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22-12-2012 | najib manaukau - najib manaukau

Didn't the DPM who is also the education minister said very recently that Malaysia has a better education system than the west ?
May be the DPM can come up with an explanation on how he came up with such a claim ? Also if his claim is any where near the truth, why is it that Malaysia is still sending the thousands, if not millions of NEM (not enough money ) students aboard for further studies ?
Why is it now, in a matter of months, Malaysia is trying to recruit English teachers from India, of all places ? If the system in Malaysia is truly that great as the DPM claims, Malaysia should instead be sending Malaysians to teach abroad ? This is further proof of what the morons of Umno are good or very good at, spinning and telling lies and most of all deluging themselves that they are the best in every thing. What kind of Malaysia will become if and when this liar ever becomes the P.M. ?
Do the Umno scumbags and parasites want all the Malaysians to learn how to shake our heads from the Indian teachers, after having destroyed the proven system that Malaysia is or was famous for and good at, which took us decades to established ?
No dis-respect to the Indian English teachers, they are not known to be the best English teachers in the world. When in fact they are needed to learn how to pronounce the English language by companies, who for economic reasons, are using India to outsource their needs. Use the Indians in many other fields like mathematic, science and other areas but surely not English ! I don't want my children or grand children to shake their heads when they speak, please. Incidentally, can the DPM tell us how many NEM students thus far, have been sent to India for their further education and also why is it Malaysia is always so badly rated and performed internationally, especially when yearly so many students, especially Malay students, are top students with all As in their exam. ? Therefore don't you morons think it is about time you stop this illusion that Malaysia has a better education system than the western countries and with so many top students with full As in every subjects ?
Especially if that is the case why is it millions of Malaysian pendatangs have immigrated abroad and you are now pleading to them to return to serve the country without telling them that they will be reporting to your kind.

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21-12-2012 | pcyap

Dear sirs

Are those students who participated in the said International assessment came from the Government National "Jenis Kebangsaan" schools ?

I believe that students from the Independent Chinese Schools are much better in Maths (excluding science since it is taught in Chinese). They should have taken part in the assessment the result of which could be better.

thanks

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21-12-2012 | mark

How can we achieve education excellence when our education system and policies are topsy turvy?
The education minister is only interested in his political career rather than doing good for the rakyat.
We are churning out unemployable graduates and the govt has to provide further trainings and give money to attract them to attend! What a joke!

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21-12-2012 | siewyok - spent a fortune on kids education

I have spent my life savings on my kids education as well as borrowed from relatives to send them abroad. Thank god, my kids have done well and are helping me now. Many friends are in the same boat as me. What to do in the elections - easy, throw out the BN rats. Thank you Mr Koon for keeping it simple!

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21-12-2012 | fedup grad - Help ours students

Dont even border to expects our leaders and those in powers to caring a damn about loussy inggeris bcoz they childrens all go oversea study and come back spook like mat saleh, work in big big companys, drives big big cars dll.some more father got busines conections can get big contract job.we all what?no fix job,asked to work in ladang estate with forigners,maybe sale job only in office,all salary less then RM2k and adviced us tightened belts evry years.

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