Malaysians must not be complacent with new finding on education system – Muhyiddin

(Bernama) – “Improving the quality of our education system and student outcome remains the top priority of the government. The success of our national transformation, of whether we will become a developed nation by 2020, depends on how our education system delivers big results fast in the years to come,” said Muhyiddin.

Malaysians must not be complacent with the achievements in our education system despite the new findings of a study which showed that more people believe that the national education system is comparable to that of the other countries.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said all parties, especially the Education Ministry, should instead acknowledge the reality that current challenges confronting the nation today called for the priorities of the education system to be reassessed and realigned with the present national goal.

“This finding which is based on an opinion survey must not lull us into complacency.

“In our quest to move from effiency-driven middle-income economy to knowledge and innovation-driven high income economy, we need to dive deep into the fabrics of our education system and□to ask whether immediate improvements are needed in order to meet the pressing challenges,” he said in his keynote address at the 16th Malaysian Education Summit, here today.

Muhyiddin, who is also the Education Minister, was referring to a recent survey by Introspek Asia which revealed that 55 percent of Malaysian adults believed that the national education system was comparable to that of the other countries, while 35 percent said it was “better than that of developed countries”.

Muhyiddin said, despite the achievement, the government remained committed to ensuring the national education system would produce world-class human capital equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to adapt to the changes unfolding in the increasingly more dynamic global economy.

He said, in recent years, the government had introduced various measures to improve the quality of the education system at primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

This includes ensuring that every child has access to quality pre-school education, and due to collaborative efforts across ministries with private sectors, it has managed to increase pre-school enrolment rate from 67 per cent in 2010 to 77.2 per cent last year.

Muhyiddin said, the government targeted to increase it further to 87 per cent by year-end, with the establishment of a National Committee on Pre-School Education to ensure the target was duly achieved.

Another big result the government was set to deliver is to ensure all children acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills after three years of primary education, with the introduction of Literacy and Numeracy Programme.

The deputy prime minister noted that under the programme, the literacy and numeracy rate among students had shown significant improvement, and currently stood at 97.5 per cent and 98.6 per cent, respectively.

He said, under the Government Transformation Programme and Economic Transformation Programme, the government had made strides in addressing the educational gaps and inequities currently present in the system, with a view to improve student outcome.

He also pointed out that the government introduced HIGH Performance School Programme that would raise tha standard of government schools to meet the international benchmark, and also embarked on public-private partnership for education initiatives such as Trust School and Teach For Malaysia Programme.

Various initiatives had also been implemented under the Education National Key Economic Areas to step up efforts to make Malaysia a regional hub for education excellence, he added.

Muhyiddin said, with 13 Entry Point Projects approved, the education sector was expected to deliver a total of RM60.7 billion in Gross National Income by 2020.

Beyond that, Muhyiddin said, the government had recently announced a comprehensive national education review to address the urgent need for a quantum leap in education sector in the country.□

“Improving the quality of our education system and student outcome remains the top priority of the government. The success of our national transformation, of whether we will become a developed nation by 2020, depends on how our education system delivers big results fast in the years to come,” said Muhyiddin.

Thus, he called on all stakeholders to engage more frequently with one another, and have an open and informed discussion on what was best for the national education system.

The two-day conference, organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute, and themed ‘Transformation in Motion: Opportunities and Challenges for Malaysian Education’, will deliberate on major developments such as the role of education in a globalised world, education landscape and school choice, teachers training and development and the use of technology in universities.