All set for a transformation in education

(NST) – Headed by Wan Zahid, the National Dialogue on Education 2012 was held in several locations throughout the country since April to help conceptualise and draw up the development plan for the Malaysian Education Blueprint.

PUTRAJAYA: The Education system under the Malaysian Education Blueprint (2013-2025) to be launched next month will strive to deliver quality education and produce pupils of international standards 

National Education Dialogue Panel chairman Tan Sri Dr Wan Mohd Zahid Wan Mohd Nordin said one of the outcomes in the blueprint was for schools to be empowered to carry out teaching methods and systems which was deemed best for their pupils.

“The Education Ministry has realised and accepted that education can’t be centralised to achieve education excellence among pupils whose capacity and capabilities are different.

“Pupils have unique characteristics, and schools must be empowered to promote teaching systems and methods to cater for their pupils,” he added.

He said the blueprint, which focuses on six attributes — knowledge, thinking skills, leadership, bilingual proficiency, ethics and national identity — could be achieved through various approaches depending on the pupil’s standards and capabilities.

Headed by Wan Zahid, the National Dialogue on Education 2012 was held in several locations throughout the country since April to help conceptualise and draw up the development plan for the Malaysian Education Blueprint.

The ministry took into account proposals from 153 letters and memorandums from various non-governmental organisations, associations, institutions, educationists and the public.

The recommendations were submitted during the three-month long National Dialogue on Education sessions, an initiative by the government to gather suggestions from stakeholders on a large scale on ways to enhance the education system.

“This was the first time in the world that a government had invited views from the public on a large scale to come up with a development plan for national education.

“It was aimed at consolidating and enhancing the quality of all schools, including national and vernacular schools, mission schools and government-aided religious schools,” the former director-general of Education said.

The blueprint is scheduled to be launched by the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the education minister, next month.

The education transformation will be carried in three waves to ensure the education system was on a par with that of developed nations, over the course of the next 13 years.

The first wave, which would be the implementation of the blueprint, will focus on teachers and core student skills.

The second wave will be building upon progress after wave three, between 2020 and 2025, would give schools complete autonomy to handle their own administration.

Wan Zahid added that to bear a successful outcome, the ministry needs to maintain simplicity in implementing the new policies.

“Simplicity is the mother of success.

“Therefore, implementation should be made comprehensible not only by educationists but also by pupils and their parents.”

He said the blueprint must have ownership, as it should be owned by those who wish to see the nation’s education system be world class.

When asked what he would want to see in the education system in Malaysia in the next 10 years, he said; “To have pupils who are intellectually and academically compatible”.