The miseducation of Maszlee Malik
Julia Yeow, TMI
A REPORT by the Khazanah Research Institute issued today on the sorry state of our schooling system is, perhaps, one of the most damning assessments of the quality of our education.
According to the research house, thanks to the low quality of education, out of the 12 years of schooling that our children have to go through, only nine actually count for something.
That’s one-quarter of our children’s lives – three years – totally wasted, before they even reach 21.
Before Malaysian parents could even begin to let that sink in, Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik announced that he is in talks with “stakeholders” on the colour of socks that students will wear starting next year.
This, presumably, is to complement the black shoes that students will wear beginning January 2021.
An Utusan report said the minister is holding the important talks to make sure they come up with the best solution for students.
But perhaps, the best solution for our students is for Maszlee to stop wasting his time with inconsequential and superficial policies, and actually start addressing the real disease that plagues our education system.
There is no doubt that Maszlee has one of the most problematic and challenging portfolios.
He has to correct a deep-rooted and highly complicated problem stemming from decades of politicking, which has all but destroyed our education system and once-respected universities.
He was meant to fix a system that many parents have lost confidence in, and one that has drained the passion and enthusiasm of once-dedicated teachers.
He was supposed to make Malaysians entrust public school educators with the future of their children, so that our schools can once again be places teeming with ethnic and religious diversity.
Instead, Malaysians have been dealt with death by superficiality – from shoe-colour rulings to free swimming lessons and most recently, the socks policy.
After five months on the job, it has become painfully clear that Maszlee either does not have a clue as to what the real problems plaguing our education system are, or he lacks the wisdom or desire to correct them.
While Maszlee has made references to decreasing teachers’ administrative burden, he has said or done very little to address the problems of our laughable national syllabus, overcrowding in classrooms and the shockingly low level of English proficiency among our graduates.
Perhaps, before Maszlee sets out on his next important meeting with “stakeholders”, he should be re-educated on the actual task entrusted to him as education minister.
He would do well to start addressing the fundamental problems of our education system, and focus his efforts on bringing all of our universities – not just the one that he presides over – to a level of global respectability.
Malaysians have had enough of fluff and triviality.
If Maszlee is not serious about setting our education system on the path of recovery, maybe it is time for Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to hand the job to someone else.
