Education

Sunday October 7, 2007

Much ado about morals

Stories by RICHARD LIM

Despite a revised curriculum in 2003, Moral Education has continued to draw flak. Should the subject be retained or should it be replaced?

THERE have been endless grumbles about Moral Education since it was made an examination subject in 1993 – not only from students but also teachers and parents.

And the grumbles have often been accompanied by calls for it to be scrapped. Many have also come up with suggestions on what they see as better options for young Malaysians.

Moral Education imparts values related to patriotism, teaching students to put national interests above their own.
In a letter to The Star entitled “Teach religion instead” earlier this year, Darren Ong Chung Lee proposed that the subject be replaced with a general religion class.

“I propose a curriculum that would cover, at the very least, the basic tenets of Islam, Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism so that students will understand better the different ethnic and religious groups that comprise our country,” he said.

So are criticisms against Moral Education justified and is a subject such as that advocated by Ong a viable and better alternative?

The situation in schools

National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary-general Lok Yim Pheng believes that Moral Education has failed.

“Moral Education is ineffective as many students approach it purely from an academic angle,” she says. “And these are the serious students.”

Teacher and textbook writer A. Annamalai, who was on the evaluation committee when the original syllabus for Moral Education was drafted and taught the subject from 1992 to 2006, concurs that it has not yielded desirable results.

Students find the rigid exam structure stressful and good grades do not mean they are more disciplined.
“Most students feel that the subject is meaningless and teachers struggle to get their students interested in lessons,” he laments.

“Although the original number of values and sub-values students are required to memorise was reduced with the implementation of the revised curriculum in 2003, complaints have not decreased.”

The present syllabus covers 36 values, compared with 80 values and sub-values in the past. However, according to Annamalai, students now have to do more coursework.

A teacher from Johor who declines to be named admits that students have become disillusioned with Moral Education.

He, however, sympathises with them.

“It is not easy to learn a subject that does not allow much creativity in exams,” he concedes.

“Students need to be accurate with the values and the key words, and rote learning does not inspire them.”

A-level students Christine Yoong and K. Prakash, both 18, sat for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia exams last year and obtained a 2A for Moral Education.

Despite their grades, they are of the view that Moral Education does not offer students anything.

“It is just a waste of time,” says Christine, who credits a teacher that had guided her on answering techniques with her grade.

“I'm disappointed that I only got a 2A, but I just studied Moral for the sake of doing well in the exam,” she adds.

Prakash says he has retained nothing from his Moral Education classes.

“It isn't worth remembering anything from that repetitive subject. I scored well because I practised past-year questions, not because I'm a moral person.”

VAITHILINGAM: Religious knowledge is vital to character building.
Questions raised

Those in favour of retaining the subject argue that non-Muslim students should have a compulsory subject as Muslim students have Islamic Studies.

And if taken seriously, they add, Moral Education helps to improve discipline.

National Parent-Teacher Association Council president Prof Mohd Ali Hassan disagrees.

“There should not be any divide between Moral Education and Islamic Studies,” he says.

“The (Education) Ministry should rethink this if it believes that Muslims don't need moral education when they have Islamic Studies.”

On the matter of discipline, historian Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Khoo Kay Kim of Universiti Malaya points out that students were better behaved before the implementation of Moral Education.

Teachers, he notes, took a great deal of interest in their students' activities in the past and students responded accordingly.

“This fostered mutual respect and made it easier for teachers to instil good values, “ he says.

“Confining Moral Education to a classroom situation does not generate interest and the subject should not be forced upon non-Muslims.”

DR NAIM: Studied Comparative Religion for two semesters.
Prof Datuk Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia believes that Moral Education could have been better conceived had there been in-depth consultation with experts.

“The assumption that Islamic Studies for Muslims needs to be balanced by Moral Education for non-Muslims is rather simplistic,” observes the social anthropologist.

“The former is theological and the latter is philosophical.

“Discipline's causal relation with Moral Education is hypothetical. It is an expression of hope, not an articulation of reality.”

Similarly, Dr Ng Kam Weng, director of Christian think-tank Kairos Research Institute, feels that the subject is based on the wrong premise.

“It fails to address how and why people cultivate morals,” he explains. “The subject is too legalistic and presents static and artificial situations where arbitrariness persists.

“As a result, students have become cynical towards it, and from this point of view, Moral Education is a dismal failure as it does not inculcate moral behaviour.”

There is a need to be more realistic when it comes to expectations of what formal education can do, he cautions, noting that poor implementation undermines the legitimacy of any subject regardless of its intrinsic qualities.

PROF SHAMSUL: Favours a subject called Malaysian Studies.
The defence

Curriculum Development Centre's (CDC) Mokolus K. Rowther begs to differ.

The head of CDC's Department of Social Sciences maintains that the subject's syllabus is valid for Malaysian society.

And, she adds, the revised curriculum in 2003 has made it even more relevant.

“The pedagogy, content and themes of Moral Education are constantly examined and values such as tolerance are extremely applicable,” she says.

As CDC Moral Unit head Tengku Adnan Tengku Awang sees it, the decline in discipline in schools is related to the changing times.

Disciplinary problems, he argues, could be attributed to the negative influence of the mass media, the failures of the family and other societal institutions.

“We must be careful not to blame the subject per se,” he says, stressing that its underlying philosophy is good.

What of Comparative Religion?

Ong notes in his letter that most Malaysians consider their religious beliefs the foundation of morality and a general religion class will be more relevant to students.

Syariah Court judge Dr Mohamed Naim Mokhtar studied Comparative Religion for two semesters at the International Islamic University Malaysia in the course of obtaining his law degree.

DR NG: Moral Education does not inculcate moral behaviour.
He describes his experience as engaging and beneficial.

“I learned about the tenets of other faiths and that equipped me with adequate understanding to appreciate the sensitivities and values of other cultures,” he says.

Others like Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism president Datuk A. Vaithilingam are of the view that non-Muslim students should have the right to learn more about their own religions in school.

Also president of the Malaysian Hindu Sangam, Vaithilingam believes that religious knowledge is vital to character building.

“Comparative Religion, if taught, will lead to greater (cultural and religious) understanding among students,” he says, adding that the subject should only be introduced at the upper secondary and tertiary levels to cater to more mature students.

And if Moral Education is retained, Vaithilingam adds, then religious elements should be incorporated into the syllabus to give the subject a more solid base.

Lok, Annamalai and Prof Mohd Ali support these views on Comparative Religion. The general feeling is that this alternative should be an improvement over Moral Education and is worth a shot.

Some, on the other hand, have reservations about introducing such a subject in schools.

Prof Khoo believes that general religion classes or Comparative Religion might isolate certain groups in society if wrongly implemented.

“And it is hard to reach a consensus on the subject,” he clarifies.

As far as Prof Shamsul is concerned, Comparative Religion does not really address the problem because it is still not theological in nature like Islamic Studies.

“Rather, it looks at a set of different theological systems for comparison purposes.”

Another alternative

Instead, the two academics favour a subject that could be named Malaysian Studies, which will provide a sociological, anthropological and historical view of Malaysian society and also touch on the country's economics, politics and culture.

“In this context, the different religions and belief systems which have co-existed for so long in our society can be discussed in a most interesting manner,” explains Prof Shamsul.

Adds Prof Khoo: “Greater understanding of the ethnic groups in Malaysia and their faiths such as the Chinese Muslims will ensure that prejudices are not perpetuated.”

Incidentally, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris has introduced a degree programme in Malaysian Studies and teachers will be ready to teach the subject in three years.

“The subject of Malaysian Studies could be introduced in selected schools before implementing it nationwide,” muses Prof Shamsul.

There will be a high degree of continuity in such a subject, he adds, as local public universities now have a compulsory subject called Ethnic Relations.

“I can't imagine a better systematic and sustained introduction to the internal dynamics of our complex society, from schools to universities, through, first, Malaysian Studies and later, Ethnic Relations,” he observes.

Dr Ng is of the view that either Comparative Religion or Malaysian Studies is workable in theory.

“But consultation with legitimate and recognised experts is needed in order to produce a fair, accurate and relevant syllabus,” he notes.

And while he is supportive of Comparative Religion, Prof Mohd Ali welcomes the idea of a subject that promotes national identity.

“We need to stress our similarities so that we can build the nation on common strength,” he says.

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