Friday November 6, 2009

Can we flow into a single stream?

QUESTION TIME By P GUNASEGARAM

Improving the quality of national schools will solve that and provide myriad other benefits too.

WHEN the founding fathers agreed that vernacular and religious schools should exist alongside the national school system, they had no idea of the kind of problems it would give rise to.

They had no idea that it would help to polarise the education system so much that many Malaysian school children will go to schools based on their racial and religious heritage, and have little interaction with students of other races.

They had no idea that, especially in primary schools, there would be very little intermingling of children of different races, seriously exacerbating the problem of a lack of national unity.

While at the time of independence those who wanted their children to do well sent their children to national schools, these have now, along with religious schools, become largely the preserve of Malay children.

While national schools were once considered centres of excellence, their quality of education has deteriorated over the years leading to a mass exodus of non-Malay students to vernacular schools, while more religious Malays opt for religious schools. Those who can afford it opt for private education.

While national schools, because of their quality and open nature, were at one time considered natural choices for most Malaysians, well over 80% of Chinese schoolchildren and a significant proportion of Indians go to vernacular schools for their primary education.

At secondary school level, some of those in the vernacular and religious schools do come into the national school stream but by then, because of their experience in their formative years, they do not mingle as much as their parents did.

The problem gets worse at tertiary level, with government universities populated largely by Malays while private colleges and universities are dominated by non-Malays.

Some non-Malays could not gain admission to government universities and others, both Malays and non-Malays, feel the quality of local universities has fallen and want international recognition for their degrees.

Without doubt, the problem originated from one single cause – the massive deterioration of the quality of the teaching in national schools.

This was made worse by the perceived “Islamisation” of many national schools, which made non-Muslims uncomfortable about sending their students to these schools.

Well-funded Chinese schools with better infrastructure and dedicated teachers developed a reputation for quality, rigour and working their students hard.

That eventually led to most Chinese parents sending their children to these schools.

All these have left Malaysia in rather poor circumstances – it may well be the only country in the world with a fragmented educational system.

It has a peculiar set of problems which is rather difficult to overcome.

First, the move to a single stream cannot be compelled because vernacular and religious schools are guaranteed under the Constitution. Even if consensus can be reached to move to a single stream, there are other questions.

How would one ensure that mother tongue education continues unabated?

If, as is most likely, consensus cannot be reached, imaginative ways have to be thought of to overcome these problems.

Vision schools, where vernacular and national schools are located close together and some activities integrated, are likely to be of only limited help because it won’t be physically possible to put most schools close together.

Sports may help, but if you have teams largely comprising single races, that could make things worse rather than better even if there is interaction among the players.

Consensus on a single stream is best, and perhaps we need someone of stature to go around and build such a consensus from various community leaders. But it is a tough task.

The precursor to that consensus is safeguards to devote enough time and resources to mother tongue education in schools to ensure that language and cultural heritage are not lost, and a monitoring and corrective mechanism in which all will have faith.

Ultimately, even if vernacular and religious schools are present, national unity aims will be better served if you simply move more students and eventually most students of all races into national schools.

There is only one way that can be done short of a single stream.

That is simply to improve the quality of the national schools, so that they are better than the others and to make Malaysians of all races equally welcome in those schools.

Nobody is pretending that this is an easy task. But it may be easier to do than to obtain a consensus on a single stream.

And there are other attendant benefits. If the national educational system improves, so will the population. The opportunities that it will present to all equally will close the gap between the races and the rich and the poor.

It will lead to a better quality workforce, a greater social conscience, excellence, more moral behaviour - and better quality leaders.

The icing on the cake is that an improved national school system will also improve national unity.

■ Managing editor P Gunasegaram is convinced that the decline in educational standards at national schools led to the polarisation of the educational system.

News Poll

Latest Jobs from Star-Jobs

Latest from StarProperty