The Malaysian government is committed towards the national school system. From time to time, the current government reminds us of that; today, the Prime Minister reiterates his support for the system:
KUALA LUMPUR: National schools will become the schools of choice again, according to the Prime Minister.
Lamenting their decline yesterday, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said: “Everything is being done to make the schools attractive to all the races.”
Abdullah said the government had realised that national schools played an important role in nation building and bringing the various races together.
I have a suggestion, out of few, on how to make it a system of choice of many Malaysians.
Bring religion, in most cases Islam as far as national schools are concerned, to where to belong — as equal among many other courses.
When I was a students within the national school system, I loathe the very idea that religion was being forced upon me. I dislike that fact that because I’m a Muslim, I had to do things that are deemed as Islamic by my religious teachers. I’m sure some girls disagree to being forced to wear headscarf at school, just because they’re Muslims.
For me personally, the reason I attend school is to learn arts, humanities and sciences, not to have my personal life and belief dictated upon by strangers.
Further, I believe all the stress on Islam makes believers of other religions, atheists, agnostics and even Muslims that are uninterested in religious conservatives’ wet dream alike feel alienated. Surely, that doesn’t increase the appeal of national schools to many.
One reply on “[1006] Of a suggestion to increase the appeal of national schools”
I agree, but I think even more importantly, the quality of education in national schools has to increase. Even ignoring issues such as critical thinking or developing intellectual capability/creativity, the fact is that our national schools are significantly below par. If you want your students to learn how to memorise factoids, you’re still better off sending them to a Chinese school – and they’ll also learn better mathematical skills there.
Even if the government doesn’t want to reform our clearly maladjusted educational system, the least it could do is address the critical problem that national schools can’t even teach memorisation properly, or compete with Chinese schools mathematics-wise. (I still remember the farce of the Petaling district mathematics quiz in 2002 – the top two schools in the district were both Chinese schools, and the education department, clearly having foreseen this possibility, announced that the third-placed national school – SK Seafield if I’m not mistaken – would represent us at the state level.)