Following the appearance of my article about Muhyiddin seeming to be as delusional as Najib, FMT was told that the Deputy Prime Minister was referring to the physical education facilities when he spoke of “infrastructure”. This does not invalidate the points I made, and in fact opens up a number of other points I’ve touched upon in other articles about the Malaysian education system.
I am grateful for the clarification, but while we may have a humongous allocation for education, the results are not seen where they are most needed.
Let’s first talk about physical facilities. As a city dweller, I’ve become quite accustomed to schools being well cared for and equipped to ensure a smooth learning process, and for that I am thankful. However, the development of human capital should not be restricted to the cities, especially when schools in rural areas are in dire need of care.
One might have to go to East Malaysia to see a prime example of the Education Ministry’s dereliction. There may not be any need for exceedingly large schools for small student populations in some parts of Sabah and Sarawak, but this does not mean that they do not require adequate facilities. Reports of crumbling walls and desks, power failures, and the like come in with alarming regularity from East Malaysia, and it is imperative that the situation be addressed immediately.
The more important point, however, is that when we speak of physical infrastructure, we’re talking in terms of hardware, which can be periodically upgraded to meet higher specifications, to optimise the machine. However, it is ultimately a question of whether or not the software can efficiently and effectively handle the hardware, and the software in this case is the education system and the methods our educators employ.
The quality of education is largely dependent on the curriculum and the quality of teachers, and with our curriculum changing so regularly and so drastically, the software cannot catch up with the hardware, no matter how advanced the latter may be. The key here is to ensure that the large budget allocations Muhyiddin has spoken about are invested in the software – the teachers, the system, and the curriculum.
The implementation of upgrades to the software must be considered as long-term projects that must be continually improved upon. Instead, we have a record of abandoning initiatives before they bear fruit, like in the case of the short lived teaching of mathematics and science in English.
Muyhiddin, you are too smart a man to allow the gradual decomposition of our education system to be your legacy. You know what must be done. What remains is whether you have the political will and grit to see those changes through for the betterment of the nation. Ultimately, education is what will bring us to developed nation status, and you hold the key in your hand.