Whither the quality of Malaysian education?
The innocence of this friend stung me in so many ways. First, he was aware that I had received and am still embedded in the Malaysian education system but it appeared he didn’t take that into reckoning while making his request. Second, the charge that Malaysian education is not challenging is completely false. Actually when […]
The innocence of this friend stung me in so many ways. First, he was aware that I had received and am still embedded in the Malaysian education system but it appeared he didn’t take that into reckoning while making his request. Second, the charge that Malaysian education is not challenging is completely false.
Actually when I asked him “what makes you think that Malaysia is not challenging or the quality is not good?” he said some friends and family members (he didn’t say how many) who came to Malaysia for their degrees didn’t demonstrate that they had received a good education. Before discussing how faulty this logic is, here’s what I told my friend: the best place to study Islamic finance is Malaysia; another good place is the Emirates. But if your brother doesn’t put in any effort, he’ll receive no benefits.
Now let give reasons why Malaysian education is good and even getting better.
One, the Malaysian education system has just been ranked number eight in the upper-middle income countries by Newsweek, New Straits Times reported on 12 February, 2011. (It’s in the same category with Russia). Education director-general Abdul Ghafar told the newspaper the achievement was in part due to the initiatives under the national key result areas under the Government Transformation Programme for education.
“The objective,” he said, “is to improve the students’ performance holistically, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually and physically. The improvement at all levels is very important for developing our human capital to transform Malaysia into a high income nation by 2020.”
Currently, the overall percentage of literacy among Year One (6-year olds) is 85 per cent in Malaysia. The last time I visited home, the 8-year olds going to public schools in my village only knew their names. They didn’t even know their own ages, let alone read and write.
Second, while only a handful of our government secondary schools are still good, Malaysian government schools are doing great. For example, three students from Tunku Kurshiah College came second in the Special Award category at the Intel ISEF competition held in San Jose, United States for their Natural Oil Boom project. Others won two gold, one silver and two bronze medals at the Mathematics Olympiad. This was in 2010; and achievements like these are recorded every year.
Third, while we count credits in our country – a grade that’s eluded about 80 percent of our secondary students – Malaysians count As. In the university where I study and teach, a student needs a minimum of seven As to be considered for a place in the engineering programmes and five As for computer and information technology; and still have to do a foundation programme for one year. The question is, how many of our secondary school students have the grades to be considered for a place here? And there are some universities that are even more competitive than our university.
In the universities, undergraduates are busy applying their lessons outside the classrooms. I remember in an undergraduate corporate communication class, when students were asked to write a press release for their real or imaginary companies, some of the efforts submitted to me were about the inventions they made in their undergraduate projects.
While writing this column I had to take a break to grant an interview to some undergraduates who are putting together a communication strategy for one of the university’s research clusters. We had to reschedule the interview several times yet they persevered. Besides, the work they’ve put into their assignment is impressive. This attitude is completely different from our own undergraduates who send me emails to do their assignments for them.
They spend hours on Facebook, yet they want me to do even simple Google searches for them. And when I send the Google search page to them so that they’ll learn that what I’ve just done is also within their reach and ability, they still don’t get it.
At the postgraduate level, Malaysian universities are competing with the best in the world. As I opened today’s newspaper, I read how scientists from University of Science in Malaysia invented a fast way to detect cholera. It’s not uncommon to find stories like this on a daily basis. The country has become a giant research cluster. The head of my research group has more than 20 patents to his name.
Finally, Malaysian universities are okay because they’ve the money, the teachers and the will to excel. So, if any student comes here and learns nothing, it’s probably because he doesn’t apply himself – even at Oxford you’ve to apply yourself.
To be continued.