Thursday, October 20, 2011

Education Reform: Warning, Patience Required

*Sigh*:

DPM: First report on education system review by year-end

PUTRAJAYA: The first report on the review process of Malaysia's existing education system is expected to be ready by year-end, said Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

He said the report will be submitted to the Cabinet, which will study and endorse a special team to look into the whole process, including implementation of the country's education policies.

"We will look at what we have been doing so far in terms of implementing our education policies and what needs to be done looking forward for the next 10 to 20 years. But this will take time," Muhyiddin said.

Let me get this straight: this will be the report that will then be used to form a new team to prepare another report on what should be done.

4 comments:

  1. Has any of these report ever includes any feedback, recommendations, input, grievances from the student themselves??

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  2. Something tells me they're just buying time until the reversion to teaching in BM is a fait accompli and Muhyiddin is PM. If there was any sincere intention behind this, they would just postpone implementing the change until the studies were completed.

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  3. I will be shocked if the report reveals anything we don't already know. In fact, I will be shocked if the report reveals the issues that we DO know about.

    I think it's just going to be a bunch of rhetoric and more "we don't have enough of this" and "we don't have enough of that". So we will spend more money on this.

    I think the core problem is just meritocracy. Compensation for teachers and students alike must be tied to performance. But in Malaysia, I think we know that if the teacher's salary is tied to the number of A's of students, A's are going to be given out freely (Yes, I am cynical).

    So how do we really tie compensation to performance for teachers?

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  4. @alberto,

    Honestly, I have no idea. Since it's not exactly a Royal Commission doing the study, I doubt we'll ever find out.

    @tanstaafl,

    I suspect you may be right. The education NKRA seems to be moving at a snail's pace compared to the other NKRA programs.

    @The Main Streeter,

    I think you've touched on part of the problem. But another that I see is the focus on academic achievement at the expense of personal development and interpersonal skills (and critical thinking). From personal experience, the system seems to output students who now a lot, but can't express or apply what they know.

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