RE-BUILDING MALAYSIAN EDUCATION

The Minister of Education has been urged to give recognition to a church-based uniformed group for the sake of the kids By Stephen Ng For nearly one year, I have been trying to seek for official recognition for a church-based uniformed group that offers great personal development programmes for children and young people (ages 6-17). It has been operating in Malaysia for over 35 years, and in my children’s outpost, they have just celebrated their 30th anniversary on September 29, 2018. My two children have enjoyed the numerous adventure camps and “slumber parties” organised by very dedicated commanders who were once young kids who went through the programme. Most of the commanders are either young working adults or university students. After school, they have this opportunity to be groomed as leaders. My children have been participating in the activities since they were five years old. The activities are held on Sunday afternoons, which fit very well into the schedule o

COMMENT: After my first post cautioning Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik not to be distracted from the focus to transform the Malaysian Education System, I received a lot of feedback from readers. Within just two days after it was posted, it has received nearly 4000 views. A teacher friend forwarded me an article from Oriental Daily calling it 'the joke of the day.' Curious, I asked, "What does the article say?" To my disgust, it is another blunder made by Maszlee which clearly shows that he has never thought through the idea thoroughly. Like the change of school shoe colour effective 2019, I doubt Maszlee has discussed it with the stakeholders. I guess this is another of his unilateral decisions. According to the article , teachers will soon be able to evaluate their bosses -- the school principals. While I think this is a good move in that it makes some principals more accountable to their subordinates, the reality is far harsher than what Maszlee c

By Siti Kassim I have spoken extensively about the overwhelming religious nature of the Malaysian public schools and public education system, including the lopsided hours between religion compared to science.  Recent revelations show that the Education Ministry needs to urgently and seriously revamp the curriculum and content of the Islamic Education subject being taught to our students. I have said it again and again, the indoctrination taking place in our schools is producing youths with ideologies that are no different than those being indoctrinated by the Taliban and so-called Islamic State (IS) terrorists.  Public schools’ texts seem to be teaching students how to cane “disobedient” wives. I can guarantee that to a fair number of Malays, this sentence does not even sound jarring to them when years of such indoctrination have been taking place and sold as God’s will and demand. A state-sanctioned Form Four text on Pengajian Islam advocates murder for apostates. Let me rep

Stephen Ng   |  Published:  17 Feb 2016, 7:45 am   |  Modified:  17 Feb 2016, 11:52 am  Source: https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/330638  COMMENT  There are only two kinds of academia - the ones who are in touch with reality and those who are worse than hermits. Unfortunately, it is the latter that we see all too often in our local institutions of higher learning. They are there just to regurgitate knowledge which they have acquired eons ago. Despite holding professorial posts, some of them have never developed their critical thinking skills. A few of them can even quote from various scholars on a certain subject, but when it comes to verbalising their own opinions, they fail miserably. This is the result of years of governmental control over our academia and the university students, through the Universities and University Colleges Act (UCCA) 1971. They are told not to speak to the press, and when something controversial appears in the newspapers, they are immediately  hauled

Open Letter to Maszlee Malik   29 September 2018 By Stephen Ng The victory of May 9 was a turning point to the nation. The expectations have been high especially on the education frontiers. Although we do not expect the education system to change overnight, the decisions by Education Minister, Dr Maszlee Malik are disappointing. Therefore, “Yang Berhormat”, this is my open letter to you, as I was not that keen in having someone largely unheard of, who is inexperienced in running the Ministry of Education. However, I was willing to give you a chance to prove your worth. You should know that many of us worked very hard to dislodge Barisan Nasional (BN) out of Putrajaya, but if you fail to deliver, you will destroy our faith in the Pakatan government. After nearly four months, I have made my observations and decided to make this an open letter, especially since things said in private are often not heard. 1.     In itself, the Ministry of Education is a big