Right decision to quit as IIUM President

By

By Stephen Ng


Education Minister, Maszlee Malik has finally conceded that he cannot hold two portfolios as the minister of education and president of International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM).

A number of people have spoken up against his decision to take on the position. This includes the prime minister designate, Anwar Ibrahim who told him that he had personally declined from taking on the position.

The Pakatan Harapan manifesto had promised that no politician should be appointed to any government-linked corporations or organisations. Like it or not, many have interpreted it to include the IIUM.

Whether it was the Sultan of Pahang who appointed him or not, certainly to politely decline the appointment is not any form of derhaka towards the sultan. After all, he is holding a very important portfolio that requires him to put a lot of efforts to get things right.

My point of contention is different from what most people suggest. I see the minister's portfolio as a heavy responsibility as the ministry is tasked with a mission to bring the future generation of Malaysians to the next level of achievements.

By spreading himself too thin, Maszlee would not be able to perform his responsibility well. The Ministry of Education is an archaic organisation with many dinosaurs who would not move even when they are whacked.

From my observations, Maszlee is not spending enough time to understand the issues affecting the children on a daily basis. He needs more time to get down to the root of the problems, especially at all three levels -- the ministry, state education and district office.

Until he can carry out a reshuffle at all three levels, he will not be able to bring Malaysian education forward. Resistance to implement the new policies is great at both the state education departments and district offices at certain states.

A reshuffle will ensure that the right people are brought on board to implement the policies and to stop all the sabotages of the new initiatives.

The reshuffle has to be on his top priority before he can see any results when new initiatives are implemented. He should not spend too much time on talking about swimming lessons for the school children or worry about black or white shoes and colour of the socks.

First thing first. So, I hope with his decision to quit as president of IIUM, he will put more focus on the ground issues.


END




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Seeking Justice for Teachers

By
Image
Seeking Justice for Teachers By Stephen Ng In Kuala Selangor, a teacher from a Tamil primary school complained that she had been threatened and embarrassed by her school principal in front of other teachers. In her police report, the 28-year-old lady mentioned that she had accidentally injured herself while the quarrel was going on. In the incident which happened on Oct 3, she wrote in her report that the principal had allegedly used the words, ‘to take revenge’ on her. Under such circumstances, I would be surprised if the principal is allowed to continue helming the school. He does not set a good example for the children and other teachers. Meanwhile, in Sibu, Sarawak, another video clip showing a headmaster yelling at a pregnant teacher has also gone viral after it was posted on Facebook on Sept 27. This has brought to the attention of the civil society the stress that teachers have to bear under unreasonable superiors. While mooting the idea of allowing tea
Read more

Patrick Teoh hits the nail on the head

By
Image
By Stephen Ng I cannot help it but pick up a comment from a good friend of mine, Patrick Teoh, when I saw it being viralled around. Like me, Teoh has been very quiet for some time, but for him to make an occasional remark about Malaysian Education Minister, Maszlee Malik, there is more to this than meets the eye. Teoh's words were packed with sarcasm:  "Oh sorry I must have missed it. But which 2nd language did we master already?"  Knowing Teoh as a man who would not hold back his punches, I can fully understand his frustrations. I, too, was equally puzzled with Maszlee's latest statement about wanting Malaysians to master a third language. My personal opinion is that Maszlee was merely trying to parrot former Minister of Trade and Industries, Rafidah Aziz who merely said during her school days, they could even learn French but today, French is no longer in our vocabulary. Rafidah was in fact hitting out at
Read more

Can we depend on the schools to solve the bag load issue?

By
Image
By Stephen Ng I am sure most of us are not born yesterday to be thinking that school heads can be depended upon to solve the heavy bag issue. One after another minister of education has come and gone, but the school bags are still heavy that you need a donkey to help carry it into the classroom. But, in Malaysia, donkeys are seldom found except in the zoo. With the exception of a few good principals, most school heads merely pay lip service to the bag load issue. Principals, especially in the Chinese primary schools, happily add to the burden by making it mandatory for school children to buy additional workbooks, and a whole lot of other resource/ reference books, that they claim to be very useful for the children. In 2017, Puay Chai 2 Level 1 (Standards 1-3) were told to buy workbooks. When complaint reached the ministry, and the officers were supposed to come and investigate, for some reasons the school asked the children to remove the covers of the workbooks so that they
Read more