October 22, 2012
The Havoc Education Reform Inflicts: Education Blueprint 2013-2025 (PART 5)
Last of Five Parts: Hard To Be Part of a Solution When You Are Part of a Problem
by Dr. M. Bakri Musa, Morgan-Hill, California
[In a initial 3 essays you critiqued a Blueprint's recommendations: privately a disaster to commend a farrago inside of a propagandize complement as great as to illustrate a need to have targeted programs; a plea of recruiting peculiarity teachers; as great as a couple in in in in between efficiency, efficacy, as great as quality. Part Four discussed a report's deficiencies. This last letter focuses upon a unequivocally routine of reform, or how to do a improved job of it.]
The greatest debility of this remodel bid is a disdainful dependence upon in-house or MOE staff, a unequivocally crew responsible for a tide debase with a schools. These people have been partial of a complaint for distant as great long; they cannot right away be approaching unexpected as great as magically to be partial of a solution. That would take an exceptional ability to be flexible, innovative, as great as have a willingness or during slightest genius to learn. Those have been a unequivocally traits not valued in or associated with a polite service.
The Blueprint's internal consultants enclosed Air Asia's Tony Fernandez, Khazanah's Azman Mokthar, as great as Sunway's Jeffrey Cheah, as if representing a 3 vital communities. These people have been terribly busy. Unless they took time off from their substantial corporate responsibilities, they could not possibly do probity to this important inhabitant assignment.
The general consultants were equ! ally imp ressive. Again here you consternation how many time they essentially outlayed articulate to teachers, students as great as headmasters. Another significant flaw is this: With a possible exception of a Canadian, a others have been from systems not impeded with a Malaysian dilemma of low educational achievements identifiable with specific ethnic or geographical groups. In Ontario, Canada, usually a Toronto School System which is detached from a provincial has significant experience with a "Malaysian" problem. The Canadian is with a provincial system.
Many of those substantial consultants were conspicuously absent during a many open sessions heading a single to conclude which they were some-more window dressing.
As for a open meetings, there were couple of formal or great thought-out presentations. Far as great mostly those meetings fast degenerated in to "bitch" sessions, or to put it in to internal lingo, cakap kosong kopi-o (coffee emporium dull talk), with a couple of assertive as great as undone people hogging a discussions. Worse, there were no records of those hearings for preview, solely for those amateurish low-quality recordings posted upon Youtube. Consequently, opportunities for learning from those sessions were minimal.
The remodel has a own website (myedureview.com) as great as uses a amicable media (Facebook as great as Twitter) extensively. Those dialogues in cyberspace were no better; a comments were un-moderated as great as simply a rising of annoy as great as frustrations. As for a couple of critical ones, a row never intent their contributors. The cyber forums, similar to a open hearings, gave couple of insights; a signal-to-noise comparative measure was low. There was no necessity of passion as great as strong views, reflecting a angst Malaysians have of their propagandize system.
A Superior Approach
There is a improved approach. To begin with, dispense with a tide or past crew of MOE; they have been or have ! been par tial of a problem. Consider which a many material remodel in healing education, The Flexner Report of 1910 was constructed not by a alloy or even an educator nonetheless an word salesman! It still is a foundation of complicated American healing education. In Malaysia, a Razak Report of 1956 remade Malaysian education, nonetheless a author was no educator or teacher.
The usually qualification you seek in those undertaking remodel would be a respectable preparation (meaning, they have warranted rsther than than paid for their degrees), a proven jot down of success in any endeavor, as great as a required commitment, generally time, intellect, as great as energy. Meaning, these people would have to take a sabbatical from their unchanging duties. you would have no some-more than 5 members, with a single directed towards as leader.
Then you would give them a inexhaustible budget to sinecure a most appropriate independent professional staff, from clerks to answer a phones great to IT crew to pattern as great as maintain an in effect website, to scholars, statisticians as great as interpretation analysts. The budget should additionally yield for transport to revisit model propagandize systems elsewhere. you would additionally have those panelists spend many of their time articulate to students, relatives as great as teachers rsther than than method officials.
The row should additionally have sufficient resources to sinecure consultants from countries with demonstrably higher propagandize systems. you would select dual in particular Finland as great as America. Both have sufficient experiences in traffic with immature kids of marginalized communities; Finland with a brand brand new immigrants, America a minorities. Yes, American open schools do not enjoy auspicious reputation nonetheless there have been islands of excellence for us to emulate.
I would equivocate consultants from Korea as great as alternative East Asian countries for during slightest dual reasons. One, they have be! en ethni cally as great as culturally homogenous; they have no experience traffic with diverse groups; a Malaysian dilemma is alien to them. For another, whilst a Koreans regularly surpass in general comparisons, they do not consider rarely of their own cram-school-plagued system. Those who can, equivocate it.
I would additionally look beyond a modernized countries to, for e.g. Mexico for a Progressa Program, as great as Rwanda with a desirous as great as rarely successful One-Laptop-Per-Child (OLPC) scheme. If bad Rwanda could have such an imaginative initiative, Malaysia could do even more. Rwanda demonstrates which an enlightened government proceed could essentially move down prices. Rwanda's computers cost underneath RM500 per unit! It could do which since a module is underneath a government of fit as great as honest unfamiliar experts, not internal inertia-laden bureaucrats as great as hurtful politicians upon a take. Rwandan leaders have been self assured as great as entirely wakeful which they miss internal expertise; they have been not hesitant in job in foreigners as great as do not be concerned about being "neo-colonized" or whatever.
Rwanda offers many alternative utilitarian lessons. Foremost is which immature kids from even a many physically as great as socially challenged environments could leapfrog a technological gap. That is impending for a immature kids in Ulu Kelantan as great as Interior Sarawak. For another, remodel in a classrooms spills in to a wider community, spurring serve reforms as great as developments there. Those Rwandan immature kids dragged along their relatives as great as grandparents in to a digital age. Those elders have been right away open to a wider world; as a result they demand some-more of their leaders, similar to their villages carrying electricity so they could make make use of of their computers longer. They perspective those machines as agents of liberation as great as emancipation; right away they can find out a cost of a commodities they sell as gr! eat as a goods they buy without delay from a market instead of being captive to a middlemen.
The usually time you would call for ministry's submit is to have a staff refer to a source a problems as great as hurdles faced underneath a tide system. This would additionally show either they have been in truth wakeful of those problems as great as either their assessments match those of parents.
I would arrange a open participation component otherwise as great as additionally encourage submit from all, people as great as groups. The initial submissions however, would have to be in writing. That would force presenters to consider by their ideas. For groups you would stipulate which their inform be accompanied by an attestation which it had been endorsed by their senior manager committees or general membership.
All submissions would be in Malay or English, with a interpretation in a alternative language. For those exceeding 300 difference there would have to be an accompanying senior manager summary not some-more than 200 words, again in both languages. All these submissions would be posted upon a panel's website, with readers giveaway to post their comments. Those comments as great as a strange submissions would have to be edited (again by a panel's professional staff) for clarity, brevity as great as accuracy, as great as to equivocate embarrassing grammatical as great as spelling errors. That would lend a little gravitas to a website as great as yield utilitarian learning opportunities for those who surf it. The website as great as alternative media outlets must simulate a professionalism as great as excellence of a remodel effort.
One does not get this impression right away upon celebration of a mass a Blueprint or perusing a reform's website.
The row would afterwards select from those submissions a couple of which have been estimable for serve scrutiny in an open open hearing. The role of those structured open hearings is to give a row opportunities to clarify large! r detail s from a submitters, as great as for them to enhance upon their ideas. Those hearings have been not meant to listen to from brand brand new or on-the-spur commentators. Such a intrigue would effectively cut out a grandstanders. Again, those proceedings, their transcripts as great as a video as great as audio recordings, would be posted upon a website.
Only after all a open hearings have been completed would a row gather to write their last recommendations, with freedom for any member to produce his or her own detached or dissenting comment. That is a usually proceed to be credible.
The tide routine produces zero some-more than a sanitized press release of MOE, embellished with a imprimaturs of those substantial corporate as great as general consultants.
Measures of Success
There have been usually four arguable indicators of success with preparation reform, as great as all have been straightforwardly measured. The simplest is to mount during a Johor causeway upon any propagandize sunrise as great as equate a number of propagandize immature kids going south. Trend those numbers. If 5 years as a result which number were to dwindle, afterwards you know which Malaysian relatives have certainty in their schools. To be unequivocally worldly you could cause in a birth rates as great as alternative variables. However, those would not add much.
Similarly, you could take a sight upon a Sunday afternoon as great as equate a number of youngsters in Johor heading south for a week to stay with extended family groups or boarding houses in Singapore to attend schools there.
Those chauvinistically inclined competence be tempted to conclude which in any case how great a schools are, those primarily Chinese students would still go south. If which is so, afterwards you have dual alternative trends to monitor. One, revisit a top universities abroad as great as survey a Malaysians there. How many (or what percentage) come from a inhabitant schools? I! n a 1980 s you could equate many; today, hardly any. That decline correlated with a decrease of a inhabitant schools.
Another would be to direction a number of Malaysians enrolled in internal general schools. Now which quotas for internal a number enrolled have been lifted, which number would be inversely related to a turn of certainty a elite has of a schools.
These statistics have been simply picked up as great as trended; you do not need whim "labs" for that. PEMANDU should assign a youth staff member to pick up them.
Reform must be approached thoughtfully, both with a routine as great as a people comparison to lead it. The full consequence of a changes you put currently would not be felt till decades or even generations later. We have been usually right away realizing as great as paying a cost for a follies of a 1970s.
As a youngster my father would admonish me during your convenience you did something sloppily. Not usually had you wasted my effort, he reminded me, right away somebody else would have to remove what you had done prior to he could do it a right way. Triple a work as great as effort, essentially.
These remodel efforts devour substantial human, financial as great as alternative resources. They confuse everyone, from politicians as great as method bureaucrats to parents, teachers, as great as many of all a students.We have to do it right, beginning by carrying a right people.
PART 4
Fourth of Five Parts: Roar of An Elephant, Baby of a Mouse
[In a initial 3 parts you critiqued a Blueprint's recommendations; privately a disaster to commend a farrago inside of a propagandize complement as great as to illustrate a need to have targeted programs, a plea of recruiting peculiarity teachers, as great as a co! uple in in in in between potency efficacy, as great as quality. In this Part Four, you discuss a vital areas a inform ignores.]
Education Blueprint 2013-2025 lacks clear authorship. The document carries forewords by Najib, Muhyyiddin, as great as a Ministry's Secretary-General as great as a Director General, whilst a Appendix credits a prolonged list of those involved in this "robust, comprehensive, as great as collaborative effort," nonetheless a Blueprint itself is unsigned.
It is additionally impossible to tell who essentially is in charge of this total remodel effort. According to a complicated box-chart diagram, a entire try was anchored in a 12-member "Project Management Office" (PMO) which reported to a Ministry's Director-General as great as to an 11-member "Project Taskforce" which in turn reported to Muhyyiddin. Both a PMO as great as Taskforce have been manned to a single side by method officials. Then there have been a internal as great as general panels of experts.
Such a convoluted arrangement could simply trouble-maker in to a morass when no particular is tasked to be in charge. Every troops operation needs a autocratic general; every orchestra, a conductor. That is a greatest deficiency with this remodel exercise; no a single was in charge, likewise with essay a report.
This is customary of a Malaysian polite make use of "management by committee" mode. So it is difficult to store praise, or in this case, lay blame. That no a single was in charge could be gauged by a last product. For a inform which claims to be comprehensive, aimed no less during transforming a system, it is incongruous as great as lacks a executive theme. It heaps regard upon a system's "remarkable achievements" for a past 55 years. If which is so, because remodel it? The Blueprint embellishes how great a students had achieved upon inhabitant examinations over a years, as great as afterwards cites a PISA as great as TIMSS reports which prove otherwise.
There have been additionally many technical nonetheless irritating deficiencies, as with a miss of references. The Appendix makes usually general references to reports from such bodies as a World Bank, OECD, as great as UNESCO. Those have been comparatively easy to trace. However, when it quotes studies done by internal universities, there have been no specific references, heading a single to suspect which those studies have been not of publishable quality.
Those aside, my greatest disappointment is a Blueprint's disaster to residence a system's viewable as great as critical weaknesses which demand evident attention: farming inhabitant schools; eremite stream; as great as vocational education. All 3 regularly perform during a bottom; urge them as great as you urge a system's altogether performance. For another, a students affected have been mostly if not to a single side bad Malays.
This disaster to residence their problems is done some-more incomprehensible as great as inexcusable since those involved with this reform, from Muhyyiddin upon downwards, have been mostly Malays. While currently they might live in plush bungalows during Putrajaya, scratch a bit as great as a kampongness would ooze out of their pores. During Hari Raya they all fled en mass balek kampong.
Surely upon those trips they would listen to as great as see a predicament of a immature kids of their cousins as great as alternative relatives. you as great was once a single of those children. On visiting my kampong recently, you was painfully reminded of my progressing challenges. Only right away they have been worse.
At slightest during my childhood you could dream which if you were to do great in school, you could escape my kampong. Today even if those immature kids wer! e to exc el, their opportunities would be exceedingly singular since their singular authority of English.
Then there is a complaint of propagandize transportation. At slightest during my time there was a sight service, haphazard nonetheless which was. Today there is none. Those immature kids have to depend upon fellow villagers who happen to have a car. If conceivably he is ill or slept over which morning, afterwards those half a dozen or so immature kids which he routinely packs in to his tiny Kancil would skip school.
The greatest propagandize shortcoming my relatives faced was their children's sight fares. It still is for those encampment parents. American schools have been required to yield giveaway travel generally for farming students. During colonial order schools had hostels to support for those from remote areas. If you have some-more such comforts afterwards those students would not have to cross rickety bridges over dangerous rivers as often.
The consternation is which chronic absenteeism as great as academic underachievement have been not worse with kampong kids. The Blueprint does not residence this. A simple resolution would be to have specific travel allocation for any propagandize for those pupils who live distant away. The headmaster would afterwards emanate vouchers to be redeemed by a student as great as a encampment cab driver. Better yet, a propagandize could contract without delay with particular encampment automobile owners as great as cab drivers. There have been alternative possibilities; all you need is for someone to initial identify a complaint as great as afterwards diligently consider about elucidate it.
The row should be less enamored with modernized countries similar to Finland as great as South Korea, as great as instead sense from such bad countries as Mexico. The problems of a kampong immature kids have been closer to those of Mexico than South Korea. Mexico's Progressa program pays bad farming family groups for their immature ki! ds to at tend school.
The intrigue additionally extends to healthcare as with immunizations. The income typically goes to a mothers. The module has been modernized such which there have been no transfers of cold cash as in a past, rsther than proceed deposit in to bank accounts. Yes, bank accounts for bad illiterate villagers! That additionally brings them in to a complicated economy, utterly detached from bypassing petty internal polite servants.
The bad have been identified by proceed surveys, so even those who do not register or distrustful of governments have been not missed. The module is privately divorced from a ruling domestic party; as a result no domestic clientele as great as a associated corruption as great as leakage. The beginning has been in few instances in effect in targeting a hard-core poor, as great as with low executive costs.
Progressa reveals a close relationship in in in in between health, poverty, as great as educational achievements, as great as which all 3 could be simultaneously addressed effectively with a amicable beginning which is low cost, rarely efficient, as great as in few instances efficacious. Progressa underscores a wisdom of former US Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders, "You can't educate a kid who is not healthy, as great as you can't keep a kid full of health who isn't educated."
Then there have been a dilapidated conditions of farming schools; many miss energy as great as potable water. If they have energy afterwards they could make make use of of computers as great as two-way videoconferencing so which a single clergyman centrally located could serve multiform classes from different schools. This is quite utilitarian for tiny schools as they can be total online. Similarly, a necessity of teachers for specialized subjects similar to song could be strike by sharing a single clergyman rotated among many schools in a single district. Both strategies have been effectively used in farming America.
As for vocational educati! on, you cannot be an mercantile energy unless you have great trained as great as sublime workforce for production as great as for a make use of sector. Specifically for Malays, a usually proceed for signs similar to "Mahmud Motor Repairs" as great as "Halimah Hair Saloon" to crop up upon a categorical streets is to sight these sublime workers. Again, you do not have to re-invent a wheel. Germany provides an excellent e.g. of industry/school collaborative tutelage programs.
Then there have been a eremite schools. They share all a hurdles of inhabitant schools, usually worse. Physically, a customary of hygiene of their canteens is inhuman whilst their hostels have been death traps, lacking simple safety features as sprinkler systems. They miss even butterfly nets.
Beyond a horrible facilities, a eremite tide faces an even distant daunting challenge. Its educational philosophy, pedagogical approach, as great as learning psychology have been archaic, misguided, as great as simply wrong. This is an affliction peculiar not usually to Malaysia nonetheless additionally many Muslim countries, as great as from a top institutions similar to Al Azhar to a lowest internal Al Arqam preschool.
Abdullah Munshi most appropriate described a proceed as great as truth of complicated education: It treats a tellurian mind as a blade to be sharpened. Current Islamic preparation upon a alternative hand considers a tellurian mind a dustbin to be filled with dogmas.
The possibilities with a pointy blade have been limitless. In a hands of a surgeon it can cure cancer; a sculptor, an artistic work of art. With a dustbin all you could get out of it is what you put in, zero more. That assumes zero gets stuck or dejected during a bottom. Yes, a pointy blade in a hands of a thug is a fatal killing weapon. This is where eremite preparation comes in so which when you send a immature abroad to study nuclear engineering they will come home to manufacture radio-pharmaceuticals to cure cancer, as great as not set up n! uclear w eapons.
What goes upon in those eremite schools as great as universities is indoctrination masquerading as education. The emphasis is upon mindless recitations as great as a quoting of progressing scholars as great as luminaries. The strength of your evidence is not formed upon proof or interpretation nonetheless a extraction of your quoted authorities. Religious preparation as currently used entraps rsther than than liberates Muslim minds.
The irony is which complicated preparation has all a hallmarks of early Muslim practices as great as philosophy, during slightest until a so-called "closure of a Gate of Ijtihad" in a 12th Century. Many would attribute a decline of a Muslim universe since afterwards to this "closure of ijtihad" as great as with it, a shutting of a Muslim mind. Those longing for an Islamic Renaissance would do great to initial critically inspect tide eremite education.
The alternative irony is which usually in America as great as Singapore, dual physical countries with Muslim minorities, have Islamic schools been modernized. Blueprint 2013-2025 does not even residence eremite preparation in Malaysia.
Religion is right away a vital change in inhabitant schools. That is a single reason because non-Malays have been abandoning a system. Removing eremite studies from inhabitant schools, as a little have been advocating, is not a solution. Then you would be behind to my childhood days, where you was put in a hands of a pondok ustads in afternoon schools.
The usually proceed you survived which intellectual dissonance was to strictly compartmentalize my mind in in in in between my sunrise physical propagandize as great as afternoon eremite one. Sooner or after you had to determine a viewable contradictions. We should never weight immature minds with such heavy dilemmas; instead you should beam them in reconciling a dual as great as to illustrate benefiting from both.
We should teach a immature early which there is no co! unterbal ance in in in in between physical as great as eremite knowledge, as great as which a multiplication in in in in between a dual is fake as great as artificial. Keeping religion in a inhabitant schools would most appropriate demonstrate which togetherness of knowledge.
Metaphorically put, complicated preparation sharpens a blade whilst eremite preparation guides a single to make make use of of it as a surgeon or sculptor would, to great purpose. you do not suspend my rational genius upon celebration of a mass a Koran or listening to a sermon, as great as you do not postpone my eremite convictions when you conduct scientific experiments or work upon my patients.
Before you could move eremite studies in to inhabitant schools, a manner, objective as great as truth of training it would have to be revamped. It should be taught as an academic subject, not as theology.
After discussing these vital deficiencies, it would appear petty if not anti-climactic to cite a Blueprint's alternative omissions, which pale in comparison. However, you will embody dual more. Though seemingly minor, they simulate a panel's miss of industry as great as disaster to critically analyze data.
The Blueprint quotes during length in a text as great as supplementary material both TIMSS as great as PISA. Malaysia paid substantial sums to participate in those studies. They have been great designed as great as tested a broad spectrum of students so as to get as representative a sample as possible. However, a inform presents usually a combination of a republic as a whole.
As is obvious, there have been immeasurable differences in in in in between a students during Penang's Chung Ling versus Kelantan's Madrasah Al-Bakriyyah, in in in in between SMK Ulu Temiang versus SMJK (Tamil) Ulu Tiram. Those differences would be prisoner in a interpretation of TIMSS as great as PISA nonetheless Malaysian scholars as great as policymakers have not analyzed them.
In America, Singapore, as great as els! ewhere t hose statistics have been pored over, with reams of writings published. Not so in Malaysia. That is all a some-more surprising as a interpretation have been in a open domain. Had which been done, a disparities inside of Malaysia would have been shocking. Perhaps which was because a row contends itself usually with a combination findings.
The a single chapter missing from a Blueprint would be, "Lessons From The Past." There is no try during critically seeking during past reforms, their successes as great as generally a failures. If you do not inspect them you have been no expected to sense as great as to illustrate expected to repeat a same mistakes. Then when a subsequent Minister of Education arrives, he as great would once again embark upon another "bold, comprehensive, as great as transforming reform."
If you were to be tasked with this overwhelming shortcoming of reviewing a preparation system, you would proceed it differently. And which will be a concentration of my subsequent as great as last partial of this commentary.
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