Independent commission needed to review education system, says group

THE Education Ministry has to set up an independent commission to look into the World Bank’s damning report on the country’s education system, the National Parent-Teacher Association Consultative Council said.

Council president associate professor Mohamad Ali Hasan told The Vibes the independent commission must look into things done previously, study what went wrong and come up with a blueprint to improve the education system.

The World Bank, in its latest report, “Bending Bamboo Shoots: Strengthening Foundation Skills”, stated that Malaysian students spend an average of 12.5 years in school but learn the equivalent of only 8.9 years, adding that 42% of Malaysian students have failed to achieve reading proficiency by the end of Standard 5, which is higher than other countries with similar gross national income per capita (34%).

The report said by the time a child in Malaysia is 15 years old, he or she is “far behind” in reading, science and mathematics compared to Malaysia’s aspirational peers, such as Hong Kong, China, Japan and Singapore.

Apart from limited access to quality early childhood education, the World Bank noted that teacher preparedness and a lack of a robust performance tracking system were other issues contributing to poor educational outcomes observed in Malaysia.

Ali said the Education Ministry, especially its minister Fadhlina Sidek, should not be discouraged by the criticism in the report but see it as a challenge to find ways to fix the problems.

“No point in blaming one another and the ministry should not feel disheartened with the report. We should look for ways to handle the challenges,” said Ali.

Ali urged the ministry to spend more attention on facilities and infrastructure at rural schools, including the number of teachers in schools nationwide.

He said more attention has to be given to students on core subjects such as English, Bahasa Melayu, Mathematics and Science.

“We all know how bad the facilities are at rural schools. That needs to be fixed. Students are still going to school without shoes, walking for hours to reach schools and bad internet connection is hampering their studies.

“After so many years and many programmes, we have yet to master English and we have not made Bahasa Malaysia stronger either.

“These are some of the challenges that they need to address. We also need skilled, highly motivated teachers,” he said.

Fadhlina responded to the World Bank report by saying the country’s education system has been addressed in a progressive and proactive manner.

She said the ministry was currently implementing various crucial initiatives for the reform of the national education system, including the restructuring of the preschool system, the school curriculum for 2027 and curriculum interventions to address learning loss.

The PKR MP also said that the MoE has conducted a series of engagements with stakeholders regarding the future of education in Malaysia and the framework for the 2027 school curriculum.

Issues reported in 2013

Anuar Ahmad, a senior lecturer from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Centre of Community Education and Well-being, agreed with Fadhlina.

Anuar said the report was not much different from a report titled “Plan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia 2013”, which highlighted almost the same problems.

He said the current government was not to be blamed as the problems were already there and were not looked into.

“The PPPM report more than 10 years ago detected the same challenges and weaknesses highlighted by the World Bank.

“The report gave recommendations on what to improve. To fix old and dilapidated schools, to solve the problem of lack of teachers in schools, digitalisation programmes and so on.

“Despite this, the government could not find the solutions. So today, there is still a lot to do,” he said.

Anuar said the current government must first replan PPPM’s strategic objective and address matters that have not been addressed for many years.

He also said the ministry must first solve the problem of overcrowding in schools to ensure that students are not left behind.

“Some critical issues have to be addressed immediately. Such as the overcrowding in schools, if there's too many students in one class, some may be left behind and this will affect their future.

“They (ministry) have to come up with a new or revised plan. There has to be a strategic approach following the PPPM report.

“I strongly believe that it is time to make preschool compulsory for each child so that when they enter Standard One, they can read and write. Some are still illiterate as they enter primary school,” he said.

Anuar said many countries worldwide have made it mandatory for children aged six to attend preschool and we need to adopt this approach.

“The other critical issue is the lack of teachers. We need to urgently address this problem,” he added. – May 5, 2024.