DEVELOPING human capital is the most important investment a country makes and without a talented and creative work force, any country would find it difficult to move forward.
It is no surprise then that Malaysia is taking education seriously and has devoted a whole chapter towards it in the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP) tabled by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in Parliament on Thursday.
The chapter on education in the five-year development plan sets out clearly what it hopes to achieve so that the people will “be able to rapidly respond creatively to economic changes’’. The plan is also “centred on developing and utilising knowledge”.
Najib shaking hands with Muhyiddin after tabling the 10th Malaysia plan in Parliament on Thursday.
In his speech when tabling the report, Najib said a skilled and knowledgeable workforce is the cutting edge of a nation’s competitiveness.
“In this regard, the Government will implement holistic measures to strengthen education and training systems, starting from early childhood to tertiary education,” he said.
Highlights for education include major changes to the teaching profession, such as making teaching the profession of choice; faster career progression for teachers; a new teacher evaluation and assessment system; a “Teach for Malaysia” programme; a proposed lowering of entry age for schooling; a new curriculum for primary and secondary schools; and having sports as a subject from next year.
Others include reducing the overall burden of pre-school education on household spending by providing low income families with student fee assistance of RM150 per month to enrol students in private pre-schools.
Lower schooling age
Under the 10MP, the Government is considering lowering the formal schooling age from six plus to five years plus as this will extend the access to structured education for children during their formative years.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the lowering of the entry age to school had been discussed for some time.
“The age of children beginning school in many other countries is lower compared to ours.
“They start school at six plus here but in most other countries it is five plus,” he said.
Muhyiddin, who is also Education Minister, said children were now more mature as they attended pre-school so this meant they should be able to enter formal schooling much earlier.
Child psychologist Datuk Dr Chiam Heng Keng agreed with the move to lower the school entry age.
“Nowadays, with exposure to television and the Internet, children are maturing faster,” she said.
She added that studies have shown that the language areas of the brain are already developed by 10 years of age.
However, Muhyiddin said there was a big implication in terms of supply of teachers and classes.
“The issue is being studied at the ministry level and on principle, it’s not a problem but we need to work on the preparation,” he said.
If the age is lowered, he said this meant about 1.5mil would enter the system, which was more than one million from the current figures of between 500,000 to 600,000 who start school annually.
“It is a question of preparation so perhaps we can start in phases.”
The ministry, he added, would decide and could perhaps implement it before the end of the 10MP period.
Parent Action Group for Education (Page) chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim was worried that not all pre-schools were sufficiently preparing children for primary school.
“I think before this happens, they have to look very hard at pre-schools around the country and ensure that they are preparing children adequately for Year One,” she added.
Concurring with this, National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary-general Lok Yim Pheng said the Government must ensure all children had been given access to pre-school education before entering Year One.
Under the plan, a new curriculum for primary and secondary schools will be introduced, and sports will be a subject from 2011 onwards. Primary students will have 60 minutes and secondary students 90 minutes a week to play a game of their choice.
The Government will also take measures to improve both the quality of the new teacher intake and upgrade the quality and professionalism of all existing teachers in the system. It is critical to get more of the best and brightest graduates in Malaysia to be attracted to the profession.
More graduate teachers
NUTP president Hashim Adnan said that aiming for 60% graduate teachers in primary schools by 2015 from a current 28% was “not an easy thing to accomplish”.
“It is very high. It can be achieved, but I’m afraid with the short period of time, we cannot produce that many quality teachers,” he said.
Although the 10MP report proposes that graduate training for teachers be extended an additional six months to one-and-a-half years, the length of training is not the only issue at hand.
Said Sarawak Teachers’ Union president William Ghani Bina: “The quality of teachers’ training programmes should be improved.”
The Government also plans to introduce a “Teach for Malaysia” programme.
Similar to the Teach for America initiative, the programme will attempt to attract the best and brightest Malaysian graduates to teach for two years at underperforming or rural schools.
Currently completing her studies at Babson College in the United States, Wendy Chen (not her real name) is familiar with the programme in America and believes that it is timely to launch a Malaysian version.
An aspiring teacher, Chen said the initiatives to upgrade the profession should not be rushed.
“It’s good that the Government wants to upgrade the profession but the downside is that you might get people who are in it just for the money.
“At the end of the day, the best teachers must have passion,” she shared.
by Karen Chapman, Tan Shiow Chin, Richard Lim, Nycia Lim and Priya Kulasagaran.
http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2010/6/13/education/6453448&sec=education
