1Malaysia: Unclear direction in Education system

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Najib's 1Malaysia was overly emphasized on the current political scenario and the aim to promote racial integration of our present generation only by political means. But the prime minister and Umno president had overlooked he need to start educating people from school via education.

Doesn't he realise the importance of education to advance the multiracial integration in our country? Or is 1Malaysia a mere political ideology of BN? This concept and its objective remain unclear today as there are no specific direction to move forward to foster a greater Malaysian concept.

In our country there are two types of educational system i.e. the national schools and the other is vernacular schools (which consist of Chinese and Tamil schools). In today's situation, Malay parents tend to send their children to national schools, while the non-Malay parents send their children to either Chinese or Tamil schools.

Well, their reasons are clear, the non-Malay parents wanted their children to learn and maintain the cultures and languages of their respective ethnics, and do not want their children to be influenced by the cultures or situations which do not belong to their communities. And these is their core reason and nothing else.

Despite, efforts by the Education Ministry to encourage the non-Malay communities to send their children to national schools to promote racial integration, parents often objected them with the following reasons:
  1. national schools are often seen as too Islamic and did not demonstrate its willingness to operate as a national one.
  2. the composition of teaching staffs in national schools did not really reflect its multiracial stand.
  3. subjects based on Chinese and Tamil languages are not available in many national schools.
  4. education departments at district levels often discourage non-Malay parents from registering and sending their children to national schools citting lack of vacancies.

The ministry must also realise that they are also to be blamed for the failure to attract non-Malays into the national schools. It is because the education departments at state and district levels are not being supportive in promoting this idea to enhance racial integration.

They tend to reserve places in the national schools to the Malay community rather than to share it with the non-Malay communities. This shows that the current education system itself is the most ineffective tool in ensuring racial integration does not take place from the beginning.

Apart from that, entries to public universities and colleges also shows a clear split concept where awarding places of studies are based on racial quotas. The results of this system today are Malays tend to dominate public universities and colleges, while non-Malay students tend to go for private institutions of higher learning where the qualities of education are very much better then those of the government ones.

Therefore, can 1Malaysia really achieve its racial integration without having the entire educational system revamped. We doubt the achievement. National unity will not be achieved via 1Malaysia unless the educational system is recognised as the starting point.

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