PHOTO: Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia

BY: CHRISTOPHER FERNANDEZ

For far too long, and as memory holds, the Malaysian education system has been heavily politicised and racially polarised to the point that the quality of securing an education in the country is not of world class standards but of doubtful quality.

The infrastructure is in place and there is a semblance of an education system but the resulting outcome is far from satisfactory, especially a public or government school education. Independent analysts have come forward with data and information to back this claim.

Even the staid World Bank has condemned a certain number of government schoolteachers for being unfit and incompetent to teach thus resulting in poor performances by students who later have difficulty obtaining meaningful work.

If the government schools and public sector universities are of poor standards there is a saving grace in our private schools and private institutions of higher learning who do well or excellently and offer an all round learning experience.

Often what is highlighted is the poor command of English among Malaysian students and a curriculum that pays a large amount of attention on the national language or Bahasa Malaysia especially as it is inevitable that Mathematics and Science subjects be taught in English.

This is why there is a great disparity in the standard and quality of education in the public and private sectors.There is no doubt that in the past the education system left behind by the departing British colonialists was far better.

There is only a need to look across the Causeway at the education system of the British retained by Singapore. The standard of education in Singapore is on a far higher scale than Malaysia although they once shared the same education system with Malaysia.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher