Pendidikan

We must appoint, first by choice and then by law, Ministers of Education that are

1) Both a product of Malaysia’s education system and with at least five years of teaching experience at an MOE school. Borrowing from their children’s experience is simply not enough. Children, unfortunately, do not know 10% of the problems actually hidden inside a bilik guru. Often, well-connected families are placed in Band 1 or Band 2 schools that are exceptionally well-managed, but an ultra-minority. Example career positions that may satisfy the five-year minimum requirement include a former teacher, a former district / state / or national MOE officer, a long-term Teach for Malaysia alumnus. The easiest method is appointment as a Senator.

2) Enters the position with a deep understanding of the corruption, misconduct, lack of oversight, institutional rot, and failures of justice prevalent throughout Malaysia’s education system, from cities to schools. No more Education Ministers “learning on the job”, as our crises are far too acute. Their priorities must first center on removing investigative authority away from the Ministry of Education (KPM) and removing disciplinary authority away from the Education Services Commission (SPP). Both halves have failed our students: the KPM rarely investigates and the SPP almost never disciplines post-investigation. Both departments are the problem; fixing one alone is insufficient. Thus, we also suggest independent investigations *and* independent disciplinary proceedings, i.e., the Public Ombudsman.

3) Focused solely on education for all children within Malaysia’s borders, thus significantly free from racial, religious, and / or ethnic discrimination. Somewhat positive examples include Indonesia, though a work in progress with a dual-track system under the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Religion.

3) Hold no political party at the time of appointment (an Independent Senator) and most preferably has not held any party position in the last five years. Malaysia is full of competent, passionate, and serious educators that have been fighting for justice.

4) Willing to submit and agree to a new law that bans the appointment of future Politician-Education Ministers in future administrations.

While PIBGs do have locally administered AGMs composed of teachers, parents, and school administrators, it is not enough.

We must establish, through reform of the Education (Parent-Teacher Associations) Regulations 1998 and Education Act 1996, that

1. PIBG Constitutions cannot forbid dissent or discussions by parents nor teachers on any topics regarding the school, its administrators, or any misconduct, claimed or otherwise.
2. School administrators cannot have any power to remove parents nor discipline teachers that speak up about the above issues.
3. PIBGs should be allowed to work together with other PIBGs to discuss issues and organize together for community actions.
4. PIBGs must create publicly and online-accessible minutes that any parent may view and/or respond to.
5. PIBGs must create a set of efficient guidelines to ensure parents can speak as needed. Today, hours are wasted as school officers give long remarks that simply should be sent to a PIBG messaging group (i.e., WhatsApp); likewise meetings must be arranged at a time voted on by the parents of the communities, not purely on the school’s convenience.
6. PIBGs should be able to be summoned by parents for specific critical issues with adequate notice (e.g., two weeks); a school representative with decision-making authority (i.e., only the school principal) must attend.

With these substantive changes, we hope to significantly improve the attendance (online or virtual) of PIBGs. There is no reason that working families should be shut out of the community, transparent administration, and fair discussion that PIBGs were initially designed for.

1. Establish a national health and safety support system in which schools are part of, to promote and protect students’ physical/mental health and safety through the school they attend.
2. Establish coalition/committee that is constitute of various stakeholders, including healthcare professional at the district level,but not limited to:
i. oversees health programmes and health reports (obesity/overweight, malnutrition, stunting/wasting, abuse of drugs, unsafe sex) from schools.
ii. Assist schools to deliver effective health education, including physical education, with appropriate tests (e.g. comprehensive PE tests) to assess the actual impact of these education/programmes on student’s health and fitness.
iii. Inspect the outcome of health education or physical education
iv. Assist schools in running evidence-based health awareness programmes, informed by the annual reports and other health reports published by the MoE.
v. Develop targeted programmes for the underprivileged students with health issues.
vi. Leveraging on celebrity chefs to promoting affordable balance-nutrions dietary in school and ensure school meet the targeted goal.
vii. Eduacting students regarding the impact of imbalance diet in long run.

3. A national mental health plan that ensures mental health programmes and relevant professional developments for schoolteachers, counsellors to equip our teachers at schools to be able to identify students at risk and deliver effective counselling or help for students or refer to expert mentors.
4. Establish functioning mental health system within each school or within a district that oversees schools, which should include facilities safe for secluded counselling purposes.
5. Schools to run programmes to educate students, parents and the surrounding communities on mental health issues and prevention measures (help lines, coping mechanisms etc).
6. Set up delivery mechanisms so that free nutrition programmes does not stop when school closes.

We propose a mandatory Yearly Report Card for all MOE schools to cover Curriculum, Integrity, and Safety. Once parents can study their school choices and the MOE’s policies can be scrutinized by independent experts and civil society, it will force a dramatic change in the national conversation on education quality.

This “paperwork” is focused on the very problems we must fight; documentation becomes evidence and yet all such evidence has never been openly shared with parents.

1. Mental Health Capacities: the number of trained counselors, % of school days counselors are available, and aggregated / anonymized results of the Borang Minat Belajar.
2. Integrity Capacities: the number of misconduct complaints filed against officers at the school, the names of all administrators and their responsibilities, the school’s financial audit history, the average teacher attendance %, the number of caning / corporal punishment incidents in the past year.
3. Quality Capacities: % of teachers teaching their trained subject, the available curricula and co-curricular programs, the teacher / staff to student ratio.
4. Physical Capacities: the school’s physical safety audit history, the facilities’ accessibility, the % of classrooms with functioning cooling, total classroom capacity vs registered students.

The Yearly Report Card must be submitted by a deadline to an online, freely accessible portable with clear explanations of each metric for parents, students, and experts.

The Ministry of Education then must use this data as the primary source for the allocation of counselors, teachers, contract & procurement funding, teaching assistants, and audits.

Any schools with an above average number of misconduct complaints must remain under NAZIR investigation with monthly school visits by trained MOE personnel.

Failing to improve the lowest ranked school conditions over some number of years (e.g., five years) will require the Ministry of Education to allocate a commensurate reimbursement fee out of the Ministry of Education’s budget to parents so parents may take direct emergency action (to be used for counselling, tuition, etc.) for their children that school year.

Failing to submit the report by the yearly deadline must be a disciplinary offence with a punishment no less than a fine against the school principal and school assistants (rank PK).

The ‘one rule fix all’ coercive approach requiring teachers to focus on the submission of results and grades accounts for the root cause of the failure in education reforms. The misalignment and constant change by the Ministry of Education(MoE) leadership, since 1980s till now , has yet to ensure the fundamental emphasis on basic literacy and numeracy for the 11 years of elementary education. The relevance of education to life competencies, the love for learning is yet to be developed in students. These include the competency to communicate, express views, the ability to engage with inquiry and problem-solving skills. Others include the application of math and science concepts to life. This is the focus of the assessment in PISA and TIMSS, international assessment standards
In order for curriculum reform to be a success, there should be ongoing capacity building and teacher competency assessments should be re-implemented. Adding to it, the training conducted from both pre-service and in service teachers must be delivered hands-on with full commitment by experts using workshop approach.
The new curricular reform known as KSSR and KSSM requires the MOE to discharge accountability so as to ensure there are adequate and competent teachers to teach the STEM, Humanities and Social Science subjects.
The engagement of in-service teachers with continual professional learning development (PLD) through the establishment of PLC (Professional Learning Community) at subject and professional level at school must be executed monthly (as reiterated in Malaysia Educatiob Blueprint.). This is the basis for the on-going reformation to be rooted as a practice in schools.
It is recommended that teacher’s training at pre-service level must engage with a broad base education, with in-depth studies in their specializations. This is to enable teachers to be both creative and competent with the interplay of knowledge, to develop students’ curiosity and the love for learning, including the development of students’ higher order thinking capacity. It is thus clear that teachers’ training held at a single-discipline Teachers Education Institute or Education Teaching University like UPSI is less desirable.

All children in Malaysia should be treated equally regardless of the current state or situation whether abandoned, adopted or parents information not on birth certificate. Whereby their access to education should not be hindered by the birth certificate status and made free for all- waive the levy fees imposed.

1. Set up a task force to assess the impact of learning loss nationwide, particular the impact on basic literacy (reading, numeracy and cognitive).
2. Based on the findings, replan, and reformulate contents of curriculum to one that:
a. Reduce overlapping subject matter content by emphasising on core ideas and pre-requisite contents essential at appropriate level which enabling future learning. By removing less-essential contents, to a significant level that allows learning to remain meaningful and manageable by the students within the remaining available school years/calendars.
b. Introduce new curriculum that address new needs of the students due to the pandemic, for instance, independent/collaborative learning skills, skills that help students cope with mental stress, anxiety, depressions, or suicidal thoughts, skills that build resilience that can help students face hardships in their lives.
c. Strategically prolong and shift the academic session based on the needs to recapturing the two-years loss of teaching and learning, if necessity.
3. School programmes that aim at preventing students at risks of dropping out from leaving schools:
a. Identify and reach out to students at risks
b. introduce project based learning that situates interests, bridges learning with real life situation (relevance of learning), and help students develop important generic skills such as leadership, data collection, problem solving.
c. Design extracurricular activities and school life experiences that promote social connectedness.
4. Personalised/differentiated remedial classes in accordance with the adjusted curriculum and student’s personal need. It should not be extension of school hours intended at simply compressing contents of the current curriculum into shorter time frame.

Perubahan sosial memerlukan strategi dan tindakan reformasi (bukan reaktif) daripada solidariti rakyat. Kurikulum pendidikan baru akan mengubah nilai dan paradigma rakyat kepada masyarakat sivil yang memiliki upaya dan kuasa untuk menyedari tentang realiti ketidakadilan dan penindasan.

Kurikulum emansipasi mestilah memberikan pilihan optimum kepada murid untuk mengembangkan bakat, minat, potensi dan keupayaan mereka. Peperiksaan dan pencapaian akademik bukan lagi satu-satunya pengukur pencapaian, tetapi murid-murid dalam kecerdasan pelbagai diupayakan dalam penginstitusian TVET kepada murid Pendidikan Khas. Hapuskan program inklusif yang membunuh potensi dan bakat mereka yang bukan dalam akademik.

Nilai-nilai humanistik ini mestilah diformulasikan dalam silibus setiap mata pelajaran di sekolah. Proses PdP memasukkan program / khidmat luar sebagai latihan praktikal kepada murid dan guru bagi memahami isu-isu seperti ketidakadilan sosial dan perubahan iklim.

Mata pelajaran Sivik dan Kewarganegaraan diformulasikan semula bagi merangkumi tentang kajian mengenai sistem politik, perundangan dan pemerintahan negara, serta peranan pemerintah terhadap rakyat dan peranan warga negara untuk melindungi masyarakat yang adil, aman dan berperikemanusiaan. Ia juga merangkumi kajian mengenai kepelbagaian amalan dalam budaya dan kepercayaan agama di negara ini dan di seluruh dunia. Kesedaran dan kemahiran sivik dilihat penting untuk mengembangkan 'pemikiran bersama dan kesejahteraan bersama' dalam diri orang yang hidup dalam masyarakat berbilang kaum.

Kurikulum emansipasi mestilah bersifat humanistik mengandungi pandangan yang adil, kritis, dan tulen mengenai hak asasi manusia, anti korupsi, demokrasi, kebebasan asasi, keadilan, media bebas, literasi berita, sejarah Mahkamah & litigasi terkenal, gerakan keadilan sosial dan menghargai kepelbagaian bakat dan potensi individu.

1. MoE, MoH and MoY to collaboratively to set up a health monitoring & support system that:
a. Assign health officer to:
i. oversees health programmes and health reports (obesity/overweight, malnutrition, stunting/wasting, abuse of drugs, unsafe sex) from schools.
ii. Assist schools to deliver effective health education, including physical education, with appropriate tests (e.g. comprehensive PE tests) to assess the actual impact of these education/programmes on student’s health and fitness.
iii. Take Immediate action on schools which cancel health education or physical education on their own discretion.
iv. Assist schools in running evidence-based health awareness programmes, informed by the annual reports and other health reports published by the MoE.
v. Targeted programmes for the underprivileged students with health issues.
2. Train and equip school teachers with instructional strategies and revamp the curriculum of health education to provide learning experiences that motivate students to critically examine personal perspectives, thoughtfully consider new arguments that support health-promoting attitudes and values, and generate positive perceptions about protective behaviors and negative perceptions about risk behaviors.
3. Design and administer standard fitness test to assess student’s fitness objectively.

1. Increase range, flexibility and hours of arts and culture in all government primary and secondary schools
2. Provide financial allocation for arts and culture education exposure in
schools
3. Allow secondary students from all streams to access arts and culture to promote arts appreciation
4. Access to quality arts education for all students with interest and talent in the arts
5 Create a pathway from primary school for students with interest and talent in the arts to be able to further their studies at Sekolah Seni and tertiary education
6. Education Ministry incentives for teachers to coach/mentor student with interest and talent in the arts after school hours, as well as the opportunity to develop their craft and pursue further training
7. Training for arts educators and funding for research and capacity building for arts and culture

1. The Education Minister post should be held by non-politicians and his leadership and
decision making subject to scrutiny of an OVERSIGHT COMMISSION.
2. An Oversight Committee must be established to provide checks and balances, on the
power held by the Education Minister such as discarding an existing policy should only be for replacement by better designed ones, instead of for pleasing the interest of the rent seekers for further political mileage. The abandonment of the well-regarded Malaysia Education Blueprint, and the appointment, to the position of Head of PTPTN, of a politician who has channelled Government’s loan money as ‘zakat donations’ to state religious body, are good illustrations of politicians seeking their own political mileage.
3. Appointments are to be based on merit, professionalism and integrity. This is to curb political patronage in the appointment of principals as well as in promotions extended to the Heads of JPN, PPD and agencies housed under the MOE.
4. Monies for school buildings, maintenance, repair and procurement should channell directly to school account instead of awarding contracts to contractors in JKR. This is to halt lack of transparency issues connected to rent seeking.
5. As in the appointment of school principals, quotas by ethnicity and by religious belief should not be observed. This is seen essential to address the issues of appointment of inadequate principals faced by the missionary and Chinese conforming schools.
6. To address principals who are not performing, the interview panel should go to the school level, to engage with the true fact finding of the person under consideration.