Malaysian universities must change from being
conveyor-belt factories into more creative centres of learning, producing
innovative graduates before they relapse into further chaos and the country
slides back into backwardness
Speech
- Brickfields Rotary Club meeting
by Dr Tan Seng Giaw
(Kuala Lumpur,
Wednesday):
Since the 1957 Merdeka, Malaysia has witnessed great changes in education.
In the 1960s, there was only one university, the University of Malaya (MU).
Now, there are 17 public universities.
About 24% of the federal budget goes to education. For example, this year’s
budget is RM109.801 billion of which RM26.269 billion is for education.
Public universities get RM5.916 billion. Spending these huge sums on
education is correct. We hope that the Education Ministry makes the best use
of them.
There are eight private universities and campuses of four foreign
universities. But, we shall concentrate on major aspects of public
universities.
In 2000, 23,870 students enrolled at degree level in public universities and
the total number in the public institutes of higher learning, IHLs, was
277,203. The total number of students in public and private IHLs was
753,003.
As there are further globalization, Asean Free Trade Area (AFTA) and the
dictates of the World Trade Organization (WTO), we find that the Malaysian
educational system cannot cope. On 29 November, 2002, the UMNO Supreme
Council resolved to establish the National Education Review headed by the
Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad. The latter needs a Royal
Commission instead of a review committee to do the job properly.
We have defined a university as the highest centre of learning where
students learn to think and to pursue knowledge, realizing their potential
for the furtherance of society.
What are the weaknesses of public universities? Among them are feudal
mentality, lack of meritocracy and treating universities as conveyor-belt
factories and monolingualism.
FEUDAL MENTALITY
In many nooks and corners of the
educational system, there are people who fester their own nests, seething
with racialism and parochialism. They have learnt the trick of the trade.
They put on a charade as shown in the British television programme, Yes
Minister. With his review committee and limited time, Dr Mahathir may find
it difficult to unravel the machinations of these little emperors or tin-pot
despots. After he finishes his enquiry, they may resume their true colours.
For example, MU has courses that use English books. But, the students have
to write their answers in BM. Even though the Prime Minister and MU
Vice-Chancellor believe in the greater use of English, these tin-pot despots
continue to hold sway over their fiefdom. Students must not write in
English.
We wish that these proponents of BM help to improve the language, not just
borrowing more words from English with phonetic spelling. The usefulness of
BM in the modern world depends on many factors, not just on the coining of
new words. It also relies on experts making it relevant. The Government must
train better language teachers.
Once the students are proficient in BM after nine years of education. They
should be encouraged to master English in universities. We hope Dr Mahathir
can elucidate the career and life of those who are monolingual BM graduates.
NO MERITOCRACY
The questioning of having only mono-ethnic vice-chancellors (V-Cs) in 17
public universities is sensitive. Some think that mono-ethnic V-Cs serve a
definite purpose in getting more Malays in education. If V-Cs are appointed
strictly on merits, then it upsets the balance.
As long as the appointments of V-Cs, professors, lecturers and university
administrators are based on criteria other than merits and needs,
universities will never be centres of excellence. Neither will Malaysian
education attain world-class.
Last year, the Government announced that university intake was based on
meritocracy. But, it used Matriculation and Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan
Malaysia (STPM, Higher School Certificate) simultaneously. Matriculation is
an in-house course of one year to enable Malays to enter universities. STPM
is a two-year course that is very different from Matriculation. Hence, the
Government has to work out credible criteria for university admission to
convince the public that it subscribes to meritocracy.
Apart from university admissions, there are other aspects that continue to
show discriminations. Before, nurses were mainly Non-Malays especially
Chinese. For many reasons, Non-Malays think that nursing is less glamorous
than other professions. But, there are still Non-Malays who apply for
nursing.
I have quoted the racial breakdown of nursing students in the National
University (UKM). There are 178 first-year students, out of whom only 2 are
Chinese and 7 are Indians; second-year 102 students, 3 Indians and no
Chinese; third-year 98 students, 3 Indians and no Chinese; 22 degree
students, 2 Chinese & no Indians; 11 students in Advanced Midwifery course,
2 Chinese and no Indian. How does this happen? Dr Mahahtir must investigate.
CONVEYOR BELTS
Factories use conveyor belts to
churn out products with uniformity. Public universities appear to function
like conveyor belts, fulfilling the quotas and producing students with less
enquiring minds. The best lecturers are those who give out good lecture
notes so that students can memorize and reproduce them in their
examinations.
Some lecturers and professors read widely, setting excellent examples for
students. They publish research articles in internationally recognized
journals. They encourage students to learn to think. Others don’t read much
or research. A few even plagiarize.
If many of the 277,003 students mentioned above do not learn how to think
for themselves and the lecturers continue to be complacent, then
universities are nothing more than conveyor-belt factories. Many students
and graduates may not be innovative and visionary.
Dr Mahathir must look into this aspect and more. He must also study in what
ways are or aren’t our universities recognized internationally. He is
familiar with MU medical degree that was recognized by British Medical
Council (BMC). After the Education Ministry forced MU to teach in BM in the
1980s, many lecturers and professors left. BMC withdrew its recognition. At
the same time, engineering degrees suffered the same fate. However, the
ministry was proud of this incidence. How is Dr Mahathir going to deal with
this anachronistic mentality? We want international recognition for our
universities. After all, educational excellence also means this type of
recognition.
ROTARY PROJECTS
The Government mistakenly annihilated English schools from 1970 without
credible alternative. Then, it realizes that the standard and popularity of
English has plummeted to the bottom. How does it reverse the trend?
Some political leaders have succeeded in inculcating the spirit that
language is the soul of the race (Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa) with BM as the sole
language. Many people especially those in the rural areas have a mental
block against English. They are led to think that it is a colonial language
and that it may not be good for Islam.
Now, the Government is bent on implementing the policy of teaching
Mathematics and Science in English, starting from primary one. Science and
Maths are languages by themselves. The spending of huge sums of money on the
policy may not necessarily mean the standard of English and knowledge will
improve. On the other hand, introducing English at primary one is correct.
The Rotary international theme 2002/2003 is Sow The Seeds of Love. Its
four-way test seeks truth, goodwill, and better friendships that are
beneficial to all.
Then, rotarians can help by having projects that will get rid of the mental
block against English. Similarly, I notice that they are conversant with
information and communications technology, ICT. They can popularize projects
that aim at narrowing the digital divide. This divide or gap is between
those who are familiar with ICT and those who are not. On the whole, urban
people accept ICT more readily than rural folks. Thus, the divide may widen
as time goes on. We must prevent this.
I believe that the proper way of learning English is by improving the
syllabus and training more and better teachers. Instead of learning sine and
cosine or iodine and molybdenum during English lessons, children also learn
literature including poetry.
(8/1/2003)
*
Dr Tan Seng Giaw, DAP National Vice-Chairman
and MP for Kepong
|
http://dapmalaysia.org