We recognize the importance of establishing a world-class educational system to equip our children with the skills that they will need to meet the challenges of the 21^st century.

We commend the government for taking some progressive and bold steps, e.g. the introduction of English as a medium of instruction in science and mathematics and giving greater emphasis to academic achievement, to overcome current deficiencies and weaknesses and to improve the educational system.

We believe the Government is sincere in introducing and establishing meritocracy at all levels of our educational system for the good of all our children and the country as a whole.

The purpose of this memorandum is to put forward some recommendations for improvement of the Malaysian School System at both public and private levels.

1. We are in favour of educational excellence as opposed to narrow definitions of academic achievement which leave room for compromising and lowering standard of near-passing mark. Academic achievement is important but it must be benchmarked against international standards. We should therefore set high academic standards and then provide our children with the inputs they need to meet those standards.

1. At the primary and secondary levels, while the system of governance and administration may vary from school to school, a greater degree of responsibility and accountability of school should be accorded to the governing authorities with due consideration to the views of parents and students. Recruitment of principals and teachers should be based on the right set of criteria. Principals should be recruited from among those with a vision and high expectations for those who are placed in their charge. Teachers should be recruited from among those who are dedicated, capable, and have a genuine love for the students.
2. At the tertiary level, the importance of academic excellence can hardly be overemphasized for the output of tertiary institutions form the core inputs of our primary and secondary schools. The deterioration in standards of some public universities has been evident for some time so there is a need to review the whole administration of these institutions including the quality and performance of lecturers. In the pursuit of excellence, all university and other higher education institution administrators and teaching staff be appointed on the basis of merit. Intake into government higher education institutions should be based on academic achievement. Scholarships and loans at subsidized rates should be given only to high achieving students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
3. At the level of the ministry, all administrators, officers and inspectors should also be recruited and promoted on the basis of merit, regardless of ethnicity.
4. We strongly support the establishment of a Teachers' Council that will promote higher degree of professionalism and make teaching a more attractive profession. This measure could reduce the need for private tuition which tends to favours children from higher socioeconomic households.
5. We support the establishment of private teacher training colleges, just like the nurses' training. This would help government to meet the demand for teachers with the increase in capacity and improvement in quality.
6. We support the establishment of community colleges for specialised training, retraining and upgrading of people whose skills have become redundant. The Government has allocated about RM2.5 billion for construction of such colleges in each parliamentary constituency. Care must be taken to ensure that these colleges do become 'white elephants' by ensuring that they are well-managed and geared to the production of skills that are in demand in their local labour markets.

1. The curriculum, including instruction and assessment, should be aligned with high standards. It should provide a coherent vision for what students should know and be able to do. The curriculum should be rigorous and dynamic, catering to the interests of students as they progress through the primary, secondary and tertiary cycles.
2. The current educational policy rightly emphasizes holistic development of the child. It should give emphasis to deep understanding of important concepts, the development of essential skills, and the ability to apply what one has learned to real-world problems. A multidisciplinary curriculum helps to reinforce important concepts. In this context, its emphasis should be on the six R’s. In particular, it should place emphasis on the development of reading, arithmetic, writing, reasoning and relational skills, and the development of the right religious values. The traditional three R’s are critical to sound training in the basic skills of literacy and numeracy. The fourth and fifth are crucial for the world of work in the 21^st century. The sixth which is meant to teach all our children to appreciate and respect differing religious beliefs is essential to the development of national unity in a pluralistic society.

1. The two major reasons parents send their children to non-national schools must be addressed: (a) the perceived differences in educational quality and academic performance; (b) the issue of mother tongues; and (c) fear of exposure to extremism. While the latter is harder to resolve in the short- to medium-run, ensuring that our schools are of similar quality would go some way toward reducing the extent of ethnic polarization in school enrollments.
2. The SURAT PEKELILING IKHTISAS BIL 20/2000 Panduan Penubuhan Persatuan Agama Bukan Islam di Sekolah-Sekolah which allows for the establishment of non-Islamic societies in all schools should be fully implemented as this will promote greater appreciation and respect for different religious beliefs in our pluralistic society.
3. Government should encourage activities that will enable freer social mixing, e.g. an activity
   or organisation which boys and girls can jointly participate in such as the Red Crescent Society, and the Boys' Brigade and Girls' Brigade.
4. We strongly propose that the term ‘Bahasa Melayu’ be reverted to Bahasa Kebangsaan or Bahasa Malaysia because these terms are more inclusive and would help reduce the degree of ethnic polarization in the country.

1. The policy concerning former mission schools should be reviewed:

1. To fully support the maintenance needs and expansion of facilities and equipment similar to other national schools, e.g. electrical rewiring, repainting of schools, repair and replacement of roofs, buildings, building of computer laboratories, science laboratories, furniture for students and teachers (in some cases, used desks were donated in kind by the national schools), air-conditioning for staff-rooms, repair of school water pipes, toilets, drains, gas-tubing repair, and maintenance of school fields, school canteens etc, repair & replacement of school fencing & boundary walls.
2. To pay in full utility bills. Jabatan Pendidikan Pulau Pinang pays the utility bills of all schools, including Chinese conforming & former mission schools, but in Perak only fully-aided government-owned schools get their utility bills paid in full by the Education Department.
3. In former mission schools, the board of governors can play a useful role. But the instrument of governance is outdated. There is an updated one submitted to the Ministry of education sometime ago. The government should consider looking into reviving the role of the board of governors.

October 2003