MALAYSIA’S education system is out of date and in need of an urgent overhaul, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The former prime minister said greater focus is given to fields of study that do not contribute to nation building nor meet the country’s needs.

“I noticed that we are still trapped in the old ways, such as we need teachers to teach all subjects in one class,” he said at the National Professors’ Council’s Bicara Negarawan programme.

He said modern technology can be used to record programmes that are crafted by experts and the teacher in the class can guide students according to the video lesson, instead of using traditional pedagogy.

“We don’t use modern technology to teach and we are still using teachers in class. If the teacher is good then the students are lucky, but if the teacher is not good they will lose out,” Dr Mahathir said.

Dr Mahathir was the education minister from 1974 to 1977.

He also briefly handled the portfolio as interim education minister from January 2020 following the resignation of Maszlee Malik, until the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government. – March 1, 2021.