I OFTEN joke with colleagues that the first year of any diploma or degree programmes in the creative arts is a “rehab” year to rid the students of stereotypes, cliches, and ill-informed assumptions about not only the world and industries but also about the nature and purpose of higher education in the arts. 

In the broader popular imagination of the public, the ideas often associated with being a musician, actor, filmmaker, etc are equally ill-informed by stereotypes and cliches although by nature it is almost impossible to correct these unless they are curious and open-minded audiences.

While a lot of the kopitiam talk about Malaysia at the moment is how we are politically stunted and regressing as a democracy, a useful site of exploring and understanding this malaise can also be explored by paying close attention to the cultural industries and the sites of its industrial training – in this case, I’d like to specifically discuss it around music and film industries and college or university programmes that offer such specialisations.

In most music and film programmes in universities, the focus tends to be on instrumental and technical proficiency and granted these are important elements of such academic programmes.

The focus on the practical is essential to be able to practise as a professional in these vocations and graduates are expected to be able to perform and deliver upon their entry into the big bad professional world. 

Of course, if you ask around these industries, there is a common gripe that university graduates in these fields oftentimes do not have the sufficient ‘industrial experience’ (the usual avenue are internships in their final year) and sometimes are also labelled as ‘spoilt’ by companies based on the graduates’ own personal expectations (from having slogged three years in a Bachelor Degree programme) versus what the industry’s own expectation in the time and place these graduates enter that world.

And to me, as an educator, these two jarring expectations are not the issue – they will always be present because it’s not a matter of universities not delivering the adequate training required nor the industries placing too much expectations. The matter lies in our rather flawed ideological (mis)understanding of what tertiary education is meant to deliver in the first place.

Almost a decade ago, an ebullient student of mine seemed to be lagging behind in class and this was evident in her poor group presentation assessment she did with her classmates.

She seemed ill-prepared and disinterested, and she received the appropriate grades for her poor contribution.

I took her aside and asked what happened. It turned out she wanted to be an actress and had read scripts and that the programme (on performing arts) wasn’t giving her the expected “experience” as there were a lot of essays and presentation to write instead of acting and performances and whatnot. 

I had to explain to her that that’s what college and university studies are about and maybe she had the wrong set of expectations when she signed up.

It’s a common thing since when you think about it, no one really explains to high school students what colleges and universities are for. The aggressive and simplistic marketing of higher education is another thing altogether. 

I had to be honest with her and bluntly (but politely) I told her that if that is what you would like to pursue then quit college, go out into the industry, and start auditioning.

And she did exactly that: she dropped out from the programme and she eventually became a very popular actress in the Malay film and television industry and I’m happy she took that path because if she stayed on in the programme, maybe her chances would have dimmed since gender and the entertainment industry sets very specific expiry dates for budding starlets. 

Another bright student around this time also expressed her dissatisfaction with college and university studies and when I asked what she wanted to be, she answered, “I want to be a star”. 

I promptly explained the context in a similar manner to my now-famous-star ex-student and she too did the same thing although, I don’t really know what she’s up to now.

She might be famous abroad, like most Malaysians are if you occasionally glance through our news of famous Malaysians abroad who win accolades – and there are many more who don’t make the news because they probably aren’t involved in such “glamourous” professions which are riddled with stereotypes and cliches.    

Through my decade plus long experience of teaching in this field, students still occasionally will bring up “I wish we had more practical experience” distress and I have to explain again how higher education functions and its own sets of expectations. Mind you, we do a lot to make sure students have a balance of practical know-how and academic knowledge but you can’t please everybody. 

A lot is already being said about how our education system has failed generations and that we are now facing its consequences, such as graduate unemployment. It’s a gargantuan task since the problem is not only political but also structural and institutional.

The fact that we as a collective society tend to sleepwalk our children into higher education without really understanding what they are in it for and why is a greater problem as an educator on the frontlines.

This isn’t a complaint. I feel honoured and privileged (Noam Chomsky once said that being an academic is a privilege) to be in this vocation that gives me a sense of purpose and meaning aside from careerism (the bane of any company or organisation).

This is a set of challenges I find interesting to address to the stakeholders I deal directly with – students and parents – since an educator has complete autonomy on the direction of what they feel are urgent matters that need addressing in the classroom.

However, I’m also aware that this autonomy is often misused and to be honest, that’s why I decided to be an educator (I initially planned to just stay on part-time for six months). 

There may be no glory but at least there’s a better opportunity to keep one’s conscience and soul intact. Remember that our early pre-independence leaders were mostly teachers – reflect on what most of them are now and you’ll get the general idea where we’re heading as a nation.

Being an educator isn’t a job – it’s a calling. – October 1, 2021.

* Azmyl Yunor is a touring underground recording artiste, and an academic in media and cultural studies. He has published articles on pop culture, subcultures and Malaysian cultural politics. He adheres to the three-chords-and-the-truth school of songwriting, and Woody Guthrie’s maxim “All you can write is what you see”. He is @azmyl on Twitter.