WHILE we bicker about vernacular schools and national schools, a Malay daily headlined, “5.8% rakyat Malaysia tidak pernah bersekolah (5.8% of Malaysians have never been to school)”. Isn’t this alarming? This is the result of a survey by the Statistics Department in 2019.

Further, 72.1% of Malaysians chose not to continue their studies after the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM). It will surely impact the country’s productivity, innovativeness and competitiveness and the problem of low wages will persist.

Those who have low educational attainments have more dependence on welfare and higher likelihoods of being involved in crime.

They are mostly from poor families, the Orang Asli community, or in Sabah and Sarawak.

Poverty, focus on exams and loss of interest are the main reasons for dropping out and children of B40 families feel alienated by the content of the curricula. Some fail to see the purpose of schooling and even parents are not concerned. Poverty includes those “poor in spirit and thought”.

The attitudes of parents and society have to change and so does the system.

Poverty has been a perpetual problem. But it has been more severe during the past few years because of the denigration of government, politics and politicians. Lawmakers elected with a trust for innate goodness seem to have lost their bearings after entering office.

The last comprehensive study on the dropout problem was in the Murad Report in 1973.

A paper by Khazanah Research Institute in 2020 highlighted that 77% of children were unable to participate in digital learning at home because of a lack of access to online learning. During the pandemic, 21,316 students dropped out between March 2020 and July 2021.

The average school year also decreased to 10.2 years compared with Singapore’s 11.9 years; Australia’s 12.4 years; and the United Kingdom’s 13.2 years. A global report showed Malaysia was ranked 59 in 2019 compared to 49 in 2018 and 2017.

The Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 aimed to increase the compulsory schooling period from six to 11 years by 2020.

Could the abolishment of UPSR and PT3 be a way to show improvements and address the dropout numbers? I am not too sure but I hope not.

The replacement for PT3, i.e. classroom assessments (PBD), will be implemented on short notice. Are the stakeholders really ready for the switch?

Consider the creation of Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) to use key performance indicators (KPIs) as one of the main performance measurement tools, and recently, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob had announced that his administration achieved 90% of the KPIs it had set for itself in its first 100 days of office.

Would teachers be fully equipped to perform objective classroom assessments when the results from Pemandu and Ismail’s administration are suspicious? Would the extra work for teachers, who are already overworked with lesson-related tasks, be manageable, and what are the monitoring mechanisms? 

Would there be instances where schools try to achieve the bare minimum to maintain their level of academic performance and to avoid action if there is a decline?

We know the issue of accountability and competence of teachers. Also, academic benchmarks are set at a low level and produce many students with perfect scores. We do have quantity, but not quality.

Young minds need tender care and guidance as much as the chance to learn, compete and interact. 

There were many systemic reforms in the education system but they have not succeeded in improving the performance of average students. 

Further, we may have an education workforce crisis, with more teachers opting for early retirement. More than 10,000 teachers per year have applied for early retirement over the last few years.

The five targets in the MEB – access, quality, equity, unity, and efficiency – have not been fully met per the targets. The Education Performance and Delivery Unit annual reports highlight some successes, but there is still lots of room for improvement.

Resource productivity at the Education Ministry, state education department, district education offices and schools needs more attention, especially when greater autonomy is desired. Raising quality standards and maximising system efficiencies are key at this moment.

We need holistic reforms to raise the quality of education in our national schools.

In 2020, the amount spent on education was 3.92% of the gross domestic product, and has been decreasing since 2012 when it stood at 5.74%. 

Schools and universities should not be indoctrination mills or mouthpieces for politicians, but should function as hubs to develop critical thinking skills and prepare children for future challenges.

Lastly, do review the effectiveness of the Nazirs who perform checks on schools. – July 27, 2022.

* Saleh Mohammed reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.