TITLE:
Education in Malaysia: Educating for Inclusive-Holistic Growth, Political Needs…?—The Transformation of Vernacular and Particularised Education towards Integration into “Malaysian Education”
AUTHORS:
Suranthiran Naidu M. N. Naidu, Sivaperegasam Rajanthiran
KEYWORDS:
National Education, “Particularised” Education, Transformation, National Language, Education Models, Integration
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.9 No.3,
March
31,
2021
ABSTRACT: From
the British colonial period and henceforth after independence, educationists have striven to unify the divided and
“particularised” education structures that were taking firm roots in
plural Malaya and thenceforth, Malaysia. The primary focus as boldly enshrined
in the Malaysian Constitution, the national
ideology statement—the Rukun Negara, the National Education Philosophy
(NEP) and by the constant reminders and promptings of our founding fathers, was national integration of the
ethnically and culturally diverse society. The aspiration of “sejahtera”
(well-being) as propounded in the nation’s NEP, seen together with the United
Nations’ SDGs (sustainable development goals), towards Education 2030, clearly
points to the urgent need for further effort towards inclusive and quality
education. The discussion on the prevalent, divided education system,
attempting to answer the main research questions, centres on mother-tongue
vernacular education and other sub-set education structures, such as the religious
and “one-race” schools. These have inevitably with the course of decades,
contributed to social disunity. It is found that educators emphasise that transformation and integration, and not the termination of these education sub-sets, into mainstream
education, with a strong implementation of the national language and English in
the school curriculum. This can help evolve Malaysian education into a globally
reputed education system. Educationists are also of the view that it can be
then an
effective bonding tool for national unity. Language, religion, and literature
subjects can be conducted in the mother-tongue languages within the ambit of
the national education philosophy. In-depth one-to-one interviews of higher
primary school learners, were found to have sparse knowledge in the Malay-national language and English,
in topical knowledge areas in Science, Moral Education,
common knowledge concepts, and common civility greetings. Successful working models of education of certain
plural societies towards national integration,
provide constructive lessons for the constructive re-hauling of education
in Malaysia.