Yoursay: The tasks ahead for acting education minister

YOURSAY | Selfish politicians have compromised the education system, resulting in millions mired in poverty.

Economist: M'sia caught in middle capacity trap, needs education to address it

Mazilamani: The government may not see it coming, but parents are already seeing it and therefore, their “rebellious” move to send their children to other schools to acquire fluency in a third language like Mandarin or Tamil.

It is important parents consider including a third language in the form of Hindi, which is spoken by well over 600 million people in India as well as others in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

These second and third languages are important as India and China are growing exponentially. For Malaysia to tap into their market, our people must either be able to speak these languages and/or have access to advanced technological skills.

Educators and education scientists in developed countries are already looking at futuristic education systems to cater to the needs of the next two generations of humankind. Educators have already identified professions and jobs that will soon become obsolete or outdated.

I don't think our government has even started paying attention to the seriousness of the matter. I am not surprised as to why parents are crusading for a futuristic education. This definitely has nothing to do with race or language.

Parents surely have the right to decide what is good for their children. If the government fails to be proactive, then it is for the citizens to do so. I am most thankful for the bold observation by researcher Shankaran Nambiar; it’s a real eye-opener.

Corgito Ergo Sum: It would take a person possessing courage and a strong will to overhaul our broken education system.

He or she will have to go against the grain in current thinking which only requires students to regurgitate textbook answers. Ask them something out of the box and the whole equation collapses.

Critical thinking must be the central thread in all lessons. Students must be taught to reason out their answers. In the good old days, the old General Paper exam taught students how to evaluate arguments and proposals logically. That element seems to be missing today.

It will take a very long time to fix a dilapidated and irrelevant system. It can’t be changed by changing the colour of your shoes.

Anonymous_1528715525: The saddest part about the Malaysian education system is that children are not taught to progress. The education system has been politicised for way too long and as a result, the kids are neither here nor there.

Only the privileged children will continue to receive better education since their parents are either able to finance their education or able to secure scholarships for their children to further their education.

These children have been conditioned that their personal interest prevails over the interest of the nation. Hence, the education system reproduces another self-centred generation, and this will continue to go on and on.

Pelanduk: Other countries are making science and maths subjects tougher, but we are making it much easier. On top of that, people are learning programming skills. Here, we are trying to teach Jawi. How can we improve?

Dr M: The poor need to be productive, don't be envious of the wealthy

Anonymous 770241447347646: How have we lagged so far behind? The blame falls completely on selfish politicians. They had the power to raise the standards of the people, but they were selfishly guarding their own prospects.

Education has been compromised to such an extent that it has resulted in millions being uncompetitive and not educated for the jobs that would lift them out of poverty.

Now, even after getting a second opportunity to correct their ways, they (the politicians) are still selfishly trying to protect their own political careers.

Spare the rod and spoil the child. We can see it in action today. The Malays, especially, have been pampered to the extent that they expect everything in life to be taken care of by the government.

If the government has not spared the rod from the 70s, this situation would not have reached this stage today. Millions who had gone through the school syllabus of the old would have been given a rod in the hand to fish for themselves.

Stop putting the blame on the poor, get a good look in the mirror at yourself. Release the rod. It may sound bitter in the beginning but in the end, the results will speak for themselves.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, start with the education syllabus if you have any sincerity in your words.

Patriotic 2nd Class Malaysian: With this kind of message to the people, Mahathir, we can say that your time is up.

This was the kind of economic structure you have created and manipulated in the late 70s and benefited your cronies. As a result, the gap between the rich and poor Malays widened.

You should have given our education system priority then, and today we would have created a well-educated workforce that can reach high-income status. With high-income status, would anyone be jealous of the wealthy?

Today, we are reaping the fruits you planted in your earlier premiership.

Moew: Quality education is the key to our development. We are stuck because of our education, especially when religious studies are being emphasised more than science, mathematics and English.

For Malaysian education to improve, you don't have to look far for a good example. Just look south to Singapore.

Quigonbond: This would have been a perfect occasion for the PM to mention one important thing which he has failed to mention. The so-called rich, while some are born with a silver spoon, a lot are self-made. They needed to slog and make sacrifices.

Mahathir's message should be - yes, sometimes it is about talent and the inherent capacity to grow, but just as important is a person’s attitude. Having the right attitude and the willingness to learn, work hard, stay humble, be adaptable and open-minded can make anyone go a long, long way.

In fact, the Education Ministry's biggest failure for the past 1.5 years is failing to inculcate this simple message to our students.

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