Malaysia’s Education Disaster - Koon Yew Yin

Koon Yew Yin

Publish date: Sat, 01 Mar 2014, 10:28 PM

The BN Government has ruined our educational system and put us back at least one generation in our educational standards and standing.

When the country became independent in 1957 our educational system was acknowledged to be amongst the best in the region. Today, after the introduction of NEP policies in education, we are scraping the bottom of the barrel in our standards of educational achievement at all levels.

BN Government’s Record

Whether it is in primary, secondary or tertiary education, the rot is clear. Half literate primary school products that cannot write or speak properly in either English or Bahasa and drop out early; secondary students with abysmal standards in Mathematics, Science and other core subjects; tertiary students who are provided with university degrees but in fact are unemployable except in the civil service.

This is the disastrous outcome of BN rule. This is the result of the politicization of the educational system and UMNO’s cynical use of it as a political and racial football.

Whether it is with regard to mission schools or vernacular or SRJK schools; teaching of science and mathematics; teaching of English; appointment of administrators and heads of schools; the curriculum; examinations; vocational education; funding and allocations – UMNO has inserted its racial and political agenda to debase and corrupt the system.

If readers think that I am over critical of the BN, let me provide two pieces of evidence on the disaster in our education.

The first is from the Government itself. According to the national education blueprint (Preliminary report, Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025, pp, E4-E5)

• Malaysia was ranked in the bottom third of 74 participating countries of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009+.

• 60% of the 15-year-old Malaysian students who participated in PISA failed to meet the minimum proficiency level in Mathematics, while 44% and 43% did not meet the minimum proficiency levels in Reading and Science respectively

• A comparison of scores shows that 15-year-olds in Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Shanghai are performing as though they have had three or more years of schooling than 15-year-olds in Malaysia

• Low achievement standards in TIMSS (Maths and Science): far behind first tier; now comparable to countries such as Indonesia

• By 2007 (last published cycle) 18% and 20% of our students failed to meet the minimum proficiency standards in Maths and Science.

The conclusion of the Blueprint is shocking. Not only are the gaps between Malaysia and other countries in our region growing, international assessments also revealed that Malaysian student performance is declining in absolute terms.

This damning conclusion – that we are going backwards in our education standards and achievement – shows that the problem is not a new one. It is a long standing crisis which the BN has successfully concealed from Malaysians thanks to media manipulation and its diversionary focus on language and Chinese school issues.

But it is no longer easy to fool Malaysians thanks to the internet media and the availability of international assessment results.

Hence the latest educational scandal in which the Ministry of Education is accused of lowering the maths and science standards for the PMR and SPM examinations to artificially increase the pass rate does not shock me in the least.

Such efforts have been taking place for the past thirty years, especially in the public universities. How else then to account for thousands of graduates who are unemployable?

My Personal Experience

The second piece of evidence is one derived from personal experience. For several years now, I have been providing scholarships to poor young Malaysians so that they will be able to go to the university to improve their life and career opportunities. Below are examples of letters I have received from two applicants requesting for Koon Yew Yin Scholarships.

What is important to note is that although these are written by pre-university students, the level of English language competency attained is lower than that of a primary student during my time.

Sadly, they are not isolated cases – in fact they are typical of students who have been through our educational system and whose decline in standards has been due to BN rule.

Example Letter 1:

Mr.Koon,

I am ____________,I already take my SPM result~ I'm interest on account Can you sponsor me about the study fees at Utar?

BM:B ,BI:B+, PM:A-, SJ:A-, MM:A+, MT:A+, BIO:B, CHE:B, PHY:B, BC:B

This are my SPM result.

Example Letter 2:.

Mrs. Koon, i am October Intake UTAR new degree student , my name is ______ from kampar, i am facing financial problem after i successful register Utar degree course, now i am stay at Kampar and open school already. As i know UTAR can let student to borrow PTPTN loan to complete Degree. But after i successful register Degree course, UTAR stuff just tell me UTAR are not offer student to apply PTPTN loan on this semester, and i need to pay course fee and register fee first.

Sure i come from poor family, my family income below RM 1600 per month. My family never and not able to pay my fee around RM4000 at my first semester, i need to pay the bill before 23 october, if not iforced to leaving school, i am very anxious now!

Before I am getting news from Mr.__________, may be i can getting financial aid from Mrs.Koon, so the purpose i send the gmail to Mrs.Koon is i requesting for financial aid to start and continue my degree course program in UTAR, i really want to start my study life and dream at UTAR.

In conclusion, private education has become a very profitable business as parents scramble to remedy the damage in the public system and use up their precious savings or mortgage their houses to enable their kids to get a decent education

For this reason too private universities and colleges are springing up like mushrooms. All of them are lowering entry requirements to capture more students. As a result, students like the two above were accepted to study in UTAR.

Many people have the wrong impression that MCA’s UTAR is a charitable organisation set up to help the Chinese. In fact if you examine MCA’s annual report, you will see that UTAR is one of the best profit-making ventures for MCA.

Remember, the power to change the rotting education system is in your hands. This message is especially directed at all parents and students – Malays, Chinese, Indians and other Malaysians - who have suffered as a result of BN incompetence and bad governance.

Discussions

12 people like this. Showing 50 of 103 comments

kk123

We wasted a lot of our best years studying things that don't matter in the real world .. That's how I describe our education system in 1 short sentence

2014-03-02 15:28

waiming

Posted by Jal 贾彬得 > Mar 2, 2014 01:15 PM | Report Abuse

our prime minister children never studied in government schools simply shows our education system is indeed a failure dont need argue ........

Can all of you see the ploy?
Our minister's children and grandchildren are either studying overseas or in international or special school cater to them only...why???

This is to ensure their off-springs are getting the best education and children of commoners studying in public schools/universities will always be a slave to them! :(

2014-03-02 16:01

kk123

If the main criteria is English , then all the persons u list above fail
But u need to evaluate in totality and the subjects which they are pursuing
For example a chemical engineer may not know computers as much as a computer scientist or computer engineer
All the engineers may not know architecture or accounting.
A rocket scientist may know a bit of everything but may not know English - if they are Russians , they would speak Russian only and English just as bad
So the way I see it, our education system needs to identify what are each of the students talents early and nurture them quickly before they end up becoming big gangsters in the school due to failures in subjects which are not their preference
or which the society look down upon
I know one biggest gangster in class last time who would fail most of his subjects but can play the piano really well
Unfortunately playing piano can't make good living as our society tend towards engineers , doctors , lawyers , and accountant & business
So this is where those which out of sync with the society needs will end up being very anti social and a parasite or thugs
Maybe this needs to change before its too late to change

2014-03-02 16:10

tc2012

This is the latest social contract offer by BN.Like it U Take it.Dont like then just migrate.

2014-03-02 16:14

Iching88

Why dt u visits some privilege govt school such as Mara ? Students there all follow Cambridge English standard...FOC while we,ordinary citizen have to fork out rm200 a month to our children's to Cambridge English tuition class. They are not stupid,they purposely do it to ruin the next gen so tht their children's can maju n hv less competition. Look around n talk to kids, those tht able to speak fluent English .....

2014-03-02 16:26

pilindo

Kalau kamu semua kerja accting atau management, saya setuju kamu harus bagus dalam English.

Tapi saya saya tak setuju semua bidang perlukan english bagus. Kamu pernah tengok engineer Samsung yang dari korea nak buat maintenance di kilang samsung Malaysia tak?. Kita lagi pandai english dari mereka. Tapi kenapa engineer2 samsung ni boleh kuasai dunia? Itu baru samsung. belum cakap engineer dari Jepun sana.

Sekarang nak minta kerja draft person (Autocad) pun kena pandai english. Melukis pelan jer pun di office.

Pasal pelajaran di Malaysia, saya tak setuju subject kretikal seperti kimia,Mat,biology dalam bahasa inglish. Kan senang untuk pelajar kalau guru tu cakap anggota badan tu dalam bahasa melaysia. ni dalam english eye, ear, nose, mouth, ada banyak pelajar yang tak paham2.

2014-03-02 18:17

pilindo

Tu singapore negara jiran kita. Kamus inggeris dah habis baca. Tanya pasal innovation mereka. Mana di orang pandai. Mereka pandai call investor dari luar jer.

Bila cakap pasal education, iya melibatkan kemajuan negara. Bagi orang politik cuba cari penyelesaian nak tingkatkan teknologi, innovasi, semua ni. Malu saya jumpa dengan orang putih cakap kita banyak bergantung teknologi mereka.

Tapi ada jugak la boleh bangga sekarang seperti company sapura Kencana, kita dah boleh buat kapal sendiri, boleh buat pelantar minyak sendiri.

Indonesia sana masi lagi pakai kemahiran orang putih ni.

2014-03-02 18:24

SexC

Dont worry.. GOOGLE Translate wil safe d day

2014-03-02 18:31

pilindo

Jangan la judge kepandaian budak sekolah dengan english jer. Kalau english dia gagal, tapi subjek yang lain A, consider la dia masuk universiti. English tu boleh di baiki bila2 masa. Tapi IQ budak sekolah ni kita tak tahu.

2014-03-02 18:33

pilindo

Sebab tu saya tak terlalu anti BN. Di orang ada buat kerja yang boleh buat bangga. Memang ada antara mereka yang corrupt dan kotor, tapi ada antara mereka kerja kuat yang mana menitik beratkan kemajuan dan mempertingkatkan technology.

Di Australia ni, Nak pasang paip oil and gas pun kena panggil company luar seperti Subsea 7, technip. Mereka takder local company boleh buat sendiri.

kita di malaysia, SapuraKencana boleh berdiri untuk kita. Mereka boleh buat untuk kita tanpa panggil orang luar.

Ni saya cakap pasal bahagian engineering la. Saya tak tahu medical di Malaysia ni.

2014-03-02 18:45

saydon

UMNO goons "duitbesar and gangs" trying to spin what's obvious knowledge supported by statistic and facts are real stupid, keep on personal attack Uncle Koon reflect the state of their mentality. Glanced through his previous posts, he only spill venoms everytime he open his filthy traps.....maybe should call him "anjingbesar and the kangkung family".

I had been following this forums silently, benefiting greatly from many value contributors here, thanks. I had decided not to waste even a second of my time reading those comments anymore. Hopefully, Uncle Koon you would ignore them and keep sharing your precious thought.

2014-03-02 18:45

pilindo

Ni luahan orang biasa. Kita perlu bagi pendapat kepada orang politik agar mereka boleh consider dan perbaiki. Pendapat saya pun mungkin tak betul. Tapi tak setuju kalau judge semua pelajar menggunakan english jer.

Kan bagus kerja seharian di permudahkan. ni cakap dengan bos cina dan india, semua english. Tak boleh la terima macam ni. Saya lagi suka cakap english dengan Australia sini, kalau kita salah mereka tak complain apa2. Ni bos cina dan india, kalau salah ingeris sikit, complain belakang.

2014-03-02 18:58

ohkns

pilindo, let me repeat, but in BM so that you won't keep on making the same mistakes in your comment. Penurunan dalam kualiti pendidikan di Malaysia bukanlah disebabkan oleh bahasa pengantar yang digunakan. Sebaliknya, penurunan prestasi B Inggeris dan B Melayu adalah disebabkan oleh penurunan kualiti pendidikan. Understand? Don't blame it on English!

2014-03-02 19:19

pilindo

I think, i have to consider Malaysia is young country. Indeed, we learned many technologies from western.

2014-03-02 19:29

pilindo

Ohkns. Bukan English saja yang menyebabkan penurunan pendidikan. Iya merupakan SALAH SATU PENYEBAB YANG BESAR.

2014-03-02 19:36

pilindo

Ohkns. Cuba ba la tengok negara luar sana. frnace, german, italy. Cuba kerja luar sikit. Bahasa apa mereka pakai ajar biology, mat untuk anak2 mereka.

2014-03-02 19:47

kingcobra

LOOK WHEN MOST OF OUR LEADERS INCLUDING PM HAVE AN EXCELLENT COMMAND OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE,WHY CAN'T OUR CITIZENS? IN THE 60S N EVEN THE 70S, WAS A TIME WHEN WE SAW ALL RACES STUDYING IN GOVT SCHOOLS WHERE THE MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTIONS WAS IN ENGLISH...IT WAS WHEN EVERYONE CAME TOGETHER,INDEED WE CAN ATTRIBUTE OUR UNITY N OUR INTER-RACIAL TOLERANCE N UNDERSTANDINGS...LET'S US NOT HIDE BEHIND THE CURTAIN OF IGNORANCE, AFTER ALL WHY SHOULD WE BE DEPRIVED OF LEARNING A LANGUAGE THAT IT IS ACCEPTED AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE OF COMMUNICATIONS N TECHNOLOGY????? HOPE THOSE CONCERNED

2014-03-02 20:42

ohkns

pilindo, untuk pengetahuan anda, banyak sekolah pedalaman telah menggunakan BM dalam pengajaran Sains dan Matematik secara diam-diam. Adakah prestasi mereka lebih baik? Bahasa BUKAN PENYEBAB PENURUNAN PRESTASI PELAJAR! Sebab sebenar penurunan kualiti telah saya sebut lebih awal. Bacalah! Cuba tengok keadaan sekolah dan cuba buat kerja selidik tentang keadaan pendidikan di negara ini sebelum berikan komen. Saya rasa anda tak tahu langsung tentang bidang pendidikan utk berikan komen!

2014-03-02 20:46

ohkns

Asking me to look at France, Germany and Italy, for heaven's sake! What to compare? As if we will do well if we use BM. What nonsense!

2014-03-02 20:49

kingcobra

CORRECTIONS....HOPE TO THOSE CONCERNED PLEASE TAKE NOTE N DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT...U SEND YOUR CHILDREN 2 INTERNATIOAL /PRIVATE SCHOOLS WHEREAS FOR THOSE WHO CAN'T AFFORD THEM ....NO CHOICE BUT 2 GOVT SCHOOLS WHERE THE ENGLISH STANDARD rots!

2014-03-02 20:50

ohkns

king cobra. Tell me. What can I do? Even my wife who is a teacher can't do anything! We have 2 votes only!

2014-03-02 20:55

Fat Cat Tim Buddy

they want people to be dumb, so that they can rule easily ma..

2014-03-02 20:55

Fat Cat Tim Buddy

just follow singapore education blueprint lo.. it was proven to be effectively, but hard la in malaysia, chinese school will protest , tamil , national school all protest... they quite satisfy with status quo... kikiki

2014-03-02 20:59

knchan2001

Worst it's leaded by Mxxx who always change his mind......sad

2014-03-02 21:05

knchan2001

Our great TPM

2014-03-02 21:05

Low Heng Wah

pilindo,bacalah article2 uncle koon dgn teliti dan fahamkan, kemudian,fikirlah sikit. Kita banyak belajar drp pengetahuan dan pengalaman Uncle ini. He is a wise man. Truth and constructive criticism memang tak sedap di dengar. Negara kita ini masih ketinggalan kerana ramai orang cakap dan komen tanpa berfikir. Orang yang bercakap benar sentiasa dituduh dgn dimarahi dgn macam2 komen
spt anti ini anti itu, penghianat, tak tahu balas budi, kalau tak suka negara ini, boleh balik .....

English not important? Zaman ini zaman apa? Nak terus jadi jaguh kampung, atau bersaing dgn dunia dan dihormati orang lain, ini pilihan u lah.

2014-03-02 21:13

tc2012

ohkns , the least you can do is sell the idea of ABU.make at a point that not a single vote for BN from your friends and relatives.

2014-03-02 21:14

ohkns

Hopefully bursa will give me 1 M to send my kid overseas. I have given up hope on Malaysia.

2014-03-02 21:31

pilindo

This is not about politik. Let me give you basic question.

You have 100 medium class students. i mean mediaum class student is not fluent in english but they understand some of english word if they read it. That is our student standard in malaysia. Dont bring in urban student, of course they are good in english

You ask them 100 questions in english just about, history, basic biology etc. How confident are you the student can pass the exam? if you ask me, My confidence is 50-50.

Ask them in Malay language. how confident are you the student can pass the exam. if you ask me, my answer is more than 50%.

So many parameters we have to consider to make sure our education system working for all type of student. one of the parameter is language.

2014-03-02 21:47

Michael Dreamun

we have two great jokers and idiots here!!! what a shame!

2014-03-02 21:50

pilindo

Ohkns. Do you know history about black people in amerika. they took 1 century to learn it. I mean 3 generations.

I want malaysian learn english. Its good for business. We can go everywhere i this world with the language. but i only want to use it for business. not for teaching Matematik to my kids.

2014-03-02 21:58

ohkns

pilindo, go into the interior and see whether the teachers there use English or not before you give comments like that!

2014-03-02 22:02

pilindo

Ohkns. I know they use Malay. So, now, you also know our teacher struggling to teach their student in English and our student struggling understand english! They have to broke the rules. they have no choices. need to teach in Malay.

You all know our teacher are not capable to teach in english. Why dont we make it easy? just teach biology, mat in malay. that all..

2014-03-02 22:17

eftee

I just attended a parent-teacher association (PIBG). There was a parent who complained that her kid was taught maths in English last year and they switched to Malay this year. There was much opposition to teaching of Maths in English from several parents. It seems they want to be in Malay. But how are they going to cope when they go into uni. The great doctor realised (his mistake) that and he tried to reverse it but it was too late. Now we have this problem. We will never catch up with the world at this rate. Even China everyone is learning English on their own.

2014-03-02 22:28

ohkns

pilindo, u know they use malay in interior? Then, any improvement? If no improvement, please don't conclude that English is the cause of the rot in our edu. std.

2014-03-02 22:57

pilindo

Ohkns: I dont know how make you understand. I never conclude English is the one caused our edu becoming low standard. But i believe language is a major problem for our student. I think you are urban teacher. you have no idea about rural students. Any improvement if we use english? Answer is NO.

you pentingkan diri saja. you boleh ada peluang ajar anak you english. tengok luar sana. ramai tak boleh faham langsung pasal inggeris.

2014-03-02 23:20

ohkns

pilindo, your comment just now :"Iya merupakan SALAH SATU PENYEBAB YANG BESAR." and now " I never conclude English is the one caused our edu becoming low standard." A U-turn? I am not going to carry-on this debate and please don't conclude that I am an urban teacher. Goodbye!

2014-03-03 00:15

pilindo

u understand malay or not. fuuuuH!!! THE ONE dengan SALAH SATU sama meaning kah? I feel very stupid talk to you.

2014-03-03 01:16

pilindo

Forget about language issue.

During my study in UTM skudai, I think i have no complain about their course. They did well in Engineering. But we fail if we do robotic competition with advanced country like korea, japan,. I think UTM using up to date software and equipment.

There was no offshore Engineering subject in civil enginering faculty. But now they added new subject which meet oil gas industry requirements.

If i compare UTM skudai with Enginering universiti like Curtin University in Perth Australia, I think UTM is better.

But i have no idea about medical course. I think oversea university is better in medical course.

2014-03-03 02:39

Duitbesar

Abang rasa kebanyakan korang buat komen bodoh, macam Pilindo kata luar tak guna English pun jauh lebih maju macam Korea, Jepun dan sebagainya. Ini Uncle Koon pun satu, terlalu suka guna isu sebagai modal politik beliau. Tengok saja tajuk tu, Malaysia Education Disaster, ini Uncle dia bukan dalam education system pun! Dia suka cakap saja mah. Itu UNITAR pun bukan dia involve tapi dia sangat siok sendiri boasting derma 30 million bikin hostel. Mestilah itu MCA lose face mah.

Abang malas dengan artikel Uncle Koon, buat ramai divide rather unite. Lagi bikin kacau dari bikin aman.

2014-03-03 03:32

pilindo

Other thing i would like to add in our school is computer science subject especially in sekolah kebangsaan teknikal.

Today, we know computer knowledge is compulsory for many industry in Malaysia. I think better we teach our kids about this technology. Google, facebook, and twitter, microsoft, are all about computer science. Why dont we teach our kids about basic software, web-site development. Give them exposure about this technology.

2014-03-03 03:38

uamirah

Aiyoo..teach your family BM better..and make sure you teach your son n your grand son also..talk to your grand son in BM make sure that they speak the correct BM...

2014-03-03 05:36

SmartKidRichKid

You are right Mr Koon! Just look at the atrocities above.

2014-03-03 07:26

Thean Fook Victor Lee

Koon Yew Yin, --we salute you. Keep up the good work..........

2014-03-03 14:44

Duitbesar

Uamirah, ini Uncle Koon cakap melayu pun tak fasih punya larr. Duduk seumur hidup di Malaysia pun langsung tak tahu melayu. Dia cakap orang putih tapi satu batang hidup orang putih pun dia tak pernah jumpa kat Malaysia pun.

2014-03-03 14:50

hub4port

I thought this is a stock blog. Any advice on which education stock to invest in?

2014-03-03 17:11

pilindo

I have no complain about Uncle Koon. I just wanna give my opinion about B. Malaysia.

I know some of you western thinking. Many orang Melayu living in Australia also dont prefer to talk in Malay. Im not Orang Melayu. But Im thinking about rural student who extremely dont understand English. If you want the student understand English properly, just add another English subject teaching to our student. Let say, every day have English class. We have many way how to make student slowly understand english.

I also know many Korean, Japanese engineer who using American software and equipment. But I never see them use English to teach their young people about American Product, American software. I also know what language America Latin, French, Germany, Italy use. Geographically, Their country are more closer to British and Amerika.

Dont take singapore as the only your example. Look at Brunei, Philipine. What they have done?

To rule this country, politician also have to understand, and speak in Malay. How come Datuk Ambiga dont know speak in Malay? I like Datuk Anwar to lead the country. That is why Datuk Anwar always mention about B. Malaysia.

2014-03-03 18:07

pilindo

The best Education stock is Prestariang. PRESBHD. They are now investing in oilgas training. I bought this stock before GE13 at RM1.25

2014-03-03 18:21

pilindo

http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/business-news/278263-china-will-transfer-train-technology-to-malaysia.html

very good news for me. Learning technology from China

2014-03-03 20:01

DOROTHY10

Mr Koon, what can we do since the education system is disasterous? Sending them to Private / International school is it the best option? What happen if we dont have the $? Appreciate advice. By the way, you are kind to sponsor eligible youth to further their study. I'm hoping 1 day when I can make good $ like you, I will also do the same too.

2014-03-14 17:55

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