Malaysian Education System

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

                                     Confucius

Anything that is worth teaching can be presented in many different ways. These multiple ways can make use of our multiple intelligences.

                                                                                          Howard Gardner

The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery.

           Plato

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

        Lao_Tzu

The above quotation’s are from the famous philosophers and are all related to the field of education. In particular, they are meant for the topic that we are discussing here that is “Malaysia Education Sysytem is too Examination Oriented.

First and foremost, we are currently using the KSSR and KSSM Syllabus which was introduced to replace the old KBSR and KBSM syllabus. Based on the new curriculum, education is looked at in a holistic way. Holistic education is a philosophy of education based on the premise that each person finds identity, meaning, and purpose in life through connections to the community, to the natural world, and to humanitarian values such as compassion and peace.

We have to understand one point here that is the reason why there was a change in the curriculum was to ensure in future we get a lot of capable young generation who are multi talented and who will be able to stand on their own feet and  especially they should be creative young generation who will be able to withstand any kind of situation that they will face in future.

At this moment, if we look at our curriculum, it is clear that students still use the rote learning system, that is to memorise facts and figures  for the sake of examination. Malaysia is focusing on examination and for kids, who go through this kind of curriculum, all they need to do in order to excel in their examination is to make sure they get their facts right and how is it done? Yes it is none other than memorizing facts and to pour it out during their examination. This situation appears to be very rampant now and to proof this, we can witness, the actual working world. For an example we have been seeing , hearing and reading from newspaper on the increase in the number of fresh graduates who are unemployed. What is the contributing reason for this? It is nothing other than because of a few main factor in which one of it is, because, these fresh graduates are unable to perform to the expectation of the employer in their basic interviews. It is sad to say that some of the graduates are still unable to communicate effectively. The question here is how can they be the top student is high school and in tertiary education? Again it is none other than the rote learning system they use because the syllabus focuses a lot on examination in which all a student needs to do is to memorise facts and figures and formulaes again.