I was once on the mono-stream schooling brigade, until I realised freedom also includes the freedom to choose to where and how you want your kids to be educated. I studied in an SK and SMK all my life, and barely knew the Chinese-educated students. It wasn't their fault, and after high school, I became very close friends with a kid from my SMK, Chinese-educated, in university. It is not a fault of the education system if we are racist. It is the demarcation on ethnic lines which has been drilled into Malaysian society, from parents imposing their views on race on children, and the government with their hypocritical drawings of Malay,Chinese,Indians in primary school textbooks.
The best model we have, and the one that has proven resilient for decades is the East Malaysian model. Race is clear-cut,people are proud to affirm their race, but race relations are of no consequence to this. Restaurants, halal or not, are frequented by everyone, people get along anywhere anytime.
The real issue here is to stop inculcating racial lines, and start looking at schools from a purer perspective; that is centres of childhood development. The language and constituents of these schools should not play a part in determining our views of them. Right now, from a purely educational perspective, Chinese schools present the best model of academic achievement among the three streams we have. Their weaknesses and those of all non-private schools in Malaysia, the rote-learning system and the inadequate non-academic learning structure are not subjects of this debate.
At this moment, the heart of the matter is that Chinese schools present the best case for a good primary education, and it would not be a problem if all of us choose Chinese schools for our kids. Which would mean the end of racial separation at primary level.
Wednesday 9 September 2009
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2 comments:
Hi,
Nice post. You are doing a great job, hats off to you on sharing good insights, information and experiences. I personally liked your article, it has been a great help to me.
Ollie,
A good piece indeed. Kudos!
I have been pondering about this for a while too - and here's my conclusion: ethnicity is definitely man-made.
I don't know much about Chinese schools, but one thing I know is that academic-wise they are indeed excellent. But I couldn't agree with your suggestion that using this model might end the racial separation.
Zaid Ibrahim (I am currently reading his book) must have agreed with you when you said that East M'sia is better off when it comes to managing differences, but he said things are getting worse over there, just like how it is here. Let's pray that we won't lose this model to learn from very soon.
Having been in an all-Malay primary school and a boarding school with negligible number of other ethnicity, I am no good at understanding others, but here's one things I've learnt from the MTP trainings - we are all the same.
Funny how people make things complicated ~ sigh.
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