A more intergrated education system needed

MANY of the mindset challenges that Malaysia is facing today is the doing of a segregated education system.
This education system has contributed to distrust and allowed intentional cultural isolation to be deeply rooted in the psyche of the rakyat not as a collective whole but distrust based on ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic identity among each other.
I can already feel the brickbats coming my way with these two statements.
I do, however, think a segregated education system is an important issue of a wider web of concerns regarding our national education system that needs to be discussed.
A country's education system either builds or destroys a nation, and we know this all too well. When the position for education minister was recently announced, many Malaysians had an opinion and voiced their approval and concerns openly. This is something that has not happened for the longest time but it proved how important our country's education system is in shaping not just the individual but Malaysian society. It also proved that Malaysians are very aware that our education system is extremely complex and in need of an overhaul but this needs open discussion and political will. It feels like there might be political will right now but open discussions about difficult issues may not be so easy still.
For a long time the education system has used ethnicity, language, religion to put people in lanes starting from a very young age. In the name of multiculturalism, the education system was created to accommodated the needs of the different ethnic groups by setting up vernacular schools and now we have a host of different kinds of schools: from the Malay medium, Chinese medium and Tamil medium national schools to homeschooling, religious schools, private schools and the like. On paper this is a very amenable method of accommodating the needs of a multicultural society. However, in practice this system has perpetuated segregation, cultural isolation and contributed to the polarisation not just in universities and civil service but also in society. How do I know this?
Let's just look at how students in local public universities interact. Lecturers will tell you that even in a multicultural classroom, students gravitate to their own ethnic groups. You might say that this is a personal preference and what makes them comfortable. But if someone has been socialised to have close interactions only with people who speak the same language or who belong to the same ethnic or religious group, then how easy or natural would it be to make deep connections with people who have different beliefs and belong to a different ethnic group?
This has been going on for years and it shows how polarised the country really is. National schools today have an extremely polarised student population not just ethnically but also divided by social class and economic status. Those who can afford it send their kids to private schools, so what happens to our national schools?
You might find a growing number of non-ethnic Chinese students in a Chinese-medium school, but you will also find a very lopsided number of Malay children in national schools and only Indian children in Tamil schools. So when at a young age, a child is only interacting closely with one ethnic group of people, it becomes more difficult to interact with people of different groups because there is little access. But it also creates distrust, which is apparent in the way we as a society function.
A polarised education system creates many problems. We are experiencing that now when this week's discussions and fear mongering surrounding the capability of the nominated candidate for attorney-general are more about his race, religion and mastery of the national language instead of his track record and capability. It also happened when the education minister was announced.
There are two glaring needs from these episodes. The first is the need to teach the Federal Constitution in schools. And the second is to inculcate a Malaysian camaraderie in the young. There has to come a time when we start saying I trust him or her not because he or she shares my religious beliefs or is of the same ethnic composition but because they are Malaysian.
If we go back to what we might want of the education system, I assume that what we all want is access to quality education. Besides providing knowledge and critical thinking skills, the education system and learning environment should inculcate values and create unity. For me, equal access to quality education should not be a class privilege or an ethnic entitlement. It should be a Malaysian right not for the sole betterment of just the individual or group but for the country as a whole.
So if we were to look at our education system with this lens, then maybe we might be able to have the difficult discussions in creating a forward thinking education system. In order to do so, we need to first look at our language policy.
Our linguistic landscape is complex but as cliche as it sounds, I believe language breaks barriers and creates trust. So instead of having so many mediums of instruction, everyone should master the national language. You live in this country and it is a privilege that we have to be able to speak a language unique to us as Malaysians. Teach mother tongues as a compulsory subject in national schools. Bring the children together not by bringing different vernacular streams into one school where students are still separated but implement a single integrated stream of education where students master not only the national language and English but also their mother tongue.
Now this seems like a lot of languages to learn and we kind of tried teaching Maths and Science in English but that didn't last long. So why bother? Whether we like it or not, English is the language of every field of study from science to information technology to diplomacy, law and accounting. In order to be internationally competitive, we need to be able to access information, communicate effectively and present our ideas and research in English. This is something we cannot shy away from.
So, in order to implement an integrated school system, first we need to rebuild the brand of national schools. In the past, national schools were an adequate option but nowadays national schools cannot hold their own against private schools. Chinese- medium schools have a stellar reputation and exude confidence in the quality of education provided but their budgets and resources are also very different.
A national school education should be synonymous with quality. All national schools have to start functioning like the few vision schools peppered around the country. This means providing good teachers, resources and support. Only then will parents have the confidence to enrol their children in national schools. This is just a snippet of what an integrated school system might look like.
If the desire for a unified new Malaysia is genuine, then these are the kinds of difficult conversations that need to be had now to see if we Malaysians can actually function like the inclusive new Malaysia claim to be.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com