The Malaysian Insider

Quota is an old system and is very discriminative. Quota system should be abolished right out and be replaced with the Merit system for innovative development in all sectors.

The argument that school children attending international schools would grow to be less patriotic is really laughable and assinine and at times a downright lie. Why should parents want to send their kids to international schools if not for wanting to give a better all round education to their children. There is no other reason. Tell us why all the Umnoputra's and BNputra's children are studying in private international schools or overseas in English. IF that is the case they should be the first ones to be accused of being unpatriotic.

We have been lamenting on the state of our education system and standard starting from primary right up to tertiary level for more than a decade. We talk of racism, religious bigotry and deteriorating standards but the govt doesnt see it that way or refuse to bcos it is politicised to a point of almost no return.

Education system has reached a crisis point in our country now since Mahathir did away with teaching in English in the 70s. He knew his mistake and therefore reintroduced teaching Maths and Science in English but it is too little too late. Bring back English medium schools and you will see them bursting at its seams with students from all races.

Looking at those helming the education ministry and the schools, no wonder parents are considering international education. What a shame for a country that has achieved independence for 52 years... We can even decide whether to teach Science and Math in English or the national language. The fact is, there are always two sides to the coin - there is no right or wrong answer in this case. Ultimately, being consistent is the best way! Not flip-flopping and treating the poor kids and teachers like guinea pigs! I pity the teachers too in this case as they are the ones who will be implementing whatever crazy ideas these 'smart' politicians come out with!

The opening of the enrollment in International schools is the start of the chasm between upper class and the low class of the social structure. When once the classes mixed together in schools, it will no longer be true in the future. The cause of the social split - poor teaching of English in public school. What a ruddy shame.

Qoute: "There is also concern that this crucial upper class will become “unpatriotic” as they would not be exposed to national values in the public curriculum."
This statement mainly refers to so many of our Ministers' children who are sent overseas and tender age.

We can learn a lot from Singapore which has now more than 30 independent schools.

These schools are allowed a lot of leeway in deciding the curriculum, teaching methods, etc.

The idea is innovation. If you don't innovate, you fall behind.

Moreover, there is no such thing as one-size-fits-all in education.
Even Rosmah enquired about the gifted children programme but with our current rigid structure, with this compulsory, that compulsory, quotas, etc. how are we to become a developed nation?

Is it any wonder that parents who can afford it want their children out of the national school system? All UMNO's Ministers of Education have been interested in since the time of Dr. M is in meeting ethnic numbers and quotas. There has been no real concern for academic standards. On the contrary, the approach has been to lower academic standards in order to meet ethnic numbers and quotas. In the end, it is our children, now young adults in some cases, who suffer. They end up unable to fill high level jobs, unable to compete with their peers in the global arena.

UMNO's Ministers of Education always resorted to shortcuts and half-baked solutions - limit the number of subjects taken in the SPM to 10, no lets make an exception and increase it to 11 for the religious schools, make English compulsory, don't make English compulsory, teach maths and science in English, don't teach in English - why we we forever resorting to half-baked solutions? It is because UMNO and all the Ministers of Education have no idea of where the world is heading, they have no idea of the future and cannot envisage the kind of education that our children need to survive in the global village.

It is time to stop all these half-baked policies. Mr. Minister of Education, it is time to be visionary. Time to think carefully where you want Malaysia to be in the years to come. If you want to take us down the same road as Zimbabwe, carry on with what your predecessors have done. If you want Malaysia to be a major player in the world, then think and see the kind of education that our children need to take their place as major players in the global arena. We don't need any more shortcuts and half-baked policies. It is because of these shortcuts and half-baked policies that parents who can turn away from our national schools and seek alternatives for their children, even at great expense to themselves.

Under UMNO's administration, our educational system has been turned from one of the most successful in Asia into a miserable failure. China (and Hong Kong), India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan have universities that are in the top 500 in the world (http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/Top500_EN(by rank).pdf) but there isn't a single Malaysian university in the top 500.

When will they ever learn? That was the song by Bob dylan a long time ago. and it is relevant today.

In all the discourse over Malaysian Education I have yet to read or hear anyone say what needs to be said.

Malaysians REJECT the education provided by the the Education Department.

It is not about the rejection of the language of instruction, which is Malay. That argument and the recent attempt by some blogger to petition for a 1 School system doing away with Vernacular schools is also another example of not understanding or refusing to understand or just plain and simple denying the truth of the matter.

The learning that happens if one was to go through the Malaysian National Education system has been rejected simply because more of the parents today whose children are in school have themselves had education up to a higher level and are able to gauge for themselves that what their children are getting out of the school is rubbish. They may not be able to explain what it is that is bothering them. Educationists have their own lexicon that no one else understands. But because a lot of them who are referred to are basically the bodek kind, they utter utter nonsense while privately they themselves send their children to vernacular schools or if they can afford it to private schools.

I have hardly seen any honest discourse or debate. Everything is finally left to the UMNO Supreme Council to decide. For them the Education Department is basically a pool of UMNO supporters to tap from. They need to fill it with good for nothings whose only reason for surviving the job market is because they are a UMNO Youth or Puteri member.

Once again, this call for wanting 100% Malaysian admission to International Schools is not about demand for it. Its about absconding and running far from a rejected education system that is imposed on the people by politicians.

I would say let it be..we should not restrict people from getting better education when they can afford it. It is a good business and good growth for malaysian economy. we will have better educated people where public schools were struggling to provide adequate education. Let the rich and the super rich pay for their childrens and by doing this public school can take in more other unfortunate or low income earners.

Anyway, most of our ministers childrens received their education elsewhere in overseas. The question of less patriotic should not arise here. It is also unfair to stop those from receiving good education.

There are many vernacular schools with below 50 students including Chinese Schools. Roonie Liu even proposing the one in Bukit Tagar to move to Bukit Beruntung due to lack of students.

My point is, YES while your report that International School is asking for change in policy is true, your VALUE ADDED INFO is misleading, and if we were to use the case of Bukit Tagar, makes it a blatant lie.

Dr. Wee should find out why parents prefer to send their children to International school rather than national schools. If the education ministry is adamant on implementing school based exams rather than public exams, the exodus will increase much more. The Education Ministry must understand that EVERY PARENT wants GOOD and BENEFICIAL education for their kids not and have kids armed with meaningless PMR, SPM and STPM certificates. We WANT QUALITY education NOT QUANTITY! No point having 100% passes in SPM or STPM but can't even string together a sentence of proper English! If he is concern about the exodus, I'd say bring back the English Medium schools and QUALITY public examinations like it was in the 60s and early 70s, you will see the children flocking back to Govt schools! If quality education instead of quantity education is implemented at primary and secondary levels, eventually University Malaya could attained it primed status of the 60s and early 70s!

There is no quota in local private schools offerring International syllabuses.

Yup, to ensure Malaysia has an international standard of education, we must allow full enrollment of Malaysian students in international schools. How else will we achieve PM Najib's vision?

Our local education system doesn't mean much anymore.

Like many others, I'm also curious to see what would happen if the government re-introduces English-medium schools.

I for one believe that the demand will be incredible, especially in cities. And rather than further segregating society, I believe that forward-thinking parents of all races would send their kids to such schools.

All they have to do is look further down the line at college and university education - if their kids are going to be switching to English eventually, might as well start them young!

This report further reinforces the belief of bolehland's failure in the education system.

International schools must be liberalized. Their request is constructive. Unfortunately, the UMNO nationalists will try to stop this. Fortunately, we are at an extraordinary time of bad economy where requests to liberalize are more likely to be accepted.

1. Private school should be the mainstay of a liberal environment,

2. Private school provides benchmark of performance and budget to government schools, so that the government schools will have objective standards to look up to, to reduce waste, to raise standards,

3. Private schools can show government schools what kind of creative and encouraging pedagogy is effective, forcing national schools to compete and improve.

4. Private schools can be a sanctuary for creative, dissenting, brilliant minds, especially at the college level,

5. Private schools can be a hot bed to experiment with teaching and management technology because they need to compete to survive,

6. A strong international school segment will attract foreign investors and foreign students,

7. These "international" schools are really private english-medium schools that many parents have demanded,

8. Some international schools have suffered from inadequate enrollments, "merged" classes from different grades, lack of economy of scale, inadequate resources to maintain quality staff. Such a move will increase their quality, and therefore their ability to contribute.

10. Some international schools will start to require competitive entry exam for local students and increase their standards,

11. However, parents of international schools beware: The concept of "generation gap" can explode in your face. This is not that mild gap between you and your parent ... but between your teenage children and you, many times more severe than your own.

12. It confirms the social legitimacy of the Chinese-language private/independent schools. Now you can see you are on the same boat in demanding that the government liberalize. Work together. You only want your children to grow up in a way and and lead a lead style that your family aspires to.


How this will help English-medium parents and resolve a cultural conflict
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Currently English-medium parents are subconsciously subverting the vernacular Chinese schools, trying to turn them into de-facto English-medium schools. But even if they succeed, such "blended" curriculum will not effectively fulfill their aspiration to have their children immerse in English medium.

I can understand the English-medium parents' sincere and legitimate demand that their children be brought up the way they themselves are brought up. Any liberal environment should allow people to lead their own life style.

But because of nationalist pressure, many of these English-medium parents are unknowingly transferring their frustration of not being able to educate their children in English toward the vernacular schools. In the process, they are co-opeted by the nationalists' power to "bully" the vernacular Chinese schools into conforming to "english for math and science" curriculum.

The English-medium parents have also been sending their kids to English kindergartens, and encouraging them to speak more English then Chinese in Chinese-medium vernacular school. But then this destroys the hard-fought effort by those parents and grandparents who want their children to study in Chinese medium, at least in their first few years. (Another reason to study in Chinese medium is that children in Chinese-medium families will learn their world BETTER in Chinese.)

This has become a contentious, divisive, emotional, but most of all an issue of oppression - forcing others to accept a life style and culture that they do not want to accept.

Liberalizing international school will substantially channel the demand of these English-medium parents to their own choices, and learn more effectively in more fully-immersed English environment.

It take much more than a uniform school system to build a nation, but having one is a step in the right direction. I loathe the idea that affordability is a critetrion for a parent to choose the school for his/her child. That marginalises a huge fraction of the country's population and doom them a choice that further fringes them both socially and economically. Admittedly, the current education system is far from perfect despite whatever the political masters have to say. But shouldn't we work from within to make it better? Perhaps, a change of government may do wonders!

From the comments, it is clear that there are some people who have an understanding of what an International School is, and some who obviously don't. The article doesn't make this clear, and it is therefore unsurprising that the survey on this site leans strongly to the response of 'Greed'
International schools have existed in Malaysia for over 60 years and were primarily set up for the children of expatriates working in the country so they didn't have to send their children back to boarding school in the home country. For this reason the earliest schools offered a curriculum based broadly on the British system. It has only been relatively recently that formal National (or International such as IB) curricula have been taught. This allows the schools to offer education right up to University entrance level with a internationally recognized qualification from countries like US, UK or Australia among others. These are traditional destinations for Malaysian students as are they traditional origins of Expatriate staff in Malaysia.
There are almost 50 International schools in Malaysia now, with almost half in the Klang Valley. A number of others are planned. The languages are not all English, and the curricula are from a wide range of countries - British, American, International Baccalaureate, Australian, Japanese, Korean, French, Dutch, Indonesian, Indian, Chinese, Iraqi for starters. There is a small number which accept very few Malaysian students, and a larger group which will accept up to the currently allowed 40% Malaysian students. These schools are likely to maintain this proportion not just for economic reasons, but for the benefits it gives to the expatriate students who have an opportunity to mix with Malaysians in everyday situations.
It is newer schools which are most likely to be requesting that the quota be adjusted or removed and those yet to open. They realise that there is a demand for quality education that is perceived not to be available in the Malaysian National system and they wish to take advantage of this. Some local private schools 'tack on' an International stream or class, for example offering a choice of IGCSE or 'O' levels instead of Form 5. They have already found a ready market.
If a school is able to offer boarding facilities, they will attract students from many countries who also value an International education. There are many such students in the Middle East and Korea. Staffing may be more difficult. Expat staff will be more expensive, pushing up the fees. Well trained local staff are becoming more difficult to find as the number of Malaysians schooled in English (the main demand), teacher trained, and fully conversant in the language dwindles.
The choice of curriculum is also important. All International schools are required by the MoE to provide (and they do check) Malaysian Studies and Agama classes for Malaysian students. But other than that, are they going to offer the National Curriculum of some other country, or a general sort of curriculum that is not accredited or recognized by anyone?
Given that a number of our top leaders and their relatives have had the benefit of an International (not necessarily International school in Malaysia) education, it is not surprising that they want to have their children also have these advantages. It will only be those with no choice who will be attending our National Kebangsaan schools.
SAD.
It would take a huge amount of political will, but for the standard of Malaysian education to rise, some hard decisions have to be made. First, the teachers. Teaching must go back to being a respected profession. This can only happen with selection of quality candidates, proper training and appropriate pay scales. All schools must be properly equipped, no matter how far they are out in the Ulu. And students must have the encouragement to want to learn and develop, to take ownership of their own learning and to enjoy their rest, participate in sports, plays and general fun as they learn.
If this happens, I have hope for my future grandchildren.

The reason why the government has allowed our schools to deteriorate so badly is because virtually none of our ministers have a vested interest to ensure their success. One of the positive aspects of private Chinese schools is the requirement for parents to volunteer their time for various school activities. This ensures that the parents stay involved with the school and play a supportive role in their children's education. If all our ministers were required to send their kids to Government schools (including university), I'll bet that the quality of our public education & our public schools will increase exponentially.

I tend to agree with many of the comments above.

Reading through the lines it seems that International Schools are bracing for a sharp rise in demand for spots allocated to local pupils. Perhaps it's in anticipation to a loss of confidence in the public system especially over recent developments such as limiting the number of SPM subjects. Perhaps they may even have privy information regarding the government's unannounced stance on the possible U turn on Science and Maths in English, and are preparing more spots to accommodate middle class Malaysian families.

In any case, the underlying sentiments should be tweezed out.
What's the difference between International and Local schools- curriculum mostly. As Miss Sunshine has pointed out, there are many International Schools in Malaysia from Japanese to Dutch, but really the ones that would truly benefit from a quota removal would be those using an English language-based curriculum ie the British, American and Australian ones.

The debate continues over the pros and cons of teaching in English but the bottom line is that these International curriculum are better recognized overseas. Even MARA colleges acknowlege this fact and operate using the IB curriculum and not our very own SPM/STPM.

As for the patriotism argument- we should ask none other than our PM. His children attended an International school. Don't think that's done any harm.