Without a doubt, a meaningful education system will provide our young people with 21st century skills for a 21st century economy.

Without a doubt, a meaningful education system will provide our young people with 21st century skills for a 21st century economy.

Development Strategy - Make Education More Meaningful

Submitted by shaza on Monday, February 28th, 2011

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• education

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Our students should not be led into believing schooling is merely to get jobs and have an income

Monday, February 28th, 2011 09:32:00

ONE of the key areas of focus in the context of Malaysia’s development strategy is education — and, rightly so. The emphasis is on quality education for developing (and the phrase being popularly used is) “quality human capital”.

The connotation is that by enhancing the quality of our human capital, our young people emerging from such a system would, specifically, be able to utilise their capabilities to access employment opportunities in an increasingly (a second trendy phrase) “knowledge-based economy” and, more broadly, contribute towards Malaysia’s achievement of (another in-phrase) “developed nation status”.

While the foregoing rationale for education undoubtedly has merit, we need to be on the guard that each of these phrases does not get reduced to a cliché.

More importantly, we should not lead our students and the population in general into believing that education is merely to get jobs, earn a living, have an income and the better the educational achievement the better the job, income and standard of living for individuals and the nation as a whole.

While all these are true in a narrow sense, we need to make a distinction between such commonly-held beliefs and the higher and wider purpose and goal of education.

Without a doubt, a meaningful education system will provide our young people with 21st century skills for a 21st century economy. In our high-tech digitally oriented era, education is a powerful element that can help us on the pathway to individual progress and nation-building.

But what we seem to think should be our “21st century” approach to education needs to be put into a broader context, one in which the anticipated personal and national gains must reflect civic, social, ethical and developmental qualities in individuals, communities and the nation.

Given that the focus of attaining higher levels of skills in subjects like mathematics, science, electronic technology, language and business — even when creativity, innovation and teamwork are mentioned — is overwhelmingly bent on the career path and economic mobility, this exclusivity precludes the less tangible, but equally intellectually and socially important aspects of a good education.

Alongside the ability to use a range of electronic technologies to access, synthesise and apply information, students’ capacities to think critically and ingeniously and evaluate the products of their thinking must be given every opportunity for development and expression.

Equally, building the ability to communicate effectively and collaborate with others, particularly in diverse and multicultural settings like ours, needs to be an integral and essential part of the educational process.

The importance of equity, justice, fairness, impartiality, mutual respect and the values of responsible citizenship and social stability, should be inculcated among students right from childhood through the entire education system.

Aesthetics, intellectual play, imagination, the pleasure of learning a subject and even just simply being enthusiastic when encouraged with the requisite guidance, will help all-round personality development and bring out the best in individuals.

The present is indeed a promising and a crucial time for education to be given high priority in the development process.

To raise the quality of learning, it is imperative the comprehensiveness of the curricula and its content and the corresponding orientation in teaching must be addressed.

Especially in the midst of momentous social, economic and political developments all around us, education should be the vehicle to impart both knowledge and an understanding of civic and personal values that enable a better appreciation of our common humanity and the mutual wellbeing and progress of our people and our nation.

Rueben Dudley

Petaling Jaya, Selangor