RECENTLY, Minister of Education II Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh claimed that Malaysia is home to tertiary education institutions that are world class, basing his assertion on a questionable ranking of global higher education institutions.

While his judgement might be poor, it made me wonder about the accuracy and basis of the assessments of our primary and secondary schools. For me, schools are where the crux of our education problems lies. Why are no questions asked about how our schools are rated? How do we know if they are of an acceptable quality?

How do we know a school is doing well, what areas it can improve upon, or if it is even adhering to the multitude of regulations imposed upon it? There is a system used to separate schools into seven categories known as bands, with bands

1 and 2 being the higher-performing, and bands 5,6, 7 the lower-performing schools. How many of us actually know what is behind these ratings and what methodology is used?

In fact, how many parents know the band that their child’s school is in and what that truly means? Parents, more often than not, have a better idea of how a school is faring through word of mouth and, possibly, from visiting it. I asked a colleague to call her child’s school and ask what band it is in. Not unsurprisingly, there was stony silence on the other end for a few seconds before the school clerk gave the assurance that she would check with the headmaster when he got back the following week.

A search on the Ministry of Education and Government Transformation Programme websites yielded nothing beyond a loose description of how a school is declared to be high performing, basically based on academic achievements, non-academic achievements, a self-assessment done by the school and success, if any, at international competitions.

What about the level of teaching, the learning environment, financial compliance and general management? All that information sits with the School Inspectorate and Quality Assurance Division, which, under the Education Act 1996, is tasked with inspecting schools and ensuring that teaching, learning and management of the institutions are of a certain quality.

Inspections by the inspectorate are to be made at least once every five years, reports of the inspections (inclusive of any actions a school needs to take to improve) are sent to the respective schools, and all reports are delivered to the Minister of Education. Again, none of this valuable information is made public.

Do we not have a right to know how schools are being assessed and how they perform? We are made to believe that schools are improving rapidly. For example, the Malaysia Education Blueprint Annual Report 2013 states that between 2012 and 2013, approximately 105 schools moved up from Band 5 to Band 4.

That seems to be an impressive achievement in figures but what does it mean for the learning going on in the schools, the level of teaching, and the management in general? What areas did these schools improve upon and what areas need attention? As a researcher, this kind of data presented without the accompanying methodology is baffling.

In the Netherlands, school inspections and the resulting reports are made publicly available, creating a structure of external accountability. This provides parents and school management and boards a reference point to help make their decisions.

While it may not be the only basis for their decisions, it provides a much more holistic view of a school besides academic achievement. Interestingly, in the Netherlands, the set of quality measures assessed for each school was developed in consultation with the schools and their stakeholders and not imposed by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

While parents continue to be restricted in terms of school choice, why not empower them with the information they need to push for improvements at their child’s school? After all, the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013–2025 emphasises community involvement in schools. What better way to get them involved than pinpointing areas of strengths and weaknesses in a school?

This way, parents are able to understand which areas a school needs to improve upon — whether this is English instruction or an improved variety of extra-curricular activities. This will also allow them to get involved in creating solutions and influencing school policies through parent-teacher associations.

If the Ministry of Education is to truly show its commitment to improving the education system, why not make more information on schools available to the public? Such information should be made available, beginning with the methodology used to categorise schools into bands and a comprehensive list of schools that fall into each band.

This should be followed by the framework used to assess schools and school reports so that parents, researchers and lawmakers can better understand and act upon the successes and challenges faced by individual schools. The information already exists; it is merely a matter of making it available to the public.

Tamanna Patel is senior researcher, education, at the Kuala Lumpur-based Institute for Democracy and Economics Affairs

This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on April 13 - 19, 2015.

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