Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on September 5 - September 11, 2016.

 

What a tale of two halves.

On the same day that Singapore reported a record tax collection of S$45 billion in its last financial year thanks to higher corporate and individual earnings, Khazanah Nasional’s research arm, in its second State of Households Report, indicated that low wages and youth unemployment were its chief concerns for the future.

As simplistic as it may sound, it appears that the chief reason behind the ever-widening wealth gap between what was once a part of Malaysia and Malaysia itself is our respective education systems.

In Singapore, its economy is netting huge 

dividends from decades of concerted government efforts to produce a population of engineers, doctors and lawyers able to compete with the world’s best.

In Malaysia, the reverse is happening.

Decades of not focusing on science and mathematics in English — the two disciplines essential to a high-value society — but on the political expediency that comes from appeasing rural priorities brimming with voters means the Malaysian economy, in turn, is suffering.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data from its most recent Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) in 2015 is most telling.

Top-dog status belongs to the island republic, which emerged first in mathematics and science scores out of 76 countries among 15-year-olds, the benchmark demographic in the survey.

Malaysia ranked 52nd. The top five nations on the list — touted at the time as the “most comprehensive picture possible” of countries’ current skill levels — were Asian nations (the others being Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan).

Last May, when the local press covered the Pisa survey, much was made of Malaysia being outranked by Thailand (47), Kazakhstan (49) and Iran (51), with the OECD saying that maths and science proficiency among Malaysia’s 15-year-olds was comparable to that of their counterparts in poorer and less developed countries.

Since then, little has happened in terms of real and concerted education reform, with the government’s efforts instead focused on its economic worries and addressing public opprobrium to allegations of graft and corruption, such as with 1MDB.

It goes without saying that the better-educated and capable one is, the higher the wages one can command. Magnified by several million, a nation’s prosperity (or otherwise) is in turn driven by its people, propelling it ever higher (or otherwise) up the value chain.

As if in damning response, one Straits Times statistic brought this uncomfortable truth home: more Singaporean taxpayers joined the millionaires’ club in 2015, with the number of those earning assessable income above S$1 million rising 13% to 5,141.

In analysing over 40 years of data in its 2015 study, the OECD came to a conclusion that most of us already know, having spent roughly the same number of years looking askance — ruefully — at Singapore salaries. There is a clear and indisputable correlation between cognitive skills and economic growth.

Or in plain English, “the quality of schooling is a powerful predictor of the wealth that countries will produce in the long run” (OECD director for education and skills Andreas Schleicher and UN director-general for education Qian Tang).

At the policy and human level, the differing approaches between the two nations are stark.

As a fledgeling nation, fresh after its separation from the federation, Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew believed its schools needed to serve a dual purpose.

First, to unite its mainly illiterate population of Chinese, Malay and Indian migrants and their descendants using English as the medium of instruction, and second, to supply its factories with skilled workers.

As the Financial Times noted when writing about Singapore’s education system, Lee, its first premier, was reported to have said in 1966 that in order for his country to survive and prosper, “what is required is a rugged, resolute, highly trained, highly disciplined community”.

In prosperous and resource-rich Malaysia, the same vigour was not seen, and inadequately skilled teachers, inconsistent policies and political interference wreaked havoc on the system.

More germane to the nation’s future, however, is what path Malaysia charts going forward.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh kick-started a 10-year plan, the Malaysia Education Blueprint, spanning 2015 till 2025.

In the blueprint, his ministry acknowledges graduate deficiencies in critical thinking and communicating in English — two key attributes governing success in the global arena — while attempting to build on its five key aspirations of access, quality, equity, unity, and efficiency in education.

Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid’s strategy appears less clear.

On his Twitter page, there are nebulous references to “teachers need(ing) the means to improve their proficiency, knowledge and skills, and to keep up with advances in #englishlanguage teaching”, while on the Education Ministry’s website, there are equally oblique references to the private sector’s role in the education sector.

In all likelihood, the Education Ministry probably does have something resembling a manifesto of sorts, perhaps only less overt.

But the truth of the matter is that Malaysia needs to step up its efforts in reforming education, or get left behind in the race to globalisation.

No amount of column inches, hyperbole and political doublespeak can mask the glaring ineptitude of a locally trained graduate.

How can it?

We live in a small country that works within ever-closer confines.

We can see, hear and assess the abilities — or otherwise — of the people we hire and collaborate with daily while comparing them with other more capable — and sometimes international — talent in the office.

As Khazanah’s research has amply shown, unless there is a swift and concerted effort to address Malaysia’s deficiencies in educating her people, there will be real and serious economic consequences.

None of which will be pretty.


Khoo Hsu Chuang is contributing editor at The Edge Malaysia

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