Malaysian education system revolves
around the National Education Philosophy where it aims to produce a loyal, and
united Malaysian nation, produce faithful, well-mannered, knowledgeable,
competent and prosperous individuals, produces the nation’s human resource for
development needs and to provide educational opportunities for all Malaysians.
Functional theory (Emile Durkheim)
explains how the society and institutions work interdependently for the
betterment of the society. This can be seen in Malaysian school systems where
it is compulsory for children at the age of seven to begin their primary
education which shows the importance of education because eventually educated
individuals will contribute back to the society. Conflict theory (Max Webber)
is not encouraged in Malaysian schools as it will be quiet controversial since
Malaysia is made of various ethnicity and cultures. But as for the dominating
groups getting the best education can actually be noticed through those elite
and international schools where only those affordable for the cost of education
supplied gets the better exposure and education compared to national schools.
The tension in the society can be seen when students from national schools have
to compete with those from elite schools in order to be employed or getting the
best tertiary education in nation. Malaysian schools are basically practice
open system approach where it functions with the help of the five fundamental
elements such as inputs, transformation process, outputs, feedback and
environment. Malaysian government provides sufficient inputs such as human,
financial, information and physical resources. The transformation process is
the teaching-learning process and outputs are the accomplishment of the goals
through the achievements and examination results. The feedbacks are given by
the society that consists of parents of the students, politicians and
administrators. The environment refers to the political, social and economic
status that affects the learning and administration of the school.
In order to bring up our National
Education Philosophy, certain issues in sociology need to be considered. These
issues are the role of education and the ‘process of stratification’ in the
society, stratification and equality of educational opportunity concerning on
class, race and gender and ability grouping and teacher expectations as well.
Stratification is necessary for a society to function efficiently which enables
it to reach its full potential economically and socially, in line with their
view that society is a set of interconnected parts which work together to form
a whole. Moving on further to equality of educational opportunity (EEO) which
was conducted based on the schools in the United States of America; it is
defined as equality of results, given the same individual input (Coleman, 1968,
p. 14). Everyone deserves education opportunity in their life. According to
Ballantine (2001), equal opportunity means equal results among students from
different social backgrounds. In short equality means to all people having an
equal chance of achieving a high socioeconomic status in society, regardless of
sex, race or class and as it relates to school, the concerns are on facilities,
financing and availability. Education benefits the society in producing all
Malaysian citizens who are knowledgeable and competent for the betterment of
the society. This can only happen if all the Malaysian citizens are given equal
opportunity in education. It is believed that, demographic factors such as
gender, race and family status still affect the individual’s chance to receive
an equal education. This can be seen in vernacular schools in Malaysia where
the students are segregated based on the races and having schools based on
gender such as same sex schools. Meanwhile, individuals from rich and
affordable families have the upper hand to study in international schools. This
clearly shows that status of individuals plays an important role on whom
getting the best education out there. Individuals can be grouped according to
their abilities regardless their demographic factors. No one should be
discriminated since everyone is deserved to be treated equally. Students can be
grouped according to their performance which is fair to all. If you score well,
you are placed in better class. If you performed badly then you are placed in
class that suits your ability where you can perform your talent well.
Individuals who are grouped according to their abilities developed more because
they can cope with something that suits their talent. Slow learners should not
be placed among the fast learners because they would not be able to catch up
the learning process in the class. However, if they are placed among
individuals who have the same abilities as them, educators must make sure that
the learning process is appropriate with their developmental level where this
group of students can achieve something even they are slow. Hence, they are not
held back in that particular group because they can communicate as much as they
want without feeling being compared, insecure and introvert.
There are schools in Malaysia like
this where they placed individuals according to their abilities and
disabilities. Students with special needs are not placed among normal students
because they need more individual and undivided attention than the normal
students. Even, they are not placed with normal students; they still can
succeed in their life. There are 160 blind but degree holders and 10 blinds
with PhD. Dato’ Mah Hassan Omar’s biggest
achievement is being called to the Bar and became the First Blind Lawyer in
Malaysia. Now Dato Mah Hassan is a practicing lawyer and an OKU and white cane
activist had played a major role in the PWD Act 2009. PWD being People with
Disabilities as known internationally unlike OKU only understood in for many
good things to come for you and all OKU in general and Malaysia. What does this proves? Education is for all. There
is another common issue that is always being raised up which is the negative
expectation of teachers for the low expectation of students. This can be
normally seen in most of the schools since we experienced similar situations
throughout our 12 years of both primary and secondary schools. The perception
of the teachers towards the low expectation students and high expectation
students differ all the time. Lower expectation students are discriminated,
criticized and looked down whereas high expectation students are praised and
given special treatment till it
discourages the low expectation students. Instead of being motivated, they are
being compared and discouraged where they will often lose their self-confidence
to achieve in their life. The perception of this kind of society need to be
changed since there is always a room for improvement. According to the goals of
the school system, Malaysian schools belong to the homogenous society where all
the schools has uniform curricula and materials and also the functionalists
emphasize that the ultimate goal for each and every school is to function
smoothly and practice the National Education Philosophy and for it not be
leaning towards the Conflict Theory, the school goals should not promote
stratification.
In order to achieve our National
Education Philosophy objectives, these kinds of issues need to be overcome.
Malaysian Education Board revised several issues such as upgrading KBSR to KSSR
in order to help needs of the government is met and this should be a stepping
stone in accomplishing the aims of National Education Philosophy.
