COMMENT | Five ways to improve education in national schools

COMMENT | The quality of education in our national schools is of paramount importance as it is a key determinant of the quality of our nation’s human capital, economic growth, global competitiveness, innovation and technological advancement. We also need to empower and “future-proof” our young Malaysians to thrive in the rapidly changing and disruptive workplace of the future due to the fourth industrial revolution, besides being able to function productively and harmoniously in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society.

Regrettably, the quality of our national school system leaves much to be desired primarily due to the fact that our political leaders have sacrificed meritocracy, competent school leadership and quality teaching for mediocrity, politics and an overdose of social reengineering. Not surprisingly, an increasing number of middle-class Malaysian parents are sending their children to private and international schools if they can afford it.

The fact that our national school system needs immediate and drastic transformation is clearly evident. In the 2018 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Malaysia (Form Two students) scored merely 461 in Mathematics and 460 in Science as compared to Singapore that scored 616 and 608 respectively.

Similarly, according to the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) 2018 report, Malaysian students ranked 57th out of 79 countries in terms of reading proficiency, 48th in Mathematics and 49th position for Science.

A bitter pill to swallow is the fact that Malaysia’s quality of school education even lags behind that of Vietnam, a lower-income nation, by a wide margin. Vietnamese students ranked 4th, 13th and 24th respectively in terms of Science, reading proficiency and Mathematics. For the record, Singaporean students were ranked second best in the world in all three stated fields.

To make matters worse, English proficiency has also deteriorated over...