Why the
change? The media reported that the policy came amid expectations from
educators, parents and the pupils to revamp the current system based strongly
on academic results. I read this simply that the new education policy is
determined by the educators, parents and the pupils, what they want the
education to be. Fair enough, and the ministers are just appeasing them, and
must agree with them. It must be, for if the ministers have different ideas of
what education of children is like, they would want their views to be part of
the input. Then the education policy will be the result of the expectations of
the ministers, educators, parents and the pupils.
As the
changes are for primary education, I think it is fair and harmless. The
educators, parents and pupils and the ministers can decide what they like for
the children. What about secondary and higher education? Who should determine
what higher education should be like, to meet whose expectations? Should the
policies of higher education be determined by the expectations of the
professors in the academia, the parents, the students and the ministers? Or
should they also include the expectations of the employers, what the employers
want and expect from the education system? Would the expectations of the
employers be the most important element in determining what higher education
and its products to be like as they are the ultimate users of the products of
the education system? If not, they may say, no relevant skill sets, unusable,
need to find those with relevant skill sets in less pretentious schools from
the 3rd world villages. Then our graduates would end up as temp job
seekers or selling hamburgers at fast food joints. Then how?
A mismatch
will be obvious if the policy of higher education is to meet the expectations
of parents and students, or even the academics when their interests and
expectations could be totally misaligned with the expectations of the
employers.
While the
policy of primary education is changing, I hope they will invite the employers
to have a say as to what they want from the education system and we don’t end
up with misfits from the higher education system that are not what the
employers want. We are having this problem now, and some are very serious ones
like the dearth of IT and banking and finance talents that no one seems to be
responsible or accountable for it. At
primary level the blame can be put to the parents and students for wanting to
have a fairy tale education disconnected with the realities of adult education
and employment. At higher education, there is no luxury to mess around with the
pragmatic and functional objectives of education.
The victims
of past flirtations with dysfunctional education models and policies that are
detached from the realities of adult life and leading to the lost generations
of talents for IT and banking and finance industries must not be allowed to be
repeated. No more fooling around please.
Education of the young is a very serious matter and there is a big divide
between education for education’s sake, education that parents and students
would love to have, and education to earn a living, education to meet the needs
of the industries.
PS. I will
love to decide my own education, read whatever I like, no exam, have a lot of
fun and experimenting, if I don’t have to work for a living.
