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English should be compulsory ,with students choosing their mother tongue as a second language or any other language of their choice.

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A very well-written and nuanced piece on schools choice, this.

Malaysians should read this to understand the educational debates going around in other parts of the world.

I do however, disagree, with the contention that school vouchers necessarily promote school choice, especially when means testing is not tied to the distribution of vouchers.

However, I strongly agree that the first precursor to schools choice is the devolution of authority on education.

That the federal government can manipulate every aspect of public education is ludicrous, and a dangerous centralisation of power. While we're at it, the same applies to law enforcement.

There are of course problems with allowing local authorities some power over education, but as demonstrated in the UK and US, this makes meeting local educational needs a lot more easier, as various authorities are more flexible in meeting the requirements of different communities.

The problem right now is that we have grown accustomed to a centralised government. Even opposition views on education many a times are based on the fact that the federal government has complete control over education, and makes no leeway for flexibility within the system.

cheers

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Our GREAT CARTOONIST LAT once drew on our Educational Policy - it depicted Malaysians sitting on a kereta lembu melaka, the bulls eyes were tied and it was pulling the cart, heading nowhere in a figure of 8.

Until this date that is the exact scenario with our Educational Policy.

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Look at New Era College. Isn't the catfight entertaining? No need to watch telenovelas.

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The big question here is why are the politicians, ministers, royalties, and the elites of the society sending their children to the private, international and overseas schools? Any reasonable thinking parents will want to send their children to the schools which they feel are better and provide a good education to them. It has nothing to do with the issue of creating disunity. This disunity talk is only created by the politicians, especially those from UMNO. If they are so concerned about disunity among the students, then stop the NEP and all the discriminating policies because these policies are moulding a rebellous mindset among the young non bumi students. If you the politicians don't believe it, please go and ask these young non bumi students. Simple as that!

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Prime Minister Badawi grandchildren/cucu is schooling in Garden Intl School, Mt Kiara! jangan main-main you!

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This is one of the first, if not the first, article by a Malay Malaysian that reflects what the Selangor Sultan calls "common sense" (unlike that of a political retard who recently called for the abolishment of vernacular schools). The merits of private schools are at least twofold. One, it promotes diversity, and secondly, it encourages competition. Diversity here involves more than a difference in the medium of instruction, though that's part of it, but also in approaches to education and allowances given to special ethnic, religious, and regional differences. Schools in Kelantan, for example, could include courses specific to the Thai-Malay religio-cultural background, which owes much to the state's relative isolation and rural as well as sea-based lifestyle. This would make education a much more relevant enterprise for Kelantanese, and perhaps more fun as well!

In addition to considerations for special regional, religio-cultural characteristics, some core unifying values could be taught during history and civics lessons. In addition, certain courses in maths and science could be made compulsory.

Now it's possible that some parents might prefer syllabi and pedagogy the oldfashioned way - that's where competition in the form of free choice comes in.

The US system follows roughly such a philosophy when it trusts the discretion of schoolboards to design their syllabi and hiring their own instructors. Financial aid is always available to schools which follow the broadest official guidelines, including those that stressed on ethnic cultures. In Minnesota, there're schools that cater specifically to nordic culture, such as the Finnish language school, which are entitled to financial aid. Diversity is a big thing in the US, and grandly celebrated. Thus we've Dutch culture celebrated in Pella, Iowa - a city with windmills and tulips - and Norwegian culture in many parts of the American midwest. Not to mention, of course, the Irish parades in New England states, where wearing the shamrock was a common sight. Even the Dragonboat festival is celebrated, and not only by the Chinese, so the occasional Malaysian tourist shouldn't be surprised to see Caucasians competing in such annual events. Similarly, the rise of Asian economies have motivated many states to include Mandarin in their school syllabi: for example, last year Minnesota State Representative Erik Paulsen (R-Eden Prairie) was moved to introduce legislation for intensive Mandarin programs in his state. Citing the reality of a global economy, Paulsen said that Americans "need to enhance foreign language instruction to meet the demand for proficiency in languages other than English."

The initial program for Minnesota was allocated 250,000 US dollars, with more on the way for the training and licensing of Mandarin-speaking teachers.

That Americans could be so far-sighted is one reason why they're a superpower. The support for diversity in language and culture didn't detract at all the patriotism most Americans have for their country. On the contrary, they solidified that unity even under present conditions of economic distress. A couple of years or so ago, worried about his state's economic performance, Washington State's former governor Gary Locke, an ethnic Chinese, stepped out of retirement to travel to Shanghai in order to invite Chinese investors to his country. This is what Malaysia could do - using ethnic Chinese and Indians and other ethnic groups to act as go-between for this country and the country of their ancestors. Emphasizing cultural affinities is one of the best ways to lure foreign nations to cooperate with us, and for that alone we need diversified systems of education.

It should also be noted that neither the Finns nor the Dutch nor the Chinese were America's largest group of taxpayers. Aid for these and other groups were based solely on human rights considerations as well as national cohesiveness. Such an attitude contrasts with this country, which is the ONLY one in the world where a minority group contributes about 90 percent of the country's taxes, only to be told by those who've wasted or swindled most of it that the major taxpayers ought to give up their school systems. The recent call by the son of our former dictator would elicit the admiration of Al Capone, whose famous last words were (not verbotim): "All my life, I tried to serve the public."

Old Al should be made an UMN0 patron saint, to accompany those who engineered May 13.

LChuah

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NOTE: Repeat posting removed

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