In The Minds of Young Malaysians

Parents: What do you think about pre-schooling education system in Malaysia?

The Malaysia pre-schooling education system started to develop since 1986. Under section 22 of the Education Act 1996 – Programmes and activities of every kindergarten shall follow the curriculum guidelines for kindergartens approved by the Minister. In 2003, the Ministry of Education officially directed every kindergarten to comply with the standard syllabus.

Comparing the pre-schooling education system in Malaysia with other countries in Asia, Japan and China,we can see that these two countries have used the similar syllabus like us for example but they have gave different priority to each syllabus;

(i)  Japan emphasis on: Health, Society, Language, Natural and Music;
(ii) China emphasis on: Health, Language, Society, Science and Art;
(iii)Malaysia emphasis on: Language & Communication, Cognitive Development, Moral, Social & Emotion, Physical Development, Creativity & Esthetic

Japan and China respectively concerned more on the health’s issue and therefore have allocated plenty of outdoor activities, group discussion and music in their syllabus. As a result, we can observe that the children in Japan and China have grown up healthily and less pressure as compared to the children in Malaysia.

Challenges of pre-schooling in Malaysia
1.    Most of the parents pre-decided what they want teachers to teach to their children;
2.    Parents lacking of knowledge and awareness on pre-schooling education system. Hence they are unaware that some of the teaching method does not comply with the curriculum of Malaysia and the standard of pre-schooling system.

There are Five Thrust in MP9:
1) To move the economy up the value chain;
2) To raise the capacity for knowledge and innovation and nature “First Class Mentality”;
3) To address persistent socio-economic inequalities constructively and productively;
4) To improve the standard and sustainability of quality of life;
5) To strengthen the institutional and implementation capacity.

In MP9, a total of RM220 billion are allocated in the field of economic, social, security and general administration. There are about 23,000 projects involved and almost 30% projects were implemented up-to-date.

Through this MP9, the Prime Minister is trying to reduce the expenditure in order to reduce the gap of over-spending, while consolidating the savings fund and the capability in crisis management.

Meanwhile, a new concept of “Regional Development”, which covers the whole of Malaysia, from Northern region to the Eastern Coast, was also introduced in MP9 as a means to develop as a whole despite geographical or ethnic barriers.

The government intended to eliminate the hard core poverty (monthly income less than RM300) from 1.5% to 0% by year 2010. Meanwhile, the poverty rate (monthly income about RM1,500) will be reduced from 5.7% to 2.8%. In order to reduce the income gap between different ethnicities, the effort to “expand the economic cake” needs to be accelerated and strengthened.

MP9 not only for economic expansion but also with elements of social and education but also to address the imbalance between the poor and rich and between the ethnicities.

Education is very important to up-lift the income of the poor, specifically in the long term. Meanwhile, the skill up-grading, in the short term should be emphasized, to enhance the competitive capability.

However, the efficiency of the implementation process and it’s evaluation become the main concern as a whole.