SHAH ALAM - The government needs to focus on efforts to improve the quality of education if it wants to see parents choose national schools as their preferred option for their children's education in the future.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's (UKM) education expert Professor Dr Anuar Ahmad said the employability of national schools could be enhanced if the issues raised by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) related to education were addressed.
He pointed out issues such as the dilapidated condition of schools, especially primary schools in rural areas, overcrowded classrooms and the shortage of teachers, which require immediate attention.
"The trend of increasing enrollment in Chinese (Type) National Schools (SJKC) and international schools shows that there are some unsatisfactory aspects in national schools,” he said in a recent interview with Sinar.
"In the past, parents sent their children to national schools because they were nearby. But now, the decision is no longer based on the school's location. Many parents are now considering other factors,” he added.
According to Anuar, if these problems persist, parents will continue to choose alternatives, such as sending their children to SJKC or international schools, because of better teaching systems, student discipline and quality educators.
He noted that the trend had been ongoing for some time, but in recent years, the number of non-Chinese parents sending their children to schools other than national schools had been on the rise.
"If the infrastructure issues, the problem of teachers being burdened with non-teaching duties and the poor state of classrooms are not addressed, I think this trend will continue to increase in the future,” he warned.
He also said that the development would have significant implications for the national education system, which was originally designed to build a unified nation with a strong sense of national identity.
Anuar said that the educational developments faced by Malaysia were one of the major challenges, especially when compared to neighbouring countries like Singapore and Indonesia, where all students attend government-run national schools.
"We are talking about a national education system, but are we making progress towards building such a system? Is the Malay language going to be the primary language of the national education system? If you go to SJKC, you will certainly use Mandarin as the medium of instruction and in international schools, English is the medium,” he said.
On Monday, three panellists—former Education Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin, former Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Ahmad Masrizal Muhammad and University of Nottingham Malaysia School of Politics and International Relations Associate Professor Dr Tricia Yeoh—came up with 20 recommendations during the Meja Bulat session on Malaysia's Education System: After 60 years, where did we go wrong?