Formalise political education in country's education system, says expert

SHAH ALAM - With the implementation of Undi18, youths in the country will be a force to be reckoned with during the 15th General Election (GE15).

However, are they ready enough to cast their vote to guarantee a better nation?

KRA Group analyst Nabill Wan Kamaruddin said the political parties in the country should be more pragmatic in addressing the needs of the masses.

He said the education system in the country needed to start institutionalising political education in the syllabus.

“Firstly, political parties or the manifestos need to be pragmatic, they should address the needs of the people as efficiently as possible but what I would like to advocate right now is for more political education to be formalised and institutionalised in the education system,” he said.

Nabill was speaking as one of the panellists on Sinar Daily's Wacana English Edition programme entitled “GE15: The Young and New Changemakers” on Friday.

He said there were only two chapters in the school History textbook that covered the topic on separation of power and the responsibility of the constitution.

He added that there were also very limited topics on political knowledge in the textbook.

“(However) there's little or no mention about what a manifesto is, what a political narrative is and how a typical MP would profile themselves as well as what is expected of them,” he said.

He said those who talk about politics in the classroom were often being looked down upon and a lot of social activists and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were pushing for political education.

“The common pushback is that “we do not want to be political in the classroom”, but all these details can be included in the syllabus without being partisan,” he added.

Besides Nabill, the other panellists on the programme were former Kepong MP Tan Seng Giaw and songwriter and musician Takahara Suiko.