Blueprint on track

Some significant progress has been made after the grand plan to transform the education system was launched last year. THE Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 launched last year, has achieved many goals one year on, but there’s still work to be done and goals to be achieved. Suffice to say, we are on track.

OnJune 17, I had the privilege to attend the one year report card launch of the implementation and execution of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 (the ‘Blueprint’).

The event was organised by PADU, the Education Performance and Delivery Unit of the Education Ministry whose primary function is to drive the progress while also supporting and facilitating the transformation of Malaysia’s education system through the implementation of the Blueprint.

Before delving into the report card I’d like to outline the motive as well as the sum and substance of the Blueprint.

The Malaysian government, recognising that education is the bedrock of any successful nation, sought to transform the education system in its totality in order to ensure that our children are well equipped to challenge the best in today’s ultra competitive world.

In line with this, the ministry highlighted six core traits that need to be inculcated into our students. They are knowledge, thinking skills, leadership skills, bilingual proficiency, ethics and spirituality, and national identity.

The vision is to create an education system that promotes the holistic development of our children through a comprehensive plan.

The Blueprint comprises three main waves of transformation with the first wave from 2013-2015, the second from 2016-2020 and the third from 2021-2025.

The first wave focuses on strengthening the current system while the second is centred on structural changes. The final wave is dedicated to scaling up the structural changes.

The common objective across the waves is the five aspirations of the Blueprint which is access to success, equity for all students, quality of a high international standard, unity among students and delivery with greater efficiency.

For the first wave several critical areas were targeted for dramatic changes. First among these is to increase literacy and numerate abilities of the students, second is to increase the quality of teachers, and third to strengthen the leadership in schools. Fourth is the strengthening and empowerment of the state education and district education departments and finally to ensure basic infrastructural needs are met by all schools.

Although only one year into this mammoth task, I was pleasantly surprised by the successes achieved by PADU over this short period.

Most notable is the success of introducing and revamping preschools within the national schooling system.

It does make sense to begin here as it is in line with the government’s aim to start our children’s academic endeavour at a younger age (4 years).

The enrolment of children into preschool has increased due to various government initiatives.

Among those is the creation of more public preschool classrooms and more grants offered to the private sector to aid them in increasing preschools.

The government also allocated and spent more money on aiding parents financially to pay preschool fees for their children. Besides this, we increased funding towards helping preschool teachers upgrade their academic qualifications.

To further strengthen the preschool system, the government created the National Preschool Information System to facilitate and ease data collection on preschools nationwide.

In order to ensure quality, the government created the National Preschools Quality System. All these will go a long way in achieving the government’s long term goals.

Other achievements included the transformation of vocational education programmes. More places were created to cater to students who wanted to pursue a vocational education in upper secondary school.

This effort was a result of cooperation and synergy with the Public Institute of Skills Training (ILKA) and Private Institute of Skill Training (ILKS) and was a result of high demand for such vocational courses. Special needs students were not left out and they were channelled to the National Secondary Special Needs Vocational Schools (SMPKV).

In 2013, 4.6% of post PMR students chose to pursue their education in the vocational stream and the ministry's objective is to attain 7.0% by 2014.

The ministry is also focused on developing Islamic education as well as sports and arts-based education so that children with different aptitudes,strengths and temperaments can have a platform to nurture their talents and interests.

On a more compassionate level, our nation has taken the lead with the formation of the Sekolah Bimbingan Jalinan Kasih or SBJK in Chow Kit which caters to students who are street kids and non-documented citizens.

Since August tast year, the school has had 108 students. Such a school is in line with the Ministry's creed of education for all children irrelevant to socio-economic or racial differentials.

Furthermore, the ministry has opened up 10 schools in selected hospitals to cater to students who have long term illnesses and need constant medical attention so that they don’t fall behind in the pursuit of an education.

Though all these achievements are noteworthy and highly encouraging, much needs to be done to ensure the timelines and mission of the Blueprint’s first wave are achieved. Among them are higher entry standards for new teachers and tailored on-the-ground teacher coaching to raise teaching standards. Uniform standards for Bahasa Malaysia (BM) have been rolled out at primary level, with remedial support for students struggling in BM and English.

Key outcomes of the second wave include 100% students literate in BM and numerate after three years of schooling, and also 92% preschool, 98% primary, 90% lower secondary, 85% upper secondary enrolment and a 25 % reduction in the urban-rural gap.

These lofty goals can be achieved if all stakeholders work together for the success of this noble game-changing transformation Blueprint. This isn't just a comprehensive document from the ministry or the government but one for all Malaysians mainly teachers, students, parents and private sector partners.

We must come together in supporting the government which is committed to achieving this grand transformation for all Malaysians present and future.

Education is a means for social mobility and a key to a better future. In some ways, education is the process of liberating one’s mind from ignorance and allowing wisdom and knowledge to flourish.

In that sense it’s my humble wish and sincere prayer that we celebrate our Merdeka in the same spirit and embrace our unity while discarding our prejudices. Happy Merdeka to all Malaysians at home and the world over.

> The Malaysia Education Blueprint is available at www.padu.edu.my

The writer P Kamalanathan is Deputy Education Minister. He welcomes feedback via Twitter @PKamalanathan

This is the second in a series of articles for this column which will appear every fortnight.

It will also see the contributions of Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh and Deputy Education Minister Datuk Mary Yap who will share their views on various education-related issues.