Government urged to restructure national education system
The government should restructure the existing national education system to make it more holistic and can be used for the next 20 to 30 years, a Puteri Umno delegate, Idamoerni Zakaria said today.
She said although the existing education system was a blend of the best education systems from various sources, including developed countries, it consisted of too many ingredients that it burdened the children.
"Yes, some can be practised, but majority of the children cannot. In the end, the concept of memorising without understanding happens and this continues until they go to university. The result, our aim of producing a rounded human capital turns into something like half-cooked rice," she said when supporting the motion on religion and education at the Umno general assembly here today.
Idamoerni suggested that the government formed a special committee, comprising experts, to carry out a long term plan prior to the implementation of an education policy to ensure its contents met current needs.
Expressing Puteri Umno's support on efforts to make vocational and technical (voctech) studies as the mainstream education, she said efforts to enhance voctech was important to change the society's perception of it being second class education or for those who failed academically.
To enhance the symbiotic relationship between voctech and the industry, Puteri Umno suggested that the government gave incentives, like tax exemption for companies which accepted voctech graduates.
Idamoerni said Puteri Umno also wanted the government to study the formulation of a single stream education system in line with efforts to promote the 1Malaysia concept.
"The government has made a lot of changes and improvements in empowering national schools, but the frequent changes often confused and create problems to various parties, including teachers, students and parents, as well as involve high cost," she added.
She also suggested that the learning methodology in the Permata programme, which had been proven successful in moulding a more happier, confident, disciplined, controlled and caring child, be absorbed into the national education system, right from early education to pre-school and from primary school to secondary school.
"This is the human capital we dreamt of," she added.