THE CICAK.com

What’s become of our school system?

By KEITH LEONG

I miss my old schools.

Our education system today leaves much to be desired. The older generations always bemoan how it has declined (which begs the question: why did you let it get that way? - but that is beyond the scope of this article).

To be honest, I can hardly remember anything about either my secondary or primary schools any more. I do remember that I was underachieving and unhappy for long periods at both levels. Bullying and teasing tends to do that to children, especially sensitive little boys like me. But I also recall that I was able to find a little niche of my own, which allowed me to end my schoolboy days on a happy note.

I was lucky enough to have a group of friends, especially in my last two years of secondary school, who have been incredibly helpful and supportive of me. We are still friends until this day, and will be as long as we live. You can be sure that, whenever we hang out, the conversation will often drift towards our school antics in our day.

Their stories often remind me of how introverted I was back then, of how many milestones, subcultures, and sides of people I missed or simply was unaware of in my quest to survive the Blackboard Jungle. It’s surprising sometimes just to learn about how different from mine their take was/is on the issues they confronted at the time.

I look back on my old school photos. Even when my brother was in the same school as me I used to get free copies of the school yearbook, as I earnestly contributed my painfully adolescent poems annually to it. I try to remember what things felt like, how my friends were. How much we have changed! But I must say, for the better.

Still we will laugh, gossip, and significantly pause at our memories, like the prematurely old men that we are. I don’t think any of us would have expected to be reminiscing this fondly of our school when we were still there. No one does, I imagine.

But as Orwell said, no one can look back on his school days and say with truth that they were altogether unhappy. As corny sayings go, you don’t miss a good thing until it’s gone.

I have to say though, that you carry your school with you wherever you go. A total foreigner (albeit someone who was knowledgeable of Malaysia) once told me that I carried myself like a typical Petaling Jaya boy.

I’m always proud when my school gets brought up, in whatever light. I run into my old teachers, and those men or women who were so terrifying in the past are actually the nicest people in the world. It helps, I suppose, that I am an educator myself now.

There is always a sometimes gentle, sometimes painful stirring in my heart whenever I pass the old SRK or SMK, which is often as I live nearby both.

But the ghosts of the past are only faint now. So much has changed. It is an undeniable fact that it has now degenerated into a farcical race for qualifications, a bargaining chip for political factions and sectarian entities.

In my mind, there’s too much competitiveness, or kiasu-ism so to speak: the desire for my child to be the best or my race to do better than yours whenever we debate or plot out the education of our young citizens.

There is no real desire to truly learn, in itself and for the sake of itself, and not simply grab certificates and then hurry on to become doctors, lawyers, engineers or accountants.

There’s too much external pressure on educators and their administrators. They have to pander to government (read: political) policy, parental expectations (often psychotic) and - God knows why - the demands of the industry.

The fact is, however, that it should be those factors reacting to the needs of the educational system, not the other way around.

And yet, the respect for and prospects of a career in education are declining. It is no longer a noble profession - if it was ever treated that way - but is now merely a rather sad little puppet to be jerked around by the abovementioned forces.

I will not offer any master plan or agenda to get Malaysia out of its educational doldrums. I cannot impose my view upon the majority, and personally I doubt if anything I come up with will not end up making things much worse than before.

One thing I will state though is that as awful as things are, our schools are still producing well-rounded individuals who go on to make their families, country and, most importantly, themselves proud in various fields.

Perhaps this is in spite of our educational system rather than because of it, but face it: you can’t spend 11 years in a place or system without some of it rubbing off on you.

It surprises me, for instance, how people who were educated in far-off places like Perak or Kedah know the same dirty songs us boys used to sing in school here in the Federal Territory. Everyone, and I mean everyone, who has ever gone to school in Malaysia will have at least one good story on such diverse (but strikingly similar) topics like a gang fight, a quirky teacher, and of course that old favourite, ghost haunting.

For all the talk of racial or religious polarisation, the national education system has produced at least a basic template or set of symbols and values that every child who has gone through it is familiar with, even if they don’t share it. It is when those values are twisted or abused to further political agendas that things go wrong.

These are just some short notes about my thoughts on schools in Malaysia. One thing I will advocate is for everyone in or out of school to be proud of their institution. School spirit is something which will go a long way in building your character. There is no need to build Etons of the East or elite schools.

All we need is simple pride, or at least reverence of some kind to the places where we - like it or not - spent our formative years. That, I would argue, will be the turning point in our nation’s long struggle to provide a true education for its people.
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KEITH LEONG is a contributing writer for theCICAK.

Keith was born in Melaka, grew up in Damansara Jaya and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New South Wales, Sydney. He enjoys baroque music, grand epic movies and long walks. He still lives and works in Damansara Jaya.