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Continued ……….

Education should never be politicised. Unfortunately, in Malaysia everything is politics unless stated otherwise. When I started my Standard 1 in 1979, the education system had already been converted from English to Bahasa Malaysia. If I am not mistaken, I was the 2^nd batch of Standard 1 which was conducted in BM. English was thought as a second language. However, we were still a lucky batch of students as the books were still Cambridge books translated into Malay. Our teachers, almost all of them had excellent English language proficiency as they were educated in English medium. My school was a missionary school which is technically a semi-aided school. I did not see any racial or religious issues within my school. The Malays, Indians and Chinese were all playing, studying and eating together. Our canteen was run by a Chinese family till I completed my Form 6 in 1991. There was no such rule as only Muslims owners can run public canteens. They don’t sell pork or beef to respect everyone’s religious requirements. The vernacular schools on the other end were dying a slow death. Many non-Malays wanted to enrol themselves into national schools as they expected to be treated equally. My father, who was once a Tamil school Headmaster before becoming a national schoolteacher (after doing a degree), decided to send all of us to a national school albeit a missionary school (the top schools at that time). He still says that the reason he did so is to make us Malaysians. Many small Chinese and Tamil schools were on the verge of closing down by late 1980s due to lack of enrolment.

Unfortunately, after 1981 everything changed. The quota system of universities was in full force. MARA colleges and boarding schools were raised everywhere since 1970s to cater for a single race. Scholarships were limited to non-Bumiputras. Civil servants were reserved for a single race. As more and more non-Malay teachers began to retire, the pool of teachers were predominantly Malays by early 2000. Worst still, unemployed graduates were recruited as teachers under KPLI (Kursus Perguruan Lepasan Ijazah) program. When my daughter went to Convent JB in 2011, there was only 1 non-Malay teacher in the entire afternoon session!

As I said earlier, the government must lead by example. On one end, you claim vernacular schools are causing disunity but on the other end, you do the same. I remember very clearly how most of my Malay friends disappeared after Standard 5 (before UPSR, lower school exams were held when you were in Standard 5) to MARA colleges, Agama schools, boarding schools and royal military college. Another batch of my remaining Malay friends disappeared after Form 3 SRP exams (PTK equivalent), also to MARA colleges, Agama schools and boarding schools. By the time I reach Form 4, the entire science stream only had 1 Malay student. By Form 6, all my classes were filled with only non-Malays. The remaining Malays who use to come from other schools to my school for Form 6 Science classes disappeared within 2 months, as they enrolled into university run matriculation system. Mind you, my school (St Paul’s Institution) was one of the premier top schools in Negeri Sembilan. By removing the Malay students to agama schools, boarding schools, MARA colleges and Matriculation, the government was basically doing the same. Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore took 20 years to abolish the vernacular schools in Singapore. Did he do it overnight by just banning the schools? Nope. He created a merit-based system, a common language of English with mother tongue language as mandatory 2^nd language, offered scholarship to Chinese school top scorers to move to national schools which is valid till they reach university, no religious elements in school curriculum etc. The vernacular schools died a natural death. You can read this in his book “My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore’s Bilingual Journey”.

By mid 1990s, many non-Malay parents were moving their children back to vernacular schools. A new national education system was introduced in 1983 known as KBSR and KBSM. Religious education was made a mandatory subject for Muslims and as part of the national curriculum. Prior to this, it was not part of the national education curriculum. We had a period, if I can remember, once or twice a week known as POL (People’s own language) classes. The Muslims will go to Pengajian Agama Islam class whereas the Indians will go to Tamil classes and Chinese to Chinese classes. I grew up in this system and KBSR and KBSM did not affect me as it only affected those who started their Standard 1 in 1983 onwards. When KBSR and KBSM was introduced, these POL classes were abolished and replaced with Pendidikan Moral for the non-Muslims. The mother tongue language classes were abolished for good under the new national education policy known as KBSR and KBSM. Some schools still continued with these as an optional out of ordinary classes. These were done after school hours. Language is an asset to a country but we decided to do the opposite.

With the formal introduction of religious education into our education system from 1983 onwards, the national schools slowly but surely were moving towards a monoethnic and mono religious centric schools. The Ustaz and Ustazah became very influential. MOE barred any other religious events or celebration in schools by 1990s. Openly telling the Muslims students that non-Muslims are kafirs who only deserve to go to hell were a norm. Islamic religious activities were held openly including saying daily prayers during assembly. The non-Muslims became very anxious, uneasy and started to move their kids out of the national schools. Religion should never be part of any official education system. It only serves to divide people. By 2000s, these phenomena had become toxic enough that many decided not to even send their children to national schools.

What options does these parents had? The cheapest option is to send to vernacular schools. Vernacular schools were becoming very popular and some schools did not even have enough classes to accommodate everyone. Schools that were on the verge of shutting down by early 1990s got a new lifeline. Many non-Chinese, including the Malays began to send their children to Chinese medium schools. If I am not mistaken, the current statistics shows that close to 20% of students in Chinese schools are non-Chinese.

By 2004 under the leadership of our new PM Abdullah Badawi, another new “education policy” started to take place. International schools which were once only available for expats or to students who had at least 1 parent being a foreigner, were allowed to take Malaysian citizens. It started with 30% quota but by 2008, almost 100% of the students can be Malaysians. These created another mess in our education system. Mushrooming of private and international schools started. It’s all about making money, I guess. Now, we not only have racially and religiously divided nation by education but also a class divide. The “Bangsa Malaysia” of Wawasan 2020 were just going down the drain. So, whoever who claim that the vernacular schools are the cause of disunity, think again. Digest what had happened and look at yourself. Assimilation will NEVER occur if everyone is not treated equally. That’s the reality.

To be continued……………….