Over at Malaysiakini, plenty of news were popping up over the state of education in Malaysia. Before I go into that, I wonder why they change the Sejarah textbook for secondary school? Surely history doesn’t change? I found out because my #3 son was looking through his #1 brother’s books to find out if these books are newer and in better condition than those he got from bantuan buku. My #1 passed to #2 and hence, those Form 1 books are only ‘two-hands’ whilst the ones he got from bantuan buku is the fourth hand.
Anyway, most of the books are the same. But the Sejarah textbook has been changed. I didn’t check through to find out what are the differences. Maybe I should. But my two older children told the #3, they changed the history book because they found out Hang Jebat is a Chinese man so they wiped him off history. Which caused my #3 to asked me, “If that’s the case, does this mean they have also changed the Bible?” And that lead him to ask me so many challenging questions like, “How do we know the Bible is not written by some scribes who were drunk or high on drugs?” Now, I am sweating because I have offered to teach catechism class to Form One youths. I asked my son, “Eh, are you the only one who thinks like this or does all your catechism class from previous years also ask such questions? Like this your ma must go tell the church, I resign!” He told me, “You don’t know ah? We drove our Std. 6 catechism class teachers crazy las year.” Ok ok, I digressed too far.
Now, about these news that I have been seeing on Malaysiakini.
The Chinese students will be wondering why DAP and MCA are fighting over the Damansara Chinese primary school which changed its name to SJKC Chung Hwa. The Chinese students will be thinking that we adults are morons who cannot even decide if we are concern about the students or are we concern about name and face value. (ref : Malaysiakini article on School stars, as does new dispute)
The Indian students will be wondering if the adults are concern about improving their education or are the adults care more on who earns the most from all those grass-cutting and canteen services. (Malaysiakini : Scandal hits MIC’s education arm)
The Malays students and in fact all students will be getting mixed message. The Government tells them to study Science and Mathematics in English. Some NGOs are fighting and contemplating suing the Government to revert back to Bahasa Malaysia. (malaysiakini ” Gapena tetap ambil tindakan undang-undang)
Let’s put ourselves in the students’ shoes. With these kind of childish squabbles, corruptions, indecisive policies and etc, do you think our students can even respect adults anymore? Mind you, these are all the results of bad governance. Political parties fighting, priorities displaced and corruptions.
I think those parties who are in involved in these never even think twice about the kind of message they are sending to the children. They are blinded by their own ambitions, pockets and pride.
There’s hardly any history taught in schools for many years now. It’s full of crap and bullshit. Some years ago I looked at my kids’ history books and was amazed to discover some characters who looked more like pirates. But other countries have also tried to change history the same way.
Er…maybe the kids are too preoccupied with their Starbucks, Wii, PS2 or is it 3, latest gadgets and handphones, drama series than to take an interest in what the adults are arguing about? Afterall, Malaysian kids have always been brainwashed to mind their own business and stay out of politics.
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Malaysia’s future is screwed up by the screwed up politicians. I really pity today’s kids as the flip-flop policy is not helping but hampering their future.
I pity the parents too as they have to work so hard to send their kids to a decent school so that the kids will be successful in the future. 🙁
Angie Tan´s last blog post..Slow Start for 2009
i believe all good education begins at home, also, i understand almost every country have changed or altered their history books at some point, so it’s no big deal. if ppl are so concerned abt history, how come only a handful ppl pay visit to museum?
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I heard about the Hang Jebat thingy a couple years back. I do wonder. Now that Jebat is chinese, does that mean Chinese will get bumiputra status? Hehe~ 🙂
Aiyo, I banyak sakit hati when I think of the bad governance. These people act like God doesn’t exist. Buang karan saja mau cakap apa yang berbuku di hatiku. What goes around comes around. Those people will have to pay, soon!
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well said.
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I think you are probably right. I did think about the Damansara Chinese primary school because it was one of the biggest things that happened. Then again my dad brought me into politcs very early so I was quite aware.
Sadly though, I wish I’d know if the current young ones think like us back then or not.
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