KUALA LUMPUR, April 25 — Education plays a vital role in fostering national unity and building a framework for social wellbeing, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator P. Waytha Moorthy today.
“A peaceful and united country with happy citizens provides the foundation which enables healthy education to take place.
“At the same time, good education is necessary to enable and sustain unity and practise good social well-being. Therefore, the importance of fostering national unity through education cannot be underestimated,” he said at the National Education and Learning Submit 2019 here.
At the event themed “Education and Learning in a Fast-Changing and Disruptive World”, he also stressed that students must go beyond “book smarts” and called for education and learning to move towards a goal of mutual understanding and empathy, especially among students of different races and religions.
“Our education must take a step back and consider a model that incorporates more than grade chasing and knowledge accumulation.
“There is nothing wrong in championing one’s uniqueness, be it race, religion, or culture. But it does become wrong when we make enemies out of those who are different from us,” he said.
The summit is to discuss themes related to Malaysia’s education sector reform, and to focus on global citizenship education and education for sustainable development.
It brings together education experts, educationalists, policymakers and industry leaders to discuss these issues in an attempt to make Malaysian education world-class.
