KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 — The Malaysia United Democratic Alliance (Muda) wants to revolutionalise education in the country.
The fledgling Opposition party led by Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman told hundreds of party members at its assembly here today that while Malaysia has a generous budget for education and that it was already overspending compared to allocations in Singapore and Japan, there were no results to show for it.
“We spend so much on education but the middle class families who previously chose national schools are willing to spend over 25 per cent of their income to send them to private schools,” the former youth and sports minister said.
He also shared what he called a “Black Paper” that purported to contain Muda’s policies on education reform following two months of engagement with 500,000 people nationwide.
He claimed the current Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system, which is handled by six ministries, has failed to work.
“I wanted to propose a TVET ministry to take charge and ensure the system improves and is beneficial to the country,” he said in his speech.
Among his reform proposals is to let students aged 16 choose if they wanted to enter a TVET institution where they will graduate with a diploma in two years, that will provide them a better paper qualification to enter the workforce at age 18.
He also suggested that local universities learn from US and European tertiary education institutions in trimming the number of core subjects required for students to complete their courses.
Muda deputy president Amira Aisya Abdul Aziz also spoke on education reform in her speech, saying changes need to be made to primary and secondary schools to bring Malaysians students up to speed with their peers in developed countries.
She spoke further on Muda’s Black Paper in a later news conference, explaining that the document proposed fresh ideas to make education a driver for economic growth.
Muda also organised three fora in conjunction with today’s assembly.
The party held one policy debate and three fora to present the findings of its Malaysia Maju campaign.
Amira Aisya added that the findings, together with Muda’s policies, will be posted online after the events.
