Unified nation

Following the recent General Election, Malaysia faces calls for more unity amongst its citizens as the races become more and more polarised. I believe one of the reasons for this polarisation is because of our education system which divides our citizens into schools according to race. While this may not be part of our education policy, in reality parents perceive that the best chances for their children is to be educated in their mother tongue. This is a misnomer since the Chinese speak several different dialects while Chinese schools teach in Mandarin which the majority of Chinese dont speak at home and the Tamil schools cater only to Tamils and not to the other Indian ethnicities of Malaysia.

Parties on both sides of the political divide have historically been opposed to unifying our education system so that all public school students go to just one type of school. This feeling stems from before independence when the British introduced Tamil schools for the Indian labour force, who mainly worked in the plantations sector, and Chinese schools for the Chinese who were imported as manual labour. Other schools used English as a medium of instruction with a few, mainly at primary level, using Malay. In 1970, the government began to introduce Malay as the language of instruction in all national schools although the Chinese and Tamil schools were allowed to keep operating as before so long as they offered Malay, a mandatory subject for all schools, and kept to the National Curriculum.

This has led to national schools being populated mostly by Malays while the Chinese and Indians have shunned national schools in favour of schools which offer an education in their own language. A Centre for Public Policy Studies report in February 2012 indicates that one reason for this is that the Chinese and Indians view national schools as providing an inferior education. Another is the perception that national schools are becoming more and more Islamicised.

Now that the electorate has voted against race-based politics with the routing of the Malaysian Indian Congress and the Malaysian Chinese Association (both components of the ruling coalition) and, by inference, racial policies, it is time for us to go forward as one united nation rather than a conglomeration of different races, each interested only in advancing their particular culture. We should start at unifying our school system. When children play and learn together, they do not see the differences. My cousins daughter, who recently graduated high school, says that her multicultural education provided her with the means to understand and respect different cultures. As she enters university, she says that this understanding will help her to find a job in our ever-shrinking globalised world.

University of Washingtons Dr James A Banks, a respected leader in multicultural education, in an interview last year with NEA (National Education Association) Today suggested that a multicultural education was essential to foster citizen participation in a democratic society. When people dont participate, when people dont know each other, this just further polarizes. True, he was speaking about education in the US, however, I believe the same holds true wherever you are in the world. Humanity is universal and is not restricted to one race or one nation.

One problem with implementing a unified schooling system is that most teachers have not been taught how multiculturism should be advanced. A 2008 study by Universiti Sains Malaysia student, Najeemah Mohd Yusuf, indicated that the majority of teachers in national schools (who are mostly Malay) do not know how to implement multicultural practices into their curriculum since they have not been taught what multiculturism is nor how it should be contained in their teaching materials.

And how do you go about dismantling a system that most parents think is best for their child? Not to mention that the two largest minority races feel that their rights would be impinged upon if the government were to abolish mother tongue education.

In a conversation I had with a friend who went to a Chinese school, she tells me that she doesnt feel the Chinese system works for most children. Yes, they learn discipline and learn early on the mechanics of science and maths. However, she says that the system of rote learning they use does not promote critical thinking. When it was time to enter secondary education, her parents sent her to a convent school which taught in English. She says that she found it particularly difficult switching to another language and that the Chinese school didnt prepare her for the real world in which people come from all cultures and backgrounds. She admits that she had very few friends of other races at primary school and wishes that it wasnt so.

A widely held perception is that school leavers of Chinese and Tamil schools lack the English skills necessary to find a good job. This is also true of graduates of national schools but vernacular school graduates cannot speak Bahasa (Malay) with any competence and that means that employment opportunities are very limited for this group of students. (I do not include Chinese private schools in this category which do quite a good job of preparing their students for adult life.) While I could not obtain hard statistics on the fate of our vernacular school graduates, anecdotal evidence suggests that a sizeable proportion of them end up either in menial jobs or in gangs. According to a dissertation, Racial Inequality and Affirmative Action in Malaysia and South Africa, written in 2010 by Lee Hwok-Aun of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the rate of unemployment among Chinese and Indian secondary school leavers rose between 1995 and 2004 whereas unemployment rates among bumiputeras (mainly Malay and some indigenous tribes) fell from 6% to 4.8% in the same period. Those who do well have usually transferred to other schools at secondary level, as my friend did, and thus have had to mingle with those of other races.

There are many parents, and other concerned parties, who argue that going to a unified school means that one has to give up ones culture and identity. Dong Jiao Zong, the guardians of Chinese education, says that sending children to national schools will erode their identity as Chinese and that it is imperative that Chinese students keep their cultural roots. While I agree that it is necessary to know ones roots, I would also argue that they are doing a great disservice to the Chinese community by making sure they are segregated from the mainstream the Malays who make up the majority in Malaysia.

With political will, it can be made possible to attend classes in a unified school in Malay and/or English with other languages and cultures offered as electives. It is also possible to repeal the law which stops schools from offering religious knowledge as a subject. What would it mean for our children if they could learn each others religions and cultures and understand the

significance of certain rituals and taboos? Would that not make us more tolerant of each other?

There are many rocks on the way towards a unified education system. The government will have to address issues of poor quality teaching, the perceived Islamification of national schools and the attitudes of the parents themselves; and they will have to ensure that teachers in national schools are culturally sensitive. It will not be easy but, at the end of the day, do we want to see our children embroiled in bitter race disturbances because they did not grow up together and do not understand each other?