many parents like me often raise our arms in anguish over the education system in malaysia. although not very common place, i'd venture to say that many urban parents feel that the current public education system in the country is not designed to produce youths who can create value for our future.
consider the workplace: how many employers would generally prefer recruiting graduates from overseas as opposed to local grads? what are the average chances of being hired if you are a local grad versus an overseas grad?
fluency in english is only one aspect of the capabilities sought here. more importantly, employers seek graduates who have the the confidence to speak, and possess clear mental thought processes when faced with unusual issues, or problems.
much of the blame for the lack of competitiveness of our local graduates lays squarely at our local education system.
this is why those who can afford it, will likely send their kids to private schools.
but what about the rest of us who cannot afford to do so for all our children?
this is our anguish.
we send our children to day school, and send them to night tuition to provide additional insights into the subjects that were supposed to have been taught in school.
yet, when faced with issues, problems our children are not able to mentally process them and would finally ask if there are any model answers.
with the country needing to transform its economic model into one based on knowledge; the trends in our education outputs are most worrying to say the least.