Malaysia – a tropical nation blessed with a vibrant multicultural background, favourable geographical conditions and a considerable abundance of natural resources. The nation I am born into is one that I feel proud to be a native of, yet it is irrefutable that while our nation does prove itself quite a model for the neighbouring nations of ASEAN, saying Malaysia has much room remaining for improvement is somewhat of an understatement. Many issues persist within Malaysian society, and there is much to be absolved before we can declare ourselves a great nation with a wonderful environment and innovative people. With that in mind, what we require most are dedicated, just leaders and officers to lead our people in shaping a better society, as well as an intelligent society equipped with soft skills and adequate knowledge.

As a student and an aspiring speaker, I spend much of my time poring over my studies and seeking options to further my studies, but at the same time quenching my thirst for information on current issues and history, as well as analysing major events and policies on both national and international levels. Being a girl who has lived in my country as well as abroad for several years, I have also had the opportunity to bear witness to the discrepancies between the youths of Malaysia as well as those of other regions. There is a classic Malay saying that, when translated directly to English, means “young men are the hope of the nation, and young women are the pillars of the country”. Similar phrases exist in other languages and cultures, highlighting how humanity acknowledges that their future rests on the shoulders of youngsters. With that in mind, I believe that the growth and education of every new generation is the key to create a brilliant future for Malaysia, for they are the to-be leaders of the country, and it is absolutely necessary that the ones guiding our country to a better future are brought up to be knowledgeable, sharp and trustworthy. Therefore, I would remedy the education system of our nation to bring about a better future for the country.

Before I begin my proposal, the flaws in our current education system need to be addressed. For one thing, it can be said that students are essentially spoon-fed information by their educators rather than given the opportunity to digest knowledge and apply them on their own. Basically, the current syllabus is less about genuinely absorbing knowledge and places heavy emphasis on techniques to answer exam questions. For science and mathematics, students are simply given several different question models and made to repeatedly answer the questions using more or less the same techniques without proper exposure to problems that would require any sort of thinking out of the box. This policy even goes as far as to apply to non-objective subjects such as languages. For instance, Malay literature (better known as KOMSAS) plays a prominent role in the subject of the Malay language. However, rather than allowing students to analyse the poems and various works of literature on their own and to develop their own subjective opinions on the plot, characters and the authors’ writing techniques, students are given all this information in the form of notes by their teachers, and are required to answer questions about the works purely using the sheaf of notes given to them free of charge, without the need to actually read a word of the actual writing. Therefore, with the tools they need to answer the questions at hand, students are less incentivised to read the novels and anthologies, and so fewer students would actually be able to generate personal perceptions of these works, which may prove to be valuable reads. Even HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) questions, which were initially meant to challenge students’ problem-solving ability in examinations have proven to be predictable questions students can simply solve with answers provided by their teachers, due to the fact that answers for such questions are usually standardised – an ironic marking scheme for such questions. Academics-wise, as soon as students complete their exams and graduate from their schools, they have merely grown to be machines programmed to answer exam questions with specific techniques, without any need for critical thinking or creativity. Regrettably, our education system has proved itself ineffectual in stimulating cognitive thinking or real-life application in our nation’s students.

Another major issue is the organisation of co-curricular activities in schools. It is understood that clubs and school societies were implemented in order to train students’ skills in organisation, communication and leadership. Promising students are allowed to run for positions in their clubs such as president, secretary, treasurer and so on. Unfortunately, this has not been a howling success, due to a simple reason – little significance is placed on co-curricular activities, even in secondary schools. The largest contributor to the problem would be the over-emphasis on academic performance and the applied importance of examinations. As such, schools tend to direct most of their resources and time towards academics and training their educators, and comparatively less towards co-curricular activities. Co-curricular clubs in many schools are not placed in charge of organising many activities for the school, and they rarely engage in external events. As such, clubs mostly keep to themselves, only focusing on internal society activities. For instance, members of art clubs would spend their allotted club time drawing and painting, and occasionally making time for recreational activities, but are not in charge of organising art competitions, or exhibitions to display the students’ works. It can therefore be inferred that club committee members usually only have their jurisdiction limited to in-club activities, merely being in charge of arranging timetables for their clubs and briefly updating their supervising teachers on the condition of the clubs. Evidently, all their performance purely remains within their comfort zone, and students are not challenged in terms of leadership and organisational skills in the manner that they could have been. Therefore, skills such as relationship-building, communication, decision-making and systematic planning are not cultivated during the students’ youth, and are mostly left for the hardships of adulthood to develop. Exceptions of the status quo would be students who independently seek opportunities without the aid of their school to develop themselves, and even so they are the minority. Due to the disparity of significance between academic and co-curricular life, most students are complacent when it comes to co-curricular activities and tend to focus most of their attention towards academics, and give minimal effort for their club activities. In a nutshell, co-curriculum has not been successful in nurturing capable, firm leaders for the future, and this has to be amended.

With the issues in mind listed above, I suggest that the education system be modelled in a way that encourages cognitive absorption of knowledge and critical judgement in the classroom, and fosters proactivity, creativity and leadership within students outside the classroom. First would be the remedy for classroom education - for language and non-STEM subjects which are mostly subjective, students should be given the liberty to explore opinions and think freely rather than being coerced to conform to standardized answers for the sake of obtaining marks. Rather than limiting all this to textbooks and exercise questions, teachers could have students engage in discussions or debates regarding relatively subjective topics or even current issues. With the practical and theoretical use of language and knowledge put into action in the classroom, students would find themselves applying what they have learned in the form of such activities. Being able to develop the ability to speak up publicly would be another potential advantage. For STEM subjects, I suggest expansion on knowledge and information for subjects within the curriculum. I believe that the current scope the curriculum covers is sufficient to prepare students with basic information necessary for further studies in either tertiary education or society itself. Still, seeing as most of this information merely scratches the surface of the topic without much in-depth discussion of their core principles, it would be wise to delve even deeper into the information delivered for every subject. Essentially, this challenges the students’ minds even more than before with more layers of evidence and principles supporting the knowledge they gain in class. Due to the extra challenges presented, this provides an incentive for students to be more flexible in class, to learn to adapt to the reality that there are various explanations for a problem or multiple perspectives from which a problem can be studied. Compared to memorising without question, this would prove a better strategy to educate, and students are given a fresh breath of air from the relatively stiff learning methods which are the norm in our existing curriculum.

For co-curricular education, I propose that schools provide students with more resources and incentives to engage in both internal and external activities with deeper enthusiasm. Youngsters are more independent and forward-thinking than some adults may imagine, and can be extremely resourceful and innovative when left to their own devices. Therefore, they should be given a certain degree of freedom to explore their options, though subtle help from the school would still be required. First, rather than purely resources in the form of subsidies or tools for club sessions, schools would do well to provide their students with opportunities for external exposure in the name of the school, such as summer camps, student exchange programmes, and collaborative activities with other schools, both nationally and internationally if possible. Contact and co-operation with students of different schools and possibly nationalities would prove an eye-opener, therefore encouraging friendly competition and instilling a thirst for improvement. Why would this be an effective method? Arguably, the recognition given to a representative of a school would be a valuable asset for a student, especially for university or college applications. The more extracurricular achievements a student has, the better their chances of getting accepted into university. Plus, younger and impressionable students would be more curious and interested to venture into external activities, which they may have not experienced before, and they generally have more time to spare for participation compared to older students preparing for upcoming exams. As such, students who are motivated to join these programmes obtain experience and exposure, and as their experience accumulates the stronger their interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. Due to this, they would be inclined to recommend the experience to other students, or even to reinforce their skills within their own society or club. Hence, proactivity begins to exist within their clubs, spurring them to improve and expand their society through more active sessions. By extension, it would also encourage mutual trust, teamwork and cooperation between the members, driving them to learn to work with others, to build expectations and to meet them as well. Plus, team collaboration also stimulates members to understand their partners, and allows them to improve their relationship-building skills, communication skills and so on. Co-curricular activities can be an excellent outlet for students to enjoy time outside of school, while at the same time being productive and enhancing skills and strengths. Therefore the significance of co-curricular activities are not to be overlooked – if anything, it should be encouraged even more.

To summarise, I believe that educating the younger generations of the country properly would be a key move in leading Malaysia towards a brighter future. I strongly reiterate that while the country’s literacy rate is not by any means low, the fact remains that amends must be made towards the education system. Education should not be limited only to academic performance and excellence in exams, but should also include preparing a student to face life resourcefully, intelligently and wisely. Youngsters must begin that preparation at an early age, with an open-minded attitude and a love for learning that educators should encourage rather than take for granted. As experience comes with age, along with it comes wisdom. If the people of our country have youngsters under the care of a comprehensive and holistic education system, I am optimistic that we will also have an intelligent people and impeccable leaders in the future to tackle Malaysia’s goal of improvement and unity.