POLICY 5:

STAKEHOLDERS' INVOLVEMENT IN THE POLICYMAKING PROCESS

POLICY 5 INFOGRAPHICS

As part of the systemic change, this initiative will promote more attunement to the realities of the target groups which are diverse and cannot accept blanket policies. A study shows that deepening democracy by involving stakeholders such as students can significantly improve school performance. (1)



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By MUHAMMAD AKMAL

Representative,

Ministry of Education,

Dewan Muda Malaysia.

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DATE AND TIME

Sunday, 31 Oct 2021

3.20 PM MYT







RELATED NEWS

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(A) Student representation in the decision-making process

Students have the greatest stake in their education but little to no say in how it is delivered. The majority of university administrators do not allow their students to participate in decision-making at their institutions. They claim that the main issue confronting their universities is student alienation from decision-making. Students are given a voice, but in fact, they cannot participate directly in the decision-making process. There is no meaningful participation of students in deciding some of the issues that directly concern them.

When the government makes standard operating procedures (SOP) for university students, they do not involve any student representation during the decision-making process. Student participation in higher education decision-making is often seen as problematic, as students can be viewed as minors, immature, and inadequate to make higher education decisions.

Problem Statement

Many students are dissatisfied with some decisions that unfavourably affect them because they have been excluded from the decision-making process.

Solutions

  1. Let students participate in the decision-making process because they know their own interests and situations best.

  2. Foster new talents by involving students in leadership programmes to produce competent leaders.

  3. Strengthen intergenerational collaboration between the older generation and the younger generation so that the younger generation can learn from the older generation about important skill requirements in decision-making, while the older generation can take fresh new ideas from younger generations

Brief objectives

  1. To groom new talents/leaders

  2. To give platforms for students to contribute in decision-making

  3. To boost cross-generational collaboration

(B) Parental roles in creating a supportive environment

Parents' primary goal is to ensure that their children receive a better education that will allow them to live a full, productive, and rewarding adult life in a global society. As parents know their children better, they bring a valuable quality to their children's educational experience and can therefore significantly influence their behaviours.

As Malaysia battles the endemic, parents should play their role in monitoring their children during Movement Control Order (MCO) so that children do not suffer from mental health problems among other issues. Parents also to make sure they create supportive and conducive environments for their children.

Problem Statements

During the endemic, students and parents are severely affected as students are unable to continue studying in school and parents must monitor their children for Home-based teaching and learning (PdPR). Students are further stressed by ineffective teaching and learning at home (PdPR) and an unfavourable environment created by the family.

Solutions

  1. Parents need to communicate better with their own children to ensure that their child is in good physical and mental condition.

  2. Parents should be fully involved in their children's educational process by attending their children's school events, such as parent-teacher association (PTA) meetings which are vital in promoting education transformation

  3. Parents should always contact their children's teachers to find out about their child's current development.

Brief objectives

  1. To avoid blanket policymaking in approach issues

  2. To promote active parental roles in students’ education

(C) Provision of suitable autonomy to school leaders and teachers

Teachers are among the most important pillars of the education sector because without them society could not function as a progressive civilization. Teachers also make a significant contribution to students’ achievements.

As Malaysia battles the endemic, teachers should be given flexibility in setting teaching methods when conducting home-based teaching and learning (PdPR).

Problem Statement

With the closure of the school, teachers are having a hard time conducting effective home-based teaching and learning (PdPR) if they are not given the flexibility to carry out the learning session.

Teachers may be burdened and stressed out by a lot of unnecessary work during the teaching and learning at home (PdPR).

Solutions

  1. Give clear guidelines including empowering school leaders with the autonomy to create policies that are conducive and safe in the light of the situations of their areas and for teachers to have the flexibility in determining their approaches suitable to their respective classes.

  2. Reduce teachers' administrative workloads so that they can focus more on creating effective teaching and learning plans especially with home-based ones still being relevant.

Brief objective

To increase the effectiveness of teaching and learning

(D) Joint-ventures with relevant industry players to equally promote science and non-science stream jobs

The unemployment rate in Malaysia is increasing and many graduates are unemployed. Given this pandemic situation, many companies are not currently hiring new employees, so many graduates have to work in informal sectors such as the gig economy.

Problem Statements

During this endemic, many of the graduates remained unemployed as the unemployment rate in June 2021 climbed to 4.8 per cent (May 2021: 4.5%) after four consecutive months of decreases. The number of unemployed persons escalated by 40.6 thousand persons (+5.6%) to 768.7 thousand persons (May 2021: 728.1 thousand persons).

Solutions

  1. Pursue joint ventures with relevant industry players to equally promote science and non-science stream jobs.

  2. Apply bottom-up policies to tackle unemployment problems.

  3. Equip students with the relevant skills to prepare for the demands of the working world.

Brief objective

To engage parties from public, private, and the third sectors to support students’ future employability.



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REFERENCES

(1) Nthontho, M. (2017). Children as stakeholders in education: Does their voice matter?. South African Journal of Childhood Education, 7(1), 1-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajce.v7i1.434