Current Strategies

2.2 Current Strategies

There are four current strategies that the national school system is adopting for now. Firstly, maintaining the structure of the present system where all types of schools are to preserve their mother tongue as the medium of instruction. Parents are allowed to send their children to any kind of national primary schools. As proposed by the Rahman Talib Report of 1960 and the Education Act of 1961 which has since been amended to the Education Act of 1996, after completion of the primary level, students must be brought together in SMK which is the only one type of national secondary school to choose from. However, with the various school options presently available in secondary level, this will lead to homogenous enrolments in specific schools, again decreasing the possible of racial integration in school. Islamic Religious schools like the SMKA and Sekolah Agama Rakyat are only meant for Muslim (Malay)students, while Independent Chinese secondary schools only cater for the Chinese students and both do not encourage mixing with other racial groups. Thus, schooling at the secondary level too does not promote national unity.

Secondly, the teaching of civic education as a subject in school is expected to promote national unity in schools. It was introduced in 1953 as a subject in the schools to educate students to understand diversity and appreciate similarities and differences in the Malaysian culture besides knowledge of the country‘s political structure. Some topics on Malaysia history are taught in the subject. This is to encourage the feeling of appreciation of citizenships, culture and values of Malaysia. One of the topics, that is the Rukunegara was evaluated as an effective topic since most students are found to understand and agree with the principles. However, students are unable to apply those principles in their daily lives; for example, they understand that community service is a good act but very few of them are involved in it voluntarily. In her recent survey of 435 Form Four students from 10 selected rural and urban schools in Selangor, Mohaneswari (2013) found that the contribution of Civic and Citizenship Education (CCE) is not clear in fostering students' good citizenship characters. Students perceived that CCE contributes in creating patritotism, togetherness and trustworthiness but lacking in neighbourhood connection, every sociability and volunteerism.

Thirdly, the attempt of establishing Wawasanor Vision schools to foster unity among students beginning in 2003 where the three types of national schools, SK, SJKC, and SJKT are located in the proximity of each other within the same school area and share facilities but run by separate administrations. However, the difficulty in building all types of schools in the same area held up its progress. To date, only five school complexes are in operation.

Fourthly, the program which is called Rancangan Integrasi Murid Untuk Perpaduan (RIMUP) or Students Integration Plan for Unity, which is held through curriculum activities. It is a program where students from various types of ethnic schools work together in selected curriculum activities such as sport oriented or community service. Figure 3 below shows a summary on RIMUP. Schools are divided into 5 groups, for instance, A; SK, SJKC, SJKT, B; SK, SJKC, C: SK, SJKT; DSJKT, SJKC; and E: SMK, SMJK, SMA. The activities done were activities for academic excellence, sports and games, co-curriculum, community service and activities that are enhancing patriotic spirit. However, since the last few years, the budget has been reduced. In 2007, the budget was 25.4 million but it was reduced to 2.4 million only in 2011. This has slowed down the progress of the program, thus unity cannot be promoted through this program.

Figure 3 The nature of RIMUP and its budget

2.3.1. The First Wave: Gelombang 1 (2013-2015): Basic preparation

There are two major programmes to be implemented within the first wave. First, a survey will be carried out in 2014 to Year 6 and Form 5 students to explore their civic knowledge, behaviour and attitudes towards unity. This is to assess their understanding and attitudes toward unity and based on the finding the education system could be improved. The reason for the selection of Year 6 and Form 5 students is not stated in the PPPM but it could be due to the fact that these are the final years of each level of schooling. This survey if conducted on a large scale could definitely bring to the fore, the factors that have hindered the progress of national unity especially the role of the National school system (SK). We still do not have much information about this although there are studies that have found that the students do understand the civic education but unable to apply it in daily life, while the statistics mentioned above show the reality of the school system in term of diversity and unity.

Second, is to improve the transition of SJK students to SMK. Presently, SJK students with low proficiency in the National language are retained for another year of Malay Language in the SMK before they are allowed to enter the mainstream. In general, students of SJK have a lot of difficulty in using the National language – whether in speaking, listening, reading or writing skills. In reality, they could not read, speak or write the language well. However, the results of Year 6 examinations, Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR), always show that SJK students are performing equally as well as SK students, if percentages of As or Bs are the yardstick. However the fact is that the standard of the examination papers are not the same with the one for SK students being higher than the standard for SJK students. Thus, it does not help in producing Chinese students with competency in the National or Malay language. Therefore, the standards of the National language taught in these schools ought to be raised with improvement in curriculum standards, teaching and assessment so that it is similar to that of the SK. Thus, students from SJK will be more confident to enrol at SMK later.

2.3.2. The Second Wave: Gelombang 2 (2016-2020)

More radical actions will be taken during the second wave. Among the plan is strengthening of the RIMUP program. MOE will re-examine the activities that are suitable to promote unity in the program. Currently, studies from MOE shows that some of the activities are irrelevant for unity building. That was the reason for the reduction in its budget by more than half. It was found that RIMUP activities seemed not to promote unity. The question would be why could it not be done sooner. Why wait till 2016 to improve the program?

Strengthening of Islamic studies and moral and civic education is another action that will be taken in this Wave. For civic education, a few options are still under consideration, such as weekly activities with diverse students collaboration. The objective of grouping students from various ethnicities is to develop the sense of unity among students. Moreover, community service activities will also be done where students will be able to interact better with the community through these activities.

The pedagogy of Islamic studies and moral education will be reviewed so that a lot of other approaches can be implemented such as role play, simulation, discussion and small group projects. The teaching approach which focuses more on students‘ participation is more effective than teacher-centered learning to inculcate the Islamic values and virtues to students. The teaching of Islamic studies will concentrate further on cultivating Islamic values and the philosophies of Islam and other religions as well.

MOE is also considering combining Muslims and non-Muslims students for a few classes on common values.

Strengthening of the support for other languages education will also be done. More languages will be offered in SK by 2020 such as Mandarin, Tamil and Arabic. These new languages will need more materials and support for them to be delivered, therefore, MOE is planning to enhance support so that students from various ethnic groups would be more interested to learn in SK.

2.3.3. The third Wave: Gelombang 3 (2021-2025).

This Wave anticipates that SK and SMK will be the leading school choice for both parents and students from the different races and background. MOE will continuously observe the interactions and integration levels among all students. It will reconsider the school options to see whether or not further changes are needed to improve unity. This will depend on the quality and results of the first two phases. If SK and SMK become the prime choice of schooling, then other types of schools may not be needed anymore.