A Meaningful Education

For almost everyone in our country, a typical person will spend 11 years in school; 6 years in primary school and 5 years in secondary school. There will be some who will continue another two years in Form 6 and there will be some who drop out after Form 3. We may also add another two years which we spend in Kindergarten. The question then after all is, “what do we get from all of those years in school?”

Let’s see. Since 1970’s there have been changes to the Malaysian Education system; we started with the change from an English language medium of instruction to a Malaysian national language medium of instruction. Then there was emphasis on the ‘3Rs’ (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic) for primary education. Also came the implementation of what was called, ‘The New Integrated Secondary School Curriculum’ for secondary education with emphasis on technical and science areas of study. In the 90’s, Math and Science changed its language of instruction from the Malaysian national language to the English language. And now, we are back to having these subjects delivered in the Malaysian national language.

I would like to reason that all these changes were all due to our decision makers and policy makers attempt at providing what would they considered of the best interest to the public and the development of our country. Let us not argue upon who was right, who was wrong, their reasons and excuses, but more so let us take for granted that there were reasons that were thought of as justified for whatever policies that have been implemented and those that will be implemented in the coming future.

Regardless of the policies and the medium of instruction, we all turned out okay, didn’t we? Our children will in turn come out all right as well, or not, not because of the school system, but more so, on the environment that we, as parents and the community provide. Children go to school and learn. How the teacher teaches depends on the person who is doing the teaching. There are good teachers and there are teachers who in our opinion should not even be teachers. The school environment remains almost the same regardless of the current policy or the school syllabus. The greatest impact on our children today is the support that parents and society provide. No matter how good a school is, the individual who has to come home to a broken home environment will be the factor that creates the individual; how he or she will interact with the rest of the world and whether his or her contribution will be positive and beneficial to society, or will be negative, selfish and destructive to society.

A society that focuses on destructive elements such as how bad other people are; our bosses, our leaders, our neighbours, or how bad it is not having what other people have, or focussing on the things that we lack, instead of being grateful for what we do have and looking upon others with compassion and understanding, will no doubt create all that is negative and bring about lessons of a life which is full of unhappiness and sorrow.

So apart from school and what it is, the real education we get, really, comes from being able to accept ourselves and society the way it is, at the same time practising our beliefs upon ourselves, yet understanding that every individual is good and does good the way he or she sees it to be… not to judge, but to keep an open mind and that right or wrong is only between ourselves and our Creator. Open up our eyes and our hearts and listen to the lessons coming from our environment and the messages from our subconscious. The lessons are endless…