Pendidikan Untuk Apa

Abstract

After almost three decades of independence, Malaysian education is now at a cross-road. It is the choice for the decision-makers to make whether to continue the existing system which was inherited Jock, stock and barrel from the colonial days or to find an acceptable alternative that would suit our needs as an independent nation. The essay argues among other things that education has a wide range of functions in a society and it is the ruling ideology that determines its philosophy and objectives. In Malaysia this is clearly felt when the process of education is engineered towards the needs of the state rather than the individual. This is done at an early stage of education where pupils are streamed according to their examination performance rather than their interest. It is argued that if this trend is unchecked, it will have negative implications upon the process of education itself. The essay also discusses the need to develop social consciousness among our children in schools. The present set up of our education is extremely rigid and culminated in a highly structured examination system which does not generate citizens which are articulate and critically conscious of their own social existence.