Some
vital statistics on educational spending in Malaysia vis-a viz
marginalization, poverty, and education. Equality for schools? Look at
how much is spent on MARA Junior Science Colleges, the elitist Malay
schools? How might this relate to the process of social reproduction?
Are we creating classes of people with different access and hence a
class of the political economic haves and have nots? ......What
paradigm of education necessitates the need to see schooling as
separate and unequal? How do we reverse this trend of unequal
distribution of resources and make intelligence and the nurturing of it
be the right of each child, especially those who are disadvantaged
economically, regardless of race? Please share this.
13 comments:
Peculiar numbers.., I dont get it..,something wrong with my calculator ? or my finger? The items just dont add up to the "total".
Salam. Dear Saudara Azly.
First and foremost,i found your photo is funny and i believe your comment/post on MRSM its a bit confusing and filled with hidden agenda.
Before that, the numbers stated doesn’t make sense at all.... as the total figures just don’t add up. Besides, it’s a little bit incoherent with the rest of items...and the MRSM part being bold seems a little bit fishy..(in the context if the numbers really from the right
source or ever exist).
From my experience as an ANSARA, all matters abt MRSM will be handled by MARA BPM
Division (Bahagian Pendidikan Menengah), which will report to the
Timb Ketua Pengarah Pendidikan Mara, where all matters with regards from syllabus, penempatan to financial matters will behandled solely by MARA not by MOE.(IM CHALLENGING YOUR SOURCE!)
That's the reason why, if you notice when PMR or SPM results
being published, MRSM will never be announced as the best school in
the country (although in actual fact MRSM results have proven from time to time are much better), as the announcement by the Ministry of Education will only cover sekolah kerajaan.
I still remember in 90’s where there was a time MARA tak ada duit (and Utusan Malaysia really made a fuss about it), our meal quality at Dewan makan also has been slashed....
My point, i don’t think there is a genuine published consolidated
report ever existed, that will cover all financial matters about the country education systems, where in fact these schools (kerajaan vs MRSM) are separated and report to different Ministries. Currently MARA bertanggungjawab kepada Menteri Kemajuan Luar Bandar Dan Wilayah. (AGAIN IM CHALLENGING YOUR SOURCE!)I suspect...you, the blogger has different agenda here.
Nevertheless, if im not mistaken... MRSM, or MARA Junior Science College is a groups of boarding schools created by the People's Trust Council (Majlis Amanah Rakyat, commonly abbreviated as MARA), a Malaysian government agency (err...focus on Malay) to help provide better learning facilities for bright students in local schools throughout Malaysia.
The “initial or earlier” target was to benefit mostly bright & miskin
students especially from the rural areas in Malaysia. The first and
second MRSM established were MRSM Seremban (now Kolej Mara), and MRSM
Pengkalan Chepa, Kelantan in 1973.
Just to share, the main reason why MRSM is using GPA and CGPA concept
in their grading, and the form 5 students being exposed with and need to come out with research
and thesis.. were because initially the existence of MRSM is to create
the Malay elite that are “not typical SBP kind of nature”. We were(MRSM students) always been told by our former cikgu, with the likes of long existed SBP such as MCKK or VI in fact,... were more to
British kind of systems, the forefathers of MRSM have adopted the American style in order to create a different kind of education systems. The objective is to balance out the culture of enriching the good and complete Malay...between the Brits and American mold in Malaysia.
I still strongly believe, MRSM "has" contributed a lot to the Malays and Malaysian in overall. You may want to check the ANSARA list and you may be surprised, there are MRSM graduates that have help to shape this country and for you to be able to use the internet and blog about this.
The existance of MRSM is not for the sake of to separate or to unequal the systems, but to give
opportunity for people that are bright, but unfortunate. You...the blogger tried to create certain sentiment, seolah2 ada favouritsm towards Malay education, but infact MRSM systems is trying to balance out the systems that already been flawed by the means of economical created before MRSM inceptions.
Ex MRSM Pengkalan Chepa & MRSM Gerik
DR AZLY RAHMAN, who was born in Singapore holds a Columbia University (New York) doctoral degree in International Education Development and Masters degrees in the fields of Education, International Affairs, Peace Studies, and Communication. He is also the pioneer of Maktab Rendah Sains MARA/MARA Junior Science College (MRSM) Kuantan. He currently resides in the United States.
Well En Azly, as one of the product of MRSM systems and you write with very good English, but i think, your content its still a bit shallow..you may want to improve it. The trick is, try to pick good topics for your next post. Not with this kind of crap.
And one more thing, as your field is to develop courses in the fields of Education, Globalization, and Cultural Studies culminating in an innovative Masters Program in International Education Development in the area of Urban Education....to be honest, Im not impress at all...nothing to shout about!
And one more thing, as currently you resides in US, you are not paying Malaysian tax do you? In addition, if you refer to Exchange Control Act 1953, by definition, someone like you, is NOT A RESIDENT of MALAYSIA...
So, just shut up.
From = x mrsm pengkalan chepa/KB (the 2nd MRSM ever created and now the oldest MRSM in Malaysia)
And one more thing, as currently you resides in US, you are not paying Malaysian tax do you? In addition, if you refer to Exchange Control Act 1953, by definition, someone like you, is NOT A RESIDENT of MALAYSIA...
So, just shut up.
I'm not sure how you are able to get PhD and become a lecturer. I found all of your comments on MRSM have not been supported with solid facts, no proper sources, no intelligent arguments, no hypothesis or even with a single correct figure.
You are attacking MRSM systems, which is a big organization, thus, you must get your facts right before even dare to bring up your case. Most of your arguments are subjective in nature and built maybe from your bad experience during your employment with MRSM.
Yes, MRSM is not perfect, same goes with the likes of other school, SBP, SJKC,SJKT and even the pre-primary. The main issue is not solely on MRSM but the country's employment nature which relies on exam results to select the best employee rather than attitude. In addition, the economy is controlled by one race. But, these 2 issues not only happen in Malaysia, but globally.
Thus, all your credentials that you have posted on this blog, also can be questioned.
From: X MRSM Pengkalan Chepa and now work in a local Bank near Dataran Merdeka.
Good comments, good dialogue going, democracy is alive; I appreciate them all: I suggest you write an essay to counter the arguments below:
---------------------------------
"MRSM schools obstacle to national unity?"
by Azly Rahman
As hypermodernising societies such as Malaysia progresses in syncrony with the advancement of capitalism, and as race and religion becomes the foundation for decision-making in education, especially in elitist well-funded schools, Malaysia is faced with another dilemma of education and national development.
Is this country creating sophisticated ethnocentrists that will continue to sustain race-based ideologies?
Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (Mara Junior Science College) schools, well-funded, well-staffed with advanced degree faculties, and well-taken care of by the Malay-centric government may be one example of a phenomena of a successful failure in the system’s 40-year evolution.
The school system prides itself in innovative curricular experimentation drawn from best practice of schools, particularly those of the United States; as its original template was based upon.
What educationists will see in the list of innovations are merely aspects of the formal curriculum; upon further analysis lies the hidden and informal curriculum as perceived from curricular theory; hidden is the deeply racial socialisation aspect.
The overall picture lies in the impact of politics and education in the socialisaton of MRSM students. they parrot the teachers, the teachers parrot the politicians, politicians kowtow to money and power – that’s an example of successful failure.
We are all economic beings, homo economicus undoubtedly but it is education and only education that is the best means to re-engineer, restructure, re-level, and redesign society.
It is the only means to sustain individual and social progress, as philosophers Dewey and Freire would argue.
Valueless ideologies
While the advanced nations are prioritising multiculturalism, honoring cosmopolitanism, and globalising education, Malaysians, through their endless fights over education are making many steps backwards. MRSM has produced a breed of sophisticated professionals to sustain ethnocentric valueless ideologies out of touch with current cultural realities.
Consider, in a similar vein, how much is spent and attention paid to on yet another high-priced elitist project such as the Pintar Permata at the expense of other schools in dire needs of even basic amenities such as those in Sabah and Sarawak or in many poor states – is that equity and equality for all races? Or is it a showcase based on ignorance of the meaning of equality and education?
contd.
With all due respect to the administrators, teachers, parents, and students, I must say about the MRSM school system.
With its insistence on being a Malay-centric, MRSM these days are not preparing children to survive in a multicultural, cosmopolitan, and ever-changing world that requires English as an important skill, and an outlook that is more open to learning about other cultures especially in the context of a rapidly changing Malaysia.
Those specialisations in each MRSM school are merely cliches filled with educational terminologies that are not fully understood but fully acceptable as a platform to appease the needs of the current regime.
Regimentation is necessary it seems to tune the mind of the monolithic mono-cultural students to accept governmental dictates making them in turn, one-dimensional beings.
Are any of those MRSMs suitable for Malaysian children? Or are they merely training and indoctrinating grounds to prop up yet another breed of leaders that will sustain the culture of blind following neo-feudalism of Ketuanan Melayu that itself is a dying specie?
Do parents know what goes on in the culture of the MRSM boarding schools and what goes on in the minds of your children?
In this context, we must look at the difference between education, schooling, indoctrination, mind-control, and liberation in thinking. I would say that the MRSM system is a successful failure.
Retrogressive ideologies
In MRSM, that predominantly Malay-elite secondary institution for the best and brightest young Malays, Malay-centric indoctrination work have been happening since the 1980s. Courses such as Kursus Kesedaran (Self Awareness Courses) are conducted to instill the questionable idea of Ketuanan Melayu, making the children afraid of “Malaysian bogeymen and bogeywomen” and their own shadows.
Open-mindedness is rarely encouraged and students take control over each others’ lives transplanting retrogressive ideologies into each other’s head, with the help of ultra-nationalist and anti-multiculturalist teachers.
Even if these children survive the ideological ordeal and experience ‘tough love’ and go on to get their degrees from top American and British universities, they will still be Malays with a shallow understanding of multiculturalism or become more sophisticated Malays with more complex arguments on Ketuanan Melayu.
They will then design policies to affect the needed sustenance of ideology in order to protect the interests of the few. Neo-feudalistic cybernetic Malays are then the new creations of the political-economic ruling class. They run the country and many are now running it down.
As an educator wishing to see Malays progress alongside in peace and prosperity with other races, I call upon us all to put a stop to all forms of indoctrination held especially by the BTN (Biro Tata Negara); an organisation that is of no value to the advancement of the Malays they claim to want to liberate.
It should be taken over by progressive Malaysians and replaced with a systematic effort to promote not only racial understanding through teaching respect and deep reflection on the cultures of the peoples of Malaysia, but also teach conflict resolution and mediation through cross-cultural perspectives. All must question the presence of BTN on campuses. All must reject BTN’s programme for indoctrination.
Let us no longer allow any government body of that sort to set foot on our campuses or our schools. As Malaysians we have to demand an end to the further dissemination of racist ideologies.
Open up, not only institutions such as UiTM (Universiti Teknologi Mara) and MRSM but also Umno to more students of the major cultures. We will then have a great celebration of diversity and respect for human dignity in the decades to come.
We need to turn succesful failures such as MRSM into truly successful Malaysian educational ventures; an organic system able to prepare young Malaysian citizens for a diverse, multicultural, and rapidly challenging world – minus the cliches of educational innovation and blind nationalism that will be anti-national in character.
Again, your posted essay is still subjective in nature. Its hard to quantify the success and failure of MRSM graduates. Would there be any available statistic that could support all of your arguments?
How do you measure success? Is it by the numbers of MRSM students that have achieved the status of billionaire?
Or is it by the comparison of their net per capita income of that student before joining MRSM and their latest income after they have been employed?
Apart from the stats, to assess whether MRSM student is not multiracial, How do you able to quantify that? May I asked you, since you are good with research, then you should do a study to calculate how many Ansara or MRSM students that have joined Perkasa? Then only you be able to quantify whether MRSM is racist or unable to mix with other races. From my personal observations, people from the former SBP made up the large crowd in Perkasa or even Pekida. I might be wrong.
Since you are also born from the same MRSM systems, I bet you would noticed that MRSM students, are more open minded and more liberal in their thinking. This has been proven by the research done by PKP special programme in 1996 by BPM Mara. In actual fact, there are few icons of Ansara such as CEOs and big guns in Malaysia that have married to non malays. Maybe this could be another interesting platform to quantify whether MRSM students are multicultured or not racist in nature. Present to us your numbers then only you could bold the subject matter in your blog, even bigger than this one.
From: x mrsm pc n gerik
Salam Dr Azly.
"..I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life, but as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.." - Booker T. Washington
_____
MRSM being created initially to ensure unfortunate student with great minds from the rural areas are not left out due to their background. Honestly, history has proven that since the colonial days, Malays are predominantly poor and unable to have proper access to the “urban like” education, which, sadly also based on history......being brought by the machineries to Malaya.
MRSM give their student, a hope, that they can cultivate their desire for freedom, to break-out from their less fortune background, but still in the same time creating the belief that there is nothing wrong to have Malay roots. You may have the point that, some of the latest MRSM generation are more spoons fed without actual self-determination, but in the same time, MRSM systems do encourage personal dignity, choice, equality, and respect for people. These are values that lead to societal and personal success and satisfaction. Its been proven with great person like Mukhriz, Kamarudin Meranun, Sheikh Muzaffar, Shafik Mustafa, Badlishah and your goodself, were from this systems.
An interesting thing happens when people have more real choices in their lives, whether it involves education or other matters. Do these unfortunate students with great minds from the rural areas have a real choice?
Then the issue of a dynamic marketplace appears, a marketplace fuelled by people acting in the exercise of their freedom and determining what is best for them. Competition between providers in a marketplace begins to bring higher and higher quality for a lower and lower overall cost. The intrinsic human values of freedom, self-determination, choice, and respect must not be resisted in our education innovations, but embraced, since to ignore them is to beg for failure. If there is no MARA or MRSM, how can we be ensured that these unfortunate students with great minds from the rural areas, would not drop-out from the education systems? And, if they do, how these unfortunate student with great minds from the rural areas, would survive in these complex marketplace, leave along the multiracial environment that your are trying to preach?
As for the data, i’m interested in how many other SBP or other government students make it into the university or college if it’s accompanied with demographic data? and i’m also interested to know how they do when they’re there?
Agreed on some anonymous earlier comments, education is not just about grades, although that’s nice to know, but also things like — were they prepared themselves to be accepted by the demographic? Unfortunately such data are hard to collect (and, for all I know, run up against privacy concerns).
In general for schools, though, I’m very interested in “how prepared are students for the next level?” In actual fact, it’s harder to measure for the next level since the “next level” can mean so many different things in different locations, parameters and it’s harder to measure in some subjects than others (either because they are more subjective or because the same teacher teaches all the levels). Then, to single out MRSM as a failure, is totally unfair. Not only to MRSM, MARA but to the Malays in general.
x MRSM
MRSM has done its job and runs its course as an educational conveyor belt for poor Malays. Time to dismantle it and replace it with a truly 1Malaysia educational system to promote genuine multiculturalism, equity, and equal opportunity in education.
What is success and what is failure ?
It all depends on your criteria and vantage-point.
For better understanding of my point, I would suggest we also look at other example cases; here, shall we look at the example of our current national football team and that of our current local universities(specifically the international rankings issue.)
Using the x mrsm people's same vantage-point and yardstick, one would say: well, in view of our national football team's recent triumphs in the South East Asia region.., so yes, it's a success story.
Dr Azly, using his wider, more circumspect perspective and a more up-to-date and internationally-standardized yardstick, would say: well, in the 1970s and early 1980s our national football team was not only top of the SEA, it even beat Korea, Japan, and Arab countries, but nowadays..ehem..we know the answer. So, it's a relative failure.
I was going to elaborate on the case of our local universities--whether they are a success or a failure. But, I think we already know that our conclusion would be different should we choose a different vantage-point and a different yardstick in judging the case in hand.
I've sidestepped the issue of fairness, equity, equality and all that because it's a far more complex and philosophical issue for me. And I would like to apologize to you if I seem like putting words in your mouth.
my only comment on the comment above is that all of you still need to understand what "successful failure" means and even crucial, what education should mean .. your arguments i can tell are not coming from an educator. try better ones in my forum; i will appreciate them ...
Post a Comment