Schools and Nation-building (Part 1)

Racial integration among university graduates is said to be an alarming concern of racial harmony in Malaysia. It was indeed true that the segregation of students according to ethnic groups has been happening in public and private universities. The Minister of Higher Education has also highlighted the issue when he spoke about the "Khidmat Masyarakat" (Community Service) programme.

I would viewed that the severity of the issue at the tertiary institutions as merely the consequences of failure in the education system to address the nation-building and racial integration agenda. University students spent on average 12-13 years of education before stepping into universities. Therefore addressing the issue at tertiary level might not yield such an effective outcome as compared to tackling the issue from the root of it, which is the primary and secondary education.

Observing from the current scenario in the country seems to have swayed into a contradicting direction. The national schools were predominantly Malays while the Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools were almost exclusively Chinese and Indians respectively. Students from the three major ethnic groups in Malaysia do not seem to have the opportunity to interact and understand each other. Without doubt, the segregation of 12-13 years will eventually continue at the tertiary level. It would be a little over-optimistic if the integration could done within merely 3-4 years after so many years of segregation. Therefore, in long-run, the country as a whole will have to bear the consequences of racial segregation in the society.

If the country is serious in combating the problem, the major effort should be channelled to the primary and secondary education instead of tertiary to rectify the issue. Thorough revamp of the education system is much needed as the current primary education by nature is racially segregated. How could an education system driven by mother-tongues produced students with tolerance towards racial harmony? After all, education is said as an investment that will only yield its return from the subsequent generation.

P/S: This article is not against mother-tongue education. Further elaboration on the role of mother-tongues and national schools will followed in the subsequent article.