DAP questions need for another committee to solve country’s education woes

A DAP lawmaker has poured scorn on the Education Ministry's decision to form a special committee to improve on the country's ranking following Malaysia's below par performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa).

Zairil Khir Johari, who is a strong critic of the country's education system, questioned if the special committee would be another waste of taxpayers' money.

"Are they going to hire more consultants to address the poor performance?" he asked, taking a dig at the ministry.

The Bukit Bendera MP was referring to the hiring of McKinsey and Co – who were not experts in education but merely general management consultants – for RM20 million to prepare the National Education Blueprint 2013-2025 and the RM270 million used to hire three external consultant groups to provide training for English teachers.

"The ministry should instead get real problem-solvers and not waste public funds."

He pointed out that the Education Ministry was the biggest spender, "without showing any results".

In Budget 2014, the ministry has been allocated RM54 billion, or 21% of the total national expenditure, making it the largest ministry in terms of funding.

"If they spent all this money on consultants and then showed positive results, then we would be happy. But instead, the education standards have gone down," Zairil said.

The ministry, in response to the PISA survey, was reported as saying that the special committee would be led by the curriculum development section and would also comprise professional sections from the ministry.

The task of the committee is to identify and monitor initiatives to improve students' performance in international assessments such as Pisa.

In a statement, the Education Ministry said although the recent Pisa results were not encouraging, the authorities were confident that the Malaysian Education Development Plan 2013-2025 would help Malaysia to achieve a better ranking in the next PISA instalment.

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang continued his charge against minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, whom he accused of keeping silent over the subject.

"The Deputy Prime Minister, who is also the Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, should ask the American consultants McKinsey & Co to answer the question how Malaysia is to become a 'wonder nation' and make the double quantum jump from the bottom third to top third of 2021 Pisa in four triennial PISA tests which had not been achieved by any country in the world from 2003 to 2012," he said in a statement today.

In the latest 2012 Pisa results, Malaysia was placed 52nd out of 65 countries. The 2012 Pisa was a global test involving 510,000 students in reading, science and mathematics.

Malaysia's 15-year-olds were not only found to be below the international average in the three critical subjects but four to five years behind their peers in the top performing Pisa countries.

Lim said Malaysia could be regarded a "miracle nation" if it achieved its goals to reach the top third of the ranking.

"Malaysia will become the envy and even poster boy of all countries in the world if it can make a double quantum jump in educational transformation from a nation of mediocrity to a nation of excellence," he added.

He pointed out that although in the Pisa test, Brazil recorded the biggest improvement of 35 points in the mathematics section (from 356 to 391), it still remained in the bottom third of the ranking.

Similarly, in the science section, Turkey made the biggest improvement in the past four Pisa tests (from 434 in 2003 to 463 in 2012) but it only rose from the bottom third level to the middle third level of the ladder48 points short from being the top.

For reading, Japan registered the largest improvement of 40 points in four Pisa tests from 2003 to 2012 but is still in the middle third of the benchmark.

"How then could Malaysia make the double leap for all three subjects from the bottom third to top third of the Pisa system in the Pisa tests from 2009 to 2021, when this had not been achieved by any country?" Lim asked.

Zairil, meanwhile, stressed that the cause of the decline in education should be identified first before efforts are made to improve educational standards.

"It is no secret that poor teaching is the main reason why this is happening. Real changes have to be made to improve the quality of teachers.

"We can't say the students are stupid. It's because the teachers and the schools are not teaching them well,” he said.

He also expressed disappointment over the revelation that students who answered the Pisa survey in English did better than those who used Bahasa Malaysia.

"This just shows that the command of the national language is poor and that is disappointing," he said. - December 11, 2013.