Three perspectives on education.

technological, political and cultural

Discussion should be based on the actual scenario in the Malaysian context and
include:
-the importance of change
-managing innovation and change strategies and
-adaptation of various innovation and change.
Introduction:

What is education?
How we relate education to Malaysian perspective?
Explain why we need technological, political and cultural in education?
Give example history of education revolution in Malaysia/ Tanah Melayu

Shortly after assuming office, the government appointed a special parliamentary

committee under the t Minister of Education, Dato (later Tun) Abdul Razak, to
consider the reconstitution of Malaya's fragmented colonial educational system
along more integrated, national lines. The Razak Committee's charge aimed at: " ...
establishing a national system of education acceptable to the people of the
Federation as a whole which will satisfy their needs and promote their cultural,
social, economic and political development as a nation, having regard to the
intention of making Malay the national language of the country whilst preserving
and sustaining the growth of the language and culture of other communities... "4)

Perspective on Technology

VLE Frog
1 Bestari Net

Perspective on Political

Perspective on Cultural

Multicultural education

The influence of culture on beliefs about education, the value of education, and participation
styles cannot be overestimated Many Asian students, for example, tend to be quiet in class, and
making eye contact with teachers is considered inappropriate for many of these children
(Bennett, 2003) In contrast, most European American children are taught to value active
classroom discussion and to look teachers directly in the eye to show respect, while their
teachers view students' participation as a sign of engagement and competence.
Excerpt from Special Education for Today's Teachers: An Introduction, by M.S. Rosenberg, D.L.
Westling, J. McLeskey, 2008 edition, p. 63-64.

The government, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education (MOE), is

entrusted with providing quality education for the people of Malaysia. Education in
Malaysia begins from pre-school and continues to university. The vision of the MOE
is to make Malaysia a center for education excellence. An MOE source has stated
that more than 95% of primary and secondary education and 60% of the tertiary
education is funded by the government (Ministry of Higher Education, 2009). The
education system in Malaysia has gone through tremendous changes and
transformation. Prior to British colonization, education was done informally, mainly
to acquire basic living skills. Even during British occupation, there was no significant
policy on education, but various vernacular schools catered for the needs of
particular ethnic groups such as the Malays, Chinese and Indians. This policy was in
line with the British intention of discouraging rapport between the different races in
Malaya to uphold their divide and rule policy. During the Japanese occupation of
Malaya, education was focused on propagating love and loyalty towards the
Japanese emperor. It was only after the World War II, especially after the
independence of Malaya in 1957, that a structured policy on education was
formulated. The National Education System was implemented after the Education
Act 1966 was passed by parliament. The government was able to use education as
a tool to foster unity and nation-building through a common syllabus and
curriculum. In 1989, the National Philosophy of Education was released and became
part of Malaysias Vision 2020, which was to gain the status of a fully developed
country by the year 2020. In order to strengthen Vision 2020 and better prepare the
younger generation for the needs of the 21st century, the MOE has developed a
new National Education Blueprint (NEB), which was launched in December 2012.
Through the MOE, the government has also restructured the higher education
system to enable it to respond to the need for nation-building in accordance with
the nine challenges in Vision 2020. The government has also developed strategies
and plans to ensure that Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) are encouraged to
undertake change and achieve excellence to face the competition posed by the
global education market. The objective of these plans is to ensure that Malaysian

universities achieve world-class status and operate as a hub for higher education in
the Southeast Asia region (Ministry of Higher Education, 2007)
Wan (1983) stated that there is a low level of integration between the Malays and
the Chinese based on cultural and social understanding. Sufean (1993) has
questioned whether the integration spirit is enough to show the effectiveness of the
educational policy because there are continuing issues of ethnicity in public and
private discourses. The studies of Toh (1984), Mukherjee and Singh (1985) and Lim
(1985) reflect a common concern about the impact of educational policies after
1970.