'Schools key to national identity'

KUALA LUMPUR, Fri:

With schoolchildren comprising one-fifth of the population, schools are where a truly Malaysian identity should be forged for the future.

The way to do this is to allow greater autonomy and more diversity to build a strengthened national school system, said Education Minister Datuk Hishammuddin Hussein.

Malaysians would then be able to reinvent themselves, to remain one of the world's most successful developing countries, he said.

Speaking to members of the Oxford and Cambridge Society Malaysia at a seminar tonight, he acknowledged that education was "contested territory" among interest groups.

"(Malaysians) want their children's personal and economic horizons to expand.

"But crucially, it is also the place in which they hope that treasured communal identities are cultivated and protected," he said.

He acknowledged rising concern over racial polarisation among the young, and even a "general loss of faith" in national unity.

With the heady growth from the first wave of industrialisation over, Malaysia must grapple with the rapid globalisation .

"These forces are bringing in their wake a world of more risk and complexity. Malaysians should use these forces to pull together, rather than push the country apart," he said.

"This is why the school system must be able to meet the challenge of providing the country's young with vital skills and knowledge.

"This changed world calls for a revitalised commitment to the project of 'Malaysia'. Our schools are perhaps the single most important place for us to begin doing so.

"It is neither possible nor desirable to have every school built and managed top-down by a single entity.

"Rather, by allowing real diversity to flourish within an environment of trust, we allow room for the special gifts of particular places and communities to come up with innovative solutions."

In this ideal, the schools would be "a single ecosystem with diverse streams and options", he said.

"When you consider that our total population is only 26 million, you realise that about a fifth of our entire population is at school.

"You could really say we are a nation at school. Our future is being shaped right now in our schools."

HISHAM: MULTIRACIALISM IS OUR STRENGTH

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's strength is its unity in diversity which is reflected in the education system, said Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.

He said foreigners often remarked how impressed they were at the lengths the country went to accommodate different groups, languages and communities.

"Our diversity is now clearly one of our greatest assets. Malaysia has real cultural diversity, a kind of multi-communalism," Hishammuddin said in his address Globalisation and diversity: A perspective on the Malaysian education system to the Oxford & Cambridge Society, Malaysia, last night.

"Malaysian schools can be the crucible in which we forge our success although this might seem difficult, considering the country's unusually diverse system of education.

"The task of managing such a large and diverse system of schools is daunting but hope for the future is something that I hope every Malaysian feels."

Describing himself as "a passionate moderate", Hishammuddin said he would not compromise on the principle of multiracialism.

"I'm tired of being defensive of our diversity, of seeing only the potential sensitivities and pitfalls. I want to be proud of it. I want to teach our children to see the opportunities in it, to benefit from it, make capital out of it, and leverage it."

He added that this diversity would be anchored by a strengthened system of national schools.

"In national schools, children will soon be able to study Chinese, Tamil or Arabic seriously.

"We are beyond the times in which there could be any one formula for universal success. By allowing real diversity to flourish, we allow room for innovative solutions."

Hishammuddin also reiterated the Ministry's desire to restore premier schools to their former eminence.

"There is no single formula for this, but a common ingredient is that the Ministry should grant greater autonomy to such schools."

He urged teachers, parents and the alumni to "take ownership" of such schools.