Make no mistake. Contrary to what our deputy prime minister said recently, our country's education system is one big flop. Najib would be deluding Malaysians to say that the education system is a big success and attribute this success to his father.
Tun Razak, the father of Najib was the culprit responsible for the current malaise facing the present education system. As the Education Minister, he abolished the English medium of education and introduced the Bahasa Melayu medium. In one stupendous decision, his action caused the loss of one generation of English-speaking students.
Prior to the abolishment of the English medium of education, we were the envy of many countries in Asia. Foreign tourists who went to the most remotest part of our country were pleasantly surprised that practically everyone they met could converse in the Queen's language. That wasin the early fifties.
Today, even top government civil servants and the judiciary can hardly string two words of English. Is this how we define success in our education system? If this is how Najib's definition of success is, then either he is blind to the pathetic state of the education system or he is totally oblivious to what is happening in the country.
On reflection, it would be fair to say that the failure of the education system gave a lifeline to vernacular schools. Prior to the change in the medium of education from English to Bahasa Malaysia, vernacular schools were closing down for lack of student enrolment. Slowly but surely, many of the vernacular schools were being decimated.
However, to be fair, it was not the change in the medium of instruction that caused the popularity of the vernacular schools. It was the slow and not subtle degeneration of the national schools to religious schools that caused the mass exodus of Chinese and Indians to their respective vernacular schools.
Today, remnants of the failure of our education system remain like a sore thumb. Teachers and headmasters of one race dominate every school. Today, our education system churns out 80,000 unemployed graduates. All of them bear living testimony to a failed education system.
And yet our DPM has the gall to say that our education system is a big success. Wake up, Najib. No matter what yardstick you use, our education system is a big failure.
