COMMENT | Our schools are at risk. Is it now governed by the ideology of 'rempitism'? What is this ideology? How do we prevent it from destroying the country? What are our educational leaders doing about it? I proposed some remedies based on the relationship between education, economy, and technopoly, but this ideology is of pressing concern.
The Malaysian phenomenon of youths racing illegally on public roads on customised motorbikes after midnight to that rob peaceful citizens of their restful sleep is a phenomenon akin to a capitalist economy of a struggling showcasing Third Word nation, that hypermodernises beyond the ability of its people to cope with its sensationalised designs of 'economic miracles'.
Both phenomena rest upon idiotic pride and arrogance that endanger a peaceful, ethical and sustainable future. Both present clear and present danger on the equally dangerous highway of globalisation.
A 'rempitised' economic and education system 'rams' human beings into different 'pits' of the conveyer belt of the capitalist production system; creating what looks like a natural progression of meritocracy in education and social evolution. The foundation of this system is neocolonialism, structural violence and the alienation of labour (like participants in the global rat race, mat rempit always want to finish first in the deadly race and be the first to do a wheelie for the world to see).
Is our public education system failing? Is it producing more and more mat rempit, anak Abu, bohsia, bohjan, and alienated youth put at risk by our education system?
Are we creating class systems in education the way we have created varying types of classrooms that correspond to different classes in society? Why are we seeing the tuition industry becoming a billion-ringgit business, helping our children memorising more and more but understanding less and less of what they learn?
Do we have people in the education ministry well-versed enough in analysing the phenomenon of our rempitised economy (speeding it up illegally) and how this is directly related to how we are 'schooling' our society?
What is our national agenda in education, not only to ensure no child of any race or religion be left behind but seeing through that they will love learning as a lifelong pursuit? How much planning, scenario-building, analysing, big data-gathering, futuristics-thinking, and innovative strategizing is the Education Ministry doing to address this issue of alienation in schools?
Do we now have an entire system of higher education inheriting the children of our rempitised economy and contributing to the low quality of graduates – who cannot think critically and are always subjected to the whims and fancies of a totalitarian regime only interested in tightening the stranglehold on our universities...