Reform and provide quality education for all

Why would the wage-earner parents sacrifice so much to send their children for overseas education or to private colleges? It is about quality education. It is the general perception of our society and the increasingly prevalent view held by employers that applicants with an overseas university degree are more qualified than applicants with locally awarded degrees. 

The problem is more indicative of a general negative regard that Malaysian employers have towards our national education. Reform needs to be implemented so that our education can be seen as on par with that of the countries to which so many of our disenfranchised students flock.

So why should race have a role to play in the education system? Do race and quality education intertwine? Why would there be a need for special privileges when we know that the problem runs more than skin deep?

Every student should be treated equally as quality education should be enjoyed by every young Malaysian regardless of race or religion.

Instead of having special privileges, systemic reform is much needed by the government in achieving an inclusive and quality education for all. 

The government should aim to provide equal access for all, and eliminate gender, race or wealth disparities in the vision of quality education which is also one of the Sustainable Development Goals for which we ought to strive.

Many parents make many sacrifices, save every single penny they can, whether by getting a loan, refinancing their house, moving to a smaller house, withdrawing their EPF money, driving a second-hand car, or tightening their living allowances, are among many measures taken. 

The affirmative action policies have done more harm than good to the poorer non Malays, particularly as public education admissions are rationed to Malays with priority, depriving otherwise industrious and bright non Malay youths of a chance to develop their full potential in a wholly un-meritocratic system. 

Over the long run, this will drive many capable people who happen to be non Malay out of a unified local labour market or out of the country altogether, leading to what economists pejoratively call a country’s “brain drain”. 

Worse still, and more fundamentally, it breeds and fuels resentment, and resentment only leads to more tension and conflict between the races of our society.