Other measures by the 27-member committee include better textbooks and employing foreign teachers. We hope that the ministry will succeed in using the measures recommended by, among others, teachers, lecturers and representatives from the British Council.

WEAKNESSES

Although there are things in the right direction such as having 18 public universities by the end of this year (we need at least 35), we see the weaknesses in the education system. These include the quota system, the mishandling of high achievers and riddles in the teaching of languages.

The ministry intends to use the modules to improve the standard of English in Malaysia. This will fit into the knowledge-economy as stated in the Third Outline Perspective Plan, OPP3.

Before 1957, the British ruled Malaya. Hence, the existing system has been based on English. Now, the advent of Pax Americana with U.S.A. dominating the information and communications technology, ICT, English has become more universal. We have to master English to survive in the modern world.
But then, we need to improve not just the teaching of English, but also Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin and Tamil. On the whole, the standard of languages among students at all levels is not high. We have asked the ministry to review the standard of languages in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. So far, it has not announced the findings of the review.

VARIOUS SCHOOLS

Since 1970, the ministry has not always followed the quotas for university admission, 55% for Bumiputeras and 45% for Non-Bumiputeras. Some administrators did what they liked with bloodymindedeness.

The sea change in Malaysian politics with UMNO losing its appeal among the Malays, the attempts to show the Non-Malays how good is the Barisan Nasional, ends up in the highlighting of statistics in the university admissions. While 600 high achievers face difficulties in getting courses of their choice, they see over 7,000 vacancies in Bumiputera quota.

We witness riddles in the promotions of teachers, the appointment of professors, deans and vice-chancellors. We see feudal mentality, mediocrity and bloodymindedness.

HELP THE POOR

We must narrow the gap between the rich and the poor, by providing opportunities in education and helping poor parents irrespective of race.

We need to build better schools with better environment. We have to narrow the gap between the 55% rural and 45% urban schools. We have to give poor parents a choice in education.
If we can give a choice for better schools, we can stimulate competition, innovation, productivity and academic vigour.
We realize that educational issues are controversial. However, the present educational system have serious flaws such as the quota system, and the gap between rural and urban schools. To overcome them is difficult.

Thus, we propose that the ministry embark on a reform in education. The 1996 Education Act stipulates world-class education and moving towards ICT, But, it has drawbacks such as its provisions on mother-tongue education. We have to amend the Act.