The Relationship And Unity Of The Malaysian People Education Essay

The new economy policy was introduced by the government to strengthen the relationship and unity of the Malaysian people. By introducing new economy policy, the number of job opportunities had increased irrespective ethnicity, thus improve the relationship between people from different races. Besides that, DEB also played the roles to reduce and eliminate the identification of each race based on their works and living place. For example, Malay people usually live and work in the village while Indian people live and work on the estate. This will result in less interaction between both races and unities between them will not success easily. DEB had overcome this problem by providing equal opportunity to all Malaysian.

The national Education policy was set up as recommended by Razak’s Report 1956. According to the KLIK website (n.d), the aim of this report was “to establish a national education system that would promote the cultural, social, economic and political development accepted by the nation” as well as making the Malay language as the national language and the main language used in school. After Razak’s Report, the government introduced a few education reports that contained better recommendations or the upgraded version of the first one. Government always changed the recommendations and policies due to the current education system that keep changing along with the globalization. Years ago, people did not care about education as they were not afforded for it. Nowadays, as the government had introduced pre-school for a child at the age of 5 and 6 years old in order to provide them with formal education. Preschool is the suitable place to explore the students’ talents and help them to improve it. At this time, the students are young and always ready to learn something new. This is the time for the teacher and parents to train the kids to be responsible, well-manner and able to contribute to the country. Along with the development of the country, people started to realize that people that is well-educated have the power to be respected and get higher income compared to someone without education.

A national principle known as rukunegara is the basic principles that must be obeyed by all Malaysian. National principle is used to promote social balance and unity among different races that live in Malaysia. By following this principle, we can prevent from the tragedy 13 may from happen again. All the five principle focused on the relationship between man and god, king, country, law and constitution. The last part of the principle is good behavior which is reaching the goal of NPE to develop various potentials among student.

By practicing it correctly, we may produce well potential students in various aspects, thus improve the quality of our country. Nowadays, people started to realize that education in school is not about performing well in the exam only but students have to involve in co-curriculum activities in order to identify their talent while train them to be more discipline.

There are a few factors that lead to the NPE such as the factor of religious, social, politic, economic and individual.

As stated in the first national principle which is belief in God, all the citizens supposed to have a religion to be obeyed. In Malaysia, the official religion is Islam. Even though Malays people are Muslims, which does not mean other people from different ethnic cannot join the religion. Besides that Muslims, other people are free to embrace any religion that they want.

As Malaysia has multiracial citizens, social factor is one of the important factors that lead to NPE. In Malaysia, we can communicate and live happily with other ethnics as we respect each other as the citizen of the same country. All of them are living or work at the same places without arguing because the spirit of unity as stated in the second national principle which is loyalty to king and country.

Each person has different skills in developing the national economy. For example, there are some people that mastering business while the others are skillful in buying and selling stock. This differentiation occurs due to different potential and education level that they got. When they are knowledgeable, they know how to compete in order to get profit as well as improve the economy level of the country.

The last factor is individual factor. At school, students’ talent will be identified in order to develop their skills and potentials that are different between each person. Living in a community with a good manner will result in harmony and balance citizens. Besides that, their potentials and skills may help the country development in various aspects such as education, music and others.

Education in Malaysia has started years ago. Formal education in Malaysia used to take place at the mosque and castle before changing into a place called school. Before independence, people that live in a rural area with low income rarely have the opportunity to go to school as they were not afforded for it. The developing of this country has improved the education in Malaysia thus provide a better opportunity for children to get education.

Before 1982, the education system that had been used in Malaysia was Old Primary School Curriculum. As stated by fiq2705 (2012), the syllabus introduced a lot of subjects thus make it not suitable for a student in primary school. Besides that, this system was fully depended on textbooks with limited teaching aids and references. The student will get bored easily as the teacher was not creative to make the teaching and learning process more interesting. As the result of this, many people had criticized the education system at that time due to a lot of problems occur. To overcome this problem, the government had introduced New Primary School Curriculum.

New Primary School Curriculum also known as Kurikulum Baru Sekolah Rendah (KBSR) had upgraded and improved in many ways better than the system before. As stated by are_niece02 (2010), the main focus of KBSR were to implement 3M among students which is reading, writing and counting. The students were divided into two phrases. Phrase 1 contained the Year 1 until 3 students while year 4 to 6 students were in phase 2. Each phrase stresses on different skill and knowledge suitable to the student age. According to are_niece02 (2010), the syllabus that had been practiced during KBSR was flexible for students as they balanced the emotional, spiritual, intellectual during the teaching and learning process. Due to this, on-going assessment had been introduced in order to identify the student performance and problems occur during the study process. Besides that, the teacher was requested to be more creative and not totally depended on text books. One of the problems occur during this program were the lack of the capable teacher in certain subjects, thus they need to work more than other teacher.

Role of a teacher is to teach. Teachers will felt confidence with the abilities that they have in certain subject. Headmaster’s role is to match the teacher’s abilities. Besides that, they play the biggest role in developing the potential of students and teachers in various aspects. For better understanding, i have made some research at a Sekolah Kebangsaan Putrajaya Presint 9 and meet with their headmaster, senior assistant and teacher.There are some activities that had been held at the school on to achieve NPE goal such as gotong-royong, Merdeka day celebration, Prophet Muhammad celebration, choral speaking competition and sports day.

Gotong-royong is a compulsory activity that the students must join on every Monday before the assembly. During this activity, students are divided into a few groups. Each group will be accompanied by 3 teachers and have their own place to do this activity. Teachers are responsible to give instructions and guide the students. At the same times, they will make sure that the activity runs smoothly with any undesirable thing happen. The task for each group is they must clean up the place and make sure everything is well organized. Besides that, there is also a time when they will paint the school building. In order to make the activity more interesting, the school will give free drink on that day. The objective of this activity is to make them feel equality. No matter which family they are from, no matter which class they are, all students required to join this activity. It is one of the ways to train the students to be patient and tolerant while doing something. Without struggle, nothing can be success. Besides that, students will be more discipline and follow the instruction given. Usually, when this activity finished, the students will take care of their area even the program was over. This activity has improved the students in many ways. They take good care of their surroundings to make sure that it will be clean thus people can live peacefully. By applying this in a community, it will improve the relationship between neighbourhood thus strengthen the unity.

The objective of Merdeka Day Celebration is to make the student appreciate and proud with our country. Nowadays, kids and teenagers spend a lot of time with the machine more than having interaction with human beings. They usually play video games, surf internet and Facebooking during their free time. Spending less time with the older prevent them from learning about the things happen in the past. They just know the history based on what had been taught in the classroom. So, by holding this activity in the school, it can enhance the student knowledge about the life before independent. During this activity, teachers play their role to decorate the hall and preparing some suitable materials. Some of the students will be helping the teachers in the hall while the others will join poster competition. They are requested to draw something related to independence day and the winner will be announced on the day of the celebration. The poster activity goal is to make the students show their creativity and at the same time appreciating our country. Early in the morning, all students and teachers will gather in the hall to sing the national anthem, and the school song. After that, there will be a speech by a person that had the experience living during before independent. By exposing the story to the students, they are able to experience and imagine the life before. Thus, they realize how grateful they are nowadays. To solve the problem occur between ethnics, they will improve the social interaction between different races by respecting each other. This situation achieves the goal of NPE which is to produce balanced individuals.

Another celebration held in the school is the Prophet Muhammad birthday celebration or also known as maulud. The objective of this celebration is to make the student remember the prophet Muhammad that had left us years ago. In this activity, teachers are responsible to prepare some materials such as Quran, inviting Ustaz and others. Besides that, the students will participate in some competition such as Tadarus Al-Quran, Tilawah Al-Quran, Story Telling and others. This activity was held in order to develop student potential in Islamic ways. During the celebration day, each class has to participate in banner decoration to develop their creativity. Usually, the banner will be written in jawi, thus this activity had improved their jawi writing. By the end of this activity, students are not only enjoying it but they learn more about the story of the prophet, how Islam develops and at the same time improve their skills in reciting al-Quran. So, by practicing it correctly, we can produce people that are not only excellent with academic but well-develop in religion. “Having high intellectual but without the application of noble character could bring to the worst of the society and the nations” (TIM 2011)

The next activity held Coral Speaking Competition. The objective of this activity is to increase the English usage of the student and at the same time improve their vocabulary and pronunciation. Teachers are responsible to train the students one each class. Together with the students, the teacher will discuss and prepare the texts for their team. Each class will compete with each other and the winner will be getting a present during closing event. The theme of the choral speaking are different in each year depend on the current issue. So, at the same time, students learn and know about the thing happen in their surroundings. On the day of the competition, each team will present their choral speaking with their own creativity such as use fancy cloth, funny text and others. By the end of this activity, the student is not only enjoyed it but they also improve their English. English is an international language that is been spoken by people around the world. By holding this activity every year, students will be more competitive to be the best in English. Thus, they can communicate with others from different country and enhance their knowledge and at the same time strengthen international relationships between others.

The last activity is sport day. As stated in Utusan online ( 2013) , students are starting to join sport and curriculum since 1985 and now the government had introduced Satu Murid Satu Sukan (1M1S). Joining this activity will improve the students psychomotor, cognitive and effective. The student may develop potential in the sport that they like. Teacher are responsible to prepare the place that the activity will be held. At the same times, students will join training to prepare themselves for the competition. Student are divided into 4 groups. Some one of the activities take place on that day are 100m sprint, broad jump and others. The Co – curriculum had improved the student knowledge as well as train them to conduct and manage an activity. It has achieved the goal of NPE which is to produce creative students. Students also will look at school as interesting place that develop their skills and potential.

The interaction in class is really important. In this area, the teacher plays the biggest role to communicate and help students in different ways. As an English teacher, there are some activities that are suitable to be conducted in class such as an individual teaching guide, quiz, ICT activities, spelling bee, and story telling.

During teaching and learning process, here will be some students that are slow learners. This student cannot catch up what the teacher teaches. So, to help them understand the lesson. The teacher will spend special time for them before starting a new lesson. They can ask the teacher directly anything that they do not understand. By doing this, there are no students left out during the teaching and learning process.

Using ICT programs in the classroom will attract the students’ interest and make them understand easily. ICT programs occupy all the learning style since there will be sound, picture, and activities that they have to do to enhance the understanding. Conducting quiz will be useful because the teacher can analyze which part or question that most of the students get wrong. Besides that, students will improve their understanding level.

Spelling bee and storytelling is the activities that bring many advantages to the student. By joining this activity, they can improve their English. Besides that, it encourages student being competitive in order to be the best. Spelling bee improve their vocabulary and pronunciation. On the other hand, story telling improve the memorizing skills and their creativity to tell a story. Both activities help them in their studies. For example, there are some subject that need them to memorize the formula. So, by introducing this activity to the student, student are able to apply it in real life.

In conclusion, the National Education Philosophy (NPE) plays the biggest role in developing education in Malaysia. It introduces various concepts in education, curriculum, co-curriculum and others. Besides that, NPE act as a guide for a teacher to improve their teaching style and activity in order to achieve the school objectives. As a whole, the changed in education as occur due some people opinions about education and the benefit of being educated. As stated in NPE, the objective of it is to develop physical, intellect, emotion, spiritual and social of the citizen to betterment. As a future educated, it is my responsibility to understand the contain of NPE and use it as a guide during my teaching lesson.