Education Industry in Malaysia From The Perspective of A Wise Man

Assalamualaikum.....


I have been following Pakcik Hassan's blog for some time already. I like his wisdom. I like his aspects of seeing life from a different angle. I like the moments that Pak Cik shares in his blog.

Recently Pak Cik shared his thought about the education industry in Malaysia. And I am glad that Pak Cik's opinion initiated a larger aspect of discussion. Thus, I would like to share it with you, so that I can pull in more opinions and maybe suggestions.

Good news - how to save billions!

That came out last Sunday in the Star. A high-powered government spokesman said that “research universities which produced PhD had saved almost RM2 bil so far.” So why should we spend money sending our candidates to universities overseas?  When referred to the absence of Malaysian public universities in the prestigiousTimes Higher Education 100 Under 50 2014, the answer was, “Rankings do not mean everything……”. Of course all such spokesmen talk about our universities as nothing less than ‘taraf antara bangsa’ ! But, sad to say, industries in Malaysia find our graduates badly lacking, resulting in increasing number of jobless graduates. Now our politicians are mass-producing Ph D holders to sell kacang puteh.

Living in Terengganu and seeing the marvel of thiskotaraya dipersisiran pantai, I wonder why we started and still continue with the great ‘Monsoon Cup’ event every year. What does the annual expenditure of that few days’ event mean to our local fishermen when the weather is often too rough to go to sea to earn the few ringgits for their families?  I also question why we spent billions on building miniature mosques of the world – but none, I understand, qualifies to have Friday prayers? How I wish those beautiful islands in the picturesque large estuary of Terengganu River were to be the home of some medical specialists, with five-start medical centres and accommodations to become a unique centre for medical tourism; the way our small neighbour down south ( lacking spokesmen!) has been flourishing over the years without songs and gongs (or should I say song and dance?). 

So we are now starting to produce locally Malaysian PhD ‘tab - taraf antara bangsa’ and save money. (But do we really need money? I understand 1Malaysia has plenty to hand out cash. ) I am not surprised a holder of our locally produced PhD, named Abu, will have the pride of writing on his business card :  Dr Abu bin Adam, PhD-tab.

Not having a PhD myself, I read what those clever spokesmen say, and I sit back heaving a long sigh, and tell myself I am not qualified to comment and am behind time. Only ‘katak dibawah tempurung’ does not need to see the outside world and get thrilled to hear whatever is sung is lauded without question.