EDUCATION is one of the very few segments of society that almost all Malaysians can have a say in, because they have gone through the system.
We have spent a large chunk of our formative years in school, and most of us will attest that the quality of education has declined since our time there.
The great oxymoron of the education system is that while there is great suspicion that the quality is slipping, year after year the Education Ministry claims a record number of Malaysians scoring all As in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia, or SPM, examination.
The latest Pisa (OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment) scores of 15-year-old Malaysian students confirm this dichotomy.
Regardless of the “achievements” claimed by the authorities, the Pisa results show that Malaysian students are not performing well.
In fact the quality of education they display is below the level they are supposed to be at.
The other negative is our students are falling behind in the region, with Vietnam and Thailand now overtaking Malaysia in Pisa performance.
Malaysia is in the bottom third of the rankings.
Pisa is not the only international benchmark where Malaysian students have slipped. In TIMMS mathematics scores, Malaysia has also fallen behind.
In 1999, Malaysia scored 519, above the international average.
Scores have gradually declined, with Malaysian students scoring 411 in 2023 – the lowest in the country’s participation history.
The reduction in STEM teaching surely has had its impact.
The drop in rankings represents a failure of the education system, given that one of the targets of the Education Blueprint 2013-2025 was for Malaysia to emerge in the top third of Pisa performers by 2025.
In fact, our scores have sunk below that of our 2018 Pisa results.
Another head-scratcher is that during the period of the previous Education Blueprint, more money was allocated to the teaching of our students, yet on standardised international benchmarks, we have regressed.
When the blueprint was launched, Malaysia allocated RM36bil to RM37bil annually to the education sector.
Allocations grew over time and education consistently dominated government spending. By Budget 2026, the allocation had reached RM66.2bil.
Spending on education as a percentage of gross domestic product or GDP, however, has fallen over the years.
So Malaysia is spending more, but seeing our grades go south.
What do we do? There should be a complete rethinking of how we educate the youth in the country.
The damning fact is that our education system is fragmented – though in some ways, that fragmentation has also become a saving grace.
During my time, students admitted to private schools in Malaysia were assumed to be not good enough for, or kicked out from, public schools.
Today, these student, along with their international school counterparts, are performing much, much better than those in boarding or mainstream public schools.
They have the benefit of exposure to better teachers and teaching methods.
They are said, according to the Pisa 2022 breakdown, to be 68 points ahead in mathematics compared with public school students, though they still lag behind Singapore’s top elite schools.
Private school students also perform better in science and reading compared with public school students.
So setting targets and rallying students under a new Education Blueprint is most likely not going to stop the rot. It has so far failed.
Maybe it is time to do something drastic when it comes to public schools in the country – such as privatisation. Public schools should not be seen as a last resort.
The concept of privatised schooling is not new, but it is also not widespread internationally.
We could argue that our private and international schools already represent privatised education, but these are privately, not publicly, funded.
What the government could do is start with a pilot programme involving a mix of public schools, from rural to urban areas, to be “privatised”.
In this context, “privatisation” would mean the government allocating a certain sum of money to these schools under the pilot programme.
Malaysia already spends way more per pupil than countries such as Vietnam and Thailand, which are now outperforming it in Pisa rankings.
Clawing back some of that spending and channelling it differently must surely yield better results.
If proven successful, and it should be, then consider a nationwide rollout. Our children need to do better than current outcomes.
Under such a model, selected schools would be placed under concession holders with proven expertise in education and a clearly defined mandate.
The objective would be to lift test scores within a reasonable period of time. If achieved, the concession holder would get a certain fee from a budget held in escrow.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) would be set by the government, but they have to be reasonable from the outset.
The catch here is that the concession holders would not be allowed to set the tests themselves.
The government would design the assessments to ensure standardisation, with each participating school evaluated against a uniform set of tests.
This is why the standardised tests at Standard 5 and Form 3 were critical during my schooling – to gauge how students are performing.
People are tested at various stages of life, and school should be no different, especially when international benchmarks show we are falling behind.
However, concession holders must be allowed to hire the best teachers available and pay them well. Teachers who meet KPI targets should also be incentivised.
The concession holders should also be allowed to tweak school timetables to prioritise learning rather than non-core activities.
Subjects such as moral education should be left primarily to parents, rather than schools taking on that role at the expense of precious instructional time.
At the same time, the concession holder should be allowed to fire or transfer out underperforming teachers.
There is no point keeping substandard teachers around if the objective is to improve the quality of education.
Education should be seen as a business, managed with discipline and accountability, not treated purely as a welfare function.
Given the growth of the education budget and test scores that are circling the drain, there must be some budget leeway to hire well-qualified teachers.
Contracting out school management could introduce greater accountability and urgency in improving teaching standards.
Privatisation is also a way to narrow the gap between public and private schools.
As is, there is already a gap between the performance of students in public schools and boarding schools, let alone those in fee-paying private institutions.
To let the rot continue risks disadvantaging students from lower-performing schools in pursuing new skills or higher education.
Ultimately, a country is only as good as the quality of its human capital.