Malaysia belief that education plays a vital role in achieving the countrys vision of attaining the status of a fully

developed nation in terms of economic development, social justice and spiritual, moral and ethical strength, towards creating a society that is united, democratic, liberal and dynamic. It is the mission of education to develop a world class quality education system which will realize the full potential of the individual and fulfill the aspiration of the Malaysian nation. (Education Act 1996, Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2001).

Problem of Equity in Education

Inequalities in the region exist not only between rural - urban areas and public private education institutions or among provinces within the countries. There are also genders and socio-economic conditions that result to disparities in the delivery of quality learning opportunities especially if we talk about access to ICT. In Indonesia, for example, educational disparities can be seen across geographical areas, urban and rural, between western and eastern part of Indonesia and among groups of people with varying income and gender. (Muhaimin, 2001) The rate of female enrolments into upper secondary education schools in Vietnam, for example, is much lower than that of male enrolments. Ethnic minority school girls are the most disadvantaged in upper secondary education. Only 4 % (37,689) out of the total number of disabled children are in both special and integrated education. (Information Management Centre, MOET) In Malaysia, gaps in achievement are a main focus of programmes undertaken by the MOE. The programmes such as for English, Science, Mathematics and ICT all emphasize the need to bridge gaps between urban and rural children. The following factors contribute to inequality of education and learning opportunity: a) Lack of available school building and classroom with all required facilities. There are still many students living in remote areas where it is difficult to reach them or ask them to go to the school due to lack of adequate transportation system or schools. In some places, number of students is so small so that it will be very expensive to build a school building to serve their needs. On the other hand teacher: students ratio usually bigger in urban areas in compare to the remote ones. It is not unusual to see 60 or even more students in a class with one teacher in some of the countries. f) Students and parents low appreciation toward education. They dont see the benefit of going to or sending their children to school. This is magnified by the fact that many school or even university graduates cannot get any job and remain unemployed. In some countries community belief, tradition and value limit girls opportunity to go to school or continue their study to a higher level. g) Level of socio-economic condition of the family. About one third of the population in Southeast Asia, at the average, lives below the poverty line. Except Brunei and Singapore, where there is no data available, all countries still have problem with poverty. High percentage of people living below the poverty line can be found in Lao PDR (40%), Philippines (40%), Vietnam (37%), Cambodia (36%), Indonesia (27%), and Myanmar (25%). The rest of the countries have smaller percentage: Thailand (10.4%) and Malaysia (8%) (The World Fact book, 2004). For poor families

education is not an urgent need. Due to economic reason students have to work for helping their parents or for their family and do not have time to attend the conventional education and training system. In the Philippines there is an increasing demand for children to assist their parents in providing for the familys day-to-day needs. Access and equity for the poor become the major issue in financing education in this country. The pressures of family survival combined with the parents own attitude toward education ultimately determine whether or not a child will be able to stay in school despite the limited financial resources of family.( Ballestamon, 2000). h) Lack of budget for building more schools, classrooms, learning facilities. Funding is always an issue in promoting education opportunity as we are dealing with so big number of children and people in a wide geographic area. Many governments have focused their efforts on the easy to reach for social, economic or geographic reasons.

Problem of Quality Education

To understand the issue of quality in education it will be easier for us if we look at education as a system with all its interdependent components: inputs, process, outputs and feedback. Under the inputs we have students as raw inputs and curriculum, learning materials, teachers, principals and other educational resource persons, learning facilities and environment as instrumental inputs. The second component, process, is where all inputs interact in the process of teaching-learning to reach educational goals and objectives. The third component, output, is the product of the interaction among the inputs, which can be seen from the students improved performances in terms of cognitive, affective, psychomotor domain. Feedback mechanism is another important component of the education system that will give us information on how the system succeeds or fails in achieving goals and objectives. Quality in education cannot be seen from the output or student learning achievement only, but from other components as well. If we follow the Dakars Framework of Action, then the definition of quality is no longer focused only on teaching learning and the classroom. A good quality education requires: - Healthy, well nourished and motivated students, - Well motivated and professionally competent teacher, - Active learning techniques, - A relevant curriculum, - Adequate, environmentally friendly and easily accessible facilities, - Healthy, safe and protective learning environments, - A clear definition and accurate assessment of learning outcomes, including knowledge, skills, attitude and values, - Participatory governance and management, and - Respect for and engagement with local communities and cultures. (World Education Forum Drafting Committee, 2000).

We cannot expect to have good quality education if the students are not healthy, malnourished, going to school with empty stomachs. Their basic need for food will decrease their attention and motivation from learning. The significant number of people living below the poverty line in the region needs real actions if we really want to improve the quality of education. The economic downturn since 1997 increased the number of poor people. The World Bank has described the reversal in Indonesias fortune as the most dramatic economic collapse anywhere in 50 years. The UNICEF report on the State of The Worlds Children 2000 revealed that Indonesia is suffering the greatest setbacks worse than any other country in East Asia. Even UNICEF Indonesia and Malaysia representatives said that Indonesia faces the threat of an entire generation lost, characterized by a large

number of unhealthy, malnourished and uneducated children, including those who work on the streets (http:// www.lists.esential.org). Teachers are essential players in promoting quality education. Well trained, highly motivated, dedicated and professionally competent teachers are very important. This is strongly related to the financial reward they get from their profession as teachers. What is important in improving the quality of education is not only having enough number of teachers in school and class, but enough number of good quality teachers which are highly motivated and dedicated to their jobs. This region has a shortage of teachers both in number and quality. In most of the countries, teaching is not an attractive profession financially. Cambodia has made significant progress in expanding access to primary and secondary schooling in the past ten years. In contrast to access gains, quality improvement has been broadly disappointing. In particular, there appear to be serious urban-rural quality gaps. Roughly one-half of primary school teachers have had little professional training; only two-thirds have completed lower secondary schooling. The teaching learning process should put the students as subject not as an object. Students must be active in learning and they should not only learn about subject matters but also to learn how to learn. Teachers should play their new role in preparing students for an emerging knowledge-based and technology-driven economy. It is unrealistic to expect the low quality and less dedicated teachers to perform this new role. A relevant curriculum, which addresses the need of students, community and work place, should be used in good quality education. In most of the countries it is considered that curriculum is overloaded and should be reformed. Mismatching between what students learn at school and what the community or world of work demands is also an issue to address. This is the irrelevant curriculum and teaching learning process that contribute to the widening gap between education institutions and world of work, and finally contributes to increasing unemployment rate. In majority of the countries we are still lacking learning facilities such as textbooks, libraries, laboratory, and other learning materials both in number and quality. In Vietnam, for example, most schools in the more developed rural areas lack of the teaching equipment required by standardization of the Ministry of Education and Training. Libraries remain poorly stocked and out of date. Many schools are yet to get a science laboratory ( Kieu, 2002). The same picture can also be found in countries like Cambod ia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and even Indonesia. Not all schools and classrooms in our education institutions are healthy and conducive enough to promote excellence in learning. We need a better governance of education systems that is efficient, accountable, transparent and flexible so that they can respond more effectively to the diverse and continually changing needs of learners and community.

Addressing the Problem of Quality

Improving quality of education is really one of the big challenges faced by countries in Southeast Asia. Several measures have been undertaken such as : 1) Train teachers, school principals and other educational personal and upgrade their professional competency. Teachers, who are not only knowledgeable and innovative, but highly disciplined, strongly motivated and dedicated. Competency-based approach has been used to meet this goal. To ensure quality, the status of teaching profession is being upgraded by making classroom teaching an attractive profession comparable to other professional career paths by improving teachers welfare. Incentive and facilities were introduced such as providing opportunities for further studies, presenting appropriate awards for dedicated teachers, determining appropriate allowances for teachers teaching critical subjects and those teaching in remote areas, etc. to make the teaching profession more attractive.

In Malaysia plans are under way to attract the best people to teaching by providing housing facility, car loans at low interest rates and scholarship to further studies at the masters and PhD level. Malaysias targets are to improve achievement among children. Apart from overall achievement, emphasis is placed on science, mathematics, English and in bridging the digital divide with the introduction of ICT literacy. Since last year Malaysian government start implementing a new policy in education; teaching science and mathematic using English as medium of instruction. The challenge is they do not have enough capable teachers doing that job. Training (both pre and in-service training) has been done but it seems it will take times to have all science and math teachers capable in teaching those subjects using English. To ensure that a competent teaching force is maintained to deliver quality education, Singapore MOE has introduced programmes that focus on talent management, leadership selection and review of teachers workload. Various initiatives, from faster promotion prospects to awards, have been introduced, to acknowledge the role teachers play, and raise the standing and morale of the profession. 2) Revise curriculum and make it more relevant and appropriate. Effort is also undertaken to match the skills provided in education and training with the skills required by the industry and world of work and to improve the image of technical education by integrating vocational and technical education with general education. Singapore, for example, has been imparting values and skills through a forward-looking curriculum. MOE has been reviewing and introducing changes to the curriculum, assessment modes and teaching methodologies in order to impart core skills, values and attitudes to our students. Some of these changes include reduction of the syllabus content, infusion of IT and thinking skills through the launch of the IT Master Plan in Education in 1997, as well as introducing project work to help the different disciplines. Thailand under its Decade for Quality and Equity in Education during 2002-2011 has developed a core curriculum for basic education aimed at preserving Thai identity and providing international contents to enable learners to keep up with updated information. It is flexible enough to facilitate the community to make adjustments in response to local demands. Malaysia aims to equip all school leavers with an employable skill with which to secure employment in the job market, and for those who choose to be self-employed, they are taught the rudiments of entrepreneurship and the setting up of a small business in the field that they have been trained. As the smallest country in terms of population, Brunei has the highest unemployment rate (10%,est.2001). (World Fact Book, 2004). For that reason the MOE Brunei is trying to reduce unemployment by matching the skills provided in education and training with the skills required by the industry and world of work. The Ministry is also making efforts to improve the image of technical education by integrating vocational and technical education with general education. In Indonesia, MONE is providing pre-vocational skills especially to the poor students who are enrolled in open junior secondary schools as part of life skills programs. In 2002 there are 1,000 out of 3,121 open junior secondary schools covered by the program. In reforming its curriculum, Thailand allows for contribution/participation of stakeholders, to meet new challenges and demands of difference groups of learners with an emphasis on mathematics, science, and technology in parallel with the promotion of pride in national identity and cultural heritage; 3) Increase the availability, accessibility and quality of textbooks and other learning materials.

Thailand, under it Education Reform policy requires the students to use various learning sources besides their textbooks. Electronic sources are encouraged to expand a knowledge base of both learners and teachers. Indonesia, in order to bridge urban-rural gaps is procuring textbooks prioritized to the remote areas. Currently, the ratio of textbooks to students is still 1:3, while the ideal one is 1:1. The other countries are also trying to provide the learners with good quality, enough in quantity and easily accessible learning materials. 4) Improve teaching-learning process, shift it from a conventional to a leaner-centered approach with an emphasis on self- learning to promote lifelong learning and relevant to real situations and their daily life. MOE Singapore seeks to identify, as early as possible, the talents and abilities of students and develop educational programmes to cater to their different needs, abilities, aptitudes and learning modalities. There is a need to structure different educational routes for children of different ability groups and move towards a model of mass customisation in the provision of education. 5) Provide the schools and learning institutions with more and better learning facilities. Even though Singapore is the most developed economically country in the region but attention is still being paid to school infrastructure, including the building of new schools, making all secondary schools go single-session and reviewing school designs for flexibility and expandability. 6) Use ICT both for teaching learning and management purposes. All countries have been trying to integrate the use of technology, especially ICT to improve the quality of their education. Thailand has been using radio and television broadcasting intensively to provide good quality education to all formal as well non-formal students. Indonesia trains hundred thousands of primary school teachers using the same media. New policy on ICT has been set up and action plans has been developed by the countries. E-education/virtual education/on-line education become a common trend we can find in most of the countries. The MOE Malaysia considers ICT as a means, not an end in itself. All departments in the MOE are actively engaged in the implementation of the ICT in education policy. (UNESCO Bangkok, 2003). Malaysia has launched their SMRT School project as one of the seven flagship applications of the Multimedia Super Corridor to systematically reform the Malaysian school system and transforming a culture of memory based examination oriented learning to a thinking creative and problem solving culture. (Ministry of Education, 2001) Philippines, with its ICT Plan for Basic Education focuses on seven key areas :infrastructure development, technical support, teacher training on the design, production and use of ICT-based instructional materials, research and development, technology integration in the curriculum, use of innovative technologies in education and training, and fund generation. (UNESCO, 2003) 7) Apply school-based quality improvement by combining school-level autonomy with accountability. This approach empowers the schools by promoting participative decision-making and flexibility in allocating school resources. At the higher education level, more autonomy has been given to universities and colleges.

Since schools play a vital role in developing children in all aspects of skills, school reform is a fundamental element of quality improvement. With this justification, Thailand has introduced the concept of school-based management to schools as part of school reform aiming to improve quality in education. Local schools are able to independently administer their schools to assure close participation of local community. Administrators will be trained to keep pace with new administration techniques related to effective school management. (Office of the Educational Commission, 2003) 8) Introduce bilingual system of education to enable students achieves high degree of proficiency in national and international languages. Brunei and Malaysia believe that proficiency in English will allow students easier access to information on development of science and technology, and as a result, take advantage of more opportunities to compete in an increasingly globalize world. Cambodia introduces foreign language teaching (French and English) in grades 5 and 6. 9) A good reading habit is a prerequisite for better learning. Some countries like Brunei, Thailand and Indonesia are promoting book and reading among the school children, youth and the community in general. 10) Strengthen partnership with foreign educational institutions through twinning programme, credit transfers, validation and accreditation, distance learning and Open University programmes. In Malaysia, to open up foreign education to Malaysians, the Education Ministry approved the 3+0 foreign degree programmes. Students are able to obtain foreign degree locally. The presence of offshore campuses will provide the impetus to higher education institutions to improve their quality and standard of education. Cooperation with foreign partners in education is also encouraged in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. 11) Strengthen partnership with community, private and business sectors. This will help minimizing the gap between education and the world of work. MOE Singapore, like in other countries, recognizes the importance of involving schools, parents, community and industries as partners in education. Efforts have been made to involve the various stakeholders at the Ministry and school levels. 12) Giving more autonomy to education institutions/schools to manage their education process. Decentralization becomes a common agenda of education reform in most of the countries in the region. Lao PDR, for example, is improving the management of non-formal education programs through increased decentralization of management and activities, with improved training of trainers. (Mitaray, 2000). Indonesia gives more autonomy to the school to improve quality of education by assuring the implementation of school-based management program. It is really a challenge for the country moving education environment from centralized to decentralized system. The consequences, among others, are as follows. Since they have more autonomy, some local governments at district level are trying to develop their own education systems, which sometimes are not congruent with the national system. The new bureaucracy system at the district level, which requires appropriate adjustment, has caused a time constraint in implementing quality and equity improvement programmes. In addition, some districts with low income have some reasonable difficulties in developing

their education program. Therefore, they are still highly dependent on the budget allocated by the central government. (SEAMEO Secretariat, 2001) Thailand also decentralize authority to local communities for self-reliance and self-determination of local affairs, while Vietnam renovate strongly state governance over education by decentralizing dramatically educational management and bring into full play the initiative and self-responsibility of educational institutions. For this purpose, a project of decentralization in education is being implemented.

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Our deputy prime minister minister of education announced that the World Economic Forums WEF Global Competitive Index GCI report 2011-2012 for Malaysia ranks the quality of our education system at No 14 out of 142 countries Malaysia should be proud of this accomplishment which is above many developed countries including the United Kingdom the US and Germany We really should give ourselves a pat on the back for being ranked at par with these First World nations But instead many have voiced their concern over the misrepresentation or misinterpretation of the data by the minister Many are not amused but aghast The WEF CGI report has for three decades been perceived as the worlds most respected assessment of national competitiveness by leading business executives around the world The control sample is based on the opinion of 87 senior-level management in the business community in Malaysia It is a snapshot of what they believe is true and they believe that Malaysia has one of the best education systems in the world Therefore their opinion is credible and the report is not for dispute The information is to be helpful for business communities to evaluate the viability of Malaysia as a global player in the corporate world and specifically to serve the needs of this niche group only To put the WEF opinion poll into better perspective the respondents would have belonged to the top echelons of the business community It can be safe to assume that they are among the elite high income highly educated and living in the urban areas specifically Kuala Lumpur with their children in private and international schools and a plan for overseas tertiary education thereafter Therefore to be ranked 14th would have highly likely been based on the quality of private and international education and not the overall level of the Malaysian education system as a whole The choices of good private and international schools are plentiful and thanks to the relaxation on local students enrolment these schools are available in every high-income housing area making such schools very accessible to this group To determine overall students performance and the education system as a whole the international standardised test Programme for International Student Assessment PISA and Trends in Mathematics and Science Survey TIMSS for Malaysia would be a more accurate determinant of the current state of affairs in education The number of students assessed in Malaysia for PISA 2010 is 4 999 and TIMSS 2007 is 4 466 Cognizance and modesty would point us to evaluate our entire education internationally via PISA and TIMSS Unfortunately the reality is that we performed below average in both tests One would err to interpret the WEF GCI Education ranking report in isolation without considering the control environment of the sample and generalising that it represents the whole education system when it clearly does not The WEF CGI shows a true picture of only a cross section of the population whilst PISA and TIMSS covers a wider spectrum At least now nationally we have

been apprised of our ability to compare the level of education available to the wealthy minority versus what is available to the less fortunate majority This goes to show that we have the capability to provide quality education locally and we should strive hard and work towards that benchmark.
In my opinion, education is a subjective matter. Some may want to study within the country while some may want to study oversees. For many, it depends on the amount spent for their tuition fees in certain universities.

The National Education System of Malaysia is inherited from the British colonial government. However, the policy outlined in the Education Act of 1961, was done after clearly thinking out the strategies aimed at revamping the fragmented education system of the British colonial era. The main objective in outlining this Act is to achieve a national unity and development through education.

Education in Malaysia is an on-going effort towards further development of the potential of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner, so as to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced and harmonious based on a firm belief in God. Such an effort is destined to produce Malaysian citizens who are knowledgeable, who possesses high moral standards, and who are responsible and capable of achieving a high level of personal wellbeing as well as able to contribute to the harmony and betterment of the nation at large (Ministry of Education, 1993).

What of the quality of education in Malaysia? Is it lagging behind compared to other developing countries?

The late Professor Datuk Dr Syed Hussein Alatas had once likened the education system to anothe r of Malaysias most famous grouse roads ridden with potholes.

Many also remark saying our education system is a mess, its the Governments fault to No, it is the teacher who must be blamed or even that students nowadays are different, they are just impossible to teach.

In my opinion, the Malaysian education is in need of an overhaul. This is particularly in its tertiary and higher education. As students, we should be provided with more practical studies rather than theory. A theory can only go so far, but with practical studies a student is exposed to the subject taken and it also keeps a student focused.

Proposals for Reformation on Malaysian Education System Introduction

Nowadays, education reformation has become one of the important components in the national policy development especially for the long run planning in a country. Such adjustment is necessary to be emphasized and actively implemented especially to suit the aspiration of the nation especially in realizing a new working structure in the country and to meet the future challenge globally. Education reformation between countries may be different due to the characteristics of the nation, political and socio-economic establishment within one state. Background In the case of Malaysia, the educational system is designed in a sense to create a united, democratic, just, liberal and progressive society. The reinvention of curriculum is designed to ensure that the national policy and education philosophywill always be preserved. Hence, any kind of proposals on reforming education system has to be justifiable within the scope of the main vision of the country; in another word, the national policy. In Malaysia, the nation is multi ethnic; therefore, any recommendation is carefully studied just to ensure that major satisfaction among races is achieved and this is definitely not an easy task. One way to collaborate is to proceed along the line with the vision of the country that has already been accepted by the whole nation. For any proposal to improve the education system, a clear understanding on the current national policy is vital. Vision 2020 was initiated by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysian Prime Minister, on February 28, 1991 and since then it has become amajor guideline for any policy formulation in the country, not excluding the education policy. The basic aim of this vision is to create a "developed Malaysia" by the year 2020. It will cover overall achievement in term of national unity, social integration, economic standard, social justice, political stability and improving the quality of life, both in the social and spiritual aspects as well as in instilling pride and confidence of the nation. The future nation has to be more experienced and mature society. It also emphasizes the essence of creating a progressive society with highly scientific and technological achievement and these all require quality human resources with a base of quality education system. The question now is how to harmonize and coordinate the education system that will suit such demands. Therefore, this paper will briefly propose certain reformations in the school structure, curriculums, teaching techniques and pupils career development in relation to real working life at current and future demands.

First Proposal: Review the School Structure First proposal is to review the school structure at the primary and secondary level. As mention in the first paper, there are four types of schools at the primary level: National School for all races, National type C for Chinese, National type T for the Indian and Special School. Such structure has to be refined into smaller category such as having only National School and special school in order to foster a national unity. By reducing the types of school, pupils from all races will be allocated into one integrated education system that will enable them to understand closely and respect more on each other cultures and values. In addition, this will also provide opportunity for the new generation to appreciate on preserving theharmonious nation and therefore introduce a new culture of solidarity. National language (Malay language) will be effectively enforced but this does not mean that the native language of certain races will be ignored. Special language class (extra session) for Chinese and Indian will still be upheld in the curriculum. At the secondary school level, the type of school should also be reduced or merged into few categories such as first, Regular and Fully Residential; second, Vocational and Technical; third, Religious; and forth, Special School. Social integration and shared value on education skill will be more flexible among students. They will be more versatile on sharing education experience and this will enable individuals to enrich their knowledge tremendously although they take different curriculums. These "school merger" concept will make the new school leaver in the future more mature by having various understanding on academic shared value in different field. In addition, it will also give wider opportunity to democratize education among student regardless to their social status either in rural or urban area. Second Proposal: Improve Learning Environment Second proposal concerns the characteristics of the learning environment. Learning environment in most of the school should be thoroughly revised in term of class capacity. The size of the students in a class needs to be reduced to a smaller number for instance 20 pupils per class. At present, the ratio between teacher and student is roughly about 1:20 and this has become the recent aim. However, based on the student per class, the ratio is exceeding 30 students roughly. This is not representative to the acceptable kind of learning environment. Teaching will be more focus if the number of pupils is smaller in one class. This will guarantee the quality of education and teacher will be able to monitor closely on performance for every pupil in her class. Besides that, students can have more close relationship among themselves. Therefore, classes have to be added by building more

schools not only in urban but also rural area to correlate with the abovementioned concept. Third Proposal: Revise the Education Curriculum Third proposal concerns upon revision on the education curriculum at primary and secondary level. The existing curriculum does not entirely guarantee a future progressive society in term of being innovative and creative especially in the science and technological field. In fact, these special traits are the essential component to create a developed nation as highlighted in the Vision 2020. At present, the secondary school leavers are more favorable to take social art courses at the higher institution. Statistically, in 1995, the social art base scholars at the higher institution is 43,610. Those who enrolled in science base courses are 22,290 and technical base courses are 13,430. One reason for this is because they are not well exposed upon its importance. A new set of curriculum has to be introduced especially to encourage participation in the innovative and creative programs. The science base subject has to be designed in more attractive manner. One instance is that the course should require each student (in all types of school) to form up groups to produce a final science related project at the end of the secondary years (supervised by teacher). This program may be identified as Vision Group Program and reward should be given to the excellent outcome. Fourth Proposal: Emphasize Application on Information Technology Facilities Fourth proposal gives more emphasis on the application of information technology facilities in the school. Information technology should be more diversified. Computer literacy classes have to be expanded in all schools and facilities has to be provided and upgraded in line to the recent technological advances. The Smart School concept in Malaysia can also be redesigned in adapting to the other existing school. Smart School is not for smartest student but it stresses on its smart ways of ensuring that every student stretches to his full potential in a way that it is best suited to his learning pace and style. The curriculum will therefore recognize that the students have different learning needs. Here, the students will play as active learners. They will nurture skills on creative problem solving with the help of capability on manipulating information resources. Data collection will be served through database networking. This school also will incorporate the innovative concept of the virtual express class. This will allow fast learners to complete all coursework sooner than the normal duration. Changing

environment after reaching competency at certain level is a smart way to maintain innovative skills. As for the slow learners, they will undergo a thinner program and proceed at a slower pace to ensure that more focused attention will be given by the teacher. To facilitate this, the school provides a centralized on-line delivery of assessment system. The system allows the student in a physical class to work at different levels in the same subject as well as to allow him to progress in a different subject at any given time. In such instance, the student will be guaranteed the attention they deserved. Therefore, ways of teaching have to be diversified too in a sense that teachers will now play the role of "a guide on the side" rather than a traditional way "the sage on the stage". Fifth Proposal: Improve Teaching Techniques Fifth proposal will touch on teaching techniques. One method is by implementing through Education Media Services that provides not only education television and radio program but also supply audio visual aids as well as education technological services. Distance learning can adopt a new way of teaching style via video conferencing. Schools also should have a kind of network among themselves for education purposes. The expansion of existing network such as School Resource Center is therefore required. Sixth Proposal: Emphasize Moral and Ethical Education Sixth proposal will elaborate on moral and ethical education. Advancement on science and technology knowledge should be balanced with moral and ethical values. It is wiser to implement a kind of teaching as conducted in the religious school where the management upholds a one-day education session. Normal education will be taught in the morning session while the religious thought will be conducted in the evening. As for the non-Muslims, they can enroll in a moral and ethical education class. By doing so, this can prevent pupils from involving to certain unwanted event after school where such depreciation of morality among youngster is so transparent nowadays. The education system should guarantee the future generation to be highly moral, knowledgeable and skilful. Seventh Proposal: Introduce Experienced Based Education Seventh proposal will concentrate on experienced base education. Quality education does not mean that it has to be conducted in the manner of academic way of presentation. Sharing values of the real life experiences are considered crucial to expose students in preparing themselves to meet the

future challenges. A clear picture about the real life will enable students to reaffirm his alternatives to choose a right career. Career development program should be enforced effectively especially at the secondary level. Government should urge private sectors to play a major role in this program. Experienced workers and ex-students should engage with the students within reasonable contact hours to highlight the essence of education in connection to the real world. By doing do, students will start appreciate the value of education in their life. This program should be gradually maintained and monitored closely by the school management. Field trips should be part of the school activities and it should not be made on voluntary basis. Eighth Proposal: Reform Higher Institution Education Development Eighth proposal relates to the higher institution development. The government should encourage establishment of the science and technological courses. Private sectors investment in education should be widely encouraged after the implementation of the Private Higher Institution Education Act, 1996. Public Universities should now transform to be more independent after College and University Act, 1995 being amended to ensure higher quality education is maintained. These new trends will also help the government to overcome vast applications from the secondary school leavers to enter higher institution. Certain existing private higher learning institutions should consider themselves to be franchised in strengthening their capability to deliver full program and producing more skill manpower for the future. Public and private higher institution needs also to play larger role in research and development activities and become a backbone for science and technological advancement to the country. Multimedia infrastructure in the university should be adjusted to the new role of information age as being seriously conducted under the government project such as Multimedia Super Corridor. Besides that, higher institution should now introduces new fields of study related to aerospace, communication technology, biotechnology, and other advanced technologies that would keep up to the pace of technological development around the world. Conclusion In conclusion, although these proposals seem to revolutionize the education system in total, there will be more benefit to the nation as a whole and such efforts can realize the countrys vision to be developed by the year 2020. These so-called education visions will generate innovation and productivity in the school and the higher institution education and also the management

system to produce culture of lateral thinking inculcation with the future culture of excellence.
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