SARAWAK is showing the way to the federal government on how to frame and implement policies. Up to a point that is.
And the exact locus of the point is a developing story. Of the latter, we have to say watch this space. Let's start with education. This is a question of what and how.
Both these determine the shape of Malaysians our educational institutions produce. It must be admitted, willingly or unwillingly, that we have got the what and how of education wrong at the federal level.
Little wonder, Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg has called for autonomy in education.
No blame here. Our education ministers come and go with a policy of their own in five-year cycles, and at times less.
Or when a government falls and another replaces it, the education policies fall and rise with the political tide. The on and off of the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah and Form Three Assessment exam is a case in point.
Another is the on-again, off-again teaching of Science and Maths in English. Education shouldn't be swung like a pendulum. Temporary changes like these will cause permanent damage to the young.
Perhaps this national confusion is so because we are not clear about the real purpose of education. It is critical to get this right because if we don't, we will get everything else wrong. But the challenge is to separate the wheat from the chaff.
When it comes to education, there are just too many self-proclaimed "experts". To the men and women of commerce, our colleges and universities are there to churn out "employable' graduates, whatever that means. Nothing more.
This is a very narrow view of human life. To focus thus is to give careerism undue importance. Our education policy shouldn't be merely a career-to-grave proposition. To be a human is to be more. When the purpose of education gets real, so will education. We get no better help from our academics either.
To these ivory tower dwellers, education is all about Science, Mathematics and Humanities. Again, a narrow view. We say the purpose of education must begin at the beginning. It must take into account that the object of education is the human being.
As human beings, we are creatures of body, spirit and mind. All three need to be educated. One so wholesomely educated will be not only capable, but will be of good character, too.
As one local scholar put it long ago, to be of good character is to know the proper places of all things. Put differently, to be educated means to be a good human being. Malaysia would be a far superior nation than it is if it produced such good human beings. So will the rest of the world.
Abang Johari has other interesting ideas about education. Free education up to the tertiary level from 2026 is one Sarawak is exploring. Economists and academics of other disciplines have debated this out of existence.
To Abang Johari, Sarawak can afford it as it would, God willing, be the most developed state in the country by 2030. Until then, it is free laptops, help with repayment of student loans from the National Higher Education Fund and free book vouchers.
Noble ideas from Kuching that Putrajaya may want to give a deep think. But first, get education right.
