KOTA KINABALU: The nation’s education blueprint aspires for the attainment of five outcomes with emphasis on accessibility, quality, equity, unity and efficiency.
Deputy director-general of Education, Datuk Dr Amin Senin, disclosed that the outcomes are in line with the aspirations articulated by participants of the national dialogue which have been agreed upon as comparable to other high-performing education systems.
“Actions across all the five targetted areas are equally important and no initiative on one particular area should detract from or undermine the progress of another,” Dr Amin said when launching the preliminary report on the Executive Summary of Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013 – 2025 at the Suria Sabah yesterday.
He explained that every Malaysian child deserves equal access to education to empower them to achieve their full potential.
“The Ministry aspires to ensure universal accessibility and full enrolment of all children from the pre-school level through to the upper secondary level by 2020,” said Dr Amin.
He also said that all children will have the opportunity to attain excellent education which is uniquely Malaysian but comparable to any of the best international system.
“The aspiration is for Malaysia to be in the top three countries in terms of performance in international assessments as measured by the outcomes in Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) within 15 years,” he said.
He went on to add that TIMSS and PISA current emphasis are on tests for literacy, Mathematics and Science while additional assessments that address other dimensions of quality which are relevant to the Malaysian context may be included as they are developed to become accepted international norms.
Dr Amin explained that a top-performing school system would deliver the best possible education embracing every child, regardless of geography, gender or the socio-economic background and the Ministry would pursue to halving the current urban-rural, socio-economic and gender achievement gaps by 2020.
“As children spend over a quarter of their time at schools from the ages of seven to 17, schools are placed and primed in key positions to foster unity.
“Interacting with individuals originating from a range of socio-economic, religious and ethnic backgrounds and learning to understand, accept and embrace the differences would lend credence for a set of experiences and aspirations to be shared for Malaysia’s future to be built upon,” he said.
Dr Amin said the Ministry also aspires to create a system where students would be provided with avenues to render these shared experiences and aspirations to form the foundation for unity.
“The nation’s education system has always been well-funded yet the outcomes have not always matched the resources channeled into the system and while the Government will maintain the current level of investment, the aspiration is to further maximise student outcomes within the current budget levels,” he maintained.
In another development, Dr Amin disclosed that several professional posts at the district education offices would be created as a support system for school headmasters and teachers.
“We will add professional posts that could support teachers or headmasters in schools and Sabah will be the first state in the country to implement this system,” he added.