KOTA KINABALU: DAP parliamentary leader, Lim Kit Siang is on calling the government to set up a Parliamentary Select Committee for MPs from both the Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) to see how the education in Malaysia can be improved.
The Gelang Patah MP told a press conference at Bandaran Berjaya Shangrila Hotel yesterday yesterday that the setting up of the committee was important following the announcement of the achievement of 30,988 of the over 462,940 Penilaian Menangah Rendah (PMR) candidates nationwide, who scored Grade A in all subjects.
He was concerned about the happiness among parents in Malaysia without realizing the real situation of the lower achievement of Malaysian students compared to the international level, as reported in the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and 2012 Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA).
“With the 7.33 per cent of students scoring straight A’s in all the PMR subjects, this should mean that the Malaysian national education system has produced over seven per cent students who are world-class ‘top scorers’ comparable with their peers in the rest of the world.
“However, this is not reflected whether in the 2011 TIMSS or 2012 PISA results.
“The 2011 TIMSS showed that only two per cent of the Malaysian students who participated reached the topmost performing grade of “Advanced International Benchmark” for maths as compared to 49 per cent for Taiwan, 48 per cent for Singapore, 47 per cent for South Korea, 34 per cent for Hong Kong, 27 per cent for Japan and 14 per cent for the Russian Federation,” he said.
Kit Siang also stressed what is even more disconcerting is the international assessment results reflect a continued deterioration of educational standards of Malaysian students especially in the past one-and-a-half decades as the percentage of Malaysian students reaching the TIMSS “Advanced International Benchmark” for maths had fallen drastically from 10 per cent in 1999 to 2 per cent in 2011, while the top-performing countries have improved in the percentage of students in this top scorer category, for example from 1999 to 2011, Taiwan improving from 37 per cent to 49 per cent, Singapore from 42 per cent to 48 per cent, South Korea from 32 per cent to 47 per cent and Hong Kong from 28 per cent to 34 per cent.
“Why is Malaysia regressing while the best and most competitive of the national educational systems in the world are making phenomenal progress in the past decade-and-half?” he further asked.
The setting up of Parliamentary Select Committee was important, he said, especially with the ‘silence’ of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his Deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin over the issue.
He believed all the MPs from both coalitions should find the best solution to ensure Malaysian education is up to the international standards.
“In the 2012 PISA, only 1.3 per cent of students in Malaysia made it to the “top performers” bracket in maths, in other words, reaching Level 5 or 6 as compared to Shanghai (55.4 per cent), Singapore (40 per cent), Taiwan (37.2 per cent), Hong Kong (33.7 per cent) and South Korea (30.9 per cent).
“Between 15 per cent and 25 per cent of students in Belgium, Canada, Finland, Germany, Japan, Liechtenstein, Macao, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland and Switzerland are top performers in mathematics,” he said.
“Even the top five per cent of Malaysian students perform only in line with the average Korean or Japanese pupil.
“Most worrying, more than half of Malaysian students (51.8 per cent) do not reach basic proficiency levels in Mathematics (Below Level 2),” he added.
Also present at the event yesterday were DAP Sabah chief cum KK MP Jimmy Wong, Kepayan assemblyman Dr Edwin Bosi, Likas assemblyman Junz Wong and Batu Kawan MP Kasthuriraani Patto.
Bosi, when commenting on Kit Siang’s statement said it was an eye opener for the government to look at how it would promote Malaysia as an educational hub, when the standards were far behind.
“We do not want people to come and study in Malaysia just because it is easy to get a degree in our higher learning institutions.
“It is also a serious decision for our government to choose which examinations or assessments should Malaysia believe, the local ones or international education benchmarks,” he added.