THIS month I was privileged to attend four very different kinds of events in four educational institutions in Negeri Sembilan.
At Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Raja Melewar, I reunited over breakfast with the teacher trainees who performed at the Konsert Muzikal Sehati Sejiwa back in August. During that concert I accompanied their angklung players in an arrangement of ‘Sejahtera Malaysia’, as well as one of their talented violinists for the Presto movement from Summer in Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’. The rest of the repertoire was extremely diverse: after a vigorous display of silat and silambam, there were ballads and bhangra, caklempong and tango.
Recalling the energy and enthusiasm of the event at breakfast, I spoke to some of the teacher trainees whose ambition is to transmit such cultural diversity to the students that they will start teaching in a couple of years. If they are able to do so supported by their schools and the curriculum which they are being asked to teach, I will be optimistic indeed about the ability of young Malaysians to engage with cultures other than their own: a quality that won’t emerge in academic results but yet so important to their future role as citizens.
At Tunku Kurshiah College, I joined my family at the launch of the Tunku Arishah Sports Arena, named after my aunt, the wife of Tan Sri Azman Hashim, whose foundation donated the impressive facility – a real boon to the students as the girls did not have adequate sporting grounds since the school was required to move from Seremban to Bandar Enstek in 2013 (a fact that continues to arouse suspicion among alumni): the president of the Old Girls’ Association Tan Sri Rafiah Salim described Azman as “our knight in shining armour”.
The proceedings were accompanied by their superb wind orchestra and included costumed relay races from students and alumni as well as some spirited cheerleading. Azman shared his many happy memories of the first Raja Permaisuri Agong, her great wisdom and efforts championing women’s rights in the new country. I learnt that she supplied the portrait of her husband that still adorns our ringgit notes.
At Sekolah Kebangsaan Tunku Laksamana Nasir, a new partnership was unveiled between Yayasan Munarah and Robotics Learning (which received a grant from LinkedIn to set up rural robotics clubs), to enable students from primary schools in the Seri Menanti area to learn how to construct robots and write code. The demonstrations from the students after just two sessions was impressive: one team had built a robot to automatically fold clothes, another a prototype automated grass cutter – inspired by everyday tasks they witness at home.
Around the corner, at the Form 5 graduation ceremony at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tunku Besar Burhanuddin, I was given the great honour of meeting the first recipient of the Tunku Zain Al-Abidin Award, given to the student who most excels in academic performance, co-curricular activities and leadership qualities. I told her to live up to the spirit of the award – and I promised to do the same! Some students of this school are already eagerly trying squash and golf, thanks to programmes at the nearby Royal Seri Menanti Golf and Country Club.
Later, the principal told me what band the school is in, and their efforts in moving up to the next band – this is the ministry’s way of ranking schools, and like many parents and activists I feel it should be made more transparent so that parents can make better decisions about the education of their children – and to encourage the competition and innovation that will only benefit the next generation. But co-curricular opportunities are often omitted in such rankings, whereas their role in shaping the minds and attitudes of children are so great.
These four educational institutions, comprising students of different ages and possessing varying levels of perceived prestige, have in common the fact that they are all named after members of the Negeri Sembilan royal family: that in itself does not necessarily have a huge impact on their ethos (it is taken for granted that such places are named after historical figures) – but it is heartening that they belong in a family of schools that have a strong vision for extra-curricular activities being at the heart of their students’ educational experience.
What is striking is that they are led by teachers who can and do take the initiative, working with the private sector and charities to deliver them. Indeed, it lies at the heart of what my colleagues and I have been arguing for ages: that greater decentralisation and autonomy in educational decision-making can be hugely transformative.
Tunku Zain Al-Abidin is founding president of Ideas.