Tuesday, October 24, 2006

教育/ Education

马来西亚的教育体制及方针与其政治方向息息相关。近日的世界大学排行榜再次证明了马来西亚无法跻身世界一流大学的门框。政府已经说了多年要把马来西亚打造成国际学府,政治人物信口开河,理论多于实践,谈何容易?要达到这个目的,必须先把自身的教育做好才能信服他人。

对马来民族有保护主义的固打制度限定大学名额最少百分之三十保留给土族,在筛选过程中这数目会增加至过半。很多土著精英早在中学之后领取政府奖学金往国外深造,剩下的填补固打制保存的名额。造就普遍上土著与非土著学术成绩天渊之别。为了将就弱势的一群,课程必须简易化。这乃国内大学素质偏低之一。另一方面,非土著(华裔,印裔)为政府大学名额而斗争,但僧多粥少。

非土著讲师与教授在国内大学也占了极少数,当中原因不明确,让读者猜想吧!再者偏低的工资以及缺乏完善先进的研究与开发设施,是无法吸引一流人才回国贡献给教育。

长期的智囊流失对于发展中国家来说是严重损失。要提升教育,其中一个步骤是必须要抛开种族因素。


Malaysia education systems and policies are closely related to the politics. The recent ranking of world universities again proved that Malaysia has not reached the world top range. The government has repeatedly stressed to build Malaysia as international education podium, the politicians give much comments but without persistent practical efforts. In order to materialize this idea, its self education must be improved to convince the rests.

The privileged system reserved at least 30% of the university quota to the Malay ethnic, this figure would exceed half after recruitment filtration. Lots of Malay elite students have been sent studying abroad after secondary school with governmental scholarships. Those remains will fill up the chances granted by the quota system. Eventually it widens the gap of education achievement between the Malays and non-Malay students in general. For protecting the “weaker” community sake, the syllabuses have to be simplified, which drags the university quality. On the other hand, the non-Malay students are competing fiercely to enrol to government universities, but the opportunities are limited.

There are not many non-Malay lecturers and professors in the national universities, the reason is unclear. I leave it to the readers to ponder. Additionally, the comparative lower salary and lacking of advance research and development facilities are among the reasons failed to attract first class talented scholars back home to contribute their knowledge.

The constant brain drain is a serious loss to developing countries. To promote and alleviate education, eliminating racial issue is among the steps to be considered.