Why not have charter schools for Malaysia?
M Bakri MusaPublished: Feb 3, 2001 12:14 AM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 10:21 AM
The recent controversy over Vision schools leads me to recommend charter schools for Malaysia. Charter schools are popular in America. The underlying concept is to empower the ultimate "consumers" of schools - students and their parents - by taking control away from the central bureaucracy and giving it to the schools.
The ministry would be concerned only with monitoring the quality and compliance with rules and regulations, and setting the standards.
Properly designed, charter schools would lead to greater integration of our students (and their parents); improve the level of English (or any other language for that matter); involve the private sector in our school system; and most importantly, introduce much needed competition to the present state monopoly.
Such competition would enhance quality and encourage innovation. To gain their charter from the government, such schools must meet certain conditions. Their graduates for example, must demonstrate competency in our national language and history. These schools must also recognise the uniqueness and special sensitivity of our Malaysian society.
Their student body must therefore reflect our community, that is, a mix of 60:40 bumiputra and non-bumi. Exceptions would be rare; a school in Ulu Kelantan could have fewer non-bumiputras.
In return, these schools would get state funding - the same amount it would have cost the government to educate these pupils in our present system. Additionally, the state would guarantee loans for capital expenses. The actual lending however, would be done through private sources.
Because of the guarantee, the interest rate should be favourable. Any private entity, local or foreign, could establish such schools provided they meet enrolment requirements to prevent both the one-teacher school and the giant educational factories.
Foreign students
Further, parents and teachers must constitute the majority of the governing board to ensure that the school's mission is not subverted. The board would have total control, including choosing the medium of instruction and the setting of fees. The board would be accountable to the students and parents; they would monitor the school better than any government official.
Such schools must have clearly stated objectives. They can prepare students for the Sijil Tinggi Persekutuan (STP), the British GCE, the International Baccalaureate, the American SAT, or any other matriculating examinations.
Some schools could emphasise the fine arts, others foreign languages or the sciences. These schools could look to their leading counterparts abroad as their model. Schools preparing students for the American system could emulate Groton and Exeter. Such schools would also attract foreign students and be a source of valuable foreign earnings.
For the non-college bound, there could be vocational charter schools started by Pernas, for example, to train future workers for its hotels. Proton may have one to train automotive and body mechanics; a consortium of construction companies may start one to train plumbers, electricians, and other skilled workers.
The schools, not the ministry, would set the curriculum. If there is a demand there could be schools preparing for Arabic and Chinese universities. Such schools must of course meet the enrolment mix mentioned above.
Such charter schools would lead to greater integration, as students would take classes and do extra curricular activities together, an improvement over the present Vision schools or the Pupil Integration Plan.
Paradigm shift
To prevent such schools from becoming enclaves of the rich, they would have to provide scholarships to at least 20 percent of their students. They must also provide hostels so students from rural areas are not excluded. The schools must also have adequate facilities (playing fields, auditoriums) to preclude they being set up above shop lots.
I have participated both as a parent and at the board level in such a school. One innovation we introduced was the senior exhibition as a graduation requirement. Students write a report as well as put on a multimedia presentation on each subject to an audience of teachers, students, and interested community members.
They undertake their own research and preparation, with the teacher's guidance. To ensure accountability, they are evaluated not by their teachers but by a panel of outside volunteers.
College admission officers are impressed with this innovation. More importantly, feedback from our students revealed that the exhibition exercises were the one high school experience that best prepared them for university.
Adopting charter schools would require a major shift in thinking and attitude on the part of our education establishment, a paradigm shift, to use the current clich. First, they must disabuse themselves from the ingrained idea that innovations and pedagogical wisdom are the exclusive preserve of ministry bureaucrats.
Second, the government is not the only entity that can provide education. Third, there is no "one size fits all" model that will satisfy the needs of all Malaysians.
Diversity important
Our present central command and control system is clearly inadequate. American universities are widely regarded as the best precisely because there is no central authority; there is no ministry of higher education. Each institution is free to chart its own course.
Consequently, the crowd at Harvard is very different from those at Creekville State University; nonetheless graduates from both places are needed. In contrast, American public schools, highly controlled and regulated, lag behind those of many countries.
Malaysia benefitted immensely by allowing private sector involvement at the tertiary level. Unfortunately, such institutions are currently dangerously segregated along racial lines. Uncorrected, this could spell future disaster.
American universities long ago recognised that diversity is good not only for themselves and their students but also for the greater community. Harvard today is that much more highly regarded than it was five decades ago when it was the preserve of White, Anglo-Saxon Protestants.
Diversity in student and faculty is now an important criterion for accreditation. Malaysia should do likewise. The government can foster this by giving grants to these private universities to enroll more bumiputras.
Malaysia should start small, by granting charters to about 20 to 25 primary schools, 10 to12 at the secondary level, and a few universities. After a decade, carefully evaluate the program with a view to enhancing it.
The problems facing Malaysian education are many. Charter schools and colleges are one solution worth adopting.
The ministry would be concerned only with monitoring the quality and compliance with rules and regulations, and setting the standards.
Properly designed, charter schools would lead to greater integration of our students (and their parents); improve the level of English (or any other language for that matter); involve the private sector in our school system; and most importantly, introduce much needed competition to the present state monopoly.
Such competition would enhance quality and encourage innovation. To gain their charter from the government, such schools must meet certain conditions. Their graduates for example, must demonstrate competency in our national language and history. These schools must also recognise the uniqueness and special sensitivity of our Malaysian society.
Their student body must therefore reflect our community, that is, a mix of 60:40 bumiputra and non-bumi. Exceptions would be rare; a school in Ulu Kelantan could have fewer non-bumiputras.
In return, these schools would get state funding - the same amount it would have cost the government to educate these pupils in our present system. Additionally, the state would guarantee loans for capital expenses. The actual lending however, would be done through private sources.
Because of the guarantee, the interest rate should be favourable. Any private entity, local or foreign, could establish such schools provided they meet enrolment requirements to prevent both the one-teacher school and the giant educational factories.
Foreign students
Further, parents and teachers must constitute the majority of the governing board to ensure that the school's mission is not subverted. The board would have total control, including choosing the medium of instruction and the setting of fees. The board would be accountable to the students and parents; they would monitor the school better than any government official.
Such schools must have clearly stated objectives. They can prepare students for the Sijil Tinggi Persekutuan (STP), the British GCE, the International Baccalaureate, the American SAT, or any other matriculating examinations.
Some schools could emphasise the fine arts, others foreign languages or the sciences. These schools could look to their leading counterparts abroad as their model. Schools preparing students for the American system could emulate Groton and Exeter. Such schools would also attract foreign students and be a source of valuable foreign earnings.
For the non-college bound, there could be vocational charter schools started by Pernas, for example, to train future workers for its hotels. Proton may have one to train automotive and body mechanics; a consortium of construction companies may start one to train plumbers, electricians, and other skilled workers.
The schools, not the ministry, would set the curriculum. If there is a demand there could be schools preparing for Arabic and Chinese universities. Such schools must of course meet the enrolment mix mentioned above.
Such charter schools would lead to greater integration, as students would take classes and do extra curricular activities together, an improvement over the present Vision schools or the Pupil Integration Plan.
Paradigm shift
To prevent such schools from becoming enclaves of the rich, they would have to provide scholarships to at least 20 percent of their students. They must also provide hostels so students from rural areas are not excluded. The schools must also have adequate facilities (playing fields, auditoriums) to preclude they being set up above shop lots.
I have participated both as a parent and at the board level in such a school. One innovation we introduced was the senior exhibition as a graduation requirement. Students write a report as well as put on a multimedia presentation on each subject to an audience of teachers, students, and interested community members.
They undertake their own research and preparation, with the teacher's guidance. To ensure accountability, they are evaluated not by their teachers but by a panel of outside volunteers.
College admission officers are impressed with this innovation. More importantly, feedback from our students revealed that the exhibition exercises were the one high school experience that best prepared them for university.
Adopting charter schools would require a major shift in thinking and attitude on the part of our education establishment, a paradigm shift, to use the current clich. First, they must disabuse themselves from the ingrained idea that innovations and pedagogical wisdom are the exclusive preserve of ministry bureaucrats.
Second, the government is not the only entity that can provide education. Third, there is no "one size fits all" model that will satisfy the needs of all Malaysians.
Diversity important
Our present central command and control system is clearly inadequate. American universities are widely regarded as the best precisely because there is no central authority; there is no ministry of higher education. Each institution is free to chart its own course.
Consequently, the crowd at Harvard is very different from those at Creekville State University; nonetheless graduates from both places are needed. In contrast, American public schools, highly controlled and regulated, lag behind those of many countries.
Malaysia benefitted immensely by allowing private sector involvement at the tertiary level. Unfortunately, such institutions are currently dangerously segregated along racial lines. Uncorrected, this could spell future disaster.
American universities long ago recognised that diversity is good not only for themselves and their students but also for the greater community. Harvard today is that much more highly regarded than it was five decades ago when it was the preserve of White, Anglo-Saxon Protestants.
Diversity in student and faculty is now an important criterion for accreditation. Malaysia should do likewise. The government can foster this by giving grants to these private universities to enroll more bumiputras.
Malaysia should start small, by granting charters to about 20 to 25 primary schools, 10 to12 at the secondary level, and a few universities. After a decade, carefully evaluate the program with a view to enhancing it.
The problems facing Malaysian education are many. Charter schools and colleges are one solution worth adopting.
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