Education:Keeping The Brain-Dead Inside, The Brains Outside

Hantu Laut

Sorry Babe! Ain't got no money for the kids education but we can buy the BMW that we have always wanted.

Got money to build RM800 million palace, got money to build RM800 million new parliament building, got money to bail out the corrupt-laden PKFZ, got money to make every UMNO's ministers and divisional heads rich but have no money for our brainy students.

If there is anything more horrendous that the Najib's government has churned out so far this could be the worst.

I am sure the Chinese are amused because with this policy it would be the majority Malays and bumiputras kept inside the country.The proverbial "katak dibawah tempurong"

Looks like Mahathir's Vision 2020 is going down the drain.

As Jema Khan pointed out in his article here Najib is a good goalkeeper but backed by under performing team.That could be an understatement.

I have in many instances spelled in my previous posts the need for Najib to have a major cabinet reshuffle or face the perils of losing the government not because of him but because of dismal performance of most of his ministers.His own popularity rating may be on the rise but his ministers are dragging him down.It is either intentional or out of sheer foolishness.

Najib should introduce a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) for each and every minister to measure their performance on quarterly basis.Those falling below the tolerance level for three consecutive quarters should be removed.

Do we really need RM800 million palace and RM800 million parliament house and all the trappings of the delusions of grandeur and neglect our responsibility to educate our children?

Lest, Nazri forgets those are taxpayers' money the government spending on megalomanic projects.

What is wrong with the present parliament house which has been renovated and refurbished a few years ago to the tune of RM85 million yet the roof leaks.Is this building about to collapse to justify the building of another?

This is a government in contradiction.After warning the people of economic gloom and doom and possibility of going bankrupt it embarked on a ridiculously grandiose and wasteful plan of building a new parliament house at a whopping RM800 million for the benefits of 222 members of parliament.

We all know how important education is and how success is deeply tied to having a good educational background.

There are many highly intelligent children from poor families who are just unfortunate to not be able to pursue tertiary education because their parents can't afford to finance further education for them.These tangible assets go to waste because the government failed in its duty.

Human success depend on the ability to adapt, to invent and education is the indispensable factor that can bring progress to humanity.

"Necessity is the mother of invention" and only with education we can gear the brain to logical progression and inventiveness.

Look at the Malaysian oil palm industry.We are the biggest producer of palm oil yet we labour in backwardness in our oil palm plantations depending on imported labour to harvest the fruits and misplaced notion that labour will always be cheap.

No one, including government agencies funded by the government to do research on the oil palm industry has come up with an idea how to mechanise the industry.Greed overrides our better judgement.We put as many trees as possible in an acre of land to get bigger yield in the short term rather than invest in the long term by inventing machines that can mechanise planting and harvesting that eventually will bring down the cost of operation.If that crop is grown in the West they would have found a way to mechanise the whole industry.

We have a trapped mind because we are so easily comforted, complacence and forever depending on the West for new technology.Worst, we don't take criticism as construction for new ideas but rather as a source of annoyance.

Invention need research and development which need big money and only government and big companies can afford to fund such venture.The recipe for any invention is the trained human mind.Education trains the human mind.That's why the West put greatest value in education.

Here, our government tells us there is no more money for further education let alone spend money on research and development.Sorry Nazri! You may be a lawyer but you are way out of your league.

Isolated tribes in the jungle have no form of education to bring modernity to their culture.They continue to stay in the age of ignorance.Islamic civilization, where the sciences used to exist and evolve have been dead for hundreds of years caught in a time warp.Many Muslim nations have put high quality education in the backseat.

Education purveys knowledge, skills and values that are passed from one generation to another.Without education we are doomed.Let me produce Nazri's penultimate statement here.

“This year, we reduced the number to 1,500. Next year, we will continue [to reduce this further],” he said.

Nevertheless, Nazri said that the extra funds would be given out as scholarships to students pursuing courses in the local universities.

“Ultimately, the purpose is also to retain our good students here in our local universities. We want our good students to study locally and this is our long-term goal.

“We want our universities to be first-class. We want to retain the money here, so we finance those in local universities — we want the talent here,” he said.

Nazri noted that one of the reasons behind the brain drain problem in the country was that many students pursued their studies in foreign universities.

“And when they are there and they have the connection, they no longer want to return,” he said.

The full story here.

It sounded like the government is stopping to send students overseas because of the brain drain which is absolutely ridiculous and untrue.

Those who never came back were mostly self-sponsored or paid by parents or family.Those who left the country left for a reason.

Our employment market sucks.It is one big sweat shop and the biggest problem is the government wanting to keep wages low.Entry level for fresh graduate is miserable all for wanting to reflect low cost centre to attract FDI (Foreign Direct Investment).

There is no minimum wage in this country.Employers squeezed labour to the bone and pay minimal wages.

Yes, it is good to keep as many as we could in the country.Maybe, the government should first give a health check on the education system in the country before making that conclusion.Even our local private sector shy away from employing some of our local graduates so can they survive the world's competitive marketplace?Is that the right way to stop the brain drain? Are we going to produce brain-dead graduates?

Nazri and the government should first take a serious look at the top universities of the world and see whether they can find one from Malaysia in the top 100 before making the fatal decision to kill the goose that lay the golden eggs and produce mediocre gooses.

World's top 100 here.

Even more baffling why is Nazri making statement on education issue.Has the Ministry of Education become redundant?

Also read this heart-rending story.