ID :
58009
Tue, 04/28/2009 - 18:21
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/58009
The shortlink copeid
EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE IMPORTANT PREREQUISITES FOR SUCCESS, SAYS PM
KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 (Bernama) -- Education and knowledge are important prerequisites for any nation to succeed and throughout history only empires that have survived are the empires of the mind, particularly in the present context, said Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Writing in his blog under the title "8 Values for 1Malaysia - Part 7:
Education", Najib said his vision of a 1Malaysia included that of a nation whose
people enriched their lives through the pursuit of and a positive application of
knowledge.
He said a life-long education process in and outside of the classroom would
produce Malaysians who were able to think and act less selfishly, and more for
the community in which they lived.
"An empire built on military strength has not survived and cannot survive.
So when you talk about education and knowledge, it must be seen in a holistic
context.
"It must be integrated with values as well. You must have a society which
places education and knowledge at the apex of everything. Not only the
government, but society as a value.
"For example, the culture of reading. If you just rely on formal text books,
you're not going to gain as much as you ought to. But if you have this culture
of reading, this habit of reading, whether through books or through the Internet
then you are able to open up the Malaysian mind. And I'd like to see the
Malaysian mind more and more opened up," he said.
According to the prime minister, the people were constrained by the fact
that there were different [education] streams in the country.
"We don't have one stream, as such, we don't have one national stream. Even
the national stream has been redefined to include the vernacular schools.
"It is both a strength as well as a problem and a challenge for us because
we won't have the opportunity for Malaysians to grow up together through one
school in a physical sense, but they will be compartmentalised.
"Ninety-five per cent of Chinese will go to Chinese schools, 97 per cent of
Malays will go through the sekolah kebangsaan or national schools.
"So we will not have the opportunity. But what we can do is to ensure that
there are opportunities for us to interact by looking at the curriculum and
emphasising on common values, so that even if we are physically separated, but
if we are imbued with the same value system, hopefully at some point in time, we
will converge. When we converge, in the physical sense, we will be able to
appreciate each other better," added Najib.
-- BERNAMA
Writing in his blog under the title "8 Values for 1Malaysia - Part 7:
Education", Najib said his vision of a 1Malaysia included that of a nation whose
people enriched their lives through the pursuit of and a positive application of
knowledge.
He said a life-long education process in and outside of the classroom would
produce Malaysians who were able to think and act less selfishly, and more for
the community in which they lived.
"An empire built on military strength has not survived and cannot survive.
So when you talk about education and knowledge, it must be seen in a holistic
context.
"It must be integrated with values as well. You must have a society which
places education and knowledge at the apex of everything. Not only the
government, but society as a value.
"For example, the culture of reading. If you just rely on formal text books,
you're not going to gain as much as you ought to. But if you have this culture
of reading, this habit of reading, whether through books or through the Internet
then you are able to open up the Malaysian mind. And I'd like to see the
Malaysian mind more and more opened up," he said.
According to the prime minister, the people were constrained by the fact
that there were different [education] streams in the country.
"We don't have one stream, as such, we don't have one national stream. Even
the national stream has been redefined to include the vernacular schools.
"It is both a strength as well as a problem and a challenge for us because
we won't have the opportunity for Malaysians to grow up together through one
school in a physical sense, but they will be compartmentalised.
"Ninety-five per cent of Chinese will go to Chinese schools, 97 per cent of
Malays will go through the sekolah kebangsaan or national schools.
"So we will not have the opportunity. But what we can do is to ensure that
there are opportunities for us to interact by looking at the curriculum and
emphasising on common values, so that even if we are physically separated, but
if we are imbued with the same value system, hopefully at some point in time, we
will converge. When we converge, in the physical sense, we will be able to
appreciate each other better," added Najib.
-- BERNAMA
