The Education We Lost

There has been a lot of discussion about our education system lately. But come to think of it, education has always been one of the key national issues for as long as I can remember.

The older generation often lament about the declining standards of our education system. I am not old enough to be considered part of the English-educated generation. I had my entire education in a public Sekolah Kebangsaan. Was the standard better then compared to now? Let's examine this further.

My dad went to the old colonial English-medium school. I inherited many of his textbooks. I remember feeling envious that my dad got to study poems by Shelley, Wordsworth and Byron as part of his secondary education. I did read a lot of sajaks too during my school days and even wrote a few myself. But I was the exception. I don't remember any of my classmates having the same kind of interest in poetry and literature as I did.

I am a hundred percent a product of the national school. Was the standard of education better then? Thinking back, I think there were a lot more bad teachers than good ones. But as students we did not know any better and being the foolish schoolkids we were, we actually liked teachers who walked into the classroom and declared: "buat kerja sendiri hari ni". It meant we could spend the period, chit-chatting or playing games with our classmates. It made our day. We didn't appreciate the good teachers who were usually strict disciplinarians. But they were few and far between. Most of the teachers never prepared any of their lessons. Some just dictated notes to us; the entire period would be spent copying notes.

Unlike kids today, I didn't go to any tuition during my primary schooldays. My parents guided me whenever they could. They inculcated in me the discipline to study everyday. The good thing was that there were not much distractions then--limited TV (black and white), no internet, no smartphones, no computer games. They only 'distractions' were outdoor activities--playing football, marbles and other outdoor games with neighbourhood friends.

I think that made our childhood education more meaningful. We were never distracted; we had healthy outdoor activities and going to school was a lot of fun because our friends were there. We wanted to hang out with friends--eating together at the school canteen, getting all sweaty during PE lessons and hanging out in school after class for extra-curricular activities. Sometimes we would venture out into the rubber-estate behind the school and had great fun frolicking in in the stream, catching fish and playing ducks and drakes.

Perhaps that was the best part of our education. No, I don't think the teachers were not any better or worse than the ones today. The syllabus--I don't know and we didn't care. We learned enough science, mathematics, English, BM, art and even a bit of Mandarin for us to pick up any other advanced subjects later in life. I can still write and read in elementary Jawi, which we all learned in school.

I feel we were a more cohesive society then not because race-relations were a lot better then. No, for as far as I can remember, politically, there has always been suspicion between the races. But socially, in the national schools, there was a good mix of different races studying and playing together everyday. That was the best part of it. It was nothing unusual and it was fun. We spoke Malay all the time, even among the non-Malays.

When I see schoolkids today being picked up by parents from their elite schools to be shuttled immediately to their tuition centres, I pity them for not having the kind of 'education' that we used to have. No, our teachers were not better, our syllabus were not superior, our standard of English wasn't that good either.

But we interacted a lot. That was the key difference. We played after school together, Back home, we watched the same TV programs (Combat, Six-Million Dollar Man, Empat Sekawan, Drama Minggu Ini, Bintang RTM) and talked about them in school the next day. Most of all, we shared a common space. That to me was where the real education took place. And sadly, that is something we have really lost.