World Bank correct in highlighting our worsening education system
Published on: Sunday, May 05, 2024
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The early childhood education industry in this country has been relegated to the backburner of progressive transformation for far too long. Many things can wait but not quality early childhood education. - pix for illustration purposes only
Among others, the report stated that “by the age of 15, Malaysian students lag aspirational peers in reading, math and science as measured by international assessments.”
It also stated that the problem lies in students not having adequate school readiness skills and consequently facing challenges in reading, writing and mathematics throughout their schooling.
Having been in the early childhood industry for more than 20 years, I believe that essential foundational school readiness skills, especially language and literacy skills, must be acquired by children during their early childhood years, failing which they will certainly face serious challenges in their schooling years.
Quality early childhood education and development is paramount in providing this important foundation and should never be compromised either by the educators themselves or the parents.
We must realise that there is only a small window of opportunity for a child to acquire these essential skills during their early years.
However, the current emphasis (more often than not arising from parents’ demands) by many early childhood education centres is on getting the young child to do well academically during preschool years before anything else.
Certainly, “earlier” is not “better” in the world of early childhood education as far as academic achievements are concerned. The embrace of such misplaced priorities has undesirably overwhelmed the importance of the impartation of essential foundational skills that the child so badly needs.
It is no doubt a big mistake many commit, as it is akin to putting the cart before the horse. When a child has poor reading and writing skills, he or she is greatly disadvantaged and will ultimately lag, and lose interest, in studies along the way.
I lament the poor quality of the majority of teachers in the industry, which leads to our young children not acquiring those essential skills during their early childhood years.
I must say that for the quality of early childhood education in this country to be improved, we have to transform preschool teachers into the kind of practitioners that we so desire.
The government would need to step up its efforts in this endeavour in the areas of training, qualifications, monitoring, evaluation and regulation of early childhood education providers.
I have always believed that one cannot give what one does not have and, unfortunately, most of our preschool teachers do not have what it takes to educate and nurture young children under their care the way it ought to be done.
Nothing short of a complete paradigm shift in the way we view early childhood education in this country, and the will to act for the better, will allow us to harbour a glimmer of hope to truly excel in this arena.
Indeed, we must never for a moment ignore the importance of early childhood education, a crucial foundation upon which rests all other springboards for the achievement of excellence that our society desires.
The early childhood education industry in this country has been relegated to the backburner of progressive transformation for far too long. Many things can wait but not quality early childhood education.
LSC
- The views expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the Daily Express.
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