Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, was quoted as saying that according to the World Economic Report’s Global Competitiveness Index 2011-2012(Report), our children received a better quality of education than the children in the United States, Germany and United Kingdom. This is a grossly inaccurate statement designed purely for political propaganda that would only diminish the prestigious position of a Deputy Prime Minister.
Not only is Tan Sri Muhyidin is in a state of denial by covering up the significant challenges, weaknesses and even defects in the Malaysian education system, he has made Malaysia an international laughing stock by claiming to be better than US, UK and Germany. If so, Tan Sri Muhyidin should answer why there is not a single Nobel Prize winner who is a Malaysian and neither is there a single Malaysian university amongst the Top 200 Universities in the world? Or when given the choice, why more Malaysian students want to study in US, UK and Germany than in Malaysian universities?
Tan Sri Muhyidin is guilty of cherry picking or choosing selectively only those favorable statistics from this Report. The ranking of 14 which Malaysia received on the quality of education is just one indicator out of many, which measures different aspects at different levels of our education system. In almost all other measures on education, we are ranked lower than 21.For example:
• Quality of Primary Education: Rank 21
• Primary Education Enrollment: Rank 61
• Secondary Education Enrollment: Rank 101
• Tertiary Education Enrollment: Rank 66
• Quality of Math and Science Education: Rank 23
• Quality of Management Schools: Rank 27
• Internet access in schools: Rank 36
• Availability of Research and Training Services: Rank 18
Our Secondary Education Enrollment ranking of 101 is particularly worrying and points to a significant minority of students who dropped out after primary school and is thus deprived of a change to pursue a higher education. Our rank of 101 puts us below Thailand (Rank 94), Indonesia (Rank 91) Brunei (35) and Singapore (17) in the ASEAN region.
Malaysia’s relatively low performance on objective or non-subjective measures such as the primary, secondary and tertiary enrollment rates should be highlighted over and above that of executive survey opinion indicators such as the Quality of Education ranking. Hence, to highlight this subjective indicator and to ignore the other more objective indicators is highly irresponsible and diverts attention from the other serious problems in our education system, including that of high dropout rates leading to low enrollment rates especially at the secondary and tertiary levels.
In almost all of these other indexes, Malaysia’s performance is far from reassuring. For example, in the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) involving 75 countries, Malaysia was ranked 56th in reading ability, 55th in Mathematics ability and 53 in Science. Our performance in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) has also seen a steady decrease from 1999 to 2007.
The overwhelming evidence from the data in the Report actually contradicts the wild boasts by Tan Sri Muhyidin and confirms that the UK, US and Germany education system is better than Malaysia. In fact the Report reveals that Malaysia have a long uphill climb before our access and average quality of education reaches world-class standards. The time has come for Malaysia’s Education Ministry to boldly admit its weaknesses instead of hiding behind baseless boastings so that we can address these problems.
LIM GUAN ENG
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民主行动党秘书长兼峇眼区国会议员林冠英于2012年4月2日在吉隆坡发表声明：
世界经济报告的2011-2012全球竞争力指数其实与丹斯里慕尤丁的夸口自圆相矛盾，事实上，美国、英国和德国的教育制席还是比马来西亚好。
教育部长丹斯里慕尤丁被引述谈话，根据20111-2012世界经济报告，我们的孩子比美国、英国及德国的孩子接受更高素质的教育。这种不确实的谈话，只是政治宣传，它只会降低副首相尊贵地位的身份。
丹斯里慕尤丁简直是鸵鸟心态，不只掩盖我国教育制度的重要挑战、缺点及不足之处，甚至说我们的教育制度好过美国、英国及德国，让马来西亚沦为全世界的笑柄。如果是真的，为何马来西亚还没有诞生任何诺贝尔奖得主，也为没有一家马来西亚大学成为世界200强大学？如果有选择，为何马来西亚学生都会选美国、英国和德国，而不是马来西亚的大学？
丹斯里慕尤丁只是挑选报告中对本身有利的数据。我们在教育素质排名第14的指标只是 其中一项，它检测我国不同级别的教育制度。在其它方面的评分，我们的排名都远远排在21以上。例如：
:
• 小学教育素质: 第 21名
• 小学教育就学率: 第61名
• 中学教育就学率: 第101名
• 高等教育就学 :第66名
• 数学和科学教育素质：第23名
• 学校管理素质：第27名
• 学校网络应用：第36名
• 研究和培训能力：第18名
我国的中学教育就学率排名101，这种情况令人担忧，它显示了一小部分学生在小学教育后辍学，而因此被剥夺了追求高等教育的机会。在东南亚国家中，我们的排名比其它国家算落后，泰国（94）、印尼（91）、汶莱（35）及新加坡（17）。
马来西亚在客观或非主观调查方面，应更着重小学、中学和高等教育就学率，而不是行政调查指数，如教育排名。为了突出这主观指标，而忽略其他更客观的指标极不负责任，也是转移教育制度有问题的视线，包括中学及高等教育方面，因高辍学率而导致就学率。
在几乎所有这些指数中，马来西亚的表现令人忧心。例如2009年国际学生评价项目（PISA）计划，马来西亚在75个国家中，阅读能力排名第55、数学能力排名第57，科学能力排名第52，我国在国际数学与科学研究（TIMSS）的表现也从1999年至2007年稳步下降。
这些压倒性的报告数据足以反驳慕尤丁的言论，也证实英国、美国和德国的教育制度确实比马来西亚更好。事实上，报告显示，马来西亚还要力争上游，才能到达世界一流的教育水准。是时候马来西亚教育部勇敢地承认弱点，而非毫无根据夸口自圆，唯有这样我们才可以解决问题。
林冠英
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