ESSAY: One thing that I would like to see changed or improved in my own country

NAME: NUR AISHAH BINTI ABDUL MANANMATRIC NO. : 10DIB14F1003

When morning comes, reality intrudes and dream begins to slip away. But I am

determined to make my one dream into reality which is of Malaysia being a country that

truly excels in education globally. I want this dream within my grasp because I believe

Malaysia has the potential to go higher in our education level. I am a patriotic citizen of

Malaysia, a country that encompasses freedom, integrity, honour, heritage, compassion

and so much more. These are all good qualities, but knowledge is brings the most power.

Knowledge triumphs above all. Therefore, one thing that I wish to see changed or

improved in my country is definitely the education system.

South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Finland, United Kingdom, Canada,

Netherlands, Ireland and Poland. These are the top 10 countries with excellent reputations

in hailing internationally for their extremely high education system. Since my country are

not listed above, the Malaysian government should make improvements to take about

education excellence by implementing education reformation first and foremost.

Nowadays, a lot of successful countries carries great educational achievement that is

promoted by an exam culture. In Malaysia, we are very familiar and accustomed with

plenty of tests that students need to undertake especially in primary and secondary

school. However, the major problem with Malaysia’s examinations is that it focuses

solely on the syllabus. The trend of exams should be changed from syllabus-based

questions to the ones that actually requires critical thinking and analysis. The Ministry of

Education in Malaysia should ensure that examinations throughout the country is set

purely based on students analytical thinking skills and their ability to relate broad general

knowledge with the syllabus. I am talking about a set of questions that will challenge the

students minds during examination. This kind of examinations are the ones that will

determine competent students worth internationally. Instead of pushing students to study

rigidly by memorizing the textbook line by line just to pass the exams, we should

embolden them to think out of the box under every circumstances. We should promote an

academically challenging environment in Malaysia to bring students totally out of their

comfort-zone. The teachers must play a vital role in molding students to fully utilize their

mind not for the sake of examination purposes but to become the future leaders of

Malaysia. In order to achieve this goal, everyone should change the students fallacious

mentality that the amount of A’s in examinations symbolizes their intelligence. They

should transition the students mentality to a professional mentality. We should emphasize

on the knowledge gained as a priority instead of getting good grades.

Besides, teachers should start shaping students to be more diverse, productive and

innovative by promoting active learning, community-building and risk-taking in school

activities. We should encourage students to seize every opportunity to be recognized as a

high quality student. To produce high quality students, my country should first produce

high quality teachers. Those days with inspiring teachers are slowly vanishing. Great

teachers are considered as rare gems in Malaysia. So now we should produce not some,

but all high quality teachers that exude strong willpower to mentor and inspires students

into becoming extraordinary leaders. The government must make it compulsory for

aspiring teachers to go through extensive teaching programmes before getting involve in

the education arena. Once a teacher has the ability to inspire and mentor students into

accomplishing amazing things, only then they shall be selected to continue the noble

career of a teacher/lecturer. I highly demand that the teachers should stop providing only

textbooks information but grant students with a broad variety of learning experience

which will come handy when they start their career in the future. The reality in the

modern world is that if we are lacking of leadership quality, communication skills and

global knowledge, then our straight A’s and Diplomas will not do any good at all in

pursuing a remarkable career. My deep concern is that the result of Malaysian education

is usually students that studies according to syllabus only. This will surely not give us

good job opportunity. Therefore, students should be good in their leadership role and

utilize their potential into contributing to the society since the early level of education.

We could improve the leadership element of students in Malaysia by promoting plenty of

activities such as organizing their own forum, involving in an international conference,

public speaking and so much more activities that will boost up their confidence level and

brings them out of their shell. Every students should be made compulsory to participate in

these programmes so in the end, Malaysian graduates will exude high performance in

their career prior to that organizational experience they had. With all these initiatives

taken, I hope to see every students in my country flourish and thrive in everything they

do.

A long time ago, South Korea and Finland had terrible educational system and yet,

look at how distinguished their educations are now. So, that serves as a motivation for us

to never give up and never surrender until our country holds the best education system in

the world. Every single step that we made is equally important from the mundane to the

monumental. Mahatma Ghandi said we must be the change that we want to see in the

world. I urged every citizen to rise up with me and take every step necessary to

significantly change our country’s education system with what we can, what we have and

where we are until our country is recognized internationally as a leading country with an

outstanding educational system. We can and will make a change.