Dear Tun Dr Mahathir The Education Reforms Will Not Work

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This is from the NST here.


KUALA NERUS: govt will reshape school curriculum -  focus 3 key aspects
mastery of true Islamic teachings, English, Science and Technology


[OSTB  :  true Islamic teachings ?    The true Islamic teaching is without doubt the Quran. But you will face extreme resistance because the mullahs DO NOT follow what is in the Quran. 

For example :

Surah 4:137 -   Indeed, those who have believed [amanu] then disbelieved [kafaru], then believed [amanu], then disbelieved [kafaru], and then increased in disbelief [kafaru] - never will Allah forgive them, nor will He guide them to a way.

This verse describes a person who believes then disbelieves [apostates], then believes then disbelieves [apostates] and then continues in his disbelief. There is no punishment prescribed in the Quran for such people - other than Allah will never forgive them or guide them.  

So in the Quran there is no temporal or worldly punishment for apostasy. This is the true Islam - in the Quran.

But the mullahs will never accept this as true Islam. 
The mullahs will insist that apostasy or murtad be punishable by death. 

Dear Tun Dr Mahathir even your Pakatan Harapan government sends Muslims to jail for three years, fines them RM5000 and six strokes of the rotan if they apostate or murtad. Yes all those laws are still in place. Please abolish these violent and unnecessary laws.

No doubt apostasy is bad but it is worse to punish apostates with any kind of punishment when there is no such punishment for apostasy in the Quran.  Why do you want to play "god" ?

Now, for certain the mullahs will NOT agree with this. 
They will debate till the cows jump over the moon on what is true Islam.
govt, educators should pay special attention to religious teaching
with emphasis on positive values espoused by Islam
many memorise Al-Quran but not everyone understands  content
Al-Quran is  main source of guidance for Muslims
memorising without understanding will not guide us

[OSTB : Well yes and no.  

Yes the Al Quran SHOULD be the main source of guidance for Muslims.  
But the reality is NO - the Quran is NOT the main source of guidance for Muslims. 

This is the problem that afflicts Muslims and this is the problem you will face when you attempt to change this. 

For over a thousand years now the Muslims have been guided exclusively by EXTRA QURANIC theology. The theology of the mullahs. This has been the principle source of guidance for Muslims. Not the Quran.]
Muslims pray, fast, pay zakat, perform haj
but Quran yet to be understood, obeyed
Dr M expressed hope all educators will take note 
govt aim to change  school curriculum 
focus on true Islamic teachings, English, Science and Technology

[OSTB :  Dear Tun Dr Mahathir I have been noticing now that every other week you make some Press Statement about reforming education. I believe you said something similar just last week.  

But I also notice that your Minister of Education Maszlee Malik has not said a word about any of your comments on reforming education.  He just keeps quiet. Either he does not know anything about education [highly likely] or he has his own jihadist / salafist ideas about education [very highly likely].  

So all your statements about reforming education will not see the light of day when your Minister of Education cannot be bothered about what you are saying.

As far as your ideas about 'true Islamic teachings' are concerned -  well they are salafis.  His mentor is that Mufti fellow who is now embroiled in all kinds of misdeeds and wrongdoings up north. I dont think they give a hoot about your ideas about true Islamic teachings. And definitely not anything about the Quran. As I said they are Salafists and they already know what they think are true Islamic teachings.

So you have some really serious obstacles there. 

As far as 'understanding the Quran' is concerned  where are you going to find the ten thousand [10,000] Syed Akbar Ali types [I am not showing off, just speaking plainly] to teach the kids about understanding the Quran?  Tak ada. 

You have no choice except to fall back on the same guru agama fellows to teach the kids how to understand the Quran. The guru agama fellows who are graduates of Al Azhar, Darul Uloom, Madinah, Jordan, Sudan, sekolah pondok, madrassah etc are not going to teach anything new or anything different about understanding the Quran. 

They will use the same old extra Quranic  fairy tales and myths - which has put the Muslims in their  deplorable condition of  today. They will teach the kids that you must kill the apostates. That is NOT going to change.  You cannot expect the tikus to fix the labu.]

Conclusion :  

May I please make some suggestions. 
These are the low hanging fruits. 
No extra Budgets are needed. 
No extra staffing is needed.
The clerical staff at the schools and the Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri can do this. 

No 1 :  PLEASE  LETS BE TRANSPARENT AND MAKE PUBLIC THE PASSING MARKS  FOR ALL THE SPM  AND STPM  EXAMINATION SUBJECTS.

For decades the BN government treated EXAMINATION GRADING as an official secret. This is a ridiculous way to manage the country's education system - by keeping secret the GRADING SYSTEM.

Please make it known to the public what were the PASSING GRADES OR PASSING MARKS FOR LAST YEAR'S [2018] SPM  AND STPM. No more secrets please. And for each and every year henceforth.

Is it true that the passing marks for SPM Additional Mathematics is ONLY 12 MARKS. 
Is it true that the passing marks for SPM English is ONLY 20 MARKS.

We must also know the marks required to secure distinctions As, Bs etc for all the subjects in the SPM / STPM exams. 

The public must know this information.
This information must be made public for all SPM and STPM subjects.
There is no rational reason to keep this information an Official Secret.

We must set the bar high enough and at par with other countries so that our Malaysian school students are also at par in their academic achievement with other countries around the world. 

The public should also know the SPM performance by subject and by region and race. This is very important not only for public awareness but for remedial measures to be taken quickly.

The public must be told what is the performance of Dayaks, Dusuns, Indians, Chinese, Malays for each and every examination subject [SPM / STPM etc]. 

We must also know how the different parts of the country [Sabah, Perak, Terengganu  etc] are performing for each and every SPM / STPM subject. 

Then public interest groups, NGOs,  teaching professionals, bloggers etc can analyse the results and raise issues that are relevant. This way the whole country will benefit.  

This will not cost any extra money. 
Just be transparent and open.
Malaysian education will benefit tremendously from such transparency and openness.


No 2  -  PLEASE INTRODUCE 'COMPULSORY' MONTHLY TESTS FOR ALL SECONDARY SCHOOLS.  
May I suggest that teachers be exempted from [NOT burdened with]  writing really useless reports about student performance.  Other than burdening teachers and using up their valuable teaching time this report writing is just wasted time and effort.

Instead may I suggest that standardised monthly exams be held for all secondary schools, for all subjects.  Without fail and at the end of every month.

Standardised meaning the exams must be set by the Ministry of Education to cover the syllabus or topics for a particular subject that SHOULD be completed in that month by ALL sekolah kebangsaan in Malaysia.  The exams should be multiple choice and graded by the schools. 

Schools should then upload the monthly exam results to the Ministry of Education for their comparison and analysis.

The purpose of these monthly examinations will be strictly for monitoring how well  knowledge is being imparted to the students and to determine how well the students are absorbing the teachings.  AND to monitor if all schools are covering the syllabus on time. If any school or district or state is falling behind then what is the reason. Quick remedial measures can be taken.

For example lets say for April, the  Form Fours should have completed Logarithm in Additional Mathematics, Sri Vijaya in Sejarah, Periodic Table in Chemistry etc,  then the monthly examination should test ALL the Form Fours throughout Malaysia on these topics.

The results of these monthly exams shall then become the reporting process. No need for teachers to write unnecessary reports that only wastes their time and nobody cares about anyway. 


These monthly exam results will tell students, parents, the school, the Jabatan Pendidikan etc  how well the teachers are imparting knowledge to the students.

And if we break it down by race [Dayak, Dusun, Indian, Malay, Chinese] and by region [Sabah, Sarawak, Penang, Pahang etc]  our education system will have precise information about how each and every student is performing by the month, by subject, by the topics,  by school location, by race, by region etc.  

This will be a powerful tool to make improvements and to detect problems.

Say the monthly exams show a sudden drop in the resuts for a particular subject in one school, then the local Jabatan Pendidikan can inquire what happened. Did the cikgu go on long leave? Did the headmaster change? Etc etc. 
All this analysis can be done instantly and automatically without any extra budgets, by using simple and existing software. There are only a few thousand sekolah kebangsaan in the country.  Or the Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri can do the job for each State. It will be even quicker.

My 20 year old,  three thousand Ringgit  "Inventory Control" software in my kedai emas can do this type of analysis in a few seconds.  It is just old fashioned database management.   

The schools need only upload their monthly exam results into the system. 

So far NO CHANGE has been done in the education system.  NOTHING worth noting.  Black shoes, black socks,  hotel swimming pools for swimming lessons and other such useless and childish ideas have been put forward.

And what Dr Mahathir is saying is going right through the Education Ministers ears. He keeps silent on all of Dr Mahathir's suggestions.  It is just not going to happen.Posted by Syed Akbar Ali 

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