By NNN-Bernama,
Copenhagen : Malaysia will learn from Europe’s experience in the field of technical and vocational education in implementing educational transformation to revamp the country’s system of vocational study, said Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
In transforming vocational education where vocational schools would be turned into vocational colleges, the vocational curriculum and learning would be strengthened, among other things, by learning from the European experience, he said.
Muhyiddin, who is also the Education Minister, said that in the developed nations such as Europe, vocational aspects were preferred just like the academic aspects unlike in Malaysia where vocational study was not the first option.
“Previously, students were channeled to the vocational stream if they could not master the academic field or failed to obtain excellent result. It (vocational study) was frequently the second choice, this is not right,” he told Malaysian journalists, here Monday.
In France, for example, about 61 per cent of students in the education system had chosen the vocational aspect, he said.
Malaysia was still lagging far behind with only 10 per cent of its total student population enrolling in the vocational stream and the figure was targeted to reach 20 per cent within the next five years, he said.
The percentage was also small compared to other Asean member countries such as Indonesia and Thailand where 40 per cent of their students pursued vocational education, he said.
Muhyiddin said Malaysia might forge cooperation with leading vocational institutions in Europe to gain experience and knowledge in terms of vocational learning and curriculum.
He said that following the transformation of the vocational education, students who were interested in the field would be channeled into the vocational stream much earlier either at the normal secondary schools offering vocational subjects or to the vocational schools.
“We want to look at the performance of every student. If they are not keen on academic subjects, we will channel them into vocational stream earlier,” he said.
A clearer career learning path would also be implemented which would not be limited to the Sijil Kemahiran Malaysia (Malaysian Skills Certificate) but a much higher certificate possibly on par with a diploma or advanced diploma, he said.
Muhyiddin said the private sector would also be allowed to set up vocational institutes where the government would send and sponsor students with potentials to study there.
He said the participation of the private sector would reduce the government’s capital expenditure to build vocational schools.
On another matter, Muhyiddin said he had asked the Director-General of Education and the Director-General of the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka to think of an approach to enable Bahasa Malaysia teachers to be sent to teach the children of Malaysian nationals abroad to master the language.
He said the ministry took note of the request by Malaysian nationals abroad who wanted their children to be exposed to and learn the Malay language while they were abroad.