(How many of the 20 high-performance schools picked by Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin would have been your choice?
May be, lets open a debate as to which were the top 20 “high-performance” schools when the country achieved Merdeka in 1957 and became Malaysia in 1963, how many of them are in Muhyiddin’s Top 20 schools and why the rest have lost out in the placings?
Reproduced below is one view by Lee Wei Lian in Malaysian Insider)
The tragic tale of Malaysian education
by Lee Wei Lian
Malaysian Insider
January 27 2010
What do Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Malaysia’s founding father Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s second richest man T. Ananda Krishnan and YTL chairman Tan Sri Francis Yeoh have in common?
The answer: all four studied at once famous schools that are now glaringly absent from the list of 20 high performance schools recently announced by the government.
Victoria Institution (Ananda, Yeoh), St John’s Institution (Najib), Penang Free School (Tunku Abdul Rahman) and others like Malacca High School and St Michael’s Institution are all storied schools that have been allowed to fall behind until they are no longer counted as among the elite educational institutions in the country.
Just imagine if Eton College in the UK or Raffles Institution in Singapore was not recognised as one of the top schools in their respective countries.
That is the equivalent of what has befallen what were once the most respected schools in Malaysia. Today, they do not even rate a mention on a list of the top 20 high performance schools.
It is a crying shame as these schools produced many leaders that were influential in the development of Malaysia and to a lesser extent even in Singapore.
But what happened to these academic icons? Was it merely a case of these venerable institutions being surpassed by more ambitious upstarts? Was it merely oversight that they were left off the list? Or was it a result of deliberate attempts over the years to sideline these institutions because they were founded by the British and/or missionaries?
Or was it sheer mismanagement on the part of the government that these once most prestigious names in Malayan/Malaysian education were allowed to fade along with the general perception of the quality of education in the country? Did, like so much else that is wrong with Malaysia, politics get in the way of academic stewardship?
Just consider the contributions these schools have made to society and business. Besides Tunku, the Penang Free School also nurtured the likes of Tan Sri P. Ramlee, actor and director extraordinaire,
Danny Quah, a prominent economist and head of the department of economics at the London School of Economics who also sits on the National Economic Advisory Council which is formulating Malaysia’s new economic model, and Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development in the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Apart from the prime minister, St John’s groomed one of Asia’s top bankers, CIMB CEO Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, one of the world’s top central bankers Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz and the former vice-chancellor of the National University of Singapore, B.R. Sreenivasan.
Methodist Boy’s School produced the chairman of the Genting group, Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, the chairman of the OCBC Bank and former CEO of Singapore Airlines, Dr Cheong Choong Kong, the vice chancellor of UKM, Professor Tan Sri Dr Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin, Tan Sri Tay Ah Lek, managing director of Public Bank, and Singapore’s former Minister of Education Ong Bang Poon.
Besides Ananda and Yeoh, Victoria Institution also educated the one of the world’s richest men, the Sultan of Brunei, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, former Singapore Deputy Prime Minister S. Rajaratnam, as well as some of Malaysia’s most legendary sportsmen, footballer Mokhtar Dahari and all four Sidek brothers.
Even if there was no list of top 20 “high performance schools” there would be little disagreement that these schools are now just a shadow of their former selves and can no longer command the respect they once did.
What does it then say about a government that allowed such historic and educational gems, some that date back nearly 200 years, to slip down the ranks in less than 50?
A closer look at the list also reveals something of the government’s apparently negligent attitude towards heritage conservation. Seri Bintang Utara made it to the list as a high performance school despite having to survive the demolition of its premises in Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur where the “ginormous” Pavilion mall now stands and what appears to be attempts to wipe out its identity as it was formerly known as the Bukit Bintang Girls School, or more popularly BBGS.
To this day, while I like and enjoy the high quality of the Pavilion mall, I still feel a wave of disgust every time I set foot in it that seemingly nothing of BBGS, Kuala Lumpur’s oldest and one of its most prestigious schools, was preserved in the construction of the mall and that the government did not see fit to mandate any preservation either.
And all this is more than an academic shame as these schools are reminders of a time when students of all races grew up in school together and were taught to discard their racial lenses and be Johannians and Victorians, a truly depressing contrast to the current situation where Malays grow up in national schools, Chinese in Chinese schools and Indians in Tamil schools.
Can the Najib administration reverse the decline of these once prestigious schools? Anything can be achieved if there is sufficient will so the bigger question is, do they even want to?
* Lee Wei Lian attended the Bukit Bintang Boys School in Petaling Jaya. Nisi Dominus Frustra.
Addendum: The list of Malaysia’s 20 high performance schools are: Sekolah Tun Fatimah (Johor Baru), Sekolah Dato’ Abdul Razak (Seremban), Malay College Kuala Kangsar, Sekolah Seri Puteri (Cyberjaya), Sekolah Menengah Sultan Abdul Halim (Jitra), Kolej Tunku Kurshiah (Seremban), Kolej Islam Sultan Alam Shah (Klang), Sekolah Menengah Sains (SMS) Tuanku Syed Putra (Perlis), Sekolah Sultan Alam Shah (Putrajaya) and SMS Muzaffar Syah (Malacca), Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) (P) Sri Aman(Petaling Jaya), SMK Aminuddin Baki (Kuala Lumpur), SMK Sultanah Asma (Alor Star) and SMK (P) St George (Penang), Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Seri Bintang Utara (KL), SK Taman Tun Dr Ismail 1 (KL), SK Bukit Damansara (KL), SK Zainab (2) (Kota Baru), SK Convent Kota (Taiping), SK Bandar Baru Uda 2 (Johor Baru).
* This article is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.
Top all girls school in KL – Bukit Nanas Convent where Rafidah Aziz received her early education from the nuns. To me she didn’t look confused and still very much a devout Muslim until today.
Those schools mentioned by Lee Wei Lian were once in urban centres that attracted better students from more well to do families. Surely years later, some of them have become somebody. This is natural. In fact, given the privileges and facilities provided when compared to other schools in those days, I doubt their achievements were extraordinary.
Having said that, I am of the view that the government must take care of all schools and not arbitrarily identified some as high performance schools. Given our financial and human resources, Malaysia ought to treat all schools equally. If some schools have become high performance or preferred choice, they must achieve that status based on their own efforts, not by declaration which to me is nonsensical.
It really is no big deal. It is either those previous 20 top schools or the now 20 tops schools. What is more important is that the functions of our school now has changed. It used to be churning out and developing our talents for nation building. Now the function of the schools is to develop the talents of our best, make them more mobile globally so that they can migrate with greater ease. There are no special reasons why anybody belonging to the pendatang or second and third class citizen of the country should stay behind to be servants of the so call master race. With their brains and qualification they can easily settle down in any develop country and be counted as equal. So in the end why bother because afterall we are actually training our talents for somebody else.
You know some of the better schools in Klang? What happen when they just made them into single ‘communal’ schools? They all fell off the clift. some nuts just couldn’t understand that it takes firstly quality students plus good HMs and teachers to make any school great. they think by manupulating graphs after the tests are taken will produce top students; maybe only through “sloganeering” at best even then we lost out in advertising competition! So as far as the top-20 schools are concern; it’s Ha! Ha! Ha!
All the top schools mentioned…have teachers that were Chinese and Indians Malaysians. and some Indians hired from India…that taught the people mentioned here.
UMNO will not want history to show non Malays contribute in education significantly.
Just like history books being distorted….the objective is the same in education.
The standard is still very much below that of Singapore. In fact some of the schools in Sabah and Sarawak have also contributed numerous outstanding students, and continue to shine until the present.
This are the top Malay schools. Only a parent who has completely gone bonkers would want to jeopardise his offspring in a kampong school. Malaysians should just ignore this exercise for its sheer stupidity but at the same tme pay some attention to Muhyuddin trying to make a fast buck off these schools… the usual leaking buildings, outdated computers etc……the end result of pirates masquerading as Ministers….
Ha, ha, ha – what’s d surprise? MMK n Umno B got d Sidam Touch
They wanted 2 skrew up all once-upon-a-time top schools attended mainly by nonMalays while manipulated up residential schools attended by Malay students
Well, they got what they wanted, ruining all former crème de la crème schools
Such a big fat shame when things shld improve fr strength 2 strength
…and yet we are manufacturing and producing a record number of unemployable graduates every year! Singapore must be laughing at us.
In KL, Victoria Institution, St John’s Institution & Bukit Nanas Convent are located on prime value real estate.
They will probably suffer Bukit Bintang Girls School’s fate eventually when the time is right for the picking.
“Top 20” equivalent to bottom 20 in Singapore …maluuuuuu
In Singapore school they produce robot , as long as you do not critice the establishment and LKY family you are alright , do you think they have Kit blog equivalent posting there , they even teach you how not to eat chewing gum.
This chengho who wears a cheongsam ..that betrays his Muslim faith…which is his real identity… with no shame…whatsoever…now talk of S’pore who is far far more advanced…united and prosperous than Malaysia…without oil…with only…pure human powers.
He feels no shame that Lee Kuan Yew is well respected genuinely all over the world and is an appointed adviser for China.
There is absolutely nothing to criticize such a great Statesman….but leave it to UMNO’s students..doing exactly his his crooked master ….Mahathir…is doing…experts in playing dirty politics….known all over the world….cheating tax payers RM100 billion…with a written book by Barry Wain…and dare not sue the author..saying.,..waste of time to do so.
Mahathir is never a Statesman. He is a dirty politician…..all his life.
Adopted son famous word “FRIVOLOUS” ..all know why too.
Yes chengho…the Malay racists from UMNO..dressed in cheongsam…does not realize…taking any S’pore student and he/she will beat any Malaysian flat on any subject…all being educated as smart citizens.
The real robots students are right here in Malaysia…which chengho have just demonstrated..what a robot looks like.
He has lost his soul…his identity…his dignity..and will keep on talking kok.
Return back to normal..he is finished.
That’s more than being a robot.
That’s a weird person…and how they keep staying weird..like his master……Mahathir…is simply because crooks cannot and will never change to stay away from jail. They are actors and so we call them weird. They are not weird..bu cunning crooks.
Then you have a running dog from UMNO dress up in cheongsam…doing his best…to keep UMNO guys..away from jail.
He is well programmed by UMNO.
If that is not a typical robot…from UMNO…what is that?
I wonder does a robot knows how to chew a chewing gum?
The greatest empire would not last forever. It will die one day. So would these schools. So there is nothing special about these once upon a time great schools.
Even the lousiest schools did produce a few great people. So don’t make big fuss out of these former big schools.
Many UMNO leaders who are spewing venom against the West and Catholics were educated in missionary schools.
These ungrateful Malays cannot see beyond their eye brows, the contribution of the Catholic Church and other missionary schools and Convents.
These schools, according to some arrangements between the missionaries and the Government were allowed to retain Christians as head of these schools but as always the Govt reneged on its promise and appointed Malays.
These schools were also refused additional grants and even Form Six classes.
All Christian symbols were removed or destroyed from all missionary schools. Even symbols from the school badges.
Till today, these former premier schools still do not have Form Six classes. Instead the students with the best results in PMR and SPM from these missionary schools will be absorbed into the existing ‘top 10’.
When they produce good results they are called premier schools.
The Govt is intent on erasing the contributions of anything that was by no-Malays/non-Muslims.
Of course, MCA and MIC, the UMNO lap dogs, allowed these to happen
It is not surprising at all!!! Anything can happen in Malaysia!!! Even mouse can be empowered to catch cat and quite a no. of people in Malaysia believe that they are anti-gravity, they can fly and not bournd by natural laws and orders!!!
How to be in the top when the old top schools were required to take gubbage in (both students, teachers and principles) and of course gubbage will be produced!!!
The BN govt had proven the theory right after 52 years that when you put gubbage in and you will get gubbage out !!!
Old boys didn’t even want to put their money back to the old schools when they see the sad state of their old schools!!! Nothing left to be remembered!!!
we have an apex university, now 20 high performance schools.
WHAT’S NEXT?
think again, what is the purpose of education.
Very simple, created ‘top 20’ is only to channel more education fund to UMNO-Putera HMS, don’t feel bad, our brilliant children are still very brilliant, Oxbridge scholarship is waiting for these children.
that is a failure of education.core values are missing in education! sad.
//Those schools mentioned by Lee Wei Lian were once in urban centres that attracted better students from more well to do families.//
Not only that, the above secondary schools filtered their students by admitting only those who score straight As in their UPSR/PMR. And it is common knowledge that their students are quietly transferred to other “normal” schools should they fail to do well in their term exams.
Food for thought for Nah Jee Eb and Moo Hee Din—
With so many high performance schools and apex universities, why did the Bolehland space tourist need to purchase a seat in a Soyuz spacecraft to go sight-seeing in space? Why can’t these high performance schools and apex universities build a bolehland spacecraft?
Quite obvious, names played an important part in this list of top 20 schools. National pride seems top priority too.
Just imagine the list consists of names like Victoria Institution, St. John’s Institution, Methodist Boys School, Bukit Nanas Convent, St. Michael’s Institution, and so on.
Sometimes, we are too concerned about names in terms of status. University is more prestigious than a Polytechnic or College, which in turn is more than a school. Here, a university college would highlight the word University to make it seem like one. But quality will shine through regardless of name, eg. London School of Economics and London College of Printing.
So we can be pre-occupied with form over substance and enjoy the glamour while the going is good. Short term gain is all that matters now.
Next up, Umno’s list of world top 20 universities. Oh boy. Wot utter rubbish! Look. Three quarter of those supposedly top schools are unknown to me. Nope. Never heard of them at all. At the rate things go, never even want to know them. Will just send my kids to chinese independent schools or overseas and tell them not to come back!
Please never pay to much attention on these so call top 20 schools. It all bu sitting. The parents of all school going children are better persons which school is the best to them. All SMK has lost their shine today due to the focus of the education direction in Malaysia.
These are the top 20 schools in Malaysia? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! I guess this explains a lot about our Education System!
For those of us who can afford it, send your kids overseas or even better to Spore. For those of us who can’t, I’m sorry…we pary to Allah that we get a better Govt in the next GE!
There are also ‘robots’ here who are political minions of UMNO ideology. Now, the Najib-Muhyiddin administration is trying to spread UMNO ideology ‘operating system’ to turn or ‘reprogram’ as many of the rakyat as possible into its ‘robots’, under the veil of ‘1Malaysia’, thanks to RM20 million worth of advice from APCO Worldwide…
“In Singapore school they produce robot , as long as you do not critice the establishment and LKY family you are alright.” (chengho)
You are right chengho! No wonder Khairy Jamuluddin (a product of Singapore high school) looks like a robot, for he did not know how to criticize the establishment such as MACC for causing death to Teoh Beng Hock when Teoh Beng Hock was still in MACC’s custody. KJ is also too dumb for he didn’t bother to criticize Najib when Najib said that he was powerless to control people for doing a demonstration at the compound of mosque in order to protest against a high court ruling on the “Allah” issue while the protest was a blatant contempt of court!
Many of the secondary schools are fully residential schools (MCKK, SSP, SMSS Perlis, SSAS) where ketuanan is the main subject of the school. Ketuanan race is nearly 100% of students. Truly 1(Ketuanan)Malay.
Racism is encouraged. Hatred for non ketuanan races inoculated at a young age. Mixing with other races not encouraged & frown upon. Majority are children from poor rural kampungs who are very impressionable, who will grow up with hatred for non ketuanan races & have no understanding of other cultures except for ketuanan culture.
They then go on to foreign universities & the lucky few will have their minds & eyes open to other cultures & slowly accept that the world is multi cultural. They come back with an open mind & acceptance to others. They end up working in the private sector, rising through merit. These are the educated middle class Malays who are the silent majority & most likely vote opposition.
Those that cant accept multi culture & come back still with ketuanan ideals will join GLCs or civil service. Fueled by the ketuanan ideal, they will rise through the ranks spewing hatred & ketuanan ideology as per encouraged by the ruling party. They join the ruling party, as birds of a feather flock together.
How do I know all these are true? I spend 5 terrifying years in a fully residential school, being the object & target of hatred by these ketuanan brained washed kids. I’ve seen less qualified kids send to overseas uni & many of my schoolmates now fall into the two categories mentioned above.
This is the result of having a mono/majority race school. Kids do not get to grow up understanding each other’s culture & gain tolerence and understanding. It’s a recipe for racial superiority not tolerance. Its 1Malay as opposed to 1Malaysia.
Oh so those are ketuanan schools. Wot do they teach, I wonder? How to pray pray with your ketuanan?
Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (Jenis Ketuanan) Melayu Tersebut.
Hows dat, huh?
anything that umno touch will turn to cr@p. Look at those 52 years. In those ketuanan schools, puad the education minister will teac them how to translate computer language to bahasa melayu.
Student: cikgu puad. Macam mana nak translate…ehh…terjemah ‘joy stick’ ke bahasa melayu?
Puad: brrr grrr
Student: apa itu? Tak dengarlah.
Puad: BRRRR. GRRRR
student: huh? Tak faham, cikgu.
Puad: BATANG GEMBIRA -LAH…hisssss.
Student: emmmm ahhhh (confused)
YB
I acn’t believe that schools like Victoria Institution, St.John’s, Penang Free School, Malacca High School, Johor English College etc., are not in the list.
The MInister is highly irresponsible in releasing the list without also making public the criteria applied in determining what is a ‘high performanceschool’ and what is not!
Was sufficient weightage give toachievements in sports, extra-curricular activities, % admissions to Colleges & Universities (especially prestigious ones overseas) and graduation rates as opposed to mere exam pass rates in Govt set and locally marked public exams?
They may secure 100% pass rates in SPM & STPM, but what happens when they go to Universities?
dpp
We are al of 1 race, the Human Race
student: cikgu puad, macam mana nak terjemah ‘hold the joy stick and insert the joystick to the female connector located at the rear side’.
Puad: (ponder a while then came the idea). Ahem. Pegang batang gembira itu, kemudian cucuk batang gembira itu ke lubang betina melalui belakangnya.
Student: wahai cikgu. Terlalu erotik… lah cikgu.
Puad. Ini bahasa ketuanan. Jangan tanya banyak banyak sangat.
Student: wahai cikgu puad. Itulah exactly what saiful is accusing anwar of doing to him.
Puad: Surelah. Itulah what I ajarnya
Two pigheads in plastic bags thrown into compound of mosques? Common umno. Buatlah lebih realistik sikit boleh tak? Kalau nak sabotaj, buat lah betul betul! Jangan masuk beg plastik. Tu lame sangat.
Why aren’t the primary and secondary schools that produced our GREAT astronaut not included in the list? How many countries can produce astronauts? Not singapore, not even indonesia!
NEP has succeeded according to UMNO vision. To them, it is not that they can make Malays run faster, but they can make others run slower. So the good schools where people of all races went to are no good by today’s standard, and only the schools where bumiputras predominate are the best. Of course, like university admission, we are not sure what indicators are used, and are there no double standards.
Nothing to be proud of if you still depend on clutches to move around in a handicapped society with record number of unemployable graduates.
Jeffrey,
The Police’s interrogation on the ISA detainees, most of whom are Middle-Easterners and only 1 is a Malaysian, (Hishammuddin said 10 persons but GMI claimed 14 persons were held under ISA) was said to be centred around the questions about the content of the Islamic teachings in the informal religious preaching sessions held at Gombak, where 50 persons attended.
Is it possible that the Police is just interested to find out whether the foreigners who organised the Islamic preaching session had tried to exert occultic influence in order to poison the brain of the Malaysian attendees. Is the Police trying to relate the preaching session to the immediate reason for creating the religious intolerance emotion and causing the outburst of the arson attack on Metro Tabernacle Church? This is something which ponders our thought!
in fact there is no comparison between the schools of nowadays and old days, and between the students of nowadays and old days. WHY? look at those several thousand students each year who got 10 A, etc. It could be less than 100 in old days. The results proved…..(with a laugh behind because BN manipulated the grade to show that they have done a better job)
Onlooker Politics, you lost me there. I must admit you have a more fertile imagination than me. No it does not occur to me that the Police was “trying to relate the preaching session to the immediate reason for creating the religious intolerance emotion and causing the outburst of the arson attack on Metro Tabernacle Church”. It is more likely (i) as GMI said, a response to international pressure on Malaysia to crack down on terrorism, particularly after US warnings that militants were planning attacks on foreigners at Borneo island resorts; (ii) Malaysian authorities regular surveillence and crackdown on Islamic teachings they consider deviant to the mainstream oficially supported eg crackdown on Ashaari’s Darul Arqam’s and Ayah Pin’s Tea Pot communes.
Though the article mentioned a couples of rich men created through the process of political wantonness, their association with any of those schools should not be mentioned as the basis for great achievement. Many of them are what a Japanese professor termed” ersatz” millionaires. Their achievements were/are based on political expediency so what’s so great?? if through their patents and inventions, they’ve made it, then their association with those schools has something to shout about. For example, I would have included the inventor of the pen-drive device as an achievement and as to why the writer over-looked this can only reflect on the writer’s peception which appears to be already moulded by his/her background. Myopic perception of achievements in life in term of easy money. I don’t really blame him/her, after nearly one generation of third class indoctrination of the country educational policy.
700K for each SBT as announced by TPM is a wastage cos most of these schools are in the shapes already.Why not allocate to rural schools which without basic facilities like water and electricity supplies.
To compare pre war and olden days teachers…and teachings methods..against present teachers and methods….is a joke.
Present method reminds me of the movie…’Killing Fields”….all being programmed to stop thinking and be slaves to dictators.
12th GE…freed Malaysians….and UMNO can never change.
Even if they try hard to change…do not forget…big fishes are roaming free with billions stolen.
54 years governed by UMNO is simply too many years more.
We must change the government…to have People’s Power respected…by anyone…we vote in to govern the country.
UMNO is arrogant..crooked and like to seperate races to gven.
That’s evil and disuniting the people much much too long.
Starting of Merdeka…understandable.
After 54 years??….are you NUTS???
I am very confused with types of schools in our country,,sekolah cermalang, sekoal bestari, sekalah kluster, sekaloh berprestasi tinngi and soon rankings of all 10000 schools .
You gotta be kidding me. These are the top 20 schools in Malaysia? How sad.
Schools today are now run by politically linked individuals who clamour for ‘development projects’ so that they can line their pockets.
These schools get brand spanking new stuff like: new nicely decorated brick walls, completely new paint job, new ‘audio visual’ equipment and IT equipment, new tables and chairs, newly installed air conditioning, etc.
But strangely despite all these ‘investments’ in the educational facilities, the standard of education in these schools actually drop. Hmmm… i wonder why?
What is the meaning of 1 Malaysia says a non-bumi student ?. Matrikulasi-10 % only for non-Bumi-NOT base on merits,asai sains-bimi only,Uitm-bumi only,Mr Prime minster, we were taught to be fair and equal in the learning of Pendidikan Moral in school.Why are treated differently by the govt?. If one scored 10As in spm failed to be selected as compare to 6Cs selected.How do feel you if happen to you ? Can we request more fairness and equality in this loving country ?.