AIMS OF THE PLAN: MALAYSIA

The Education Development Plan for Malaysia (2001-2010), henceforth referred to as the Blueprint, takes into account the goals and aspirations of the National Vision Policy to build a resilient nation, encourage the creation of a just society, maintain sustainable economic growth, develop global competitiveness, build a knowledge-based economy (K-economy), strengthen human resource development, and maintain sustainable environment development. The Third Outline Perspective Plan (2001-2010) and the Eighth Malaysia Plan (2001-2005) outlined the strategies, programmes, and projects to increase the nation’s economic growth towards building a united, just and equitable society as well as meeting the challenges of globalisation and Keconomy. The ultimate aim of these long and medium-terms plans is to build Malaysia into a developed nation based on its own mould. These plans have great implications on the national education system.

The Blueprint aims to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity to twelve years of education in terms of access, equity, and quality. The Blueprint also aims to further develop the potentials of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner so as to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, and physically balanced in line with the National Education Philosophy. In addition, the Blueprint plans to nurture creativity and innovativeness among students; enhance learning culture; effective, and world-class quality education system; and promote Malaysia as a center of education excellence.

The major thrusts of the Blueprint are to increase access to education, increase equity in education, increase quality of education, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of education management. The Ministry of Education (MOE) will continue with the equitable distribution of educational inputs to ensure students obtain appropriate learning experiences from all educational programmes.

The Blueprint focuses on the development of preschool, primary, secondary, and tertiary education levels which will be strengthened through the development of support programmes, funding, management, and integration of information and communication technology (ICT).

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: COMMUNICATION AND EDUCATION

For those who know it only by name, E q u at o ri a l Guinea is a small country in central A f ri c a , in the m i ddle of the Gulf of Guinea. One of its pro blems is that its regions are ve ry scat t e re d. Th e re a re seven islands (Bioko , A n n o b o n , C o ri s c o , E l o b ey Gra n d e, E l o b ey Chico, C o c o t e ro and Pemba) as well as the mainland terri t o ry of Rio Muni. The nort h e rnmost island of Bioko is 6 7 0 km from the one furthest south (Annobon), while the port of Bat a , in Rio Muni, is 280 km f rom Malab o , the main town on Bioko . This means that Equat o rial Guinea has ex t e n s ive coastal regions and small islands. Also, as a developing country, it has huge problems communicating with and administering such areas.

The country is a big timber exporter, which puts it at the mercy of the industry’s market fluctuations. The mainland coast is the area most affected by this. According to a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) study in 1981, mangroves cover 20,000 hectares of Equatorial Guinea. But lack of money and trained personnel as well as the absence of a broad awareness of their economic importance has meant that these areas have not been developed. These are some of the reasons why my country is interested in the activities of Sustainable Integrated Coastal Management (SICOM), and in all UNESCO’s programmes to do with the environment, small islands and integrated management of ecosystems. We also favour drafting an overall plan for c o m mu n i c at i o n , e d u c ation and training in coastal management.

Therefore, my country would like to implement, with UNESCO’s help, an interactive communication programme which would set forces in motion resulting in an energetic and interact ive re l ationship between the va rious social agents, with the help of the media and the N ational Unive rs i t y. The aim would be to increase the involvement of the population and their commitment to the development process and to change the behaviour of people, groups and communities so as to improve the quality of life of these individuals and groups. An interact ive commu n i c ation programme could be a means of development and social involvement in sustainable management of Equat o ri a l Guinea’s coastal regions and small islands.

Th rough its Conservation and Rational Use of Fo rest Ecosystems (CUREF) progra m m e, t h e
gove rnment is also committed to drawing up a plan for cl a s s i fi c ation and rational use of land in the Rio Muni mainland. The plan outlines a d e s i rable pat t e rn of land use based on biologi c al , physical , technical , economic and socio-cultural crite ri a , as well as on the gove rn ment ’s policies concerning rural development , timber production and pre s e rvation of fo rest ecosystems.

Environmental training is provided at the National University with courses to train skilled public health workers and forestry experts.

PRESCHOOL AND PRIMARY EDUCATION 3: MALAYSIA

Implementation Strategies

2.6 Preschool education will be further developed by institutionalising preschool education and making compulsory the use of the National Preschool Curriculum at all preschool institutions, providing training facilities for preschool teachers, and strengthening the monitoring of preschool teachers, and strengthening the monitoring of preschool programmes conducted by public and private agencies.

2.7 Strategies to further promote access to and equity in primary education include increasing the participation rate particularly among the children of indigenous groups such as the Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia and the ethnic groups in rural and remote areas of Sabah and Sarawak. The Blueprint plans to make primary education compulsory and this entails the building of more schools, providing more trained teachers, and increasing monitoring activities.

2.8 The Blueprint plans to strengthen special education programmes and expand opportunities for special education by providing more trained teachers in special education schools and schools with inclusive programmes. Efforts will be made to encourage public participation and contribution in the development of special education.

2.9 Strategies to improve the quality of primary education include increasing basic education infrastructure, revising the norms for teacher allocation, and ensuring 50 percent of primary school teachers are university graduates by 2010. Other strategies include strengthening the Integrated Primary School Curriculum (Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Rendah, KBSR) to further improve the 3R skills among pupils, making the curriculum more relevant to current and emerging needs of the country, and strengthening all co-curriculum programmes to reinforce the development of intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, and physically balanced individuals. In addition, the strategies include revising school textbooks, improving integration of ICT in teaching and learning, expanding the Smart School concept nation wide, increasing the role of school administrators as curriculum leaders, strengthening monitoring and evaluation activities on teaching and learning, strengthening evaluation mechanism of student performance, increasing school and community collaborations, and reviewing the rate of per capita grant to schools.

PRESCHOOL AND PRIMARY EDUCATION 2: MALAYSIA

Issues and Challenges

2.3 One of the pertinent issues for preschool is the low enrolment rate of preschool among children aged 5+ years. At the primary level, the MOE has not met its goal to ensure all Year One school children complete 6 years of primary education.

2.4 The challenge to MOE is to increase accessibility to preschool and primary education to ensure all children aged 5+ years obtain education and all children aged 6+ to 11+ years complete primary education. The MOE faces the challenge to provide all schools with computers and increase the use of ICT in teaching and learning. The MOE also needs to increase equity in preschool and primary education, especially to provide equal access to quality educational facilities for all children; increase provision of special  education opportunities; encourage greater participation of the private sector, NGO’s, community, and individuals in education funding; and ensure sharing of school facilities in the implementation of Vision Schools.

2.5 Other issues at the primary level include the wide differences in  academic and co-curricular achievements according to school types and location as well as low proficiency of Malay and English languages as preparation for secondary education among primary school children. The challenge to the MOE is to increase the quality of preschool and primary education including the provision of adequate numbers of trained teachers and increasing basic education facilities.

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EDUCATION FUNDING 3: MALAYSIA

Implementation Strategies

6.4 The MOE will expand its sources of funds by encouraging the private sector and individuals to provide funds directly to educational institutions; increase the participation of the private sector, non-governmental organisations, and individuals in financing education programmes; introduce competitive fees for foreign students at all public educational institutions; and issue bonds that are backed by the Federal Government.

6.5 The strategies to enhance efficiency in financial management include upgrading of knowledge and skills in financial management among education managers; giving more empowerment to those managing education finance; establishing more educational institutions as Responsibility Centres (Pusat Tanggungjawab); strengthening financial monitoring activities; and providing continuous supervision of the expenditure of all educational programmes.

6.6 Steps will also be taken to increse the number of incomegenerating agencies especially those involved in training, consultancy services, publishing, and marketing their own products; increase the quality of R&D carried out in all departments, divisions and corporate bodies of the MOE and other public higher education institutions, and commercialising the R&D products; expand the operations and increase the effectiveness of income-generating agencies; and establish more trust accounts for educational institutions.

6.7 The Blueprint plans to increase private sector participation in funding educational programmes through provision of incentives and encouragement for direct financial contributions to educational institutions, create smart partnerships between public and private higher education institutions with the private sector, and create a cost sharing mechanism in providing facilities for training and R&D activities.

COMMUNICATION AND EDUCATION: CHAIRS AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT

UNESCO should be commended for incorporating the component of communication and education at the planning stages of establishing a UNESCO Chair on ‘Integrated Management and Sustainable Development in Coastal regions and in Small Islands’. Practitioners in development now recognize the significance of communication and education, particularly at the community level, and the environmentalists firmly believe in this in Kenya, as demonstrated by the training wo rkshops at community level and among the media. In my opinion, the most critical factor in the formulation of a communication and education strategy for any development effort is that the community should drive it. This is based on the realization that without the participation of the community, the sense of ownership and responsibility will be lacking. This has severely compromised many development programmes and projects related to sustainability. Any communication and education strategy must therefore begin with a community development and participatory approach.

This highlights the importance of the audience in the strategy. A comprehensive needs assessment should be undertaken as the first step and address the following questions:

• What do members of the community feel about sustainable development in respect to coastal regions?

• What factors have resulted in the degradation, of coastal regions?

• What is the level of awareness among the community on sustainable development?
• Is there a repository of indigenous knowledge and practice that promotes sustainable development in regard to the coastal regions?
• What are the existing communication networks and systems?
• What are the preferred channels of communication?
• How can information on sustainable development in the coastal region be packaged in a simplified, interesting and palatable manner that will interest the community?

The needs assessment will assist in the planning of the strategy because audiences should be segmented and specific for effective communication. Further, available avenues of communication, such as radio-listening groups where they exist can be tapped into and utilized, thus reducing the cost in terms of acquisition of communication channels.

The strategy should be both long-term and short-term. The long-term strategy should be aimed at developing a sustainable communication and education system at the community level: ultimately, the Chair can be envisaged as a technical arm which provides relevant information as demanded by the communities. The advantage of this is that such information will be specific to particular areas and communities and will be based on their priorities, leading to their ownership and active involvement because they will determine how the programme will operate.

This also means that fe e d b a ck mech a n i s m s should be efficient, effective and significant to
the process. The mass media can be considered as a possible tool to raise awareness and for advocacy. Most media studies indicate that the mass media are most effective in raising awareness and to lobby for policy changes among decision-makers and opinion leaders. The radio and newspaper for instance can be used to inform and educate this category, who can be encouraged to incorporate messages of sustainable development in their meetings such as barazas, and even in religious gatherings.

I n t e rp e rsonal commu n i c ation has been found to be highly effe c t ive in political commun i c at i o n , p a rt i c u l a rly wh e re the mass media is somewh at curt a i l e d. Other deve l o p m e n t agents such as social development wo rke rs and c o m munity development offi c e rs can be targeted, to enable them to include messages on sust a i n able development in their contact with
c o m munity members. The strat egy on the whole should be mu l t i d i s c i p l i n a ry and it should use a multi-media pers p e c t ive to enabl e the planners to re a ch a va riety of audiences
e ffe c t ive ly and to re i n fo rce the most cru c i a l m e s s ages. At the fo rmal leve l , the school system can be used as the ch i l d - t o - child communi c ation method has proved to be of gre at
impact in the health sector. This will involve using the educational stru c t u re and integrat i n g
a component of sustainable development into the school curri c u l u m .

At the university level, institutions of communication and journalism can be targeted to enable the Chair to instill messages of sustainable development in the media and to develop their interest and solid knowledge in the topic. Training workshops can be an effective method in sensitizing this cadre of workers: it can also be extended to those in the teaching profession, community development officers and those in social work. This summarizes my idea of what the workshop should add ress. I hope to part i c i p at e actively in the planning and implementation of the programme.