Put Emphasis On Education

The recent report card on the progress of the malay community in singapore released by the government has revealed that although the community has made marked improvements compared to 20 years ago, it also shows that compared to the improvements made by the Indian and other minority communities, they are still far behind in the progress ladder.

I would like to cite the remarkable performances of Indian students in local schools. The Indian students have made great improvement in all academic areas especially in the past 10 years. Ever since SINDA launched it’s highly successful STEP program, Indian students have been constantly doing better than malay students and the percentage of Indian students going on to post secondary education like polytechnic and university is much higher compared to malay students. In a 2005 report, 70 per cent of working Malays had secondary or higher qualifications, compared to just 19 per cent in 1980. However the vast majority who received higher education had in fact only obtained either ITE certificates or private diplomas.

The Mendaki have had their own tuition programs for malay students but it lacked the direction and focus that SINDA had achieved with it’s step program. One of the reasons why Mendaki tuition programs were not as much successful was because the tuition classes were only held once every weekends while the SINDA STEP tuition are held during weekdays after school hours in the evening for as many as three times a week. There is a wider pool of teachers and professionals extending their voluntary services for SINDA and as a result STEP programs are conducted in many schools for the convenience of it’s students.

It is very important that the malay community put more emphasis in the education of malay youths. Parents must be responsible in ensuring their children get the best education and assistance if they need any. The malay community must realize that the only assured path to success is a sound education and in a competitive society like Singapore, the minimum guarantee for a stable future is a polytechnic diploma or university degree. Mendaki must immediately revamp it’s tuition program and organize it aggressively in the way SINDA has structured it’s tuition programs. If we can keep the youths longer in the classrooms rather than on the streets, it’s only going to yield beneficial results to the community.