COLOUR BLIND: Children standing up for Malaysian unity — Filepic

After almost 20 months, there is this nagging worry of possible polarising along racial lines. If such sentiment is actually founded, it is time to stop the rot before the situations worsens to the point of no return.

Hence, by seeking to foster racial unity among our children, it will give us adults a chance to reconsider
our sentiments along racial lines and recall the major gains from the atmosphere of tolerance that has been in practice even before our nation gained independence.

The simple fact is that Malaysia is quite unique among nations around the world, with primary schools segregated along language as the medium of teaching.

While everyone else talks about nation-building and unity, why is this rather outdated system imposed
by our former colonial rulers – as part of their divide-and-rule policy – still be allowed to prevail?

As parents, we need to ask ourselves if there would really be any harm done to our children if all attend
single stream schools. Is the issue really that of the teaching language or is it simply being used as an excuse to avoid discussing larger issues?

Perhaps it is time to really call a spade what it is and focus on the general disatisfaction with the deteriorating
quality of our public education system.

There have been too many complaints about frustrated educators, bullied and errant students, plus interference from parents. The fact that such issues keep cropping up means that new ideas are needed to restore the Malaysian public’s faith in government schools.

For one, let’s start by looking at how better communications and closer rapport can be fostered between
parents and the educators.

In this day of advanced communications, it is sad that very few parents and teachers meet regularly or even want to. It is also understandable why this happens – the hectic schedule of parents allow for very little of such interaction.

Maybe it’s time to see how such a divide can be bridged, given the various communications tools we have today – including the Internet.

Why not let parents keep tabs on what’s happening within the schools on a regular basis with webcams on websites, as has been suggested countless times? What do the schools have to hide, when it then becomes possible to tap onto the resources parents can provide if they only knew of the limitations the educators face within the school environment?

If parents can see for themselves and be assured that their children are actually blooming within the school environment, interacting with their peers, regardless of racial backgrounds, opposition to single stream schools will surely evaporate.

Children don’t really care about many of the issues that we parents seem to be concerned with. All they want to do is study and play as they grow up in an environment which allows for such activities.

As parents, is it right of us to deny them such an environment and insist on racial segregation from so young and age?

Michael Wong
Rawang