Ｎａｆｉｓａ Ｎａｚｒｉｎ＇ｓ

 

In this topic, I have learned about Malaysia's political background, Politics and Educational Politics, National Economic Policy, and Dualism in Education. I believe integrating knowledge between Islamic education and modern education can form an excellent education system for the country. 

However, in Malaysia, we have four different schools that separate the races; National School, Chinese Vernacular School, Indian Vernacular School, and International Private School. Each school has a different education system. For example, the National School implements the public examination, SPM, as a ticket to further studies in higher education. Meanwhile, the International and Chinese schools got additional tests such as IGCSE (The International General Certificate of Secondary Education) and UEC (The Unified Examination Certificate). Even though they have their own examinations, they must take SPM to pursue their studies in local universities. 

In my opinion, if the government aims to produce a patriotic and harmonious generation, they must invest more in national schools. For instance, upgrading the school facilities, providing more educational resources and necessities. In this case, we must look up to the management of a Chinese school, in which the Parents and Teachers Organisation (similar to PIBG) are active in providing funds for the comfort of their children's learning atmosphere at school. 

It's been years that the school has received fewer funds from the government to upgrade the school facilities. How about we start from these small acts in order to gain trust from other races to register their children in national schools. 

Aside from that, instead of learning subjects such as 'Sivik dan Kewarganeraan' and 'Pengajian Am' theoretically, it is better for the school to encourage their students to involve in community services, co-curriculum activities which involves other races. That is when they can learn about other cultures & differences and learn to respect them. 

To sum up, it took a few changes in the education system to create a better society. Hence, school plays an important role as social agent for the harmonious environment in a society. 

 

The privatization of higher education institutions is not merely a bad decision but also has a good impacts on the country's economy and education. For instance, the positive effects of privatization of education are the demand is accommodated, the students receive necessary trainings for their profession, better facilities, and conducive learning. All of these can bring a positive environment for students and also affect their academic achievement. 

However, the privatization of education also has negative effects. For example, the increasing gap between rich and poor students, imbalance students enrolment, lack of patriotism, having a dual-system in education, weakening the quality of curriculum and decrease the quality of graduates. Thus, the government has sets number of acts regarding the privatization of education to avoid excess number of private institutions. As revealed by today's presenters, Education Act 1996, Private Higher Education Institutions Act 1990, and Lembaga Akredetasi National Act (LAN).

In order to upgrade the education system in accordance with the modernisation, Malaysia must also upgrades their Knowledge-Based economy to produce a cosmoplitan society with a global talent. With a stable system, we could produce a highly educated labour force and abundant resources of the country which make our country in line with advanced and developed country such as Finland and German.

 

 

Before I started my reflection on today's topic, it is essential for us, educators to understand the term Sociology and Education itself before discussing it in depth. Sociology comes from the Latin word 'socios' which means 'companion', meanwhile 'logos' in Greek means 'the study of'. Thus, sociology is the study of companionship or social relations. While education means the process of acquiring knowledge through a concrete system. Therefore, the Sociology of Education is a branch of sociology that analyses the issues and problems that arise within society and education. 

Understanding educational sociology helps educators to design strategic educational activities and build effective teaching and learning methods. 

Throughout the session, Dr. Majid explained how, social forces, economic forces, political forces, and technological development affect the students in their education journey. 

On social forces, the study has found that family income, family type, family size, and parents' education play important roles in determining the quality of education received by the children. Based on the research made, most children from the working class (the poor and minority ethnic family) have a less satisfactory level of academic performance, while the children from the rich and middle class have excellent school performance.

Next, on the economic forces, it can be seen that developed and newly industrialized countries could provide a better education for free. On the contrary, the countries with low income and rely on agriculture have fewer opportunities in pursuing education.

Besides, in the political forces, education has been regarded as the main agent for the political socialization of the young into the national political culture. Education has also been a major factor in the selection and training of political leaders. This is not something new, as the interference of politics has occurred since the period of colonial administration.

Last but not least, we also discussed technological development and its effect on education. We cannot deny that technology helps in improving education. For example, better access for the source and self-paced study. However, it also has disadvantages as students can be distracted by other applications or websites on the internet which interfere with their academic performance.