I am glad to note that the writer zainal Ariffin has highlighted many relavant points as a guidance and food for thought.
I am more concerned pertaining on the subject of hiring contract teachers from foreingn land to teach tamil and chinese in national schools. To my view it is unwaranted for to empoly foreign teachers for we have a sizeable volume of First Class retired language teachers available locally who are very efficent. They could be an asset to the teaching of the language because they are well versed with the local curriculum and eduaction system. I am also of the opinion that mother tongues lesson must be incoperated during school hours.So that truancy can take a back seat . By impelmenting it I am very sure and definite an effective and proper teaching and learning proses take place without any hinches

Your article in today's nst misses the issue completley.

Bring back the English Medium Schools. You will find that the vernacular schools will die a natural death.
English Medium Schools were the choice schools in the past.
In the absence of English Medium Schools, the vernacular schools will remain and probably flourish to the detriment of the country.

National schools have no chance of attracting non-Malay students today. Writers like Zainul Ariffin need to go visit and watch these schools in action to understand why this is so. Most good people are not aware of their racial prejudices because it is so "natural" to them. The first thing you cannot miss is that the schools are for Muslims only. I suppose writing the name in romanised Bahasa Malaysia would make it "national" but nowadays the name of the school is not only written in Jawi but written to appear like Arabic.So what is the message? Next thing that hits you are the prayers. Used to be that prayers are said only on some religious occasion but today you have prayers before the school start, at assemblies, before a sports meet, before a training session, before examinations, prayers before and after lessons for some teachers. Will you allow others to say their own prayer too? National schools is it not?

Of course non-Malay teachers and students need not do the prayers but you have to stand there and make sure you dont move or look around during that religious time. And then there is puasa. Will the school kantin have food for the non-Malays? Well Zainul Ariffin should go and check. And in that case can you bring your own food into the school? Well again ZA should go ask around. This is important because the reason why non-Malays are not being allowed to bring their food to school although the kantin is closed is what is driving the nons from the national schools! You are dirty!

Then of course there are the special meetings, prayer sessions all exclusively for the Muslims.Most people Muslims as well as non-Muslims feel strongly about this but dare anyone speak up? Maybe the government should ask why more and more Malays are opting for Chinese national type schools?

Well if religion does not prevent you from sending your children to these academic schools then how about this....will your son/daughter have the chance to be the Head Prefect of the school? What about House Captains? How about President or Chairman of School Societies? Being selected as the Best Student or Best All Rounder? Well some schools would prefer to have no nominations than have a non-Malay selected!

And if this is not all, your children will report how the teacher in the class is saying that you are dirty, your gods are false, you eat dirty food, you are kafir...you dont believe this is happening? And this is repeated by the students....so would you send your children to the national schools?

What about excellent national schools? Are there any? When we look at the current situation we can see that all the high performing Malay children have been creamed off to the Sains schools, to the MARA colleges and other special schools. Then there are the local so-called premier schools that has a bite of the best among the remainder. The rest of the SMKs have the role defined for them - they are just normal schools and not expected to get better. If there are great Pengetuas the MOE's policy is to send them to the elite schools, if there are good teachers they are likely to be grabbed by the elite schools. The whole educational system is designed to cater to the needs of best and not for the masses. National integration is for the masses. Unfortunately whether it is the for the best or the masses the overall policy of the schools are the same.

Unfortunately it is not possible to change the situation because racial blinkers are on all the time. About a decade ago when the President of the National Union of Teachers Siva Subramaniam warned that racial polarization was bad in schools the Minister of Education and UMNO castigated him and turned him into a scoundrel and an alarmist. If that was not enough a commission was set up, headed by a professor Rajaratnam(?) from University Sains to "study" the accusation. Guess what the commission discovered?

So let me say it now..the schools are being turned into religious schools! If there were more national type schools today almost all non-Malay parents would take their children out. For that matter a lot more Malay parents would do the same.

If you want national integration to start at the school level...just reclaim the schools from these religious types. Let schools be normal schools for all. Those who are religiously inclined should send their children to the religious schools. By all means set up or convert the SMKs to religious schools. But leave the rest of the schools to be just that "National Schools". National schools can practice Islamic principles like justice and equality for all. But every activity to be carried out in the national schools must be activities that can be participated in by all. There shall be no Islamic toilets but only toilets for Males and Females! Allow parents, teachers and students to complain of anyone who practices racial discrimination. This is easier done than creating excellent schools!

I couldn't agree more with you article on the sorry state of our public schools. Being educated in one of the Christian brother school in KL, I can remember mixing very well with my Malay and Indian friends. Our friendship and bond continued till the present, where we ourselves have got school going children. I do not remember being too conscious of the differences among the races. I am not a Christian and the school hardly push through any Christian values in the normal course of the school periods. I remember my Christian friends will go for their religious fellowships while the Malays go for their Agama classes. Teachers were good, dedicated and always concentrate on teaching the subject any nothing else. Now things are so different. I now send my children to private schools even if I have to pay more for it.

Here are some of my random thoughts on why National type schools are a failure.

In my opinion, the root cause of why non-Malays do not send their children to National type school is meritocracy.

When teachers and school principals are promoted on any factor other than merit, it will always result in a downward spiral of standards. When students are taught by teachers who are sub-standard, you can only expect sub-standard results and students. But hey, this is Boleh-land, results can be tampered with - subpar can still be pushed up (is this the reason why our current students score so many A's) And this continue until the students apply for the local Universities. There again, entrance by meritocracy is again sidestepped and tampered with. So what you get is subpar student entering the Universities. And some of these subpar students will be future lecturers and teachers that go back to teach the next generation - subpar teaching subpar. The downward spiral continues. Is it such a mystery to our educationist why our Universities ranking drop over the years. I remember the time when University of Malaya was on par with the National University of Singapore. But where are they now compared to us! If I am not wrong, their ranking is top 20! You see, when you practise meritocracy, it will be an upward spiral.

I looked at the history lessons of my children when they were under the National school syllabus. Year after year, they learn ever-increasing details of local history, especially the sultanate history. I know this is important, but what happen to world history we used to study? I am sure our local history can be adequately covered in 1 semester. We are like a frog in a well. Kampong champion. Pat our own backs and say we are the masters of our land.

This sad affair will continue as long as the arrogant politicians running the government perpetuate their own agenda instead of doing what is good for the country. If one continues to practise affirmative action instead of meritocracy, it will continue to be subpar passing on to subpar. It continues to weaken the weak.

Is it any wonder, why the non-Malays dominate the private sector? They simply got no choice. They must always fend for themselves. If they are denied a University education they have no choice but to start a business in the private sector. And when he prospers all on his own efforts, any weakness would have been turned into a strength. The weak becomes stronger by standing on his own two feet. That is why I say, with affirmative actions; you will continue to weaken the weak.

I may have digress, but if our policy makers do not practise meritocracy in the National school, it will not attract the non-Malays to it. And national unity will continue to erode. Sad. Our country has so much potential that has gone to waste.

Anyway, if you have read up to here, thanks for reading. I got to get back to work. I get no handout for the Government

Once again I would like to say you're "spot on" on the serious problems in our national school systems.

I thoroughly agree with your following statements:

a) that "serious effort must be make to make national schools the destination of choice ...........".
b) that " get more non-malays into the profession , even if there is a need for preferential treatment".

Until and unless the authority in charged recognise these facts, we will be wasting our time talking.

The poor state of affairs in our current education system can be reflected with the statement from the so called Professor in our leading university announcing that Yoga can cause muslims to deviate from their beliefs !!!!

I need to mention this story that was related to me last year. Aparently it happened in KL - a kid advised the mother not to eat the durian that she bought at the roadside because the durian seller is non-muslim and as such the durian is haram.
I found it hard to believe the story, but with the current system going from bad to worse, I just don't know what to believe.

Happy writing.