PARIS: Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has commended the Malaysian education policy and the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 based on the an assessment it carried out in 2015.
Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said OECD, which is responsible in carrying out the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) has also praised the Malaysian government initiative in enhancing training for school teachers in order to achieve the education blueprint’s goals.
He said the findings were presented by OECD Education and Skills director Dr Andreas Schleicher during a meeting with the Malaysian education delegation led by Mahdzir here.
He said Schleicher, who is also the special adviser on education policy to the OECD secretary-general, had expressed full commitment to assisting Malaysia by sharing the experience of other countries in transforming their respective education systems.
“I am happy to note that our education policy and the Education Blueprint have received positive feedback from OECD. Schleicher also shared the experience of other countries whereby (he stressed that) it could take years before we can reap the full benefits of the policy and blueprint,” he told Malaysian media here.
Present were Education director-general Dr Amin Senin and the ministry’s Education Performance and Delivery Unit (Padu) chief executive officer Khadijah Abdullah.
Mahdzir, who is also representing Malaysia in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) 39th general conference which begins here today, said the government has also agreed to take part in the 2019 PISA assessment by OECD.
“The second assessment is being carried out this year and the results will be out by next year while the complete overall assessment by OECD will be carried out next year with the results expected to be presented by 2019.
“The government is committed to the PISA assessment as it is one of the key tools to gauge the progress of our education system towards realising the goals of the blueprint,” he said.
He added that, based on its findings, OECD reckoned that one of the strengths was peer networking among teachers in Malaysia.
“The other important point is that OECD has reckoned that the strength of Malaysian students’ education is of global competency, based on the level of the relationship among our multi-racial students, and OECD even suggested for other countries to learn from Malaysia’s valuable experience,” he said.
Besides Malaysia, the other Asian countries which are taking part in the PISA rating assessment are China, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand.
On a similar note, Mahdzir said the introduction of higher order thinking skills (Hots) questions into the main examinations for the past four years has helped improve the PISA assessment rating for the country’s education system.
Moving forward, he said, it was imperative for the Education Ministry to have its own assessment system to rate the schools in Malaysia through the schools’ visiting board and quality assurance team, with Padu carrying out the overall assessment.
“Our Education Policy long term goals are to improve teachers’ creativity and innovation, the schools administration leadership quality, the students and the environment, with an active involvement among parents.
“As such, it is imperative for us to also carry out our own assessments so that we can identify the strengths and weaknesses for each school based on all these elements and come up with a plan to improve schools with low ratings and further improve schools that have achieved favourable ratings,” he said.
Apart from representing Malaysia, which is a Unesco executive board member, in the organisation’s 39th general assembly, Mahdzir is also scheduled to have a meeting with former French culture minister Audrey Azoulay, who has been nominated for the position of Unesco director-general to succeed Irina Bokova.