Points to Ponder

I was listening to BFM (89.9 in the Klang Valley) just now and the topic on discussion concerned the efficacy of the remove class system in our country when students from vernacular schools move over to regular secondary schools. It strikes some strong opinion from yours truly and there may be some controversial points in the following post, so be warned. I'll also admit my relative ignorance in to the actual social benefits and reasons behind the existence and maintenance of the vernacular system, so to anyone reading this that has a more informed point-of-view, kindly educate me :) There, done with the general disclaimer :P

On to my point: my disapproval is not specific to the whole vernacular school system itself, but rather the overall segregation of language-/racial-specific services. Let's me start with the vernacular education system. What is the real purpose of this? I'll exclude private schools from this topic primarily due to the monetary requirements for an average private school that implies a perfectly conscious investment by the relevant stakeholders and families. However, from the perspective of a government school, I do not see a value. Why do I say so? (*Warning* Highly opinionated)

Cost. Funding has always been a pain in most government endorsed education and development plans. Look at FELDA and the rural schools. Having said that, having a more limited scope education system focused on a highly specific group of our population is just another minority fighting for the same chunk of the pie. This also rolls over to the requirements that a teacher needs to meet to be drafted into a vernacular school. I do not see a long-term value of a teacher specialized in vernacular schools; what is the career path like? What are the fallback options available if a given school loses its funding (if at all possible?).
Additionally, the guests on BFM themselves highlighted that the biggest challenge students from these schools face is the outcome of the remove classes; a 1-year 'alignment' period to adjust the students to a more sekolah kebangsaan curriculum. These students face different challenges and quite often are held back because not everyone can cope to re-adjust themselves in that 1-year. This is not yet at the topic of relevance in terms of the content and curriculum of that 1 year. This disparity in students, agreeably, leads to the need of special teachers who are not just good at the subject matter but also in human interaction because it is no different than handling special students.
My real thoughts on this is: why introduce/keep the vernacular system if these problems are such a headache? Before jumping the gun, I do agree some will say it is to cater for the different racial needs of the population. What I won't agree on that point is WHY bother even having a different system for different races? We have flaws in our general education system, and having a separation in the system doesn't make it any simpler to manage. Some may say how then to preserve the language of these races and their customs? I say how is having Chinese and Tamil schools meeting even *that* requirement? I speak Telugu natively; do I see Telugu schools around? Sikh? Iban? Kadazan? Teo Chew? Etc. If there is such a need for addressing the minority, then even our current solution is nowhere near addressing it. If the language is really important, why not just assimilate and overhaul the People's Own Language program (if it still exists) in the regular curriculum? There are even cultural societies like the Telugu Association of Malaysia that take it up upon themselves to conduct their own language and customs classes. It seems to work to some degree as a curriculum outside the regular education system, and it can be implemented without forsaking or sacrificing the opportunities our children are exposed to in their learning year.

Of course, by mentioning the Telugu Association of Malaysia, I will inadvertently have to talk about my other point on how irrelevant I think racially aligned bodies such as this (and others) are to our current society. With Bersih 2.0 and all the cries about abolishing the racial divide-and-conquer approach of administering the country, why then do we have these groups created in every single corner of our society. I'm not talking the BIG names here; those are obvious. Just take a stroll in your neighborhood and you're bound to encounter a racial-benefit group; Hokkien Association, Teo Chew traders, Tamil Toastmasters, Telugu Association, etc. I can go on and on! If they're just socially active, I don't see a problem in that. It just gets sticky when things get political. What is the value on having a racial specific group, a small one at that, fighting for the rights of an equal minority? Again, its requesting more slices out of a finite resource.
Why don't I think it works? Simple geography. An average association like this does not necessarily have members clustered in the same geographical location. Quite often they span a large area and changes in social livelihood will randomly increase or fragment this spread. The social breakdown of their respective members also can range from a large gap in household income and education level. How then can a small racially-motivated association like these hope to manage both the expectations and the problems across a varied demographic and social status' against issues that are out there agnostic of race or status? These are not associations that are concerned about security and development of a daerah or well-defined geographical region; these are... ambiguous! These bodies are seemingly fighting for funding, cultural support, education support, etc. that almost always revolve around the improvement of THEIR race! How does that align to our desire to have racial harmony and equality? On one side we want equality, and another we want our own selfish demands?

Our country is unique in many ways and its biggest strength IS its relative harmony among the races! I am an advocate of abolishing the 'Kaum'/'Race' checkbox in ALL forms, but I don't see that happening in my lifetime because our society itself is not walking the talk. There are plenty of exceptions and evidence of this changing in recent times; I just think it is too slow. Too many of our immediate past generation are still fixated or rooted in the ways of past, and I don't blame them; they've probably lived through times where the governing bodies used that to their ruling advantage. However, those in our current generation should not blindly follow. From societies to education system, there should be no need for racial separation. One education system, racially-agnostic political bodies and embracing ourselves as the Malaysian race regardless of where our parents or grandparents came from... that is my impression of harmony.

And those who think I'm being a social-retard for trying to forgo my roots, then I ask you this: How much of what you practice as a custom (not religion, mind you) do you really understand the purpose of? If you don't know why a certain practice is done, then I say you yourself have forgotten your roots. Don't just do something for the sake of continuity. I'll admit that if I'm made to do something that people cannot give a clear explanation about, I'll proudly NOT do it! I prefer to learn from history, but not live in it because my life is in the present. If something doesn't make sense for the future, then it makes no sense now to me.

Not sure if my thoughts flowed well throughout the write-up, but that's about everything that was spilling out of my head right now :P