Air Asia today announced that in their efforts to offer a "5-star service" to passengers, any delay exceeding 3 hours from time of departure will mean affected passengers will receive compensation. This will come in the form of an e-gift voucher worth RM200. The e-voucher is part of its "On-time Guarantee" initiative.
Hmmm...the fuel increase must have really begun to affect airline service standards. Afterall, any delay under 3 hours is still considered "5-star" and "On-time"?!
Monday, June 16, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Wither the next generation
Our children face a bleak future. This is the result of the complacency and short-termism of our country’s leadership, whether past or present. We have squandered away precious resources and time, by embarking on one grandiose project after another, focussing narrowly on expensive infrastructures and monuments, while consistently neglecting the one resource that can maintain Malaysia’s place in the global economy – our human capital.
From our primary schools to public universities, standards have been falling for years. Our PM has been busy criss-crossing the country officially launching economic corridors here and there. Perhaps the PM should be visiting schools and universities to see how well our young generation will be able to cope when they enter the workforce. For all the multi-billion dollar super-corridors, which is basically just hardware, what good is it to have IT hubs, biotechnology facilities; R&D centres; when we cannot have competent and qualified professionals to work in them?
Education policies aren’t “sexy”. A comprehensive, well-thought out and laboriously implemented education blueprint might take years, even decades before its results became apparent. Hence, given the short attention span of the Malaysian public,politicians do not want to waste time outlining good education proposals when fiscal policies like tax cuts will generate instant popular support (hence votes). Furthermore, our government tends to go for the quick-fix, short cut solutions. It revels in instant success that takes little effort. Just throw money, loads of money at the problem and you will get a fast solution. Want a Malaysian in space? Why, just hold a Malaysian Idol-like Contest, spend millions to buy a ticket from the Russians, and voila!, after a couple of months, you have your very own Malaysian Angkasawan. Why bother spending the same millions (and years) in developing a space programme that actually sends qualified Malaysians into space? National unity failing? No problem! Cobble some training camps together, supply some crisp new uniforms, install some vigorous physical training programmes, and presto!, after 3 months, our National Servicemen will go back to their daily routine fully immersed with the spirit of Muhibah.
It is then not surprising that when it comes to our education policies, our government is guilty of not having a consistent, coherent and well-executed plan. The Education portfolio is often seen as a stepping stone to a higher office. As a result, every Education Minister that comes in tends to wants to stamp his mark by introducing new ideas, which is then hastily implemented, often discarding the previous’ structure, both good and bad. Substance does not matter here– what matters is we have something new. A case in point – we are still debating whether teaching Science and Mathematics in English is a viable idea.
In an article in the Edge, it stated that a 2007 World Bank report reaffirms the poor standards of our public universities. Our primary and secondary schools can’t be that much better off. The report went on to say that Malaysia would lose its competitive edge if it fails to produce a world class education system to propel the country into an innovative economy. Already, Malaysia’s strength in manufacturing is fast eroded by countries such as China who have vast supply of labour who are gaining in sophistication. In the services sector too, other developing countries has been furiously pouring in billions to upgrade their knowledge-based economy, and at the same time engaging the best brains to develop their future scientists.
So where does that leave us? Not only have Malaysia failed to carve out a niche to replace its waning dominance in manufacturing and to an extent services, our future generations of local graduates are ill-equipped with the creativity and knowledge in order to compete with the rest of the world. Because our manufacturing and services sector has no clear advantage over other countries, this can only mean our graduates will end up with jobs that are easily replaceable in other parts of the world. This in turn means the jobs available to our less-than-competent graduates will most likely offer remunerations that reflect its commoditized nature.
Parents of young children have not much choice. Those who can afford it will likely enrol their kids in private schools. Many of the young professionals today will no doubt do whatever they can to ensure their offsprings will be able to enter into foreign universities in the future, in order that they can secure a globally-recognized education that will give them that extra edge in getting good paying jobs. And where will these jobs come from? At this rate, no one will be putting their money on Malaysia. So we have a vicious circle – the Malaysian economy is stuck in the 20th century because our education system could not produce sufficient scientists, engineers and finance wizards who can transform it to a knowledge-based economy, whilst those with the knowledge will most likely offer their services to other countries because they could not find high-value employment back home. In the meantime, our neighbours have leapfrogged us, with our best brains contributing to their advancements.
How about parents who have no choice but to send their children to government schools? They can only pray for a miracle that somehow the standard of teaching improves; that the government appoints school administrators based on competence, not political obedience; that the entire education system is predicated on merit; that deserving students are given the means and support all the way from primary school to university to pursue their dreams.
If the government continues in its slumber by its fixation on billion-dollar infrastructures, and ignore the crucial need to revamp our education system now, our children will suffer the consequences of low-paying jobs in a less-than-competitive economy in the future. Coming at a time when we are running out of oil and high inflation looks to be a permanent fixture; our next generation will be the ones bearing the costs of our profligate and myopic ways. Low paying jobs in a less than dynamic economy; no more oil; high fuel and food prices – aren’t we condemning our next generation to a lifetime of meaningless slog, struggling to earn just enough to cover their bills with no light at the end of the tunnel? Can someone wake the government up now?
From our primary schools to public universities, standards have been falling for years. Our PM has been busy criss-crossing the country officially launching economic corridors here and there. Perhaps the PM should be visiting schools and universities to see how well our young generation will be able to cope when they enter the workforce. For all the multi-billion dollar super-corridors, which is basically just hardware, what good is it to have IT hubs, biotechnology facilities; R&D centres; when we cannot have competent and qualified professionals to work in them?
Education policies aren’t “sexy”. A comprehensive, well-thought out and laboriously implemented education blueprint might take years, even decades before its results became apparent. Hence, given the short attention span of the Malaysian public,politicians do not want to waste time outlining good education proposals when fiscal policies like tax cuts will generate instant popular support (hence votes). Furthermore, our government tends to go for the quick-fix, short cut solutions. It revels in instant success that takes little effort. Just throw money, loads of money at the problem and you will get a fast solution. Want a Malaysian in space? Why, just hold a Malaysian Idol-like Contest, spend millions to buy a ticket from the Russians, and voila!, after a couple of months, you have your very own Malaysian Angkasawan. Why bother spending the same millions (and years) in developing a space programme that actually sends qualified Malaysians into space? National unity failing? No problem! Cobble some training camps together, supply some crisp new uniforms, install some vigorous physical training programmes, and presto!, after 3 months, our National Servicemen will go back to their daily routine fully immersed with the spirit of Muhibah.
It is then not surprising that when it comes to our education policies, our government is guilty of not having a consistent, coherent and well-executed plan. The Education portfolio is often seen as a stepping stone to a higher office. As a result, every Education Minister that comes in tends to wants to stamp his mark by introducing new ideas, which is then hastily implemented, often discarding the previous’ structure, both good and bad. Substance does not matter here– what matters is we have something new. A case in point – we are still debating whether teaching Science and Mathematics in English is a viable idea.
In an article in the Edge, it stated that a 2007 World Bank report reaffirms the poor standards of our public universities. Our primary and secondary schools can’t be that much better off. The report went on to say that Malaysia would lose its competitive edge if it fails to produce a world class education system to propel the country into an innovative economy. Already, Malaysia’s strength in manufacturing is fast eroded by countries such as China who have vast supply of labour who are gaining in sophistication. In the services sector too, other developing countries has been furiously pouring in billions to upgrade their knowledge-based economy, and at the same time engaging the best brains to develop their future scientists.
So where does that leave us? Not only have Malaysia failed to carve out a niche to replace its waning dominance in manufacturing and to an extent services, our future generations of local graduates are ill-equipped with the creativity and knowledge in order to compete with the rest of the world. Because our manufacturing and services sector has no clear advantage over other countries, this can only mean our graduates will end up with jobs that are easily replaceable in other parts of the world. This in turn means the jobs available to our less-than-competent graduates will most likely offer remunerations that reflect its commoditized nature.
Parents of young children have not much choice. Those who can afford it will likely enrol their kids in private schools. Many of the young professionals today will no doubt do whatever they can to ensure their offsprings will be able to enter into foreign universities in the future, in order that they can secure a globally-recognized education that will give them that extra edge in getting good paying jobs. And where will these jobs come from? At this rate, no one will be putting their money on Malaysia. So we have a vicious circle – the Malaysian economy is stuck in the 20th century because our education system could not produce sufficient scientists, engineers and finance wizards who can transform it to a knowledge-based economy, whilst those with the knowledge will most likely offer their services to other countries because they could not find high-value employment back home. In the meantime, our neighbours have leapfrogged us, with our best brains contributing to their advancements.
How about parents who have no choice but to send their children to government schools? They can only pray for a miracle that somehow the standard of teaching improves; that the government appoints school administrators based on competence, not political obedience; that the entire education system is predicated on merit; that deserving students are given the means and support all the way from primary school to university to pursue their dreams.
If the government continues in its slumber by its fixation on billion-dollar infrastructures, and ignore the crucial need to revamp our education system now, our children will suffer the consequences of low-paying jobs in a less-than-competitive economy in the future. Coming at a time when we are running out of oil and high inflation looks to be a permanent fixture; our next generation will be the ones bearing the costs of our profligate and myopic ways. Low paying jobs in a less than dynamic economy; no more oil; high fuel and food prices – aren’t we condemning our next generation to a lifetime of meaningless slog, struggling to earn just enough to cover their bills with no light at the end of the tunnel? Can someone wake the government up now?
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