Murray Hunter

TODAY’S education is crucial for tomorrow’s society. Society’s culture is primarily framed through education that took place over the last generation.

In Malaysia, the issue of education is extremely controversial.

Yet, society is continuously changing, while the evolution of education is almost stagnant and lagging behind the needs of society and the people living within it.

What is needed within today’s education system goes far beyond science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and the medium of instruction.

Somewhere between 48-52 per cent of secondary students don’t go on to tertiary education, going straight into ‘general’ society after secondary school.

Education should be a catalyst to nurture the youth of today in growing up, learning to not just survive, but prosper.

Education must fulfil these aims rather than just being a tool to ensure social conformity by conditioning students to accept their current place in society, as expected of them.

Education should prepare people for life challenges ahead.

Education should nurture students to be able to perform to their true potential in society. Their potential is certainly much higher than where most end up today.

The new needs of today’s education

Today’s education should not just be seen as a forerunner for tertiary education.

Secondary education must prepare Malaysians for the real world out there today.

The most important lesson that anybody can take away from school is how to learn.

So many students go to university and have never been taught how to actually learn.

This is a basic skill the education system doesn’t provide today.

Students must be taught how to solve problems.

This is an expansive area, as there are many different types of problems with different approaches needed to find solutions to different types of problems.

Solving problems often requires creativity. Creativity is a means to innovate, which is a means to add value and quality to what someone is doing.

Creativity and innovation are a necessary lifetime skill, that is not just required of those becoming an entrepreneur or small business operator, but the general community at large in seeking life satisfaction.

Critical thinking is another important skill that students are not taught in school.

Most subjects currently being taught lack this aspect, even though schools claim curricula are based upon Bloom’s Taxonomy, a widely used framework in education used for classifying learning objectives and skills.

Lessons should be aimed at teaching the above skills.

This should be permeating through school curricula.

History class should teach people how to go about research. Language comprehension should invoke critical thinking.

Assignments should be aimed at teaching people how to present their ideas to others throughout their life.

Secondary education lacks the framework to teach people how to find opportunities. This includes both opportunities for business and opportunities for life enhancement.

Then students should be able to utilise their critical thinking to evaluate opportunities they can see, and then creativity and innovation to set out paths they can use to pursue these opportunities.

In this paradigm, life is itself an entrepreneurial venture, so entrepreneurship should be part of all school curricula.

This would reflect the fact that only around 50 per cent of secondary school graduates go on to university or other higher education. Many students will disappear into what is called the ‘informal economy’.

Students must be taught to be able to generate ideas and develop the skills they need to fulfil them.

Consequently, business and home economics skills should be put into the curriculum once again.

Students must also be given an introduction to vocational or TVET activities. This will enable some to realise they have good aptitudes for ‘green collar’ activities, which, coupled with simple business skills, allow them to financially benefit.

TVET should be promoted as an attractive education path to students

Finally, students indeed have religion within their courses. However, this doesn’t necessarily translate to ethics.

There should also be ethics classes within schools. This is particularly needed to assist in steering future citizens away from corruption.

As mentioned at the beginning of this piece, education shapes society’s culture in the future.

Students must be taught to ask questions during their education and learn to be assertive.

The massively high power-distance, where subordinates never question superiors, is blocking creativity and innovation across workplaces.

This doesn’t mean that students should be overbearing and obnoxious. Rather, students should learn to be assertive enough to learn.

This approach will help to pull down the high power-distance that exists within Malaysian culture, which will hopefully lead to a more creative workforce in the future.

Today, technology is advancing very quickly and drastically affecting the workplace.

These issues must be tackled immediately, otherwise the education will be teaching people to participate in a workforce that they aren’t ready for in the future.

As students are learning skills which are no longer needed within a changing society.

This means integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and showing students how to be creative with it and master it as a tool, rather than allowing it to take away potential jobs.

The job market is rapidly changing, and the education system must follow suit rather than remain stagnant.

Today’s organisations and corporations are becoming ‘soulless’ because people cannot critically think, solve problems and adequately present new ideas.

Humans are now operating as ‘zombies’ in many industries today.

The advice above would revolutionise the education systems. It’s not about allocating more resources, but using existing resources to fulfil the above objectives.

This can be done almost immediately. It just needs the will to do it. – May 2, 2026