An Article Review on:

Malaysia’s and Indonesia’s Systems of Education

by Robert Sedgwick

(Editor, Ewenr, volume 13, Issue 4 and 5: July/August and Sept. /Oct. 2000)

SITI NOOR FAUZIAH ABD RAHIM

Institute of Education

International Islamic University Malaysia

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

IntroductionAuthor and Background……………………………………………………………1

Article SummaryMalaysia Education…………………………………………………………………..2Indonesia Education………………………………………………………………….4

Article Review and AnalysisObservations and comments………………………………………………………….5

A Glimpse at Historical Background of Education:……………..……..5 Malaysia and Indonesia

The Problems and Issues: Comparative Perspectives in Malaysia and Indonesia Education Today……………………………………….6

Subjects Oriented? Examination Oriented? No creativity isallowed!........................................................................................9Quality?.........................................................................................9

One Dimensional Intellectual…………………………………………………………10Private School; another conflict……………………………………………………..11Solution and Recommendation

Reconstruct the syllabus in education………………………………………12Consideration on differentiation………………………………………………15

Conclusion…………………………………………………..………..….………………………..16References…………………………………………………………..……………………………..17

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INTRODUCTION

There are two articles given to me from the instructor to be reviewed. The first

article is entitled Malaysia’s System of Education and the second article is Indonesia’s

System of Education. The instructions required me to review both articles and I can

combine both as one. Instructions also asked me to summarize both of it, critically

observe and comments, give opinions and suggestions and well as compare it.

Author and Background

The author for both articles is Robert Sedgwick, and Editor for EWenr (E World

Education News and Reviews). Both articles are published through online in

EWenrwebsite. The first article; Malaysia’s System of Education is in volume 13, Issue 5

Sept./Oct. 2000 while the second article; Indonesia’s System of Education is in same

volume, volume 13, Issue 4 July/August 2000. The author is editor for EWenr which is

funded by World Education Services (WES) which is the leading source of international

education intelligence. WES is a not for profit organization with over thirty years’

experience evaluating international credentials. WES provides more than 50,000

evaluations each year that are accepted by thousands of academic institutions, employers,

licensing and certification boards and government agencies in the U.S. and Canada.

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ARTICLE SUMMARY

Effective education systems’ goal is to assist in creating sustainability in a school.

The processes the district chooses from effective education systems become embedded in

the culture with activities and the assessment process founded on state curriculum.

The main contents of articles given are on the practical information from both

educational systems; Malaysia and Indonesia. The author, managed to disseminate a very

good input the readers by putting in relevant and important points of both educational

systems. The contents in the articles are very well organized and divided into several

parts. Both begin with the overview on system of education and the types or levels of

education prepared for the benefits of citizens. Education system for Malaysia for

example is controlled by The Ministry of Education and education in Malaysia is not

compulsory at any level. This means that, citizens of Malaysia especially parents can

choose either to send their children to school or not. If they intended not to send, it is no

offences at all. However, in Malaysia we can see mostly parents do send their children to

school in order to get the best education that the system can provide.

Malaysia Education

The education system in Malaysia as said before is under responsibility of the

Ministry of Education. This department is responsible for administrating the entire

system of education in all levels; from primary school to university-level programs. It

also regulates curricula, oversees national examinations and supervises the development

of education in country. Malay language is the official language of country as Malaysia is

multiracial country. The academic year for schooling started from January to November

and for higher institution; the university is quite different according to university’s own

academic calendar.

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Education level in Malaysia can be divided into three; primary school, secondary

school and higher institution. Primary education in Malaysia started at age of 7 to 12

years old, known as standard 1, standard 2 and so on. The formal assessment during

primary education is Ujian Penilai Sekolah Rendah or Primary School Assessment Test.

This test is compulsory test to all students in standard 6, 12 years old before they leave

the school.

Secondary education in Malaysia is for students with aged 13 to 17 years old.

There are two types of secondary education in Malaysia; the lower secondary and upper

secondary. The lower secondary education is meant for 12 to 15 years old students; form

1 to form 3. The formal assessment during this period of time is Penilaian Menengah

Rendah or Lower Secondary Assessment (LSA) which will be taken by form 3 students

at the end of academic calendar which is normally held in October. The upper secondary

education is meant for students with aged 16 to 17 years old. This period of time is

significant where the students will frame their academic track after school; either pursue

the study in higher institution or go for working. There is technical and vocational stream

for students who are interested in technical track for upper secondary education. They can

choose to be in vocational school for this purpose. Before leaving school, students have

to sit for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia, Malaysian Certificate of Examination (MCE).

In Malaysia, after SPM, students from public secondary school would have a

choice of either studying Form 6 or the matriculation (pre-university). If they are

accepted to continue studying in Form 6, they will sit for another exam; the Sijil Tinggi

Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) or Malaysian Higher School Certificate examination (its

British which is equivalent to the General Certificate of Education 'A' Levels examination

or internationally, the Higher School Certificate).

Tertiary education in Malaysia (public university) is subsidized by government.

For students who entered public university, they have to go to government matriculation

centre or completed their A’ level. Malaysia has a lot of universities; public and private.

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Both types of universities do offer programs such as first degree, post graduates, second

degree and third degree. For students who are not succeed in entering universities they

still have choice to go to non-university higher education for instance, polytechnics,

MARA Vocational Institute, MARA Institute of Technology etc. In Malaysia, there are

numbers of foreign universities which entered into partnership with private colleges in

Malaysia. These split degree or twinning arrangements allow students to complete part of

their degree programs at local private colleges, where they can earn transfer credits to

finish the final part of their programs overseas at partnership universities, which confer

award.

Indonesia Education

Indonesia’s system of education is under the responsibility of Ministry of

Education and Culture. The language instruction is Bahasa Indonesia and there are some

other local regional language that may used during schoolings; Javanese, Sundanese and

Balinese. Academic year in Indonesia education system is during mid-July to mid-June.

Education system in Indonesia is divided into three levels; Primary education,

secondary education (junior and senior education) and Higher Education. Primary

education is for 6 or 7 years old children to 12 years old and the leaving exam will be the

Evaluation Balakar Tahap Akhir Nasional (EBTA). Secondary education can be divided

into two level; Junior secondary education for 13 to 15 years old teenager and senior

secondary school for 16 to 18 years old teenager. They will be seating for two type of

examinations during this time which is; The Evaluasi Balajar Tingkat Akhir Nasional

Sekolah Menengah Pertama and The Evaluasi Tingkat Akhir Nasional Sekolah

Menengah Atas. For students who are interested in other stream for example technical or

vocational track, they have the opportunity to do so by going to Vocational Secondary

School. The duration will be three to four years. In the mean time, for students who are

interested to further their studies in Islamic track, they can go to Islamic schools; they

have this stream for primary school till upper secondary school. Higher education

consisting of diploma, bachelor (sarjana), masters, doctorate and postgraduate. Higher

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education in the Indonesia is offered in four types of institutions: University, Institute,

Academy and Polytechnic.

ARTICLE REVIEW AND ANALYSIS

Observations and comments

From my reading, I can say that there are quite similar in both education systems

in term of level of education that both countries able to offer to their citizens. It started

from the basic one; the kindergarten even though it is not so much being emphasized in

the article, later, the formal education; the primary education, secondary education and

higher education. Both countries actually did not put a restriction that formal education is

compulsory to all citizens. Citizens can choose either to go for education or not to go.

. Compared to Indonesia, I think Malaysia air and climate is quite different where

we can clearly see that, education perceived by citizens as a must since kindergarten to

secondary education. For tertiary, it is quite different where citizens can choose either to

further their studies or going for work. Populations of Malaysia are scattered throughout

the land and it includes rural and city. For city dwellers, they make education compulsory

for their children since kindergarten. It goes same too rural citizens; exceptionalities

sometimes can be seen in remote far away places such as aborigines’ settlements. For

aborigines they did not put much attention in education perhaps there is no exposure to

them on the importance of it. But, nowadays we see, there are schools being built

specifically for them.

A Glimpse at Historical Background of Education: Malaysia and Indonesia

Malaysia is a multiracial country in South-East Asia with a predominantly

Muslim population. Geographically, Malaysia consists of two parts, Peninsular or West

Malaysia, and East Malaysia which lies on northern quarter of the island of Borneo. In

1993, Malaysia had a population of about 1.84 million people, consisting of 61.0 per cent

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bumiputra (comprising mainly of Malays plus other indigenous groups), 27.8 per cent

Chinese, 7.8 per cent Indians, and 3.4 per cent of other origins1.

Education in Malaysia is dualism in nature; the Islamic Education System as well

as the National Educational System. Traditional Islamic education took root in Malaysia

sometime around the fourteen century. According to Khoo Kay Kim, the Islamic

education system evolved from an informal pondok-type institution in the middle of the

nineteenth century to more organized madrasah system in the early twentieth century.

These type of education is lead by ulama’ (religious scholars) or by the local community.

The syllabus for this type of education is varied according to ulama’. The focus of study

normally was ilmu-naqliyah (revealed sciences), Qu’ran and Sunnah (Tradition), Tarikh

(History of Islam) and so forth. The curriculum was subject-centered and the method of

teaching was normally rote-learning and memorization. There was no restriction and

everybody was welcome to attend the school and pursue knowledge. These Islamic

schools did not incorporate ‘ilm al ‘aql aqliyah (the acquired science) in their curriculum

although in early Islamic civilizations Muslim actively pursued these subjects in

observatories, hospitals, and libraries and had great achievements in these fields. These

education institutions have a common goal of producing virtuous Muslims who would

obey the religious commandments and be useful to society.

The traditional Islamic education system evolved gradually until the period of

British rule beginning in the late eighteenth century. They established schools, as early as

1816 in Pulau Pinang with English as medium of instruction. With the establishment of

these schools dualism in education began in Malaysia2. This dual system affected the

Malays considerably. There were lots of problem due to this new coming education

system in Malaysia, therefore there were lots of policy outlined for example the Razak

Report 1956, the Rahman Talib Report 1960, the 1979 Review of the Implementation of

Education Policies and so on. Despite all efforts made by the government, Muslims in

1 Malaysia, Department of Statistics, Monthly Statistical Bulletin, Kuala Lumpur, July 1995, p.5.2 Rosnani, H., Educational Dualism in Malaysia: Implications for Theory and Practice. KL: Oxford University Press, 1996, p.5.

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general are in dilemma and still unhappy with the present state of education. They are

dissatisfied with both educational systems.

Indonesia is extremely diverse ethnically (more than 300 distinct ethnic groups

are recognized), most Indonesians are linguistically-and culturally-part of a larger Indo-

Malaysian world encompassing present-day Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, and other

parts of insular and mainland Asia. Early inhabitants had an agricultural economy based

on cereals, and introduced pottery and stone tools during the period 2500 to 500 B.C.

During the period between 500 B.C. and A.D. 500, as the peoples of the archipelago

increasingly interacted with South and East Asia, metals and probably domesticated farm

animals were introduced.

The character of Indonesia’s educational system reflects its diverse religious

heritage, its struggle for a national identity, and the challenge of resource allocation in a

poor but developing archipelagic nation with a young and rapidly growing population.

Although a draft constitution stated in 1950 that a key government goal was to provide

every Indonesian with at least six years of primary schooling, the aim of universal

education had not been reached by the late 1980s, particularly among females although

great improvements had been made. Obstacles to meeting the government’s goal included

a high birth rate, a decline in infant mortality, and a shortage of schools and qualified

teachers. In 1973 Suharto issued an order to set aside portions of oil revenues for the

construction of new primary schools. This act resulted in the construction or repair of

nearly 40,000 primary school facilities by the late 1980s, a move that greatly facilitated

the goal of universal education3.

The emphasis on the Pancasila (1945, it is refers to the official philosophical

foundation of the Indonesian state) in public schools has been resisted by some of the

Muslim majority. A distinct but vocal minority of these Muslims prefer to receive their

schooling in a pesantren or residential learning center. Usually in rural areas and under

the direction of a Muslim scholar, pesantren are attended by young people seeking a

3 Frederick, W.H. and Worden R,L., editors. Indonesia: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1993.

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detailed understanding of the Quran, the Arabic language, the sharia, and Muslim

traditions and history. Students could enter and leave the pesantren any time of the year,

and the studies were not organized as a progression of courses leading to graduation.

Although not all pesantren were equally orthodox, most were and the chief aim was to

produce good Muslims.

In order for students to adapt to life in the modern, secular nation-state, the

Muslim-dominated Department of Religious Affairs advocated the spread of a newer

variety of Muslim school, the madrasa. In the early 1990s, these schools integrated

religious subjects from the pesantren with secular subjects from the Western-style public

education system. The less-than 15 percent of the school-age population who attended

either type of Islamic schools did so because of the perceived higher quality instruction.

However, among Islamic schools, a madrasa was ranked lower than a pesantren. Despite

the widespread perception in the West of resurgent Islamic orthodoxy in Muslim

countries, the 1980s saw little overall increase in the role of religion in school curricula in

Indonesia.

The Problems and Issues: Comparative Perspectives in Malaysia and Indonesia

Education Today

Al-Attas asserted that the problem of knowledge in education is paramount.

According him, education is not merely a means to social-economic ends, but primarily

for the spiritual ends of man. The socio-economic and political aspects are by no means

insignificant, but they are subservient and instrumental to the spiritual ones.4

The people had been in this dilemma for centuries with this predicament.

Therefore, after having gone through some reading and analysis, perhaps these are my

observations on the problems and issues raised in both countries especially in their

educational systems.

4 Wan, M.N, The Educational Philosophy and Practice of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, p. 71.

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Subjects Oriented? Examination Oriented? No creativity is allowed!

Schools especially both in primary and secondary level have utterly failed in their

basic mission of uniting the young. This is not just my opinion; it is also shared by some

other people too I guessed. This is also not happen in educational system in both

countries I believed, but also to some other countries too. The schools are nothing but

cookie-cutter versions of one another not only physically but also in their academic

offerings. They all use the same textbooks and offer the same subjects. Teachers are

coming to class with lesson plan. They have their mission to finish the syllabus for

examination purposes. Every taught are directs towards answering examination

questions.

There is also little attempt at differentiation. There are no schools that emphasize

on foreign languages or the performing arts. About the only specialized ones are the

science residential schools and private one. I believed that the school bells are also timed

to ring at the same time throughout the country! In this sense, we can see teachers are

allowed little room to display their initiative and creativity. Every school minute has been

planned for or programmed by the system. Just follow the plan and script per say.

Quality?

The second issue, quality, is most important. First is the quality of teachers. To be

a teacher, one has to have passion in their heart. Be a teacher as profession is not merely

able to teach and ask questions to students. It is all about how you are passionate with

your work. We can see nowadays, teachers are not really enjoyed with their work. In

Malaysia for example, KPLI (Post Graduate Diploma) is the scheme for training new

teachers. The duration for this course is about 2 years. This is a teacher in making

program, an express way to produce teachers in order to fulfill the need of education and

schooling. In 2 years’ time, the young graduates’ students from any academic field will

be trained to be teachers; they will be sent for a practicum for 3 month at the end of

studying. What do we expect from a fresh graduate to be skillful in pedagogy and dealing

with students in 2 years’ time? Skills are not built in one day even a month. It need ages.

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Then there are the textbooks. In United Kingdom for example; as I have my uncle

and his family staying there, his children all have attractive and well-designed textbooks,

with colorful pictures, thick papers, and large print for ease of reading. And they are free

even for children of doctors. The school also provides free bus service. The mathematics

texts have real life problems. In geometry there was an assignment for estimating the

height of a flagpole by measuring the angle of the sun and the length of the pole’s

shadow. All involved direct observation and collection of data and their interpretation,

which is what science is all about. The text books are really impressive and self-

motivated. Students will feel eager to learn just by looking at the attractive books.

Compared to standardized textbooks here for instance; English form 1 text book. You

may see the texts are quite lengthy and there is no specific part to ask students to

critically examine the issue.

One Dimensional Intellectual

As explained before, Malaysia and Indonesia has a similarity in term of both

countries exercises dualism in education. Thus, educational system is divided into two

extremes; the secular education (national school versus religious school). Both

educational systems rooted in Islamic system of education which centered in Madrasah

and Pesantren or Pondok. Secular schools in Malaysia were largely an innovation of the

British colonial government. The national schools teach students secular subject such as

Mathematics, English, Geography, Science, Information Technology, Biology, and

Chemistry and so on. In Indonesia, students could choose between state-run, nonsectarian

public schools supervised by the Department of Education and Culture or private or

semiprivate religious (usually Islamic) schools supervised and financed by the

Department of Religious Affairs. However, although 85 percent of the Indonesian

population was registered as Muslim, according to the 1990 census, less than 15 percent

attended religious schools. Enrollment figures were slightly higher for girls than boys and

much higher in Java than the rest of Indonesia. A central goal of the national education

system in the early 1990s was not merely to impart secular wisdom about the world, but

also to instruct children in the principles of participation in the modern nation-state, its

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bureaucracies, and its moral and ideological foundations. Since 1975, a key feature of the

national curriculum-as in other parts of society-had been instruction in the Pancasila.

There are differences in contents of education for both types of school. For

example, in religious school especially pondok and pesantren, the content of education

that normally adopted are the one which students read the prescribed text (i.e classical

text) while the teacher listen. During the course of this process the teacher make

corrections and guided the students if a problem arises. In this method of teaching,

knowledge is restricted to certain prescribed books and neither the teacher nor the

students steps out it. This result in fact that after years and years of study, students only

succeed in achieving knowledge of certain books, It is a known fact that gaining

knowledge of a few books is totally different from gaining assess to the knowledge of the

subjects itself. In contrast, secular/national education is more towards teaching modern

subjects to students for example English, Mathematics, Science, Biology, Information

and Technology. Thus from here, we can see that there is no integration in the syllabus

and contents taught in both schools. This will lead to only one dimension of students; one

is lacking in religious knowledge and the other one is rich in modern knowledge and

vice-versa. No integration between these two schools especially in term of syllabus

taught as well as method of teachings will create unbalanced product that are ready to

compete globally.

Private School; another conflict

We can see nowadays, more private schools will be built in Malaysia as well as

Indonesia. In one side, this is good but in the other way, this climate will lead citizens

lose confidence in their public schools. Quality of a nation is determined among others by

its culture. Culture is the concepts, ideas, thoughts, and beliefs held by a society for a

long time so those things guide them in fulfilling their needs of life. Different concepts

will lead to different behaviors. Wrong concepts will lead to wrong behaviors. More

private schools mean more divisions in society and culture. The rich will produce better

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schools and the poor will be left behind in this educational system we have all created in

the name of the New Economic Policy or New Order.

Public schools in Indonesia are widely perceived have better inputs and to be

superior to private schools5. But, teachers do not have the necessary concepts and skills to

deal not only with the Advanced children (high-technology, high gadgetry, low attention

span, low school-tolerance) but also the ‘not so good’ children who have low skills of

reading, writing and computing. Children left behind will be those who become social

loafer. They will be destructive to the classroom process and will translate their social

anger into counter-productive and destructive activities. These are the ones who will be

made criminals as a result of an uncaring education system that criminalizes the human

mind by placing unmotivated, uncreative and unprepared teachers to develop the

untapped geniuses in our classrooms.

In a conclusion, indeed both educational systems is excellent in term of

framework and planning, however, there are loops here and there which have to be

careful examined. The weaknesses of our institutions extend from their physical

structures and management to the curriculum and teachers. All these elements will have

to be reformed.

Solutions and Recommendations

The century in which we are living is one of the chaos and egotism. The world is

seething with unrest and tempestuous conditions that obtain from an overwhelming state

of fear and suspicion. The more man tries to sidetrack them the more vigorously do they

confront him. Almost invariably he finds himself helplessly obsessed. To overcome this

5 Mohamad Fahmi, School Choice and Earnings: A Case of Indonesia, Department of Economics,

Padjadjaran University in its series Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WoPEDS), 2009.

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obsession man needs something positive, something which can guide him, sustain him

and lead him to something unfailing, eternal6.

Therefore, in order to cure and overcome the problem arose in educational system

in both countries, perhaps here are some suggestions.

Reconstruct the syllabus in education

It is believed that, it is a need to construct the syllabus in both educational

systems. Since ages, the education is Malaysia particularly is inherited the secular-based

system from British during Colonialism in 1940s. The students in schools; either primary

or secondary learned this secular-based education; they learned only 1 subject related to

Islamic and Religious based subject.

Therefore, they (the students) are lacking in religious knowledge. This became

worst when they failed to apply this little knowledge (religious knowledge) in their life.

Thus, they committed and involved in many social activities as do not know what is the

Islamic rule or hukm. Moral decadence nowadays became the major problem in our

Muslim society. Education and religious base is being as the core factors that contribute

to these phenomena.

How to reconstruct the syllabus in education? This can be actualized perhaps in two

ways:

1. Integration of knowledge

Integration of knowledge can be done in schools and education institutions which

have totally religious-oriented syllabus such as Sekolah Agama Rakyat (SAR) in

Malaysia or Madrasah Ibtidiyah and Madrasah Aliyah in Indonesia. This can be done by

introducing the academic subjects to the curriculum for example Mathematics, Science

6 Bilgrami, H.H., Call from the Minaret: Islamic Values and Education, London: Interlink Longgraph, 1981, p 11.

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and so on. By doing this, the students will learn subjects outside their learning routine;

Islamic subjects per say. The teachers also can employ methods of discussion by bringing

current issues in country and the world to be discussed in classes. Therefore, it will give

students a wide horizon of knowledge, not just Islamic knowledge but academic also.

2. Islamization of Education

Islamization of Education is the Islamization of the Muslim child and the coming

of Muslim generation. It can be defined as;

The process of deliberating them from a culture of fear and superstitious to recapture and reestablish the Muslim spirit or tawhid and istikhlaf. It is the spirit of righteously and selflessly pursuing noble goals (islah), right knowledge (ma’arifah), and good and useful development (takshkhir and imran)7.

Positive educational and nurturing way and methodology, the tarbiyah system,

requires scientific reformulation of the aqidah discourse, comprehension of the nature of

psychology of human being, and the understanding of human facts, laws, conditions and

variables of life. The Muslim must go beyond the system of sermons and daydreaming.

They must produce educational literature, tarbiyah directions and school textbooks to

help and guide parents and teachers in their effort at grooming a strong Muslim

generations.

Prepared with this “Islamization knowledge in education” the future leaders will

be able to help the ummah to face challenges, rediscover the essence of their religion,

uplift it from its decadence, recapture the true spirit and mind-set of Islam that had been

list and save the ummah for the malaise and crisis.

7 Yusof, M.H., Islamization of Human Sciences, p. 63.

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Consideration on differentiation

Creativity is the ability to think about something in novel and unusual ways and

come up with unique solutions to problems8. When creative people, such as artists and

scientists, are asked what enables them to solve problems in novel ways, they say that the

ability to find affinities between seemingly unrelated elements plays a key role. They also

say they have the time and independence in an enjoyable setting to entertain a wide range

of possible solutions to a problem.

The omission of arts education is Islamic school system for example is also a pity

because Muslim especially have been known for their beautiful arts and architectural

designs such as the decorated walls and floors in the Alhambra in Spain, the Blue

Mosque in Istanbul and the Taj Mahal in India. These beautiful arts and designs have not

escaped the attention of Western artists; M.C. Escher praised their brilliance. He admits

that the Moorish work ‘is the richest source of inspiration that I have ever struck; nor has

it yet dried up.9’

The reason could be given for the omission of arts from the curriculum might be

due to the misconception that all drawings are forbidden in Islam. The omission of arts

also might be caused by the belief that arts is not important in education and do not

contribute anything to child’s development. The reasons are indeed misguided. Arts is

important in the curriculum for the same reason that music is. Studies show that art can

refine a child’s sensibility and aesthetic perception10. It also trains a child’s visual

perception to be sharper. Art is useful because it refines aesthetics sensitivity and is

important in developing moral person11. Arts is equally relevant and important in

education. Therefore, the space for this type of creativity should be given to students.

8 Santrock, J.W., Child Development, 7eds, Brown and Benchmark Publishers, 1999, p. 307.9 Escher,M.C., The Graphic Work of M.C.Escher, New York:Hawthorn Books, 1970, 11.10 Barron, F. Creativity and Personal Freedom, Princeton. NJ:Van Nostrand, 1968.11 Newman, A.J. Aesthetic Sensitizing and Moral Education, The Journal of Aesthetic Education, 14 (April 1980): 93-101.

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CONCLUSION

Personally, the route and journey to complete this article review is quite long and

this is my end product. After going through reading and analyzing on the subject matter, I

found that it needs careful and extensive reading. Thus, I came forward to organize the

discussion and explanation in this way. Actually there are lots more to write on.

However, for the sake of answering the question, I believed I did it.

Both educational system and frameworks was outlined in excellent way by the

boards of committee. However, there are some lacks here and there, perhaps in term of

implementations and practices. For example, the curriculum of subjects is examination

oriented and these can clearly be seen in the textbooks where there are no elements of

encouraging students to think and explore themselves. Students’ creativity and freedom

of expressing ideas had been limited by system itself. Teachers are being programmed to

follow the instruction from the system; thus the teaching taken placed according lesson

plans. All these means lead to mechanistic teaching where teachers are not passionate and

students are passive in classes. Thus, the knowledge transformation will not reach into

hearts.

In short, there are lots to be careful examined and implemented. The ummah’s

pain and anguish are not merely subjects for treatment from a literary point of view. Its

pain I his, as it is sufferings. If he were a poet, it is possible that he would have filled a

library with his verses on the subjects.. Therefore, the ummahs’ pain needs a speedy

movement and careful treatments. There is no time to waiting for as the more delay; the

Muslim ummah will constantly suffer this crisis! Wallahu’alam.

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References:

Barron, F. (1968) .Creativity and Personal Freedom.Princeton. NJ:Van Nostrand.

Bilgrami, H.H. (1981).Call from the Minaret: Islamic Values and Education. London: Interlink Longgraph.

Escher,M.C.(1970). The Graphic Work of M.C.Escher. New York:Hawthorn Books.

Frederick, W.H. and Worden R,L. (1993). editors. Indonesia: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress. Malaysia, Department of Statistics. Monthly Statistical Bulletin. Kuala Lumpur, July 1995.

Mohamad Fahmi. (2009). School Choice and Earnings: A Case of Indonesia. Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University in its series Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WoPEDS).

Newman, A.J.(1980). Aesthetic Sensitizing and Moral Education. The Journal of Aesthetic Education, 14.

Rosnani, H.(1996). .Educational Dualism in Malaysia: Implications for Theory and Practice. KL: Oxford University Press.

Santrock, J.W.(1999). Child Development. 7eds. Brown and Benchmark Publishers, 1999.

Wan, M.N. The Educational Philosophy and Practice of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas.

Yusof, M.H. Islamization of Human Sciences.

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