2018212350013 EDUP 3073

QUESTION A (Building unity through education - Chapter 3, 3-21 - 3-24 )

Malaysia's diversity in ethnic, religious and culture has been its greatest
challenge in building unity. Education and school can be used as a place to foster
unity as it is a shared place by Malaysian. Therefore, the Ministry has taken some
actions by using schools and education to build unity. For example, all ethnicities
and cultures are included in curricula and teaching materials, specific modules such
as civics and history are used to teach appreciation and understanding of the
different group and School based programmes such as Student Integration Plan for
Unity (RIMUP) and establishing of School Vision where different school-types share
common facilities are explicitly focused on to improve unity between Malaysia.
Lastly, the involvement of students of different cultural backgrounds and socio
economic backgrounds in co-curricular activities like sports and debating
competitions exposed them to the students who are from different cultures and
ethics.
Although the Ministry has taken a few actions to handle this challenge, still
unity can not take place due several reasons. First, a homogenous environment
causes the students to not be exposed to different cultures and ethnic groups that
lead to development and appreciation for diversity is challenging. This is because the
Ministry provides options for the parents to be taught in their mother tongue, the
option for a curriculum with a larger emphasis on religious education as well as a
mainstream option.
Other than that, the existence of converge schools is not building the unity of
some of the students. This is because only about 88% of students from various
primary schools enrol in a single school format - SMK. The others 22% will receive
minimum exposure to diversity as some of them still enrol in homogeneous
secondary school such as independent Chinese School and Government aided
religious (SABK). There is a small minority that enrol in private schools which sphere
the Ministry influence in building unity.
Moreover, teachers play an important role in setting the example in order to
build unity in education. It's beneficial for the students to have different ethnicities
teachers as it can reflect Malaysia's diverse population and bridge the gap between
the ethnicities. However, teachers in SKs is becoming less diverse and less
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representative of the national population. According to the research in 2011, the

number of Chinese teachers in National schools dropped from 17% to 14%.
The education and school are the perfect place for the students to improve
unity. This proven by JNJL inspections and JPNIN surveys that shows students
interactions indicate high levels of interaction between ethnicities inside and outside
of the classroom and co-curricular activities due to policies of mixed seating in the
classrooms. However, the inspectors reported that there was a need for schools with
less diverse student populations to take more active measures to create
opportunities for students to interact with those of different ethnicities, religion and
cultures.
To conclude, schools have a unique potential to be a place to foster unity as it
is the place that is shared for all Malaysian.
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QUESTION B

Rabindranath Tagore once said to build a nation, first build a school. This is
because at school the children are able to interact with one another regardless of
their colour, races, ethnicities, religion and culture. Education provides them the
opportunities to build unity and senses of appreciation to the other races and
religions. This is important as through association with other races enables
Malaysian to live in peace and harmony and stay united with one another. However,
according to the Malaysia Education Blueprint (2013), the existence of
homogeneous schools and lack of diversity of teachers at school cause the fostering
unity through education is difficult due to limited interaction between the students of
different races. Therefore, primary school teachers play an important role to tackle
these challenges because cultivating unity must start at a very early age. This essay
will critically discuss roles of primary school teachers in handling the challenges in
building unity in education by engaging students to mix through co-curricular
activities with different school types, designing various cultural teaching material and
modelling the right behaviours when facing the people of different races.
First, teachers must engage students to mix through co-curricular activities
with different school types. The primary level comprises three main types of schools
which are SK, SJKC and SJKT. Each type of school is defined by different mediums
of instruction and jointly accounts for almost 99% of total primary enrolments
(Malaysia Education Blueprint, 2013). Therefore, the students lack appreciation and
understanding of the different groups in Malaysia due to limited interaction with other
races. Hence, co-curricular activities with different school types can be the medium
for the students to meet and socialize with each other. The teacher must be the
activators by finding the opportunities for the students to join co-curricular activities
that included school from different types. According to the Anuar Ahmad (2016), the
students participation in co-curricular depends on teachers’ activation in supporting
the students to join co-curricular activities. There are many associations and clubs
that host competition and activities that support unity in Malaysia that the primary
students can join for free. The co-curricular likes Girls Guide Malaysia endorse many
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competitions and activities that involve different types of school. For example, last
year they hosted a public speaking competition which was joined by SK, SKJC and
SKJT students. As they need to quarantine during impromptu speech, most of them
get to socialize and know each other during that time. Girls Guides Association
Malaysia (2019) added the theme of the speech mostly about the unity and
diversities in Malaysia, hence the participants usually giving the speech by reflecting
their cultural practices. Therefore, it gives chances for the other races to listen and
apprehend with their practices. However, most of the clubs and associations only
host the activities twice or thrice per year for primary school students and the
participation is usually open for only a few students per school. Thus, only 10% of
the school's population can join the co-curricular. Then, the teachers should do
collaboration with other schools to host a competition that can be joined and foster
their interaction with other races. For instance, hosting outdoor camping between SK
and SJK C schools. The camp offers the students to practice becoming adept at
socializing by offering access to many new people and environments. Therefore, it
gives the opportunity for the students to interact with the students' other cultures. So,
the teachers play an important role in planning the itinerary and activities that build
the unity and harmony diversity of cultures. Encouraging students to participate in
co-curricular activities that involve different types of school is a must to improve the
students' interaction with students from other races.
Next is designing various cultural teaching materials to introduce the students
about the others' culture and practices. Teachers play a very important role in
creating awareness related to the existence of other ethnicities, races and culture.
This is because students who study in hematogenous have problems in adapting
with other races when they further studies in universities (Halah Ahmed, 2016).
Therefore, it is the teacher's responsibility to introduce and include other ethnicities
practices when designing lessons. To incorporate with this, the teacher must be
creative and have various teaching techniques that can help the lesson become
more effective, fun but at the same time provide opportunity for them to apprehend
with the others culture. The teacher can organize a project based learning that
encourages the students involvement which reflects elements of the cultural heritage
of other ethnic groups. For example, the teacher assigns the students to do research
about marriage other than their culture and share with their class. Hence, they need
to explore and research in order to obtain the information. Throughout the task, they
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will learn the practices and taboos of other cultures. This can encourage a
multicultural view by embedding elements of different cultures in the curriculum.
Aside from project based learning, the teacher can use ethnic traditional games as
games based learning. For example, the teacher can use traditional games as a
warmup for physical education class. Then, the teacher can explain later the history
and the origins of the games. The use of various elements and techniques in
teaching not only fosters understanding among the students but it also encourages
students to learn and know the origins of the other races. If the teachers are able to
pursue and administer this effectively, the students who are from a hematogenous
environment will be able to adapt and not feel left out when they are surrounded with
other ethnicities. At the same time, it helps narrow the gap between ethnic groups
and thus create better understanding between ethnic groups.
Lastly, the teacher acts as a role model when students can model behaviours
that are appropriate when they meet the students from other ethnicities. Teachers
play vital roles in creating harmonious relationships among students from the various
ethnic relationships. As leaders in the classroom, teachers set a strong example for
their students on creating acceptance among the diverse ethnic groups. When
different ethnic teachers teach other races students, they will properly reflect
Malaysia’s diverse population, and to bridge the gaps between the ethnicities.
However, according to Malaysia Education Blueprint (2013) stated that the teachers
population in SKs is becoming less diverse and less representative of the national
population. The biggest challenge for the students who are learning in a
homogeneous environment is when there is no one to model how to act and behave
with other cultures [Link] matter is worrying because it might hinder the unity
of Malaysia as the students from homogeneous schools might not acknowledge the
others ethnic that can lead to racism (Tengku Nor Rizan, 2015). If the students are
exposed to the good behaviour shown by the teacher when they learn to appreciate
each other's' differences and respect each other’s strength and weaknesses in their
beginning of the academic years, it will be easier for them to to get along with people
from other cultures and this would eventually strengthen the relationship of students
from other groups when they are facing and exposed to multicultural environment.
Hence, the teacher should avoid racist comments in the classroom. Research by
Cole (2018) noted that the children learn to make racist comments from their parents
and teachers. As the children mostly copy the adults' conversation, the possibility
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they utter racist comments to the other students is high. Lisa Delpit (2012)
documented the negative impact that being subjected to racism has on young
children’s academic success. To conclude, teachers must model good behaviour
when facing people from other races when in the homogeneous environment.
In conclusion, building unity through education can be done as long as
teachers willingly take part in fostering the relationships between the students from
different cultures. The challenge such as a homogeneous environment and less
diversity population in SK school can be solved with the engaging students to mix
through co-curricular activities with different school types, designing various cultural
teaching material and modelling the right behaviours when facing the people of
different races. If the teacher takes this role seriously, Malaysia will be live in
harmonious, peace and unite for the development of the country.

REFERENCE
Ahmad, Anuar. (2016). Co-Curricular Activities And Its Effect On Social Skills.
International Conference on Education and Regional Development. 1.

Malaysia Education Blueprint. (2013). Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025

(Preschool to Post-Seconday Education. Putrajaya: Kementerian Pendidikan
Malaysia

Cole, K. (2018). Becoming Upended: Teaching and Learning about Race and
Racism with Young Children and Their Families. Retrieved from
[Link]
and-racism

Girl Guides Association Malaysia. (2019). Public Speaking Competition 2019.

Retrieve from [Link]
%20persekutuan%20%20kuala%20lumpur/event/PUBLIC%20SPEAKING
%20COMPETITION%202019

Halah Ahmed. (2016). Multicultural Education: Teachers’ Perceptions and

Preparation. Journal of Education and Practice. 7(11)
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Pitts, J. 2016. “Don’t Say Nothing.” Teaching Tolerance, no. 54.

[Link]/magazine/tt54-fall-2016/feature/dont-say-nothing.

Tengku Nor Rizan. (2015). Addressing Learner Diversity By Culturally Responsive

Pedagogy. International Conference on Social Sciences & Humanities. 1.
138-150