We all know that education is important and we all want the best education for our children. We must admit that our Malaysian education system has been deteriorating for some decades, to the dismay of many parents and grandparents. A grandma commented, “I fear for the future of my grandkids.” I am sure many grandparents or parents will echo her fears.
We know that something drastic must be done to arrest this decline in our education system. We can learn something from this article in FMT (Free Malaysia Today).
Recently, 93-year-old Ramlah Mohamed, the first Malay headmistress of a convent school in 1955 shared her story with FMT Lifestyle in conjunction with the Teachers’ Day celebration 2024. This passionate educator shared her experience of her days as a student in a convent school, how she was disciplined and nurtured by Irish nuns then. Her passion for education and her personal resolve were both gleaned from the nuns who had taught her. As an educator, she became the adult the girls yearned to be: confident, vibrant and a bright light in the community.
Due to the discipline in the convent as a student and teacher, she developed to be a lady of substance and strength. Growing up and being close to the nuns in the convent, she learnt the values of humility, willpower, leadership and mentorship. During that time, Ramlah shared, “To the parents, discipline was everything and they were happy that we were being looked after by the nuns...the parents trusted the nuns and there was mutual respect.” This trust was built on the professionalism, competency and transparency of the nuns and the other teachers.
When I read Ramlah’s testimony as an educator, I can see a flickering light of hope for our nation. She is a living proof of what education must and can be. We need passionate and well-trained educators who are humble and transparent in all that they do. We need our educators to be full of personal resolve to go through every hurdle in their journey so that those under their supervision will be inspired to learn and lead. Conversely, we need parents and teachers to have mutual trust and respect. Parents must build trust in the teachers in terms of disciplining their children in school.
Can we all add to this flickering light of hope in our nation? Let us all have the resolve to put away arrogance, deceit, unnecessary suspicions and put on humility (to correct ourselves and receive correction), transparency, professionalism and build trust in our multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation.
Together, we can reshape our nation to be beautiful and strong.
Mei Wong is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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