Inspired for excellence: The struggles of Asian Education Systems by Modern Diplomacy

CONTENTS

Incorporating Critical Thinking in Higher Education A Bangladesh Perspective

A Big Hope from “Youth in Kashmir” Rebuilding Peace through Educational Interventions The King of Education An interview with Privy Council Kasem Wattanachai Why Malaysian universities are performing poorly Development of School Leaders in India

“Educate to survive” The key to Singapore’s educational success

Enduring Muslim-ness in a Multicultural society Education of Muslim Girls in India Madrassa Outcry A Victim of Its Own Fundamentalism

Thailand and the inequality challenges

Ensuring Inclusion and Integration through Intercultural Education

moderndiplomacy

GEOPOLITICAL HANDBOOKS 03

Inspired for excellence The struggles of Asian Education Systems

www.moderndiplomacy.eu

INSPIRED FOR EXCELLENCE The struggles of Asian Education Systems RATTANA LAO

A collection of essays in this volume exemplifies the breath of challenges Asian education systems diversely struggle. From India to Thailand, from Singapore to Pakistan, these systems are inspired to attain educational excellence.

The concept of excellence is in and of itself debatable. While some equate it in the form of higher international standing in league tables, others yearn for greater equitable and inclusive systems. Across contexts, there is call for education for peace.

In the case of Singapore, the country has, within fifty years, transformed itself from a backwater fisherman village to be one of the most outperforming education systems in the world. Amongst all its secret ingredient, Singapore’s political commitment to meritocracy is the driving force for excellence. Replicating it? Not so fast.

While changes have not happened fast enough for Indian schools to leap economic benefits, they are also tasked with even more pressing issue like gender equity and social cohesion. The widening gap between those who haves and have nots in India is – alarming.

The issue of multiculturalism education has caught much of Asian educators’ imagination, especially when Jihadi terrorists exploit on poverty, deprivation and antiwesternization sentiment to encourage hatred and animosity to divide people and nations. It is important that education must instead preach tolerance and promote peace.

Thailand, its neighboring country, often looks westward and eastward for successful best practices. While the country has eyed for Thailand 4.0, a complete economic and social transformation toward digital economy, reality has it that the system is still grapple with getting the basic literacy and numeracy skills right, confronted with the old tradition of patronage system and limited with commitment and No matter how excellence is perceived and resources to make real change possible. interpreted by Asian educators, education – in all its might – is viewed as the way forThe pressure on Indian educational system ward to achieve economic growth and prois paramount and it is caught in a whirlwind mote social harmony. The struggles for pendulum.With 1.32 billion populations, excellence, authors in this volume argue, more than 360 million of them are illiterate. are complex and constraining. But not In light of this, schools are compelled to be committed to it is not an option – either. learning organizations that lead changes for educational quality– to help Indian economy prosper.

SHARIFUL ISLAM

Incorporating Critical Thinking in Higher Education A Bangladesh Perspective

Let me start with a story. In August 2014, I was hired by the Political Science Department at the City University, Mogadishu, Somalia. In their honours curricula, a course titled UNI102: Critical Thinking drew my attention which is taught to their 1st semester students. I was wondering that if Critical Thinking course is taught in many Universities in the Global South including Somalia, then why not in Bangladesh? Is it less important?

What is Critical Thinking?

Though the word ‘critical’ sounds negative to many, it is not. Critical thinking is basically an “art of reasoning”. It means discerning judgment based on standards. In this regard, Lewis Vaughn defines critical thinking as “the systematic evaluation or formulation of beliefs, or statements, by rational standards” (Vaughn 2008:36). In fact, it is an important skill-set that plays a crucial role in everyday life reasoning. It influences one’s thinking and decision-making. More specifically, it means “a set of conceptual tools with associated intellectual skills and strategies useful for making reasonable decisions about what to do or believe” (Rudinow and Barry 2008:11).

In this regard, Martin Davies and Ronald Barnett in their edited book titled The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education shows “the nature of critical thinking within, its application and relevance to higher education” (2015:2) across disciplines of philosophy, sociology, psychology, education, pedagogy, management studies etc. While the whole world is embracing critical thinking, it is still absent at tertiary level education in Bangladesh which makes critical thinking an important area of study. Against this backdrop, this write-up investigates: What is critical thinking? And why Bangladesh needs to incorporate critical thinking at tertiary level education?

Why Incorporating Critical Thinking at Tertiary Level?

It is undeniable fact that in this age of knowledge-based economy, there is no alternative to incorporate critical thinking course in our honours curricula at tertiary level. Last year, I was a scholar in the Study of the U.S. Institute for Scholars programme and had the opportunity to visit many American Universities. Consequently, I had the privilege to talk with the students and professors and found that critical thinking is a necessary component in the course curricula of American Universities. In this regard, it is pertinent to mention that in her 2017 comment address Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust contends:

“For centuries, universities have been the environments in which knowledge have been discovered, collected, studied, debated, expanded, changed, and advanced through the power of rational argument, and exchange”. Here comes the rationale of critical thinking. In fact, it plays crucial role in the higher education context since it helps students to develop critical analysis of contemporary social problems. It is also argued that “critical thinking is a necessary part of the formation of critical citizens” (Davies and Barnett 2015: 1). Sadly, in this time of ‘marketization of higher education’, education is regarded as ‘commodity’ and thus ‘big businesses. But we need to keep in mind that humans are not machines and our minds need to be nurtured where comes the rationale of critical thinking. On the question of why we need to incorporate critical thinking, one can consider the following reasons:

First, we need to incorporate critical thinking at out tertiary level because, in this 21st century, critical thinking skill is regarded as the most demanded skill in the workplace by the employees even surpassing “innovation” and “application of information technology.” According to World Economic Forum, in 2020, critical thinking and creativity will dominate among the top skills. It is therefore, Davies and Barnett (2015:3) points out that “All educators across all the disciplines are interested-or should be interested-in critical thinking”.

Second, to empower people, critical thinking becomes important. In this regard, Joel Rudinow and Vincent E. Barry contend that “Critical Thinking is empowering and can improve a person’s chances of success… throughout the variety of social roles each of us may be destined to play. As important as Critical Thinking is to individual well-being, it is equally important to us collectively as a society” (Rudinow and Barry 2008:6-7). Sadly, there is no presence of critical thinking whether at our personal or societal or political level. This is not also taught or studied in higher secondary or tertiary level education in Bangladesh which merits serious attention.

Third, if one looks at the teaching and learning method of Socrates, one need to acknowledge about the role of critical thinking. Because Socrates basically inspired his followers to raise questions first. But today we hardly inspire our students to raise questions, to come out from their comfort zones and thinking from “outside of the box”. Instead, we follow conventional teaching method which motivates our students to memorize some information and facts to get good grades and nothing else. Therefore, it is high time to rethink about our traditional teaching method chalk-and-talk method which is in operation throughout decades. In fact, how we teach, and what we teach needs to be problematized.

It’s high time to come out from “memorization based teaching and examination system” while incorporating critical thinking component in our teaching method. In that case, we need to engage our students using the approach called “learning by doing”. Presentations, debates, problemsolving by the students on the assigned topics can be an important way.

During my graduation, I found that my friends and others hardly care about writings. Our current education system is also responsible for such students’ apathy towards writings. So, we need to problematize the current memorizing system and needs to incorporate creative writing and thinking skills. In each and every University in abroad, there is “Centre for Academic Writing” or something like that but in Bangladesh, such centres are hardly found though they are crying need for the country. Needless to mention, arguments, reasons, analyses among students become pertinent to become active citizens in our society. In that case, writing plays key role.

Fourth, it is worthy to note that approximately 52 percent of our population is below the age 25 which brings lots of potentials for Bangladesh. One can also claim that our students are being involved in different unproductive activities including extremist activities since they are devoid of reason. Thus, it is pertinent to make Finally, to make our students lifelong learnour students reasonable and analytical ers, critical thinking becomes important. In through critical thinking skills. this regard, Deepa Idani notes that “It [CT] has a core ethical value, which has to be Fifth, does writing matter in critical think- nurtured and harnessed among students ing? Yes, it does. It helps us to explore our of higher education to reach the potential critical thinking, broadens our outlook, our to transform into lifelong learners”(Idani depth of knowledge. There is no alternative 2017:404-405). Critical thinking can be to inspire our students to think better and used as a means to make our students lifewrite better. In traditional teaching and long learners through exploring their “inner learning method, students are used to potentials”. It is expected that critical thinkwrite only on the exam script. Astonish- ing skill will also facilitate human resource ingly, the habit of not writing is also ob- development in the country through explorserved among many teachers though there ing and harnessing the untapped potenare exceptions. tials.

Conclusion

In the Hollywood movie, titled “Dead Poet Society”, one of the teachers called Mr. Keating contends to his students that, “we must constantly look at things differently. So, don’t just consider what the authors say. Try to consider what you think. Try to raise your own voice, no matter if it is wrong”. This raises question that how many teachers in today’s Bangladesh, are engaged in such teaching? How many of those are able to explore the hidden as well as “surface potentials” of the students? In fact, each and every student in Bangladesh is talented, but due to absence of proper training and mentoring, their potentials remain underexplored.

Finally, it can be claimed that knowledge transfers from generation to generation through teaching in the classroom.

Therefore, how we teach and what we teach, that matters as “[w]hat we teach our children-and how we teach them-will impact almost every aspect of society, from the quality of healthcare to industrial output; from technological advances to financial services” (Agarwal 2014). And hence, it is high time to problematize our conventional teaching and learning method incorporating critical thinking. We also need to focus on critical teaching, reading, writing as well as listening in our classroom because at the end of the day, it is critical thinking which affects everything. Therefore, to explore and harness the untapped potentials of our students, we, the academics need to incorporate critical thinking in our teaching irrespective of discipline or place. And if implemented, it is expected that this will be imperative to build a better world in general and a better Bangladesh in particular.

SWALEHA SINDHI PH.D.

A Big Hope from “Youth in Kashmir” Rebuilding Peace through Educational Interventions

It is a known fact that education has a great potential for bringing peace in conﬂict zones. Education can play a constructive role in development of peace building perspective and thereby promoting socioeconomic development and preventing the recurrence of violence. But unfortunately in the recent violence in Kashmir, when all the educational institutions are closed down, there is hardly any concrete plan or action undertaken to bring education back to track or strengthen stakeholder coordination or initiate, promote and implement educational initiatives in support of peacebuilding.

It is a fact that all stakeholders, from the department of education to the civil society have a role to play in building a lasting peace or at least make an effort towards it in Kashmir. Peace-building measures must target all aspects of the state structure and get a wide variety of agents for its implementation. Agents, who would advance peace-building efforts by addressing functional and emotional dimensions in specified target areas, by enhancing the capacity of citizens, especially youth, to think critically about the present and the On the contrary newspapers carried angry past, so they can foresee and construct a reaction of the disturbed Director (School better future. Education) Mr. Shah Faisal, who threatened to resign from his post. It is heart There is a growing body of Academic retouching and seen by many as an emo- search giving evidence that the vast majortional outburst of a vibrant Youth Icon, (first ity of young people can play active and to qualify Indian Administrative Services) valuable roles as agents of positive and from the Valley. Being an academician I constructive change. In fact, many in confeel very sorry and deeply touched by the flict zones already do, but their contribution pain of this officer. I feel very regretful that goes unseen or is simply overlooked. Howwe have failed miserably to motivate the ever, the role of young people is critical in brilliant brains. creating long-term stability and offering protection from future conflicts. What we These young brains have potential to do need today are youth as agents who can wonders in their work area and thereby pro- facilitate and support peace building. mote peace in conflict zones. Not going into who is responsible for this agony of Also, variety of the community specialists, Mr. Shah Faisal, I feel it is high time we all including lawyers, economists, scholars, act responsibly and not hurt sentiments of educators, and teachers must be involved people to the extent, that they lose their in contributing their expertise to help carry inner peace, as it is simply inhuman. In- out peace building efforts. In case of Kashstead of including all levels of society in mir or any conflict zone, it is ultimately the peace building and preparing a strategy for internal actors who can play an integral post conflict, it is regretting that the Direc- role in building peace and rebuilding nortor of Education is compelled to think malcy, because it is the internal actors who about resigning from the post. are vulnerable to conflict, and have in some

way experienced the conflict and live with its consequences personally. Therefore an appropriate approach to building peace is to build a solid structure of relationships with the intervention of key political leaders, military officers, or religious leaders and to build a peace community. It is believed that the greatest resource for sustaining peace in the long term is always rooted in the local people and their culture. Building on cultural resources and utilizing local mechanisms for handling disputes can be quite effective in resolving conflicts and transforming relationships.

It is important to understand that where the opportunity of education has been lost due to conflict, it is not just a loss to the individual, but a loss of social capital and the capacity of a society to recover from the conflict. (Smith 2010). Only education can provide route other than violence. Education can help re-establish ‘normality and schooling can help return a sense of normalcy to children’s lives and restore faith in a state’s ability to provide services for its citizens. Hence there is a dire need of educational interventions in the conflict zones to give young people a sense of direction and purpose for giving their contribution towards building a peaceful society. As education’s influence can extend beyond the school to support broader transformation in the security, political, social and economic sectors and a change in relationships and behaviors from the negative to the positive. Thus, time has come that initiatives like; community peace projects in schools and villages, local peace commis-

sions and problem-solving workshops, and a variety of other grassroots initiatives are undertaken by linking all the actors. As the issue of bringing peace through educational interventions in conﬂict zones is not the focus of any single agency or organization but it requires the contribution of all actors specially the youth, who are a hope for the society. In my personal interaction with youth of Kashmir, I have found them to be very vibrant and full of new ideas, very hardworking and dedicated towards their goals.

Though they are very upset with the system but they must never forget that where there is a will there is always a way. They have potential to bring a very positive change in the society. So the young intelligent oﬃcers like Mr. Shah Faisal and many more must take the charge of initiating education and peacebuilding programs and make a peaceful impact on conﬂict dynamics. We have great hopes from you Mr. Shah Faisal and from many more young brains in Kashmir. Keep doing the good work.

RATTANA LAO

The King of Education An interview with Privy Council Kasem Wattanachai

2016 was a sad year for Thailand. The country lost the great monarch and Thai people lost the guiding light. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Rama the 9th of Chakri Dynasty, ruled the country with love and led it with compassion and commitment to uplift his people out of poverty and illiteracy.

To commemorate his legacy in education and development, Privy Council Kasem Wattanachai sat down with Rattana Lao – the recipient of the Anandamahidol Foundation, to talk about His Majesty’s life work and reﬂecting on the monumental role His Majesty played as the King of Education.

What did His Majesty do to develop Thai- What was His Majesty thought on education? land? What was his focus?

During the seventy years of his reign, his projects were divided into different groups. Each decade he tackled different issues related to Thai development. The ﬁrst few decade he focused on health because diseases took away thousand of lives. He focused on Cholera, Tuberculosis, Poleo and Leprosy. Then he focused on nutrition and health of Thai people. He became interested in poverty and the livelihood of the people through agricultural works. The last few decades he focused on education and the development of human capital

In the year 1962, at a commencement ceremony at Chulalongkorn University, he said “the country is going to be developed or deteriorated depending on the education of its people.” Notice he used the word “education of its people” he did not use the word schooling for students. This is very important. Since 1962 what he was speaking of was the concept of Lifelong Learning. In another occasion, at Srinakarinwiroj University, he said “the role of teachers and lecturers are to teach and discipline”.

Today we are beginning to talk about characters education, that educational institutions need to set characters for its students. Later he said that students must posses three characters: knowledge, ability to work and goodness. He was very visionary and advanced of his time.

155 schools. We asked educators from Srinakarinwiroj University to evaluate. It is evident that there is a vast improvement: better quality, better environment, better standards. It’s not just 5% improvement in ONET – but there is an overall improvement of the school.

What were His projects regarding educa- He founded the Anandamahidol Foundation? tion to send the young Thai scholars to be educated abroad for the past 61 years. When he resided at Siriraj hospital, he What was his idea behind the Anancalled upon 4 to 5 Privy Council to meet damahidol Foundation? and gave us his seed funding to found The Education Foundation. He wanted us to He believed that education must empower use this money to uplift the least perform- the people to be self-suﬃcient. The Ananing schools along the Central Plain and damahidol Foundation is an evident of this. border areas to make them more educated, He wanted to support the best and the more ready. Everyone has to be ready. The brightest students who graduated from principals need to be ready to lead, the higher education institutions in the country teachers need to be ready to teach, the stu- to attain world class institutions. dents need to be ready to learn. Another objective of these schools is to make stu- He believed that they can work anywhere dents “good” for the society. Now we have they like as long as they contribute back to 155 schools like these throughout the the society, dedicate their intellect to the country. improvement of Thailand. It does not matter if they come back to work in Thailand How did he view the roles of teachers and or they go abroad. students? There is also a different foundation that In 2012, during his illness, there was a targeted education, it’s Phradabos Founsmall note from him to all of the Privy dation. What does it do and how does it Councils. Three of the main messages contribute to Thai society? Can you tell us were: 1.) teachers need to love students more about it? and students need to love teachers, 2.) students must be generous toward each other Phradabos Foundation targeted a different and 3.) students must learn the value of group of students. These are students who teamwork. We were guided by his thought need to leave the education institutions and we used it to improve the quality of and become adults.

The foundation provided 1 year of training for them to be equipped with necessary skills to take care of themselves. He believed if they can take care of themselves ďŹ nancially, they can take care of their families, and subsequently they can contribute back to the society. This is a prototype of non-formal education in Thailand. He did tremendous jobs in education projects. There are variety of names throughout the country.

How does Rama the Tenth envision education for Thailand? What does he have in mind?

On the 23rd of January 2017, Rama the Tenth asked 7 Privy Councils to meet and share his vision on education for Thailand. He believed education must deliver four main functions. 1.) Students must have the right attitude toward the nation, religion and the monarchy. 2.) Students must create stability for students. Students must be able to differentiate between the good and the bad. 3.) Education must empower young students to have employment. 4.) Education must make students to become good citizens. If we embrace the educational philosophy of Rama the Ninth and Rama the Tenth, we will be able to produce education that serves the development of Thailand. First published in Bangkok Post

PROF. MURRAY HUNTER

Why Malaysian universities are performing poorly

Malaysian public universities have dropped in the Times Higher Education University Rankings over the last few years. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) made 87th position in 2013, but as at 2015, no Malaysian university made the top 100 Asian rankings. Malaysian public universities have also shown mixed results in other rankings like the QS rankings, where three Malaysian universities had slight rises in their rankings, while Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), International Islamic Universiti Malaysia (IIUM), and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), all slipped in rankings from previous years.

When comparing performance to Malaysia’s neighbour, Thailand, King Mongkut’s University of Technology, established in 1960 made 55th place, and Mahidol University came in with 91st placing.

No Malaysian university made the top 100, According to the QS ranking profiles, Malaysian universities have lost significant ground in academic reputation and tend to be weak in research, where no Malaysian university reached the top 400.

Public Universities Vice-Chancellor/Rector Committee chairman Dr. Kamarudin Hussin, who is also vice chancellor of Universiti Malaysia Perlis (Unimap) claims that the ranking methodologies favour older, more established universities. Yet many universities within the THES top 100 Asian universities were established relatively recently. Hong Kong University of Science and technology, ranked 7th was established in 1980, Nanyang Technological University, ranked 10th was set up in 1981, and Pohang University of Science and Technology, ranked 11th, was established in 1986.

In addition, a number of universities from countries which are not democratically governed like Sharif University of Technology 43, Iran), Isfahan University of Technology (61, Iran), Iran University of Science and Technology (69), King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (71, Saudi Arabia), and King Saud University (72, Saudi Arabia), all made the THES top 100 Asian university rankings last year. Dr Kamarudin accepts that Malaysian universities have “many issues that must be resolved….(and) there are plenty of oversights that must be fixed”. However, unfortunately, he didn’t mention what they are, or offer any solutions.

World Bank economist Dr Frederico Gil Sander agrees with Kamarudin’s comment that the “stakes are high”, when he says that the poor state of Malaysia’s education system is more alarming that the country’s public debt. The talent needed to develop the Malaysian economy is not being produced. Probably the tone used by Dr Kamarudin used in his article hints at the first problem with Malaysian public universities. That is, the view of authority over the rest. Kamarudin asserts that ‘academic freedom’ exists, yet this should be subject to the views of the ‘so called’ majority’, which could be read as authority.

In August last year, he was one of the strongest opponents of students attending the Bersih 4 rally, threatening disciplinary action, such as suspension or even expulsion of students who attended from university.

Some of these dinners are very extravagant at some universities costing up to hundreds of thousands of Ringgit. Vice Chancellors make lavish trips both domestically and internationally, where the benefits of these trips to the university have not been scrutinized, except for MOUs that are Supressing independent thought, is coun- never acted upon. terproductive to creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving, the very mindset that This is in a time when university budgets Malaysian universities espouse to develop. are being slashed, the minister has diAmong the characteristics of society re- rected university management to be frugal quired for progression are people who are with spending and seek funds outside govknowledgeable and have the right to ernment allocations, and the public are sufchoose. fering economic hardships through the economic downturn, GST, and depreciated This attitude by university leaders doesn’t Ringgit. appear to be isolated. Hazman Baharom called their attitude ‘aristocratic’, in refer- The waste goes much further. Within the ence to the partisan political leanings of few parts of the Malaysian Auditor GenProfessor Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar, former eral’s report that is released to the public, vice Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi the 2012 report cited Universiti Malaysia MARA (UiTM). This institutional arrogance Sabah’s (UMS) mishandling of its computcan be seen in the proposal to educate stu- erized maintenance management system. dents about the ills of ISIS. The underlying After spending RM400,000 on the system assumption being that Malaysian students between 2008 and 2012, the auditor genare easily led and cannot think for them- eral found that data was not keyed into the selves. system and the person responsible for managing the system had no IT knowlMalaysian universities begin to lose the edge. plot where their leaders are glorified with The cost of three building projects balunnecessary ceremonies that make a looned 8.9% at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn mockery of academia, and tend to domi- Malaysia (UTHM) due to delays and inexnate the persona of universities, rather perience of the contractor. The auditor genthan act as facilitators for people to excel. eral further found at Universiti Malaysia This leads to a lot of unnecessary ex- Perlis (Unimap) that funding allocations penses such as lavish dinners with highly didn’t take into account the basic needs of paid entertainers to celebrate this event students in the planning and construction and that event, this award and that award. of its main campus.

Despite RM438.64 Million allocated for setting up Unimap under the 8th Malaysian Plan, only 25% of these campus plans have been completed, which university management blamed on budget constraints.

What is even more startling according to the AGs report is that Unimap made the first payment to the contractor working on the permanent campus before the contract was fully negotiated and signed. The report further states that workmanship is extremely poor, where cement in many places is cracking and crumbling, roads and parking areas where inappropriate, and much of the equipment supplied is not functioning.

Similar issues exist at Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) where the lack of student accommodation has led to severe overcrowding at hostels. Mismanagement and waste is one issue, but outright corruption is another.

If one has spent any significant time within Malaysian academia, stories about corruption within the institution will no doubt arise. However, most, if not all of these remain hearsay, as there are few reports of According to the AGs report from 2002 to corruption to higher authorities and very 2012 the university has no hostels of its few charges are ever made, with no convicown, and has been renting them and ferry- tions made in this area. ing students to campus instead, which cost RM138.4 Million. As of 2015, Unimap Just some examples that have come to the entered into an arrangement with the writerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attention are consultancy compaProven Group of Companies to supply ad- nies run and operated by a faculty, where ditional privately owned accommodation directors and shareholders are the dean at Titi Tinggi, some 35kms from Kangar and deputy deans. Students have come and 40kms from the main campus at Ulu forth and told the writer in confidence that Pauh. Details of this agreement have never examiners at master and PhD level ask outbeen made public, but Unimap will pay rent right for payments to pass. A particular for 15 years for the use of this accommo- dean of a new faculty, used a company dation, but ownership will remain private owned by proxies to supply equipment. after this period. The Unimap-Proven ven- University cars have been sent to workture is contrary to the Education Ministryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shops for repairs that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exist. Academvision of universities earning income ics are paying for articles to be published through hostel rental to students. Thus in in academic journals without peer review, the medium to long term the university will and the heavy use of research grants for be restricted in the ways it can earn rev- travel that is questionably related to the reenue to fund future budget cuts. search topic it was granted for.

University staff tend to be fearful of their superiors, most are extremely hesitant to speak out and whistle-blow on their peers and superiors. In an interview with a state director of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the writer was told that the MACC would provide a neutral and discrete place for those who wanted to remain anonymous and report corruption. However those few that came forward faced hurdles with the MACC that were almost insurmountable, such as being requested to file a police report which would jeopardize anonymity.

ordinates in Malaysia is powerful enough to destroy many of the management checks and balances that exist to prevent mis-management and even abuse of power.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to re-organize Malaysian public universities from the top down. Not only is new leadership needed, but heavy reform of the university organization so that these institutions should function how they are really meant to. All importantly, vision beyond self-glorification is desperately needed by public university leadership.

A major problem is the leadership of Make this change and Malaysian universiMalaysiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s public universities today. Vice ties will very quickly feature in the top 100 chancellors tend to be domineering, not al- Asian university rankings. lowing too much room for dissent from their own faculty and university members. Often, staff are selected upon loyalty rather than merit, breeding a culture of gratitude within their institutions. Strong vice chancellors can browbeat the university board, and senate, getting their own way on operational issues, due to the transitory nature of university boards. Universities within Malaysia have become dominated by vice chancellors who are intent on micromanaging their universities. The strong power-distance relationships that develop between the leader and sub

SWALEHA SINDHI PH.D.

Development of School Leaders in India

The need for a systematic approach to school leadership development in India has become signiďŹ cant in the context of the government policy initiatives in support of Right of Children to free and Compulsory Education Act (2009), the right to quality education, and other educational reforms.

The realization of these initiatives directly depends on the effective school leadership. But, unfortunately our school leaders do not receive any formal training for developing their knowledge base that can help them learn skills to exercise leadership.

There is an absence of or limited training of Principals at the time of their appointment into the school system, and almost no other initiative for continuing development. A relevant question in this situation is; why our school leaders not self-motivated to learn in this age of modern technology? Why are they not self-introspecting (if their performance is better today than few years back)? We all become better with passing years, as we learn from our experiences. It is a sad fact that schools in India are observed as insular institutions, where only routine daily activities take place. School leaders hardly take an opportunity to leverage the role of an instructional leader. They fail to make their presence apparent, in spite of regularly being surrounded by people and being a part of school assemblies, staff and parent teacher meetings, conversing with governing bodies, local communities and students. They do not succeed in making an overall impact on the school system. We have a dearth of dynamic leaders, who take lead in activities, come in the notice of the people surrounding them or make an effort to get feedback on their drawbacks or strong points.

This places greater emphasis on creating mechanisms for continuous training or support for School Leaders. The potential transition in the dynamics of relationships between the governments, the school administrators, the teachers, the students, the parents and the broader community, would need leaders with skills and knowledge to critically analyse the challenges that arise due to changing times. In line with the needs of education reforms in India, our school leaders are expected to set the tone for growth of their Institutions to create institutions of excellence (rather than copying the best practices of other organisations) and make this growth apparent to all the stakeholders. Government Initiatives Moreover, across India in most of the schools, promotions of teachers to the post of Principal is based on seniority and not aptitude. Teachers are automatically promoted to the position of a Principal or coordinator based on seniority, this is the growth cycle of a teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s career.

The most pressing issues that need to be addressed to improve Indian education system is school leadership. There are no structured and reliable ways of developing accountability systems and practices for school leadership (other than the narrowly deďŹ ned Board Exam results).

Lack of opportunities of professional learning in educational leadership has resulted in poorly deﬁned relationships between school leaders, education administrators, and policy makers. Routine activities assume greater importance at the block or district level in education leadership. Duties of administrative nature like; data entry, monitoring of schedules, report writing, testing etc. are more importance than pedagogical guidance, mentoring, management and knowledge development of teachers and school leaders.

The current scenario endorses some concrete mechanisms from the government. Mechanisms that include both the concrete Indian ideas supported by best practices from international leadership development models.

In this line they have organised workshops for capacity building of school leaders for effective practices in school leadership and school improvement. These initiatives seem to be good for school leaders but not enough. The nature of these programs is short term and do not prove suﬃcient for achieving the goal of continuous development of school leaders.

School leaders are faced with the challenge to implement new policies of the government. The other challenges with which school leaders have to deal specially in the government schools are; dealing with teachers with varying levels of knowledge of content and pedagogy, rise in pupil population, advanced technology and ageing teachers (inﬂexible to adapt changes). In keeping with changing expectations of quality and performance, educational leaders will increasingly need to examine and debate the merits and demerits of standardization practices versus the possibility of developing locally relevant ‘layered standards’ (Sergiovanni 2001). School leaders have very limited ﬂexibility and opportunity to create structures appropriate to their instincts or local needs. This is because they have to follow guidelines that are developed at the national and state level.

There is a need to establish linkages, (developmental needs and school curriculum etc.) and making stakeholders aware of inter and intraorganisational roles. There are not many organisations that can help bring development and empowerment among the school leaders. The National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) in partnership with UK (UKIERI) and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) with the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) have proposed to develop school standards for leadership.

Issues facing Leaders

They have to deal with issues like school dropouts and bringing out of school children back to school. They are supposed to handle all incentive schemes of government and be accountable for it. Multi-grade teaching is another situations (prevalent in government schools) for leaders to deal with. Therefore it is very clear that school leaders are left with very little freedom to innovate or try new strategies or implement their creative ideas.

They are completely caught up with activities like achieving gender parity (a challenge in rural areas and urban slums), supervising mid-day meal programme on a daily basis and dealing with issue of equity.

Way Forward

The above discussion indicates that there is a need of paradigm shift within the education system. Education Policies spell out the need for innovative leaders in the schools. To enable this change education policy makers and administrators need to take some concerted action to strengthen the quality of leadership and education administration in India.

They must review and reďŹ&#x201A;ect on their efforts to improve the practices that support teaching and learning. We require leaders who are passionate about their commitment to school improvement, who set high expectations for learning; provide clarity of jobs and work to build mechanisms for improving the quality of student learning throughout the school. Though altering traditional mindsets in school practice is not easy and sustaining change is even more challenging, the greatest challenge for an educational leader is to develop viable components of culturally relevant standards of learning. Through research, professional exchange and policy analyses, educational leaders can prepare for changing curricular and evaluation practices, and social inclusion policies.

RATTANA LAO

“Educate to survive” The key to Singapore’s educational success

Since the PISA results came out in 2015, announcing that the Singapore Educational system ranked number 1 in the world in terms of Maths and Science, all eyes have turned to Singapore – hoping to learn its secret recipe. Visitors ﬂooded into Singapore asking similar questions of what the country did right to get there. But the path to Singaporean educational success is not a straightforward account that can be xeroxed elsewhere in the world. Rattana Lao talked with Professor S. Gopinathan, Academic Director of the HEAD Foundation and an expert on Singaporean Education on this 50 years journey to inculcate strong meritocratic values and the price Singapore has to pay for this miracle.

Given its small size land, small population and limited resources, education is the key for national survival. Singapore needs education to work in order to create strong economy. The cultural context also plays a significant role. Singapore is a very small country that needs to accommodate so many differences. We are divided in terms of race, religion, ethnicity and culture. There are 75% Chinese, 15% Malay Muslim and 7-8% Indian. You have the major religions in the world as well as major cultures in the world. How do you build a cohesive nation? Education is the answer. It is the Q: Is Singaporean education the number key for Singaporean survival. one in the world? The second C is culture. We believe that if It all depends by what it meant by number we can build a culture of aspiration and one in education. If you go by international achievement, both individuals and society assessments like PISA, Singapore is the will benefit. Singapore is influenced by Chibest. But it has not always been the case. nese and Indian cultures and the two culFor a long time, Finland was regarded as tures have high regard for learning. This the number one. To answer this question, helps to pave the way for the concept of it depends on the results. But it is definitely meritocracy in Singaporean society. Noa high performing system, consecutively body is entitled to anything, the rewards top five in term of TIMSS and PIRLS. If you depend on your ability and your effort. take that broad view, Singapore can be described as a high performing system The third C is capacity in the system to imacross number of international league ta- plement a complex educational reform bles. agenda. This is the key ingredient that is missing in developing countries. Reform Q: What are some explanations for Singa- agenda comes and goes every now and porean educational success? then and the question to ask is whether the country has any capacity to withstand I would answer this with a 3 C’s framework: such changes. The more ambitious your reContext, Culture and Capacity. form agenda is, the stronger your capacity In Singapore, the economic and cultural needs to be. In Singapore, we never enact contexts demand emphasis on human any law that we have no intention to implecapital building. ment.

Q: Do you recommend the Singaporean model to other developing countries?

Q: What role has the government played in instilling meritocratic value?

The capacity and ideology of the ﬁrst government played a pivotal role in Singaporean educational success. The ﬁrst cabinet, with charismatic and visionary leaders, realised the need to instill strong meritocratic values amongst its people. It created a strong and effective government able to act on policy and capable of implementing long term visions. The government believed then and believes now that hardwork will pay off. More importantly, the government continues to put a strong cadre of civil servants to the positions of power at the Ministry of Education, while being generous about educational funding. Leadership from this Ministry has helped to lead educational success in Singapore. Most importantly, the government in Singapore leads by example. They deliver what they promise. Credibility and responsiveness of the government really matter.

That’s a very diﬃcult question. I would not recommend Singaporean model as of now to other developing countries. The conditions that I talked about are not there. But there are some features of some policy planning and implementation that one can learn from Singapore. Singapore did not do everything right. For example, it took us more than 50 years to get to the bilingual proﬁciency we have now. But the government has been able to take a hard and unpopular decision e.g. with regard to English in the curriculum in order to promote long term plan. The three C’s are something essential to Singapore success and they would be very hard to replicate elsewhere.

Q: What are the weaknesses of Singaporean educational model?

Most people would agree that we have produced a system that is highly competitive and with a high degree of elite reproduction. Middle class parents with money and resources are able to equip their children to cope better with schooling demands. The oﬃcial system is supported by a $1 billion Singaporean Dollar “Shadow Education System.” They bring a lot of cultural and educational capital into the picture. This can create vast inequality within the system. The high degree of meritocratic As a result of the above, the government society can also breed elitism. Those who has been successful in cultivating merito- start off away from the starting line can cratic norms amongst its people. continue to fall behind.

SWALEHA SINDHI PH.D.

Enduring Muslim-ness in a Multicultural society Education of Muslim Girls in India

The nations’ rapidly deteriorating sex ratio, large gender gap and high drop out of girls prompted the central government to initiate the social campaign like ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’. More such steps are needed as in 2015, only 3.7 million eligible girls were out of school whereas in rural areas girls receive an average of fewer than four years of education. Almost every conceivable strategy and approach to promote girl education has been covered in National Policies on Education and ﬁve year plans of the Government of India; however still many targets are to be achieved especially in the area of women education.

blocks at the elementary level itself. There is lack of better implementation mechanism for education programmes and policies. Policies that are critical to increasing girls’ access, including flexible school times and adapted curricula, remain at the micro level and are not being integrated. Not only this, India’s budget for education sector remains far from the desired 6 per cent of the GDP. We are still not able to place education on the priority lists in budget allocation which hampers the image of education. If we look at the 2016 budget, there is an increase of Rs 43,554 crore for school education (approx 3 per cent increase) and Rs 28,840 crore for higher education (approx 7.3 per cent inThe NPE 1986, POA 1992, SSA 2001, NCF crease). 2005 and the NCF for Teacher Education in 2010 all focused on girl education and we These issues have created a large gap in cannot say things are not improving; just enrolment and gender parity, girls with disthe pace needs to be enhanced. The Right ability, poor households, from remote or of Children to Free and Compulsory Educa- rural areas and girls from minority ethnic tion (known as RTE) Act, 2010, charted a or linguistic backgrounds have more diffinew roadmap for gender equality in educa- culty in getting into primary or completing tion in India and the five year plans (Sixth secondary education. One such commuPlan 1980-85, Seventh Plan 1985-90 and nity is the Muslim minority community, it is Ninth 1997-2002) specifically paid atten- observed that girls from Muslim commution to educationally backward states and nity strive for identity crisis and gender socially deprived groups and highlighted equality; they face challenge of gender the role of local communities. All policy stereotypes. The retention and transition documents recognize that girl/women ed- rates among these marginalized girls still ucation especially from poor communities persist. Therefore, there is a need to create and rural areas need special attention. strategies that would increase girls’ particWhile affirmative action in the form of ipation in education, strategies that would scholarships, abolition of tuition fees, promote safe and sustainable education bonds, reservation of jobs and places in in- for the girls and will make families from stitutions of higher learning have been pro- conservative communities more interested vided, still there are evidences of stumbling to send their girls to school.

In this context, making a provision for only girl’s school with more women teachers, gender sensitive teacher training, learning material, scholarships, awareness-raising campaigns and community mobilization can make a positive impact on the society and girl education.

Gujarat is a state in India with multicultural talent. In Gujarat Muslim community is looking forward to pool in the identity and build educational institutions. Therefore education of Muslim girls in certain institutions proves to be a hall mark of representing their identity. While these facts keep challenging us to take in time steps, it is equally true that efforts are on and one such model example is of Fatimah Zahra English Medium School for Girls in the city of Vadodara in Gujarat that is certainly changing the discourse. I have examined the role played by this school in educating girls and empowering them and their community.

Muslim parents here prefer to educate their girls and empower them within their own culture; they prefer a community school for their girls to any other school (successful or model schools) available in the area. Therefore the institutions that take care of religious nationalism among the community promote feelings of social networking and help community remove the identity barriers. The role of institutions of religious education is thus enhanced, such institutions help remove myths about community and promote collective solidarity.

This is a reason for girls in bulk getting enrolled in Fatimah Zahra School. This school plays a major role in inﬂuencing the community’s choice to educate their daughters by catering to their demand for community schools; it promotes minority culture and tries to mainstream this culture in education.

Fatimah Zahra English Medium School for Girls, established in the year 2012 in the old walled city of Vadodara city, has been catering to Muslim populace of this area where the girl education opportunities are particularly limited. There is just one Gujarati Medium girl’s school in the area. Majority of the residents of the area are economically and educationally backward and earn their living as auto drivers or lorry pullers. The school is up to class VIII; it is growing year by year until it is upgraded to higher secondary level. After school hours the school premise is used as Madressa and life lifelong learning centre for girls. The infrastructural facilities in the school are highly satisfactory, it has enough classrooms, a subject room with smart board, Principal’s oﬃce, the staffroom, activity room, dining room and the open hall for assembly. Classrooms have moveable furniture to allow group work and are decorated with charts and students’ work (also displayed in the Principal’s oﬃce). The school follows State Board syllabus and teachers incorporate cooperative learning strategies in their respective subjects, they undergo professional development programmes on a regular basis.

Since the year 2012 signiďŹ cant improvements were made and school became very popular. Today the student numbers grew to 1130 with 30 female staff. The school is successful in motivating community and parents to send their girls to school. This growth made the school over-crowded; subsequently the trust members are into the process of establishing preprimary in a separate building in the nearby area. Now the community of the area have developed trust in the school and respect every activity school organise. They allow their daughters to actively participate at local and district level activities and attend various camps. It never happened before, states one of the prominent trust member of the school, who has taken this mammoth task of educating community girls.

Emerging from the advocacy and initiative of the trust members of this school, the community invest in cash and kind for a separate pre-primary building for school. Members of the community are contributing their labour, raising funds, and collectively working together to get the legal permissions to ensure the completion of the new building. The trust has further plans to establish a lifelong learning centre for the girls/ women of the community. This school is successful in changing mindsets of the community, and the people of the community are made to understand the value of educating their daughters. Being an academic advisor for the school I visit the school regularly and conduct several workshops and orientation programmes for the teachers.

I witness community not only supporting their daughters to go to school, but actively participating in all the activities. Every member associated with this school spare no efforts to discuss with parents that education matters for all and religion encourages rather that hinders girls to be educated. Community has understood the value of education and realise that if a girl goes to school she can get a better job and is more capable to help her family. Together, we can overcome challenges and break the barriers to girlsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; education, and provide educational and vocational opportunities for all girls and boys, and then their futures will be so much brighter, says one of the Trust members of the school.

As a pathway out of poverty to economic growth, integrating Madressa with formal education, this school is successful in changing the deep rooted mindsets of community and empowering Muslim girls with education. Therefore it will not be wrong to say that policies and programs that are implemented with a strong focus on the community, with help from community or government partners are likely to be successful. Government, civil society and the NGOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s must set the benchmark of performance by implementing policies and programs for girl education and make an impact on girl child education.

Therefore it will not be wrong to mention that when educational programmes are designed around the unique needs of the given community then these programmes become more effective and eďŹ&#x192;cient and make a positive impact. Fatemah Zehra English Medium School for Girls is one such example of a modest step taken by the dedicated and focused members of the society to educate girl child and within no time the school has progressed in many ways. The highly increasing graph in enrolment and several good practices of this school have paved a way for the school to be called a Model School for Girls.

BRIAN HUGHES

Madrassa Outcry

A Victim of Its Own Fundamentalism

The Pakistani madrasa has become a deeply troubling aspect of Islamic education to Western politicians and public. The images of religious teachings that focus on deep anti-Americanism, terrorists ideologies, and methods of jihad have dominated this space in Western conscience. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a certain amount of ambiguity inherent in these schools that has been replaced, not with answers, but estimates and false conclusions. To understand the most fundamentalist of Islamic education in Pakistan, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a need to examine the Deoband school of India, the foundation in which the modern Pakistani madrassa was built on.

The Pakistani Deoband schools are still considered the most fundamentalist, the most likely to inspire young jihadists, and the madrassas most likely to be targeted by reformists. Yet, these schools are historically misunderstood and the reasons for the once venerable institution to fall into jihadist influence are many.

The Deoband school began in roughly 1857, but its curriculum is based on the eighteenth century Dars’I Nizami, a set of thirteen core texts that are used in Deobandi institutions over 6-8 years. After a failed revolt against British India in 1857, the ulema formed madrassas under a perceived threat of Hindu religious pressure, Western influence, and Christian missionaries. They believed they were under siege in their own country and formed a close knit educational culture that was self labeled as an “educational jihad.” Run without state funding, registration, or curriculum review, India’s Muslim’s were forming a small protective culture around their believers as the larger Indian society evolved around them.

When Pakistan was established in 1947, many Deobandi ulema travelled to Pakistan and erected madrassas to sway the country from falling into secularism or foreign religiosity.

At the height of the Cold War, the United States saw an opportunity in Afghanistan that represented the Soviet Union’s ‘Vietnam’ moment. While the weapons supplied to the Mujahideen has been well documented, the amount of persuasion that Washington extended to the Mujahideen reached into the madrassas, many of which were of the Deoband tradition. Textbooks were created by the University of Nebraska at Omaha for $50 million and distributed, predominantly to the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA), that distorted the words of the Koran to focus on the lesser jihad, defeating outward evil – communists in particular. This strategy largely succeeded in the FATA and the Mujahideen proved more than formidable for the Soviet Union, allowing the United States to quickly abandon the region. Developments in the madrassas and Pakistan after those events have created an environment of fundamentalist Islamic education unprecedented in history.

Since 1988, the number of madrassas in Pakistan have swelled from 3000 to over ten times that number. In 2005, the number stood at 35,000 and recent estimates show some leveling off, with about 40,000

today, but does not include the unregistered Deobandi schools in the FATA. This was achieved not only by US dollars entering the FATA and Pakistani government, but by the complete failure of the Pakistani state controlled public education system, with parents doing whatever they can to receive a decent education for their children. Contemporaneously, the Pakistani population burgeoned phenomenally in this period, from 34 million in 1951 to nearly 200 million today. With little educational development from the state, including the building of woefully needed schools, the madrassa filled the immense void. Additionally, once the Soviets packed up and left the area to the ongoing civil war that has yet to subside, the United States paid little attention to Central Asia until September 11, 2001. In the wake of September 11, the US made a push to alter fundamentalism in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Armed with a belief that the madrassas were essentially weapons of mass destruction, producing and training jihadists, the US demanded closing madrassas possibly linked to terrorism, changing the curriculum, and pushing children to attend public school. Nearly a quarter billion dollars were given to Pakistan to reform the madrassas. To change the very core of Islamic education was not in the clerics interests and push back was considerable. Furthermore, many madrassas refused to accept money if it jeopardized their autonomy. There was little accountability for where the money went and most scholars can find little trace as to what it was used for.

Madrassa educators believed that the West was targeting the foundation of Islam, to eradicate Islam, to forever alter it in a way that only benefits the West. While this is evident anti-American sentiment, the sentiment extended to the Pakistani government, who are seen as Western collaborators. Washington attempted to change the madrassas by enlisting Islamabad, but failed to take into account that both entities were highly criticized within the madrassas for meddling in their religious affairs.

By attempting to reform the madrasas, change curriculum, and push public education, this belief was only strengthened. Thus, US policy focused on changing the Pakistani educational culture into a pluralistic state governed public educational model. However, this does not take into account how the madrassas, or even the people, function within the governmental model. Madrassas rely on autonomy and non-interference from foreign agents to teach Islamic fundamentalism unencumbered. Not only do many madrassas not accept money from the state, they openly do not trust Islamabad. As Pakistan sways on what to do with the madrassas, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve lost the trust of the people in the areas where militant madrassas most likely exist. After September 11, Pakistan reorganized and reformed the madrassa framework with a 2002 ordinance. Interestingly, President Musharraf attempted to pass a similar bill in August of 2001, but was unable to do so.

After the passing of the bill, Islamic scholars described a crisis of confidence between the government and madrassas and spoke of corruption and lack of consistency in government policy. With no support from the madrassa, the reorganization and reforms failed. Then, in 2010, Islamabad reversed course by adopting an 18th amendment to their constitution and increased autonomy among its providences, noticeably in its curriculum and religious leanings for madrassa. Pakistan has long attempted to gain more control of the madrassas, especially as their burgeoned in the 1980s and then again after September 11.

However, with the passing of the 18th amendment, Pakistan recognized the ineffectualness of such policy. However, when terrorist attacks occur in Pakistan, the state retaliates often by striking at the FATA. A single 2006 madrassa retaliatory strike killed 82 students in Burjh, heightening distrust and hostility between government and Islamic educational leaders. Therefore, the process Pakistan has deployed has had little cohesion, leaving those in the FATA and poorer areas with little trust and comprehension of what might policy the next government may enact.

The United States policy has centered around greater Pakistani control of madrassas scholarly materials and US aid to build more public schools. This has also come at a time when drone strikes have established themselves as the future of warfare.

Not only do clerics and poorer provinces mistrust their own government, but they actively suspect corruption and collusion between Washington and Islamabad, a difficult combination to win trust or deploy soft power by building schools. Conversely, Pakistan has made token attempts to follow the United Statesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; demands, while periodically striking the FATA and madrassas when terrorists threats in Islamabad become more severe. This bifurcated policy builds distrust, suspicion, and resentment among Pakistanis. Since September 11, the narrative has read as us vs. them, secularism vs. fundamentalism, state-sponsored vs. local, modern vs. traditional, the West vs. Central Asia.

This narrative has only led to a protectionist culture within a greater society of perceived threat that has produced only polarization and harsher policies. There is a need to not discount religious communities and allow them to function within the state as citizens, with both sides recognizing that some schools produce terrorists. Without trust and remedying the cultural segregation, the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;jihadi schoolsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; will continue to function hidden by a blanket of polarization that is pitting thousands of historically distinguished fundamentalist madrassas against its own government.

RATTANA LAO

Thailand and the inequality challenges

Politicians, policymakers and members of the public have recently given much attention to the government’s Thailand 4.0 economic model which aims to make the country ready for a digital economy. However, there remains a range of challenges that will impede the realisation of this lofty goal. Among them are the overall quality of Thailand’s education, which is below the global average, as well as the growing inequality in the country’s education system. These problems will remain roadblocks to the 4.0 agenda. Addressing education inequality is vital if Thailand aspires to achieve this goal.

Results of these tests demonstrate the fact that Thai students still fell behind their peers in neighbouring countries when it comes to their performance in maths, science and English. In the “Learning Curve, Lessons in Country, Performance in Education” report published by Pearson, it is illustrative that Thailand’s educational system is ranked 35th among 40 countries that participated in 2014.

In the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) score results published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2016, Thailand is ranked 55th out of 72 countries in the overall result. In maths and science, Thailand is ranked 54th and 57th for reading.

How can our education system prepare our students to become skilled and competi- What are the problems? Isn’t heavy spendtive workers rather than focusing on pro- ing sufficient to improve our education? moting the “brightest students” from a few selected schools? This is not about how much money is spent on education, but how it is used. It is not that Thailand does not have the resources to do it. Thailand has spent mas- “It is not the amount of money that we are sive financial amounts on education. The lacking, it is how the money is not effigovernment, for example, spent 19.35% of ciently and effectively spent — this is the its annual 2.58-trillion-baht budget in 2015 problem,” Pumsaran Tongliamnark, a polon education — the largest proportion of icy analyst from the Budget Bureau, Minthe budget portfolio. istry of Education, said at a recent seminar. Unfortunately, the huge spending has not translated into improved learning as our students still scored below global averages in key subjects as shown by various international tests.

While the test results reﬂect the shortcomings of Thailand’s education system, the most worrying aspect of this debacle is the grave inequality that persists at every level of the system.

Thailand is caught in an education paradox — should the country focus on pushing the best and brightest students to compete on the world stage or should we be concerned with those who are falling behind? Is it possible for Thailand to achieve both goals?

from small schools in small cities. While the former improved at the rate of 21.3% from the last test, the latter are falling behind with only a 16.1% improvement.

An observation by Stephen Holroyd, the principal of Shrewsbury International School in Bangkok, is more compelling. While the country laments the tragedy of Thai educational performance, the growing sector of international elite schools in Thailand is “isolated” and insulated from the problem, said Mr Holroyd. Year after year, these elite schools continued to send their best and brightest aﬄuent students to Oxbridge and Ivy League universities.

Before talking about the digital economy and the fourth industrial revolution, let’s get the foundations straight. The elephant in the room is the issue of inequality in our education system. The problem of inequality is more pressing for small primary and secondary schools, each with less than 20 students in each grade, in rural areas. There are 15,224 schools that ﬁt into this category. Although the number of small schools has declined by more than 20% The problem of education inequality goes since 1993, they continue to be the major- beyond basic education. It transcends to ity of schools. the level of higher education as well. While the media has reported much on the low Problems faced by small schools are a ranking of Thailand’s top universities commatter of grave concern. These schools pared to international counterparts, a more lack both suﬃcient state funding and serious problem lies in the disparity beteachers affecting the quality of teaching tween different educational institutions in and the performance of their students. the country. Often, one teacher has to teach multiple subjects and multiple grades. With more than 173 higher education institutions, only a handful of institutions conKirida Bhaopichitr, research director for the tinue to capture the imagination and International Economics and Advisory aspiration of Thailand’s top students. This Service of Thailand Development Research leaves a huge gap in student quality Institute, pointed out that students from among different institutions. Meanwhile, small schools achieved lower scores than the state’s policy on higher education has their peers from larger schools. The 2012 mainly focused on making the top univerPISA scores revealed that there were sities more competitive. While the competgreater improvement in scores among stu- itiveness of higher education institutions is dents from schools in big cities than those important, attention and resources should

also be given to lower-ranked ones includ- If Thailand is committed to achieving Thaiing Rajabhat universities. land 4.0, it needs to get the basics right. It needs to give greater and more serious atAs things stand, the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s budget alloca- tention to the inequality spanning the edution for limited admission universities is 10 cation system. times higher than that given to Rajabhat universities. The different level of re- First published in Bangkok Post sources that go into different types of universities ultimately create inequality in studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; performance. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies, pointed out that education reform is a cliche, but this makes it also imperative. While education is a challenge in all countries, it has become critical in Thailand. If reform is not undertaken to better educate the Thai workforce from a young age, Thailand may well enter a period of long-term decline and economic stagnation, he said.

SWALEHA SINDHI PH.D.

Ensuring Inclusion and Integration through Intercultural Education

India has undergone signiďŹ cant social, cultural, demographic and economic change since the year 1991, with the adoption of new economic policy of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation. Until that stage, the population was heterogeneous, to a limited extent. But after the LPG policy the migration patterns changed in India.

There has been a signiďŹ cant increase in migration to urban areas along with transnational movements, both among males and females. The new destination for them in the process of migration presents the state of transition of the cultures of migrated people.

The benefit of migration is the opportunities to develop into both a multi-lingual and intercultural society, (only if the process of integration in host countries works efficiently and the policies change periodically). Thus new set of Diaspora population profile presents us with both new opportunities and challenges. One of the challenges and opportunity is to acknowledge, appreciate and celebrate the cultural heritage unique to each different group whilst at the same time realising that this is contributing to a shared collective awareness of Indian identity, which is constantly evolving. Migrants in India, represent some 200 nationalities, and a heterogeneous group. They have different cultures, languages and levels of education. A minority may not have received a basic education prior to arriving in India, whilst the majority are highly educated, many to post- graduate level. Some may not be working in jobs commensurate with their qualifications and experience.

There is need of heterogeneity approaches which see continued cultural difference and highlight local cultural autonomy, cultural resistance to homogenization, cultural clashes and polarization and distinct subjective experiences of globalization. (Robinson, 2007). Thus, in a world that is experiencing rapid changes education has a major role to play in promoting social cohesion and peaceful coexistence, through programmes that encourage dialogue between students of different cultures, beliefs and religions. Education can make an important and meaningful contribution to sustainable and tolerant societies. Intercultural Education

Interculturality is a dynamic concept and refers to evolving relations between cultural groups. It has been deﬁned as “the existence and equitable interaction of diverse cultures and the possibility of generating shared cultural expressions through dialogue and mutual respect. Interculturality presupposes multiculturalism and results from ‘intercultural’ exchange and dialogue on the local, regional, national or international level. As a minimum, intercultural education requires majorities to learn about the minorities and their cultural and traditions while minorities must similarly learn about other minorities in the same society as well as about the majorities. (Eide, 1999).

Intercultural education, according to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA, 2006), sensitises the learner to the idea that humans have naturally developed a range of different ways of life, customs and worldviews, and that this breadth of human life enriches all. It is education, which promotes equality and human rights, challenges unfair discrimination, and promotes the values upon which equality is built.

The development of inclusive curricula that contain learning about the languages, histories and cultures of non-dominant groups in society is one important example. Existing Scenario in India

Fundamental values underlying Intercultural education are respect for human rights and rule of law, intercultural values, and openness to world democracy. In India there already exist diversity in cultures and tradition. Indians are subconsciously more aware about other cultures and this awareness subtly contributes to an understanding about other’s viewpoint. Indians have by default an implicit compassion for other cultures. Indian schools deal with students from different cultures.

Thus, Intercultural Education Strategy aims to ensure that all students experience an education that respects the diversity of values, beliefs, languages and traditions in Indian society and is conducted in a spirit of partnership. Therefore, schools can play a role in the development of an intercultural society when they are assisted with ensuring that inclusion and integration within an intercultural learning environment become Their backgrounds differ in terms of parthe norm. ent’s education, religion, socio economic status, household and family norm, also Intercultural education in schools cannot they differ in values and attitudes, be just a simple ‘add on’ to the regular cur- lifestyles, abilities/disabilities, and ethnicriculum. It needs to concern the learning ity, in case of urban schools even nationalenvironment as a whole, as well as other ity. Ethnicity or nationality is therefore only dimensions of educational processes, one of the factors that make our classsuch as school life and decision making, rooms diverse and thus inﬂuences our stuteacher education and capacity building, dent’s culture. But in the existing Indian curricula, languages of instruction, peda- scenario the contemporary education is at gogy, teaching learning materials etc. This a crossroads and facing multiple chalcan be done through the inclusion of mul- lenges related to equity, equality and qualtiple perspectives and voices. ity, there is a need to evolve multi-pronged,

context-specific strategies for addressing veloped and implemented innovative trainthe needs of children from diverse back- ing model, for primary school teachers in grounds. the tribal areas of Orissa. The model focused on attitudinal training of teachers Time and again government policies at- and their sensitization to tribal language, tempt to address issues related to equity, culture and knowledge systems equality and quality concerns in education. The National Policy on Education, 1968 Various innovative experiments in school and the National Policy on Education, 1986 reforms have been taken up by civil society addresses these issues. Both these poli- organizations as well as in the government cies laid special emphasis on removal of sector in different parts of the country. disparity and equalize educational oppor- These experiments have attempted curtunity by attending to the specific needs of riculum design, development of teachingthose who had so far been denied equality. learning methods and materials, and These policies lay special stress upon teacher development with child-centered making education a vehicle of social trans- inclusive perspectives. These have shown formation and empowerment. encouraging results in terms of the learning achievement of children from diverse The Right of Children to Free and Compul- backgrounds. Indian schools can transsory Education Act (RTE), 2009 is another form total school environment with the attempt of government to make primary help of pedagogy that aims at achieving education for all mandatory. To give effect equity and equal educational opportunities to the recommendations of commissions, for all of the nation’s children, including policy initiatives and legal provisions have socio-economically disadvantaged and been made by central and state agencies ethnic minorities in the micro cultures. and civil society to provide education to all irrespective of gender, caste, class, faith The Activity Based Learning methodology and location. A plethora of schools run by introduced in response to the poor learning different agencies, i.e. government, govern- levels amongst children and uninteresting ment aided, private and those managed by classroom processes is a step towards minority institutions, provide access to creating inclusive classrooms. The most children from diverse backgrounds. Sev- notable feature of the reform is its focus eral national schemes such as the District on changing classrooms, in terms of Primary Education Programme (DPEP), methodology, the role of teachers, class1994, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), 2001 room organization and classroom environand the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Ab- ment as a whole. Although many efforts hiyan (RMSA), 2010 have worked towards are made towards making diverse classfulfilling the unfinished agenda of educa- room interesting there is a need for prepation for all at different levels. SSA also de- ration of text books, supplementary

materials and bridge courses in the mother tongue of the learners for better comprehension of subject. In addition, multilingualism and bilingual approaches needs to be explored. Equity pedagogy also requires teacher to develop an understanding of the different learning styles students develop from their own cultural upbringing so that educators can employ alternative instructional strategies to help all students learn the key concepts, principles, facts, and generalizations in the various content areas and academic disciplines. To be able to do this, teachers will need to develop pedagogical knowledge, skills, and dispositions that allow them to adapt alternative teaching methods or modify instructional strategies in culturally diverse classrooms. School and classroom climates must also be changed so that academic success is achievable by students from all cultural groups. Therefore, dealing with intercultural education requires adequate understanding of the demographics of the students, culture, and race in popular culture, and development of social action skills. It also emphasizes the clearing up of myths and stereotypes associated with gender, age, and the various races and ethnic groups by stressing basic human similarities (Nieto, 1996). Apart from this, Intercultural education promotes developing an awareness of discrimination such as cultural racism, sexism, classism, and other forms of prejudice and discrimination.

Conclusion

There have been many demographic changes in India in recent years. The educational policies and programs therefore are reviewed in light of contemporary circumstances. The development of an intercultural education strategy acknowledged these demographic changes, which are reﬂected in the education system. But alongside the adequate development of learners’ intercultural competence can’t be achieved exclusively through policies and programs. Without teachers’ sensitiveness and understanding of the diverse student community in the classroom students’ progress cannot be achieved.

It is clear that professional growth commitment and motivation of teachers is essential. Thus, through the combined effort from institutions and education agencies, teachers can fulfil their responsibilities with a greater confidence. The Schools must create congenial classroom environment that address the emotional make-up of children and encourage them to voice their opinions and feelings without fear of being intimidated. The creation of such an atmosphere would go a long way in strengthening the bonds between teachers, children and the school. Integration of context specific technology in classroom processes and multiple activities conducted in schools would help in skill development of children from diverse origins for self-reliance.

AUTHORS Rattana Lao Rattana Lao holds a doctorate in Comparative and International Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and writes on education and development. She is based in Bangkok, Thailand. Swaleha Sindhi Ph.D. Dr.Swaleha Sindhi is Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Administration, the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India. Dr. Sindhi is a frequent columnist on related topics, too. She is the Vice President of Indian Ocean Comparative Education Society (IOCES). Contact: swaleha sindhi[at]gmail.com Prof. Murray Hunter Innovator and entrepreneur. Notable author, thinker and prof. Hat Yai University, Thailand Contact: murrayhunter58(at)gmail.com

Shariful Islam The writer is an Assistant Professor in International Relations, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. His works appeared in India Quarterly, Journal of Bangladesh Studies, Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Journal of South Asian Studies. Mr. Islam has authored a number of book chapters. He can be reached at shariful_ruir[at]ru.ac.bd

Brian Hughes Brian Hughes is currently a student in the International Security and Intelligence Studies program at Bellevue University in Omaha, NE, USA.

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