PISA 2018 and Malaysia
Kok Kean Hin1*
1 Jabatan Perancangan, Penyelidikan Dan Inovasi, IPG Kampus Pendidikan Islam, Bangi, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected]
Accepted: 15 September 2020 | Published: 30 September 2020
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Abstract: Recent outcome of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 showed that Malaysian students still not at par with their peers in the region and rest of the world. Even though there was slight improvement in the PISA 2018 compared to PISA 2015, Malaysia still ranked in the lower segment of the chart. Reviews from the relevant literature indicated that curriculum, teaching quality, teacher welfare and parental involvement have great impact on students’ performance in schools. With the year-to-year huge investment in education, Malaysian government needs to answer to the taxpayers with such not-so-promising outcome. This article could serve as a reference to the relevant Malaysian authority for the improvement of the Science, Technology, Engineering &
Mathematics (STEM) education in the future.
Keywords: Curriculum, parental involvement, teaching quality, teacher welfare
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1. Introduction
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is administered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) every three years since year 2000 on 15 years old students in both OECD and non OECD countries assessing students on their reading, mathematics and science literacies.
In PISA 2018, Malaysia scored 440 in mathematics, 415 in reading and 438 in science (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2019). From the PISA score chart, it is showed that Malaysia improved from PISA 2012 and 2015, when our country achieved below global average score (Wong, 2019). However, when looking at the overall list, Malaysia is at ranking 56 among the 78 countries listed (OECD, 2019). From the results, Malaysia barely at the races, and that our education system is not doing good enough although there were improvement after two cycles from 2015 to 2018. Our students are struggling with English proficiency at the global level (Wong, 2019).
2. Literature Review
Frost & Sullivans’s visionary innovation group presents “Global Mega Trends to 2030:
Futurecasting Key Themes that will Shape Our Future Lives”, a comprehensive analysis of the transformative, global forces that define the future world with their far-reaching impact on business, societies, economics, cultures, and personal lives. Global 360o Research Team had done a thorough research and futurecasting key themes that will shape our future lives in 2030. By year 2025, one out of ten people in western world will be older than 65. Generation Z (Gen-Z) will in some countries, like India and account for 45% of the total global
population (Global 360o Research Team, 2019). Terabyte era will appear in year 2030. The smart phones we used now will not sufficient to support the data we received. The creation of Terabyte smart phones and devices are being equipped with the new generation of storage chips, which can both process massive amounts of data and support 5G & Artificial Intelligent (AI) technology.
Geo-fencing is an opportunity that is emerging. With over 10,000 small satelites expected to be launched by 2030, there will allow enterprises to cater to customers on the go and contextualize experience (Global 360o Research Team, 2019). We are heading to 5G system.
With 5G, edge computing, AI approaches and quantum-computing merging abilities, virtual reality or “virtuality” experiences will be augmented manifold with untethered geo-spaces and zero-buffering. By 2030, humanity is entering the rise of technology-driven evolution at an unprecedented speed of change, thus, propelling deeper qualities into what it means to be human (Global 360o Research Team, 2019). The future of healthcare will also see unprecedented changes. The adoption of smart healthcare coupled with the potential of precision medicine will accentuate the year of preventive care. Humanities will benefit significantly from great healthcare services in future.
The coming 30 years from present will see the changing of retail patterns in the business.
With the integration of automation, virtual intelligent assistance, and in-store and online retail experience will be seamlessly unified to personalize and uplift the overall customer experience. Moreover, the user-transit experience will shift towards a more connected, personalized and on-demand multi-modal service. In other words, future business model or namely Xaas models will be highly individualized, respective, data-driven and fully controlled by customers (Global 360o Research Team, 2019). As already predicted by various reliable sources, the economic power will shift from Europe and America to Asia and Africa over the next decade, as nearly 70% of global economic growth will be generated in these regions.
We need talented human resources to embrace these unprecedented challenges. It always begin from the schools. The policy and vision of every country should prepare their citizen in this challenging and competitive era. If we look at the results of the PISA over the years of participation, Malaysian students are actually still far behind other developing countries, not to mention developed countries. Furthermore, the country’s improving performance in basic education indicators have failed to translate into good performance outcomes in international assessment like PISA and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study(TIMSS) (Chin, 2020; Tan, Chua, Alia, & Gong, 2019). Therefore, the article is written to identify the factors that contribute to the moderate PISA results of our Malaysian students that participated in the assessment.
3. Discussion
In September 2019, Taiwan launched a wholly new syllabus, namely “108 Syllabus” to prepare the new generation of students for the future casting megatrends. In the previous syllabus, the aim is to successfully produce graduate for the Taiwanese economy (Wang, 2019). With the “108 Syllabus”, it will shift to unlock the true potential and interest of the students to assist them succeeds in their own area of interest. The Taiwanese society always critics their education policy. However, they always believe changes in the education policy are unavoidable in order to survive in the next decade.
When we look at Malaysia and other parts of the world, citizens always lamented that constantly modification of the country education system. The citizen do not realize that the world is changing. So must the education system in order to survive globally.
According to Marope, Griffin, & Gallagher(2017), the cycle of new knowledge is quickly diminishing. In the 18th century, the new knowledge obtained could be applied within 90 years. In the 19th and 20th century, the new knowledge could still applied within 30 years.
However, the new knowledge in this 21st century will become obsolete in three years. If we further research into specific field, such as medicine, the knowledge in medical field could be applied within 50 years in the 1950s. In year 2010, It became obsolete within 3.5 years because of the progressive of research and development (R&D) and high technology. It was predicted that the new medical knowledge will be deem irrelevant by 73 days in year 2020 (Wang, 2019). Students will find themselves in shock when they graduate in the final year. It is due to the knowledge they learned in university already considered not up to date when they go to work in society. As reported by Frey & Osborne (2013), 47% of the current 702 jobs found in the market will disappear in 2033. With the current successfully R&D in artificial intelligence (AI), the possibilities of the job disappearance would be far much higher than as reported by Frey & Osborne (2013).
With the current multiple issue happened around the globe, such as ageing population, drastic climate change & artificial intelligent, multidisciplinary fields should be integrated to find the solution to solve the current and future challenges. Education around the globe aware of this challenge. These countries transformed the education system to prepare for this challenge.
Their care of education has been shifted to competence-based learning (Wang, 2019).
Education system in most of the developed countries already move towards competence- based learning (Wang, 2019). They may use the different term in the respective countries.
Finland introduced Transversal Competencies in 2014. In 2007, New Zealand introduced Core Competencies or Key Competencies. In South Korea, it was known as Key Competencies which is launched in 2015. In Australia, they named it as General Competencies and launched in 2013. In America, the country launched 21st Century Skills in 2007. Our nearest neighbouring country, Singapore launched their 21st Century Competencies in 2010.
If we further look into Finland education system, they emphasized on seven competencies;
i. Thinking and learning to learn (the first principle of the next six competencies) ii. Continual competence, interaction and self-expressive
iii. Self-care and managing daily life iv. Multi literacy
v. Information and communication technology vi. Working life skills and entrepreurship
vii. Participating, influencing and building a sustainable future (Wang, 2019)
The Finnish system put emphasis in students as their care in the learning process and focus on phenomenon based learning. Phenomenon-based learning is distinctly Finnish approach to inquiry learning in schools. It leads students to ask big questions that do not have easy answers (Christou, 2020). Phenomenon-based learning has its align in a 2016 education movement in Finland’s educational system. The revised education system asks the students to take a module each year with the phenomenon-based learning approach. The purpose is to prepare students for real life. It is a multidisciplinary and constructivist form of learning or
pedagogy where students study a topic or concept in a holistic approach instead of in a subject-based approach. Finland’s version of project-based learning prioritizes hand-on activities. Their students control over their projects and relate them to the real world. Students mastery of transferable skills is the main priority. They have the freedom to venture into topics of their choices. Moreover, labour action could be a phenomenon that would help most students engaged for many months. Children were chopping woods deciding how to divide the resources and making paper air plane. The inquiry projects require students to step outside of the subjects to ask broader questions that are not limited to what need to be covered in the curriculum (Christou, 2020). Christou (2020) further elaborated that the idea of John Dewey has influenced Finnish education. The idea promotes democratic living and engagement in meaningful activities in schools. The Finnish government also promotes their education system by putting books on phenomenon-based learning in tourist shops and on display during Helsinki Education Week.
In GuangZhou, China, we will come across the scenes of robotic laboratory where students were busy operating their models. For the higher level, teachers guide their teenage students on 3D printing processes to create three-dimensional objects from a computer-aided design model. The schools were using the STEAM education approach to learn the uses of Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics as access points to guide student inquiry, dialogue and critical thinking (Wang, 2019). In the recent PISA 2018 chart, students from Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces could handle abstract concepts and discern facts for opinions from their reading (OECD, 2019). No wonder they are sitting on the top for three skills assessed in PISA. If we look at our Malaysian students, where is our education system heading to?
In national level, Malaysia Ministry of Education already planned and executed the initiatives to improve the ranking in PISA throughout our participation in PISA. The state governments need to initiate their own plans and assist federal government to nurture the future STEM talents. The state governments in Malaysia may or may not have concrete plans on STEM initiatives. The public seldom heard of the related news. However, the decline in the interest in STEM subjects has been a concern for the Penang state government (StarEdu, 2019). To tackle this problem, Penang STEM formed STEM Clubs for lower secondary students in government schools. The clubs make STEM learning fun by taking practical hands-on industry to help fund the programmes and mentor students towards STEM excellence (StarEdu, 2019).
Penang STEM is the umbrella body set up in 2017 to coordinate the state’s STEM initiatives under its six STEM centres, namely Penang Skills Development Centre, Penang Science Cluster, Tech Dome Penang, Accelerate, Connect & Transcend, Penang Math Platform &
Penang Digital Library (StarEdu, 2019). The centres have been working toward creating more awareness in STEM so that Malaysia will have a competent talent pool to tackle the needs of Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) and the digital economy.
The first critical factor that we could analyse for the recent PISA 2018 is related to the salary and benefits given to the teachers. In Malaysia, the starting pay of a graduate teacher is approximately RM2500. All these years, the teacher unions are asking the government to revise the salary scheme of the teachers for a better scheme. In the meantime, the authors always agree that higher salaries have to come with higher productivity, such as performance- based salary in the private sector. However, higher salary may not motivate teachers to perform better. Malaysia consistently does worse compared to other countries. This is due to
the quality of teaching (Chin, 2020; Tan, Chua, Alia, & Gong, 2019). From the PISA 2018 report, we found that teachers are professional, innovators and researchers in the developed countries. Teachers have bright prospects of career path and plenty of scholarship, to encourage them to earn higher education degree. Although Malaysia is learning from the experiences of these developed countries, the society still perceived teacher as low level of profession. In developed countries such as Singapore, United Kingdom and Switzerland, teachers are highly respected career. The new recruits are the top 30% of the university graduates.
The commitment of the teachers is another important factor to achieve better PISA result.
The committed teachers will really go into their hearts to help students to progress well in their studies.Teachers will keep close rapport with the parents. The close relationship will definitely improve student’s interest and their loves for their students. In Malaysian public schools today, students thinking and answering process lacks diversity. There is even a tendency of teachers to predict questions and prepare model answers (Chin, 2020). High dependence on rote memory deprives students of giving creative answers which international assessments give greater weightage to. Quality education happens when it positively imparts the individual as a learner and a human being. We don’t measure quality education by the number of As or CGPA average score. Employers do not just look at academic results. They also look at critical and creative thinking, good attitude and ability to communicate and socialise. The lack of reading is the source of poor performance in schools (Chin, 2020).
Besides, majority of the students have now become monolingual as a result of past education policies. They just read materials in Bahasa Melayu (Malay Language) where most of the reading materials largely been reduced to religion, ghosts and love stories (Chin, 2020).
Students could not contribute when international assessments seek High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) response.
Sadly, we still heard about the complaints by the teachers in Malaysia. They are always burned by administrative paperworks. They are always tired and thinking of early retirement.
Even the young teachers want to opt for another careers. The Malaysian Ministry of Education always committed to the welfare of the teachers and students. However, the ministry may need to re-look into their policies as the complaints and dissatisfaction among the teachers still could be heard after so many years.
The other factor that is critical to achieve high performance in PISA 2018 is the role of 21st century school. Our neighbouring country, Singapore always achieves top three spots in PISA 2012, 2015 and 2018 (OECD, 2018). From the PISA in Focus (PiF) (OECD, 2018).
Singapore government spent lots of resources in its public schools. Although Singapore parents have confidence in their public schools, some of them still send their children to private schools. It is generally believed that private school is better than public school. The scenario is very similar in all developed countries, such as Hong Kong and South Korea.
However, recent report by PISA 2018 revealed that the education system of a country is not determined by the public school or private school. It is determined by the curriculum or syllabus itself. The education system in Singapore already transformed from spoon-fed to students based critical teaching and learning since 2010. Students have great freedom in their studies and teachers sit in as their facilitator. PiF report also revealed that schools with large freedom of autonomy in deciding the appropriate curriculum in their lessons will perform better without the intervention of the government (OECD, 2018). PiF report also revealed that the assistance of extra lessons after school especially provided by the private tuitions greatly improve students achievement in Singapore (OECD, 2018). The only obvious setback
is the burden shouldered by these students could eventually affect their mental and physical health in long term.
When we refer back to PISA 2012, the first 10 out of the 164 schools in Malaysia that performs well were the boarding schools and private schools, namely Sri KDU International School (1st Spot), Kuen Cheng High School(9th spot) and others (OECD, 2012). The last ten spots were government-aided public schools. Yet, the budget allocation for the education sector is among the highest in the world. Yet, the outcome of these investment did not justify the allocation. The Malaysian government have to do its homework to answer to its taxpayers.
The importance of parents participation in early childhood helps students achieve better PISA results in future. Parents who read stories to their children frequently, especially at the elemental year 1 students will greatly impart students future achievement. There is a positive correlation between the frequently story telling by parents with high students achievement in secondary and college level (OECD, 2018). The students will show significant improvement in their results when parents always look after and communicate with their children.
Developed countries, such as Finland and other European countries emphasize on ‘parents acquaintances’ at school program where parents normally know the five best friends of their children. This program helps parents understand their children and their peers. These parents contribute to collaborative problem solving skills in their children. These parents background, no matter professional, managers or elementary occupations always care about their children and support them of their education need.
In Malaysia, the level of parental involvement is very dissatisfying (Tan, Chua, Alia, &
Gong, 2019). Parents are too busy with their jobs and hardly spending their family time with their children. Parents tend to ignore children psychological need. In reality, the maids at home act as children temporary parents and some nurseries become their second home.
Therefore, the bonding of the parents and children is generally lacking in these families. The children do not feel the love and concern of their own parents will feel insecure and would affect the performance in school. According to the World Bank, parents who play a participating role in their children’s education reflect positively on the overall performance of the school (Tan, Chua, Alia, & Gong, 2019). Globally, better educated parents were the most likely to offer help than those parents with primary level of education. Low education and socio-economic statues of parents effect a child’s learning which explains our low achievement in TIMSS and PISA.
In summary, the level of reading, mathematics and science would predict the survival of students in future. It would also affect the competitiveness of a country in the coming challenging future. From the outcome of the PISA 2018. it is not difficult to foresee that the Chinese, Singaporean, South Korean, European and American will continue the economic edge in the future world. Malaysian students obviously lack of necessary future-ready skills and incompetent in international level. The country might likely still trap in the middle income nation in future. The Malaysia government should take into serious consideration to improve the degrading education system and not favoured into unnecessary and unrealistic education projects. The Malaysia students have much to catch up especially in STEM area.
The distance between our students and the other part of the world in STEM is already very far.
4. Conclusion
The world is changing drastically. Children of the future need to know the megatrends that will happen globally. They need this latest information and relevant skills to survive in the future. The policy makers and parents must prepare the children in their decision making. The policy makers must have the courage to execute the necessary policies to grow the society.
They should not indulge in their personalized gain but look into bigger pictures for the countries. Parents must support their children throughout their schooling periods. The future of this country in the growing era of Asia new economics will develop prosperously and transform into a successfully developed country.
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[email protected] (original work published July 24, 2019)
