The charging of academicians have sent a chilling effect on academic freedom in an already underachieving education system.
FMT
PETALING JAYA: All the hype about improving the quality of education is mere rhetoric because the Education Ministry does not allow academics to express their views freely, deputy chairman of Johor DAP S.Ramakrishnan said today.
Ramakrishnan added that the recent charging of academician Azmi Sharom and the probe on Aziz Bari had a chilling effect on academic freedom in the country’s already underachieving education system.
In a statement he said that silencing academics showed that the ministry was not bothered about providing space for innovative and creative thinking despite none of Malaysia’s universities being ranked in the top 400 in the world.
“It is baffling to note that on the one hand the ministry talks about improving the quality of education by promoting creative and critical thinking but on the other restricts, regulates and censors the role of academics by preventing them from expressing their views.
“Can our higher education centres become world-class universities when the dagger of the Sedition Act hangs over the heads of academics and students?” he asked.
Ramakrishnan said the ministry had only achieved the job of flooding the market with graduates who were neither employable nor able to express themselves to their colleagues and audiences.
“If nobody employs our graduates, the government is ever ready to absorb and convert them into their loyal vote bank.
“That’s how we now have 1.4 million civil servants in a bloated government service and they absorb about 40% of the operating budget every year,” he said.
Loyalty oath is a preemptive move
Ramakrishnan also said university heads and others holding key posts were political appointees.
He said Malaysia was one country where academics could not get a transfer from one university to another to gain new experience or undertake research without the approval of the Education Ministry.
He added that academics had to sign a loyalty oath, the ‘Aku Janji’ contract which further restricted their conduct and activities inside and outside their workplaces.
“The loyalty oath is a preemptive move to restrict the freedom of academics. Besides, the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) has reduced higher education centres to being passive and submissive ones,” he said.
Quality of education is sliding downwards
“The loyalty oath implies that without subscribing to the oath, academics will commit or encourage an act of subversion or treason. This is a preposterous assumption that has to be condemned by all academics.
“Both the Universities and University Colleges Act and the Statutory Bodies (Discipline and Surcharge) Act 2000 (Act 605) are documents that show a blatant curb on academic freedom and university autonomy.”
Saying universities were slowly but surely becoming government departments taking orders from higher up, he added, “Unless academic freedom is given its due place and respect, significant contributions to the quality of the institution as a whole cannot be promoted to a level of excellence.”
Ramakrishnan said despite the ministry receiving a bigger budget every year, the quality of education kept sliding.
PETALING JAYA: All the hype about improving the quality of education is mere rhetoric because the Education Ministry does not allow academics to express their views freely, deputy chairman of Johor DAP S.Ramakrishnan said today.
Ramakrishnan added that the recent charging of academician Azmi Sharom and the probe on Aziz Bari had a chilling effect on academic freedom in the country’s already underachieving education system.
In a statement he said that silencing academics showed that the ministry was not bothered about providing space for innovative and creative thinking despite none of Malaysia’s universities being ranked in the top 400 in the world.
“It is baffling to note that on the one hand the ministry talks about improving the quality of education by promoting creative and critical thinking but on the other restricts, regulates and censors the role of academics by preventing them from expressing their views.
“Can our higher education centres become world-class universities when the dagger of the Sedition Act hangs over the heads of academics and students?” he asked.
Ramakrishnan said the ministry had only achieved the job of flooding the market with graduates who were neither employable nor able to express themselves to their colleagues and audiences.
“If nobody employs our graduates, the government is ever ready to absorb and convert them into their loyal vote bank.
“That’s how we now have 1.4 million civil servants in a bloated government service and they absorb about 40% of the operating budget every year,” he said.
Loyalty oath is a preemptive move
Ramakrishnan also said university heads and others holding key posts were political appointees.
He said Malaysia was one country where academics could not get a transfer from one university to another to gain new experience or undertake research without the approval of the Education Ministry.
He added that academics had to sign a loyalty oath, the ‘Aku Janji’ contract which further restricted their conduct and activities inside and outside their workplaces.
“The loyalty oath is a preemptive move to restrict the freedom of academics. Besides, the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) has reduced higher education centres to being passive and submissive ones,” he said.
Quality of education is sliding downwards
“The loyalty oath implies that without subscribing to the oath, academics will commit or encourage an act of subversion or treason. This is a preposterous assumption that has to be condemned by all academics.
“Both the Universities and University Colleges Act and the Statutory Bodies (Discipline and Surcharge) Act 2000 (Act 605) are documents that show a blatant curb on academic freedom and university autonomy.”
Saying universities were slowly but surely becoming government departments taking orders from higher up, he added, “Unless academic freedom is given its due place and respect, significant contributions to the quality of the institution as a whole cannot be promoted to a level of excellence.”
Ramakrishnan said despite the ministry receiving a bigger budget every year, the quality of education kept sliding.
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