LETTER | Education must be classless to begin with

LETTER | Anything and everything in Malaysia is being classified either on a race-based differentiation, religious divide or economic class.

The latest is the government's move to have preschools cater to the M40 middle-income group.

Why in the world do we continue to have class-based, race-based, and religious categorisation for everything and anything in this beloved multiracial, multicultural and multi-religious potpourri of our population?

When will we ever be one nation of citizens - called Malaysians, if the government continues to segregate the people politically, economically, racially and faith wise?

Having race-based political parties is the biggest evil.

Having to divide the people by race is a foregone indication that development and progress will never be a shared prosperity.

And now trying to create an economic class in education will definitely drive the divide between rich and poor far deeper.

Where is the wisdom of leadership in my agonised country?

A democratic country that is often preached to the hilt as a nation that is anchored on a Constitution that is a true, world-class constitutional monarchy, must ensure that quality education is made available on an even turf for all citizens - rich, poor, disabled and irrespective of colour, creed or location.

Class differentiation in education - by race, religion, economic standards or even distance - is a definite guarantee of a nation that will eventually be a permanent, failed entity in the world.

We must therefore vehemently and vociferously protest such "initiatives" in setting up preschools to cater for the M40 bracket.

Instead, this country needs a total revamp of the quality of education.

From human capital to infrastructure to content - our national education has failed and we continue to lap up to a myriad of wrong prescriptions or choose to be indifferent.

Either every citizen wakes up now or we will continue to wallow in the same cesspool of rot come another couple of decades down the road.

For as long as education is interwoven with politics, we are doomed.

The new M40 preschool plan is one such attestation that politics is not going to divorce itself from education for sheer want of more power.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.