Prof Tajuddin Rasdi of UCSI University says at present there were no visionaries to chart a course for where the nation is heading — politically, socially, economically or health-wise.
In agreeing with the Asean Business Advisory Council Malaysia chairman Munir Majid’s remarks that the education system is not preparing Malaysians for the rise of the digital economy that could displace traditional jobs, Tajuddin said in general, the education system had failed to prepare graduates for many things.
“Many people look at education as a means of just getting a job.
“Digital economy is just one reactive aspect.
“The education system has also failed to teach tolerance and acceptance of our multiracial and multi-religious communities.
“I also do not see any effort to teach on sustainability and how our planet will survive in future,” he told FMT.
Tajudin lamented the system was creating “artificial intelligence”, in failing to produce university graduates who are critical thinkers and who are caring.
The system, he noted, merely prepared graduates for 9am to 5pm office jobs, a practice which may be relevant five years into the future, but which fails to look 50 years into the future.
Graduates, he said, end up not knowing anything about sustainability, ecology or zero carbon emissions. They have no new thoughts or new ways of life.
“Subjects such as Malaysian Studies and Studies in Islamic and Asian Civilisations should be taken out of the university syllabus, and varsities should instead focus on other things like heritage, sustainability and the environment.
“Do not keep looking back at the past, but look at the present and the future.”
He also claimed the education system is often tied to professional requirements, which was a major stumbling block.
Tajuddin said the curriculum for courses like architecture and engineering needed to be reviewed.
Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) chairman Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said whether graduates liked it or not, they were already in the digital economy.
She said it was up to them how best they wished to engage with it and to continuously learn to keep up with technological advances.
“Lecturers, like teachers, can only guide and facilitate. It is what one wants out of being a graduate — to excel or otherwise.
“The education system tries to adapt as best and quickly as it can although it appears to be lagging, while technology is fast-paced and costly.
“Graduates should not totally rely on universities to have adequate knowledge but instead have the initiative and curiosity to find other ways of being tech savvy.”
She further stated that coding is being introduced in schools, while 21st century learning is painstakingly being developed.
“ICT and design technology are offered in schools but students have to be agile and find avenues and channels to personally develop technical know-how.
“Students should self-learn and take learning to a higher level.”
Azimah added it was misplaced nationalism, embedded in the education system, that was troubling.
She said this needs to be arrested as statistics prove that many parents, able to afford the education they aspire for their children, would find options that are free of such encumbrances.
Munir had said he was worried that artificial intelligence and robots could replace not only unskilled workers but also skilled ones, and that the education system is not preparing young Malaysians for it.
The Edgemarkets.com quoted him as saying that in a digital economy, robots or intelligent computer systems could replace unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled labour.
Urging the government to look at how digitisation could affect the economy and the socio-economic system, Munir said: “If we do not do that, then (we are) sitting on a social economic time bomb that can explode when people are out of work.
“I worry whether we are prepared for the digital economy. Our education system is not fit for the purpose of a digital economy.
“We don’t educate the young and adults about the needs of this economy,” he was quoted as saying by Edgemarkets.com.