If one googled "best Malaysian schools" — the result will show a list of regular schools. Some are legacy schools already noted for their quality.
Therefore, it comes as a pleasant surprise to read recently that "two Malaysian schools have been shortlisted for the World's Best School Prizes, making the cut as part of the top 10 finalists for the awards".
They are Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Kempadang in Kuantan which has been shortlisted for the World's Best School Prize for Innovation, while Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Kampung Jawa in Klang is in the running for the World's Best School Prize for Overcoming Adversity.
This flies in the face of what "best" used to mean, especially with respect to education post-pandemic, where "innovation" and "adversity" have a totally different meaning in shaping the future of education worldwide.
SK Kempadang was shortlisted for the innovation prize after creating an automated tracking system to follow pupils' progress at a time when face-to-face teaching was halted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
SMK Kampung Jawa, once in the bottom two out of 38 schools in Klang for its academic results, was shortlisted for its efforts in overcoming adversity after engaging parents to learn more about the students and their home environment to improve the teaching approach.
While many of such schools have been ignored, the global organiser, T4 Education, CEO Vikas Pota, in congratulating the two schools, said: "Educators all over the world will now be able to learn from the examples of these outstanding Malaysian schools."
The award is further supported in collaboration with Malaysian-based Yayasan Hasanah (YH), Templeton World Charity Foundation, Accenture and American Express.
To quote the managing director of YH, Datuk Shahira Ahmed Bazari: "We are especially proud that two Malaysian schools are among the top 10 finalists, proof that our public schools are capable of being among the world's best."
This is certainly so since the two schools come from a group of successful Trust Schools, or Sekolah Amanah, initiated in 2010 throughout the country.
The project was sponsored by Khazanah Nasional to transform the education ecosystem through a model that is centred on students in a holistic manner.
Managed and developed by a homegrown social enterprise, the model has been customised considering the varying context of the different locations, ranging from urban to rural settings, yet delivering the same quality of "holistic" education and ecosystem as forecasted for the 21st century and beyond.
Thousands of students have benefited from the "experimentation" that in many ways redefined what "education" should have been as compared with what is understood today.
For example, it is not exam-orientated, it is collaborative-based, it is flexible, empowering and holistic in the broader meaning of the word to develop the six students' aspiration as well as true human talents beyond any stratified old-fashioned discipline and teaching.
Thus, students are well-rounded, confident and grounded on a Malaysian worldview as a multicultural country. This is all undertaken with the Malaysia Education Blueprint (2015-2025) in mind. In other words, the recognition of the two schools is more than a testimony of the schools per se, but rather the Sekolah Amanah model fashioned by Malaysia for the world.
What is regrettable is that the model has not received the "desirable" response, less still acceptance, in realising the much-touted transformation in the education sector, often verbalised by the powers that be.
It is time to have a serious change of hearts and minds, since the World's Best School Prizes seek to recognise and celebrate schools globally for the important role they play in developing and educating society's younger generation.
And, we can no longer ignore what we have achieved locally for the world to see and emulate, at least as the best 10 globally.
The writer, an NST columnist for more than 20 years, is International Islamic University Malaysia rector
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times