I REFER to a letter by Puvananderan Ganasamoorthy, titled “Crime Prevention Club in schools a big help to cops” (New Straits Times, Aug 23).
In that article, he said the Education Ministry should re-introduce the Civics subject, which was replaced by Moral Studies.
I would like to verify once and for all what we know about Civics Education and Moral Education, known as Moral Studies.
Civics Education started in the early 1960s and took a stronger foundation in 1970s after the May 13, 1969 incident, which is learned until today in History and other humanities subjects.
Moral Education got its ‘life’ through the Cabinet Report 1979. Moral Education came about as a subject to complement Islamic Education. Muslim students study Islamic Education, and non-Muslim students study Moral Education. As such, concerns that Moral Studies has replaced Civics Education are not valid. Moral Education is a core subject for non-Muslim students and complements Islamic Education in our current curriculum, from pre school up to secondary school.
Moral Education has grown slowly and steadily over the past three decades. A subject which started with ambiguous orientation and philosophy since 1983, it is slowly moving up the ladder as an important subject to educate students about life choices, how to make such choices and live with the consequences of these choices.
On the other hand, Civics Education, which started in the 1960s, gained momentum after the May 13, 1969 incident, died a natural death in 1990s, and was revived in 2004, was developed as a subject to bring unity through diversity in action, especially in its 10 hours of project and volunteerism activities suggested for each year and form.
However, this subject has died a sudden death and is being replaced by History in primary schools. It was a subject much enjoyed by students, if taught with passion and care. It was a subject that brought Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak together as one nation with diverse cultures, explained and accepted by students. But as usual, we expected results overnight. Investment in civics and citizenship education have been in vain. However, some topics in the Civics and Citizenship curriculum were transferred to Moral Education subject. Topics such as international law, human rights, and so on are currently being learned only by Moral Education students, who do not make up even 40 per cent of the entire student population.
My sincere hope is to see more members of society paying serious attention to what has transformed in our education system in the past three decades, and suggesting practical and workable strategies to make our education system more progressive.
DR VISHALACHE BALAKRISHAN
Senior (Research) Lecturer
Faculty of Education
University of Malaya