KUALA LUMPUR: Education experts said it is unfair to entirely judge the standards of the country's education system based on lower scores in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa).
Instead, the country's education system should be evaluated holistically because a robust system is determined by access to education, efficiency, equity and having all stakeholders on the same page in implementing policies.
While many agree there is a need to address flaws in the system, they believe that the government should instead look at educational developments from a holistic perspective.
"The success of our education system is not determined just by Pisa," said National Council of Professors (MPN) president Emeritus Professor Datuk Dr Raduan Che Rose.
"We have to look at developments in other areas, such as subjects apart from Science, Mathematics and English, student development, curricular activities and educational aspirations, which the ranking does not cover," he said, referring to Pisa's evaluation of only Science, Mathematics and English.
"Our education system is not the worst and collapsing the entire syllabus will only bring serious implications.
"So we should be more focused in our strategies — particularly in how we can bounce back the learning loss, which happened during the pandemic."
Raduan said the government should probe into the decline of students taking up science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects, especially at the university level.
"In addition, we have not even reached the 50 per cent target for student access to tertiary education."
On Monday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said failure to acknowledge flaws in the education system had hampered its growth and led Malaysia to become, by certain standards, the worst in Asean.
He said Malaysia's dismal performance in Pisa 2022 was an example of how failure to acknowledge faults had affected the country's global ranking.
Dr Anuar Ahmad from the Centre of Community Education and Wellbeing at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia echoed Raduan's concern.
He said the nation's ability to produce a skilled and competitive workforce was at stake.
"If the decline in the number of students in pure science courses and in our education quality continues, investors will choose other countries because they require quality human resources," he said.
When asked about the root cause of the decline in education, Anuar identified long-standing and unresolved issues within the education system.
Among them were teachers being burdened with administrative tasks, which hinders them to effectively carry out their role.
"The same applies to teachers who are teaching subjects unrelated to their specialisations, contributing to the decline in our education quality."
Meanwhile, Professor Tan Sri Dr T. Marimuthu agreed on reviewing the capacity for teachers in the workforce.
"I would not want to blame the teachers because we already have many who are resigning because they cannot take the load."
However, Marimuthu said the root cause of the deterioration in the country's education quality must be investigated from every angle.
He said policymakers need to understand that educators do not have full control over the quality of students, "because we have to factor in elements of socio-economic status".
"Is this about the quality of learning or what is being learned? Or is it about teaching, or how our students are taught? Or is it both?
"Hence, a review of the overall curriculum is needed. Is it too overwhelming for the current resources that we have?"
Marimuthu said there was no need to go back to the module prior to 1985 with regard to the standard of English, "because there is no problem with the one suited for the local agenda".
"To learn a second language, exposure is important so the question here is; is English being watered down? This cannot be fostered properly if the teaching, speaking and writing is at an elementary-level."
Former Sabah Education director Datuk Jame Alip said what the education system needs is to go back to basics.
He said when there is a change in leadership, some goals should remain intact.
"Pisa covers one area and that is only on the quality of our education, but there are other key areas to determine the success of a robust education system — access, efficiency, unity and equity.
In addition, Jame said for Malaysians to be renowned globally, policymakers must push for enhanced leadership, dual-language mastery, skills and ethics, national identity, knowledge and critical-thinking.