Debating education for nation building in Malaysia: National schooludpersistence or vernacular school resistance?

摘要

School and education system may be a critical and strategic platform for nation-building. At the same time, theudpoliticization of the education system as well as the interdependent nature of schools and external forces mayudcontribute to the destabilization of the role of school in nation building. In Malaysia, the issue of mono-lingualismudas a medium of instruction in schools has been a contested one with efforts of accommodating bilingualism andudmultilingualism continue to be attempted with no solutions in sight. The persistence of vernacular schools hasudgenerated both intense debates and resistance. This article examines the reasons for the resistance to, andudpersistence of vernacular schools. The data were drawn from three main sources, namely interviews with headsudand/or representatives of 12 schools (mostly national schools and Chinese schools) from four states namelyudSelangor, Kelantan, Sarawak and Sabah as part of a wider project on social cohesion study as well as newspapersudand web sources. The resistance to vernacular schools was premised on the affirmation that national schools rest onudthe idea of inculcating and sustaining national identity as well as facilitating cross-cultural experience andudcommunication while eliminating the more segregating and divisive forces in vernacular schools. By contrast, theudpersistence of vernacular schools pertains to the idea of sustaining minority cultural identity, countering the lack ofudnational schools’ sense of accommodation and questionable quality of education, and refuting the perception ofudvernacular schools as structural cause of disunity. Besides these negotiation difficulties of cultural identities in theudschool system, wider power politics and market politics interplay in influencing the resistance and persistence ofudvernacular schools.