Syed Nadzri on Tuesday: MCKK can see reforms through

01 Aug 2006
Syed Nadzri

THE Raja Muda of Perak, Dr Raja Nazrin Shah, couldn’t have made it clearer enough — the Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) should be given the opportunity to be a prime mover in the country’s shift towards a more advanced education system.

For the second time in about a year, he said the education programme at the college, one of the oldest fully-residential schools in Malaysia, should be implemented using a new and more contemporary method and approach.

At the MCKK Speech Day two days ago, he said 21st century challenges demanded critical reforms in the education system, geared towards producing the right human capital.

Being chairman of the school board, Raja Nazrin knows MCKK has what it takes to see grand reforms through.

The 101-year-old school, for one, has a rich tradition and a distinguished record of producing some of the country's top administrators and businessmen over the years.

Though it seemed to have lost some of its sparkle now, MCKK can regain its glory, given the opportunity.

The Raja Muda’s statement seemed to also fit in nicely with what Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said last month about the Government’s plan to create world-class schools and, if necessary, to even give autonomy to the more established schools.

MCKK was one of the schools mentioned by the minister, which shows that such an aspiration already exists.

Of course, aspiration is one thing, and making it happen is quite another.

On this, Raja Nazrin again couldn’t have said it better on home ground two days ago: "Policy statements of the country’s leaders, which stressed the importance of human capital development programmes with a view to enriching the knowledge and equipping the country’s human capital with the exposure to be more competitive globally, should be realised quickly.

"If not, all the policy statements will become mere rhetoric; hence, a gap will emerge between the aspiration and the implementation, and between the dream and the achievement."

Spot on.