“Behind S’pore, Vietnam & Brunei” – Yeo Bee Yin Raises Concerns About Malaysia’s Failing Education System

Puchong Member of Parliament (MP) Yeo Bee Yin recently shared some concerning statistics regarding Malaysia’s education system, stressing that the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 has not yielded any encouraging results.

Speaking in the Dewan Rakyat on Monday (4 March), Yeo, who is also the former Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change, raised the issue of our country’s education standard which is faltering compared to other Southeast Asian countries. 

Malaysia’s concerning PISA performance

Puchong mp, yeo bee yin

She said that she was deeply concerned by the recent performance of Malaysian students in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which is made every 4 years to assess the capabilities of children aged 15 years in reading, mathematics and science.

Yeo further revealed,

“The latest (PISA) results showed that Malaysia is ranked 60th, 53rd and 52nd out of 80 countries for reading, mathematics and science, respectively.”

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The Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 has failed to reach its target

The Puchong MP then brought out the Executive Summary for Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 which was launched when Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was Education Minister some 11 years ago. 

Yeo said that the blueprint was made for RM20 million during the time as the then Education Minister appointed a famous international consultant McKinsey to create it.

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However, the Puchong MP claimed that the blueprint has largely failed in achieving the targets that it was set out to achieve, including improving our standings in the top third of PISA standings within 15 years, which would be in 2028.

Yeo asserted,

“11 years after the blueprint was launched and just 4 years until the 2028 target, Malaysia is still in the bottom third group in PISA. In Southeast Asia, we’re in 4th place behind Singapore, Vietnam and Brunei.”

“I’ve read in detail the latest PISA analysis and it’s deeply concerning. In Malaysia, only 41% of students achieved at least the second level in mathematics,”

The Puchong MP further revealed that Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Estonia all achieved over 85% compared to Malaysia’s 41% for the second level in mathematics. Furthermore, Vietnam achieved 72% in the same metric, a 31% difference compared to Malaysia.

Malaysia is no longer competing with Singapore but with Vietnam

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Yeo then stressed that she’s very concerned about our future generation as they may not even be able to compete with Vietnam, let alone Singapore. She asserted,

“Vietnam is catching up very fast and they’re doing everything, a lot of things right. If we continue to relax, I’m concerned that the future generation can no longer compete with them. Not competing with Singapore but competing with Vietnam.”

You can watch snippets of Yeo’s speech in this edited video by DAP Malaysia here:

Watch the Puchong MP’s full speech in the Dewan Rakyat here:

So, what do you guys think of the concerns raised by Yeo? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

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