by Ronald Benjamin
Association for Welfare, Community and Dialogue
According to news reports, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has said that Malaysian authorities will roll out a new strategy to strengthen their presence in schools.
This comes after a string of major crimes reported in the country’s educational institutions recently..
The move comes in response to a Cabinet directive for the Home Affairs ministry, through the Royal Malaysia Police, to enhance police presence on school grounds as part of broader efforts to curb rising juvenile crime.
While such moves are vital from a community’s aspirations for the safety of schools from possible crimes, what is clearly needed in schools is to create a positive , nurturing, and empowering environment for students of all backgrounds irrespective of academic performance, so that no students feel marginalised in the school system.
Crimes happen when there is failure to pay attention to certain behaviors of students ,since the mere focus is on producing top academic performers while paying less attention to students who may not meet expectations or have bad behavior.
Malaysia’s education system is very much utility based which focuses on a useful aspect of a task,while ignoring other aspects of education that values good morals.
This is in spite of religious classes in schools which are more in keeping with identity needs rather than creating human persons of integrity.
To create human persons of integrity, the highest virtue of love should be the guiding principle that would help schools to be free from crimes.
Love , especially when it’s understood as a disposition of commitment , benevolence and action rather than just an emotion, is critical in enduring human relations whether it’s between parents and children or teacher and students.
While emotions can be fleeting, love as a virtue involves consistent, deliberate actions like patience, kindness, and self-sacrifice, as described in religious and philosophical texts .
In such a context, the ideology that tilt towards race and religion has little influence,but a commitment to love for the wellbeing and good of the others irrespective ethno-religious identity takes precedence.
This helps build wholeness in the identity of students,instead of measuring them merely on academic performance.
In this context of holding the virtue of love as prime motive in dealing with students, other virtues that are related could be inculcated such as prudence,justice,temperance and fortitude.
Characters are built from these virtues.
Therefore lets go beyond merely policing schools for crime and revamp our education system that would help bring about wholeness and integrity in the hearts of our students.
===========================
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Ipoh Echo
