Course Accreditation - A Good Move If Implemented Responsibly.
All courses, including those currently offered by higher education institutions and their future programmes, must receive the necessary accreditation from the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), which will come into force next year. Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed said the MQA bill was in the final stages and needed some minor fine-tuning before it was tabled in Parliament in September.
Once passed, the act would define new standards for higher education in the country, both in the private and public sectors. "Accreditation will be compulsory, it is voluntary under the present regime. The objective is to enhance quality to ensure Malaysians and foreigners have confidence in our higher education system," he told reporters after chairing a dialogue session on the MQA with industry experts, here Monday.
Once the MQA came into force, he said the National Accreditation Board (LAN), the ministry's Quality Assurance Division and the Polytechnics and Community Colleges would be merged. In 1996, the government set up LAN to ensure quality and standards of all courses and training programmes offered by private institutions, while the Quality Assurance Division, established in 2002, monitored pogrammes conducted by public institutions of higher learning.
**** Accreditation of courses is a very important step in the plan to make Malaysia a regional centre of excellence in education. However, as with almost every good programme the education ministry thinks up, the problem lies at the implementation stage. It is here that warped minds take over and deal a death blow to good intentions.
While the Minister of Higher Education himself has impeccable credentials the same cannot be said of his officers. He has to ensure the accreditation exercise does not have to follow any invisible guidelines that somehow include elements of the NEP inside. Quality should have no quotas. Whether they be bumi or non-bumi entities they should be measured by the same yardstick. This is not an area to worry about the 'have not' Malays being left behind.
At this stage the players are all acccomplished and can and must engage on equal terms. If some Malay education groups have performed badly it has nothing to do with any historical disadvantages that have to be set right. They have to blame themselves and their inefficiency and poor planning, apart from the desire to make quick profits.
Therefore minister, accreditation is a welcome measure to improve the delivery of first class education. However a responsible and fair system of evaluation has to be rigorously implemented by officers who have the negara and not the bangsa uppermost in their minds when doing so.
Once passed, the act would define new standards for higher education in the country, both in the private and public sectors. "Accreditation will be compulsory, it is voluntary under the present regime. The objective is to enhance quality to ensure Malaysians and foreigners have confidence in our higher education system," he told reporters after chairing a dialogue session on the MQA with industry experts, here Monday.
Once the MQA came into force, he said the National Accreditation Board (LAN), the ministry's Quality Assurance Division and the Polytechnics and Community Colleges would be merged. In 1996, the government set up LAN to ensure quality and standards of all courses and training programmes offered by private institutions, while the Quality Assurance Division, established in 2002, monitored pogrammes conducted by public institutions of higher learning.
**** Accreditation of courses is a very important step in the plan to make Malaysia a regional centre of excellence in education. However, as with almost every good programme the education ministry thinks up, the problem lies at the implementation stage. It is here that warped minds take over and deal a death blow to good intentions.
While the Minister of Higher Education himself has impeccable credentials the same cannot be said of his officers. He has to ensure the accreditation exercise does not have to follow any invisible guidelines that somehow include elements of the NEP inside. Quality should have no quotas. Whether they be bumi or non-bumi entities they should be measured by the same yardstick. This is not an area to worry about the 'have not' Malays being left behind.
At this stage the players are all acccomplished and can and must engage on equal terms. If some Malay education groups have performed badly it has nothing to do with any historical disadvantages that have to be set right. They have to blame themselves and their inefficiency and poor planning, apart from the desire to make quick profits.
Therefore minister, accreditation is a welcome measure to improve the delivery of first class education. However a responsible and fair system of evaluation has to be rigorously implemented by officers who have the negara and not the bangsa uppermost in their minds when doing so.
posted by The Malaysian. at 6/20/2006 11:30:00 AM
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