The Gemilang 70 Celebration also inaugurated what would hopefully be an Annual Series of Oration named the Tun Hamdan Oration - in recognition of the first Headmaster of STAR who rose to become the 1st Education Advisor to the Government ( the equivalent of the present Director General of Education for the Ministry of Education).
The orator for this year was Tan Sri Arshad Ayub who was a pioneering Director of the MARA College - responsible for creating the initial batches of bumiputeras trained in Accountancy, Finance, Banking, Transport etc etc.
He spoke on the topic of " Memperkasakan Sekolah Kebangsaan " - sharing his concerns at the ( perceived ) deterioration of the standards of education in National Schools and the drift of children from the upper class families towards Private School and even towards vernacular Chinese schools. Discussion on the increasing racial divide undermining efforts towards multiracial unity emphasised on the needs to improve the quality and standards in National schools so that these schools will become the schools of first choice for all parents.
Tan Sri Arshad suggested that a holistic approach to the teaching of Bahasa Malaysia should make the language more accessible and relevant in the commercial and professional world. English language proficiency must be greatly improved and other mother-tongue languages should be offered to all students. Tan Sri Arshad also commented on the fact that most National schools have a majority of only Malay teachers with the non-Malay teachers increasingly gravitating to private and international schools which will further aggravate the racial divide. He also shared his anxieties about what he perceived as the Malay teachers and academics in the institutes of higher education of having fallen into a 'comfort zone' and having developed an attitude of not working hard enough to push the students to excel themselves.
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