If anyone from the Ministry of Education held an honest, open and non-patronising discussion with our secondary schoolchildren on the subject of history as it is presently taught in school, they would discover that a huge majority of students view it as a painfully boring and an utterly worthless subject. They would also discover that … Read more
On 7 June I was invited to meet with a Kairos group to discuss issues relating to the Malaysian national history curriculum. As an outsider to this country I would of course not want to make public comment on these issues, but was happy to exchange thoughts with a group of friends. I was surprised … Read more
Comment by CPI The Malaysian Insider yesterday (June 8) carried the rather arresting headline ‘Use Interlok as model for history textbooks, says historian’. The article reported a suggestion by Prof. Anthony Milner for Interlok to be used as a model for history textbooks. The reasons given are that the novel is “wonderfully inclusive” and “sympathetic” … Read more
Most Malaysians – including members of the specially appointed government committee to review the history curriculum – may not be aware of the deep roots of the current controversy on the narrow religious and ethno-nationalistic approach that has come to dominate history education in the country. The following essay provides information on two studies that … Read more
Urutan Power Point di bawah telah disediakan oleh Centre of Malaysian Chinese Studies (CMCS) dan Nanyang University Alumni Association of Malaya (NYUAA, Malaya) and dibentangkan kepada awam yang menghadiri upacara pelancaran kempen A Truly Malaysian History pada Mei 15 baru-baru ini. Laporan CMCS dan NYUAA membuat ulasan bahawa skop sempit matapelajaran Sejarah tidak berupaya … Read more
Introduction by CPI Under the Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Menengah (KBSM), the History textbooks used in secondary schools are written by the Education Ministry and published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. The authors for the present KBSM History series are Ahmad Fawzi Mohd Hassan, Mohd Fo’ad Sakdan, Azami Man, Masariah Mispari, Johara Abdul Wahab, Ridzuan … Read more