DATUK SERI (DR.) ENG WEI CHUN – BALANCING QUANTITY AND QUALITY FOR YOUTHS
In recent years, Malaysian youth’s education has faced partial imbalance between quality and quantity. Despite the rapid development of Malaysia’s higher education system, a high academic qualification may not meet the need of society. This imbalanced of youth quality has drawn the attention of the community. Even though there are more than 1.4 million students registered in Malaysia’s public and private universities, which is significantly higher than the average of other Southeast Asian countries, this large number of students do not completely fulfil the demands of society, and in order to make our youths have more globally competitiveness, we need to improve the quality of youths. Parenting, plays an important role in addressing this issue because it is the primary environment for children’s growth.
Parenting is the cornerstone of all the education and the first education a child receives, and it’s plays an important role in the process of their growth. As such, it has a significant effect on youth’s development in all spheres, including academic achievement, personal abilities, thinking skills and physical fitness. While social and academic education have a tremendous impact on youths, parenting serve as the foundation of a child’s character and abilities. Numerous Malaysian parents focus their expectations on academic achievements, believing that education can determine a child’s destiny, and the only measures of success are academic achievements along with exam scores.
Asian parents often adopt a strict academic approach to educate them, with high expectations by emphasizing grades and behavioural norms. Although this educational method has its advantages, it can also present major challenges to youth’s social and psychological development. Without a good parenting may lead children to linear thinking. Most inventors come from western countries, because western parenting promotes all-around development of children and fostering reverse thinking. Reverse thinking not only helps people solve problems, but also inspire creativity leading to different outcomes. To cultivate reverse thinking in children, parents must avoid rigid, traditional mindsets and prioritise on mental development of their children. This approach effectively fosters children’s self-confidence, preventing them from being self-contained, allowing them to face all situations with open and enlightened mindset.
Cultivating children’s independence is an essential lesson in parenting, and parents need keep this goal in mind. In many Asian families, parents overindulge their children and striving to fulfil their needs, believing this will allow them to focus more on their academic achievements. This can lead to dependency, making it easier for children to evade responsibility when faced with difficulties. Parents should let go allow their children to learn how to handle situations independently. Through this process, they can learn how to take responsibility and face their setbacks, and allow them to make mistakes so that they can reflect and grow more rapidly.
Growing children’s knowledge and etiquette also contribute their overall quality, enchasing their language skills, observational abilities, and interpersonal skills. In Asian parenting, we often overlooked small details and sociology aspects, yet this can reflect a person’s quality and character. In Western Countries and Japan education included basic sociology, which is the fundamental rule for training children’s thinking. For example, dining etiquette required waiting for everyone to be seated before starting to eat, as a sign of respect for others. Additionally, no sounds should be made while eating, such as smacking lips. The setting of tableware is also significant, and different placement convey different meanings. How one eats and sits matters; the new generation of youths habitually put their feet on the dining chairs which is unacceptable in Western societies.
Dressing is also an art, each occasion has appropriate attire, such as suits, shirts and even ties. External appearance reflects a person’s cultivation and education. One need not rely on brand names to feel confident, as long as their clothing is neat and appropriate, which can also increase others’ positive impressions. Dressing appropriately is not only a form of etiquette and respect for others, but also signifies self-discipline.
These good habits that should be cultivated from a young age, but yest there are often rare in Asian families. Many Asian parents lack awareness of this, make it impossible to educate their children effectively. This has resulted in Malaysian youths becoming more competitive internationally.
In order to adapt the needs of the future society, the education system should focus more on balancing quality and quantity. It should shift from an academic performance- oriented approach to focuses on more holistic development of the child, helps children’s self-discovery, encourage their interests and potential, and helps them develop their social skills, emotional intelligence, and problem-solving ability. Parenting plays a fundamental role in this process. Parents should not only be academic supporters, but also a mentor for their children in independent thinking, creativity, and emotional management.
Overall, youth education is facing the challenge of imbalance between quality and quantity, with parenting plays a critical role. In order to help them adapt better to the future society, parenting should emphasize on children’s comprehensive quality cultivation and love, focusing not only on academic performance, but also developing children’s emotional intelligence, independence and sense of responsibility. With education of love, not limited to physical punishment and reprimands, through effective communication can foster a healthy and strong psychological quality in children. With the join efforts of family and school, youth will be better equipped to face future challenges and develop into innovative, socially adaptive leaders. The success or failure of education is closely linked to the role that parents play. We cannot shift all the responsibility on the school and the government. As parents, we must take on social responsibility.
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