Malaysia : Making Patriotism Trough Primary School Education Essay

Discussing about creating the nation-state in all country seems to be the same. It should include too many times, property or self-sacrifice in order to making the â€Å"intelligence typical patriotism stereotype† among the citizens. It is depends on the strategy that applied to achieve the goal of â€Å"united people†. Taken from Malay aphorism â€Å"melentur buluh biarlah daripada rebungnya† seems to be the correct words to explain the strategy of creating this sort of thinking to the Malaysian people. The meaning is, when we want to â€Å"train† somebody, we should to start from the beginning of his life. Back to the point, Malaysia consist of more over 28. 3 million of population and separated into more than 50 ethnic randomly, and also consist a various believe and religion. However, they believe that they live in a peaceful and harmony country that no discrimination according to their ethnicity because they are in â€Å"one nation-state†. Thus, this mean the succeeded through the education able to abolished this sort of thinking. Primary school, is the first medium to educate the â€Å"fresh citizen† in order to create the citizen who love their country. Basically, Malaysia had two different elementary school that can be divide to three categories. There are â€Å"Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK)† which teach all Malaysian student with â€Å"no specific priority† and â€Å"Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (SJK)† which we can divide to two, there are â€Å"Sekolah Jenis Kebangsan Cina (SJKC)† for the Malaysian Chinese and â€Å"Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil (SJKT)† for the Malaysian Indian. For instantly, there is no obstacles to create this patriots even the school are separated. The question is, how do Malaysia do to overcome this problem? In this article, I will revealed how, through the study of Literacy, Art and â€Å"Spiritual and Morality† that teaching to the â€Å"fresh citizen† in a primary school, contribute to the creating of a nation. More than learning the languages, literacy teaching in primary school also aimed to deliberate the first layer of Malaysian history to the elementary school student. This shows, in the ages of seven until twelve years old, the pupils are expose about the beginning of nation state through language and history. Moreover, the literacy is not limited. It is consist of whole element of study. In addition, it is not only practices in the school, but also out from the teaching and learning session. For example, â€Å"Bahasa Melayu† is the compulsory subject that teaching in all types of school. The syllabus of this subject, is not only concern in reading, grammar, comprehension or composition, but the aim to teach this subject, is to exposed to the learning of the first languages and also the various ethnicity of Malaysia. Yes, languages is one of the â€Å"main course† in creating the nation. Thus, this subject are reliable and help much. In addition, the literacy also combined the â€Å"General History† teaching through the same subject. For examples Gurindam and Pantun which known as the tradition of the Malay, also learn about the different of Ethnic, Traditional Wearing, Festival and so on. From the argument, this shows the literacy teaching in primary school indirectly, help the pupils to know the Malaysian in the best medium. Secondly, I would like to stand with the most best approach in gain and grab the attention of the â€Å"Fresh Citizen† who are have the limited information of the â€Å"nation state†. Through the â€Å"Art† studies, this â€Å"Upstart Citizen† will easily conduct to the patriotism. In a primary school, most of the subjects teaching are connected with art. Thus art is not limited to the subject of Painting and Music. It is included in the syllabus of the other subject. But the question is, how far this subject can contribute to the shaped of nation state?. It kind of nonsense when talking about the â€Å"Malaysian Administration† to the kid who are not reached â€Å"Puberty† of course. But, we can teach them about the tradition and ethnicity. How? By subject painting art, there are syllabus on painting the poster of â€Å"traditional wearing† and the poster of â€Å"Malaysian peaceful state†, â€Å" Malaysian Festival† and so on. While, in Music subject, the pupils sing a song from 1Malaysia culture Language such as, song of â€Å"SuriRam† the Malay epic song, â€Å"Surang Gani† the Tamil song present the indian Malaysian, â€Å"Wo Hen How† the Mandarins song present Chinese ethnic and other ethnic songs. The best part is, during school assembly, they are required to sing the national anthem â€Å"Negaraku†, the state anthem and their school song. As we know the music is one of the attractive medium to deliver massage. Thus the â€Å"Negaraku† or other patriotic song can be the medium to educate the â€Å"Upstart Citizen† to be one of the state lover. It is reliable prove that the art subject in primary school, give the big impact to promote and contribute to the nation state. Next, through the spiritual and morality subject such as â€Å"Pendidikan Agama Islam†, â€Å"Pendidkan Moral†, and â€Å"Pendidikan Sivik† the pupils are taught about the positive value such as grateful, patriotism, love, helping each other, hardworking, etc. This shows the this subject is not only focus on the religion purely, but, the pupils are exposed to become the better citizen of Malaysia. To go trough one by one, â€Å"Pendidikan Agama Islam† basically teach the â€Å"religion needed† to the Muslim. There is generally about â€Å"Fardhu Ain† and â€Å"Fardhu Kifayah† which each of this teaching concern on the basic â€Å"Muslim Ummah† that concern to the â€Å"Islamic Lifestyle† that shows the good attitude. â€Å"Pendidikan Moral† is the subject that teach the Morality of being the good citizen in term of manners and healthy life style. While â€Å"Pendidikan Sivik† is teaching about the civic manners in a country. The similarity of this three subject are, its aim to â€Å"Brainwash† the â€Å"Fresh Citizen† to be a citizen that have a â€Å"Good Manners†, indirectly, its contribute to the developing the manners of the citizen in an nation state. To sum up, the primary education are the best time to shaped the minded of its citizen in order to be the nation-state because the â€Å"Fresh citizen† are more easier to adapt the new information and can stay along with the new environment . Malaysia got a various ethnicity and have the separated primary school, but, its no mean the spirit of the self-belonging to Malaysia cannot be develop. The syllabus teaching in all primary school seems to be the same. The Literacy, Art and Spiritual and Morality, shows through this taught of subject in primary school can produce the citizen that love their nation-state. Additional Reference 1) Ayop, M, R,. (2011) Gagasan 1Malaysia : Kesinambungan Bina Negara-Bangsa : Gempita Maju Sdn. Bhd. , Selangor. D. E 2) Imran A. (2013) Tingkat Semangat Patriotik Melalui Lagu : Bernama. [Online] Available at: http://web10. bernama. com 3) Muslim, N. & Alias, J. (unknown) PATRIOTISME: KONSEP DAN PELAKSANAANNYA DI MALAYSIA. : UKM [Online] Available at : http://repo. uum. edu. my/1866/1/35. pdf ——————————————– [ 1 ]. BERNAMA, (2013). Penduduk Malaysia kini 28. 3 juta : Berita Harian [Online] available at : http://www. bharian. com. my/bharian/articles/PendudukMalaysiakini28_3juta/Article/artikel [ 2 ]. Zainuddin, R. (2006), Perkembangan pendidikan di Malaysia : Penyata razak 1956, Sejarah Malaysia, Malaysia : Fajar Bakti Selangor D. E [ 3 ]. Prof. madya Hj Ibrahim, (2009) PENDIDIKAN SENI DI MALAYSIA ANTARA HARAPAN DAN REALITI [Online] Availale at : http://wwwartstudent. blogspot. com/2009/10/pendidikan-seni-di-malaysia-antara. html [ 4 ]. Unknown (2012) SUKATAN PELAJARAN PENDIDIKAN ISLAM SEKOLAH RENDAH [Online] Available at : http://amrahahmad. blogspot. com/2012/04/sukatan-pendidikan-islam-sekolah-rendah. html.