Did Muhyiddin take a leaf from my "A School For Every Malaysian" idea? :-D

Govt to reward principals and teachers in country’s top performing schools
By KAREN CHAPMAN

(The Star, 26 October 2009) PUTRAJAYA: Special incentives such as one or two months’ salaries are being considered as tokens of appreciation for the contribution of principals and headmasters in excellent performing schools.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said teachers would also enjoy these incentives as the success of a school was not just dependent on the principal or headmaster but was a joint effort.

(read the rest of the article here)

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Some of the regular readers of this "syiok sendiri" blog would know that I have a long-running debate with KijangMas of DemiNegara fame about the direction of education in Malaysia.

Well...it's more like me doing the debating and he's been a long time running away from confronting me here (although at Kampung DN, he's not afraid to pour his vilest insults on his dissenters and strut about parading his "jaguh status" to his small fanatical crowd of groupies.)

For a recap of his fascist idea of education ala DN, visit the Satu Sekolah Untuk Semua blogsite here. Take particular note of the flavour of the blogs that support this initiative.

My idea for "A School For Every Malaysian" - which shares some similarities with the SSUS efforts but is fundamentally different because it is based on a democratic model - can be read here.

I won't go into the full arguments for and against each version again, as that can be read here,

Unfortunately for my ideas, I do not have a bunch of fanatical groupies to help me spread the news. So it shall just have to languish on my syiok sendiri blog until some lucky day it gets noticed by a big-name personality. He/she may want to use or implement my ideas and maybe he/she will give credit where credit is due. But in this world, that's not likely so I don't hold out much hope of that.

But our DPM cum Education Minister today made an announcement that reflects exactly what I called for in my article written way back in 2 June 2009:

"The current remuneration system for school staff is alright. But it must be further refined to reward performance and merit, not seniority and political connections. Teachers and principals should also be incentivised to be innovative and produce results."

Well, well, well...isn't that something!

Coincidence? Most likely! Did my ideas somehow reach Muhyiddin? Well...

I'm not so big headed as HilangWaras to actually believe that an anonymous blog can influence national policy. But I'm just happy to know that a good idea is getting its due attention. Let's hope that the rest of my "A School for Every Malaysian" ideas will get their due attention too.

And I really, really hope that the Education Ministry is serious about producing excellence in students and not merely excellence of principal's reports to the Ministry...