Abstract
In several parts of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013 – 2035, one can find several statements that rightly give importance to values education related to the spiritual and moral development of students in Malaysian schools. These statements can be identified in the aspirations of the blueprint towards the education system and also towards the students as well as in one of the 11 main shifts underlined by the authors of the blueprint to transform the national education system. While some of the action plans and initiatives recommended in the blueprint come across as efforts to strengthen values education in Malaysian schools, other initiatives could raise concerns. First, these initiatives are somewhat not substantive and secondly, some of them are perhaps questionable, both in theory and in practice. Hence, this paper aims to point out these concerns to those who have interest in values education and concurrently offer suggestions for consideration regarding other related matters. A general aim of the blueprint is to produce Malaysian citizens who internalise values and specifically, to strengthen values education thus ensuring the spiritual and moral development of Malaysian students. Indeed, there is no shortage of ideas concerning ways to promote students’ maturity in values and this network of ideas and measures entails placing the responsibility for values education not just on one group (the values education teachers) or programme (the Islamic Education and Moral Education subjects), but on all school heads and teachers as well as adults at home and in the community outside the school.
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Corresponding author: Abdul Rahman bin Md Aroff Email: rahmanmdaroff@gmail.com
JIRE is a publication of the Centre for Research in Education & Instructional Technologies, School of Education, Taylor’s University Sdn Bhd
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Aroff, A. Values Education and the Malaysia Education Blueprint. J Interdiscip Res Educ 4, 5 (2014). https://doi.org/10.7603/s40933-014-0005-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.7603/s40933-014-0005-1