Developing integrity in school

THE word “integrity” is rooted in the word “integer”. In school, we studied integer in Mathematics. An integer represents a whole number without a fraction. It is a wholesome number. Integrity is likewise. It is the wholesome quality of being honest, righteous and having strong moral principles in life.

We have seen many instances of how compromised integrity breaks trust and all the other foundations of good character.

Trust is built on the basis of consistency in past actions, credibility and congruence in one’s word and deed. In the corporate world, integrity becomes the foundation of good corporate governance.

Recently, there has been hot debate on the relevance and need for the Government to form a National Integrity and Good Governance Department (JITN). I, too, am puzzled on the need for such a department when similar roles are played by the Integrity Institute of Malaysia (IIM), Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission and largely by schools.

In my opinion, the Government should channel its efforts through schools in taking a root-cause approach to develop and build integrity since we spend 13 years schooling.

According to Theodore Roosevelt, “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”

Further, in my book A+B=C, Practical Guide for Students to Develop Attitude and Behavior for Character Building, I stated that “the end to education is character”, and integrity is part of character. Therefore, schools must be entrusted with this role of characterbuilding. All other stakeholders, whether parents, teachers, law makers, corporations, etc, must col- lectively support and rally with the schools during a child’s journey in character-building.

Besides this, I hope the Government also weighs in the following suggestions:

1) Based on the National Blue Ocean Strategy, create our own blue ocean in human development, early childhood (Permata) and other ministries such as Education, Higher Education, Human Resources, Science, Technology and Innovation as well as Youth and Sports be realigned under one ministry called “High Value Added People Development Ministry”. The ministry should be overseen by a competent senior minister supported by the respective ministers involved in the value-added chain for national worth and development.

2) Revisit the focus and emphasis of the economy based on the GDP index. Focus instead on the Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index, adopting some of the practices used in Bhutan. A happy nation is a prosperous nation. Ultimately, it is every individual’s quest to seek happiness so let this index be the barometer.

3) Reignite the Rukunegara as it is the fabric of our nation. It explains our ingredients for a cohesive nation, including one that upholds integrity via the Constitution.

4) Build in schools a comprehensive character curriculum based on student-community engagement and not on moral examination. I believe that teaching moral values in school would suffice but determining these values through examination is improper. Moral is determined by experience in life and not through paper examinations.