Design sustainable and holistic curriculum to meet students’ needs

I REFER to the letter “Education system in need of major revamp” (The Star, April 30). The writer’s concerns are not baseless as the negative effects can be spotted easily in the education ecosystem. Eventually, the undesirable effects would be absorbed by the nation’s industries and finally go down to the people.

In general, the education ecosystem can be divided into two: internal ecosystem and external ecosys- tem. Within the internal ecosystem are several important elements that are mainly related to the education providers. These include governing bodies, places of learning (universities, colleges, and schools), and the programmes, courses and human resources needed (lecturers/teachers, teaching and learning aspects, curriculum, assessment and accreditation).

The external ecosystem encom- passes non-education providers who are directly or indirectly impacted by the workings of the internal ecosystem. These include students and their parents and families, industries, society, the environment and, of course, the nation.

What sort of students do we need? Is it ethical for them to treat money and material comforts as their priorities for gaining education?

I strongly believe in a holistic and sustainable curriculum that allows the appropriate determination of technical competency (nonsoft skills) and non-technical competency (soft skills and attitudes) that we intend to inculcate into our students regardless of their levels. Although both competencies require different learning curves (non-technical competency needs longer time to instil), appropriate thought and design of the curricu- lum would do the magic.

Revamping our education system is not a one-person show, however. Holistic efforts and support from all elements within the ecosystems must be in place.

Each element must acknowledge their responsibilities and do what is expected of them wholeheartedly.