Products of national school better, says don

“The school I went to had one of the most diverse compositions in terms of race, culture and financial background.

“The friendships I forged there developed my sense of empathy and the courage to interact and make new connections later in my career,” said the 29-year-old.

Teacher and spoken word artist Illya Syahirah Razif, 30, is living life beyond the typical Malaysian route. She’s currently based in Dakar, Senegal working at a Senegalese American bilingual school as a language arts teacher.

Illya believes the most important things which should be taught to the young in schools are soft skills — acceptance of diversity, emotional literacy, problemsolving skills and critical thinking.

She said Malaysian schools were already diverse with multicultural teachers and students.

“National schools taught me a lot about resistance but I think it all comes from the nature of an individual also,” she said, adding that her parents trained her to be independent.

Physicist Professor Dr Wan Ahmad Tajuddin Wan Abdullah, a Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) alumnus, believed that in some cases, the products of national schools were better than the rest.

Dr Wan Ahmad, who attended a primary school in Kuala Terengganu, said national schools helped people become more accepting of racial and cultural differences.

On the stigma of sending children to national schools, he said there needed to be an ongoing national forum on the national school system and how it was run.

Dr Wan Ahmad said education was constantly changing, thus it was vital that everyone had a say to appreciate what was discussed about.

After graduating from MCKK, he went on to do his Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree at the University of London, the United Kingdom, and obtained a Diploma of Imperial College from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London.

He was conferred a doctorate by the University of London, the United Kingdom.