Education Ministry regrets distorted report on Prof Pritchett’s statement
PUTRAJAYA: The Education Ministry has expressed its disappointment over an online media report which distorted a statement made by Prof Lant Pritchett of Harvard University on the quality of local graduates.
In a statement here yesterday, the ministry said the report which quoted out of context the actual views of the professor, had gone viral and required an open denial from the academician.
“The Education Ministry appreciates the views of Prof Pritchett that learning that is too focused on memorisation and rote learning for examination achievements at school level will not help the development of pupils and students at tertiary and higher levels.
“Nonetheless, the ministry regrets that the learned views and opinions were distorted in the heading of a media report (on Thursday) forcing Prof Pritchett to openly deny the heading,” the statement said.
The open denial was followed by an apology by the portal that the United States researcher did not make any comments on the quality of Malaysian graduates.
The statement mentioned that the Education Ministry was always open to any views to advance and strengthen further education policies apart from appreciating any difference of opinions on education programmes and initiative implementation.
The Education Ministry took a lesson from the incident to strengthen its commitment to continue developing the education agenda by not only producing students who are knowledgeable, with good morals and able to adapt to future challenges and uncertainties, the statement said. — Bernama