Maybe we can take into consideration input from child development experts when drafting a new curriculum? Focusing more on basic reading, writing and mathematics in early primary schools and slowly introduce/integrate science and other advance subjects as the students advance.

Have the ability to not give up

Time management.

Empathy.

Study and life balance

At the same time I can imagine the most significant impact a teacher can give to a student who’s falling behind is to catch them, show empathy and reassure them that there is a place in the world for them too. Perhaps they don’t excel academically or in areas traditionally valued by society/ the “system”, the teacher can impact the kid by simply encouraging them.

Flexibility can be when they matured in the university.

During college, my economics teacher always highlights my strength but definitely points out the weakness to allow me to get better

Knowledge vs Information should be distinguished

If students at the K12 level are given more flexibility to choose what they learn, support systems and guidance to help them choose is very important otherwise we risk creating potential new gaps as some students will inevitably have better access to information and guidance to help them navigate.

• Mechanism of cascading new info also needs to be improved so teachers have clarity on any new directives.

• More streamlined and less administrative tasks so that teachers can focus on relationship building that is also a great enabler of student outcomes.

  
  

• Stronger networks for collaboration and resource sharing among teachers beyond their school walls

The focus of physical learning environments at the Ministry level is often limited to overhaul works (hundreds of million are allocated every year to repair about 500 dilapidated schools particularly in Sabah and Sarawak out of over 10,000 public schools in Malaysia), forcing many teachers to take proactive actions to spend their own money to improve their classrooms, often driven by their empathy for students' learning conditions. While I know these efforts are commendable, teachers should not have to bear this burden alone.

I believe there is a need for more structured support at the federal, state and/or district levels for teachers who take initiative in enhancing their school environments i.e national revamp of a shared space like the school library to an innovative learning space, public-private partnership between schools, design firms and their local community, specific incentive for these proactive teachers, training to pitch for funds, how to transition to a newly designed space etc, for a more impactful and sustainable investment in terms of physical school environments.

Highly relevant and recent reference for investment in the school facilities - Constructing Education: Building for Impact

• Syaza Suraini (Researcher - USM School of Housing, Building and Planning, Founder - Malaysian Learning Spaces - MYLES, Malaysian-based member of Learning Environments Australasia , former teacher through the Teach For Malaysia fellowship.

When we invest in digital and physical infrastructure, we also need to ensure that our teachers are continuously trained to reflect, enhance, adjust and modify their teaching practices in the new spaces. New infrastructures but old ways won't make it. Vice versa new ways of teaching but old infrastructures...

2. Employees who have been working in a company for a long time should give opportunities to newcomers. A limit on the number of years one can work in a company could create more job openings for fresh graduates. New employees tend to be more motivated and effective in their roles.

Also just an additional note to not use the term "differently-abled", disabled or disability is not a bad word.

It does mean that policies need to be well thought out, comprehensive (as it should) and elastic enough to accommodate both.

The political interference in education is abundantly clear, where education is more a plaything of the ruling government: racism, whitewashed history, lopsided class hours for religion, sexism, and all manners of humiliating scandals.

What it needs to be: Plainly, life & progress requires critical thinking and sincerity in solving the problems ahead of us. Our education today must build a conducive environment for sharp & active critical thinking, not burn it down. Key improvements need to focus on school-level autonomy, community advocacy programs, and subjects specifically catered for students to face Cabaran Masyarakat Dunia.

A case study slideshow, instead:

The 2020 High Court Judgment

(you may scroll right for the next topic and scroll down for more detail on that topic)

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Today, Malaysia’s children enter a crumbling & dangerous education system: significant and rampant corruption; abuse of power & investigation interference; sexual assault & sexual violence; physical violence leading to hospitalisation or death; and malicious negligence perpetuated by Ministry of Education employees from the school level to district education officers (PPDs), state department officers (JPNs), and the Ministry (KPM) itself. 

The solution is a Public Ombudsman, which most other countries have, for such severe and disturbing cases. What is a Public Ombudsman?

A Public Ombudsman is an investigation and enforcement body outside the Executive to ensure the Executive is legal, efficient, and fair. Most Ombudsman include a powerful whistleblower protection unit; a fiercely public interest litigation unit; a national school & children’s case unit. 

Whistleblowers make outsized impacts on low-power communities including B40, Sabah, Sarawak, and rural areas that have little legal, media, or CSO oversight. Best yet, a Public Ombudsman does not rely on new laws nor regulations. It simply enforces current laws without the commonplace discrimination, unfairness, and illegality.

From Ministry of Education teacher whistleblowers in rural states, the Tiada.Guru campaign organized a quantitative review of their experiences. They live in a rural state and predominantly teach in schools with majority-B40 communities; they have been posted to multiple Federal Government secondary schools with decades of experience. We were shocked to hear they were eyewitnesses to a myriad of egregious abuses of power, backed by evidence:

• at least seven (7) teachers had been months-long absent with teacherless classrooms,

• at least three (3) cases of teachers’ sexually assaulting / molesting / their students with no criminal nor disciplinary action.

• at least ten (10) incidents of leaked national exam questions

• over one hundred (100) cases of breaches of corporal punishment SOP (cases counted per student, per incident)

None (0 of 120) of these cases were ever disclosed to the public, much less reported in any media.

We cannot fix education until we end the cancers of period spot checks, extremely absent teachers, paedophila, stolen education funds, and typical protection / corruption scandals.

Any continued dependency on internal investigations is a recipe for disaster. Honest public servants, such as teachers, are desperately waiting for independent oversight.  Nemo judex in causa sua is the primary principle of natural justice: no one may be a judge in their own cause.

This hallmark failure of Malaysia’s governance must be wholly uprooted and incinerated into the pits of history.

1. Illegitimate internal “investigations” at the school-level: many, if not most, “investigations” involve the perpetrator and the school administrators determining how to silence, intimidate, and halt further exposure. Reputation management and greed are the overwhelming goals: “Don’t hurt the school reputation or we will lose our salaries and pensions.”

2. Commonplace interference with district, state, and federal Education Ministry officers: while management divisions prefer incidents to be quickly silenced under the covers of “you misunderstood your rapist”, for example, larger cases require a mafia-esque system of threats and readily-activated methods to force victims to withdraw police reports, fabricate evidence, and Ministry representatives to lie to the media & public before outrage can grow.

3. Zero whistleblower protection across the public service: honest whistleblowing teachers are often threatened, intimidated, transferred, gaslight, verbally abused, and/or ostracized for “hurting” the school’s reputation.

4. Enormous wealth & power imbalance: most teachers and school administrators in poorer neighborhoods take home between 5x to 20x the monthly salary of their students’ families. In rural communities, often the only exit from the cycle of poverty runs inside your underfunded, often corrupted, and unequal Federal Government school. This often creates a dangerous mentality among errant officers that "nobody cares about these kids--why should I?" 

Further reading:

1. The Public Ombudsman, a Summary: Make Justice the Default — TG

2. The 2020 High Court Judgment — TG

3. Unite Malaysians by Turning On the Lights — TG

   
   

As an example, we posit a new school subject for a new era: Cabaran Masyarakat Dunia (CMD), or loosely translated as Challenges in Our Global Society.

1. CMD introduces students to humanity’s emergent problems and then builds a critical analysis beachhead in five years of secondary school.

   1. Identified crises that fit Malaysia’s environment and cultures include inequality, poverty, oppression, injustice, climate change, patriarchy, corruption, and disillusionment.

   2. CMD then builds key skills through analysis, history, and reflection. Some example topics may include:

      1. First Principles & Defining A Problem

      2. Grassroots Problems & Root Causes

      3. Human Rights Over the Government

      4. Social and Justice Movements

      5. Compassion and Hope in Religion

      6. News & Media Literacy

      7. Modern Colonialism and Oppression

2. Critically, CMD is a new curriculum devised by independent scholars & educators, not by the Ministry. Further, teachers today are already far too burdened and CMD will require a new class of teachers that join the education service to emancipate Malaysians, a priority perhaps not shared by all current educators.

   1. A new curriculum taught to new teachers allows for a historic reset without significant burdens.

   2. Malaysia suffers from significant teacher shortages; a significant cause is the MOE’s failure to address abuse of low-level teachers by senior administrators for their own internal bidding to secure promotions or a larger pension, not to mention the overtly propagandised curriculum. These are both significant “sticks” that widely discourage entering the teaching profession.

3. CMD will require systemic reforms for success. But it is one of the few paths for liberation towards action, instead of further “workshops” and “ideas” that are never implemented.

   1. A school curriculum for action, not obedience

      1. Syllabi: by an oligarchy of top civil servants & politicians; for propaganda & oppression

      2. PdP construction make students as passive listeners instead of critical participants

      3. The syllabi must enable critical thinking in all subjects—not only history or literature

   2. Reverse dangerous, illegitimate gag rules

      1. Laws silence educators’ freedom of speech: imagine if lecturers could not publish!

      2. Without teachers realising this inequality *propaganda, we perpetuate this cycle

      3. Teachers are active citizens: climate, sociology, economy, oppression, politics, human rights

Purpose should be: Emphasis on critical thinking skills, live-long learning and adaptability due to the ever-disruptive nature of world industries which constantly changes the way we work/live

Demotivated: Burnout teachers (most likely due to too much paperwork and low pay).

Methods: Debates, open discussions without judgement, interactive learning, real-life applications/examples, field trips with the ability to interview regular employees.

Digital learning: Recording of lessons that can be accessed upon request, learning basic software for everyday use (excel sheets, how to Google, etc.)