The tragic tale of Malaysian education
by Lee Wei Lian (This article is first published in The Malaysian Insider) What do Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Malaysia’s founding father Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s second richest man T. Ananda Krishnan and YTL chairman Tan Sri Francis Yeoh have in common? The answer: all four studied at once famous schools that are now glaringly absent from the list of 20 high performance schools recently announced by the government. Victoria Institution (Ananda, Yeoh), St John’s Institution (Najib), Penang Free School (Tunku Abdul Rahman) and others like Malacca High School and St Michael’s Institution are all storied schools that have been allowed to fall behind until they are no longer counted as among the elite educational institutions in the country. Just imagine if Eton College in the UK or Raffles Institution in Singapore was not recognised as one of the top schools in their respective countries. That is the equivalent of what has befallen what were once the most respected schoo...