By Datu Haji Salleh bin Sulaiman

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Communications

In many countries today, human resource takes centre stage. Since the last world war, Japan rebuilds her powerhouse through the human factor, an example that is being followed by other countries in Asia, including ours. In a world that sees depleting natural resources and degrading environmental conditions from the impact of rapid and mass industrialisation, thoughtful leaders and thinkers look to the non-perishable items such as the human faculty of learning and thinking. Brain studies had taken various forms to uncover the mystery that had lead to huge discoveries and gain in the knowledge known to mankind so far. And we know that whatever have been acquired is only a small portion of the vast knowledge that had been laid down by the All Knower.

The whole thing centres on the capacity of the people within each nation. In Japan in the 70s, kids and teens would commit suicide if they could not go to college and universities. Some would go for alternative options to go in, in Japan and other countries. Such was the scarcity of places that the fact that one was a university graduate, the establishment would go for their services, relevant or other wise.

The situation has not changed that much but the environment has changed. The Malaysian Government had liberalised higher education towards the end of the last millennium by opening up more places in private and public colleges and universities alike. Before that, Malaysians went abroad in large numbers and the effect were the loss of some useful skills and competencies, which are the essence of the present knowledge society. Revolving to be the centre of educational excellence, a big leap forward had taken place in knowledge infrastructures that covers all forms and modes.

But are we prepared for this? Does our curriculum in the schools and the colleges and universities prepare the human resource for the competencies and competi-tiveness? The only measure that I can think of is how much do we have to train and re-train our people after they had left their places of learning at each stage. This can be measured in numbers and ringgit. The investment then will have to be assessed again whether the training and re-training had actually met the desired competencies and knowledge. Any gap will have to be closed again and again until a level of satisfaction exists. The fortunate thing is, this level is moving with time and investment in this area will be tremendous in the future to sustain the nation’s competitive advantage.

There are worrying indications. Male Malaysians are shying higher education in favour of their other halves. Neighbouring nations had more potential in skills and competencies as a result of early liberalisation of higher education. Our over emphasis on recognition of overseas institutions had left us with some academically oriented approaches, which are gaining less ground in industries and commerce.

To be continued…