Live & Learn

The Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013 - 2025 was drawn up after the Ministry of Education reviewed the education system in the country, and decided a new blueprint was needed. The decision was made in the context of the government’s aspiration of preparing our children for the needs of the 21st century, and increasing public and parental expectations of education policy. With 11 transformational shifts spanning three waves over 13 years, is the blueprint still relevant today? Is it possible we need a new one? We discussed this and more with Dato’ Satinah Syed Saleh (Former Member of The National Education Advisory Council) and Shahnaz Al-Sadat (Chairperson, LeapEd Services).

This is an edited recording of the fourth webinar on Malaysia's education challenges, with a focus on Malaysia's Education Blueprint (MEB), and is a collaboration between BFM Media, Edunity Foundation and G25 Malaysia.

The CineBah 2021 virtual short film screening will be held from the 29th of November till the 5th of December. The event will feature short films by 8 award-winning filmmakers from Sabah, and is supported by the Sabah Creative Industry and Economic Innovation Centre (SCENIC) and initiated by a member of their Board of Advisors, filmmaker Nadira Ilana (Telan Bulan Films). Nadira Ilana joins us to discuss the event.

Image credit: Nadira Ilana Instagram page & Wikimedia Commons

We continue our coverage of Pesta TUT, which is a curation of creative events to tackle film censorship. TUT stands for “Tak Diluluskan Untuk Tayangan”, a classification for films that are banned from public screenings by Lembaga Penapisan Filem, but this festival would like to change that to - “Tak Usah Tutup-Tutup” - not necessary to censor. Today, we speak to Lau Kek Huat, a Taiwan-based Malaysian filmmaker, who has had two of his films, including “Absent Without Leave” banned by the local authorities. He joins us to talk about his life as a filmmaker, the ideas behind his films, and to also share his thoughts on film censorship.

Image credit: IMDb and mubi.com

The sixth edition of the annual Refugee Festival (Malaysia) is starting this weekend (3rd - 5th December). Just like last year, in light of the pandemic, the festival will be held online. What’s interesting is that this year, for the first time, the festival will be directed by a refugee himself. We speak to the director of the festival, who’s a refugee from Afghanistan, Saleh Sepas.

Image credit: Saleh Sepas Facebook page & Refugee Festival Facebook page

As a country and as a society, we rely heavily on the migrant workers that make up part of our workforce. But with allegations of forced labour not being uncommon among Malaysian companies, especially with several recent news reports of the United States banning imports from some companies, are we doing enough to tackle and eliminate forced labour? Lawyer and founder of Our Journey, Sumitha Shaanthinni Kishna, joins us to discuss why it’s an issue that has been so difficult for us to tackle.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Rote learning. Improving the quality of teachers. Poor understanding of the English language. The list of complaints about our education system is a long one, but have we collectively tried hard enough in implementing solutions to address the issues in our national education system? Or is it entirely up to the government to fix the problem? Datuk Dr. Habibah Abdul Rahim, former Director-General of Education & Khadijah Abdullah, former CEO of PADU join us to discuss. 

This is an edited recording of the third webinar on Malaysia's education challenges, with a focus on Malaysia's Education Blueprint (MEB), and is a collaboration between BFM Media, Edunity Foundation and G25 Malaysia.

Pesta TUT kicks off this week, and is a curation of creative events to tackle film censorship. TUT stands for “Tak Diluluskan Untuk Tayangan”, a classification for films that are banned from public screenings by Lembaga Penapisan Filem, but this festival would like to change that to - “Tak Usah Tutup-Tutup” - not necessary to censor. We first find out more about the festival as a whole from Anna Har, the co-founder and executive director of the Freedom Film Network, who are co-organising the event. Then we speak to Nora Nabila, the writer and director of the short film "Haus" and Elza Irdalynna, the writer and director of "Molly", whose short films were banned by Lembaga Penapisan Filem.

Image credit: Freedom Film Network

The book Girls Who Dared to Dream, features heroic tales from girls around the world, who didn’t give up on their dreams, even when everything seemed against them. “Girls who Dared to Dream” is part of international humanitarian organisation World Vision's 1,000 Girls campaign, which aims to empower 1,000 girls to live free of fear and achieve their dreams. The book features stories of 10 girls who dreamed big, thought differently, and who were changemakers in their own big and small ways. We speak to two of the girls featured in the book, firstly Addyson from the US, who successfully raised more than 130 thousand US dollars to install clean water pumps in Kenya, and also Akhi from Bangladesh, who started her own sewing business and became a community hero during the pandemic. 

Also joining us to help translate for Akhi is George Sarkar (Manager of Donor Relations in World Vision Bangladesh).

Image credit: Girls Who Dared to Dream book.

HANKidz is an education platform that aims to help children aged 5-12 years old to build confidence, self esteem, focus and a winning attitude. But what exactly do they do and why do they do it? Coach Hank and Evie of HANKidz join us to discuss.

Image credit: hankidz.com

The Melaka State elections took place on the 20th of November. Barisan Nasional proved that despite their defeat at the 2018 General Elections, they are not out of it yet. In Melaka, BN won 21 out of the 28 seats available, a two-third majority. Pakatan Harapan which won 15 seats at the previous elections retained only 5 (4 from DAP, 1 from AMANAH and PKR got completely wiped out). Perikatan Nasional managed to retain two seats. Dr Oh Ei Sun joins us to discuss.

Image credit: wikimedia.commons