DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WESTERN & EASTERN PHILOSOPHY

Education is a mixture of information, knowledge and skills that is taught to individuals

usually by teachers, to allow students to be able to carry out and achieve a specific goal
within a specified period of time. As such, the efficiency and accuracy of the national
education philosophy must be top notch to produce such individuals who can contribute to
society. There are two types of education philosophies namely the Western and Eastern
philosophies.

The Western philosophy of education encompasses two schools, both traditional and
modern. It is connected to the roots of Athens and Rome, while the Eastern philosophy
encompasses Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and Vedas. This is the foundation that
influences the system of life which designs their education system based on the fundamental
belief. Both sets of philosophies have different ways of thinking that will in turn, shape the
individuals from that system differently. As such, the different philosophies from different
cultures can cause a myriad of differences in the individuals that are borne from it. There are
several differences between the Western and Eastern philosophy of education, and I will be
shedding some light on the differences.

First and foremost, the western philosophy emphasizes on students active learning,
while Eastern philosophy emphasize on passive learning. Philosophers such as Socrates,
Plato and Aristotle from Western philosophy encouraged rational and critical thinking. In
general, students in the Western philosophy were trained to be active participants in the
classroom as it leans more towards a student centric classroom. This will further motivate
students to engage actively in the classroom through the sharing session and students will
also get to maximise their role to produce an effective learning experience. As an example,
students are encouraged to participate in group discussions and share their opinions or even
present the ideas to the class. This will somehow provide them the platform to use the
language in use, improve their interpersonal skills and boost their confidence. Whereas
students from the Eastern philosophy of education, attained knowledge directly from
teachings of their religion like Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. This way of
acquiring and transmitting knowledge is considered to be a one-way street as they are taught
rules and regulations and will have to follow them strictly.

Students from the Western philosophy are given the platform to showcase their talents
and capabilities by solving problems on their own accord. Students are capable of solving
problems due to the fact that they will be assigned to a particular topic beforehand so that
they will be able to do some research on the topic and provide their input during the
discussion. Through this, students will learn to skim and scan for important information.
Thornton (1995) stated that students will be able to become better critical thinkers through
problem solving and this has been a hallmark of Western education. However, Eastern
education emphasizes on a teacher-centric classroom which means the teacher has the
autonomy to control and direct the class. The teacher has to prepare and plan activities for the
students as students will receive all the necessary materials from the teacher. This is a sort of
spoon-feeding culture ,whereby the students will be spoon-fed by the teacher throughout the
course. In addition, since the students were trained to be passive learners, they are not
encouraged to share their opinions or views to the class because they have not conducted
their own research. In certain situations, the teachers will pose rhetorical questions directed at
the classroom which will be answered by the teachers themselves. In addition, teachers rarely
change their approach to learning as more emphasis is placed on the theoretical aspect than
the practical aspect of learning.

On the other hand, students from the Western education are encouraged to play their
role as an active participant in the classroom, they are given the autonomy and rights to take
control of their learning. Thus, teacher’s role in the classroom is more of a facilitator, guider,
tutor and participant. Teachers in the Western education guide the students to discover and
develop their capabilities and potentials meanwhile, the Eastern philosophy of education is
based on the notion of teaching where students only receive knowledge from the educators.
For Eastern philosophy, educators are more of a walking textbook and will need to have
additional skills such as maintaining good relationship with the students, delivering ideas and
the ability to teach.

Furthermore, Westerners believe that great education is when students are allowed to
be open minded and can generate ideas that will be meaningful to the society. Students will
critically evaluate and acquire knowledge by understanding the topic being learnt instead of
memorising and this will enable them to analyse the knowledge gained critically and enable
them to draw their own conclusions on the topic. Therefore, students acquire knowledge by
understanding the concept and students will be able to learn deeper. In addition to this,
students from Western education employ discussions amongst themselves to learn better and
also are trained to take notes in real time during classes which will allow them to understand
the topic better. Nonetheless, Easterners emphasized on the notion of memorization (rote
learning) as the primary focus is given to book learning and memorization. The education
system in the East is very much exam oriented and thus, educators are expected to complete
the coursebook within the given timeframe so that learners can sit for the examinations. For
instance, the Chinese philosophy of education functions based on rote learning and
memorization and if the students are able to memorise the rules, they will be able to pass the
test.

Apart from that, Western philosophy of education encourages learners to be

themselves and express themselves freely thus, encouraging and promoting creativity
amongst students. Furthering the point mentioned above, mistakes are regarded as a way of
learning and they accept mistakes positively because students are allowed to express
themselves freely. Eastern philosophy of education on the other hand, stresses on authenticity
and conformity. Students are required to follow all school rules as these rules help to produce
perfect individuals that adhere to the teacher’s examples and moral edicts.

As such, both styles of philosophy of education have their own distinct, core
principles in their approach to produce model citizens because education is seen as the canvas
upon which each philosophy paints its own version of a model citizen. Therefore, it can be
said that both Western and Eastern philosophies of education has its own pros and cons as
both philosophies have different beliefs and culture. Western philosophy of education
emphasizes on a more student-centered approach, active learning, rational and critical
thinking, individualism, creativity and meaningful learning. On the other hand, the Eastern
philosophy of education emphasizes on a more passive learning, teacher-centered, rote
learning and memorization, learn traditional values and originality.

Thornton, Stephanie. (1995). Children Solving Problems. Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard

University Press.
WESTERN P.O.E & NEP

Both Western and Eastern philosophies of education have impacted the Malaysian Education
System in various ways. I will discuss further on these two with appropriate examples by
linking to our education system. The Western philosophy of education consists of
Perennialism, Essentialism, Progressivism, Reconstructivism and Existentialism while the
Eastern philosophy of education consists of Japanese, Chinese and Indian.

First and foremost, some elements of Perennialism can be related to our NEP. The
goals of Perennialism are to help students think rationally and to develop minds that think
critically. This can be related to the aim of the NEP which is to further develop students in a
holistic and integrated manner by producing individuals who are intellectual, spiritual,
emotional, and physical. This helps to develop the qualities of a human by producing critical
thinkers and innovators by giving more focus on humanity sciences. For instance, this is done
by inculcating subjects like Science, Mathematics, Arts, Literature and Language in the
Malaysian Secondary school curriculum.

Next, this philosophy also develops students’ intellectual and moral qualities. For
instance, religion is constant, it is not going to change regardless of its era. Thus, teaching
students something constant in the concept of God and Religion will help them to apply this
later in their future. With regards to the NEP, the element of belief in and obedience to God
can be applied by practicing all the teachings of the faith professed, every individual is
responsible for his deeds and actions and the God determines nature’s laws and phenomena.
This is done through the Islamic and Moral subjects in primary and secondary schools where
the Islamic teacher disseminates religious knowledge to Muslims, while the non-Muslim
students will be taught on moral values. Similarly, the spiritual element is also one of the
elements of perennialism where students need to possess a good character and uphold moral
values as perennialists focus on personal progress. The Islamic and Moral subjects will guide
the students to possess good moral values and characters through the teachings.

Furthermore, one of the principles of Perennialism is that every child gets an equal
education regardless of their sex, social class, race or religion. Education is meant to prepare
ourselves for the future. Students should be taught certain basic subjects that will explain to
them the world’s permanencies. This can be integrated under the element of education where
it is an on-going effort where every child should get equal education from early on till their
death. Educations is needed because it is a process of acquiring and sharing knowledge, noble
values and skills. For instance, according to the five system aspirations for the Malaysian
education system, the Malaysian government has promised that every child will get sufficient
access to education that will enable them to unlock their full potentials and this will be done
through providing full enrolment for all students from the ages of 6 to 17 by the year 2020.
The ministry also promised to ensure that every child will receive the best possible education,
and this be done to reduce the current gaps in achievement stemming from geography, gender
and social economic background.

On the other hand, since this is a teacher -centered approach, most of the knowledge
sharing and transferring will be done by the teachers and thus, there are few elements of
Philosophy of Teacher Education (PTE) that is connected to Perennialism. The first element
is the personal-well being of the teachers where they portray good personality, discipline,
well-mannered and morally good to the students. When teachers portray themselves in this
image, students would regard them as a role model and try to follow them. For example,
when teacher inculcate the knowledge or values through the Islamic and Moral subjects, they
will be viewed as a role-model from their behaviour and students may learn something even
very minute from the teacher.

The other roles of teachers are mostly on transferring knowledge from older
generation to younger. The teacher utilizes history, philosophy, literature, science, and
religion to reinforce ideas to the students. This is because, as the younger generation, we will
be able to learn from the past and also able to get to know about our past. This falls under the
element of being ready to uphold the nation’s aspirations which are fostering a sense of pride
with respect to our diversified culture and nurture patriotism and love for the country through
the History subject or Sejarah and Geography subject. Teachers can inculcate the patriotism
or love for country into the students through the History and Geography subjects by
explaining to them the struggles our nation had to go through in order to achieve
independence and this will for sure motivate students to learn and in fact, they will start to
value the leaders that fought for independence and carry the pride along with them.
Secondly, Essentialism can be related to the NEP, under the intellectual element, where
students will have to possess the basic skill (3R), namely reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Students should always strive to acquire and develop true knowledge. Students should
possess creative, critical, and reflective thinking skills and they are willing to share their
knowledge with others. This is done to produce individuals that can think wider and possess
qualities that are firm in language and knowledge. This can be seen in the Malaysia’s primary
level curriculum (KSSR) which consists of five main subjects that can be examined namely
English, Science, Mathematics Islamic education and Bahasa Melayu. We can conclude that
emphasis is given to elementary skills which make up the 3Rs, namely, reading, writing, and
arithmetic. As a continuation from the point above, since this is a subject-centered philosophy
that focuses mainly in teaching the basic skills, Essentialist teachers will focus on
disseminating a chain of progressively difficult chapters and aim to promote students to
higher levels systematically. As such, the subject matter taught is closely related to the main
subjects and will also include History and culture which would then progress to the current
world we live in today.

Next, Essentialist also help with the holistic and integrated development of the
individual. The enhancements and development should preferably encompass four aspects
namely, spiritual, intellectual, physical and emotional. As for the spiritual element, students
are expected to possess good characteristics that is accepted by the society and uphold to
moral values. Essentialism can be referred to as a traditional approach in education. This is
because it aspires to inoculate students with the pertinent necessities in terms of academic
knowledge and development of character. While the emotional element expects students to be
matured and have stable emotions, possess and nurtures love and the feeling of togetherness.
This is seen when the teacher helps to keep students’ non-productive natural feelings such as
violence and mindlessness at bay in order to produce valuable members of society. This is
instilled into the students through subjects like Islam and Moral in school where they are
taught on the good values and socially accepted norms by the society. Thus, individuals will
be balance of the 4 aspects which will then produce individuals who can live in harmony with
others.
 Besides that, students will have to strive hard in order to achieve success in academic
and this falls under the element of education is an on-going effort. The mode of instruction in
an essentialism classroom would begin with teacher centred learning during which students
would have to be taking down notes. The students then will be tested through assessments of
which would be preceded by hands-on projects and worksheets and this would go on for a
year and if the said student satisfies the minimum criteria of passing, he or she will progress
to the next level. Thus, able to produce hardworking and intellectual Malaysian citizens as
well as bring harmony to the society.

Similarly, there are also some elements of Philosophy of Teacher Education (PTE)
connected to Essentialism. Firstly, the readiness to uphold the nation’s aspirations element in
which teachers are fully responsible in fostering a sense of pride with respect to our
diversified culture, comprehends the nation’s unique culture and nurture patriotism and love
for the country. The main objective of essentialist education is to pass on the traditional
knowledge and cultural heritage of a particular society and civilization to the students. Since
this is a teacher-centered and subject-centered approach and most of the attention is being
diverted to these sides, the teacher is responsible to uphold the nation’s aspirations. For
instance, when the teacher teaches the Islam, History and Geography subjects, they are
basically instilling the love she or he has for our country through these subjects. Thus, this
will create a united society.

Furthermore, Essentialism is a belief that there is a common core of knowledge that

needs to be transmitted to students in a systematic and disciplined way. The importance is
given on the intellectual and moral standards that schools should teach. This can be further
elaborated that knowledge will be passed in a systematic way and developing good moral
standards for oneself by becoming holistic and harmonic being. This is strongly linked to the
element of personal-well being of a teacher. Teachers should display a good personality,
well-mannered, discipline and morally good in order to produce students with good moral
standards. This is because students spend 6 to 7 hours in the school and the only people, they
could refer to is their teachers and friends. When a teacher possesses all these good
characteristics, students will eventually follow them, and they would try to hold onto these
good qualities by taking their teachers as their inspiration.
There are several elements of NEP in Progressivism. The first element would be the
development of individual potentials. This can be further explained, where every individual
has been blessed by God with hidden talents, potentials and abilities. These talents, potentials
and ability should be tapped, nurtured, developed and enhanced through social interaction
with others and the environment. This element also emphasize that education should offer
individual opportunities to develop their potentials, talents and abilities. This is evident in the
progressivism philosophy which is under the first principle of progressivism, the pragmatism,
which refers to the practicality of what is being learned. This principle mentions that
education should be presented in such a way that the content being acquired is practical and
enhances students’ skill sets in and out of the classroom. This principle closely relates to the
need of having ‘hands on experience.’ Learners will be exposed to problem-solving in natural
and contextual spots to allow the theory being learned to be applied in real-world situations.
An example would be, to have problem-based learning activities in the classroom and the
teacher should ensure that the questions for the problem-based learning should be something
that students can relate to themselves and thus, students will be able to learn from the issues
by analysing and applying all the necessary skills. Students should be given the platform to
explore their talents, potentials and abilities in order to produce an engaging classroom
environment and to explore themselves. The current education system in Malaysia has shifted
its focus to the Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in lessons in order to produce
intellectual Malaysian citizens that are able to think rationally and critically.

Likewise, the second principle, experimentalism is also very much ingrained into this
philosophy because it refers to the active participation of students which will then enhance
their growth and development. Adding to that, students’ participation is vital in progressivism
because a person’s rate of activity in his own growth and development could positively and
negatively affect his or her life. Thus, this principle is centered around learning through
experiment and hands-on approach. We can say that progressivism emphasize more on
hands-on learning and learning through experiments where students are required to interact
with others to keep track of one’s growth and development. These talents, potentials and
ability should be tapped, nurtured, developed and enhanced through social interaction with
others and the environment. All these elements will provide an opportunity to develop
students’ talents, potential and abilities as this will be enhanced through the social interaction.
For example, teachers can have debate in the classroom or even role play to ensure every
student participates in the discussion.

Apart from that, the development of individual potentials can also be linked to the
current education system in Malaysia whereby students are given the autonomy to choose
from either vocational or technical streams that they would like to enrol, in the upper
secondary level according to their ability, talents and potentials. Examples of streams that are
being offered are Pure science, Accounting and Arts streams. This will be helpful in shaping
individuals that are competent in a field that will in turn create skilled workforce and semi-
skilled workforce in accordance to the respective fields and therefore, individuals are given
the opportunity to develop their potentials, talents and abilities in the expected fields and able
to develop the nation.

Moreover, the intellectual element, which is to strive to acquire and develop true
knowledge, possess creative, critical and reflective thinking skills and have the willingness to
share the knowledge with others and the environment. This is seen when progressivism
emphasizes that students should analyse the ideas through active experimentation. The
learning process is one that requires students to gain knowledge by questioning everything
they experience in the world. For example, in a role play activity, students participate and
engage in the teaching and learning process. Students are seen as problem-solvers and
thinkers who construct meaning through his or her own exploration in terms of the physical
and cultural context. Hence, students in progressivism are expected to acquire the knowledge
through experimenting which will in turn provide them authentic answers which falls under
striving to acquire and develop true knowledge. Students are also encouraged to be problem-
solvers and thinkers and when they explore the new answer or knowledge, they are expected
to share the knowledge with their peers through social interaction. From the Malaysian
context, this is seen in the Science subject where students will be brought to the Science lab
to conduct experiments. Here students get to explore and conduct experiments in order to
obtain the answers. Through this, we can see that MOE has already implemented this practice
long time ago in order to provide students the experience of “learn by doing.”
 Whereas from the PTE, the element of promise individual development can be linked to
this philosophy where teachers need to show students self-development and students’ holistic
development. Since this is a student-centered approach, the teacher can be the facilitator or
guider by guiding the students in the teaching and learning process. For an example, helping
students to solve problems. Through this, the teacher will be able to bring the student’s
individuality to light.

The following Western philosophy of education is the Reconstructivism. From the

curriculum aspect, Reconstructivism is the need to confront social questions to create society
and achieve democracy. One of the ways this can be achieved through is education as
education will allow for social reform. In order to produce intellectual Malaysian citizens, the
education system in Malaysia has shifted its focus to analysing the historical events in
History in the KBSM.

From the teacher’s aspect, teachers are regarded as the agent of change where teachers
are expected to have the creative and innovative nature in teaching and learning process.
Through this, teacher helps to develop students’ potentials and abilities in a holistic and
integrated manner. This is seen in the Teacher’s Philosophy of Education (PTE) where
teachers need to develop according to the present times with due emphasis on sciences and
technology. Teachers have to strive hard not to be left behind professionally. Based on
Malaysian Education Blueprint, teachers will be provided with sufficient training in the ICT
department to maximise the investment of 1BestariNet service in schools by 2020. This is
done to allow teachers to upskill their technological skills and be able to implement the
requisite ICT skills efficiently and accurately in their classrooms. Teachers, as per social
Reconstructivism should not be moral compasses for students, rather, they should just be
guiding lights and facilitators for their analysis of social issues by providing students with
alternative modes of thinking. Community-based project and problem-oriented method can
be integrated in the teaching and learning process.

Next, students are expected to be active in participation in order to achieve the target
of the education. This falls under the element of development of individual potentials and
balanced and harmonic being. According to Social Reconstructionists, the curriculum should
be geared towards students experience and allows for students to question on various social
issues ranging from terrorism right up to inequality. Teachers should strategize classes to
include means of learning viewpoints and this can be done through dialogues which will
allow for the shedding of light on controversial issues. Besides that, community learning can
also help with this. This helps to develop students that are ready to face challenges that life
has to offer and be independent learner. Hence, through this, students will be able to become
a useful citizen of Malaysia by possessing strong values yet competitive in the society.

Reconstructivism states that education will need to fulfil the creation of new social
order that will be incline with our culture and values while reflecting in social economic
changes of today. The society which rises up must be one that is elected democratically and
one that functions democratically as well with the citizen themselves controlling the
resources and institutions. The teacher must carefully teach his pupils of the need for
Reconstuctivism while ensuring they do not neglect democratic procedure. The end goal most
educations must be to solve current crises with emphasis placed on the studies of behavioural
sciences. This can be achieved through the teaching of History subject to the students. This
comprises the emotional element where students possess matured and stable emotions and
possess feeling of togetherness.

According to social reconstructionist, education will only change when teachers

challenge unnecessary fundamentals of education and schooling and these will allow for
social reform and this must be done carefully as there are certain subjects that should not be
disregarded as these subjects allow for emphasis and social change. Education should allow
students to question the status quo and be inquisitive with matters that concern religion,
education, politics, economics and society which will allow them to bring about the new
status quo. This statement can be linked to our aims of Rukun negara where to achieve a
greater unity of all people and to maintain a democratic way of life. Through students
questioning the status quo, they will get the closure they need which will eventually create a
sense of togetherness and students will try to maintain a democratic way of life based on the
closure they obtained.

Ministry of Education. (2015) Executive Summary Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025

(Preschool to Post-Secondary Education). [Online] Retrieved from

https://www.moe.gov.my/menumedia/media-cetak/penerbitan/dasar/1207-malaysia-

education-blueprint-2013-2025/file
Students from the Existentialism curriculum are able to acknowledge their uniqueness and
take responsibility for their own actions and emotions comes first in an existentialist
classroom. The teacher should assist students by introducing them to the different ways to
build an environment, but they may choose their favored path. The existentialist requires
education from the person as emotions are not separate from one’s reasoning. Students are
required to be physically present, consider emotions, be practical and intellectual when
making a decision. Most existentialist teachers prefer giving students the opportunity to
choose the subjects they would learn than to follow the entire curriculum structure. For
instance, actions of historical individuals are more significant compared to historical events
because students’ may look up to them and base their behaviour off these individuals.
Besides, students are able to understand themselves and their abilities better through
vocational education. On the other hand, while teaching art, existentialism focuses on the
individual’s own creativity instead of imitation. This can be linked to the intellectual element
where students possess creative, critical and reflective thinking skills. Students will be
developed into individuals that are balanced and harmonic being and also possess self-control
in their actions.

Next, the teachers’ role is to prepare a secure platform for students to be able to
express themselves. Individual responsibility comes forth when making decisions, as the
answers can only be found by them, not with the help or opinion of others. Such authentic
knowledge-gaining experiences allow students to think critically and ponder about life.
Existentialist teachers would rather focus on students instead of on content of the curriculum
to allow them to gain experiences that gives them the chance to gain a sense of direction and
self-actualization. For example, in the language classroom, teacher can allow students to
decipher the rule of grammar by giving their own examples to further understand the
occurrences of tenses.
 Besides that, this also helps with the holistic and integrated development of the
individual where students would have encompassed all 4 aspects namely intellectual,
spiritual, emotional and physical as students are responsible for their own actions and
emotions in the classroom. For example, teachers these days tend to opt for discussion
technique in the classroom and in my personal experience, teachers usually pick debate as
one of the methods to share our views and the same approach is being used in the universities
to share our views. The next element would be the balanced and harmonic being where
students learn to live in harmony with others in the society without having the fear of voicing
out their views or opinions on a certain issue as we are aware that Malaysia is a multicultural
country, and it is very important have the feeling of togetherness. Adding to that, students
will also possess the intellectual element where students will try to develop and produce true
knowledge and develop creative, critical and reflective thinking skills. The last element that
can be linked to this aspect is the emotional element. Students will have the matured and
stable emotions when it comes to expressing one’s view to another or in other words, they
would have developed the mutual understanding between them in terms of sharing opinions
although the opinions may vary. Existentialism highlights on concepts such as the
subjectivity of reality as it based solely on the individual. To further elaborate, the individual
perceptions leads to difference in belief between two people: A may believe a certain concept
or idea is right while B believes it is wrong. However so, the students will still have the
feeling of togetherness even though the opinion varies in the society.

In conclusion, Individual choices and standards are dominant as compared to external

standards. Jean Paul Sartre believes that existence paves the way for essence, explaining that
the human nature is not something innate but based on our choices instead. Our life is
determined on our own accord and not per others pre-established philosophical system.
Students need to be accountable in deciding between right or wrong for themselves just like
Alice who independently made the decision to visit Wonderland (Alice in Wonderland).
Therefore, As cited in the journal entitled Status of English in Malaysia, the change of the
education curriculum in the Malaysia Education Development Plan (PPPM) 2013-2025
concentrates more on the employment of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) which aims
to deliver students who are critical and creative thinkers aside from being knowledgeable.
These skills would enable students to analyze, evaluate and apply the knowledge that they
have learnt effectively which would enable them to compete internationally. In addition, the
students will have strong moral and religious compasses, knowledgeable, great leaders, multi-
lingual individuals capable of being tested globally (NST 30, January 2014).

Jantmary Thirusanku & Melor Md Yunus. (2014). Status of English in Malaysia. Asian
Social Science, 10(14).

EASTERN P.O.E & NEP

Students from the Eastern philosophy of education attain knowledge directly from teachings
of their religion like Confucianism, Buddhism, Japanese, and Hinduism. This way of
acquiring and transmitting knowledge is considered to be a one-way street as they are taught
rules and regulations and will have to follow them strictly. This is a teacher-centered
classroom where the teachers act as the disseminator of religious knowledge. There are three
main Eastern philosophies of education namely Japanese, Chinese, and Indian.

First and foremost, the Japanese philosophy of education includes roots of both
continental religions like Confucianism and Buddhism, with indigenous Shinto. The Japanese
philosophy was greatly influenced by the Chinese and Indian philosophy. It is now more of
the Western philosophy. Japan’s education system plays a vital role in forming the culture
and history of Japan as the education system is a powerful element in forming the politics
while keeping the culture unchanged. Japan sets its academic achievements higher for the
students and ensures that it fulfils the international standards.

The Japanese spirit is the notion upon which their educational philosophy is based on.
The aspect of Japanese spirit is a sign of respect, belief and trust to nation, culture,
government, and language of Japanese society. According to Japanese, harmony is the most
important element in the culture till date. The same can be seen in our NEP where for the
emotional element, importance is given to the feeling of togetherness or united in the
education. Students are encouraged to feel united in the classroom through lesson which
includes group-work that involves students of all races. Up until today, this is one of the
elements that teachers practice in a Malaysian classroom in order to produce a united nation,
so that we will be able to live in harmony as a society. This is even seen in the Rukun Negara,
which was formed to promote unity among Malaysians. Adding to that, the Government
started off the initiative of introducing vision schools to promote unity and foster a sense of
togetherness among Malaysian students.

Besides that, the primary success in an adult life and in the classroom is the proper
progress in terms of attitudes, values, and habits according to Japanese teachers. The
educator’s aim is to create positive attitudes and behaviours throughout the students’
schooling years based on the Japanese norms. This element can be very much related to our
own education system in Malaysia. One of the aims of the Rukun Negara is to produce
individuals with good behaviour and morality to one day, serve the nation. This is also seen
in schools where the Islam and Moral teachers inculcate the good values and behaviours
through the Islam and Moral subjects and besides, the overall school system in Malaysia
practices the system of reinforcement and punishment according to the student’s behaviours ,
as per the Disciplinary Code. Students will be sent for counselling sessions if they are found
to be disobedient. These initiatives are taken by the MOE to improve students’ holistic
development.

In short, according to the Japanese, education has always had more valuable elements
than just achieving academic knowledge, brushing up vocational skills or intellectual growth.
The character development and moral education too were given equal attention.
The Eastern philosophy has definitely impacted the Malaysian Education System. For
example, the Chinese Philosophy emphasises on values in life. In the NPE, we expect to
have Malaysians who are of good character, competent and can achieve well-being.
Therefore, they have introduced Pendidikan Sivik as a subject for students to learn from.
Besides, Pendidikan Islam and Moral are also compulsory subjects so that students will learn
to become noble and proactive citizen and serve the country. Besides that, students are also
expected to apply the moral values in their life so that they will be able to produce
Malaysians who possess good characters and responsible to produce a balanced and harmonic
individual to the nation.

Furthermore, Confucius emphasized on the tradition and glory of behaviours is a part

of our live and without it we will not be true to ourselves. In the NEP, students are expected
to develop their individual potentials in a holistic and integrated manner, being balanced and
harmonious and belief in and obedience to God. Thus, schools now have subjects like
Pendidikan Islam, Moral, Sejarah and Sivik to pass the values and traditions to the students.
This way, students will be able to adopt the values and integrate them in their daily lives to
become a respected memeber in the society. This is also seen in the Confucius ethics where
his philosophy centers around the ethical question of “what is a good life.” For example, we
can relate this concept to religion such as doing good deeds leads us one step closer to
Heaven. Therefore, if we do good deeds, it will later help us when we are in need. This
relates back to the teaching of Religion.
 The Malaysian education system also follows the Chinese education system in terms
of the rote learning and memorization methods. For instance, students are being tested on
writing and literature and they are forced to memorise. Besides that, in a language classroom,
students are required to memorise all the grammar rules.

According to Confucius, education is viewed as a tool to build a human’s behaviour

to be respected by society by obeying the rules and portraying love for the nation. Based on
the NEP, it helps to produce individuals that possess good character, live in harmony and
prosperity. Our education system also focuses on making citizens that have good character,
who are ready to live in harmony and prosperity within society as this can be seen under the
aims of the Rukun Negara, and these are ; possess good behaviour and morality, achieve
unity, and maintain a democratic life. Through this, the teachers able to foster a sense of
patriotism to the students.

In addition, education was made available to every student regardless of their class by
Confucius. Since ancient times, education in China is perceived to help equalize the
opportunities. Through this initiative, even students from the humblest backgrounds will be
able to do well. Confucius’ ethics also allowed the inculcation of ethical and social norms of
Chinese society. Similarly, the same aspect was also mentioned in the MEB whereby students
from rural and urban areas will receive equal education regardless of their background, sex
and socio-economic by 2020 and indeed, every child in Malaysia now is eligible for equal
education.
The Indian philosophy of education are both orthodox (Asthika) which believed in the
Vedas, and, heterodox (Nastika) which rejected the Vedas. They were more interested with
the never-ending problems of life. Thus, the philosophy is known as the “Vision of life.” The
Indian philosophical tradition remains unchanged throughout the course of time and is a
necessity to understand the uses of our life. It starts off slow and pessimistic but gradually
becomes better especially in allowing a person to release the values in life.

Firstly, in the Indian philosophy of education being discipline is utmost important as

rules for conduct of both teachers and pupils were listed down and rules also for respect due
from pupils to teachers were framed. In the NEP, students are expected to be matured and
have stable emotions. In the Malaysian classroom, teachers teach students to respect each
other and also teacher is considered a leader in the classroom. Therefore, in line with the
emotional element of the NEP, students tend to show more matured behaviour and know to
respect teacher. For example, the simple act of greeting teachers and standing when being
addressed in class.

Besides, there were a few main goals of education during the Vedic period. Firstly, to
ensure have a life worth living through education. The education should have positive effects
on the students such as it is meaningful, purposeful, relevant as well as worthwhile. In line
with the education is an on-going effort element of NEP, the students should acquire new
skills, enhance their knowledge and character through the education. For example, in a
Malaysian classroom, students are not always being taught on the same aspect, teachers try to
tweak every lesson and connect it with students’ background so that they will be able to relate
to themselves and learn effectively. This is usually done in a language classroom in terms of
the novelty and suitability of the content to the students.

Next, Religion should be a key cornerstone in a person's life and as such, education
should always be tied to one's religion. Based on the NEP, the element of balanced and
harmonic being is vital in instilling the belief in God. This can be done through the Moral and
Islamic education where teachers inculcate all the good values into students. Therefore,
students will be able to learn about the good values and discard all the not appropriate values
from their life.

The objective of obtaining an education should be to enrich the mind by virtue of

increasing one's creativity through the seeking of furthering one's culture and civilisation.
This falls under the element of development of individual potentials. Students are already
gifted with talents, abilities, and potentials and thus, they should bring their culture and
civilization forward through social interaction with others. For instance, teacher can assign
group task where students are assigned with different festivals that are being celebrated in
Malaysia and they will have a prepare a short write up about the festive and present to the
class. Therefore, students from different religion will get to learn each other’s culture as well
as their values.

In short, it can be said that Indian philosophy of education is very much connected to
the concept of religion. In conclusion, the entire premise of Vedic education was to eradicate
evil by educating the mind and soul of its students. This would be achieved by the
development of personality alongside broadening the intellectual horizon of a person while
focusing on the worship of God, spirituality, and the advancement of culture, society, and
nation.
THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF MALAYSIA

After analysing the Western and Eastern education of philosophies several differences can be
found. The Western philosophy stresses on the need to have active participation in their
classrooms by the students. However so, in Malaysia the teachers did not allow for the active
participation of students because the teachers prefer running the show and this will cause a
hike in unemployment when the students fail the interviews. The government has aimed to
rectify this by allowing for the students to voice out their opinions and this is seen during the
MUET test where there is a speaking component which requires students to speak and
express themselves to be graded. In view of this, teachers have now started integrating
presentations and discussions within the classroom.

Besides, students from the Western education are given the autonomy to control their
learning process while students from the Eastern education background are dependent upon
their teachers. Education in Malaysia while being teacher-centered in the past relied heavily
on the spoon-feeding culture whereas we have now progressed to more to a student-centered
classroom where students are encouraged to discover their interests and abilities.
 Moreover, the Malaysian education system as stated above used the spoon-feeding
technique that relied heavily on students memorizing in order to answer their exam questions
and this was in line with Eastern philosophy of education. However, this system is no longer
in use as we are moving towards the Western education philosophy which places emphasis on
students higher order thinking skills (HOTS) and analytical skills which will allow students
to draw their own conclusions and understanding from their subjects instead of memorizing.
As cited in the journal entitled Status of English in Malaysia, the change of the education
curriculum in the Malaysia Education Development Plan (PPPM) 2013-2025 concentrates
more on the employment of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) which aims to deliver
students who are critical and creative thinkers aside from being knowledgeable. These skills
would enable students to analyze, evaluate and apply the knowledge that they have learnt
effectively which would enable them to compete internationally. In addition, the students will
have strong moral and religious compasses, knowledgeable, great leaders, multi-lingual
individuals capable of being tested globally (NST 30, January 2014).

Lastly, Western philosophy of education practices a system where both the teacher
and students are of similar standing while the Eastern philosophy of education do not believe
in this. Therefore, to foster better learning experiences for students, teachers should treat their
students with love and concern.

In conclusion, the ideal education system that can be practiced in Malaysia is one that
has aspects of both Western and Eastern philosophies of education because it will allow
students to be knowledgeable and disciplined while also being able to think introspectively,
critically and express themselves freely. This is because a mixture of both Western and
Eastern philosophies in moderation can produce individuals who will be able to contribute at
a high level to the society and nation in general.

Jantmary Thirusanku & Melor Md Yunus. (2014). Status of English in Malaysia. Asian
Social Science, 10(14).