Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century

— a laudable objective, but one likely to place huge strains on the capacity of the
system with respect to resources, training provision and governance.
The status of English as the global language might
seem to imply that its increasing prevalence in
school curricula is something that advocates of
‘global citizenship’ should welcome. Certainly,
this has been an argument that advocates of
English-medium schooling in the Philippines have
been keen to make, coupling internationalist
rhetoric with the promise of economic rewards
stemming from fluency in the language of
global commerce (Maca and Morris 2015, p. 141).
From Cambodia and Viet Nam to Thailand and
Indonesia, curricula acknowledge the significance
of foreign language education for promoting
interconnectedness, peace and harmony between
nations — as well as granting students access to
the principle linguistic vehicle for scholarly and
scientific discourse.
But across much of Southeast Asia, the focus on
English to the virtual exclusion of other foreign
or second languages reflects the dominance of
instrumentalist conceptions of the purposes
of schooling, as well as the vested interests of
elites. It implies a vision of English as a ticket to global citizenship for those able
to access the best quality instruction, leaving the monoglot masses corralled
within national or communal boundaries. Meanwhile, the monolingual as well as
ethnically essentialist conceptions of nationhood that typically inform curricula
threaten to ossify and intensify divisions within as well as between national
communities.
Curricula acknowledge
the significance of
foreign language
education for promoting
interconnectedness, peace
and harmony between
nations — as well as
granting students access
to the principle linguistic
vehicle for scholarly
and scientific discourse.
But across much of
Southeast Asia, the focus
on English to the virtual
exclusion of other foreign
or second languages
reflects the dominance
of instrumentalist
conceptions of the
purposes of schooling
C: Challenges of Competitiveness and Regimentation
While there is a lack of detailed, region-wide information on the challenges of
intense competition and regimentation outlined in the introduction to Part
II, issue-specific studies suggest that problems often related to educational
intensity, such as the prevalence of shadow education, bullying and school
violence, are widespread throughout Southeast Asia. Such pressures are rising,
often contributing to negative experiences of schooling (UNESCO, 2016d). As
in East Asia (see Chapter 3), intense educational competitiveness is fuelled by
the structure and content of public examinations, patterns of recruitment into
the labour market, a shift to mass higher education, and a context of minimal
public welfare provision that leaves entitlements overwhelmingly dependent
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Chapter 4: Southeast Asia