Tidak dapat dinafikan bahawa Kerajaan Malaysia secara berterusan telah memberikan tumpuan terhadap pendidikan rakyat. Perumusan peta mega pendidikan negara, Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia 2013-2025 (PPPM 2013-2025), sebagai contoh, merupakan satu daripada sekian banyak usaha yang telah diambil oleh Kerajaan ke arah memperkasakan pendidikan warga Malaysia amnya. Meskipun langkah-langkah serius seperti itu telah dimulakan oleh Kerajaan, maklum…
Saban tahun, sejak 1957, rakyat Malaysia meraikan Hari Kemerdekaan Negara pada penghujung bulan Ogos. Beberapa tahun kebelakangan ini, tempoh keraian tersebut merangkum bulan September, sempena peringatan ulang tahun penubuhan rasmi Malaysia. Selain acara-acara peringatan tersebut, yang sering berupa pesta raya, turut sesekali kedengaran penegasan bahawa kemerdekaan hakiki ialah kebebasan budi-pekerti dan kemandirian akal-fikri dalam menentukan…
Ramadan 1435 Hijriah tinggal kurang-lebih seminggu lagi. Sudah kerap dinasihatkan agar muhasabah diri (muhasabat al-nafs) dipergiatkan sepanjang bulan yang penuh keberkatan dan kemuliaan ini. Malangnya, sebagaimana yang lumrah berlaku pada perkara-perkara yang lazim dituturkan, makna dan semangat asal peringatan sedemikian mudah hilang atau dialpakan. Yang tinggal hanya laungan kata-kata sebagai bunyi penghibur telinga semata. Sesungguhnya…
Sudah hampir seminggu kita memasuki tahun baru Masihi. Pada sebahagian rakyat Malaysia, tahun 2014 bermula dengan kegelisahan dan kegusaran perihal keadaan ekonomi semasa, khasnya peningkatan kos dan beban hidup yang ketara. Walaupun kadarnya berbeza-beza, hampir tiada lapisan masyarakat yang terkecuali daripada dilanda oleh kesan kenaikan ini. Keluarga-keluarga dalam kategori pendapatan sederhana ke bawah pasti lebih…
The Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013–2025 has made it clear that the Ministry of Education is serious in equipping students with higher-order thinking skills. In so doing, emphasis has been placed on subjects of scientific and technological nature. Unfortunately, while one can easily find such emphasis being clearly stated regarding subjects of that nature, one cannot do so…
A month has lapsed since the official launch of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 (Pre-school to Post-Secondary Education) by the Deputy Prime Minister. The blueprint has made it clear that in the Ministry of Education’s effort to equip students with thinking skills, one of the six key attributes needed by them to be globally competitive, emphasis shall…
Human creativity, whether exemplified as invention or innovation, is essentially about new ideas and has to do in large part with thinking. What many Muslims of today have been unaware of but which a number of past Muslim scholars such as ibn Sina and al-Ghazzali had elaborated on is the close relation that exists between…
With the 13th General Election in Malaysia looming, issues revolving around power become even more pressing. Power for its own sake, or its Malay parallel “budaya kuasa untuk kuasa kerana kuasa,” has been claimed by certain observers to be the epidemic besieging influential Muslim politicians in the second phase of Post-Independence Malaysia. Despite power ultimately…
Petrosains, with the cooperation of several agencies and organisations including IKIM, is currently holding “Sultans of Science—Islamic Science Rediscovered” Exhibition at Suria KLCC. Taking centre stage for six months, beginning from December last year and running until June this year, the exhibition showcases inventions and scientific breakthroughs achieved by Muslim scholars during the peak of…
By and large educated Muslims do not dispute the importance and significance of thinking in their life and religion. Since human creativity, whether exemplified as invention or innovation, has to do in large part with thinking, it is also commonplace that they regard it highly. Problems and disputes begin to arise, however, when they come…
