WORD FROM THE EDITOR
IF THERE IS ONE TOPIC that is generally valued, it is education, if possible, universal. Different countries may place either greater or lesser emphasis, but all the same, it is something that is now considered a human right, and quite rightly so.
In this country, since the first Methodist school was founded 124 years ago by William Oldham, it has been high on the agenda of the Methodist Church. In fact, in the early years, there was disquiet expressed by some missionaries who thought putting missionary resources to the schools was to be at the expense of “evangelisation”. It was Marie Oldham who defended the educational mission and expressed the view that there should be no discrimination between evangelistic and educational work as they were so closely related that they must stand or fall together. us, the place of the schools in the Methodist heritage was assured.
Since then, there has been an ebb and flow in the moral and religious emphasis in the schools, and government policy, both colonial and post-colonial, has resolutely upheld a largely secular curriculum, with the acquisition of cognitive skills of primary importance, both at the primary and secondary levels. However, there was a time in the late 1960s when the teaching of Bible Knowledge as a Cambridge examination subject was halted, and our schools were obliged to be very circumspect in their religious emphasis. Chapel exercises were held outside curriculum time.
It was only when the Anglo-Chinese School was accused of “snobbery” in 1980 that the matter of tackling unhealthy attitudes attributed to growing affluence was faced. After some experimentation, moral education was introduced and has become mandatory for all schools. It was recognised that education needed a “moral” component. The simplistic 3Rs, and the acquisition of paper qualifications alone were considered inadequate to meet growing challenges.
However, one is surprised at the steady stream of educated persons, some with superior qualifications, who have erred, some grievously. Evidently superior cognitive skills do not law-abiding citizens make, and we may need to re-examine our approach to an issue that will only become more acute as society becomes more affluent and more highly educated. Perhaps there is a missing component in the process of moral education – the family itself.
