Tanjong Malim : As Malaysia increases its effort and commitment towards Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, a critical yet necessary question arises – Are our students truly learning to think like scientists and engineers or are they just building pretty projects for show?
Walk into any school during “Stem Week” and you will see colourful models, volcano eruption models, spaghetti bridge, handmade robots, and recycled crafts labelled as engineering.
While these displays often impress the judges and the visitors, many educators have acknowledged a hard truth that the essence of STEM which is the process of solving real-life problems through research, designing, testing and improvement is often missing.
Many so called STEM projects skip important phases and instead rush students into making only eye-catching products without understanding the science and engineering behind them.
Many still do not understand that STEM isn’t just about building things. STEM is actually about being able to think differently. True STEM education follows a clear process which is to identify a real-world issue, research and generate solutions for the issues identified, design and prototype, test and evaluate, then, improve the design or project done.
Planning and executing a STEM project include both hands on and minds on. Unfortunately, the current school system does not exactly follow this process as both teachers and students do not practice this approach due to the insufficient exposure to this process of STEM.
New Incentives, New Change, New Hope?
But there is hope for a change. In a major move announced in 2025, the Ministry of Education have introduced a new initiative to send Malaysian teachers overseas to participate in short term course programs. This program will be like a short term training program where selected teachers will be sent overseas to gain knowledge and experience on selected fields. Hopefully STEM education will be included among the selected fields for development and training programs.
Through this initiative, selected teachers will now be able to head to countries like UK, Japan and Finland to learn firsthand on how these top education systems approach STEM education beyond the textbook.
For example, from Japan, we can adopt the “monozukuri” approach which means making things with skill and spirit where hands on activities are emphasized that focuses on the design process of the project and not just the end product. Whereas from UK, we can learn and adopt the interdisciplinary teaching culture by connecting stem lessons to real-life problems while training students to practically come up with solutions.
Where should the change begin?
To truly transform STEM education, Malaysia must shift from focusing on flashy final products to valuing the process of learning while designing a project. As the Education Ministry continues to invest in global exposure and teacher training, the real transformation must happen within the classrooms.
Not only with empowered teachers, but also with collaborative planning and students who view STEM not as a one-time project but as a meaningful and powerful way to solve real-life problems. This approach will allow us to transform STEM Education in Malaysia from just projects to projects with a purpose.
Authors :
Veshnavee Ravi
Master of Education (Biology) Student,
Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI)
veshnavee2705@gmail.com
Dr. Mohd Mokhzani bin Ibrahim
Lecturer, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI)
