Sejahtera Education Advocates

SEJAHTERA Education Advocates (SEA), a new independent, apolitical citizens’ initiative, is on a mission to promote a values-based education system in the country.
Set up by a group of academicians and educationists from various institutions and sectors nationwide last month, SEA was inspired by the National Education Philosophy’s “sejahtera” (well-being) concept.

The National Education Philosophy provides the worldview, context and definitive framework related to “sejahtera”. Thus far, this has not been mainstreamed to produce a generation of Malaysians who fully embrace “sejahtera” as the foundation of values towards a “complete (holistic, integrated) person”, SEA said in a recent statement.

“Advocating ‘sejahtera’ values into mainstream education will also widen the understanding of the National Education Philosophy to include the goals of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as per Education 2030, and the five essential values for human existence in the 21st century and beyond,” the statement read.

Guided by the essential values for human existence, and aligned to the Education 2030 Unesco Agenda, the group’s aim is to advocate the practice of “sejahtera values” in education to nurture Malaysians who are socially, intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced and harmonious.

SEA also seeks to cultivate a values-based education ecosystem to meet the societal challenges of a world that is increasingly dominated by conflict and diminishing material resources.

The group’s first course of action will be to consolidate all current and futuristic thinking, research findings and instruments related to “sejahtera”, and examine how the values are currently practised in the different education scenarios and settings. It will integrate other elements of leadership, productivity and sustainability to form a larger platform of informal and non-formal community of practitioners based on volunteerism.

This is aimed at identifying the gaps and the need for additional initiatives and instruments to help educationists and policy-makers across the formal, informal and non-formal education scenarios to flourish the nurturing of “sejahtera” values.

“It is imperative to translate this into reality in classrooms, lecture halls, learning and activity centres, whether public or private, and in normal or religious environments.

“Most importantly, it is to ensure rhetorical statements on ‘sejahtera’ values can be translated from paper into action, touching the hearts and minds of all Malaysians.”

Those interested in SEA can e-mail : sejahtera.education@gmail.com

Newspaper article on SEA: https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/letters/2019/07/501849/advocacy-sejahtera-values-malaysian-education