How come dreams come with a wind-chime sound effect?

What do you do when you have to sit like deadwood and invigilate exams?

You dream.

How feasible is home-schooling in Malaysia anyway. If you really think about it. Can it really materialize as a formal alternative?

Private school students pay more than a grand a month on fees. That comes up to approximately 10 grand per year. That can put 225 government school students through an entire year.

International school students are even crazier with school fees. They pay by semester. And they have 3 semesters a year. Their fees make private schools look second class, and government schools like charity homes.

People send their kids to private schools because they believe they should give the best to their children if they can afford it. But for most other people, that is not even an option.

Questions I'd like to find out from students:

1. Why do kids go to school?
2. How many students think they learn more outside the school, in tuition centers, or through self-study at home?
3. How many students believe that going to school is just a necessary evil to sit for a government exam?
4. How many students will stop going to school if they can sit for a government exam without having to register under a school?
5. How many students think they will still come to school anyway because it is a good avenue for socializing?
6. How many students have stopped believing that they can get quality education in school?
   

Questions I'd like to ask teachers:

1. How many teachers have stopped believing they can give quality education in school?
2. How many teachers feel that their potential is restricted circumstantially in government schools?
3. How many teachers will be willing to jump ship and work in a home-schooling environment, and be paid according to the same salary scheme?

Questions I'd like to ask the policy-makers:

Will home-schooling be seen as a complement or a threat to the Pelan Induk Pembangunan Pendidikan (PIPP)? Consider these:

1. The second teras in PIPP is membangunkan modal insan. What if home-schooling can do that better?
2. The third teras: Memperkasakan sekolah kebangsaan. Can home-schooling be seen as an option in the national schooling system, not as its competitor?
3. The fourth teras: Merapatkan jurang pendidikan. What if home-schooling can help masalah keciciran, in the sense that students may not want to go to school, but they may want to be home-schooled if it fits their needs better?
4. The fifth teras: Memartabatkan profesion keguruan. What if home-schooling teachers be recognized as a separate class of their own? It may serve to be a discriminant, but it can also be seen as a motivation.
5. The sixth teras: Melonjakkan kecemerlangan institusi pendidikan. What if home-schooling boosts the image of government education system for providing a pragmatic and effective alternative in bringing education to the masses?

(You may wonder why I conveniently left out the first teras. It's because I think we don't have to fool ourselves and pretend to kick against the goads. Membina negara bangsa.)

Questions I'd like to ask the Education Department:

1. Will it be a feasible idea to have home-schooling in Malaysia, run by a semi-government body?
2. Will it be reasonable to pour in more funding into this concept to equip the infrastructure and staff in support of this idea?
3. If funding is a problem, what if home-schoolers don't mind paying a little more in school fees, somewhere in the middle between government school fees and private school fees?
4. How trustworthy will a "special commission" be to select specialist teachers to join the home-schooling bandwagon?
5. Can I trust that this idea will not be hijacked by nationalist zealots and be used to champion race-based agendas?

Questions I'd like to ask those who can make it happen:

1. If I can prove that home-schooling can improve academic potential, help tackle the problem of truancy, drug abuse and gangsterism, will you back me up on it?
2. If I can prove to you that we have a sizeable amount of students who want to be the pioneer batch, will you allow them to be it?
3. If I can prove that a respectable amount of teachers share this same mind, will they be allowed to jump ship and still serve the government in home-schools?
4. Do I have to be a Masters degree holder or PhD holder before I can be taken seriously?
5. Do I have to link up with an English-speaking Malay educator/administrator to boost the credibility of this idea?
6. If I don't mind the project/concept/idea to be named after some Datuk or ancient Malay warrior, will you cherish the task of naming it?

Questions I'd like to ask myself:

1. Am I dreaming?