Discard silo mentality, Muhyiddin advises Education ministry staff

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today advised Education Ministry personnel to discard the mentality of working in silos or within their own communities so as to help boost the national education sector.

Muhyiddin, who is also the education minister, said all heads of departments and agencies under the ministry should work as one team in realising the mandate to create a knowledgeable society with high moral standards.

"We have to avoid the creation of silos; heads of departments and agencies under the ministry should not become Little Napoleons as this negates any measure to work as one strong team.

"As such, I advise everyone to establish a strong working team that can realise the mandate in an organised manner based on praiseworthy acts and discretion," he said when addressing the monthly assembly of the ministry, here.

Muhyiddin said the role and responsibilities of the education ministry were much different and more challenging than those of the other ministries and agencies because these were associated with shaping human character.

Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh; deputy education ministers Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching and P. Kamalanathan and ministry secretary-general Datuk Dr Madinah Mohamad also attended the assembly.

Muhyiddin said the responsibilities of the ministry staff became all the more difficult because they had to undergo several challenges to realise the desire of shaping knowledgeable human beings with high moral standards.

As such, he said, the ministry staff could no longer work in any one scheme of the ministry but would have to encompass a wider eco-system that covered other departments and agencies because each one of them had their respective roles that had to be realised together.

"We have to be a ministry that blends every component within or outside the ministry so that there can be cooperation to ensure that objectives are realised," he said.

Muhyiddin also said that the Malaysia Education Blueprint for Higher Education 2015-2025, to be launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on April 7, would be another important document in the education sector that would have to be implemented jointly by every ministry staff.

"It is not an easy task; it will involve a large number of academicians. However, of equal importance is the spirit of cooperation that has to be fostered to realise its implementation in a period of 10 years," he said.