In a world that is drawn together by crumbling walls shattered in the advent of a new globalization cycle, we are able to juxtapose ourselves, not only with neighbor’s of physical proximity, but with people thousands of miles away who are now just a click away. The lack of walls makes benchmarks no longer national but global. Education is not spared in this sweeping change. Education today must reflect world class standards, if we are to remain competitive.

The fuel of this change, the democratization of information and finance through technology, creates what is commonly known as the knowledge economy in which human capital becomes more than ever before a vital commodity of success. To ensure the existence and longevity of this abstract commodity education has taken a prime role. Thus what is needed to sustain the engines of our continued development is the democratization of educational excellence.

This goal warrants a new take on the content, delivery and quality assurance in education in reflection of the new standards. It requires education to be taken upon a global pedestal so that it can be peripherally viewed. This means that education must be viewed in its broadest context, upon highest quality and in light of its profound effect. A failure to modify the composites of education to this fashion will seal the fate of its designers till the next historical disruption in status quo. We must seize the opportunity immediately to ensure that our place in the global economy is one that will preserve our sovereignty and ensure our prosperity.

The current evidence shows a bleak prognosis. The failure stems from a lack of perspective. We are addressing and treating our symptoms with the spectacles of the old millennium. The piecemeal ad hoc cures will only serve to promote false positives and long term problems. The speed in which we are hurtling into interdependency signals the need for sweeping change to be a matter of urgency. It is akin to the process of evolution itself in which only the fittest will survive and thus far we are lagging behind.

The key to the development of education in this new perspective is to focus on systems. The winners in the new economy are ones who develop a system that most efficiently produces world class results. In this new world the system is everything since it facilitates cross border relationships.

We have educational systems in Malaysia, but they are diverse and not aligned to produce the needed results. We are not alone; British Petroleum found that “it is surprising that there are no measures in place to formally reward successful and innovative teaching”.

Education in its very inception was borne as a means to a clear defined end. The simple problem that permeates through our education systems today is that we have lost sight of the end and instead see education as the end in itself. These true goals of education have been cast in the shadow of the tools magnificence.

Education by its very definition stipulates a means: systematic training and instruction to a stipulated end: knowledge, ability and development of character. The latter has rarely been the benchmark of education in Malaysia. Instead good education is benchmarked by how many graduated can be produced or how many courses are approved.

From an interpretational sense this may be a democratization of education which has led to tremendous positive improvement. It was broadly achieved through the implementation of the seventh and eighth Malaysia plans which spearheaded the financial democratization of education in Malaysia through plans such as the PTPTN loan scheme, and the provision of private higher education in Malaysia. Avenues paved by access to loans caused the setting up of a mushroom of private institutions whose entrances were its weight in gold even before the concrete dried up. However the rapid growth of private higher education meeting the vast demand meant that systems of quality and checks and balances may not have been implemented in the development process as desired. In the glut for education, the true goals that justified educations existence were trampled on, unnoticed through the triumphs of convocation ceremonies initiated by conveyor belts of graduates produced by slapdash factories of intellect. Thus the financial democratization of education is lost without a standard.

What we need now is a complementary system to the ones in place to produce the democratization of educational excellence. This is vital to ensure that Malaysia is shielded from the slings and arrows of a globalized future; what Malaysia needs now is the coming of this second democratization of education. This time it will be focused on the quality of its produce.

The environment is suitable for its cultivation since, around the world, the major stakeholders in higher education (and, in particular, the Government, through its various funding councils) are increasingly requiring to be assured of the quality of delivery of education. [Ellington, Ross 1994]. Clients of education in Malaysia have often cashed their promissory notes of quality in the form of certificates only to be left with the response of insuffient funds. The vaults of education cannot be left bankrupt. A system to address the needs of education as it is used today is imperative.

The simple starting point of this journey is to read the definitions of education conjunctively and not disjunctively. Thus the system of education must produce the development of knowledge, skills and character benchmarked against the world in its standards.