On 15^th December 2021, the Undi18 Bill was formally implemented  – which is the bill that allows 18-year-olds to vote [1]. With this current development of the electoral process in Malaysia, since below 18-year-olds occupy much of their formative years by going to school, I believe teachers have the responsibility to expose and guide them about current affairs. However, I am aware that there are concerns about whether it is ethical for teachers to teach about politics in the classroom since some have expressed opposition to encouraging this move as it might result in indoctrination [2]. I am going to address those concerns as well as provide you with my own experience of how I exposed and taught students about current affairs through my lessons without them being injected with any form of political partisanship.

In 2019, which was the year that the Undi18 Bill was tabled and passed in the Malaysian parliament, I realized that as a teacher I play a significant role in inculcating civic-minded youths. So far, I have conducted two types of classroom activities that can empower youths below 18 to prepare them as informed young voters. These were done in an English class but I believe they can be done in any language class.

Class debates (focus on policies, rather than partisan politics)

Although politics cannot be separated from policy-making, it would be better to focus on policies. I don’t have them talk about partisan politics explicitly, but to have them debate policies alone can already indirectly have them evaluate the performance of the current government or the opposition. I personally love giving topics that are aligned with what’s been discussed in the real parliament (hence, we teachers need to be well-informed about the topic that is going to be explored [3]) but make sure it is suitable for students to debate about. Some of the topics that I’ve given them for this activity were free breakfast in schools, lowering the voting age to 18, and alcohol bans. Some of the students are not aware of these issues so as a teacher I introduce these issues to them but I do not dictate which side is right or wrong. I let them decide and have them reflect after the debate or after the class. My only role was to facilitate and spark the conversation. This will train them to think about and evaluate policies rather than focusing on political feuds. Other than that, students who engage in respectful debates employ reasoning skills to gain a better knowledge of citizenship values and duties [4].

In preparation for them to debate, I get them into their groups and discuss. They brainstorm and lookup for information online to support their arguments so in that way they are more exposed to different perspectives and information. So as a teacher, I only facilitate.

State legislative assembly/ Parliament simulation

For this activity, we instruct the students to role play as the representative of their constituency and identify the existing problems & propose solutions. This allows students to have more autonomy on what issues they want to talk about since it is related to what they know and experience. In my class, many of the issues they chose are aligned with United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 2030. The topics ranged from clean water and sanitation (SDG 6) to affordable and clean energy (SDG 7). In this simulation, having students provide solutions to the problems that they’ve identified in their constituency is akin to suggesting policy solutions. So this indirectly sets the path for them to be more aware of local or global issues.

Now, let’s address the concerns relating to teaching politics in the classroom. Even with the implementation of Undi18, there is still a general resistance to discussing politics in the classroom. It can be overcome by framing it as policy discussions, civic engagement, and democratic education. It is important to note that democratic education includes a sort of political education, which should not be confused with politicising education or politically indoctrinating students [5]. Framing it this way puts teachers’ and students’ focus on issues on the ground rather than discussing which political party is the best or worse in executing or suggesting certain policies. Albeit in the long term, this would naturally be the outcome when students can independently evaluate the government or opposition once they leave secondary school. But at the school level, it’s important that we focus on having students unpacking national issues and have them explore those issues independently and critically so that they can turn into more informed citizens and voters. 

From my personal engagement with people, some have claimed that the activities above look like we are training students to become politicians. Whether they just stick to becoming mere voters or politicians in the future, we honestly have no control over that. It’s their choice after all. The key here is to get them interested in national policies and not be apathetic to current issues before they turn 18. Although the majority of the time voters tend to vote based on policies, some are involved in civil society organizations that have a role in the policy formulation process. They are said to act as transmission belts, filtering and channeling societal preferences to legislators [6]. So policymaking is not solely the job of a politician. As stakeholders, at least they are provided a platform to suggest policies. Preparing them as voters also means it will set paths for them to have different roles in society (members of NGOs, politicians, etc). So, they can both discuss current issues or suggest solutions. Having them discuss current issues ignites their analytical skills while suggesting solutions is part of problem-solving skills.

In Malaysia, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 is the first step to giving voting rights to 18-year-olds. It is the place where citizenship begins. The formal status of political or voting rights, on the other hand, has frequently been insufficient to be felt as citizenship or to permit citizenship practice [7]. Therefore, voting rights for 18-year-olds need to be followed by actively educating students (before they turn 18) on how they should practice citizenship. Above are just some of the classroom activities that enable students to acquire the knowledge of and practice citizenship without injecting any form of indoctrination of political partisanship.

*Interested readers may visit Civically ESL to view some of the author’s teaching resources which integrate civic and citizenship with English language teaching.

Reference:

[1] Undi18 gazetted, takes effect on Dec 15 | Free Malaysia Today (FMT). (n.d.). Retrieved May 2, 2022, from https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2021/12/01/undi18-gazetted-takes-effect-on-dec-15/ 

[2] Ramachandran, J. (2022, March 26). NUTP Says ‘No’ to Teaching Politics in School, but Bersih All for It. Retrieved May 1, 2022, from https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2022/03/26/nutp-says-no-to-teaching-politics-in-school-but-bersih-all-for-it/. 

[3] Osman, A. A. (2015). Teachers as Transformative Intellectuals: Democracy in the Classroom. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 2(9))41B50

[4] Leslie Wade Zorwick & James M. Wade (2016) Enhancing civic education through the use of assigned advocacy, argumentation, and debate across the curriculum, Communication Education, 65:4, 434-444, DOI: 10.1080/03634523.2016.1203005 

[5] Alwee, A. I. (2020). Emancipated education: Essays on the nurturing of critical discourse. Strategic Information and Research Development Centre. 

[6] Albareda, A. (2018). Connecting Society and Policymakers? conceptualizing and measuring the capacity of civil society organizations to act as transmission belts. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 29(6), 1216–1232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-018-00051-x 

[7] Osler, A., & Starkey, H. (2009). Changing Citizenship: Democracy and inclusion in Education. Open University Press. 

Written by Auzellea Kristin Mozihim