There must be systematic planning.

Especially in the political field, we see many plans quickly thought of and before sufficient brain-storming had gone into the project, things were implemented.

This morning I gave a lift to a friend and she told me of the lengthy meeting she had the day before with departmental heads who wanted the civil servants to do things in a certain manner. What exasperated this friend most was the impractical aspect of the job.

Frankly, although I listened attentively and sympathetically, I could not quite comprehend where the problem was as I have never worked in an office in a government department. However, I believe she has grounds for her complaints. In most cases when politicians implement certain things, especially when they have never had the experience of working in such places, they do not have any idea of the practicability of the idea. How do i know that? That's a good question.

You see, I do not know about other departments in the government service but I certainly know a lot about the education department, especially the teaching and classroom aspects. Thinking back there ware projects in which they wanted schools to plan teaching with lots of audio-visual aids at one time. The idea was good but it failed in the long term because the planners did not plan to the end and eventually insufficient fund and material caused the project to fail.

Then there was this sudden Malaysian astronaut's visit to schools to motivate students to study rocket science and what not which also petered out.

Vocational schools was at one time used to assist weak students study less academic subjects and still be successful in other fields which are not academic. True that the idea is good but after a number of years we find that only bright students are given the opportunities to study in such schools. So, weak students were left with not place to go but to find apprenticeship in private workshops.

Someone even brought back a file type of record for teachers to fill and they called it the 001 and 002 cards. The aim of recording the students' capabilities and weakness in every aspect is good as with such records, the authorities could help the students to overcome their weaknesses. But the planning on the use of the feedback was not there. For example, a child finds difficulty in reading the words on the blackboard and this is recorded in the card but such a card is merely kept in a cupboard, not seen or read by anyone else and with no action taken, perhaps take the child to an optician and help him/her to get proper glasses should the child face financial problems in overcoming his/her weakness. There is no such action and no such fund, so it was just a record with no purpose.I think even to this day teachers are grumbling about filling cards which brings more work but no benefit to anyone.

Then there was the teaching of science and mathematics in English which was a way to give meaning to the learning of English which is seldom used by the student outside the classroom. Despite opposition from the citizens at the beginning, it was implemented with very good reasons as every country in the world is trying to improve this international language which is very necessary in a world which is opening up its borders. However, when certain groups continue to oppose despite results indicating that students can overcome whatever initial problems they face, politicians fear for their popularity and relented by scrapping the project together with the various reasons given for it. It was scrapped in midway which implies that the project was not given the chance to succeed and with that I believe we have gone one step backwards. No wonder other countries with poorer resources are catching up economically with our country.

And this year we have seen how a prime minister is so cautious as to appear to have lost his confidence by going back on projects suggested by the government.

It is time everyone, not just politicians, plan their future well. Planning is essential to success and unless one puts in efforts to plan things well from the beginning to its end, a project's success hinges on luck which is not always dependable. Sometimes the element of luck is involved but not always. We depend on just lady luck when unforeseen obstacles are plentiful and there is no turning back. Otherwise, good proper planning should get us through.