KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry must work with various support groups to ensure the nation's education system will not be caught in the same old pattern, said Senior Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin.

He said the education sector should not discriminate people based on backgrounds to increase the number and variety of ideas that can be used to improve it.

"While some people say that our education is going backwards, I keep saying that we are not going backwards, but we have been going stagnant for the past few years.

"We as a Ministry cannot work alone in this. We need support from everyone out there who are willing to work with us," he said in his speech during the Teach For Malaysia's (TFM) 10th Anniversary Celebration here today. 

Radzi said TFM had been doing a good job for the past 10 years by forming partnerships with 893 schools nationwide, recruiting, training and placing hundreds of teachers in those schools, directly contributing to the development of national education.

He added that Malaysia has more than five million students nationwide in around 10,000 schools with almost 500,000 teachers which built up the complex education ecosystem.

"We have school from Perlis to Sabah, in cities, rural and urban areas as well as secluded areas and we have teachers from all backgrounds," he said.

Meanwhile, the Chairman and Founding Trustee of TFM Tunku Ali Redhauddin Ibni Tuanku Muhriz cum Tunku Besar Seri Menanti expressed pride in the progress that his organisation has achieved in the past decade, growing into a movement with 474 leadership competent individuals striving to end educational inequity. - Bernama