By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
A Malaysian government official has called for Asian countries to work together against Japan’s distorted historical reporting.
Lee Bao ling, 55, principal assistant director at the Malaysian Ministry of Education, said Korea and other Asian countries can cooperate in adopting structured history curricula to fight factual discrepancies regarding the colonization of Japan.
``We were also under Japanese occupation in the past. They looked for local prostitution and used women off prostitution. It is very sad and we are very unhappy with Japanese distortion on those historical facts,’’ Lee said in an interview with The Korea Times Sunday.
Lee visited Korea from July 10 under the program ``Korean Studies Workshop for Southeast Asian Educators,’’ organized by the Korean Foundation for two weeks.
A total of 19 teachers from Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand participated in the program.
Lee has worked in the field of education since 1975 and is now working for the ministry’s textbook division. She heads the division that authorizes publication of textbooks for Malaysian primary and secondary schools.
``Actually, we don’t deal with much concerning Korea except geography. Korea was an older dynasty and recently developed country,’’ Lee said. ``But I hope our students will learn more about Korea through textbooks and that this program will provide a good opportunity for Malaysian educators to introduce dynamic Korea to those who are in charge of textbook curricula back my country.’’
Lee explained that the Malaysian education ministry is working on encouraging teachers to use textbooks in a more efficient manner. To do so, the ministry often holds workshops where teachers study and share methods on how to best use textbooks in classes.
Regarding English education, Lee said Malaysian students learn math and science in English, as well as the roots of the language itself and she believes that makes a difference when comparing English abilities between Korea and Malaysia.
Lastly, she shared her education philosophy on Korean policy of standardizing students. ``Wherever you go, children have different abilities and they are naturally divided into distinguished, average and below groups,’’ Lee said.
``We are making textbooks on the level of average students, but I believe those curricula should not stop the elite to develop and they are encouraged to study beyond what’s written in the textbooks,’’ she said.