KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 2 — Education Minister Maszlee Malik describes the Tamil film Raatchasi as having portrayed the policies and changes that were being made for implementation in the country’s education.

He said the film had interpreted his aspirations which included the Free Breakfast Programme initiative which also wanted to see the teachers being able to sit down and have meals with the students.

Maszlee said the film had an extraordinary storyline and admirable character played by the main actor, Jyothika.

“Unlike watching the film as the education minister. I reflected every chapter to the situation in our country.

“Geetha Rani plays the character of a great superhero. He proves to us that major changes are not something impossible,” he said in his Facebook, Twitter and Instagram entries today after watching the film with his officers on Saturday.

The film Raatchasi, directed by S. Gowthamraj portrays Jyothika playing the main role in going through the challenges of being a headmaster with a strong discipline who wanted to improve the situation at the dilapidated school run by his government.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Dua bulan lepas filem ini keluar. Semalam saya menontonnya bersama pegawai-pegawai. Saya akan tulis artikel mengulas filem ini. Yang pasti, filem ini memang wajib tonton. Jalan ceritanya luar biasa. Wataknya sempurna. Berbeza rasanya menonton sebagai Menteri Pendidikan. Setiap babak sentiasa saya refleksikan dengan keadaan di negara kita. Geetha Rani adalah watak pengetua adiwira yang sangat hebat. Beliau membuktikan kepada kita bahawa perubahan yang besar itu bukanlah mustahil. Banyak sekali dasar dan perubahan yang kita sedang gubal untuk dilaksanakan telah berjaya digambarkan dalam filem ini. Misalnya inisiatif PSP (Program Sarapan Percuma). Filem ini menterjemahkan aspirasi saya yang lebih dari sekadar makanan, tetapi saya ingin melihat guru-guru boleh duduk makan sekali dengan anak-anak kita. Begitu juga dengan isu keciciran murid. Geetha telah berjaya melibatkan semua pihak untuk atasi isu keciciran murid, termasuklah pihak polis. Ini yang sedang kita usahakan. Kita nak pastikan ‘enforcement’ itu berlaku di semua penjuru agar tak ada lagi kanak-kanak yang tercicir. Bukan itu sahaja. Geetha juga berjumpa dengan semua ibu bapa pelajar. Tubuhkan semacam Persatuan Ibu Bapa dan Komuniti (PIBK) untuk pastikan ibu bapa ini terlibat aktif dengan pendidikan anak-anak mereka. Menjadikan pendidikan adalah visi kolektif semua pihak adalah antara hasrat terbesar saya. Kerana saya yakin, pendidikan harus berupaya menjadi objektif komuniti setempat, malah pendidikanlah yang akan meningkatkan taraf hidup mereka. Semua pendidik, ibu bapa, murid-murid dan sesiapa sahaja, saya sarankan untuk tonton filem ini. Segera!

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Maszlee said the film touched on student failures where the character Geetha had succeeded to get everyone involved in resolving the issue on student failures including the police.

“This is what we are trying to do. We want to ensure that enforcement is being carried out at all angles so that there will no longer be any more student failures,” he said.

He also shared the character of Geetha meeting all the parents and forming like the Parents and Community Association to ensure that parents were actively involved in their children’s education.

Making education as a collective vision of everyone was Maszlee’s biggest aspiration as he was confident that education was capable of becoming the objective of the local community, in fact, education would improve their living standards.

He also called on everyone including all teachers, parents and students to watch the film.

Lately, the film with a duration of two hours and 14 minutes had gone viral among social media users especially Malay netizens because they were attracted to the storyline. — Bernama