Colloquium raise attention to youth and family matters

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Arau Campus and UTAR collaborated to hold a research colloquium discussing on youth and family. The colloquium titled “Kolokium Penyelidikan UiTM-UTAR: Belia dan Keluarga” was held on 14 July 2021 via Google Meet.

The colloquium kicked off with the first presentation by Chairperson of UTAR Tun Tan Cheng Lock Centre for Social and Policy Studies (TCLC) Assoc Prof Dr Chin Yee Mun. Based on his survey conducted on 485 respondents, ranging from 18 to 35 years old, it was found that nearly two-third of the respondents believe singlehood gives them more freedom in life and marriage increases one’s financial commitment. “As the youths climb up their social tier, the size of family tend to decrease,” said Dr Chin, contrasting to the idea that suggest financial constraint reduces the interest to form a family.

Some observations through surveys also found that youth does not see marriage as the sole key to happiness, while also being a source of burden. Being single is seen as a key to freedom. The changing view on marriage is believed to be the impact of social changes in their lives, promoting individualism where life satisfaction with less responsibility is prioritised.

Dr Chin suggested that Malaysia is heading to a depopulation. This is due to the social changes led by the development process. While the social and economic factors play role, the fertility rate of Malaysians also saw a decrease from 6.3 percent (1958) to 1.8 percent (2018). He calls for more in-depth research on youth as they are the future generation.

Dr Chin found that less than half (41.8%) of the respondents plan to get married

In the second session, the colloquium turned to education to address the changes in teaching and learning experience due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “We have changed a lot in education where lecturers and students do not have to be in the campus to conduct or attend a class,” said UiTM Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Science Ts Noorfaizalfarid Mohd Noor. His presentation explained the application of heutagogy; a self-determined learning, a student-centered instructional strategy that emphasises the development of autonomy, capacity and capability in long-distance learning.

Despite the changes in the learning method, the fundamental concept of a teacher, students, two-way communication and conveying messages to students remain the same. In fact, the change helps to reduce the cost and saves time.

The youth are very open and adaptive to the changes in the new norm. “They are young so they adapt faster to the changes. We cannot refuse open and distance learning (ODL) at this point. It is crucial and it requires us instead to change to fit in,” said Ts Noorfaizalfarid, referring to fellow academics.

As one of the suggestions to improve the teaching and learning experience, Ts Noorfaizalfarid urged universities to focus on improving e-learning platforms as the students readied themselves for ODL.

Ts Noorfaizalfarid asserted that the platforms for online learning was ready for us, but the question was whether we are ready for it or not

The Covid-19 pandemic remained in the highlight as the colloquium continued with a presentation that touched on how the pandemic had affected mental health and quality of life in family context. UTAR Faculty of Creative Industries Dr Charanjit Kaur Darshan Singh raised the concern on how being stucked at home can lead to serious issues in a family, “Many times we do not talk about emotion (in a family). We talk about current affairs, work, study but not about how we feel. Though this could lead to ticking time emotional bomb, it is still not discussed.”

The situation is not made any better as the pandemic is seen to have weaken the mental health of society in general. Being stuck at home or longing for physical social interaction causes anxiety, stress, sorrow, anger and many more negative emotions. With family around, can they be the helping hand for the members to cope with the negative emotions?

However, evading to talk about mental health does not mean the family members do not love each other. According to Dr Charanjit, parents love their kids and this can be proven through the care that they give. However, there is a lack of focus on the emotional control and mental health. “This may have to do with the culture of the East,” she said, referring to the culture where everyone carries their own emotion without any open discussion, despite living under one roof.

The Ministry of Health provides mental health service through four institutions, 1,001 clinics, 66 hospitals and 28 community mental health centre (Mentari) throughout the countries. These, however, will not solve the issues if the basic steps are not taken. “If the family institution itself does not discuss mental health, how could the family expect to join counseling sessions that are prepared? With the family members ridiculing mental health issues, how would any of them seek professional help?” questioned Dr Charanjit. The research is still ongoing with 45 participants.

Media have been frequently discussing mental health issues

According to Dr Charanjit, the quality of family relationship is based on two aspects, namely social support and tension

The colloquium that was attended by more than 100 participants reached its final session when UiTM Islamic Affair Senior Lecturer Nadiyah Hashim brought the focus to the methodology of dissolvement of marriage in Islamic perspective. “Divorce cases saw an increment during the pandemic. However, the pandemic only added fuel to the fire. Even before that, financial issues has always been the main factor,” said Nadiyah.

Divorce has many names and methods in Islam, which include talak (husband divorcing wife verbally), fasakh (wife requesting for a divorce for eligible reasons), khuluk (wife compensates husband to divorce her), zihar (husband symbolising wife to those he is not allowed to be married to) and a few more.

According to Nadiyah, the increasing number of cases also increased the burden of the Syariah court of the country. However, it is still manageable and most of the issues are in the fasakh cases and validation of talak. “Many problems occur when the people do not understand the procedure. They wish to hasten the process but end up prolonging it due to issues that arise,” said Nadiyah.

To improve the situations faced by all stakeholders, Nadiyah listed a few suggestions. These include the need for husband and wife to understand their rights in the cases, and the procedure of the Syariah law. As for the court, she suggested the appointment of hakam, a mediator that has strong knowledge in the procedure and law involving both the husband and wife.

Nadiyah reminding audiences to consider divorce as the last resort to marriage problems

The three-hour colloquium came to an end with a speech from UTAR Vice President for R&D and Commercialisation Prof Ts Dr Faidz bin Abd Rahman. Prof Faidz believed that the topics discussed were relevant to the challenging times, especially now, “I am glad that we touched on youth dan family issues. They are important and the topics discussed are ones that require serious attention as the nation struggles through the pandemic. The big question is what is our contribution to the fight against the crisis? There are ways to contribute, and voicing out ideas for solutions is one of it.”