Rightways: 1/1/24

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Owning a home beyond reach of most millennials (Poll Inside)

It makes more sense to buy than rent, says an academic who was involved in the Universiti Putra Malaysia study. — Photos: Filepic

Public university study shows majority prioritise buying cars, prefer to rent homes near workplace

FINANCIAL reasons continue to keep young Malaysians living in major cities from realising their dream of owning a home.

Among the younger generation, the major concern is high property prices that are many times more than their annual household income.

It is not easy for those with no fixed income or low salary to secure a housing loan.

While money issues are already weighing heavily on people’s minds, the younger generation’s inability to afford a home is exacerbated by the high cost of living.

Affordable housing is often beyond the reach of millennials in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya.

Housing affordability remains a conundrum in Malaysia despite various initiatives taken by the government through the National Affordable Housing Policy.

The initiative aims to ensure housing affordability is handled in a holistic manner.

A study shows that those aged between 25 and 45 seem to be delaying the purchase of their first home.

Financial commitments

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Human Ecology Faculty lecturer Dr Mohammad Mujaheed Hassan said the study had shown that other factors also contributed to the issue.

“The Variations in Preferences of the Young Generation in Klang Valley Towards Housing Property Demand” study conducted by UPM in mid-2022 found that the younger generation had high financial commitments.

A total of 2,523 respondents aged 25 to 45 in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya with individual monthly income of between RM4,360 and RM9,620 were interviewed.

The study aimed to identify this group’s financial level, in terms of their ability to save and invest as well as their financial liabilities.

Mohammad Mujaheed, who was involved in the research, said out of the total, 1,697 respondents or 67.3% were committed to monthly vehicle hire purchase instalments of between RM800 and RM1,200.

“For them, owning a car is a benchmark of their success in life,” he told Bernama.

Some millenials say it is cheaper to rent homes than buy. — Bernama

“Ironically, some of them take public transport to work and leave their cars at home.”

Mohammad Mujaheed, who is with the Social and Development Sciences Department, said the study also showed that 1,833 respondents or 72.7% had credit card commitments with at least two banks.

“To the younger generation, having a credit card is an alternative for them to have regular access to credit and as a cash advance.

“The study also reveals that 843 (33.4%) of respondents were renting a home for between RM500 and RM1,200 a month,” he said, adding that 73.9% of respondents had no disposable income for savings or investment.

Mohammad Mujaheed said based on the study, the younger generation preferred to rent due to several factors, although they could afford to buy their own home based on the monthly rental they had been paying for years.

“They argue that the location of the house that they can afford to pay for is far from their workplace.

“They have to factor in other payments linked to owning a property such as assessment tax and maintenance fees and higher fuel consumption that will further add to their financial burden.

Many people surveyed say affordable housing is too far from their workplaces.

“By renting, they only have to fork out for rent and utility bills.

“They say their rented houses are only for rest and sleep.

“Much of the time is spent outside their house and at work.”

At the same time, some millennials are tied to personal loans, among others to fund their wedding, while others are caught in the credit card debt trap.

This situation is not surprising as the Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK) had earlier highlighted that the majority cases of youths declared bankrupt in the country was due to credit card debt.

Worrying trend

Mohammad Mujaheed said the tendency for young adults to not prioritise home ownership had caused many to be saddled with longstanding debt, preventing them from buying a house despite getting older.

“The situation is rather serious and has contributed to many being blacklisted by financial agencies, living in debt, declared bankrupt and encountering problems such as stress and borrowing from illegal moneylenders or ‘ah long’,” he said.

He said while it was not wrong for the younger generation to own a vehicle or apply for personal loan, they should give priority to home ownership as it was an asset.

Vehicles, meanwhile, depreciate in value annually.

“The value of a house will appreciate every year.

Millennials may opt to purchase a car as a benchmark of their success.

“By paying monthly rental, it appears that we are ‘helping’ the owner to settle his housing loan repayment,” said Mohammad Mujaheed.

He said if the problem persisted, young adults would continue to delay purchase of their home to meet other needs.

It is feared that they will not be able to own their own house in future given the consistent upward trajectory in residential property prices.

“The younger generation should no longer adopt a wait-and-see attitude.

“The longer they wait, the higher the price, given that the growth of household income is not at par with the increase in house prices.

Youths who do not pay their credit card bills on time will find it tougher to get a housing loan.

What was worrying, he added, was this group ending up “homeless” when they reached their golden years.

On the possibility that this group would “share” a home with their parents or other family members, Mohammad Mujaheed said this could only be realised if their parents owned property.

“Otherwise, a family will be faced with the possibility of being homeless or continue to rent permanently (from one generation to the next) as they do not own any property.”

He said the younger generation should not use high property prices as an excuse for not buying a house as there were affordable home schemes offered by the federal and state government such as Rumah Selangorku, Federal Territory Affordable Housing Programme and Malaysia Civil Servants Housing Programme.

Affordability gap

Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Seri Iskandar senior lecturer Dr Azizul Azli said the huge gap between income levels and house prices had prevented the younger generation from owning a house.

“For example, average annual salary increments are about 2% while property values increase between 6% and 8% each year.

“Imagine, in only two years, property prices would have risen by 12% and salaries increased by 4%.

“Despite price fluctuations in the post-pandemic property market, prospective buyers are still not able to ‘catch up’ as their income is still at minimum level,” he said.

As an example, he said the average starting salary for fresh university graduates was around RM2,500 a month.

If they bought a house worth RM300,000, their monthly financial commitment would be about RM1,500, he said, adding that this was not viable with the escalating cost of living factored in.

An academic says double-storey houses are popular with developers as they take up less land.

Azizul, who is with UiTM’s Architecture, Planning and Survey Faculty, urged the government to play a more effective role in helping youths own their first home at a younger age.

Among others, incentives should be given to developers to build more landed property so that units can be sold at lower prices.

“We still have an abundance of land that developers can build on,” he said.

“However, they (developers) prefer double-storey houses as this involves smaller built-up areas.”

Azizul said Indonesia had undertaken measures to build affordable landed homes for the younger generation.

“Various house sizes at affordable prices are offered, and if converted to our currency, prices are below RM100,000.”

He said the current practice of allowing developers to provide basic amenities at housing areas had contributed to the hike in house prices.

To reduce costs, he said the government could take over construction of such facilities in addition to providing subsidies for building materials.

“At the same time, there is also a need to reduce red tape as this has also contributed to higher construction costs, causing developers to inflate their selling prices,” he added.

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Related posts:

Young adults in developed countries rent, we buy for good

While young adults all over the world are renting homes, Malaysias prefer to own homes as soon as they get their first pay cheque.

Instead of blowing their cash on pricey gadgets, young Malaysians are saving up for their first home.

‘Education needs to level up’; Closing gaps in maths and science

THE world is seeing a digital revolution that is advancing technology beyond human skills.

To turn things around, the education system needs to put in a place the kind of learning that will move people ahead of the technology of modern times.

That, said Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) director for Education and Skills Andreas Schleicher, is about knowledge, skills and mindsets.

In the era of generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT, he said teaching the young how to frame questions, navigate ambiguity and manage complexities, instead of teaching them the answers, is of utmost importance.

“We know how to educate second-class robots – people who are good at repeating what we tell them but the kinds of things that are easy to teach and easy to test have also become easy to digitise and automate,” he said.

Drawing on an OECD study that tracked the extent to which AI could surpass typically gifted humans in education, he noted a clear improvement in the performance of generative AI in just one year in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) (see infographic).

“You can see AI is advancing at a breathtaking pace. We need to accelerate our progress,” warned Schleicher, who leads the team that oversees PISA.

Creativity, he asserted, is one of the most central resources in the 21st century that education can foster to help people grow in their competence.

“If you want your kids to be creative, you have to give them space to experiment. When they experiment, they take risks and if they take risks, they make mistakes. If our education systems do not help students learn from and with mistakes, they are not going to be so creative,” he said.

Citing the teaching of science as an example, he said making students believe in scientific paradigms, giving them numerous exercises to rehearse, and testing them on whether they remember the answers have nothing to do with scientific enquiry.

“Scientific enquiry is not about reproducing the established wisdom of our times but about questioning it. And that is true for many subjects,” he said.

He added that rather than teaching students knowledge like physics and chemistry, educators should put more emphasis on helping them to think like scientists.

“That is going to be useful and sustainable. If we just teach fixed knowledge and skills, the risk they are going to become obsolete is quite high,” he said.

Speaking at the Educational Publishers Forum (EPF) Malaysia 2023, held virtually on Nov 22 last year, he added that learning literacy is no longer about extracting knowledge from prefabricated text; it’s about constructing knowledge.

“Instead of repeating and reproducing what you learn, you need to learn to question what you see, and triangulate different information. They are very different skill sets,” he said.

He added that students must have the capacity to see the world in different lenses and appreciate different ways of thinking.

Pointing to the massive rise in the “wisdom of the crowds”, where a large number of people put their ideas into the mix on social media, Schleicher also emphasised the need for students to be equipped with digital navigation skills.

“In many countries, the majority of 15-year-olds are born into this digital world but they are not digital natives.

“You will not become automatically skilled – education needs to invest in this,” he said, adding that the ability to distinguish fact from opinion and integrate different information sources is the kind of skill needed to make use of the digital world.

Nurturing a growth mindset, according to Schleicher, is another focal point of importance to help students forge ahead.

“The mindset we create among students is an incredibly important predictor for their willingness to engage with new problems and address challenges.

“Education systems that develop students’ growth mindset tend to also excel academically, while those that have a fixed mindset typically show a lower academic performance.

“If students have a growth mindset, it’s a mirror of how they have been educated,” he said.

Students with a growth mindset, he explained, know that if they invest effort, they can overcome barriers whereas those without it believe that success is largely about the intelligence they inherited and there is nothing they can do about it.

In fact, he continued, the growth mindset is needed at every level of the education system, including policymakers, teachers and publishers.

He added that one’s willingness and capacity to learn, unlearn and relearn will also be essential.

“In today’s world, you have to learn for jobs that have not yet been created, to use technologies that have not yet been invented, and to solve social problems you cannot yet imagine.

“So, having a willingness to engage in the novelty, and to give up some of the favourite beliefs, knowledge and skills in order to acquire new ones, is absolutely essential – that’s a real test for education today,” he said.

Themed “Developing 21st Century Students: Policies, Strategies & Educational Materials”, the EPF Malaysia 2023 was organised by the Malaysian Book Publishers Association.

Calls for edu reforms in M’sia

Less volume, more depth

Malaysia has put very interesting reforms on track but there can be less emphasis on the volume of content – Malaysian students learn a lot of things. Instead, place more emphasis on depth and diverse ways of thinking. That is the most important transition the modern world will require for students in Malaysia.

Learning environments can be more student-oriented and teachers can go beyond the instructional component and become better coaches and mentors to their students – that’s very important to mediate the impact of social background.

Engage teachers in more collaborative professional development. You need to get teachers in a space where they also become lifelong learners.

– OECD director for Education and Skills Andreas Schleicher

Strengthen school curriculum

The curriculum is by far the most important ingredient in determining what students are able to do at the end of their schooling.

A fantastic teacher with a terrible curriculum is going to have a hard time ending up with successful students. And a teacher who is struggling is going to be supported by a terrific curriculum, so all teachers benefit from a strong curriculum. It’s something that policymakers should be reviewing on a regular basis. There is good data worldwide. We’re leaving a lot of good ideas on the table by not paying attention to what other folks are doing.

– University of Virginia, United States, psychology professor Dr Daniel Willingham

Ensure quality content

You can have highly-trained teachers teaching in classrooms with the most up-to-date devices and software but if the content being taught is second-rate or worse, then students will not get the education they deserve and your country will be left behind. If we want to reduce inequalities, then high-quality resources produced by professional educational publishers and adapted to deliver the government’s curriculum is what will guarantee progress.

– International Publishers Association president Karine Pansa Focus on leadership

We need to review our curriculum assessment and pedagogical approach. First, the Education Ministry (MoE) should collaborate with stakeholders to reassess the curriculum. Second, it should redefine the role of teachers. Our teachers are imparting knowledge that can be obtained online. Allow teachers to learn, unlearn, relearn, and be mentors and facilitators. The focus should be on leadership as stated in the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB) 2013-2025.

– Malaysian Association for Education president Datuk Satinah Syed Saleh

Decentralise the MoE

We need to decentralise the MoE. All schools should have a board of advisers. We have intelligent people in the community who can be advisers. This is about community-centred, rather than standardised, education. We need to do away with the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) exams. Instead, if students want to enrol into university, they can take a certain kind of exam for the course they want to pursue. Our mindset is industry-based. We need to move away from teaching people to be nuts and bolts. Learning should be lifelong. Universities need to redefine the significance of diplomas and degrees. The world has changed.

–

UCSI University architecture professor Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi

Address shortfall

Our National Education Philosophy is clear about producing holistic students in four aspects: intellectual, physical, emotional and spiritual. But how well we are implementing this in classrooms is something we need to address. The MoE needs to engage regularly with stakeholders.

We have to prioritise our initiatives. For example, we are not spending enough on providing professional development opportunities for teachers, even though it was recognised in the MEB.

– University of Cyberjaya and Infrastructure University Kuala Lumpur adjunct professor Prof Datuk Dr Rajendran Nagappan

Replicate trust school model

The Trust Schools Programme, launched by Yayasan Amir and the MoE in 2010, came up with a model to transform teacher pedagogy skills underpinned by cultural change. It entails the schools shifting from a teacher-centric to a student-centric approach, and from teaching to the test to creating a positive learning environment that unleashes the potential of each student.

We have 94 trust schools across Malaysia, involving at least 10,000 teachers and benefiting more than 200,000 students. The MoE has the intention to replicate the model but hasn’t caught up yet.

- LeapEd Services chair Shahnaz Al-Sadat Abdul Mohsein

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Closing gaps in maths and science

TO improve performance in mathematics and science, educators and learning materials need to transmit excitement of the subjects to students.

Referring to the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) 2019, International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) executive director Dr Dirk Hastedt said students who liked the subjects scored significantly higher than those who didn’t.

In fact, the over 100-score point difference translated to more than a year of learning.

“It’s very important that students like learning these subjects,” he stressed, adding that learning materials should be designed to engage both boys and girls to narrow the gender gap seen in TIMMS 2019, where girls outperformed boys in many countries, including Malaysia.

Hastedt also said students’ self-confidence in mathematics and science strongly correlates with their achievement, with more than a year of learning separating those with confidence from those without in the same study.

“What we can see from our data is that learning materials need to be targeted and supported by positive attitude to these subjects.

“We need students with a ‘can do’ attitude,” he asserted.

He added that it is important to have prerequisites such as language mastery.

“From our Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), we can see an increasing percentage of boys struggling with language.

“If you don’t have language capacity, it’s more difficult to learn mathematics and science,” he said.

Other strategies Hastedt recommended for improving student performance include incorporating software tools in learning and providing support for underprivileged students.

“Some students may understand better when using learning software managed by teachers. This enables more individualised learning,” he said.

However, he emphasised that this requires not only the availability of computers but also the presence of software administrators and technical support in schools – more importantly, teachers trained in using digital devices efficiently in teaching.

He also said digitalised instruction requires more than just transferring paper materials into a digital format.

“New digital materials that are engaging and helpful need to be developed. It requires a support structure and teachers need to be trained to use the software and help students learn in a digital environment,” he said.

Hastedt added that it’s important to move international assessments to the same digital format used in teaching and learning.

Cognisant of the need to keep up with the times, the IEA, which conducts TIMMS, introduced its fully digitised version, eTIMMS, in its 2023 cycle, he shared.

“We have to recognise that students today engage with the digital world through digital media and mobile phones. They find this more engaging than traditional methods. We have to keep up with the interest,” he said.

Hastedt, however, cautioned that digitalisation could exacerbate gaps in learning.

Citing a study on digital competencies, he said the gaps between different socioeconomic groups are huge – “larger than for reading, mathematics and science”.

“Digital competencies are not always well covered in countries’ curricula, and teachers sometimes don’t teach these competencies,’ he said.

A focus, he emphasised, is needed on the most vulnerable student groups as early as possible, starting from kindergarten or the early grades.

Citing a TIMMS study that highlights a difference of more than one year of learning between students from disadvantaged and affluent backgrounds, he noted that in Malaysia and many other countries, students with challenging socioeconomic backgrounds struggle more often with mathematics and science achievements.

“A focus on supporting students from lower social economic background would not only benefit these students, but also enhance the overall achievement of all students due to the positive peer effect.

“And if teachers can concentrate on all students because of a good level of knowledge, that benefits all students in the country,” he concluded.

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Sunday, January 28, 2024

A Vitamin a day for your brain: Multivitamin supplements may improve memory and slow cognitive aging in older people

Researchers find evidence that daily multivitamin supplements improve memory and slow cognitive aging in older adults

A daily multivitamin supplement may not only improve memory, but also delay cognitive aging in older people, according to a vast study involving over 5,000 American adults, 500 of whom were monitored physically for two years. These findings could make it possible to preserve the brain health of older people at lower cost.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that over 55 million people have dementia worldwide, with Alzheimer’s disease accounting for 60 per cent to 70 per cent of cases.

According to the organisation’s estimates, with an aging population, this figure is set to rise exponentially in the coming years, reaching 152 million people by 2050.

This public health problem has a cost — estimated to be more than US$818 billion (RM3.8 trillion) annually in 2017 — and which could more than double by 2030.

This also weighs heavily on carers, the people who support loved ones with disabilities or loss of independence. This gives researchers all the more reason to focus on finding sustainable solutions for preserving the cognitive functions of older people.

This is the aim of the Cocoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (Cosmos), a large-scale study conducted in the USA (21,442 participants aged 60 and over) to determine the impact of different types of dietary supplements on cardiovascular health, cancer and other diseases.

For this latest instalment, researchers at Mass General Brigham focused more specifically on the effectiveness (or otherwise) of taking one multivitamin supplement per day, compared to a placebo, on memory and overall cognition. They followed 573 participants in person for two years, and also evaluated the results of a combined analysis of three different studies.

“Cognitive decline is among the top health concerns for most older adults, and a daily supplement of multivitamins has the potential as an appealing and accessible approach to slow cognitive aging,” said the study’s first author, Chirag Vyas, quoted in a news release.

Slowing global cognitive aging by around two years

Published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the research was conducted in two phases. The clinical study first showed “a modest benefit” for daily multivitamin intake, compared to the placebo, on global cognition over the two years of follow-up, but “a statistically significant benefit” on episodic memory.

But it was the meta-analysis that highlighted “strong evidence of benefits for both global cognition and episodic memory.” All this led the researchers to suggest that taking a multivitamin every day was effective in slowing overall cognitive aging by the equivalent of around two years, again compared to taking a placebo.

“The meta-analysis of three separate cognition studies provides strong and consistent evidence that taking a daily multivitamin, containing more than 20 essential micronutrients, helps prevent memory loss and slow down cognitive aging,” explains Chirag Vyas.

Senior author, Olivia Okereke, concludes: “These findings will garner attention among many older adults who are, understandably, very interested in ways to preserve brain health, as they provide evidence for the role of a daily multivitamin in supporting better cognitive aging.”

A previous COSMOS study looked at the benefits of cocoa flavanols on cognitive function. Researchers then reported that taking a daily supplement of cocoa extracts had no benefit on cognitive function, except in people with a poor-quality diet. — ETX Studio

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