by N K Khoo
Many Malaysia generations are made guinea pigs by our flip-flopping
education policies after independence such as teaching medium from
English to Malay, 3M, bahasa Malaysia to bahasa Melayu, teaching maths
and science in English and vice versa, SRP to UPSR, grading system,
etc.
The trend is when a new education minister clinches to this important
post, they will propose new policies hastily. No doubt change is
constant for us to keep abreast the outside world. But we have to know
the problem first before proposing a change of policy or solution.
I have a question to DPM Muhyiddin and his Education Ministry, what
are the actual problems in our education system before you simply
throw a proposal (a bomb!) to public members.
I and many educationists can propose a hundred possible or plausible
solutions to any hypothetical problem, but nobody knows are we
addressing the root causes.
The list of problems can be
– Rote learning
– Too examination orientated
– Poor in arithmetic skill
– Poor in English/mother tongue/languages
– No participation in sports and co-curriculum
– Too many grade A scorers
– Too many homeworks
– Too many textbooks
– Too many learning hours
– Too many tuition classes
– Obsolete syllabus
– Poor teaching standards
– Poor in comprehension skill
– Plagiarism
– Lack of analytical skill
– Lack of problem solving skill
– Lack of creativity
– Lack of IT skill
– Malnutrition
– Moral decay
– etc.
Let define the problem, its scope and magnitude first before DPM
Muhyiddin proposes something like abolishing UPSR and PMR to rakyat.
Such as proposal causing more confusions than solutions by itself.
#1 by johnnypok on Friday, 25 June 2010 - 7:24 pm
DPM: “We have successfully breed thousands of graduates and Phd holders … a world-record, and Singapore is far behind in terms of numbers”
#2 by son of perpaduan on Friday, 25 June 2010 - 9:11 pm
Senarai Menteri Pelajaran Malaysia
Nama Tempoh perkhidmatan
1 Tun Abdul Razak bin Haji Dato’ Hussein 1955 – 1957
2 Mohamed Khir Johari 1957 – 1959
3 Abdul Rahman Talib 1959 – 1965
4 Mohamed Khir Johari 1965 – 1968
5 Tun Hussein bin Dato’ Onn 1970 – 1973
6 Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad 1974 – 1978
7 Tun Musa Hitam 1978 – 1981
8 Datuk Amar Dr. Sulaiman bin Hj. Daud 1982 – 1984
9 Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi 1984 – 1986
10 Tun Abdul Rahman Yakub 1969-1970
11
12 Datuk Amar Dr. Sulaiman bin Hj. Daud 1991 – 1995
13 Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak 1995 – 1999
14 Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Musa Mohamad 1999 – 2004
15 Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein 2004 – 2009
16 Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin 2009 – Kini
Except Datuk Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim 1986 – 1991, he is the most eligible person.
#3 by raven77 on Friday, 25 June 2010 - 9:17 pm
DPM should just get rid of all this beating around the bush, cheating, backdoor, side door entry system in schools. All these matriculation, Asasi, foundation program kids are all supposed to be in uniform and in school but instead are let loose out on the streets in KL at Mid Valley Megamall, Sunway Pyramid and One Utama. What do you expect???….Just go ahead and see all the smoking and drinking and watch the overt sex lives at these kids right in front of Taylor’s and Inti gates out in Subang. Bloody disgrace. Just have standardized annual exams, O levels at 16 and A levels with most importantly a critical thinking or GP paper at 18. Do not move away from standardized international levels. If you do…then just walk up to UM to be greeted by more Mat Rempits and Bohsias….courtesy of UM’s Asasi Program…don’t these fellas at the University or Education Ministry have any shame or conscience at all…..kids who are supposed to be in school …all running wild in KL because of the shortcut/backdoor “Asasi/Matriculasi” programs….Jeez no wonder there are so many babies found in garbage dumps…The aim should be to produce well rounded, mature students. Until then…don’t let them out of their uniforms….if you do….Education Ministry should not complain of smoking, raping, alcoholism, ah long…and now worse of all even murder at their so called “Military” school…..Muhyuddin should sack all these so called lowya pengarahs, etc….and get outside help immediately to straighten out our education system…..HMS Malaysia is sinking and sinking fast….
#4 by ekompute on Friday, 25 June 2010 - 11:48 pm
QUOTE: “First, DPM Muhyiddin should tell us what is going wrong in our education system?”
I agree but problem is that he doesn’t even know what is wrong. In any case, his interest has never been in education. Tell him about projects, yaaaa… that is something is he more interested in. Maybe more schools, more computer labs, ya…. but don’t talk about our education system. What system? No need system laaaa… that’s what he will say.
#5 by wanderer on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 12:25 am
Kerbau head…..moooooo! mooooooo!
Yb LKS, that is your answer, Malaysia boleh!
#6 by yhsiew on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 12:31 am
///The trend is when a new education minister clinches to this important post, they will propose new policies hastily.///
The proposal of new policies by a new education minister is more of a publicity stunt rather than tackling the weaknesses of the education system.
#7 by limkamput on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 12:42 am
N K Khoo, let’s cut the long story short. What do you mean we do not know the problems besetting education in this country? Do you seriously think education policies were made by education ministers? Far from it. These policies were made by UMNO and bureaucrats sympathetic to UM NO whose raison d’être is to find an easy and short cut way to produce scholars, doctors, engineers, dentists and Phds out of garbage. Mediocrity begets mediocrity and that is the biggest Achilles heel of this country, be it education, competitiveness and governance. If you have idiots who are now education DG, State directors, headmasters and headmistresses, what can you expect out of them? Any bright spark would stick up like a sore thumb. Syllabus was never an issue. Just teach our kids and young adults language skill, thinking skill (yes ask them to write essays and précis) maths, and computing, I believe the rest would take care of itself. When the objective is not meritocracy, any of the problems you mentioned are mere symptoms. Why do we have half baked textbooks? Because they were written by half baked teachers to promote an scr*w-up world view. Why do we have half baked exam questions? Because they are set by half baked teachers who probably can’t understand the questions themselves. Why do you think our school administration is so archaic? Because most schools are managed by headmistresses with a caveman mentality who can’t hold more than two variables in their heads.
#8 by Loh on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 1:04 am
The Ministry of education is meant to be a political ministry for UMNO ministers.
First of all, UMNO Ministers use it to show that they practice Ketuanan melayu. They use their power to make life difficult for students and teachers in Chinese and Tamil schools. The vernacular schools are denied the access to new school buildings and other facilities as the so-called national schools. They disallow new Chinese or Tamil schools from being built in new housing estates. They interfere with the teaching of Chinese and Tamil languages with the intention of weakening their command of their mother tongues, such as through the teaching of science and arithmetic in English in the Chinese and Tamil schools.
UMNO created MARA colleges and other boarding schools for Malays only. That goes against the spirit of Article 153 of the constitution, when reasonable proportion of places of learning to be reserved for Malays cannot read 100%. The spirit of Article 153 was to ensure some participation and that may not even read as the proportion of the population. The unfair education opportunity given to Malays was clearly meant to tell Malays that they should vote UMNO to continue with the unfair allocation of resources based on race.
Scholarship awards have been scandalous every year. Other than Petronas and all GLCs which are biased in favour of Malays, JPA scholarships meant to be based on merits make the word meritocracy means kulitficacy.
Education determines the quality of Malaysians. When the children of different races experience inequality through their student days, there is no way they can be united in their adult lives. Najib can forget about forging 1Malaysia in the sense he is said to promote, with the way UMNO ministers handle the education ministry. Maybe Najib only paid lip service to promoting 1Malaysia.
#9 by karenleehs on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 1:18 am
What a joke YB LIM, It’s a known fact ministers sent their children to private or international schools. They have absolutely no idea what it is like the syllabus in school.
The current BM level in SK and SJKC for UPSR are like SRP level. From the moment you stepped into standard one, you need to know how to read and write, no longer learning them in primary school. From Standard one, you need to be able to form sentences, read kefahaman, rearrange sentences etc. On top of that you also have to know simpulan bahasa……
At our time, or to be more accurate, at our DPM’s time, we were learning meja kerusi etc in standard one….. This is just BM, it’s worse for chinese, everyone is in a rush to let our children learn as many languages, as much as possible, they have no time to play, think and have fun.
We should just do away with our education system, just adopt from US or UK, many are doing homestudy in Malaysia. Our Education system are going to the dogs like how our country is heading unless there is a change from the top.
Only those chinese and malay ego males females are clinging on to the idea of wanting to keep their chinese and B M heritage alive by continuously making BM and chinese more and more difficult for our children.
Please look at Taiwan how their education system is, even Taiwanese are saying we are learning things in primary when they actually learning them only in Uni to understand the language better.
Our education ministry can’t even plan the school hilidays properly, why have six weeks of holidays at the end of the year and made all students come back on Saturdays to replace Raya and Chinese New year holidays?
Since it’s understood we are having a week long holiday for Raya and Chinese New Year, just do away with replacement for Sats(they always announce it at the last minute) and have a five week year end hols instead…..
At the end of the day, we are becoming an African nation with lawlessness and chaos at the horizon….. I truly dread what’s coming for my beloved nation….
#10 by monsterball on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 1:28 am
A country can never be strong with weak minds.
That us exactly what UMNO B wants the majority Malays to be….in the name of helping the Muslims.
They want the Malays to keep depending on UMNO B …with programs to make Muslims feel insecured without depending on UMNO B.
This have been going on and on for decades..and the educational system is where they start to produce half past sixes…with degrees not worth a sen.
We need only to look at Singapore to compare Singaporeans with Malaysians educated in National schools.
Yes..Mahathir started the race and religion dirty politics..to make sure Muslims cannot see or think further than their noses.
All have put out excellent points on the flaws of our educational system.
But these flaws are intentional ….directed by UMNO B and will never change.
Scholars like Tunku Aziz have written wonderful pieces on this matter…and it boils down to change of government and give PR years of managing to undo the sins of UMNO B.
It takes at least 10 years to see some results.
It starts will all Chinese and Tamil schools abolished and the National schools follow the Chinese educational system…with no race discriminating agendas to be HM or teachers..that may see the bulk of the teachers are from Chinese and Indians and plenty to be imported for a complete overhaul and change over….with teaching methods and school books…one by one…checked out.
They should copy success from neighboring countries and slowly be original.
What I wrote may not be applicable..but at least I am concern sincerely…for all Malaysians not to be half past sixes…with some incorrigible…to be thrown out..to save millions.
If all think like Malaysians and not by race …their this or that rights…to be divided and ruled by gangsters and puppets..all will be well much sooner.
#11 by karenleehs on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 1:31 am
limkaput,
To be fair to teachers, many whom i know and they are excellent teachers, the problem lies with the syllabus. Too much to cover in too short a time. Only the smartest and the brightest will get to be the cream of the crop. Many actually get left behind. Why are tuition classes mushrooming all over….. the students need it…..
Why can’t they make the syllabus easier…. then there will be HUGE economic loss for
1) publisher coz they cant make more money printing revision books…… they can’t print many version of the text books (different books used of SK, SJKC and SJKT)
2) tuition centres, many of them franchised, check their background, many of them are politically linked either MCA, Dong Jiao Zhong etc, otherwise, why so easy to get the licence? Also, many questions are leaked to highly established centres….
Nobody will come forward to say this because nobody will want to break their rice bowls and get despised by their own race for speaking against their own culture.
3)PIBGs, HM etc, will not get the comission from the publishers for using their books in school.
4) Dong Jiao and Hua Zong will not be able to shout out their slogan ‘we must perserve our chinese language etc etc etc……’. MCA will not be able to use this to get chinese votes.
5) Private schools have to be closed coz no one is interested to go there and pay high fees if the government schools are doing a fantastic job……
Its all a question of politics and money……
#12 by karenleehs on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 1:59 am
I am a mother with two boys, 8 and 6. I am from convent school, can converse in Mandarin pretty fluently but can’t read nor write the language. I can write fairly well in English and BM.
My two boys are and will be in SJKC school, not by my choice but because my husband wwas from SJKC school and like all chinese educated males, he thinks that is the best education system.
This is the problem I face and it’s not only me, many with similar background face the same situation. This is my 8 year old son schedule, he goes for chinese classes from 8.30 till 10.30 am from mon till Wed and also on fri. On thurs, he is with me doing English. So he had to attend 4 tuition classes for chinese.
Before you think it’s ridiculous, I have absolutely no choice, i tried teaching him for the first half of year one, beyond that, it’s out of my control. Coz chinese tatabahasa portion can only be understood by those who are good in Mandarin. And of all the eight subjects we have in school, Science, Moral and Maths are in chinese too, so i had to ask the chinese teacher to help him with this…….. please look at the revision books in bookstore in case you are wondering why need to know so much chinese for maths, moral and science……..
I can only help him in English, BM, maths and Science (in english, actually, he studies these two by himself).
So, from 11.30am till 7.15pm, it’s all bout school from getting prepared to go to school till coming back home. Once he is home, he has to quickly bath and finish his dinner then do his homework…. he has to start by latest 8.15 to finish his work by ten.
Mind you, my son is quite smart but coz he is a creative person and not a detailed person, he spend a long time doing his work….. luckily he has no learning difficulties but even with that, we are running out of breath everyday coping with school. No TV and no playtime from Mon till Fri. We have no time to revise too….. some of my friends managed to get their children to do revision during weekdays….. their target, three chapters in one hour…… and this is in a not so competitive school, not like in Lick Hung, the pressure is even more intense…..
So after four to five years of such learning method since year one, the poor child can’t think for himself anymore coz have been pushed to complete this, complete that….. I am talking about average students, not the highly brainy ones.
The brainy ones will get to represent schools for this and that, and the rest will just get sidelined unless the parents are in PIBG or are teachers in school and that’s when your child get a glimmer of hope to be more involved.
My poor son has no time to do experiments by himself, mummy can’t do much with him for his BM and English coz so much time taken up to do chinese. And we are so dead beat by weekend that we just want to rest at home….
this is a typical english background family sending their children to SJKC….
For taiwanese and chinese (as in mum from China) mums, they face the same situation except that the language problem is in BM……
If the syllabus is made easier and the children have an opportunity to be taught how to fish rather than being given the fish (being spoon fed), then only we will be able to create a generation of creative and critical thinking Malaysians.
A generation who is not afraid of failure and who has strong mind set in knowing what and where their interests lie.
A generation who realises what education is all about, and they will learn that education is a life long quest not confined to only being taught by teachers but in instilling in themselves that knowledge has to be sought and learnt.
In every successfull students with strings of As, behind them are mothers who have sacrificed a lot to help them along their way…..
#13 by limkamput on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 2:30 am
Karenlee, we are not talking about exceptions here. We are talking about general rule. It is a fact that almost institutions in the country, including education, are helmed by id!ots due to years of mediocrity inculcated through state sponsored favouritism. This is the mother and father of all of our problems in the country. Yes we have some good and dedicated teachers, but they are overlooked for promotion and are being supervised and managed by paroch!al b!gots. Our incompetency is everywhere. You name me one institution, one service, or one government organisation that is helmed by someone who is there strictly on merit. Even ministers in important ministries are there not on merit. How then can we ever expect any change? Look at the Land Transportation Commission being formed now. I have nothing against Ham!d. But how much does he know about transportation. For almost every damn thing we do, we always think we can appoint someone as titular head overseeing the organization. It is not simple my friend. We need technical and strategic people who can strategize, formulate, implement and monitor the transportation needs of the country. If Ham!d can be so easily assume the chairmanship of the commission, the half baked ball can be the pr!me minister of the country.
#14 by Jeffrey on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 7:07 am
We don’t need Muhyiddin to tell us what’s wrong with our education system. The First Cause (from which many other ills emanate) is politicization of our education system.
Although Ministry’s objective is ostensibly to nurture potential of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced and harmonious”, the policies as implemented by Malay bias bureaucracy, have been geared to realise the spirit and goal of the NEP. Government’s decisions are influenced by the push and pull of demands from different ethnic groups, voting blocs and various interest groups. As a result we have a “rojak” system of SJKs, Vernacular Schools, Religious Schools, Private and International Schools etc catering for different demands and needs!
To be sure the list of problems listed by N K Khoo are there but to address “root causes” is a gigantuan task because the problem is politicization, and if ethnic/communal politics cannot change in the near foreseeable future, I can’t see how educational system inextricably linked to communal politics can!
In a given problem like that – which seems intractable – an average parent concerned with his children’s education will have to take a bigger role to supplement the “education” of his children on how to think and prepare for life, through dialogue & discussions within family & friends etc. One does not give fish but teach them how to fish ie how to seek knowledge on their own initative.
What choice is there? If our educational system cannot be relied upon to develop our children “in a holistic and integrated manner” to be “individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced and harmonious” (in preparation for Life), then this task has to be undertaken actively by parents themselves – concurrent alongside whatever the present school system, the tecahers with their limitations could do!!!
Sensible and educated parents ought to have better advantage. If parents can’t themselves think how to teach their children how to think of for that matter how to seek knowledge on their own??? They will only impart their own prejudice and bias! It is also a function of how efficient parents gather financial resources. Whilst “home” education seeks to supplement and neutralize the limiting effects of the current education system up to SPM or STPM, sufficient resources will help to take them out of this system thereafter.
#15 by Jeffrey on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 7:11 am
Within the constraints and parameters set out in preceding posting, I would have NO beef or problem with Muhyiddin/Ministry’s tinkering with the idea of abolishing UPSR and PMR leaving SPM to serve a overall major public assessment. We should consider supporting it for following reasons: –
1. Firstly, we have to ask ourselves what’s the purpose of a common nation wide public examination. It is to establish a common objective evaluation of academic standards. Then we have to ask, “what for?” There was a time it was used to weed out the academically weak and lazy. Today we no longer believe in that. We believe education is a right for all, whether academically strong or weak, intelligent or dull, rich or poor! Then the other objective (in PMR) is to stream Science or Arts, where the better go to Science (to help country climb up the technological ladder). This I don’t subscribe. Better results in PMR does not necessarily mean under present system one has more potential. In the first place the educational needs of children are priority and should not be subservient to the requirements of the State (regarding workpower needs) that never quite climb up that ladder whatever the streaming! Secondly the choice of either Science/Arts should not be that clearly demarcated, it should be the student’s choice on how the combination, and where the system needs to arbiter (due to limited places), it should be based on criteria of inclination and passion of the students in the chosen subjects based on performance which can be assessed by school assessments, not necessarily a common nation wide public examination. Thirdly, the country needs good people in both Science and Arts.
2. As posted by karenleehs #12, one or two less public examinations (which based on 1. I don’t see any compelling evidence of benefits) is good news to me to make the schooling system LESS STRESSFUL and open the way for (i) more alternative opportunities for “home education” (by parents/friends with assistance of Internet/Library) that I earlier mentioned (ii) more time for students to participate in extra curricular activities for development of social skills & EQ and (iii) more time to acquire knowledge in areas not catered for in school curriculum in order to develop an integrated world view. We have sacrificed (i)(ii) and (iii) when the exam oriented system keep pressuring the students to score a strings of As from rote learning, and regurgitatation of textbook or lecture contents, less public examinations, to me, means less of this bad habit.
3. The Ministry of course saves a bit of money. More exams mean more invigilators and more the Ministry has to pay for invigilators. For parents it also means more tuition fees – for what purpose other than scoring in exams? Whatever for?
4. Fundamentally it also boils down to this: if majority of us have so many reservations about the education system due to its politicization by NEP and Ketuanan – that cannot in foreseeable future be rectified – then why should we care so much for these overall major public assessment (via UPSR and PMR) of such a system? If one does not believe the “Rojak” system is that great one cannot equally believe in its public/common assessments being that great. So do away with them – the less the better! If one complains that there are too many changes in our educational system, this change will not make things worse, even if it does not necessarily make things better!
#16 by Thor on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 8:44 am
In our country, a pig or a dog could even become a minister as long as they’re favoured to Umno B.
What’s there to complain when we’re to have a “cow” as our education minister.
Just look at our present PM for example!
What do you expect to learn from him?
Much more worse, man!!!
#17 by k1980 on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 10:22 am
comment #2—
Anwar bin Ibrahim 1986 – 1991 is NOT the most eligible education minister. He was the culprit who introduced moral education for non-muslim students, which only served to transform them into liars because of its syllabus. He was also the narrow-minded bigot who replaced Geography with (Malay)History as a compulsory subject, resulting in idiots who know nuts about both international history and geography.
Advice to Mr Moo— why not abolish ALL exams such as SPM, STPM, university ect instead of only upsr and pmr. In this way every bolehlander can award themselves with a PhD
#18 by habis on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 10:42 am
Say what you like our education system has no consistency and direction at all and policy changes can take place at the whims and fancies of those morons helming at the Ministry of Education.How on earth you expect chickens to produce milk when you have ppl who are not even fit to be there in the first place? Talk of projects and contracts….ahhem…with their wide gleam …. they are professionals and need no guidance with their expertise all at poor expense of the rakyat. Meritocracy has no place in our education system but kulitocracy is the criteria so how can we ever hope to be outstanding when our brain drain continues with a faster pace than before.Ha ha one moment it is BM then the next English and then again BM so we have to ask what next come a new Minister of Education…French????
#19 by habis on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 12:36 pm
To creat confidence in the national education system first and foremost make it mandatary for all children of ministers,deputy ministers and all BN component party leaders to lead the way by sending all their children to national schools.In this way they can lead by example to show that our education system is comparable to the best of those oversea.
#20 by DAP man on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 1:04 pm
The Education Ministry is an extension of UMNO political bureaus.
They squeeze politics out of education. The education system is for the masses. Their children are sent to international schools or even overseas for the primary/secondary/tertiary education.
You see they have keep the kampong Malays semi-educated so that they can feed on the gullibility and stupidity.
#21 by Bigjoe on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 1:44 pm
The problem of Malaysian education is EVEN more fundamental than criticised here. We do to education in this country, the same thing we do to religion. We let the govt decide too much.
Education fundamentally should be mostly a matter between the teachers and the parents. The fact of the matter is that the major role of government should basically be funding it AND keeping teachers focussed on teaching. Everything else, the govt ideally should just stay out of it.
Be in curriculum, be it material, rules, language even where and buidlings etc. The govt should just stay out of it. So long as teachers and parents are mostly agreeable, we will do much better than anything the govt especially the politicians can do. Get rid of the Ministry of Education if you ask me and just have education budget go to the Minister of Finance.
#22 by frankyapp on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 2:03 pm
DPM: “We have successfully breed thousands of graduates and Phd holders … a world-record, and Singapore is far behind in terms of numbers
Great words from the DPM but great words mean nothing when it does not work. And why’s quantity at the expence of quality ?
Frankly I think for the past five decades,our education system has produced tons of parrot’s like graduates. I’m ashame that the DPM is proud to compare with singapore in term of the quantity of graduates instead of the quality. This’s nothing to compare since malaysia’s population is ten times of Singapore. Funny thing though our education system prefers large quantity of un-employable graduates to smart and intelligent graduates.I think we should start thinking to produce smart and practical graduates instead of large quantity of half past sixs.
#23 by k1980 on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 2:07 pm
http://malaysiakini.com/letters/135575
Examinations should not be school-based but must be national as they are now in order to be fair to students across the country. For example, a student in a rural school might get 8 ‘As’ in a school based assessment, but the same student in an urban school might only have scored 8 ‘Bs’. So who gets into the university?
OF COURSE the 8As jaguh kampung!
#24 by johnnypok on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 3:49 pm
“Born stupid + spoon-feed + lazy = Forever stupid” … so no choice but to continue using tongkat. This is what BN/UMNO want … make the majority stupid. No?
#25 by TheWrathOfGrapes on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 4:01 pm
NK Khoo – are you a product of the Malaysian education system? If you are, then you are living proof that you cannot string a short article without so many grammatical mistakes.
#26 by waterfrontcoolie on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 4:26 pm
We have gone through this topic so many times that it just reflects the condition of the education of the nation. We still have parents who cursed the system but still forced their children to meet the terms of the Education Ministry. In spite of tons of As, many graduates seemed lost in the world of working. We are all giving lip-service to what we complain about. Do remember, examinations if badly planned or planned for the purpose for political mileage will not impact the students when they enter the ‘smart-street’ environment. They don’t need to score As but so long that they can understand the reality of the environment, they will survive!
#27 by cemerlang on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 4:40 pm
Because of change itself, transformation, whatever word you want to use. It is interesting to note that there have been 16 different ministers which means there have been 16 times of change, of transformation, of going round in circles and only to find oneself coming back to square one. Instead of doing the core business, we are doing the process of the core business which means we are wasting time, effort, money and others. This is not efficiency. This is a proof of how inefficient we are. Since everyone is talking about the humanistic thingy or humanism, the education system should be opened. Instead of closed book exam, let it be opened book exam. State how many assignments, how many exams, how many activities and whatever you want the students to do, in order to grade them according to the different levels of achievement. Take away the fail thing because in the humanistic thingy, nobody is a failure. Grade them and whatever criteria they belong to, that is where their future skill will be. Meaning that education will help in seeing that they are suitable for a particular job. Make education the screening tool for finding a job and for anything else. Instead of just knowing how to read, write and doing Maths, make education a determinator of the future of a person. And the minister of education should be a person who has a background in education for example a teacher.
#28 by kpt99 on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 5:05 pm
There are too many flip-flopping educational policies under this DPM. To name a few like MBMMBI,1student 1 sport,Sex education,Sport as subject in school,SPM gradings with A+,A,A-,schools ranking,high performing schools and recently suggestion of abolishing UPSR and PMR.How many of the above will implemented smoothly and effectively?. Hopefully it will not be another 5 biilion waste like the famous PPSMI introduced by Tun Mahatir.Success will just come over night. Long term planning and careful studies should be done before any policy is to be carry out.
#29 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Saturday, 26 June 2010 - 8:25 pm
NK Khoo, would u agree that the first question should be even more basic:
DPM, just what is wrong with Najib?
Then, next question should be: DPM, just what is wrong with you?
I dare say the question u asked is just too much for a small mind like Muhyiddin. If he can even answer half of that question, I don’t think the education system would be half so deep in sh**it.
Sigh.
#30 by buy election on Sunday, 27 June 2010 - 5:04 am
our system can’t be wrong. our system is the best. we have produced the most SPM candidates with all flying A colour.
#31 by writecom on Sunday, 27 June 2010 - 6:09 am
It’s always a flip flopping suggestion or decisions, they don’t admit their mistakes and throw their burden back to the rakyat. We are already so far back in our educational needs of our future generation, in preparedness of our gobalisation economy. These are further aggregated by unqualified teachers and numbers isn’t important in filling the teachers required but quality dedicated teachers. Our greatest mistake are diverting maths & science back into BM. Where in the world can we use BM and do we have the complete reference books in BM. Our passing rates are just to prove improvement without a proper knowledge base. The minister is also lost of the education system and have mix politics with education. He’s doing more harm than good in his ministry and everybody from his ministry right down to parents, teachers and student are so confused with his suggestions which are not properly researched or brainstorm. To the rakyat, education matters are more important than all the politics put together. Why can’t he admit his ministry’s weaknesses and order a revamp of the whole educational system. Looks like most of the system in Malaysia are going backwards and we’ll be left out of the gobalisation era. The teaching standards and methodologies need to be changed accordingly. We have spend billions in our educational system and there must be a continuity to further expand our educational needs, in respect with our gobalisation needs. By right, history & geography should be scrap and should be replace with ICT or relevant languages.
#32 by k1980 on Sunday, 27 June 2010 - 1:46 pm
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/opinion/article/the-as-mentality-upsr-and-pmr/
What is there to prevent certain racist headmasters from abusing their powers and give poor assessments to students of another race? What is there to prevent parents bribing certain teachers to give a good assessment of their children so that they get good grades?
#33 by HARGA diri on Tuesday, 29 June 2010 - 8:20 am
In many other countries, education is users friendly. Instead of using it to see who is more egoistic, cleverer, more dumb; education is a helpful tool to the students. It does not threaten, it does not manipulate, it is just there to be a stepping stone for the kids. One can be good academically but hiding in one’s own world. One can be so social that one neglects the importance of education. If an exam does not mean much like the exams of nowadays, they can be scrapped off. There is no point stressing the bright students and yet for the weak students, they can equally sail into the next class. It is an insult for the bright students that they have to work so hard and others just have to take it easy. If there are many cases of discrimination, that is where your vote counts. If this is the only one thing you can do to fight the system.
#34 by kpt99 on Thursday, 1 July 2010 - 1:27 am
Another announcement by DPM today,ordering KPM director general to take in more Mandrin and Tamil teachers to teach in national schools under the programs of POL-People Own Language.How many of these teachers will be recruited and posted over 7000 schools nationwide ?How successful is that programs since its implementation in 2006 ?.How many non-bumiputera students will be enrolling in national school ?. These are some of the statistics that one has to know before any hasty actions taken.