Category Archives: Education

Exam-Based Education System

Exam season for school children is to many parents a time for extra stress.

It is “easier” for dedicated-minded parents. They will push for intensive revision, regardless of the age of their children – even though it may seem cruel.

Those not so “focus-minded” will swing between wanting to make sure they get the best result yet not wanting to give unnecessary pressure to the young minds.

It does not help when meeting parents from countries where the education system favors enjoyable learning instead of quantitative learning for young kids. Where a little homework draw ire from parents and exam is unheard of.

It can be frustrating to see what we subject our kids to in our education system.

But personally, it is helpful to get kids get used to hard work right from the beginning. To grow up in an environment where they have to learn lessons even though they are not always presented in fun or engaging ways. To slowly instill a disciplined mindset – that will help when they have to learn difficult and dry subjects in college or when doing their online accredited degrees.

After all, life is not always about having fun.

Our stress is how to make them get the benefit of “enjoying” hard work without losing their interest in learning.

Revision Time

Our bedrooms may not have the fine linens from Matouk but they serves their purposes – to relieve tired bodies and minds.

Especially during these examination period when kids without the benefit of tuition classes will be tutored by their own parents.

We are lucky to have kids who enjoy learning, who expect extra revision time and who are willing to do a little sacrifice – half and hour extra practice time just before their usual show time in the morning – in order to be as ready as possible for their exam.

There is no position to target and no prize to aim for but simply the satisfaction that they have done their best – and that parents have also done our best to get them as prepared as possible with revision exercises and mock exam papers.

It’s time to hold that pencil to write and draw questions again!

School Trips

One of the highlight of my eldest child’s kindergarten in Seria was her school trip to the Anduki Airport, which service mainly flights to offshore oil and gas facilities, last year.

Her classmates and her had the opportunity of climbing up the control tower and visiting the industrial equipment-filled hangar and sitting on real helicopter seats put out for them.

Besides the Anduki Airport, the best school trip she had was the one to the fire station -  especially the ride on the fire truck, something which my other daughter who had yet to go to school then, had to listen to her sister’s tale with envy.

So far, the school which my children now go to has yet to organized any school trips for either of their classes – which perhaps due to their larger size of student population, is a bit trickier to manage.

Still, I hope there will be some school visits on the plan – since places that I know will delight my kids such as  museums and the national airport are all within short drive away.

*Picture : Anduki Airport, Belait District

Helping Or Condemning Children Of The Poor

Still on the recent controversial policy change on Math and Science, everyone should read this – especially those who voted YES.

Chaining The Children Of The Poor (click to read in full) by M. Bakri Musa, a Malaysian surgeon living in the USA

Make no mistake about it. The government’s professed concerns for the poor and those from rural areas notwithstanding, reversing the current policy would adversely and disproportionately impact them. The rich and those in the cities have a ready escape; the rich through private English classes, urban children from the already high levels of English in their community.

The idiocy of the new move is best illustrated by this one startling example. In 2012 when the new plan will be implemented, students in Form IV will be taught science and mathematics in Malay, after learning the two subjects in English for the past nine years. Then two years later when they will be entering Sixth Form or the Matriculation stream, they will again have to revert to English.

.Pupils in the vernacular schools would have it worse. They would learn the two subjects in their mother tongue during their primary school years, then switch to Malay for the next five while in secondary school, and then switch again, this time to English, in Sixth Form and university!

It is a great policy in the short run – everyone will pass their secondary school and every students will have a Form Five certificate.

National literacy will be 100% – every Education Minister’s goal.

In the long term, when a majority of students stumbled at Form 6, what more universities – we will then have a nation of mostly Form Five leavers. Let’s just hope these future students will have that rare spirit and willingness to work extremely hard to overcome this.

Easier To Pass Maths And Science Now

After much dilly-dallying, it’s a relief that they have finally made their decisions.

Out with English – and in with Malay, Mandarin and Tamil for the teaching of Maths and Science subjects for Primary 1 to Form 5 students in Malaysian schools.

Actually, despite the uproar of protest, not least from the former PM, I think it’s a wise decision.

The way I see it, most Malaysian kids are not keen on Maths and Science – what’s more when it’s taught in English. How can they ever pass their exam! So we have to make it easier for them. Kids from rural areas with limited access to learning English or students from urban areas who cares nothing about Maths and Science – they are the priority.

It’s their interest that has to be protected.

All we want is for them to pass their Form 5 exam. Of course, they don’t want to  go to Form 6 or even universities. Besides most want to be singers or poets or actors anyway. What do they need Math and Science beyond Form 5 for.

Why worry about the small minority of Malaysians who wants to go beyond Form 5. Who cares if they struggle with the terminology when they reach Form 6. There can’t be that many who aspires to be technicians much less engineers, or draughtsman much less architects or nurses much less doctors.

Students simply need to pass their Form 5 exam. And they can only pass if English is kept to the minimal.

It’s all about making things easy, right?

Of course, it is also important to preserve our language. Who wants to read that latest scientific discovery or research papers, usually in foreign languages? Even those English encyclopedias with its wide range of knowledge and information – why read them? Or if we really need to, we can always wait until someone translate them to the local language.

The teachers who protested against this are a mere handful. If they really want to contribute to nation-building, let them find another way.

Ways that does not involve and trouble the majority of teachers who just want to work and get paid. These poor teachers have been made to suffer terrible injustice of having to teach hard subjects in a language they themselves are not so confident in. All they want to do is go to work and get paid, for goodness sakes. It is not their fault if the program failed because the government forget to consider their motivations and capabilities in the first place.

Things have to be easy, remember?

So parents of school going kids, make sure you place your support to this important change of policy. Don’t let selfish parents or educators force you or your kids to learn something that is useless after students turn 17. Scientific journals in English? Research papers in English? Who needs those!

Go and vote YES to teaching Math and Science in Malay for Malaysian kids.

I might not know much but I do know that it will make it a lot easier for my Malaysian kids, who will be raised outside of Malaysia and who will be learning Math and Science in English since KG, to compete with Malaysian kids back home when they reach Form 6, universities and beyond.

*By the way : When it comes to the English language, who says rural communities will not make it?

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