Okay, we had our early-of-the-year staff meeting as usual on Jan 2nd. Not that I really paid attention - as usual :-D But one thing that certainly got my attention -- the principal informed us teachers not to collect any fees from the parents in the first 3 months. Not the PIBG fee, not the computer fees, not even Bayaran Sekolah! Eeehhhh - apahal ni ???
Apparently "someone" doesn't want any controversy in this coming three months in case it might affect "something". Duh!
'Nuff said - that person's not even worth discussing about ... grrr!
Showing posts with label School Stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label School Stuff. Show all posts
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
PPSMI (Pt. 2)
Hot topic these days especially with the new school year coming up.
Well, the final roundtable meeting has ended and according to the Deputy Education Minister, all views and opinions will be compiled and handed to the cabinet to decide. (Now what about that BN meeting in which the matter is supposed to be brought up to - according to the Education Minister, no less :-P).
As NST has it, the ministry detailed seven options based on hundreds of different views and comments made so far. (Yes, not two, not three but seven! Gosh, how is the cabinet going to make the decision then ?)
- A continuation of the policy -- teaching Science and Mathematics in English at all school levels.
- The two subjects taught in English at secondary schools, and in the mother tongue (Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin or Tamil) at primary level.
- The two subjects taught in English at secondary schools and Years Four, Five and Six (Level Two) at the primary level. Primary pupils in Years One till Three (Level One) will learn the two subjects in their mother tongue.
- A complete reversal -- Science and Mathematics at the primary level will be taught in the mother tongue, and then taught in Bahasa Malaysia at the secondary level.
- The teaching of the two subjects in the language determined by respective schools, whether in English or the mother tongue.
- The two subjects will be taught in the mother tongue at Level One in primary schools, and in both English and the mother tongue at Level Two. The English policy will only be implemented fully in secondary schools.
- Science not taught at Level One in primary schools, but its contents integrated in other subjects.
BIG headache --- lotsa people are not gonna be happy, no matter what decision it's gonna be.
Btw, here's the results for the polls conducted by ntv7 news yesterday (16th Dec).
Well, the final roundtable meeting has ended and according to the Deputy Education Minister, all views and opinions will be compiled and handed to the cabinet to decide. (Now what about that BN meeting in which the matter is supposed to be brought up to - according to the Education Minister, no less :-P).
As NST has it, the ministry detailed seven options based on hundreds of different views and comments made so far. (Yes, not two, not three but seven! Gosh, how is the cabinet going to make the decision then ?)
- A continuation of the policy -- teaching Science and Mathematics in English at all school levels.
- The two subjects taught in English at secondary schools, and in the mother tongue (Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin or Tamil) at primary level.
- The two subjects taught in English at secondary schools and Years Four, Five and Six (Level Two) at the primary level. Primary pupils in Years One till Three (Level One) will learn the two subjects in their mother tongue.
- A complete reversal -- Science and Mathematics at the primary level will be taught in the mother tongue, and then taught in Bahasa Malaysia at the secondary level.
- The teaching of the two subjects in the language determined by respective schools, whether in English or the mother tongue.
- The two subjects will be taught in the mother tongue at Level One in primary schools, and in both English and the mother tongue at Level Two. The English policy will only be implemented fully in secondary schools.
- Science not taught at Level One in primary schools, but its contents integrated in other subjects.
BIG headache --- lotsa people are not gonna be happy, no matter what decision it's gonna be.
Btw, here's the results for the polls conducted by ntv7 news yesterday (16th Dec).
- Edisi 7 (7 pm) : Bahasa pengantar yang patut digunakan untuk mengajar Sains dan Matematik
BI : 42% BM : 58%
- English News (8 pm) : Should Science and Maths continued to be taught in English ? (Note : As expected, the viewers wanted the policy to continue but I didn't expect such a whopping majority)
Yes : 90% No : 10%
Monday, December 15, 2008
Updates on PPSMI
According to the New Straits Times, the final meeting on the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English will be held tomorrow (16th Dec) the Putrajaya International Convention Centre with more than 200 politicians, academics and representatives of non-governmental organisations and parent-teacher associations attending it to discuss the pros and cons of it. Why do we need politicians here, anyways ?
Interesting to note that representatives of the Australian Qualification and Standard Assessment Body will also be attending the meeting. Huh ? Why do we need foreign expertise to plan the future of our education system ? And why those from Australia ? Why not Finland - which I heard has been hailed as having one of the best education system in the world ?
Whatever it is, you can be sure that the Ministry of Education is having a BIG headache over this matter as apparently they've been getting all kinds of different feed backs from different quarters. As for me, I'll be happy to see the continuation of PPSMI since it'll mean more allowance for me - hehe :-D Okay, seriously speaking, I don't mind either way but I really hope that the government will truly take into consideration of the students who are not proficient enough in English to enable them to study Maths and Science in English. If they're serious about improving the standard of English among Malaysian students, there need to be a revamp in the ways of teaching English itself and not impose it via those two subjects.
Interesting to note that representatives of the Australian Qualification and Standard Assessment Body will also be attending the meeting. Huh ? Why do we need foreign expertise to plan the future of our education system ? And why those from Australia ? Why not Finland - which I heard has been hailed as having one of the best education system in the world ?
Whatever it is, you can be sure that the Ministry of Education is having a BIG headache over this matter as apparently they've been getting all kinds of different feed backs from different quarters. As for me, I'll be happy to see the continuation of PPSMI since it'll mean more allowance for me - hehe :-D Okay, seriously speaking, I don't mind either way but I really hope that the government will truly take into consideration of the students who are not proficient enough in English to enable them to study Maths and Science in English. If they're serious about improving the standard of English among Malaysian students, there need to be a revamp in the ways of teaching English itself and not impose it via those two subjects.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
PPSMI (Pt. 1)
Since I'm directly affected with this policy, what the Education Minister has to say about it would surely interest me. And after reading The Star today (14th Dec), it's interesting to note that he's apparently aware of the real situation - at least that's the impression I got from the interview.
It's a bit too long to put the whole thing here but here's something that interests me.
Even the late Tan Sri Abdul Rafie Mahat, who was then the director-general of education in charge of implementing the change in policy faced much opposition amidst the hasty implementation to the policy, describing the task as “seven months of hard work”.
I remember that it was just a short period between the time the policy was announced and the implementation of it. But seven months ??? It was definitely a rush job. The teachers weren't ready and the same goes for the students. I don't think the parents were ready for it either. So, who was really ready for it ?
The least the ministry could do was to train the teachers properly before implementing it. I 'understand' that certain quarters didn't believe in "wasting the time" but what good would it do if the majority of those affected with the policy were still in the dark about it ? They'd still be wasting their time teaching and learning lessons that they couldn't get a grasp at.
The interview also answered one burning question of mine - who were involved in the roundtable discussions ?
Errm, did anyone think about asking the primary and secondary school students too ? After all, they are the ones whose future is going to be affected by the policy.
But here's something that perplexed me.
It's a bit too long to put the whole thing here but here's something that interests me.
Even the late Tan Sri Abdul Rafie Mahat, who was then the director-general of education in charge of implementing the change in policy faced much opposition amidst the hasty implementation to the policy, describing the task as “seven months of hard work”.
I remember that it was just a short period between the time the policy was announced and the implementation of it. But seven months ??? It was definitely a rush job. The teachers weren't ready and the same goes for the students. I don't think the parents were ready for it either. So, who was really ready for it ?
The least the ministry could do was to train the teachers properly before implementing it. I 'understand' that certain quarters didn't believe in "wasting the time" but what good would it do if the majority of those affected with the policy were still in the dark about it ? They'd still be wasting their time teaching and learning lessons that they couldn't get a grasp at.
The interview also answered one burning question of mine - who were involved in the roundtable discussions ?
Professionals in education including researchers from our public universities were invited for the first roundtable.
The second roundtable was attended by representatives from associations and organisations, professional bodies, corporate, community leaders, parent-teacher associations and interested individuals. Students, teachers and lecturers from matriculation colleges and teacher training institutes attended the third session while politicians attended the fourth. We also held a special meeting with representatives from the teachers’ unions and associations.
Errm, did anyone think about asking the primary and secondary school students too ? After all, they are the ones whose future is going to be affected by the policy.
But here's something that perplexed me.
Q : Will it be in your new year address?
A : It depends on when we can table it to Cabinet and whether they are happy about it. Then we have to bring it up to the Barisan Nasional meeting.
When the policy was first raised previously, it was at the political level (Dr Mahathir announced the proposal made by the party’s supreme council in 2002).
Why must it (I assume 'it' here refers to "the new year address") be brought up to the BN meeting ? To get the party's approval ?
Friday, December 12, 2008
Back to the Past, Please.
The Education Minister said that the ministry is going to "carefully study the facts and information to be entered into history textbooks to instill patriotism among the young generation."
I'm wondering what changes they are going to make to the syllabus. As of now, I'm very perplexed with the contents of the subject. The subject is only introduced in secondary school, starting from Form 1 - and the students get it in bulk. Yeah, all the details about Malaysian history in lower secondary and wham! Suddenly they come face to face with 'world history' as they step up to upper secondary. Have the students been getting any basic on the world history anytime earlier in their school years ? I don't think so.
What the ministry should do, immho (of course ;-)), is to go back to what was done in the past. Start teaching history (Malaysia plus world and all) in primary school but start from the basic. Durng my time, we were taught about world civilisation etc but only the basic stuff. I knew about the 7 wonders of the world back then, GenghisKhan, Alexander The Great, to name a few. Then we progressed to the more detailed stuff of what he had learned earlier on. By the time we got to higher level, learning History wasn't that difficult (at least for yours truly).
I'm wondering what changes they are going to make to the syllabus. As of now, I'm very perplexed with the contents of the subject. The subject is only introduced in secondary school, starting from Form 1 - and the students get it in bulk. Yeah, all the details about Malaysian history in lower secondary and wham! Suddenly they come face to face with 'world history' as they step up to upper secondary. Have the students been getting any basic on the world history anytime earlier in their school years ? I don't think so.
What the ministry should do, immho (of course ;-)), is to go back to what was done in the past. Start teaching history (Malaysia plus world and all) in primary school but start from the basic. Durng my time, we were taught about world civilisation etc but only the basic stuff. I knew about the 7 wonders of the world back then, GenghisKhan, Alexander The Great, to name a few. Then we progressed to the more detailed stuff of what he had learned earlier on. By the time we got to higher level, learning History wasn't that difficult (at least for yours truly).
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