tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post197375126306774788..comments2024-03-21T20:10:28.943+08:00Comments on EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA: Scrapping UPSR & PMR A Good Move?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-67286520848261991552012-03-23T10:16:24.537+08:002012-03-23T10:16:24.537+08:00Perhaps actually providing space, time and support...Perhaps actually providing space, time and support for teachers to continually develop would be useful. Instead the KPMs demand a constant barage of testing and monitoring of students to increase the schools UPSR. The headmaster has little other interest than this - as with any exam, if it isn´t in the test it doesn´t exist. You measure what you value, and teachers are not valued. <br />Teachers are constantly controlled and monitored to ensure they are doing their job (something that gains the school a potential 10% on the KPM) - something they can easily get round by just jumping through the administrative hoops they are set, most of it has no relevance to what is actually happening in the class and doesn´t actually help them as it becomes meaningless admin. <br />Teachers are crying out for real Professional Development - not endless courses that actually take them out of the place they should be! <br />Constantly feeling inadequate at school, teachers miss classes, days at school, in desperation they ply students with countless worksheets, hoping that these will do the work they are so unprepared for. Inevitably the UPSR scores drop (they all can´t keep going up it is a physical and mathematical impossibility! Someone has to fail!), so more monitoring (at least you'll get some points back on your KPMs!), motivasi talks, projects from the government. It´s endless and maddening for all involved. In frustration teachers are left with only one person to blame - the parents who are not doing their job at home. But the only contact they have with them is to invite them in to complain and moan at them if their child has failed an exam and give them endless rounds of "motivasi" talks. But i suppose that is just what the government does to them. Not much real dialogue goes on among people, just the veneer of education as a massive system sucks up vasts amounts of money keeping a vast amount of people (without meaning to be rude, mostly Malays?) employed. <br />Again without being rude, it reminds me to some degree of the Soviet Gulag system, in the end it was just functioning because it employed 10s of thousands of people. Those working in it had a vested interest in its survival so it kept going, spurred on by the vast number of bureaucrats running it, even when it had outlived its political and social objectives.<br />Does Malaysia have the largest number of civil servents per population in the world? Are they the ones endlessly coming up with projects and monitoring of teachers just to keep themselves employed? You only have to walk into any Government office and see hundreds of people, most doing not a lot. If the teachers were actually empowered to do the job they were supposed to do would they be out of work? Does the government have any real interest in changing a system that employs 1.4 million? (mostly Malays?) <br />Just thoughts and please do correct me if I´m wrong.. but no abuse please, I would prefer an honest debate. ThanksAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1599366885725047522011-01-11T08:03:42.803+08:002011-01-11T08:03:42.803+08:00We need teachers who actually LOVE teaching and ch...We need teachers who actually LOVE teaching and children instead of those who are ready to judge and label. How do we do this, I wonder.ummihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15111936114345507275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-53221522690197782162010-06-26T02:10:20.613+08:002010-06-26T02:10:20.613+08:00Look here, simple logics, if minorities like medic...Look here, simple logics, if minorities like medical doctors are destined to rule the world, control the world and dominate the world, the all- powerful being they called Allah or God would have made them exist in great numbers or majority numbers on this planet.<br /><br />Same goes for engineers, IT geeks and school teachers. <br /><br />The main points here are lawyers alway outnumber medical doctors anywhere in the world. Business graduates alway outnumber engineering graduates. Arts and social science graduates alway outnumber teacher graduates.<br /><br />Conclusion: True strength and sheer power of humanity always come from great number, the majority number, the fundamental essence of democracy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-26940070808302087632010-06-23T22:16:03.215+08:002010-06-23T22:16:03.215+08:00No offense but I'm wondering if the teachers a...No offense but I'm wondering if the teachers are actually equipped...the homework eating cathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08247104449759257485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-35278595411484728082010-06-23T09:35:44.529+08:002010-06-23T09:35:44.529+08:00Even in the sciences - it is possible to ask '...Even in the sciences - it is possible to ask 'out of the box' questions. Science is not all black and white only. In fact, science is all about questioning things. There is still plenty of room for discourse depending on how one phrases the question.Shawn Tanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04342111805045331752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-86682182441882168992010-06-23T00:32:20.251+08:002010-06-23T00:32:20.251+08:00Contrary to popular belief, our Sejarah questions ...Contrary to popular belief, our Sejarah questions (and I'm talking about standard national exams, not crappy private publication workbooks that come out questions at their whim and fancy) DO NOT ask dates of historical events. And looking back at the 2008 Sejarah SPM paper which I took, there are questions that require you to state things that are not related to the syllabus, albeit in small numbers and some are eally igsignificant. But I do agree that we should ask questions that require students to think out of the box. As for other subjects like Physics, Biology and Chemistry, the standard is OK but improvements still need to be made so that students question teachers, not the other way around. That boils down to proper teacher training. And please ask the government to scrap Pendidikan Moral, the mother of all memorising horrors.Wei Jiethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12641850155886299678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-17870167010644355172010-06-23T00:28:11.953+08:002010-06-23T00:28:11.953+08:00Dear Tony,
In a couple of years, your eldest will...Dear Tony,<br /><br />In a couple of years, your eldest will be in year 1. If your are planning to send her to SJK(C), you will find that, right from year 1, it's work, work and work all the way. The momentum mustn't stop coz if one does, you will face with an avalanche of work coming straight at you.<br /><br />Even if they revamp the style of examination questions like you mentioned, the students will face harder time coping with answering such questions coz they have no time to think 'why' things happened. The syllabus they have to cover is too much for them to handle. <br /><br />Have you recently look at year 1's BM and chinese?? They are like our BM and Chinese when we were in year 4..... And the UPSR is like our SRP..... many students are struggling especially the slower and creative ones.Karen Lee Huey Shyanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12290023252831510771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-71506066303256883372010-06-22T20:19:45.796+08:002010-06-22T20:19:45.796+08:00The next level of question would be something like...The next level of question would be something like - "What could have been done to prevent Melaka from being conquered by the Portuguese". (extrapolation - think outside the box)<br /><br />Another big question if the UPSR/PMR exams are taken out is - how would they control entrance into residential schools? Would they be introducing an 'entry exam'?Shawn Tanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04342111805045331752noreply@blogger.com