PBS forever
In
my No 18 of this series I questioned whether I was being unjustly critical on
the subject of PBS and, in general, on the education ‘blueprint’. When I was
about to drop the issue from my mind two things prompted me to sit back to
write this. First was the news splash on the endless PBS issue. There is no
going back. It will be bulldozed through with a huge concession; teachers’
workload will be reduced by 80%.Isn’t that fantastic? Had no one ever thought
through the implementation of a major project, or was there no one with his/her
brain working outside the guitar box?
How could such a huge impact on workload was never thought of; pure
nincompoop. Now do I hear, “Hurray!!” from teachers on hearing the recent
discovery of reduction on their workload ?
The
second announcement made was the planned disappearance of the current PMR
examination, making way for the emergence of yet another examination called PT3
– whatever that is, of world class, no doubt. I am surprised if we will not be
told that before long the SPM will be called differently, like SP1M.
A Perfect solution !
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As a
rule, children join Almanar tuition class at Form 1, allowing sufficient time
for us to give these children sound understanding of the basic knowledge in
English language and Mathematics by the time they sit for their PMR examination
three years later. This has proved successful. It is never our requirement that
children are accepted on the basis of their good primary school records. Preference
is given to those with poor family as long as the children are prepared to move
at the pace we, taking cognition of the level of their knowledge, set for them,
Unfortunately
there are instances when we get request for help from children at higher Forms.
A typical example is the case of three girls of Form 4 who, ten days ago,
approached Pakcik for help in English and Mathematics. They performed well
enough in their PMR examination end of last year, gaining as many as 6 ‘A’ grades
in subjects except English and Mathematics. Two of them managed to obtain ‘C’
grade and the third just ‘D’ grade in English. No one in that school obtained
all ‘A’ grades in the examination. These three children are conscious of the
need to get help but are not prepared to pay for evening tuition classes
mushrooming around the area.
To
have a very rough indication of the level of their English, I made them
translate into English the following two Malay sentences:
“ Adam
seorang budak bernama Ali. Dia mempunyai dua orang abang.”
Girl
No 1’s answer : “Have a boy name Ali. He has two brothers.”
Girl
No 2’s answer : "Have boy is name Ali.
He have two elder brother.”
Girl
No 3’s answer : “There are boy name
Ali. He have two brothers.”
Wouldn't
I heave a long sigh when I am faced with this situation? Will the ‘blueprint’,
PBS and so on, solve it all in future ?
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Special
request to my visitors:
I
know a number of visitors to this blog are teachers with experience in general
and English Language in particular. Bearing in mind that many do not wish to
give open comments for other visitors to read, I sincerely seek their comments,
(via email to almanar@pd.com.my
), on my thoughts related to education in Malaysia. I must admit that, entrenched
in the system I was so familiar with half a century ago, I could have reflected
a totally out-dated thoughts. I would not be embarrassed or offended to adverse
comments which I am grateful for.
_________________________
Berkhidmat
kerana Tuhan untuk keemanusiaan
