Carrots And More Carrots Only The Gomen Schools And Religious Schools Have Fallen Far Behind

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It has been almost two months since the new gomen took over. No announcements have been made about changing ANY OF THE FAILED POLICIES OF THE PREVIOUS DISASTROUSLY FAILED governments.   NONE AT ALL.  NOT A SINGLE NEW POLICY INITIATIVE HAS EVEN BEEN HINTED AT.
There is another 'annual rite of passage' coming up soon. I will not say what it is but I will give it an acronym RQIU. Lets just wait and see what happens to RQIU. I believe the same bungling will happen this year as well - no change from the previous governments. Then that lion can laugh again, and again.

The previous governments failed. That is why they  lost the elections, their prime ministers lost their jobs and got kicked out. WHY? Because the peoples' lives were getting more difficult. Especially the Malay people. 
The lives of my generation (born in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s) have been significantly and much, much better than the lives of our parents generation (born in 1920s, 1930s up to 1940s). 

But the lives of our children's generation (children born in the 1990s and thereafter) is now getting more difficult than the lives of their parents. 

Because the policies have failed. And the failed policies have not been changed. 
So now does this present set of chimpanzees feel that by not making any policy changes they can somehow magically succeed in making the peoples' lives better, win the votes and keep their jobs in the gomen? It does not work that way lah.

Today there is something about education. It is getting from worse to more worse.

I received the following via WhatsApp. They say this is actually some "internal" Memo. It does not matter. It is the thought process behind this Memo that matters. 
My conclusion : Education is wasted on these folks. It may be better if they just stayed in the villages and tanam jagung. WHY? Because they will do less damage to the rest of the people, their own people. 

Ok here it is :
Para KP yang saya hormati sekalian,  maaf mengganggu pada hujung minggu begini.Saya cuma ingin memberikan peringatan mesra dan berharap agar tuan/puan menyebarkannya kepada anak-anak buah dalam panitia. 
Berkenaan dengan UASA
 
1. Guru mesti sedar bahawa UASA ialah pentaksiran sumatif, satu komponen dalam PBD dan pentaksiran ini *tidak sama dengan peperiksaan pusat seperti UPSR*

OSTB: Ok part of the problem are all these abbreviations and nomenclatures. The ABCDs and WXYZs. 
UPSR - Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (abolished)
PBD - Pentaksiran Bilik Darjah (replaced UPSR)
PBS - Pentaksiran Berasaskan SekolahPT3 - Pentaksiran Tingkatan 3 (??) UASA - Ujian Akhir Sesi Akademik (replaced UPSR/PT3)
The average people (aka the parents) may not even understand what these abbreviations mean. Plus they keep changing. How are the simple folks going to get more involved in their children's education? 

2. Guru-guru ada lebih kuasa ("authority") dan harus menggunakan budi bicara dan kebijaksanaan sendiri untuk mentadbir dan memeriksa jawapan murid. Jangan ikut skema buta-buta. Utamakan murid. Pentaksiran untuk membantu, bukan menghukum. Jangan terlalu rigid sehingga asyik nak mencari kesalahan murid dan *kedekut* untuk memberikan markah.
 
OSTB:  Jangan ikut skema buta-buta??    Habis siapa suruh kementerian buat skema in the first place? By the way, apa benda itu skema?

Cadangan saya beginilah - why not terus bagi semua 'A' kepada semua anak murid? Tak kisahlah kalau jawapan murid betul ke atau salah just give them all 'A's.  'Jangan terlalu rigid dan *kedekut* untuk memberikan markah.'

Lagi senang bagi guru-guru buat kerja. Jimat tenaga. Tak payah penat nak memikir sangat.

 

3. Guru-guru harus memanfaatkan kesempatan untuk menyemak jawapan murid dengan memastikan murid dibantu dan dibimbing, bukan dihukum. Dulu UPSR kita tidak dapat membuat apa-apa setelah skrip jawapan dihantar kepada pemeriksa luar. Sekarang kuasa di tangan kita. Tapi ini tidak bermakna kita membelakangkan integriti seperti mengklonkan soalan yang sama sebelum ujian untuk membolehkan murid lulus cemerlang.
 
4. Saya ada juga terdengar, kelas tertentu sekolah tertentu murid yang beroleh markah cemerlang hanya seorang dua. Jika benar keadaan tersebut,  tidak mengapa, tapi jika murid tak dapat cemerlang semata-mata kerana guru hendak menunjukkan "ketegasannya", sebenarnya itu hanya menggambarkan kegagalan guru selama ini untuk membimbing dan membantu murid-murid
 
5.  Seperkara lagi, dalam format baharu penulisan karangan, murid diberi bahan rangsangan untuk menghasilkan karangan berformat atau tidak berformat. Maka, murid ada kebebasan selagi tidak terpesong. Contoh: gambar gotong-royong diberikan. Murid boleh menulis apa-apa sahaja asalkan berkaitan dengan gotong-royong.  Contoh: keperihalan tentang aktiviti gotong-royong,  ucapan tentang kepentingan gotong-royong,  karangan fakta tentang kebaikan gotong-royong, pendapat tentang cara membudayakan amalan gotong-royong, laporan aktiviti gotong-royong atau apa-apa sahaja.  Jangan sempitkan skop dengan memberikan markah rendah jika murid menulis sesuatu yang cikgu fikirkan kurang sesuai. Harap guru-guru meluaskan horizon pemikiran.

Harap maklum dan terima kasih.


OSTB : Basically what this "memo" is saying is that the guru should take it easy when grading the performance of the school kids. Dont be 'kedekut' in dishing out good grades. Just give them plenty of carrots.  
So the tongkat philosophy starts early from the schooling system. 
Cikgu, saya OutSyed The Box ada cadangan outsyed the box - why not suruh anak murid memeriksa kertas ujian mereka sendiri dan memberi markah mereka sendiri?  Apa beza sangat?

The bigger question mark is how far can we trust our teachers to accurately grade the student's knowledge levels? 
Decades ago the multiple choice answering system was invented also to remove any element of subjectivity, any bias, prejudice and other not nice things in a teacher / graders's psyche or mental state when assessing student performance. All my university exams for four years in the US were multiple choice (except for my courses in philosophy and political science). 
The multiple choice answers system has worked very well not just in Malaysia but in so many countries. Why go and change the system? 
Sistem sekolah kita dungu. Malaysia even failed the PISA scoring system. Terpaksa tarik keluar daripada PISA sebab selalu fail.  And these folks still think they can come up with these weird new ideas and make our schools great again? 
Its not going to happen. It does not work that way. My suggestion is 'bila sesat di hujung jalan, balik kepada pangkal jalan'.
Just go back to the system that we had before - which produced the genius generation like my generation.  During my time in school in the 1970s our schools were at par with Singapore, US or UK. 
Then the UMNO dunggus went ahead and changed our education system. And it has been downhill since. 
Here is some comment about our education system that I received from a blog reader (thank you).

 
"It is sad that our Malaysian government is always bickering and fighting over positions especially PM, DPM, Ministerial positions etc.  It is just so very sickening. 

The International Baccalaureate (IB) results have just been released for all students who sat for it last year 2022.  Guess what, 150 students in the whole world had full marks of 45.  And out of this 150 students that had full marks - 50 of them were from Singapore.   

One of them is my niece, a Malaysian and has been offered a place in Oxford.  How many Malaysian students had full marks?  I believe ... none.  
The Singapore government is just waiting to offer these children scholarships and grants if they get into these Universities.  Why?  When the complete their studies, they are absorbed into Singapore and given Singaporean status immediately.

Our country is now 1st place for cheating, stealing, bull shitting etc. etc 

The education ministry had better wake up and stop forcing children to study so much religious education and only in Bahasa.  
Despite this, the other non-Malay races are getting better marks in Bahasa.  As long as all Malaysian children can read and write in Bahasa, that is good. But Bahasa is of little or no use internationally.  
As for religious studies, please do this on Sundays or Saturdays when parents are very free to send their children for religious classes.  For your information all churches and Buddhists temples etc in Malaysia have classes on weekends and especially on Sundays for children.  (OSTB : So christian and Buddhist children study their religion on weekends without intruding into their regular school hours.) 

School time should be used for studying all the other important subjects e.g. maths, science, English etc.  Religious studies will not make all these children any better when competing overseas. 

We must have the biggest idiot or fool for an Education Minister who keeps shoving loads and loads of religious studies on children.  Can all the hours spent on religious studies make our children compete internationally?  I know of many children who attended International schools and they come back to Malaysia after a few years in Universities overseas. They are heads and shoulders over all our most clever 'locally educated' children.  This is a definite no go.  Our locals cant even speak proper English!!!

I am truly appalled that our Government can allow this to happen at this time and age!!!  
Then there are those who spend money getting more wives and having more children. Can they please have quality instead of quantity!!!
OSTB : All is not lost.   Only the gomen schools and religious schools. This is the failed category.

There is a sizeable international school system in Malaysia. They may not follow the Malaysian school curriculum. Also private schools which are usually very expensive. There are also the taxpayer funded boarding schools which still use English as the main language and also prepare students for A Levels and Baccaulaureate exams - both of which are NOT in the Malaysian education system.  
These schools are attended by the cleverer students, the elites and the well to do people. Their graduates go on to leave the country permanently or they become the achievers and more successful citizens in the country. 
There are also the Chinese secondary schools which prepare students for their UEC exams.  The top students in the Chinese UEC exams are now 'sucked up' by Singapore universities. They get scholarships and places at Singapore universities. The Singaporeans recognise the academic quality of the UEC graduates.

There is one more schooling system that is gaining in popularity. As I said before I will not divulge who they are.  They are successful and they produce students who are able to perform well in their work and careers.

So not the entire Malaysian education system is in trouble. Only the gomen sekolah kebangsaan and the religious schools are most problematic. Wherever there is gomen involvement or overdose of religion they are synonymous with lacklustre and disappointing outcomes.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
By Syed Akbar Ali 

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