Thursday, 27 March 2014

Low quality Malaysian education more alarming than household debt, says World Bank economist

You know, the recent mention of Malaysian education system puts a sudden highlight on the system. Which isn't such a bad thing, maybe.

I kinda hope that such a statement will shock many people to wake up to the realization of what is happening and has been happening for so many years. (With the recent attendance to that interview, I was updated on quite some stuff happening in the education system lol)

Well, apparently the new Malaysian Education Blueprint has come into effect last year. I am in a batch of freshly graduated teachers who are directly affected by it. No longer will there by automatic posting into government schools but we are required to apply online via JobsMalaysia.com and then attend the interview where we will be evaluated and selected. (Which is good actually considering there are crap people out there who just want the job because of the "metal rice bowl" that never breaks, meaning good income instead of really having the passion for it.)

What we have been told during the interview was, "If you did not get posted this round, you know your mistakes, go back and make yourself better and apply again in 6 months." Doesn't sound too bad and one thing I picked up on was "apply again in 6 months." That means we still get the opportunity, no? 

This is because the system used to automatically post people to schools and once you did not go for it when it is your time (after you graduate), it is VERY or should I say impossible, for you to get back into the loop to be posted. Or some people would say you will be blacklisted. That is why a lot of people now pressure me to apply now. I have my reasons not to but yeah that's not what I'm talking about today.

So with the new Malaysian Education Blueprint, it sounds like a very big nice plan where there are ideal objectives, ideal goals and the small small steps to be carried out is sound (makes sense) and actually looks very appealing as I read through the whole blueprint. They do show the concern over how Malaysians have performed in the international test on Mathematics and Science (PISA) and mentioned ways they want to help avoid that and curb that and make the whole system go the other way which actually looks very nice and actually very promising. But if you are in the system, you will know how much work there is and how much has to change for things to really turn out promising. It is like steering the Titanic 90 degrees forcefully. 

That is why I don't find it very shocking when news on Facebook starts popping "Low quality Malaysian education more alarming than household debt, says World Bank economist". According to the news, the researchers found out that even rural Vietnamese students are doing better than Malaysian students which is horrible. I would say I can witness to that. The mathematics that a very good teacher in my school gave when I was in form 3 was nonetheless challenging but it was good as it challenged us to think and really learn mathematics but when I came back to school to teach (I substituted a teacher and taught mathematics as well) which was 6 years since I was in form 3, the same teacher tried giving challenging tests to students (but of course, it is for their level) and I find the tests not impossible to complete, some other newer teachers were complaining that it is too difficult for the students. 

We wouldn't want the opinion of students too much because they would, of course, demand the easiest tasks for them to complete (because they find it annoying to think and they would rather indulge in mindless games that allows them to shoot people) but the teachers are starting to have that, you know, parents that spoil their children that kind of thing going on, wanting to give students the "slightly" more difficult tests to them. As you may imply, I do not agree at all. People of this age seems to be too pampered and if you are too comfortable, you don't grow. I don't mean that everyone must be thrown into military that kind of challenge but without some amount of challenge in life, would one want to be better? Except for those self-initiative people or proactive people who have the desire to be better and aim high, which consists of very little percentage in a comfortable society. 

My point is, we know that students can achieve much more. Rather than not pushing them or motivating them through the spark of some challenge and let them slide through school doing just enough, isn't it our jobs to produce good quality people of resiliency and self-motivation? 

As I was contemplating whether to get into the system, I do find that there actually are teachers, young ones, who would sacrifice their comfort, their time, some even their own finances, in great hope that they will be able to inspire at least a handful of students to achieve so much more in life and be great people who do big things for the nation. One said that it isn't the system that is not working but the people involved that are corrupted causing the crashing of the system. The other has gone up another notch in recent months to help other teachers be better. And I sincerely hope that their efforts are not in vain, to be crushed by the system and whatnot especially when the students who were inspired and taken under their wing were released to go higher. 

So yeah, with the recent mention of the Malaysian education system, I hope it sparked an interest in people, even more so a passion in people as well as awareness so that people will be awakened to do something rather than just talk about it over coffee shop tables. 

I hope it serves as a shock to the system so that the heart will be awakened and it will come back to life like shocking someone's heart to work again. ><

1 comment:

Poet said...

Come S'pore?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA