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The PPSMI Conundrum

Posted by narrowband - 06/11/11 at 12:11:50 pm

Let’s face it. We are just not there yet. Some teachers can’t even converse fluently in English, and you want them to teach in English? I’d rather have the knowledge imparted to me in a language the teacher feels most comfortable using. The last thing you want is some teachers become too focused on the delivery rather than the content. Just tell me whatever I need to know, in whatever way you feel comfortable, and I’ll do my own translating when the need arises.

If the teacher feels uncomfortable teaching in English, he or she may choose to get the lesson “over and done with” quickly, covering the bare minimum without going the extra mile to include other good-to-know’s or tips. I’m not saying learning in English is a bad thing. I’m all for English as a medium of instruction, even if it’s just for Science and Math. But the fact remains that we do not have enough qualified teachers to do that. Furthermore, I personally find learning in BM is just as effective.

I agree that we tend to use strange terms like “janjang” (“series” in English), “penyahpecutan” (BM for “deceleration”) and so on, but at the end of the day it’s the concept that’s important. It doesn’t really matter how it’s delivered, as long as it gets delivered. And if it helps to make the delivery more effective, the teacher can throw in its English-equivalent terms as an added bonus. I grew up learning everything in BM and when I entered uni, I found the BM-to-English transition both redundant and enlightening.

Everytime I came across a new English term, I felt joy in successfully relating it to its BM-equivalent word. Japan, Germany and China are examples of technologically-advanced nations that do not use English as a medium of instruction in their education system. Practically, I think we should not be too worked up about the whole PPSMI issue. We can instead focus on what is being taught in schools (factual/accurate History syallbus?) rather than how it’s taught.

Honestly, learning stuff in BM is not the end of the world. Many people turned out fine. There are more pressing issues that need our attention. PPSMI is not going to stop brain-drain. PPSMI is not going to stop our kids from having to sit for IELTS or TOEFL when entering universities. I just think that the PPSMI is a little too far fetched an idea and our country isn’t quite ready for it. Don’t you think so?

Malaysian Education

Posted by narrowband - 08/11/08 at 10:11:13 am

For those of you whose siblings or relatives are no longer in school, I bet you couldn’t care less if it was the SPM season, PMR season, last day of school, or first day of a public exam, etc. I wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t for sis, who had just sat for her PMR exam recently – the last among my siblings to do so. And yesterday was her last day of school for academic year 2008. We were discussing about what subjects for her to take when she enters Form 4.

She’s going to do what her kor kor and jie jie used to do (and more) – study Accounting on her own and sit for the paper as an extra subject. Apart from that, she’ll also be taking some extra subjects which we think will be helpful in scoring more As. This made me think. As much as I like to say that scoring a string of As doesn’t mean you’re smart, both sis (the one graduating from her bachelor’s soon) and I are still advising her to go for as many as possible. “Take that one lah, free A wor!” I heard myself said.

That’s the reality of the education system in our country. Everybody’s doing it, you cannot afford to not join in. Furthermore, sis is much luckier. She can turn to me or my other sis for help. In fact I have prepared a whole stack of used (printed on one side) A4 papers to be re-used for teaching purposes. The papers are about knee-level high. We also like to use the whiteboards we have in our rooms. At the end of the day, what matters most is not the As that she scores, but whether she understands what, why and how things happen. The As will then come automatically (this theory is applicable up to STPM level only I think!).

Sadly, a certain group of people in Malaysia have begun to work the other way around – Target the As, nevermind if the students don’t really understand the subject. And a large number of these students have landed on my blog in recent months (since the UPSR week), no thanks to my commentary on spotting questions and distributing them in public. Since I did not agree to the idea, some of these hopefuls left lousy comments in that entry – some suggesting that I closed down my site. I have since removed those comments and closed the comment box.

I realized that although there’re differences in the way these students get (or try to get) their As, they have one thing in common – they’re all victims of our age-old education system that hardly promotes thinking in students, but kiasuism. When I told sis to take a particular subject simply because it’s easy to score an A, that’s kiasuism. Because a large number of students are turning to question-spotting tuition centers for help, many others decide to do the same because they just don’t want to lose out to their peers. That’s kiasuism. It’s the system that’s made us this way.

Sad but true. Can we not bow to peer pressure? Despite telling these students that what’s most important in life is attitude rather than As, are you prepared to let your siblings and children lose out on the rat race? I’m not…

Footer: Narrowband has two younger sisters and he believes that the Malaysian education system has much room for improvement. That said, he’s very impressed with the severe punishment in place for students who cheat, because recently one of his sister’s schoolmates was caught cheating during a PMR paper and has since been barred from taking public exams for three years! Also, despite having left school almost 8 years ago, he still looks forward to the scrapping of Moral Education from the SPM subjects line up for non-Muslim students.

God Bless Malaysia

Posted by narrowband - 30/07/08 at 03:07:58 pm

As a conscious Malaysian, and also one who vowed never to miss a single voting opportunity as long as he is eligible, I am amazed at how fearful our ministers, the police, and even the prime minister, are towards the country’s most prominent opposition leader in Malaysian history. I am equally perplexed at how they can conveniently shrug off a number of serious allegations as rubbish, yet deliberately pile whatever resources they have on zooming into allegations which, to date, do not have any convincing evidence to show that there should even be a case at all. The police, which should, by the way, be an independent entity, never seemed to be interested in (not even curious about) the startling allegations put forth by brave Bolehans who have, since doing so, gone into hiding in fear for their safety. Instead, as with countless other previous high-profile cases (“correct, correct, correct”?), they choose to dwell upon the authenticity of these reports and seek to haul these brave Bolehans to the balai for questioning (during and/or after which nobody knows what could happen to them). And, until and unless this (questioning them) is done, investigations into their allegations will not commence.

Don’t forget, all it took for the police to deploy 15 vehicles and a team of ski-masked policemen to arrest an unarmed Malaysian was an accusation by a 23-year old university drop-out saying that this 60-year old Malaysian had sodomised him. Who’d buy this story? The police. And in Malaysia, it is almost correct to equate the police with the ruling government. Do they really think that the People are incapable of exercising even a little bit of common sense? Everybody knows that if there was another case with similar circumstances – ie. someone accusing his boss of sexual misconduct – the police will not act in a high-handed manner like how they did to the former deputy prime minister. In fact, I think they would not even be bothered to investigate. Hell, if everyone starts making report saying that they have been sodomised, then the police will really be in for quite a bit of work. Given the facts and after all that the government and the police have done, our so-called leaders can still proclaim that whatever that took place were not politically-motivated. “We have got an entrenched, recognized system of criminal law administration”. If this is true, that means the system has been flawed all along.

Personally I’m not a fan of our former deputy prime minister. But I’d be lying if I say I do not wish to see him emerge victorious in this ridiculous, highly dramatic, political battle. Yes it’s been political all along. In fact, I think he has garnered more support from Malaysians nationwide than he ever had before he recently appeared live on a rare oil-price debate, which was beamed nationwide via satellite. The government must be kicking themselves in the behind for green-lighting the televised debate in the first place. It is widely assumed that he had won the debate hands down, although there was no official winner announced. He was subsequently arrested the following day over the unfounded claims brought forth by his former aide. To date, the police have not officially charged him for any crime, because, as many believe, an official report is still in the works, presumably due to the delay in obtaining a key (doctored?) document – the medical report of the said ‘victim’. To add spice into the drama, a copy of the medical report was recently leaked out to the media and, surprisingly, it says that the 23-year old victim had not been sodomised. As expected, the doctor and the hospital are now in hot soup. Instead of looking into the contradicting medical report, the authorities are looking at punishing the hospital and the doctor (who has since gone into hiding) for professional misconduct.

So is the report real or fake? If it is fake then why are the authorities taking the hospital and the doctor to task for “professional misconduct”? Who is the real victim? The famous doctor has now disappeared (according to news reports anyway), much like the way the famous private investigator did. Both are fearing for their safety. We have now become a laughing stock of the world community. A friend who’s studying in Korea yesterday told me that her coursemate had asked her about this case. The US government have also expressed concern. Our once-prided political stability is being eroded by the day. And I’m not referring to only the sodomy case, but the wanton murder of the Mongolian model as well. A powerful figure has been implicated in the murder, dramatically through a sworn statement, only to be negated by another sworn statement shortly after. It’s almost like in the movies. So many questions, but noone is making an effort to get answers. The fact that the authorities are averting certain leads leaves too much room for speculations. They can’t blame us, we’re not born yesterday. Our prime minister, whom I believe has not been able to sleep well in the past few weeks, is not of much help either. He’s still very much choked up with his party’s internal affairs since the elections in March. Not that we appreciate his meddling anyway. His recent directive to the Terengganu state government to use the 14 controversial Mercedes Benz E200K cars only to ferry “guests” drew scores of laughter.

I actually feel sorry for the ruling government for making themselves look so bad lately. You know what the country now badly needs? Royal intervention. I don’t agree that we should get the UN and/or other foreign bodies to step in and meddle in our domestic affairs. At least not now, becase I believe there’s still hope. If all fails, remember that we’re a democratic nation. You know what that means. I’m not saying that things will be better should the opposition come into power. In fact I don’t know for sure. But all I know is that, at the rate things are going, we’re definitely not in good shape.

Narrowband Decides

Posted by narrowband - 08/03/08 at 12:03:17 pm

I got up early to a peacefully beautiful, serene Saturday morning. It was an important day not only for the country, but me, my family, and my friends. It also marks the first time I’m exercising my right as a citizen. This is where I was born, where I grew up, and was thoroughly bred. This is my home, so there’s no reason why I should not bother. As I was approaching the school where I would be casting my vote, I noticed a group of BN supporters near the entrance. They had banners, posters and a canopy set up there. No booths or canopies belonging to any other parties was in sight though.

A few policemen were standing outside the school gate and the parking area had its perimeter secured with yellow tapes that read “Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya Malaysia” (Election Commission of Malaysia). While driving past the school looking for a parking, I couldn’t help but notice other voters walking towards and out of the school. Most men came in slacks and jeans. I began to wonder if I was being a tad too under-dressed for this solemn occasion. Looking for a parking was a breeze, as voters normally left immediately after they were done voting anyway. I parked further up the road, next to a field which I knew very well.

The booth to check voters’ particulars was located just opposite the guard house in the school compound. I thought it was compulsory to line up there so I joined the queue. I later realized that I already had all the information I needed when I checked my status online last week. An usher directed me to my polling station and I quickly shuffled across the hallway after thanking him. I tried to grasp the entire process flow – from the entrance into the classroom until the exit – by observing others. There were also guidelines put up near where we were queuing. After presenting my IC, its number and my full name were read out loud by an EC official so that they could be heard by other officials on duty in the room.

With my IC and voting slips in hand, I proceeded to one of the two designated tables to mark my votes. I carefully walked past in front of the first table because someone was already there. A pencil sharpener was prepared on each table for convenience when needed. Once finished, I made my way to the ballot boxes and dropped my slips accordingly. The whole process was smoothly over within 2 minutes. While on my way out I saw familiar faces, one of whom was my schoolmate. We smiled as I walked past the policemen at the entrance. More and more people were coming then, many with their children tagging along.

Anyway, I am glad to have fulfilled one of my biggest responsibilities as a Rakyat on this day. Our votes may not necessarily be significant individually, but they certainly are collectively.

Have a good weekend guys :)

P/s. I heard that it’s best to stay home tonight and tomorrow. Coming from the older folks, I am sure they have a valid concern…

[Update@9th March: Wow... The results are telling, aren't they? My family and I were following the developments since last night. I'm curious if BN - in particular, our PM - is getting the People's message. It's a wake up call, so buck up!]

Why Proton and its Service Centers Suck

Posted by narrowband - 03/02/08 at 09:02:04 pm

[Warning: In an atypically-narrowband fashion, this post is going to be a long Proton-rant.] So, the new Saga a.k.a. BLM is supposed to be Proton’s best offering yet. *Clap clap*. Coupled with ultra-low pricing – a luxury that the national carmaker has long enjoyed (with no end in sight), no wonder the waiting period for the new car has now stretched to as long as 6 months. I’ve seen the car in flesh several times and I must admit it does not look too bad at all. Crash tests have shown that the car’s pretty safe. Sounds like a perfect combination – safe, good-looking, cheap. Would I consider buying one? Nope. I’ll tell you why.

Continue reading Why Proton and its Service Centers Suck…

Got Soalan Bocor?

Posted by narrowband - 08/09/07 at 12:09:03 am

Note (Edit@2228hrs, 30 Sept 2007): If you’re here via a search engine looking for exam tips, sorry, the only tip I have for you here is this: Don’t waste your time surfing the internet looking for tips. Instead, use it wisely to do your revisions!

I was on my way home from buying groceries when I heard a special announcement on the radio just now. No it had nothing to do with the National Budget, it’s something more interesting, less predictable. Do you remember my entry about SPM tips and the craze for more A’s in today’s exams? Someone took it a step further by announcing exam tips on the radio today. Well actually, he made the announcement over the telephone, and it was broadcast to public.

Apparently this man, more popularly known as Mr Andrew Choo, had ‘accurately predicted’ this year’s UPSR questions, and now he’s doing it again for the upcoming PMR paper. He is also said to have predicted last year’s exam questions accurately. The radio station I was listening to was 988, a local Chinese radio station. He was actually invited to make the announcement on-air. He also has a website, which seems to be quite a hit itself.

Now isn’t that interesting? Haven’t we just heard about this year’s UPSR leaks? In case you’ve forgotten, students who sit for the UPSR exam are mostly 12 year-olds. The people who bocor-ed the questions clearly wanted to start these kids young! After all, there never seems to be a shortage of ‘tip-providers’ for PMR and SPM exams, every year. The announcement by Mr Andrew Choo on the radio, at one part, actually went something like this (spoken in Cantonese):

“Our recent predictions for the UPSR had turned out to be very accurate, so now, dear PMR 2007 students, listen up carefully…”

He proceeded to read out the questions, in BM, word-by-word. I found it quite unbelievable, and even thought it was a joke. Honestly, I have heard about exam leaks all my life, since I was in school myself, but I had never heard them being announced openly before. This brings up a question: Can someone actually do that, legally? With the level of confidence that Mr Choo had, I could almost tell that he meant business, especially since his UPSR 2007 predictions turned out to be highly accurate.

Personally, I don’t believe in accurate ‘predictions’; there is no such thing. To me, if the questions are really accurate, then they’re as good as leaks. What happened to the good ol’ way of studying hard for exams, without relying on tips? Do we actually need them? It is unfair to those who have no access to the tips, especially those who’re from the lower-income group because these tips don’t usually come for free. Usually, you either need to find a tuition center that boasts the ability to accurately ‘spot’ questions, or buy special ‘workbooks’ that claim to contain accurate predictions of future exam questions.

With all these unfair advantage for the select few and blatant disregard for exam integrity, I wonder where our education system is headed. Our bolehness is getting a little out of hand, don’t you think?

No Harm in Bringing Back PTS

Posted by narrowband - 06/05/07 at 05:05:05 pm

There used to be a time when Primary 3 (P.3) students in Malaysia could advance to P.5 without going through P.4. In order to qualify for this ‘jump’, the Penilaian Tahap Satu (PTS) examination was introduced. My sister was among the first batch who benefited from this opportunity. She skipped a year, and never dropped an A in all public examinations since, including PMR, SPM and STPM. She’s now in Monash University under a scholarship. I personally know a few of her friends who had also skipped P.4 and went on to excel in their studies. I am sure there are many other gifted students who could perform just as well, if not better.

A few years later, the PTS examination was abolished, and every student must go through P.4. The brighter students – without doubt, there are many of them every year – could no longer ‘skip’ a year of study. Why should we deprive them of this opportunity? It is obvious that we are shutting them out. Note that during my sister’s year, there were also parents who opted to play safe and decided not to let their children skip a year of study, although they passed the PTS examination. It had always been a matter of choice. You can choose not to skip, but you should not prevent others from skipping. My sister never had problems fitting in with her friends and classmates who were mostly a year older.

The only ‘disadvantage’ my sister had was being selected for National Service (NS) during Upper Six. A deferment was inevitable (and boy, trust me, the procedure as well as the way her case was handled was frustrating). But that’s not really a bad thing, isn’t it? That said, however, I’d like to lament the lack of recognition for PTS students who had done well throughout the years. It is a feat to have been able to skip a year of study, and proceed to excel in school thereafter. Because the PTS is no longer in place, many seem to have forgotten that there was such a thing before. Worse, as the PTS was only in existence for a short while, some people do not even know what it is. And let’s not even get to the NS trainee selection process – they totally forgot about PTS students.

In any case, the PTS would not have been introduced in the first place if the Education Ministry didn’t think it was a good idea. Surely they had their reasons for introducing the PTS back then. It is unfortunate that the PTS had to be discontinued. If I had the opportunity to skip P.4, I would have done it too. I agree that the ministry should revive the PTS. Let us not hold back bright students.

By the way, I found this picture in this week’s Star Education Cover Story:

Kind of ironic, don’t you think?

Signing off now,
A non-professional blogger. I think.

Edit@June 4th, 2007: Found a piece of related article dated November 17, 1996 via Jolene’s.

The Day I Registered to be a Voter

Posted by narrowband - 26/04/07 at 09:04:24 am

The general elections is around the corner. What better way to welcome it than registering to be a voter? I’m 23 this year, and yes that’s a little late considering the legal age to do it is 21. But it’s all good – not too late to do it now anyway. To those of you who haven’t registered yourselves, do it now and exercise your rights! Here’s how it went for me:

- Walked into a post office.

- Got a number.

- At the counter, presented my MyKad.

- Observed the computer screen as the clerk keyed in my particulars. Checked for mistakes.

- A set of carbon-copies of that form was printed out and I signed on it. I kept a copy.

- Walk out of post office.

It took about 10 minutes, including the waiting time. A middle-aged lady was seen registering herself at the counter next to mine too.

What Have A’s Got to Do With It?

Posted by narrowband - 13/03/07 at 01:03:52 pm

I read with much amazement the story in The Star today, “Nadiah gets only 18 As instead”. You know, with news reports such as this, I’m afraid we may be sending out a wrong signal to future SPM candidates: “Get as many A’s as possible”. It seems like it doesn’t matter for which subjects you ace, as long as you have enough of them. The pressure piled on these students is immense. For instance, Nadiah was expected to score 19 A’s (holy smokes that’s almost twice the number of subjects I took) even before the results were released. Luckily, her results didn’t turn out that bad. In fact, they’re mind-blowing.

But the quest for strings of A’s is understandable. How often do you hear people asking “Which subjects did you get an A for?”?. Save for future employers, very few are interested in knowing which subjects you aced. Even fewer are interested in knowing what extra curricular activities you joined. There is little doubt that great emphasis is placed on scoring A’s. So much so that some tuition centers even provide ‘tips’, and claim to be able to ‘spot’ or predict SPM questions accurately. I used to have friends who’d travel all the way to KL to attend a very popular tuition center. These days, ‘good’ tuition centers train students on how to tackle exam questions.

A lot of focus is put on answering the questions correctly, what keywords to use, familiarizing oneself with the question patterns, and how they are asked. Stacks of past-year papers, sample papers and worksheets are used in drilling these students. Is this what our education system was set out to be? Studying for the sake of getting as many A’s as possible in exams? How much of knowledge really went into a student’s head is questionable. To make matters worse, I’ve even heard of some ‘privileged’ schools giving students sample papers that are very much similar to the real paper, a few weeks earlier. I wonder if such practices are effective in educating the teenagers, although I don’t know how far this is true.

The ministry’s proposal to limit the number of SPM subjects a student can register is timely (Sorry, I just read that this won’t realize). Perhaps, more weightage should be given to developing a student’s leadership, thinking, interpersonal, analytical and problem-solving skills – practical skills that could be useful throughout his life, and not just during the examinations. A student’s excellent SPM achievement does not reflect any of these qualities. I’d like to mention one example (oh I love it when I talk about this; no prizes for guessing why), the Moral Education. Scoring an A1 for this subject does not make a student any ‘less immoral’ compared to students who scored otherwise. It only means that he can memorize things better. And yes, they will be quickly forgotten after the exam is over.

How practical is that? Yet, no one cares – as long as it’s an A and that’s all that matters. It’s time we placed less emphasis on scoring as many A’s as possible, and focused instead on producing more well-rounded individuals. We don’t want someone who can’t perform past the exam period. If a student obtained say, 14, or 15 A’s (not for every subject), does that mean he’s better than one who obtained a 10-straight (perfect) A’s? Sadly though, most scholarships offered are based on the number of A’s a student has. Sigh.

Note: An “A1″ here means “1A” formally. I prefer to suffix the “1″, just like the olden days.

VMY2007: The Eye on Malaysia

Posted by narrowband - 12/02/07 at 12:02:03 am

Actually, I had expected the ferris wheel to be larger. But then again, I wouldn’t want the government to spend too much money on this alone either. Anyway, since it was widely publicized, we decided to pay The Eye on Malaysia a visit.

Continue reading VMY2007: The Eye on Malaysia…

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