This is in reply to an article by Syed Akbar Ali re
MOE Roundtable : 25% Dropout Rate In Chinese School Grads (http://syedsoutsidethebox.blogspot.com/2012/05/moe-roundtable-25-dropout-rate-in.html)
I am afraid the current review might just be the same old
issues that have been churning round and round mainly because the policy makers
are not involved hands on in teaching their own children on a daily basis in
completing their homework, getting them ready for exams, and the tremendous
amount of daily stress just to cope with the languages for written exams.
I truly believe the notion, that different children have
different learning styles and different multiple intelligences, has not been
emphasised at all when the syllabus of our primary education was prepared.
The current syllabus is such that our children are forced
to memorise vocabularies and sentences which are beyond their ability to absorb
and process and reuse them again in their daily life. It seems easy for us, the
adults, to understand the current level of BM in school but for children who
hardly use the language, it is totally Greek. Without the parents or extra
tuition coaching, they are totally unprepared for the exams.
Imagine getting a lost of confidence when the child gets
only 20-30 marks for his first ever exam in primary one. Then, the parents
starts to panic and the rush for tuition teachers will begin. Subsequent years
will see the syllabus getting tougher and tougher and the poor child will just
be playing catching up for the rest of his primary school years. Come secondary
years, he/she is totally lost coz the child will be streamed into classes where
the children there are no longer interested in studying and are just wanting to
finish PMR and start working.
It will be a blessing indeed if such children don't end
up being delinquent juveniles.
Mind you dear sir, this is just in regards to children in
the SK schools.
For those in SJKC, it is a much bigger nightmare. This is
because, they have to cope with bigger menaces. The chinese language and the
mega fierce teachers who go around canning for even the minutest reason like
leaving your seat to talk to a friend.
Children who are visual hands on learners, those with
ADD/ADHD/Asperger/dyslexia are the ones who will end up half a bucket full
across the board in BM, chinese and English. In the end, they can't flourish in
either SMK, Chinese independent schools or private schools. They are the ones
who constitute the 25% of the dropout students. Frankly, among these children,
many of them are actually geniuses who were made to fit into the rigid
education system when they could have excelled in their respective field of
interest at an early age. I have known of a few Asperger children who can
rattle of scientific facts like a radio commentator, memorise thousands of
words and spelling them our without any errors etc. But alas, they were called
stupid and mischief makers in their school because of their inability to fit in
the system.
Sorry, sir, they are just not jack of all trades which is
what our current system is making our children to be.
May i suggest dear sir, to allow such children
flexibility to have an alternative education system to enhance their
intelligences in a way without overburdening them with too many things to
handle.
Allow me to relate to you a very good example of my son.
He is naturally very inquisitive and creative. He is a visual hands on learner.
Loves Science and Maths and is very good with his hands. Problem is, he hates
anything that has to do with memorising and writing. He is quite a disorganised
person and most of the time, likes to build castles in the air.
For the first two years of his primary life, mummy was
the one who has to pack him bag, look through his work to make sure he
completes them, remind him of his daily routines etc..... due to the hectic
daily schooling schedule, he had no time to thoroughly absorb the daily
learning process well. He just lives life being told and pushed to do things.
If you have a child like this, is this the kind of education you would want him
to have??
Basically, his psychological age and his physical age
aren't really in sync yet. If he was to continue being in the system, he will
end up being the 25% dropout statistic. I had to pull him out, homeschool him
with solely one language with English as the main language, throw in BM and
Chinese tuition but not for exam purposes, let him learn chess, do Singapore
maths with him and send him for tae kwan doe training. In the evening, he has
free time to tinker with whatever art and craft projects he likes.
Comparing now (he is ten) with when he was in school, he
has matured a lot in terms of his thinking skills, his independence and his
general knowledge.
Dear sir, many parents are aware of the need to look for
an education system which suits their children. But most of the time, we are
constrained by the law, money and time.
I do think that the government can help by allowing
parents who wants to be more involved in their children's education to let them
have the flexibility to rejoin back the system at some point in their life. For
example, I would love to have my son enrolled in government polytechnics
schools but he does not have UPSR/PMR certificate and that is the hindrance
factor. I would love to have him join any school competition (as an independent
or together with other homeschoolers) ran by the education ministry just to let
him experience the spirit of competition / teamwork etc.
It is time we should recognise that mass education belongs
to the 20th century to fulfill the era of industrial revolution. We are now
living in the borderless world where knowledge should not be taught but should
be sought.
Our government should not be so steadfastly holding on to
only one education system but to look into assimilating many systems as
branches in the core system.
Another point to highlight is the fact that there should
be child psychologists, early childhood educators, pioneers of modern learning
styles like waldorf, montesorri, green schools, creative learning schools etc,
sitting on the review panel too..... They are the ones who will be able to let
it be known that child developmental process should not be accelerated for the
sake of wanting them to complete our education syllabus. No child should be
forced to learn when they are not ready to do so.
One last point to be brought up dear sir. The current
KSSR system is no better than its predecessor, the KBSR. In fact, the current
second and first year students loses so much more because they didn't get to
learn maths and science in English. The examination format for KSSR and KBSR
doesn't differ but yet the contents for KSSR is so much tougher, not much work
to reinforce the children's understanding of the languages (BM and Chinese) and
basically, without tuition or parents assistance, the child will find it
difficult to understand what is going on in class. They are doing yet again a
lot of memorising work without understanding why and how things are done.
Please do not let yet another generation of our youth
slip through the cracks in our education system.
Dear sir, thanks so much for allowing me to purge my
thoughts. Good day to you..
