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The Malaysian Government needs consistent policies so as to raise the standard of education. Statement by Dr Tan Seng Giaw, DAP National Vice-Chairman and MP for Kepong on the abolition of Year 3 examination in primary schools. 24 January,2001 | |||||||
| Just as anywhere else in the world, education is vital in Malaysia. We require consistent policies to ensure students, teachers and parents understand them. It is natural that parents would like their children to do well. Hence, there is the enthusiasm of the Education Ministry to cater for this desire. In 1996, it introduced Penilaian Tahap Satu, PTS, First Stage Assessment, in primary schools, to give bright Year Three pupils a chance to skip a grade to Year Five. Then, four years later, it finds that less than 40% of double promotion pupils scored 5 As in the Year Six Assessment Test, Ujian Penilaian Skolah Rendah. Parents and schools compete, assuming that the children are adults. Various countries have tried different methods to educate brighter students. Methods such as PTS (at 9 years old) and 11 Plus (assessment at 11 years old) in England generate controversy. If 11 years old is considered too young, 9 years old is even worse. REDUCE MISTAKES This year the national budget allocates RM 18.6 billion for education, out of RM 91 billion. If we are going to use this effectively, we must have consistent policies. True, we can't always be right. But, let us reduce the mistakes to the minimum. This can only be done | |
if there is adequate preparation for a new programme. For example, about 20 years ago, the Education Ministry suddenly introduced a new curriculum in primary schools, the 3R or 3M, read, write and arithmetic. There were shortage of teachers and equipment and the size of each class was big (it is still too big, over 40 or even 50 per class). The same applies to classes on living skill. The idea is good. But, the implementation is haphazard. Then, we see the abacus class or the cancellation of the class. Not so long ago, the Prime Minister Dato' Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad saw pupils in Japan and Korea learning abacus. He linked this to their good standard in mathematics, science and technology. The Ministry introduced abacus project that dies a natural death. Why? How did the Ministry prepare for the PTS, 3R, Living Skill and abacus projects? Could it have avoided the lowering of morale, wastage and confusion? The Ministry has managed to increase the number of students in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. This is a reasonable trend. On the other hand, there are mistakes such as those mentioned above. We need consistent policies in education. We hope the Education Minister will take heed. Dr Tan Seng Giaw | |||||
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