Look at our education system. We start dividing children up at such an early age. They only know their own race and religion. Worse still, some racists teachers start teaching these y0ung innocent children to be racists too. Every Barisan party only cared for their own race and fought for schools that based on language and indirectly race-based. If they really cared for the country and people, they would have fought for a school that unites all races. Shame on you politicians.
A SCHOOL THAT UNITES ALL RACES
My suggestion is that we have only one type of school but catered for all races.
- Have one session schools 8.30 am - 3.30pm so that there will be more time for all activities. However, ensure they have at least 2 breaks - 20 minutes breakfast at 9.30 pm and 40 minutes lunch and rest break at 1.00 pm. Provide children with individual lockers and bathrooms to freshen up.
- Use English as the medium of instruction for subjects like Science, Maths and Geography to improve the standard of English to be able to compete globally.
- Have English literature classes and lots of comprehension and composition lessons.
- Use Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction for subjects like History, Moral, Arts, etc. In fact, Moral should not be taught as a single subject. It is really ridiculous. It should be integrated into Science, English and Bahasa Malaysia. This way, the children have one less subject to study. Be sure to include lots of topics that talks about racial unity and respect for one another. Let children brainstorm ideas on how to achieve racial unity.
- Teach Mandarin and Tamil (mother tongue) everyday during the last period of the day. Those who do not want to attend, have to stay in the library to study, read a book or complete their homework. Give parents and children a choice to choose.
- Set aside three periods a week like in the good old days for group activities like football, netball, basketball, rounders, softball and so on. Play games that encourage cooperation.
- Encourage small group activities and projects where children can socialise as well as brainstorm ideas and teachers must make sure it is a mixed racial group.
- While Muslim children are studying religion, the others can either opt to study their own religion or go to the library to study, read books or complete their homework.
- Do not group children into classes based on their abilities as it makes them feel bad.
- Encourage peer teaching and learning in small groups.
- Reduce homework, get it all done in school so that children have time to study and have some time for themselves at home.
- Get qualified, native English speakers to teach our children subjects taught in English if our local teachers are not proficient enough in English until we can produce our enough of our own.
- Additional activities like clubs, sports training or games for competition should be held after school hours, 3.30 pm - 5.00 pm. Make sure all children join at least one activity. Leave weekends free for spending time with families. No extra classes or tuition.
I encourage readers to provide more positive suggestions here.
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7 comments:
A single school system is definitely the most ideal one for Malaysia. Objective should be set to achieve this ultimate dream.
Of course, this is not an easy task but it is neither a not possible option. So long such school system can cater the need of all races of different background, I believe this can be achieved.
I support your suggestion that English should be used for science and maths subjects as this will facilitate our students to have wider sphere of references especially through internet. Proficiency in English will not make us lesser Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Iban. It will only enrich one's culture.
I would recommend you to join in discussion in Dr. Hsu's Forum to put through your thoughts. This will increase visitors to your blog which I find very beneficial to Malaysia.
http://hsudarren.wordpress.com/
Yes, this is indeed a very good idea. Kids should have their own time too, not just school work!
"Have one session schools 8.30 am - 3.30pm so that there will be more time for all activities. "
Nice article but I need to point out that in order to have 1 session per day, Each school must have twice as many classrooms...which maybe an expensive solution.
i don think the school itself will change. i am indian, i have many indian friends mostly studied in malay school ( about 95%). what i can see is they are far more racist than me. neither me nor they have best friend from malay community.
people not getting racist in primary school.
its happen in secondary school and onwards. knowledge of the status of their race make them racist.
there are many complex things to think about. one of them is special privillages of malay. it is intepreted as " no opportunity to non malay".
i don say malay special privillage is wrong. but the price for it is national unity and patriotism.
Dear Mag M,
I have read your article on the above issue and compliment you for your patriotism. However we must understand the reality of our society before we launch our ideas into implementation over the masses. An all races school is an ideal situation, however, the world is less ideal and have differences that are best kept the way they are simply because many societies have tried but failed. You name it, they’ve done it … one school, one language … even one name … yet the differences still exists, not so much arising from dissatisfaction, but rather from their need for individuality, for a sense of belonging, for a sense of authenticity.
When one talks about one language, Bahasa Melayu is already suited as a national language in all areas of our lives, because it isn’t indonesian, … its’ uniquely malaysian. In fact it even qualifies as a mother tongue to many of us, regardless of race or religion (thanks to the education system). Thus the best language to teach the basics of science and mathematics is still the mother tongue … yet there are some who still cherish their own ‘native’ language such as iban, kadazan, murut, chinese, indian and punjabi to mention a few. By introducing a foreign language as the medium of instruction we have divided the students into two broad groupings … english speaking and non-english speaking (quite often wrongly interpreted as ‘intelligent’ and ‘less intelligent’ students). The UPSR results indicate the existence of a group called ‘the victims of experimentation’ (also known as ‘the guinea pigs). They not only failed to understand their science and mathematics (which is what basic education is all about) but also didn’t gain much english either and lost their self confidence along the way down.
My advice is … don’t touch the primary school syllabus. Let it stay in native language, be it BM, Mandarin, Tamil, Iban, Punjabi … etc but teach other languages as well. English is a world business language, Latin, the language of science, German, an engineering language, Arabic, the language of Islam, french, the language of love. Allow them to sit for their language proficiency examinations and award them with certificates, but NEVER allow the majority of our kids to lose out on education just so that we attain ‘Apex’ status for having it in whatever ’superior’ language other than our own. My own children have won awards for their creative English and are now doing medicine overseas as well as in local universities even though they underwent their basic education in Bahasa Melayu with Arabic as an elective.
However, I am all for having english proficiency tests for university intakes. That means, for a student to qualify for entrance into university, they MUST pass their english proficiency test because most of their references will be in english. This will encourage the excellent students to strive for As in english, but yet do not deprive the others to learn the basics of science and mathematics in their mother tongue.
Dear Mag M,
I have read your article on the above issue and compliment you for your patriotism. However we must understand the reality of our society before we launch our ideas into implementation over the masses. An all races school is an ideal situation, however, the world is less ideal and have differences that are best kept the way they are simply because many societies have tried but failed. You name it, they’ve done it … one school, one language … even one name … yet the differences still exists, not so much arising from dissatisfaction, but rather from their need for individuality, for a sense of belonging, for a sense of authenticity.
When one talks about one language, Bahasa Melayu is already suited as a national language in all areas of our lives, because it isn’t indonesian, … its’ uniquely malaysian. In fact it even qualifies as a mother tongue to many of us, regardless of race or religion (thanks to the education system). Thus the best language to teach the basics of science and mathematics is still the mother tongue … yet there are some who still cherish their own ‘native’ language such as iban, kadazan, murut, chinese, indian and punjabi to mention a few. By introducing a foreign language as the medium of instruction we have divided the students into two broad groupings … english speaking and non-english speaking (quite often wrongly interpreted as ‘intelligent’ and ‘less intelligent’ students). The UPSR results indicate the existence of a group called ‘the victims of experimentation’ (also known as ‘the guinea pigs). They not only failed to understand their science and mathematics (which is what basic education is all about) but also didn’t gain much english either and lost their self confidence along the way down.
My advice is … don’t touch the primary school syllabus. Let it stay in native language, be it BM, Mandarin, Tamil, Iban, Punjabi … etc but teach other languages as well. English is a world business language, Latin, the language of science, German, an engineering language, Arabic, the language of Islam, french, the language of love. Allow them to sit for their language proficiency examinations and award them with certificates, but NEVER allow the majority of our kids to lose out on education just so that we attain ‘Apex’ status for having it in whatever ’superior’ language other than our own. My own children have won awards for their creative English and are now doing medicine overseas as well as in local universities even though they underwent their basic education in Bahasa Melayu with Arabic as an elective.
However, I am all for having english proficiency tests for university intakes. That means, for a student to qualify for entrance into university, they MUST pass their english proficiency test because most of their references will be in english. This will encourage the excellent students to strive for As in english, but yet do not deprive the others to learn the basics of science and mathematics in their mother tongue.
Dear Anonymous
anonymous said:
My advice is … don’t touch the primary school syllabus. Let it stay in native language, be it BM, Mandarin, Tamil, Iban, Punjabi … etc but teach other languages as well. (end of quote)
Sometimes there is not much of a choice if you do not incorporate language into the subjects. This is because there is not enough time in a days time-table to maintain everything in the mother tongue and then wanting to add in other languages. Another thing is, if we keep maintaining the mother tongue, we will still be split into race-based classes. This is something that is not healthy. We want to encourage as much interaction as possible. My Bidayuh colleague told me "Everyone is fighting to study in their own mother-tongue. I didn't study in my mother tongue but still did well." The same applies to me. I studied Science and Math in English and was not handicapped in anyway. In fact, it did me a lot of good.
Anyway, what I am trying to do here is encourage people to sacrifice a little for the good of the nation, to hopefully unite all the races. Sometimes, a little sacrifice can go a long way and it has to start with ourselves.
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