Recently I blogged on Dr. Anuar Ahmad of UKM and Puan Fadhlina Sidek stating that they do not respond to emails on how to reduce intervention.
A Facebook member replied that it is harsh to put the blame solely on them as Dr. Anuar Ahmad is a researcher and Puan Fadhlina Sidek is only a minister. He said that it was the Education Ministry who implemented irrelevant curricula that is to be blamed.
In January 2023, Fadhlina Sidek said she was going to eradicate the necessity of intervention. How in the world is she going to do it if she does not get her officers to question me on the email I sent her? LINK
I agree that Fadhlina Sidek may not know much about why kids disengage from learning to read. But since she said that she is going to go all out to reduce the number of kids requiring intervention I would have expected her to get some of her officers to question me. I requested her and her officers to get a copy of my book, Shut Down Kids explaining why kids shut down/ disengage from learning to read. Please read the book reviews on Amazon. To date, no one has disputed nor has anyone added to the causes I have mentioned in my book. Did her office get a copy of my book? If they did, do they have any questions?
I also recommended both of them get copies of my book Teach Your Child to Read. Neither one of them has bought a copy. If they are not the least bit interested in how to reduce illiteracy how are we ever going to reduce illiteracy?
Both of them have given ridiculous excuses as to why Malaysia is number 51 out of 80 countries in the PISA exams. No mention is made as to why Singapore has been number 1 for many years. How do we expect to reduce illiteracy if we are not willing to learn from our neighbouring country?
Researchers such as Anuar Ahmad should be curious and go on the adventure of finding out why kids are unable to read in English but able to read in Malay and Hanyu Pinyin. This is what I did in 2004 at the age of 52 when I stopped working and taught ‘dyslexic’ kids to learn why they could not read in English.
Anuar Ahmad should engage in critical discourse to find out why our education system has deteriorated to this level. Instead of answering questions I asked on his Facebook post, he blocked me from access to his Facebook pages. He is like the proverbial ‘Katak di bawah tempurung’ or like the Chinese Idiom ‘The frog in the well’.
The Facebook member above is blaming the curriculum and he may be correct in saying that. Curriculum is the outline of concepts to be taught to students to help them meet the content standards. The first step is to get students to decode. When kids at the end of grade 1 are unable to decode there is no point in talking about the curriculum from grade 2 onward.
We can see that Anuar Ahmad knows a lot and is well-read. He speaks confidently. Unfortunately, he can’t think outside the box. He refuses to take a step back and look at new concepts. A researcher should be more open-minded and willing to learn till the day he dies.
Note: Meaning of frog in the well.
Used to describe a situation or individual who cannot or refuses to see the big picture because of being sheltered and closed-minded. This is the opposite of a frog in a field.
Literally speaking, the meaning of such a proverb depicts that a frog is forever inside a well and can only see from the perspective of a small hole. Metaphorically speaking, it portrays a person with no ambitions and is unfortunately satisfied with the life living inside the well.
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