PISA exam revisited – Part 2

 

My post yesterday was prompted by an article written by Syed Akbar Ali. LINK.

Here are extracts from that article:

Dear Malay brothers and sisters, there is a big difference in understanding, opinion and approach between the Chinese and the Malay-Muslims regarding education.

This is one of the main reasons why young Chinese people grow up to become towkays, managers and owners of companies and businesses, but Muslim Malay children will be chronically dependent on Malay political power to earn a living.

I like to comment/add to a few of the points from Puan Yeo's message:

Malaysian public school (Sekolah Kebangsaan) achievement is at the bottom 1/3 of the international PISA scores.

Children from the B40 households (the vast majority of which are orang Melayu juga) lose the most or suffer the most from the worsening Sekolah Kebangsaan situation. 90% of dropouts from Sekolah Kebangsaan are from the B40 group.

There is now a solid caste system among the Malays themselves - the "have nots" and "have nothing" Malays versus the privileged, connected, cable pulling Malay "haves".  The Sekolah Kebangsaan now perpetuates this class division - especially among the Malays.

Yeo Bee Yin says that a good education system for all will make the economy flourish because of greater overall worker productivity.  At the macro level, a good education system increases labour productivity and job creation.

Then Yeo Bee Yin touches on the quality of teachers - which I would like to expand upon.

It is true that teachers play a very important role in student learning and student success. Teachers can make or break a student's future.

However, the one thing that has never been touched upon, the most important thing - is the quality of teachers.

Despite teacher training colleges and universities, the quality of the average Sekolah Kebangsaan teacher has either fallen or not improved at all.

This is perhaps the single largest failure of the Sekolah Kebangsaan system.

First of all the vast majority of the 450,000 or so Sekolah Kebangsaan teachers in the country are Malays.  And most of them went into teaching because:

They had no other career choice or they had few options.

It is deemed an easy job - work ends by 1 or 2 PM.

It is a five-day week, with almost 13 weeks of holidays thrown in.

The hiring of over 450,000 mostly Malay teachers is certainly a very politicised matter in Malaysia. If they did not become teachers, where would those 450,000 mostly Malay people find work? The government may lose the elections.

So, teaching has become a dumping ground for Malay employment.

Is it any surprise that the Sekolah Kebangsaan are in the bottom 1/3 of the PISA scores?

Makin lama makin bodoh lah.

Tuan-tuan saudara Melayu - for those of you who are rich you can send your kids to study at the private international schools. There are many private international schools in the country now. The products of the private schools are just different from the products of the Sekolah Kebangsaan. The teachers, teaching and students are superior - in many aspects.

Here is something to ponder. There are expatriate Mat Salleh teachers in some (not all) of these private international schools. Also, Indian expatriate teachers.

But the vast majority of teachers at the private schools are Malaysian teachers - and the majority of these teachers are Chinese and Indians.

What does this mean? I will keep it simple.

At the Sekolah Kebangsaan, the vast majority of teachers are Melayu Islam. The medium of instruction is Malay. The Sekolah Kebangsaan are at the bottom 1/3 of the PISA scores.

At the private schools, the majority of teachers are Malaysian Chinese and Indians. The medium of instruction is English. According to Yeo Bee Yin, Malaysian private international schools are now the eighth most expensive schools in the whole world. 

May I suggest something?

1. Switch teaching back to the English language.

2. Increase the numbers of Chinese and Indian teachers / guru besar / pengetua in Sekolah Kebangsaan.

3. Remove religion from the education system. (Mak bapak boleh belanja duit sendiri mengajar agama kepada anak-anak. Macam bapak saya buat dulu.)

If you can do this, our education system will excel - like what it was when I was in school.

Syed Akbar Ali 

My comment:

The only Malay teachers in my schools in Port Dickson in the 50s and 60s were those who taught us Malay language.

At that time, Malaysia’s standard of English was said to be the ‘Queen’s language’.