Streaming: Think carefully before you speak, Maszlee

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Streaming: Think carefully before you speak, Maszlee
By Stephen Ng
The latest talk in town about our education minister, Maszlee Malik focuses on the decision to abolish the Science and Arts streams.

I have no problem with that but, with what we have heard from Maszlee himself about the black/white shoes and hotels offering their swimming pools as their corporate social responsibility, I am just worried that the combining of curricula, like the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English, if not done properly, will cause our education system to fall apart.

Great ideas will not necessarily bring about the positive results if we fail at the implementation stage. Apparently, Maszlee and his deputy, Teo Nie Ching is not in touch with the real issues affecting our government schools.

The cooperation of the teachers to help achieve the desirable results has yet to be seen, but in the past, we have seen that the ministry can issue a certain directive or guideline, but on the ground, due to a lack of supervision, these great ideas remain just as ideals.

I quote two examples. In 2000 and 2014, the ministry had issued a clear directive about the use of additional workbooks that school children were asked to purchase.

My son who was in Standard 3 (considered Level 1: Std 1-3) two years ago, had 21 workbooks, while his schoolmate in Standard 5 (Level 2: Std 4-6) had 29 workbooks! I am not surprised that such problem is still plaguing many schools despite the ministry knowing the defiance of school administrations.

Secondly, Maszlee had announced that Speaker’s Corner should be set up in schools, but I can tell you that the headmistress in my son’s school just set it up for show.

My son told me that it was set up in a messy corner of the school hall and his class was the only one to use the speaker’s corner last year. I guess it was just done for some photography. Till now, the kids have not used it at all.

A lot of things that Maszlee has done so far are not thought through holistically and there is no follow up. For example, the recognition of the Unified Chinese Examination (UEC) despite the previous government already done a comprehensive study in the past.

The black shoes implemented, but no one said anything about the colour of the socks until a question was raised. Half-past-six ideas will only end up a half-cooked solution to the woes in our education system.

My conclusion, therefore, is: well, it is easy for Maszlee to make an announcement about combining both Science and Arts curricula, but the implementation is what will turn out disappointing.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008. After May 9, 2018, he is now involved in contributing ideas towards rebuilding of the nation.

END.

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