Misfortune

Is this the season for misfortune? So many friends have been experiencing bouts of ‘bad luck’ recently.

Friend A’s 37-year-old daughter has been given six months to live. She is suffering from leukemia. A compatible bone marrow donor was found but she has taken a turn for the worse and cannot undergo the operation.

Friend B’s 49-year old sister had her leg amputated because of diabetes. Doctors warned the family that she could have died on the operating table. However, she survived the operation. Now, she has to undergo bypass surgery on the other leg and if that does not work, she has to face the rest of her life without legs.

Friend C was conned into withdrawing her savings of RM37K. If not for the timely intervention of the bank personnel, she could have lost another RM70K. Now she lives in constant fear of phone calls and even has to handle the wrath of her insensitive husband who chides her continuously.

It is said that every cloud has a silver lining. All these misfortunes had that silver lining. If only there was more to it than the silver lining.

Ipoh’s landscape

Shopping complexes are sprouting like mushrooms in the Kinta valley. Do we need another shopping mall? Or is it more viable to have better and more convenient medical facilities around the area?

A new 10-storey building with an additional 528 beds is being planned for the main hospital which is in the heart of town. With the city of Ipoh being so spread out, would it not be more beneficial and convenient to the public if this medical facility were to be built away from the congested city centre? It could be more patient-friendly by being a five-storey building on sprawling lawns, away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

With an aging population and more sicknesses being diagnosed each day, the time has come for the government to focus on health issues. More areas should also be set aside for recreation. This could be the tasks of the various city councilors for the areas they are responsible for. They could gazette parks and recreational areas where healthy living and regular exercise could be promoted.

Life is not about materialism, depicted by big tall buildings and shopping complexes. The people of Ipoh need more user- friendly environments for a healthier lifestyle.

The focus on English

Many parents want their children to be taught Mathematics and Science in English. More hours spent on English will definitely improve their command of the language. However, improvements could be made in the teaching of the English language itself, focussing not only on grammar and vocabulary as the basis for language improvement, but also encouraging more creative minds by drawing students’ attention to scientific and mathematical concepts, historical ideas, philosophical issues and the like.

When learning a language, one starts from its grapheme-phoneme orientation and its phonology. The sounds sometimes would take precedence over the text, but eventually, both are necessary for excellent language skills, especially in reading. With these basic skills, one goes on to build confidence because of the vocabulary and grammar that one is exposed to in language learning.

It is therefore not important whether English is the medium of instruction when teaching Science and Mathematics. It is also of little importance as to how much time is set aside for teaching English as a subject. What is imperative is the methodology and the quality of materials used for the teaching of English. The objectives for the teaching of the English language should be clear in the minds of all teachers. Ultimately, the aim for teaching English should be to have a more learned society which is able to express its ideas and thoughts coherently in the language.

Action research, the way to go!

Today, all primary school teachers, who are diploma holders and below the age of 45, are given a chance to become degree holders. By the droves, they register at the various institutions that offer 'recognised' degree courses. With their friends, they attend classes and do assignments. Of course, there is a lot of plagiarism. They are expected to know better, being teachers, but what happens is that they are in the company of friends. They have to excel, they have deadlines to meet, they have stressful and time-consuming jobs at school and they need to graduate with their peers when the time comes. So the easiest and fastest way to get their work done is to 'plagiarise' in one form or another.

In the first place, most of these teachers do not have the calibre to be graduates. They may have the years of teaching experience but when they were accepted for the diploma courses in education, it was because they were not eligible for degree courses. How is it that now, after a few years, they are eligible? Does teaching experience alone qualify one to be more eligible to become a graduate?

Instead of generalising and making all teachers graduates, it would be more beneficial for the teachers (and their students) if they were sent for training to improve their individual basic skills, to improve their teaching methodology, to change their mindset, to make them more creative so that these skills could be passed down to their students over the years. With all their existing pressures as teachers, simply undertaking an academic course and making them graduates will not benefit the children that they are teaching.

What would be more practical would be to get existing teachers to carry out action research in the classroom so that their concept of education, their attitude of service and their sense of creativity will be developed and nurtured. A teacher working under the guise of a degree-holder will not change the world. His personal sense of self-improvement needs to be revamped so that he will be able to move mountains!

Action-research would help the teachers to reflect on their own teaching methods with the group of students that they have. Through continuous reflection, supervision and discussion with others teaching a similar subject or the same calibre of students, the time the teacher spends in the classroom can be of greater quality.

This is what the Ministry of Education in the Malaysian government should be advocating. At present, it envisions that by merely allowing all teachers in the profession to become graduates it will improve the image of the teaching profession. However, the teachers are wearing themselves out by trying to fulfil the demands of the course they are undertaking and carrying out their teaching tasks while the stakeholders, namely the students, will continue to be the victims of the education system. In the long run, no one will benefit!