Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by pivoine

What to buy with 1Malaysia Student Discount Card?

pivoine — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 23:27:20 +0800

I need advice from my readers. At last I managed to get my 1 Malaysia Student Discount Card. What can I do with it? I only know that if I buy KFC, I can get a 5% discount. The clerk who gave me the card told me to google for more information. Can you please let me know what to google? Thanks.

This year, once again, the teachers are having a tough time keying in the PBS results (they can't even log in) but I am not complaining about it again this time. I finished mine. If you want to know what the PBS is and all its problems, you can always read my previous articles. Thanks.

60-70 Students in a Malaysian Classroom-Oh My God!

pivoine — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 02:06:25 +0800

I wonder if the people in the Ministry of Education really knows what is happening in the schools. Maybe they don't and I am writing this article with the intention to tell the Malaysian Government what is actually happening in the Malaysian schools. It should be noted that my intention is to inform the Ministry what is happening in the schools so that the situation in the schools can be improved and not to attack the Government. Firstly, does the Government know that when a teacher is transferred out to another school or retired, the school is left without a teacher for months? Let me share my plight with you. In June 2010, the temporary teacher who taught English in my school left because she was offered a place in one of the teachers' training colleges. In July 2010, one of the English teachers in my school got a transfer to another school and in early October 2010, one of the English teachers in my school retired. Did the Ministry send any new English teachers to my school? No, not even one. Although I found someone who was willing to be a temporary teacher, the education department rejected my offer to look for a teacher. (I really pity that guy who came to my school to see me that day. He was so eager to be a temporary teacher.) The school was told to think of a way to handle the situation. How to handle the situation? Well, the English teachers had to do the extra job. The ministry only sent the new teachers in January 2011. In July 2012, one of the teachers took no pay leave for two years. Now is already 9 Jan 2013 but still there is no replacement for that teacher. Today (9 Jan 2013) the education department transferred another teacher away without replacement. With three teachers going on maternity leave, the situation in the school is really critical. This clearly shows how inefficient the Ministry can be. With so many unemployed graduates, surely it wouldn't be difficult to find new teachers! Is this what is meant by "rakyat diutamakan"?

Until quite recently, whenever a teacher goes on maternity leave, the Ministry would send only one "guru ganti" for every three teachers who go on maternity leave. This would mean that there are classes that would have to go without a teacher for three months. I believe there are many other ways to save money other than depriving the students of a teacher for months and giving extra workload to other teachers. If there is not enough money to pay the "guru gantis" why not stop giving scholarships to teachers who go for further studies? These teachers receive their monthly salary apart from the scholarship and are enjoying themselves babysitting at home and probably asking someone else to write the thesis for them. At the same time there are those teachers who have too much work to do and yet still have to do others' work for them. The situation has improved slightly last year - there were "guru gantis" to replace those who went for maternity leave but only until 30 October. Keying in the PBS results was a great problem even when you are keying in your own results and to key in the results for others is like being punished in hell (please read my previous article "The Falling Standard of Education in Malaysia" if you want to know what are the problems I refer to here). How is it possible to help others when each of us has a heavy workload of our own? Even without doing others' work, there is hardly any time left to go to the toilet. But we have to do the impossible. There is no choice.

The beginning of the new school term would also mean that three of the teachers in my school are going on maternity leave (our Malaysian teachers are extremely fertile - giving birth every year or every alternative year) but did he Ministry send any teachers to replace them? No, they didn't. Although the school has found some graduates who are willing to be "guru ganti", we can't take them because they have to go through the education departmennt first. Why the long wait? Because the person in charge of this, Puan H, is on maternity leave. My goodness! Don't tell me that there is no one to take over her duties when she goes on maternity leave for three months. Why can't the Ministry think of a way to handle the situation instead of waiting for Puan H to come back? And they have the guts to tell the schools to handle their own situation when they themselves can't handle their own situation. So what is going to happen to those classes without a teacher? Well, as for the English classes, we have to combine the classes (because of the streaming) since all the classes are having English lessons at the same time. This would mean that I would be having about 60-70 students per class. This would also mean that the objective of the PBS is defeated since the PBS classroom is not supposed to have so many students. In America, there are only about 20 students per class. If the Ministry wants to follow America, follow everything, not just a very small part of it. Managing such a big number of students is really tough job especiallly with the PBS. I don't even know where I am going to take the students. Since there are only 4 English teachers in the afternoon session - one of them is totally redundant (the teachers have to babysit him since he doesn't want to pay for an assistant) and the other one has gone on maternity leave, I have to take two extra English classes whilst the other colleague would have take the other two classes. I really don't know how to tolerate this. Students would have to bring along their chairs from the other classes and four students would have to share two desks. The classroom is packed like sardines in a can and I don't even have space to walk. How about the PBS tests that they are going to sit for after each topic? Sitting so near to each other, copying is inevitable. This really defeats the objective of the PBS. Why increase the maternity leave from 6 weeks to 3 months when you can't afford to send a replacement? Why not switch back to 6 weeks just like it used to be? Just because the stupid Pakatan increased it to three months? When a teacher is on maternity leave, this would mean that someone else would have to do the job for her. With so much work at hand in the beginning of the school term, we have problems doing our own work even without doing other people's work for them. With so much paper work to do, the teachers are under a lot of stress. This is one of the reasons why our teachers are not interested to vote. This is what my colleagues told me!

When I first started teaching, my take home pay was only RM713 but I was very happy and proud to be a teacher. I loved my job. But now, even with the increments, I feel like opting out and doing something else. The Government should look into the plight of the teachers instead of thinking that the teachers are happy with the increments. Money cannot buy happiness. With a salary of RM713 more than 20 years ago, I was very eager to vote for the Barisan. I could remember the day when I voted for the first time. I voted for Barisan that day. I will not vote for the Pakatan now cos I won't betray my boss. I choose not to vote. I am not threatening the Government with this article. I am just writing what I feel deep inside me. I don't lie and I don't do things against my conscience. In actual fact, many teachers also feel the same way but lack the necessary writing skills especially when it comes to writing in English. One teacher actually purposely absent himself from school when he was chosen to replace the teacher who is on maternity leave to register the students during the form one orientation program last week. When another teacher was asked to do the job, there was of course a lot of grumbling and dissatisfaction. I could see her face turning black instantly. But we can't blame them. This is just a silent retaliation on their part. We can't blame people like them because it would be very unfair to do so. Each of us is overburdened with unending paper work and can't afford to do others' work for them. I believe that retaliating in silence doesn't help. We have to let the Government know what is happening in the schools so that the situation in the schools can be improved. That is why I write this article - not to attack the Government but to beg for a better solution to the problems at school.

1Malaysia Student Discount Card-Who is it for?

pivoine — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 01:16:47 +0800

I just came back from UM today and am really disappointed. I went there to get my 1Malaysia Student Discount Card but was told that I didn't get the card. After checking the list of names of the students in the faculty, I found that some students didn't get it. I am not sure how the card is distributed, what are the criteria for selecting students for the card, and who qualifies for it. A doctoral student (my course mate) got a scholarship to do the PhD which means that apart from her full salary, she gets an extra sum of scholarship money from the government and she got the discount card. I have to work full time to get my full salary with no scholarship and I don't get the card. Most of the masters and PhD students who are working got the card but some unlucky ones don't get it. Anyone can tell me why? (For masters and PhD course, there is no such thing as part time or full time. Working or not, everyone attends the same course.) I have been chasing after my faculty from September until now for the card but until now, there is still no sign of the card. I find it hard to believe that it is real.

Not Enough English Teachers Due to PBS

pivoine — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:57:40 +0800

Because of the streaming in PBS, next year there will not be enough English teachers in my school. This is because each English teacher can take only 4 English classes instead of 5. This would mean that the English teachers would have to teach other subjects such as geography, PJK, seni, and PSK as well whilst non English optionists would have to teach English. Even English teachers themselves would sometimes teach English in Bahasa so what can we expect from these non English optionists?

Is streaming really necessary? Well, one of my students disappeared during English lessons from June to October this year without anyone realizing it. Goodness knows where he went during the English lessons! I put him in 1G after the streaming. When he finally appeared again in Octocber, the 1G teacher did not want to take him in. Since he was originally from 1F, I told the 1F Englsih teacher to take him since she knows him better. Other students may not have disappeared for so long but they did take the advantage to venture elsewhere whenever they are given the opportunity to change class and disappeared for some time.

For more information on the disadvantages of streaming please google "Falling Standard of Education in Malaysia". You will find my lowyat article which explains about this issue in greath depths as updated yesterday.

Problematical PBS - Problems Keying in the Results

pivoine — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 23:13:42 +0800

I was actually trying to key in the results for the PBS (Pentaksiran Berasaskan Sekolah) earlier but after trying to key in the results for the whole night and I only managed to key in the results of four students, I had no choice but to come to Lowyat and give the Government some feedback regarding the keying in of the PBS results. The problem with the system is it is extremely difficult to log in and even if I could have the luck to log in after ages, after keying in the results of one student, the system will automatically log me out and it will take ages for me to log in again.

We were told to wake up at 4.00 a.m to key in the results because the system wouldn't be so busy then and it is easier to log in. When I attended the PBS course for form 2 last week, one guy had the courage to tell the facilitators that that would be the last thing he would do at 4.00 a.m. in the morning. The deadline for keying the results is on the 20th November 2012. At the rate we are going, we would never be able to finish even if we sit in front of the computer the whole day just to key in the results and goodness knows how much work there is to be done before the schools closes for the holidays. The Ministry should extend the deadline until the 31st December 2012 so that the teachers need not rush to key in the results. When everyone is rushing to do it, keying in the results becomes an impossibility.

I do wonder if America and Finland have such problems in keying the results online!

The Falling Standard of Education in Malaysia

pivoine — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 23:15:39 +0800

Some of you may wonder what the PBS stands for and what it means. Well, the PBS is some kind of school based evaluation system where the students will be evaluated by the teachers after every topic that they learn. This system of evaluation will be implemented in stages beginning this year with the form 1 students and the next year with the form 2 students and so on. As all the teachers and students know, this system of education has brought a lot of chaos to the schools. Why chaos? Because it is implemented without proper planning. Because teachers are made to do the impossible. When the teachers were sent for courses (in the earlier part of the year) they were asked to prepare test questions for classroom evaluation. The truth about these questions is, you can open any reference book and simply pick any of the activities in it and you'll find that it is much better than the ones prepared by the teachers. Luckily, we don't have to use those questions if we don't want to as we can always design our own questions based on the students' level. Just how valid are the questions prepared by the teachers? I would really like to know. Well, the students are given 3 attempts for each test before the teachers could fail them. For those students in the good classes the teachers can give them more difficult questions but for those in the weaker classes the teachers would have to give them easier questions for the same test so that they could afford to pass. Do you think it is fair this way?

Needless to say, due to lack of preparation, we started late this year (some time in April or May but going full time in the second semester) but were told that we have to key in all the results by the 31st October 2012. As a consequence, the teachers have to spend all the time chasing after the students to sit for the tests instead of teaching. Chasing after the students is a herculean task especially in the weaker classes. I hope that my readers would be able to give me some ideas how to chase after students who don't want to sit for the tests and who are chronic absentees to sit for each test three times when they are not allowed to come out of their classes during other lessons. During my English lessons, there is always a new test to sit for after each topic that I teach and I find it almost impossible to make them sit for the tests that were already over a long time ago. Remember, there are more than 30 students in each class. If there were only 6 students in each class or 4 teachers in each class it would be a different story altogether.

One of my former colleagues used to say that the students in the weak classes didn't even want to copy the answers that she has written for them on the whiteboard during an exam. When she asked the students to copy the answers, they told her to write for them. That's why the teachers are having great problems chasing after the students to do the tests after each topic. Why? This is because they don't want to do it. When I went for the PMR and SPM invigilations, I found many students sleeping in the exam hall during the exam. We were told to wake them up each time they sleep and the poor invigilators had to walk around to wake the students up. Many of them wanted to leave the exam hall even before they finish the paper but they were not allowed to do so and that was why they slept through the exam. If they don't want to do anything during such an important exam, do you think that they will want to sit for the informal tests prepared by the teachers? In a way, the PBS system is encouraging the students to be irresponsible people. Why is it so? They don't have to bother about the tests as it is the teachers' responsibility to chase after them to make them do the tests. Those who have been chasing after the students would know how hateful their "tidak apa" attitude is. What is even worse is we are not encouraged to fail them. This would mean that the teachers must somehow make the students who don't want to sit for the tests to pass the tests by hook or by crook.

Let me share my plight with you. I was given 3 form 1 classes in the beginning of the year namely 1A, 1D, and 1E. But in the second semester, just after the students sat for an English test, they had to go to different classes based on their results (streaming). The problem is they only change classes during the English lessons but go back to their original classes for other subjects. (Why so much fuss changing classes during the English lessons? If English is so important, why abolish the PPSMI in the first place?) What happens each time the students change classes? Do you think that they will walk quietly to the other classes? Well, they disappeared and the teachers have to go and look for them. One student disappeared from June onwards and reappeared again in October and no one knows where he went during the English lessons throughout those four months. (I was the one who did the streaming and based on his diagnostic test results, I put him in 1G. When he reappeared again in October, the 1G English teacher did not want to accept him. I had no choice but to ask the 1F English treacher to accept him as he is originally from 1F.) Since 1A, 1B and 1C must have English lessons at the same time on Thursday and Friday whilst 1D, 1E, 1F, and 1G must have English lessons at the same time on Monday and Wednesday, I had to give away one of my form 1 classes to another teacher. Why must the good classes have English lessons at the same on Thurrsdays and Fridays and the weak classes have English lessons at the same time on Mondays and Wednesdays? Does it mean that the students' English will improve if all the classes have English lessons at the same time? Whose stupid idea is this? Now, the problem is I have to chase after the students whom I am no longer teaching to sit for the tests they have not completed. Please teach me how to do that - remember they can't come out of their classes because their teachers would not let them. Everyone is chasing after the students to complete the tests. The next problem is, I cannot key in the results for the students whom I am teaching now (1A and IE) because they are not the original 1A and 1E students. I have to give their marks to the English teachers who are teaching 1B, 1C, 1D, 1F, and 1G depending on which class they originally come from and get the marks of the original 1A and 1E students from these teachers. Remember they change classes only during the English lessons and therefore still belong to their original classes. When we key in the marks, we have to key in according to their classes. One more problem is there is not enough English teachers to teach the form one and form two English classes next year since every English teacher can only take two classes of form one (10 periods) and two classes of form two (10 periods) because of the streaming. We normally have five classes of English but next year we can only afford to take four classes of English and teach others subjects to fill up the 25 periods. What stupid nonsense. Already we do not have enough teachers! If the ministry doesn't send more English teachers to the schools, the non English optionists would have to teach English next year whilst the English optionists would have to teach the subjects that they do not know anything about. If I were to teach PJK, I'll just ask the students to play what they want to play during the PJK lessons cos I really don't know anything about PJK. Just give the boys a ball and they will know what to do. As for the girls, just ask them to bring their badminton rackets and let's hope that they will bring! What would the PJK teacher do then? Teach English in Bahasa!

Another problem with streaming is the keying in of the nilam (reading) records. I will never be able to record the number of books that my original 1A and 1E students have read because I don't get to see them at all. Experience have taught me that I can't rely on the other English teachers to record the number of books that my original 1A and 1E students (who are in their classes) have read. It took them so long and there was so much problems chasing after them to force them to give me the PBS results of my original 1A and 1E students. How can I expect them to give me the nilam records every month? So what did I do with the nilam records? I had no choice but to play the "Toto" game when filling in the nilam records. Other teachers are also doing the same thing because the librarian told us to "pandai-pandai" key-in. How "pandai-pandai" is "pandai-pandai' is up to the teachers. I am wondering how I am going to play the "Toto" game next year. This year, at least, I have been with my original 1A and 1E students for 6 months and I can guess how many books they should have read. Next year, streaming will begin in January and I will never get to see the "original students" of whichever classes I may be teaching next year. How can I play the "Toto" game then? Chasing after the other English teachers for the PBS results of my original 1A and 1E students is another herculean task. One of them did not give me the results until the last day of school and if it wasn't so difficult to key in the results online I would have assumed that all the original 1E students whom this particular English teacher is teaching have passed up to band 4 and keyed in up to band 4! (I have been updating this article from time to time whenever there is new information about the PBS) When it comes to streaming like this, playing the "Toto" game is inevitable. For instance, the PLBS (oral) forms of the original 1A and 1E students are still with me as my ketua panitia suggested that each English teacher should keep and fill up the PLBS forms of their original students as it would be very problematical to distribute these forms to the teachers who are actually teaching them now. This means that although I am not teaching the original 1A and 1E students, I still have to assess them for their oral test. The consequence is, of course, another "Toto" game. Is this what is meant by the beauty of PLBS (Pentaksiran Lisan Berasaskan Sekolah)? But what about next year? How can I grade the students whom I have never seen if streaming begins early in January? At least this year I can make some wild guesses and assumptions based on what I know about the students but how am I going to guess or assume anything about the students whom I don't know next year? One more thing is - it would be impossible for me to key in the PBS results every month since the other English teachers only give me the results for the whole year once a year at the end of the year (perhaps on the last day of school). Chasing after the other teachers for the PBS results is a "mission impossible" and they don't normally entertain me until the last minute. This is what is happening in other schools as well.

Every student has a file and the tests that the students have completed must be put in their files. This is another big problem. I have to keep two files for each class - one for the 1A and 1E classes that I am teaching now and one for the original 1A and 1E classes. I cannot put the testpapers of the students whom I am teaching now in their files before they are not the original 1A and 1E students. I have to give their testpapers to the teachers who are teaching in 1B, 1C, 1D, 1F, and 1G depending on where they originally come from and get the testpapers of the original 1A and 1E students from these teachers. The files are arranged according to the original classes in different cupboards that are securely locked. So it seems that the teachers are always busy sorting out the testpapers and putting them in the files all the time as though they have nothing to do. If what the teachers are suffering now is beneficial to the students, it doesn't matter but the truth is they can't even teach a proper lesson because all the time is spent chasing after the students and making them do the tests.

Here I have a silly joke to share with my readers. Silly though it may sound, it's the truth and nothing but the truth. One of my friends who is teaching in another school told me that she had no choice but to photostat many sets of the completed tests belonging to a good student and gave them to the students who have not completed the tests to take home and copy. She really couldn't afford to chase after these students due to lack of time. The problem is, many of these weak students not only did not copy the tests given to them but also lost the samples that they took home to copy. As we all know, it is not easy to make the students do their schoolwork and the PBS is just like some kind of schoolwork to them. The difference is, when the students do not want to do their schoolwork, the teachers can still proceed with the lessons. However, with the PBS, the teachers have to chase after the students to do their "schoolwork" not just once, but twice or even three times for the same topic if they don't do well. Making the weak students do the tests once is enough problem and doing them 3 times is like attempting the impossible. How can one teacher chase after 30 or 40 students in every class given such limited time? Another question is: How can the teachers chase after the students who are no longer in their class (the students changed class in the second semester) to do the tests when they can't see them anymore? If the teachsers couldn't make them do the tests when these students were still in their class, how could they make them do the tests now?

Would this kind of assessment be recognized world wide? Just how valid is the PBS? The tests for each topic differs according to the teachers who set them taking into account the level of the students. If I were still a student, I would definitely want to be in a weak class as the tests would be easier to pass. One of my friends in SMK D told me that since it is most unlikely that the teachers in her school would be able to key in the results of the first few bands by 30 September 2012 and finish all the tests by 31st Oct 2012 (there are so many students to manage with so little time), they have decided to key in the results first assuming that all the students have passed the tests and then only let the students do the tests. This would mean that the students would pass the tests even before they sit for them. Is this what we mean by "Malaysia Boleh?"

The PBS is a very subjective thing and most of the teachers would not want to fail their students no matter how weak they are. Why? Because if they fail the tests, it would mean that the passing rate of the school would fall and no one would like to answer for that. Already Harvard is not accepting our students this year - I heard that none of our students could get into Harvard this year even though our As are so overwhelming and can even drown the whole world. If the PBS were to proceed, what will happen to our education system in the future? What our students need is a valid education system that would enable them to compete globally and the PBS will not be able to help them to do so. On the contrary, the PBS will only become the laughing-stock of the world due to the stupid way in which it is being carried out!

Gone were the good old days when even the young housewives and taxi drivers could speak good English. The truth is most of our young graduates of today cannot speak good English even after so much have been done to improve the level of English in this country. Can we say that our education system is better than before? With the PBS, the situation is even worse. The teachers can't even teach as they are always busy chasing after the students who don't want to do the tests and make them do the tests. When the tests are so easy to pass, do you think that our students can really learn anything at all? Do you know that many teachers are asking their students to just copy something from their friends or give them something to copy and pass up just for the sake of passing the exam? This has been happening all the time for the subjects that require the students to do 'folio' or whatever it is. The same thing can happen to the PBS. Being school based, we cannot avoid these flaws since teachers are humans too.

Winners in the Olympics are given a lifetime pension and great financial rewards by the Malaysian Government. Why is it that those who won the inter-school or inter-state matches are not given such rewards? We want our 1Malaysia nation to be able to compete globally and not only amongst people of our level. Similarly, if our students can score straight As for the O-levels or A-levels, then they are really good. Perhaps it's time for the policy makers to reconsider this option instead of lowering the standard of our education system to suit the needs of the students who don't want to learn. Why is it that the PPSMI is a failure? Because it doesn't matter whether the teachers or the students want to learn English or not. If the teachers were not given their annual increment if they couldn't master English, then, I bet you, they will learn in no time. If English is made a compulsory subject that every student must pass if they want to pass the PMR or SPM examination, then no doubt everyone can speak good English!

I am writing this article to give feedback to the Ministry as a responsible citizen who is concerned with the future of our education system . It is no use asking the teachers to answer 'yes-no' questions about their readiness for the PBS. The truth cannot be discovered this way. For instance, does the Ministry know that the teachers are trying to avoid teaching the PBS classes and pushing it to those not so influential ones because these not so influential teachers have no right to say anything other than to accept what is given to them? Even the ketua bidang and ketua panitia of many schools are pushing the PBS classes to other teachers and even to non-optionists just because they don't want to get involved with the PBS. This is the ultimate truth about the PBS whcih the yes-no answers cannot reveal.

Theory is different from practice. The PBS may sound ideal theoretically but is practically useless or at least it is not suitable for a Malaysian classroom. As a PhD student, I have done a lot of research in this area (how to upgrade our education system) and I hope that my forthcoming PhD thesis would be able to contribute towards a better education system for our 1Malaysia nation. It is not my intention to criticize. As a veteran teacher, I want the best for my students. Are we giving them the best? During these last few days of school, every teacher is busy forcing the students to simply copy something just for the sake of completing the tests and passing them. Is this what we call quality education? I will be following the PBS as a participant observer and continue to provide the Government with the necessary feedback from time to time so that the Ministry will know what is actually happening in the schools and take the necessary steps to upgrade our education system.