Let me begin by hitting you with a fact: In a 2012 study, it was found that 4.2% of Malaysian secondary students were considered illiterate in the Malay language. A further 6.8% did not meet basic literacy criteria for English, and a whopping 27.1% were math illiterate.
If you have spent any amount of time in Sekolah Kebangsaan (as I have), these statistics would not surprise you - unless you thought they would be higher. Maybe it’s just my luck, but I attended three different secondary schools and all three of them had dedicated classes for students who were completely unable to read.
How can it be that students who have been through 6 years of primary school, have no diagnosed learning difficulties, and are given the same resources as their peers (within school) can’t achieve the criteria of being able to read and understand basic instructions?
In this three-part series, I want to explore where our curriculum, school culture, and government policy have combined to create a terrible learning environment at each stage of our education from primary school to university. And even if you can read (you’re reading this now!), there are probably many things you can’t do that students across the bridge in Singapore, or across the ocean in Australia, or across the world in Europe can do and are expected to do.
Things like reading Jane Eyre and appreciating the nuance of its language, understanding and not just memorising the calculations you’ve learned in trigonometry, or debating the ethics of ‘democracy’ as it was practised by the Romans. Education in (some) developed countries is dynamic, thorough, and fun. There’s more to it than memorisation and answer schemes; than keeping your hair tidy and shoes clean; than reciting pledges in the morning and furiously copying out entire essays as your homework in the evenings. There’s so much more.
So, without further ado, let me start on Part 1: Primary School (yes that was just the series intro).
The Developing Mind
For many children, attending primary school is the first in a series of steps towards independence. Like a seedling, it is crucial for them to be given both ample care and sufficient space to grow.
From birth to the age of 7-8 years old, the brain is developing at its most rapid pace of a person’s lifetime, after which its pace of growth progressively slows. The scientific consensus is that those first seven years of life are best spent learning through play after which, structured or formal teaching becomes important to continue social and cognitive development.
How that teaching is delivered will strongly shape the child’s future capabilities. At this crucial juncture in development, the teachers hold the power to either expand or shrink a child’s consciousness; to give them the tools to think both rationally and creatively or to crush their capacities for curiosity and individuality.
But unfortunately for us, Malaysian primary schools tend to induce the latter. And even if a Malaysian primary school student is not being oppressed by rigid thinking, they’re probably not benefitting from quality learning either.
Poor Teaching Methodology
The entire Malaysian education system rests on a foundation of taking notes, memorising said notes, and regurgitating the notes. Think back to UPSR-- every program designed to help a student achieve that shiny ‘5A’ or ‘7A’ envelope was just a bunch of templates to memorise and apply. Language - its main purpose being communication - was tested on a basis of whether we could robotically analyse a picture and construct five perfect sentences on individual happenings within that picture.
There’s no problem with the exam questions themselves- constructing sentences is a great way to test someone’s proficiency in a language. The problem lay in the rigidity of what was an ‘acceptable’ sentence, and how, instead of being taught the rules of grammar and its application in different contexts, we were given a template for active sentences and forced to stick with that. My passive tense sentences always lost me marks. #bitteristhisgirl
Malay and English were taught like they were computer programming languages with no room for style or out-the-box expressions, Maths was taught to us through taking notes and leaving us to do tons of exercises until we ‘got it’ (but most people just copied answers) and Kajian Tempatan (now Sejarah and Geografi) were repetitive and drawn-out sessions of listening to lectures on rainforest density and Parameswara under a Melaka tree. The only classes where any form of hands-on learning occurred was Science (but with no spontaneity), Kemahiran Hidup (I remember memorising the different names for different stitches - but never getting to try any out), and if you were lucky, the occasional Pendidikan Jasmani or Pendidikan Seni session (which were almost always taken over by more ‘important’ subjects).
Art and Phys Ed
On a side note, the utter lack of respect many schools have for Physical Education and Art is highly detrimental to the development of our students. Someone out there spent years putting together a cohesive curriculum that teaches children about their bodies, about the correct way to do warm-ups, build muscle and stamina, eat healthily, and sleep well at night - all foundational concepts for living a healthy life - only for schools to turn their PJ sessions into a free-for-all run around session or swap it out for extra maths classes.
While Art is a subject that provides value in its inherent nature of developing creativity, it can also be used to increase literacy in maths. Think about it - both art and maths require the ability to visualise and solve puzzles. Furthermore, art is what immortalises great civilisations with architecture, paintings, sculptures and stories. And art is highly relevant to our lives today.
Artists are the people who designed the aesthetic of our cars and laptops and designer clothes, artists are the people who create our entertainment, and artists are the ones who provide items of extrinsic value to our life.
And to become a good artist, a person needs to be taught the foundations and techniques of art, which unfortunately in many schools in Malaysia, doesn’t happen. It’s IN the syllabus for a reason, but the syllabus is just ignored! While many creative types overcome this issue through self-learning, my heart still breaks to think of all the students out there with the talent for creation who were never given the tools or encouragement needed to come into themselves.
Now, back to Poor Teaching Methodology With a Side of Covid!
There is no question in the world of research that hands-on learning is more effective than only listening to lectures and taking notes. Add that to the fact that we were young, imaginative students with a world of potential in front of us, and you will see that we were done absolutely dirty by the lack of innovation when it came to our education.
For Kajian Tempatan, we could have potentially visited some rainforests or at least had samples of the flora brought into class. For Malay and English, we could’ve played language games or been told stories. For maths, the formulas could have been demonstrated with props and enactments from the students. Homework could have been a few selected questions to answer instead of ‘salin sepuluh mukasurat’.
Off the top of my head, there are a million ways our teachers could have made learning interesting for us, but with Malaysian school culture being what it is, where uniformity and predictability precede all other values (impromptu borderline abusive haircuts anyone?), the emergence of any innovation was highly unlikely.
But how has that affected us in the long term?
Well, we’re nine months into online learning and there’s no sign of any resolution in sight. My siblings, all coming from different schools, are simply being given homework each day through WhatsApp or sent Youtube videos to watch. Their tuition groups have found ways to continue teaching, but not the actual schools.
I find this ridiculous! Anyone conceived back in March is being born now, but our education ministry (with their three ministers and enormous budget) haven’t been able to conceive and deliver effective ideas on how to teach online? (Beyond letting teachers know about the existence of Google Classroom.)
I understand that there are many students who are being left behind due to the digital divide, however, I don’t believe that the solution is ‘if one group can’t get an education, no one should’. There’s a laundry list of issues to be solved and our government should start by providing training that incorporates the science of child development to teachers so they can learn to teach effectively (whether that’s online or in-person). Almost an entire year of learning has been wasted because of the virus and our schools’ inability to adapt. And while I can’t claim that the government has been entirely idle, their solutions have focused solely on infrastructure and not institution itself.
In Conclusion...
Schools need to draw students in with the promise of helping them achieve their full potential, not push them out with boredom and arbitrary rules. With truancy and other social issues amongst students forever on the rise, the most essential action to curb the trend is to make learning cool again. This needs to be done through a shift in school culture.
The incoming generation of school-age children is at a severe social disadvantage - not just due to Covid, but due to the epidemic of technology addiction. More than ever, our education system must step up and provide students with a safe space for cognitive and social development.
What is going to happen to all those toddlers being raised to watch Youtube constantly from waking moment until bedtime? To all the children whose parents and siblings would rather scroll Instagram than talk at the dinner table? Whose parents rely on TV to teach their kids how to count?
I foresee that our last defence against a very troubled wave of neglected children is our education system. The same education system that at the moment, doesn’t even teach every student how to read.
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