NOVEMBER 7 — Like most Malaysians, I echo Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s condemnation of politicians who send their children overseas for high-quality schooling but block progressive educational reforms at home.
As someone who’s been in this particular sector for almost two decades, I can see first-hand how badly we need positive change.
In that vein, I wish to add to the two ideas Syed Saddiq supports, namely, extended classes for core subjects and subsidising the purchase of digital devices for families from the bottom 60 per cent of the income group.
What follows are two ideas which seek not only to improve the present system but to maybe overhaul it as well.
It is very unlikely either of them will be implemented on a large-scale anytime soon; my hope is that individual schools or even departments (who are new to the proposals) will take them to heart and, with some luck, a quiet revolution may begin all over the country.
1. Teach teachers drama
Malaysian schools need Al Pacino. Or, given the hole in our national treasury, perhaps we should fly in Shah Rukh Khan instead.
Whoever it is, we need drama in our schools. Our classrooms are starving for enthusiasm, our students crave a lot more than “lectures” and rote learning.
Worse, our educators tend to look less happy and passionate (and far less motivated) than people working in a Complaints Department.
Every Malaysian who wishes to teach, hence, should be a qualified dramatist as well. Sandiwara is terrible in politics but it can be a boon for the classroom.
- We need lecturers who behave like the lead dancer in Swan Lake and teach/perform like the universe is watching. These are people whose students will leave a session on Global Warming with their hearts on fire and ready to throw (clean) paint bombs at polluting factories.
- We want Maths lecturers who can transport their listeners back to ancient Greece and relive the wonders of discovering the numerical system. Believe it or not, such imaginative transferences require a lot more than academic knowledge and a textbook: it takes heart.
- Malaysia needs teachers who can passionately tell the story of Chin Peng without making it sound like he was the devil incarnate. These teachers would then easily encourage students to care more about their country’s underprivileged children than about their canteen’s tasteless chicken.
Maybe drama isn’t the best word here. We could also use art, performance, courage, life — you get the picture. But I don’t think the Ministry of Education does?
2. Stop closed-book exams
Okay maybe not cease them entirely but treat these as secondary. Why? Because we have thousands of students whose only concern in Maths is :
- ensuring they can recognise “what the question is asking” and
- which formula to use and
- scoring more than Ah Kow who sits next to them
This, really, is like a guy whose only concern during a date is how to get the girl to bed. It’s vulgar, it’s inauthentic, it’s selfish and it’s bad for society.
One hundred and twenty per cent of Malaysian students are always wondering which chapters they should be storing up for later vomiting (and forgetting). This is to equate studying with memorising and learning with “getting as many answers correct as possible.” This is like confusing Unesco with Umno.
So here’s something schools could try: Discontinue the closed-book exam. Forever.
Open book assessment is less rigid, more fun and based on more real life.
In one swoop, we can destroy learning-as-memorising. In two, we can bring an end to brainless regurgitation. Just nuke all the exam halls.
If a majority of school subjects are assessed in an open-book or even peer-to-peer coursework manner, the automatic use of memorisation is shown the door. Simply puking out chapter after chapter won’t work — and thus students will be forced to move on to other learning ways.
Students will be required to learn how to organise their easily-Googled answers, structure their presentations in logical apt ways and demonstrate superior analytical skills (which pass the anti-plagiarism detectors).
Students will need to know how to co-operate on assignments, read widely (without mindlessly memorising every word) and develop their information-hunting skills.
This way, in the future anyone excelling in SPM simply cannot be said to have done so by their ability to remember long passages.
Think about it.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
