faulker059

A plug for what I think is a really really great project spearheaded by a few young Malaysians - Chong Yong Wei Gabrielle , Goh Jing Pei, Kimberley Mei Kay, Tara Thean, Charis Loke - and project advisor Chen Chow (sorry Chen Chow, can't really call you young anymore). The aim of this project is to collect stories of 'young Malaysians who have pursued different pathways after SPM'. You can find out more details about the project here . I especially like this paragraph from the link above: It does not matter whether you are a scholar with stellar results and a 3-inch thick resume, a typical student who went to a local university after finishing Form 6, or a youth who has to work in the pasar malam at night to foot your technical college fees in the day. It does not matter whether you have chosen the oft-beaten path or the road less travelled. We believe that there every education background offers its own boons and banes. And we believe that there are merits in telling any s...

Part 2 of Mei San's article on the NS program. M-16 Training The M-16 training is one of the greatest “selling points” of the NS programme. A day before the actual shooting session, trainees were given a briefing by the army. During the briefing session, we were taught the correct position to take while shooting, the instructions that we had to be aware of and how to walk to our respective positions. During the actual shooting session, each trainee was allowed thirty shots, using live bullets, of which 10 were for testing purpose while the remaining 20 counted for points. The shooting session lasted about five minutes for each trainee. Only trainees with a signed letter of consent by their parent or guardian were allowed to shoot. What lesson is to be expected of this M-16 training? During a Dewan Rakyat sitting, in a reply to Loke Siew Fook (DAP-Rasah) who questioned the purpose of the M-16 training, the Deputy Defense Minister stated that the M-16 training “has helped to insti...

Below is Part I of an excellent piece written by Mei San on the NS program. She's one of the many young Malaysians who have inspired me and given and continues to give me hope in our country. 84 Days in Camp – NS Observations and Thoughts Ever since the National Service (NS) programme was launched in the year of 2004, 339,186 trainees have graduated1. Up till 2007, RM2.37 billion has been spent on the programme2. As of June 2008, 16 trainees have died3. Due to the unexpected deaths and the large amount of expenses involved, there have been many calls, by parents as well as the Opposition, for the NS programme to be called off. Citing reasons such as patriotism and racial integration, the Ministry of Defense has been insisting on the importance and the benefits of the programme. The Defense Minister, also Deputy Prime Minister, Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak was even quoted saying that the government wanted to continue with the programme as it was “becoming more popular”4. During a Dew...

One of the professors in my university's economics department runs an informal book club; you don't get academic credit for showing up, but you do get the satisfaction of intellectual exploration from reading the book we're assigned and discussing it. I bring this up, because it affords me a segue into an interesting tidbit I overheard from a senior at the meeting this week — of all the education systems around the world, most have one purpose: they either exist to suppress heresy by propounding the truth, or they exist to encourage freedom of thought and freedom to explore intellectually. Now, I think we all can guess which category our very own school system falls under. Students are told not to question. The very atmosphere of our schools stifles the notion that one must be free to explore. But sometimes I wonder if criticisms of our school system aren't really a problem with the idea that we should teach the one truth. The constant debate about Chinese schools is I ...

A few months back, I wrote about the need for diversity in thinking of different ways to solve old problems. I'm well aware of the fact that the three bloggers who run this blog are anywhere close to being representative of the population that we are reaching out to. The three of us - Tony (who started this blog), John (the latest invitee) and myself (the in between) - are all Chinese Malaysian males who are 'Western' educated, been through a national school education (John spent some time in an SRJCK, Tony speaks Chinese with his parents and his Chinese has most definitely improved after going full time into politics, I speak Chinese with my parents and recently took 2 years of Chinese classes here at Duke) and have been / are educated at the so called 'elite' schools (Oxford for Tony; Darmouth for John; LSE, Cambridge and now Duke for myself). I try to expose myself to as many views on the education system as possible but there is no way that I would be able to ...

Let's put aside the academic and intellectual side of education for the moment, and focus on something more basic: basic communications skills. No matter how good a thinker you are, if you can't communicate those thoughts you will have a hard time, both in academia and the professional world. Wherever you end up, you need to know how to read and write, listen and speak. And I think it's almost indisputable that Malaysian schools are doing a pretty bad job when it comes to these skills. Back when I was still in school, my father's company was looking to expand its operations, but to my father's chagrin, most of the candidates he encountered were simply incoherent. Their CVs were poorly-formatted and their personal statements virtually unreadable. Most of those he shortlisted for interviews were clearly unconfident and unable to speak coherently. My father was terribly put off by the experience, and he himself has always been bemoaning his own difficulties in communic...

I wasn't even aware that Victoria Institution or VI had changed its name to Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Victoria until I read this article in the Star which reported that VI has gotten back its old name - VI. It reminded me of the time when I heard that some idiots in the MOE wanted to change the name of my alma mater, La Salle PJ, to Sekolah Menangah Jalan Chantek. This was some time back. This suggestion was greeted with howls of protests from the old boys and I'm very glad that it was never carried out. I'm guessing that some idiotic civil servants in MOE thought that they could get away with this name change by retaining the name Victoria in the 'new' name. I'm guessing that the VI old boys network and the VI PTA had something to do with getting the old name back. Is it important to retain the names of schools such as VI or La Salle or St Edwards or Penang Free or St Xavier's? Aren't they reminders of a colonial past which we should abandon as we mo...

As surely every Malaysian knows, there is a lot of political turmoil going on in our country right now. The democratic process is chaotic, and with all three of us on this blog involved in politics — as an active participant like Tony, an academic like Kian Ming, or just an observer like myself — it's a very interesting time for us! I think this is a good time, then, to bring up a topic that's quite relevant to education: how do we learn about democracy? The sad fact is that our schools don't do a very good job of preparing us to be active citizens in a democracy. We do go through the motions of learning to vote, and the importance of having a vote, but we never learn about how to make up our minds on who to vote for. We never learn how the democratic process is supposed to work, beyond some vague mechanism whereby we put our ballots in a box, and magically some leaders emerge to lead us. If I were to structure a program for teaching democracy in school, I would probably bo...

A reader notified me of this latest trend among our public universities - setting up 'subsidiaries' which offer courses such as diplomas or executive diplomas which are not recognized by other public universities or the Public Service Commission (PSC). Two problems ensue - students who take up these courses thinking that they are 'recognized' courses and employers who employ these students thinking that these courses are also 'recognized'. I'll reproduce some of the NST articles below (for posterity) and then comment on the other side. 1st NST article - SpotLight/Unrecognised qualifications: 'Subsidiaries must offer accredited courses' KUALA LUMPUR: Courses offered by subsidiaries of public universities should be endorsed by the Public Service Department (PSD) or the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA). Former Higher Education Ministry director-general Prof Datuk Dr Hassan Said said this was to ensure that the courses would not create problems for...

One thing about the changeover to teaching science and maths in English in 2003 was that for the first time ICT (Information and Communications Technology) began to be used on a large scale throughout our school system as a teaching aid. Unfortunately, instead of being a teaching aid, in many cases the poor English of the teachers turned the teaching aid into the only teacher many kids got. I can speak from personal experience that as good as my science teachers were, there wasn't much they could do to add to the ICT-based teaching aids. If anything, the structure of the aids seems to have been meant to supplant teachers instead of assist them. This is really a great shame, because ICT can be a fantastic teaching aid when used correctly. The slideshows which schools use as teaching aids presently are essentially whole lectures with some visuals included. There is not a whole lot teachers can add to the ICT-based teaching aids, especially if their English is poor. Teachers are prett...

My apologies for the lax posting over the past two weeks — I've been busy with a research proposal, which I will write a bit more about some other time. I just read this very interesting article by Jay Mathews, a well-known education writer in the Washington Post, titled Why Easy Grading Is Good for Your Career . Mathews lists out school reforms proposed by teachers he interviewed, and assesses them based on their potential and viability. It's a great but quick read, and I recommend it. I agree with Mathews's assessment of all the proposed reforms — I'm not a fan of teacher tenure, and I absolutely agree that some sort of standardised testing is a must for most education systems. What strikes me the most is that most of the viable and high-potential reforms are those which involve parents and teachers. Two of the highest-rated reforms, for example, involve parents in the process of discipling unruly children, and improving students' study skills. Most parents from u...