The other day, on the way to Tadika, my daughter was complaining; "Sakit perut! Sakit perut!" and she refused to get out from the car when we reached the Tadika. "Ok, let's send kakak to commuter station, first", and of course as expected, the "sakit perut" was gone.
On the way back to the Tadika, again the "Sakit perut! Sakit perut!". In 'negotiating' with her along the way, I found out that "too much homework" was the real reason. She demanded me to tell the teacher not to give her homework in exchange for her to attend the Tadika that day. So, when we got there, I requested the teacher to try not to give much homework. And going-to-Tadika-business is to back to normal since then. Hopefully, I dont have to deal with this not-so-mysterious "sakit perut" too soon, next.
We have just recently came back from holiday. My niece in U.K has a son, age 7, a year older than my daughter. My wife had the opportunity to visit the "equivalent to our sekolah rendah kebangsaan". There are six classes (equivalent to Standard 1 to Standard 6) of about 134 pupils in total. My niece's son is in "Standard 1". The teachers practically know the family of each pupil, who's who, where they live, what they do, etc.
From the information I have got, my niece's son is being taught a lot on "speaking" (to nurture self-confidence) and reading/writing, little on mathematic and the rest is fun playing times. Children play, don't they?. The "confident mulut murai" son has only a lunch box to carry in his school bag and spends quite some time each day, playing at school.
Remember Dr. M's 3M? Membaca, Menulis dan Mengira? Whatever happens to this 3M when a growing number of Malaysians don't even know to read and write in their own Bahasa Kebangsaan! The Bangladeshis and Pakistanis beat these "Malaysians" silly at their "home" ground when they can speak Bahasa Melayu in a month time compare to the so-called Malaysians who can't even speak properly since birth! The Malays who are still in need of "tongkat ekonomi" (so they accused) may just build huge business empires selling "Tongkat Bahasa Kebangsaan" to the so-called Malaysians!
Now look at my daughter's school bag. There are books of Bahasa Melayu, Bahasa Inggeris, Bahasa Mandarin, Sivik/Ugama, Matematik, Computer, Music, Coloring and lunch box (Did I miss anything? Oh yes!.. plus homeworks some more). In U.K, we were looking for a kitty school bag with rollers (more of a trolley I supposed), but could not find one with rollers. All were without rollers. Why you need a trolley when you only have a lunch box to carry, not "tons of books"?! Wanna analyze this further? How about the later generation of Malaysians will be known as si Bongkok, because kecik-kecik lagi sudah kena latihan angkat berat? Or maybe Malaysia will sapu bersih gold medals in Olympic weight lifting, both in men and women categories.
Najib's 1-Malaysia sounds weird when the first language in his blog is English. Bahasa Melayu only comes second and; Najib is promoting Mandarin, next was Tamil too, presumably after some protests. So when is he going to promote the languages of Singhalese, Punjabi, Siamese, Jawa, Kelate, Minang, Dayak, Dusun, Murut, Bajau, Negrito, Jakun etc? Bahasa Kebangsaan, that is Bahasa Melayu, seems to have less due attention from the government than Mandarin by the weird 1-Malaysia. Oh yes! Mandarin in Tadika and compulsory Mandarin in private schools too!. Zambry of Perak also made it compulsory for the MPs to learn Mandarin, I heard. Mandarin is the official language of China PRC, not even the mother tongues of many here who speaks Cantonese, Tionghua etc. When people unite speaking one language (Satu Bahasa, Satu Negara), Najib's 1-Malaysia promote different languages AND does not seem to give a damn toward Bahasa Kebangsaan. Is that not weird? My daughter may grow up and do business in Turkey. She does not have to learn Turkish now. If she ends up doing business with the China PRC, then she will learn Mandarin at the approriate time. At schooling age, she should 'burden' herself to be fluent in her own Bahasa Kebangsaan, just like the anak jati of British, Americans, French, Japan, Korean etc. She will take the "extra burden" to learn the second language, English. Malaysia is unique isn't it?, uniquely weird!
Sometime ago, I searched for a dictionary add-on to my Mozilla Firefox. I found Bahasa Indonesia dictionary, but I did not see any Bahasa Melayu dictionary. I notice now there is Bahasa Melayu translation in some of the online translation tools. Try translating some paragraphs into to Bahasa Melayu and see what you get. I heard some non-English speaking countries are working with Microsoft to produce Windows in their very own fully fledged native/official language. When we will have a fully fledged Jendela 7? If Najib's 1-Malaysia is not that weird, not at least in the respect of Unity via One Official common Language, I would have, by now, a decent and comprehensive Bahasa Melayu dictionary online. No more "alien" doing the Bahasa Melayu paragraphs translations on-line. DBP would have been a respected and the world's Pakar Rujuk Bahasa Melayu. Instead of one understand each other via common language, Najib's 1-Malaysia promotes further separation when one does not understand the language spoken by another one. Instead of channeling the tax payers money towards strenghtening the DBP, making it the world class organisation, Najib throws the money to Sekolah Vernakular, every now and then, especially when there is a by-election; sending the country further into disunity chaos. More and more do not understand each other simply by the different languages spoken. How to tolerate and accept each other when one don't even understand each other? One becoming more suspicious of another, adala! That is why I said, Najib's 1-Malaysia is weird in this respect.
Tagore said, "To build a nation, build a school" where you produce rakyat jati diri from kecil lagi. Bukan jadi rakyat tak tahu bangsa, tak gheti bahasa! So Muhyiddin, prove that Malaysian have balls, not just timidly and apologetically succumbed to unreasonable demands from certain quarters. Pay VERY VERY VERY serious attention to the KEMPEN SATU SEKOLAH UNTUK SEMUA (SSS). Revisit our education policy, right from the kindergarten age till the university graduation age, make a MAJOR REVAMP as necessary, NOW!!!. Why now? read the last para herein.
Click the image below and sign the petition!
Speaking about money thrown to Sekolah Vernakular, I have relatives working as cikgus and cikgis. Almost every time there is some kind of look in their face when they came back late from schools. All kind of stories, go and find out from your own cikgus and cikgis, the Sekolah Kebangsaan ones. I think the cikgus and cikgis are overburden lots. Teaching is not the only work it seems. I remember one said that he teaches 3 different subjects at school. So imagine, 3 different subjects, teaching Standard 5 pupils, there are Mawar, Cempaka, Baiduri classes with each class having more than 50 pupils. When semester ends, comes to the teacher-meet-parents stuff, he has to prepare 'report card' for each of his student. So there are about 150 pupils in Standard 5 and times the 3 different subjects he teaches. More than 450 report cards he has to prepare. Off and on he has to attend seminars, workshops, some out of school duties as directed by the Pejabat Pelajaran, prepare reports to the Pejabat Pelajaran, more reports if he is also a Guru Disiplin, etc. And remember he also has to prepare teaching materials to teach! Next time when you go to a stationery shops or stationery section of a pasaraya, look at the gadgets they sell to assist these poor cikgus and cikgis. You will find 'custom made' rubber stamps of various kinds, 'STAR' symbols, 'BAGUS', 'DI PERIKSA OLEH', 'PERLU USAHA LAGI' and many more. It is neat to stamp 'BAGUS' rather than having to hand-write it more than 400 times at each given time! I thought the naughty pupils will be punished to write "Saya tak buat lagi" 100 times on the blackboard. Nowadays the cikgus and cikgis pula nakal, voluntarily punished to hand-write more than 400 times! So when Najib throws around the tax-payer money to sekolah vernakular, why not hand out the equal amount of burdens to the cikgus and cikgis of sekolah vernakular whenever there is a call of duty from the Pejabat Pelajaran? Since they shout for equal treatment, hand them the equal treatment from and subject them to the Pejabat Pelajaran as well! Muhyidin, any comment?
Well! after all being written here, one may shout, "You yourself is writing this blog in English, not Bahasa Melayu. A weirdo calling others a weird, eh?" He..he..he... my niece's son knows this blog and at the age of 7, he is fluent in the Bahasa Kebangsaan of Britain, the country where he lives for the moment. Even though he has different language as mother tongue, unlike Malaysia, the British dont make it compulsory to learn foreign mother tongue in their soil. They make sure that you are fluent, both in speaking and writing, U.K. English, the National/Official Language of the country. My niece's family and friends don't go around everywhere and every second of the day speaking mother tongue in U.K. But Malaysia? Very weirdly unique, isn't it? I admit, the "mulut-murai" son will not read this if it was written in Bahasa Melayu, shame on me for not having a word with my niece to have her son fluent in Bahasa Melayu ! Btw, are you fluent enough in Bahasa Melayu to read the whole article fully in Bahasa Melayu?, or are you not Malaysian?
Not all of the chiildren want to grow up to become Si Bongkok, the weight lifter, who only mingle with their own kind because the other kind do not speak the same language as they do. They are suspicious lot, who are quite blur with their BANGSA, and TAK GHETI BAHASA too. They are more or less, robots, designed to produce 'A ++++' in each exam paper but have not a single knowledge and skill to cook a 3-minutes maggi noodles.
Where the heck are my soccer stars?
They are all in tuition class after school, Sir! and we have not finished with our homeworks yet!
Remember, children PLAY and mingle. That's what they do.
Now who robs the children of their God-given right time to play? PM and Menteri Pelajaran with our early education system? While the children are being driven to the wall to worship scoring as many "As" in as many subjects as possible, the adult worship money at all cost (to achieve high income earners in recent belanjawan, or shall I say bajet?). Very unique recipe of 1-Malaysia, huh?!
The last para - Our education system, littered with mafias, becomes more like falsampah pendidikan negara, burdened with its vernacular issues, paper chase mentality etc let alone to be anywhere near to falsafah pendidikan global. Not enough with textbooks mafias, now they are talking to privatise government exams, adding more sampah?. Read OutSyed The Box, here.
The last para - Our education system, littered with mafias, becomes more like falsampah pendidikan negara, burdened with its vernacular issues, paper chase mentality etc let alone to be anywhere near to falsafah pendidikan global. Not enough with textbooks mafias, now they are talking to privatise government exams, adding more sampah?. Read OutSyed The Box, here.
