My thoughts on vernacular schools and my disappointment of not having that mixed environment for my children

The thing I used to love about my schooling days is the friends I made. Friends that until today I keep in touch with, some we still meet up from time to time and thanks to social media, most of my school friends are my virtual friends. During those days, all races would go to the Sekolah Kebangsaan (National school) and looking back at my official class photo, 60% were Chinese with the rest Malay and Indians (I was in the best class). Yet, at the time I never noticed race. They were simply my classmates.

Then I returned to Malaysia in 2010 and was adamant to send all of my kids to Sekolah Kebangsaan rather than private schools. I wanted them to experience the things that I experienced but it was a shock to me. The Sekolah Kebangsaan was filled with one-race only, at most 90% were from the Malay ethnicity. I couldn’t understand how as a nation, we became like this. I thought 60 years on from independence, we would have more unity, be more integrated and more understanding of one another’s culture and heritage but instead we have become more race-centric than ever before.

I started to do my own little research to find out when or how this happened and this was my startling conclusion.

http://anotherbrickinwall.blogspot.my/2008/12/abolish-vernacular-schoools-mukhriz.html

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2016/09/06/mca-dont-repeat-mistake-of-eradicating-english-schools/

https://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/11/188199/mca-appeals-najib-establishment-more-chinese-vernacular-schools

https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/columnists/thinking-liberally/2016/09/27/vernacular-schools-not-the-problem-please-keep-element-of-choice-for-both-parents-and-students/

You will find a lot of arguments and counter arguments on pros and cons of vernacular schools but in truth, the real political struggle in maintaining and promoting vernacular schools were championed by the MCA.

Lim Kit Siang himself, it seems was opposed to vernacular schools.

https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2011/06/09/vernacular-education-in-malaysia/

First of all, let’s look at the origins of vernacular schools and the vision of our leaders who set up Malaysia in 1955.

HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Malaysia

You can read about it here but the main point I wanted to take from this is that Vernacular schools was created by the British but when Malaysia achieved independence, we needed to form a national identity with a standardized national curriculum. There were those who disagreed and wanted English to be the medium. Why English? That is not our natural language but we needed a language for communication therefore, Malay and English become the main stream language.

Now, let’s go back to The Razak Report which was agreed in 1956 and is the basis of the education system in Malaysia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razak_Report

Briefly, the Malaysian education system provides for Malay and English (National school), Chinese and Tamil (Vernacular) schools at primary school level and Malay and English schools at secondary school level. (Other schools such as Islamic schools, madrasah are all either privately owned, charity or after school err…school and NOT part of the National curriculum). Other aspects of the Razak report states the formation of a single system of national education, commencement of a Malayan-orientated curriculum, concept of single system of evaluation for all and recognition of the objective of making Bahasa Malaysia the main medium of instruction. 

The main argument of those who support vernacular school is the fear of erosion of the culture of a particular race in Malaysia. I absolutely agree. In fact, I believe that not only the Chinese or Indian culture that has been eroded but also the Malay culture has been eroded due to influence of Western culture as well as Islamic extremism. Therefore, my personal view is to support the preservation of culture (the good aspects of culture such as language, heritage, history, music, traditional dances, clothing etc. but not the bad aspects of culture).

However, Malaysians hold something in common. We share a common history and irrespective of wherever your ancestors come from, we fought for the independence of this country and this week, we fought for the choice of the people, to get rid of corruption and restore the rule of law with a different government. 

My question IS VERNACULAR SCHOOL THE ONLY WAY WE CAN THINK OF FOR PRESERVING OUR CULTURE?

I don’t think so. In fact, I would imagine 60 years since independence we should have moved forward by having Malay and English as a proficient language as well as Chinese (Mandarin) or Tamil in all schools. Our children should grow up being trilingual if not more. Even for those who support Islamic school, we can provide all children with opportunity to take either Mandarin, Tamil or Arabic.

In National schools, the Muslim children learn Islamic studies while the other children learn Moral studies, why can’t the other children learn about their own culture, heritage or religion at the same time? Perhaps, it might be a bit complicated because some are Christians, some Buddhist, some Sikh and some Hindus hence, perhaps these could be integrated into cultural classes and parents can choose which is more suitable for their children. If a vernacular school is teaching a particular ‘culture’ to the children I am sure this can be incorporated into National schools to cater for those same children.

The other argument is that National schools are becoming too Islamic and making those from other religions uncomfortable. In a multiracial society, we do not need to force a religion upon others. However, Islam is the official religion of this country and during my days in school, I doubt Islam became overtly visible in schools as it is today. If we need to splatter prayers on school buildings then perhaps we could include some Chinese or Indian writings on the walls as well. That is a part of becoming a mature society.

I will write a different blog on Islamic education system because it is too much to write here.

The most important argument is just think back to your school days, our friends and the time we spent in schools make us whom we are today. We need one another. Every race in Malaysia contributes to the development and the shaping of positive attitude and thinking of our future generation. Our children need healthy competition. Not too much or they will suffer from tremendous stress and not too little or they will become complacent. All the different races are there to keep the balance.

Honestly, I do not have an answer or a solution but simply my thoughts and view on the matter. I do hope that the new government will foster a better race relations for all Malaysians to get to know one another and be friends again.

Stripping the Malaysian education system: good or bad and how can we make it better?

I want to talk about the education system in Malaysia. Nowadays, the buzz word seems to be critical thinking and when I attended a recent medical education summit, everyone was talking about it. They say things like "our students lack critical thinking" or "we need to develop critical thinking in our students'' but what do we actually mean?

It is possible to just one day wake up and start to think....critically? I don't think so. Critical thinking is a process of thought that starts with actually thinking about things, having the necessary information and understanding the information, making sense of it all and then, start questioning whether that information is right or wrong, good or bad, agree or disagree; and if one agrees why do you agree and if one disagrees, why do you disagree?

Like when we read a piece of news or article, do we just read and then absorb the facts or do we read then start to question, why did the writer say that? is that really what happened? why was it reported in that way? Actually most of the time it is more like a person read something and then goes..."Do you know that so and so did this and that?" and when you ask "Really? how did you know?" the answer will be "Well, I read it in the newspaper" as if the newspaper is like an encyclopedia of facts. If you read something it must be true. Well, truth is the only thing that we read and is 100% true is Al Qur'an and the sayings of the Prophet (SAW) that has been reported as sahih.

We need to accept that the problem in lack of critical thinking starts from childhood and the education system. In school, children are expected to memorize facts rather than to actually discuss and question the things that they learn. The objective is simply to pass exams rather than to develop a thinking process. The teacher gives the class information, the class copies it down and then regurgitated whatever information was given onto a test paper. Then, how do we expect these same students that have grown within such system to suddenly speak out their mind in class, question the lecturer and come up with out of this world ideas?

I often get frustrated when I try to teach my son his school subjects because I felt restricted by the rigid syllabus and text books. I think the Malaysian education system is very systematic and to a certain extend it is good. It does help students to focus, to develop discipline and to be organized. I don't think we should completely change the whole system to one of British style where there is no clear syllabus and too much freedom on the part of the children to express their opinions without real knowledge or guidance. We need to keep the good aspect but to enhance on the other aspects that are lacking. Syllabus is good but there is no need to make it too rigid. I don't agree with text books as they restrict knowledge. Text books are different from reference books. Text books give you information on what you have to know. Reference books give you information on what you want to know.

I was trying to teach Malik science last weekend and I got pretty bored and confused myself. It was about plants and grouping of plants according to external features. It talks about plants having leaves that are oval, long or irregular shaped but sometimes these things sort of overlap. Anyway, I decided to take the children out for a walk around our beautiful condominium compound where there are lots of trees and plants. I started pointing to all the different trees and getting Malik to describe their external features, even the babies started to join in. That was definitely more fun... and we visited the fish at the fish pond and even went to the corner shop to get some ice-creams.

I think keeping the syllabus and a systematic approach to education is good but there has to be some flexibility rather than rigidity. Get rid of textbooks and allow the teachers to engage with the students. The ministry of education can provide guide books for teachers and all the topics the teachers need to cover for that year. However, get the students to collect information and to think about things. You can use workbooks, activity books, audio visual and the internet to stimulate the mind. For example, the plant thing you can get the students to do a weekend activity of just looking at plants and see how they can describe the plants such as the colour, leaf shapes, soft or hard stem, flower or non-flowering etc...they can jot these things down in a one-page activity book. The exercise only took me and the children half an hour and we had a treat after wards! Then, back in class get the students to discuss what they have discovered and the teacher can then give the students the correct information. Just imagine if we do that in our 9 years old! You can envisage how their thinking will develop once they become 19 years old and ready to enter university. I can't wait to get those kinds of students.

Teachers also need to be aware that some students who are labeled as 'disruptive' behaves in that way because they are bored. These are usually very bright and intelligent young boys who have so much energy and they can't handle the slow and boring pace of the classroom. I mean I'm not saying all disruptive children are geniuses. Some truly just have behavior problems. However, it is important to change the classroom environment to make it more engaging for the benefit of all students. To get students to be critical, first you have to allow them to think and explore rather than to simply be passive absorbers.

My daughter's UPSR result - she did it!!!

My 12-year old daughter got 5As for her UPSR...hooray!

Who would have thought the girl you arrived from the UK almost 2 years ago, who didn't speak a single word of Malay could get A for both 'pemahaman' and 'penulisan' BM... SubhanAllah!

I have dreamt for the day that my children would be able to speak Malay. The reason is that I believe every child should be able to speak the language of their ancestors.

When my daughter was a baby, I tried to speak to her in Malay. I even sang 'Pok amai-amai, belalang kupu-kupu' to her. She enjoyed the song but ignored me when I tried to communicate with her in Malay.

When we were returning to Malaysia, I wrote a simple book for my kids. Just a few simple Malay words for them to learn but they weren't interested.

It was only until they started school at the local Sekolah Kebangsaan that they realized the importance of learning the language. Other children didn't want to speak to them in English and they could not understand the teacher's instructions...it was the reality that forced them to learn Malay and propelled them to make the effort. Now, my kids understand and speak Malay, although not brilliantly and they have a weird accent but at least I have achieved my dreams and I'm happy Alhamdulillah.

Although my kids have benefitted from the Maths and Science being taught in English but I support the government's decision to stop teaching Maths and Science in English. I believe teaching those subjects in English is not going to improve the level of English in this country and it may even be detrimental as our children fail to master the Malay language as well. It is very important for children in this country to master the Malay language, to be able to construct proper sentences, to have a breadth of vocabulary and to be able to use Malay as an effective form of communication. With a good command of language, it should be easy for a child to pick up other languages as well.

Unfortunately, Malay children particularly suffer from weak command of English and even the standard Malay language. We need to look at the language development of children in this country and how we as parents, teachers and community communicate with our children.

First week of school and what a mess!!!

Today was the 3rd day of school and arranging transport for the kids is indeed a challenge. First of all, the bus came late and I was told later by my daughter that the bus driver had dropped the kids at the wrong school. Despite the children trying to tell the bus driver that they did not go to that school, he refused to listen to them. Luckily, one of the children called his parents (from a public phone) and the parent (hopefully) shouted and sweared at the bus driver. He turned back, picked up the kids but still, forgot to drop the actual school kids that went to that school and so, had to repeat his journey for  the third time. What do you say to a moron? Err...don't drive a bus! Hopefully he would have learned his lesson and imbibe the meaning of the hadith, "A believer is not stung by the same hole twice." This is the problem when Muslims do not embrace Islam within their personality, it even effects their common sense.

Then, after waiting for half an hour at the bank I was told that their system is not working and they were unable to process my application. So, why did they not put up a notice to say so? Even bankers are a bit thick!

Suddenly, during a meeting I got a text message from my hubby. He was at the dentist with my son with a photocopy of his citizenship document. They were querying it and decided he was foreign after all. So, I spoke to the manager on the phone and she kept saying..."As a citizen, you must understand..."and giving me a long explanation about foreigners trying to abuse the system. I said, "Yes, I understand but what are you going to do with my son!!!" Honestly, if you are querying an official document from the government then what else can I do, bring to you the government officer or the Pengarah everytime I go to a Government clinic?

So, there I was waiting at another bank...and this time it took me bloody 2 hours to be seen. By this time, I was about to cry my eyes out and potentially hit someone. When I am angry, I get very very quiet and serious...and a notch from that, like when I was working in Obs and Gynae, I start swearing using the word 'bloody' a lot. My ultimate temper tantrum is when I start to shout, the way I do to my kids. My kids can take it presumably because they know that despite me shouting at them, I still love them but for anyone else, it means the end of our relationship. They never ever see me in the same way again.

Anyway, I was just very quiet...answering only when spoken to and preferably not answering at all if I could. Then, I went for lunch finally after not having anything to eat since breakfast. I had an ice-blended mocha...finally...I felt calm. It is the simple things in life that brings pleasure Alhamdulillah.

So, that is life...in this jungle. One thing I can say for sure, the only thing that keeps me alive in this jungle is Tawakkal. Without it, there is no hope. Just knowing that Allah is there, watching and looking after me and my kids makes me understand that there is order in this chaotic world. The order set by Allah is far superior than the chaos of man-made laws.

How to enrol your children into Malaysian State Schools

Enrolling your kids into a Malaysian State school is easy enough if you know what you're doing. If you're groping in the dark as I was, it can be tiresome, frustrating and time-consuming.

So, I hope to be able to give some guidance to others. This is by no means official, just based on my own experience. For further information, please contact your local State Education Department (Jabatan Pelajaran Negeri).

TOP TIPS:

1. Do your home-work. Find out about local schools in your area or the area you are planning to live in. You need to find out about transport and traffic jam, whether there are school vans or buses that go from your home. Visit the school and speak to the Principal. Speak to others who send their kids there.

2. Find out which catchment area the school falls under. To apply for the school you need to go to the Local State Education Department that deals with the school so for e.g. Jabatan Pelajaran Wilayah Persekutuan deals with schools around KL (but not all schools).

3. Go to the Jabatan Pelajaran and pick up the appropriate forms.

4. If you child is MALAYSIAN CITIZEN; the process is straight forward. You need to fill in THREE copies of "borang permohonan bersekolah di sekolah kerajaan bagi kanak2 warganegara Malaysia pulang dari luar negara". You fill in the forms and attach all photocopied documents required INCLUDING School leavers certificate (from your child's old school overseas) and Buku kemajuan sekolah (such as exam results, report card etc...). You hand in the forms and documents. DON'T FORGET to bring the originals and they will process your application within 2 weeks.

5. If your child is NON-MALAYSIAN CITIZEN, you will need to apply for student pass/visa from immigration before he/she can start schooling.

6. If your child has been given "Pengesahan taraf kewarganegaraan di bawah article 14" or if you have applied for citizenship and have "Borang B mengenai perkara article 15(2)" then, you can apply without a student pass/visa.

7. To apply as non-citizen, you will be asked to complete 3 copies of PINK FORM. You must take the forms to the school of your choice, they will sign it and endorse all of your photocopied documents. You then take the forms and documents back to the Jabatan along WITH THE ORIGINALS. They will process your application and you call them back in 2-3 weeks.

8. If your application is successful you will be called to pick up an approval letter, pay the required FEE of around RM50 (sorry, can't remember exactly) and you take the letter to the school.

Your kids can now start schooling. HOORAY!!!!

I hope you're not lost! I certainly was for about 4 weeks...but Alhamdulillah finally my kids managed to start school.


VERY IMPORTANT TIPS:
1. NEVER throw away any official documents or receipts given to you by any government agencies.

2. REMEMBER to ask for school leavers certificate from your child's overseas school before you leave the country.