THE Education Ministry may emulate the model used by Chinese schools for the teaching of Mathematics and Science in national schools.
This followed the good results achieved by Chinese schools in the two subjects in the recent Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR), Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said.
Muhyiddin, who is also education minister, said Education directorgeneral Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom would review and study the performance of pupils in national and vernacular schools, as well as in urban and rural schools.
“We may emulate this (vernacular schools’ model) in national schools,” he said at the end of his three-day working visit here.
He was commenting on the UPSR results announced last week.
Research showed that Chinese schools emphasised practical work for pupils, especially homework.
Discipline is also the utmost in these schools.
Activities and sports in these schools also helped build pupils’ IQ and EQ (emotional intelligence quotient).
Muhyiddin said it was also essential to address the performance gap between rural and urban school pupils.
“There is still a gap. We need to analyse this and find ways to close this gap.” He, however, said he was encouraged by the improved results.
Overall, pupils, especially those in rural schools, showed an improvement.
A total of 48,171 pupils, or 9.51 per cent of 506,620, who sat the exam scored straight A s.
Last year, 46,641 (9.19 per cent) of 507,320 UPSR candidates scored all As.
The number of pupils with good results (minimum C) also increased to 63.03 per cent compared with 62.56 per cent last year, while only 0.64 per cent scored all Es compared with 0.66 per cent last year.
Overall, the gap between rural and urban pupils was narrowing.
This could be seen in the contraction in the overall achievement disparity between rural and urban pupils.
The gap between the number of rural and urban pupils scoring five As this year was 3.64 per cent compared with 4.22 per cent last year.
The gap in the number of pupils who obtained good results between the two areas was 5.55 per cent this year compared with 6.25 per cent last year.
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Reader's Comments
(Latest Comments Displayed First)
zulkefli nordin:
ppsmi is mahathir's baby...those who hate him.. will vote against ppsmi...its more of sentiment than good judgement..Abolishment of PPsmi is a big mistake.
Steve Tan:
Well, if you ask me, I would say that there are many reasons why SJK(C) students did better than others in the UPSR exam this year, and many years earlier. One of the reasons is that they are given the chance to learn a new subject using a language they have mastered for the level. Secondly, time and effort have been put to full use concentrating upon one thing at a time. If we try to achieve the aim of killing two birds with one stone by learning the purposed fresh subject plus inevitably another new subject, then we may end up losing many stones without killing a single bird.
v.giri mudeliar:
It does not need a genius to tell the world that Maths and Science need hard work. The Chinese and Tamil schools put a lot of effort in these two subjects.
Malaysia will continue to do badly in these two subjects so long as the teaching of these two subjects is done in a cavalier manner. Also the quality of the pupils matter. In city schools the pupils are better endowed as opposed to the puplis from the rural areas who may excell in the soft options. Must we go this route all the time?
Hasbullah Hussin:
Anyone can achieve success in any mother-tongue language if basic learning principles are followed.
The basic principles are: 1.understand basic principles 2. remember them and 3. apply them.
Understanding is best achieved by using mother-tongue as a medium of instruction for a minimum of 12 years, as stated by UNESCO (See mother tongue education on UNESCO web site)
Remembering is done by revision done in many ways to avoid boredom.
Application is achieved by solving problems using principles learned.
Chinese primary schools use mother-tongue Chinese to teach maths and science. Memory is done by rote learning. Application is by loading students with homework.
Malay students did poorly in maths and science before May 13 trajedy. After switching the medium of instruction to Malay, Malay students repeatedly and consistently excel in public exams and in universities, especially overseas.
The solution to our education problem is to have mother-tongue as a medium of education for all races for 12 years. In universities, any language can be used. Our students, Malays and non-Malays, previously taught in Malay, excelled in universities where the medium of instructions are in foreign languages such as English, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Arabic etc. This approach will surely overcome the demands for mother-tongue education in Malaysia by the various races.
Mag Lee:
I went to school in the 50's, the most formative years, and remember I used to memorise the times tables from standard 1. I used abacus for learning mental calculation etc. I am not an authority in teaching, but greatly influenced by the very traditional Chinese school methods. I remember I used to teach my children Abacus, basic addition steps etc. My dad used to laugh at me, saying that people already in the 'calculator' stage (not yet the computer age then), why did I bother to teach abacus. Well, I think my children (educated in the 80's) benefited greatly, and we all took maths and maths related subjects very well, almost effortless and went through tertiary education. So yes, some research must be put into the education system of the Chinese Schools so that other Malaysians can benefit.
Hamilton Bacon:
Chinese school students do well simply because they put in the hard work, there is no short cut to learning. Time is put into drilling the students until they know the subjects well.
James:
i very much agree with Elga abolishing the PPSMI is the biggest mistake. So i suggest the Education Minister to rethink it over. Its still not tooooooooooooo late.
Adam Abdullah:
We have parents (Malay, Chinese, Indian and others)from 3 generations (eg. Dr. Mahathir, Musa Hitam, Najib and Marina etc) who have undergone through different school system (including the learning of Maths and Scinece) in the 40-ies, 50-ties, 60-ties, 70-ties i.e. through Sekolah Melayu, Sekolah Bahasa China, Sekolah Bahasa Tamil, Sekolah Agama Islam, Government English School and starting in the early 1970 the Sekolah Kebangsaan with English and Malay as the medium of teaching. Why cant we gether information and feedback from those parents and find out which is the best system for our future generations to adopt and follow. The Federal Government should also find out through the UN and Commonwealth which country has the best system of education that we Malaysia should follow. Is it from Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Germany, the Middle east or from Britain?
Elga:
Std 6 pupils in national schools studied Maths & Science in English this year. There was improvement in Maths & Science results this year. Therefore abolishing PPSMI is a bad mistake.
Kwong:
Please remind Prof Khoo Kay Peng about chinese school and integration.
