Duncan
Today was the culture of Sik 101. In the morning we were treated to a full Malaysian breakfast and a display of traditional music and martial arts. The girls wouldn’t let us end the day without some shopping, so an hour or so of roaming about the Sik markets was predictably slotted into the schedule. Our afternoon visit to SMK Sik was again unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. We were fortunate enough to try our hand at a few Malaysian indoor and outdoor games, most of which resulted in embarrassment (or at least for me.) But I’ll never forget the chance to share so many laughs with such a welcoming group of people. It really made my day. So much fun.
Amongst the culture and games was time for us to regroup our thoughts and reflect on the issues presented to us thus far. It isn’t long until our discussion with the Deputy Prime Minister and the forum at the High Commission. We find ourselves at the business end of the Malaysian leg. It is crucial for us to relate our amazing experiences in Sik to the broader theme of education across the entire nation, and use them as raw data in our following discussions.
The major preoccupation throughout the trip seems to PPSMI. The vast arrays of opinions we’ve encountered in Sik really reflect this as an issue that, despite its probable political motivations, is complex and multidimensional. One student mentioned that the terminology of science and math's subjects is difficult to grasp in Malay and hence that the teaching of these subjects in English becomes more concrete. On the other hand, a teacher said that it simply too difficult to promote an understanding of a complex topic to a class of students whom have varying but mostly low levels of English proficiency. A comment that Professor Robin Pollard made on this issue resounds with both reflections. He said that the primary concern was the effective teaching of math’s and science. Whatever language allows the most effective teaching method should therefore be adopted. However, the challenge to calculate the comparative ‘effectiveness’ of each language is easier said than done. That debate is something we’ll carry back with us to KL.
I think it’s also important to place our observations at SMK Sik in context. Through a conversation with one of the school’s IT teachers, it became clear that this school is the best in the district. Its IT facilities rival even those of a large urban school, regardless of the difficult Internet access. Their exam results are far higher than those of the other local schools. SMK Sik is the best educational experience Sik has to offer. It follows that the rural/urban divide that we’ve recognised during our visit here will apply on a much deeper level at other schools. Perhaps this needs to be considered if we are to see a clearer image of education across the board. In fact, all of the schools we’ve visited offer a privileged education. Our understanding of the educational capacities of the entire country is thus quite limited, and we surely must consider this when giving weight to the arguments expressed on issues like PPSMI. That is, if SMK Sik faces difficulties teaching math’s and science in English, then it is likely that other schools in the district will face more difficulties. That most schools in Sik have IT facilities nowhere near the level of ‘connectedness’ of SMK Sik suggests that there exists an even more troubling divide amongst rural schools, let alone that between rural and urban schools. The standard of rural schools varies significantly and this must be acknowledged if we are to talk about the standard of rural schools as a whole. I think it seems fair to calculate this overall standard to be less than that of SMK Sik.
Sad to leave Sik tomorrow but excited for the road ahead!
Emily
This was our day for sightseeing around Sik. Aside from the stunning waterfalls and greenery of the scenery, the people are what make this town truly beautiful. Their constant hospitality and tireless generosity is inspiring. We even got to test our dancing and drumming skills in part of a martial arts performance by the locals.
After a restaurant lunch, it was back to SMK Sik to play some traditional games with the students. There were some amazing players on the takral field, which I documented to take home and put my Indo class back in their place. I had a go at a local version of hopscotch and the Malay kids got me back with some documenting on their behalf. After many pictures and turns of the zero-one skipping rope, we went to dinner with our fellow hotel guests and had some good times with one another, and then with Nabihah’s internet modem – we’d been struggling to live without internet connection for a weekend, maybe this is a not-so-positive reflection of city kids’ lives?! In any case, tranquility and tradition know no better home than the town of Sik.
Sunshine
Kedah is amazing! Although there's nothing much to see here except for paddy fields, buffaloes, cows and old wooden Malay houses on stilts, the culture here though is so rich! Everything I've witnessed so far from watching the silat and listening to the nasyid has always been only a myth that I've read about in my Pendidikan Sivik text book. It's really nice to meet such lovely kampung folk who are so happy and joyful all the time. Yesterday, I was just talking to some of Nabihah's friends from her school and I mentioned wanting to buy a baju kurung during my stay here. A few minutes later she ran up to me with a brand new one of her own that she'd thought she'd give me in memory of our visit to Sik. This was really touching and heartfelt. I know for a fact no one our age in KL would do something so generous.
Our arrival at SMK Sik last night was very very extravagant with the students carrying the traditional "fireworks" and playing the "gompang"(a Malay drum), something that is usually done during weddings. After a series of entertaining performances and scrumptious Malay culinary delights, we were escorted to the conference room to commence our discussion. I had been looking forward to this, because most of the time we've just been reading of how students of more rural schools feel towards the topics we've been discussing, but now we actually had the chance to speak to them and get their personal opinions first hand. There were about twenty-five to thirty students and ten teacher's (including the principal!). It was quite evident that language was a barrier in our conversation with them, and most of them were too shy to speak their opinions despite the fact Nabihah's translated what we said in English. Farhan and I spoke in a mixture of Malay and English. Although my spoken Malay was not as great as Farhan's, they still managed to answer my questions about the use of ICT in schools. It was great to hear from some of the students that the government has provided these schools with sufficient computers as well as internet access. Their only complaint was that some of the sites they wanted to visit were blocked by firewalls. Such sites included Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and BlogSpot, but I think this is fairly reasonable as these sites are more for social use rather than for information. I did ask if these firewalls prevented them from entering research sites and things like that, but the answer was no, they were able to gain access to these sites so personally, I didn't really see much of a problem there.
Farhan brought up the topic of streaming in schools and how the Science stream is perceived to be the "smarter" stream. However, a boy from SMK A Sik debated this saying that in Kedah, students are encouraged to take the Arts stream as opposed to the Science, because they'd rather score well for the Arts than do badly in the Science stream. Furthermore, the Arts stream caters more for the people of Sik (and most of Kedah) due to economic factors like hospitality, agriculture and such. This was the total opposite response that we got from all the previous schools we visited.
We weren't getting much response from the students (probably because they were too shy) so we carried on for supper. At supper though, I had the chance to mingle around with a few of the students there and I got to ask them personally what they thought about things like the abolishing of PPSMI. It was quite surprising to hear how much the students would rather take Math’s and Science subjects in English rather than Malay. I had assumed that these students would rather take the subjects in their mother tongue, as it would be easier for them to understand. When I told them so, Haslinda(currently in Form 6) said that learning Math’s and Science in English has been their only other link to the language aside from the usual English class. In Malay, she told me that no one speaks English primarily in this area unless it is during English lessons, and that too, the spoken English is very minimal. She told me that Math’s and Science was the only other outlet that they could use to learn the language, both written and spoken. She also said that some of the Malay terms are even harder to remember compared to English.
Today however was very much a tourist-ey day. We went for breakfast at Nabihah's friend's house, where they cooked up a storm of our typical Malaysian nasi lemak breakfast. After that, we got the chance to watch teenagers of our age and younger, battle it out in the silat! Nothing like I've ever seen before, and truly something I'll always remember. The more senior folk of the kampung played traditional music in the background, and after some time, us girls, Louise, Lucie ,Emily and I were hauled up and asked to dance for the crowd. This may have been the most embarrassing thing I've done in a long time, but it certainly was the most enjoyable thing too.
We then went to Latar Mengkuang, a famous waterfall and campsite in the area. Jolly good to see all the little kids having so much fun playing in the river! More sightseeing right after and then off we went back to Sik Inn for a break. Before leaving for shopping, we had a short meeting in Louise's room to keep our minds back on track about the upcoming forum. With all the fun and excitement it was easy to forget that we had a great task at hand.
Visiting Nabihah's school again was fun! Meeting all the girls again there and playing traditional games like congkak, batu seremban and hopscotch brought back many great flashbacks of primary school. The Australians (especially Emily) seemed to be pulled left, right and centre for pictures! I quote Emily," The next time I come to Malaysia to visit somebody, I'm going to see myself on their fridge!" Ha ha ha. We had dinner back at our hotel with Nabihah's family and her friends who helped prepare all the yummy food for us. I got the chance to talk to some of the locals, and again, most of them found studying Math’s and Science in English easier than studying it in Bahasa.
I've learnt something very different today. It’s hard to describe in words without coming off sounding so corny and cheesy (and everyone who knows me is probably wondering if I've gone a bit mad) but today I felt really happy and thankful to be here in Malaysia, a country so vibrant in colours and culture. Being in this part of the country made me take a step back from the usual hustle and bustle of the city to slow down and experience the peace and joy of the kampung. Even the people here are so different! It's times like this when I realise how much effort we should put into sustaining our culture and traditions, because that's truly the beauty of Malaysia.
Farhan
Another great day, which started off very early in the morning at the home of one of the local families, Mr. Latif. The breakfast provided was really something I would never forget, the nasi lemak was exceptionally different from the ones I had before and was really tasty. After breakfast, we enjoyed a silat performance from the villagers of Sik. Silat is the traditional martial arts of the Malays, it has been practiced by the Malays for quite a long time since, and will be preserved for as long as it gets. I personally feel the culture of the Malay here in Sik has really been preserved and is seemingly strong hoping to have it maintained in at least another century.
Again, after the silat performance, we were taken to see one of the most famous tourist attractions in Sik- the waterfalls and the campsites. As I was taken to see all of the beautiful natural attractions that you cannot see in Kuala Lumpur, I contemplated and thought about how it was all related to the theme of education. People’s perspectives change when they consider people from rural areas, how from the moment they are born they blend and adapt to the village environment and speak only in the mother tongue. The introduction of the English language was alien to them and made it harder for them to continue learning especially in the two most vital subjects in this world despite the rapid state of technological advancement. That fact, frankly speaking should not be denied by anyone but as much as it is acknowledged, we also need to see the flip of the coin where we are no longer living in the middle ages, as the world is modernizing and other countries are not alien to us, it’s a must and hence, we need to move towards that direction or at least try to move. In the process of gaining strength, enhancing ourselves to a whole new level, there must be some obstacles in which it should not, never be a barrier for us to succeed.
Education is after all a journey of life. A test of resilience, where the number of troubles you go through determines what sort of satisfaction you will have at the end of your journey. But then again, the search of knowledge is endless. Thus, only death will be your destination. In fact, there is a lot more to education than just rote learning, memorizing and by merely answering test papers. For instance, by merely memorizing the manual of the operation of the gun won’t do you any good in the battlefield. Sometimes in life, you’ve got to be pragmatic and learn through experience and mistakes. That is what defines the conceptual meaning of ‘education’ itself.
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