Duncan
Monday was big day number 1. Planning for the forum and a meeting with the Deputy PM. Our preparation at the Australian High Commission was crucial. Fortunately, we were able to tie our ideas together quite well. I’d really like to thank Stephen for his direction this morning. He made it so much easier for us to connect our different viewpoints and work out ways to weave them through our questions. The result was a concise, one-page summary of possible questions. We decided to tackle PPSMI head-on and promote this as the major discussion point with the DPM. However, we wanted to do this from a different angle. We used our visit to Sik to bring up ideas of how a spread of English might threaten rural cultural identities, or how PPSMI perhaps needed to be continued at least for a few more years for more accurate research purposes. We wished to put forth the ethnic/gender imbalance, exam-based assessment, secular and Islamic education and the intake of international students to Malaysia as subsequent points of discussions. Unfortunately due to time constraints our discussion was ultimately limited to PPSMI and exam-based assessment.
I was really happy with the interview. I thought our performance as a team was great – we managed to canvass a variety of issues, ranging from the loss of cultural identity in rural communities to the influences of the media on educational policy. But more importantly, I thought the DPM provided a really useful explanation of current and developing government initiatives. He moved the focus of debate over PPSMI onto English proficiency and the ability of teachers to teach and students to understand complex concepts in BM. He did the opposite from downplaying the importance of English – he enthusiastically promoted it. He proposed that a better way to improve English levels without sacrificing the teaching of maths and sciences was to ‘strengthen’ the English curriculum whilst ‘upholding’ Bahasa Malaysian. He had no concern of rural communities losing their identity as a result of a globalising society. He embraced the English language as a part of the Malaysian culture. His appreciation of the different factors in such a complex debate was great to hear, particularly since we’ve been discussing nearly all of them rigorously over the past week.
However, I thought an interesting part of the discussion was actually as a result of our questions on the exam-focused nature of Malaysian secondary education. The DPM had already covered a variety of issues after his first response to this topic. He identified excessive tuition and the straight A mentality as the major problems which have blossomed under the current model. Like the Deputy Director-General of Education, he has a strong vision of an holistic school system that steers away from purely academic achievement. He expressed an intention to not only reduce the weighting of external exam-based assessment but to reconfigure the style of the exams themselves. He sees less of a role for rote learning and a more important place for analysis and creativity – a perspective that all of us share. It was nice on this issue to naturally agree with many of the views that he expressed and guide him through a discussion based on the merits of a reformed education system.
The discussion confirmed our concerns with the methods of assessment in secondary school, whilst offering us the perspective that the learning of maths and science should never be jeopardised at the expense of English proficiency. The DPM and the government seem to have a plan to address both issues, beginning with the abolition of PPSMI. The success of this supplementary, revamped English curriculum will be the true test of whether this policy will provide a fair system for all. Of particular note is the portion of students who wish to pursue tertiary education – an education in English. Should they be placed in a similar situation to incoming Chinese students who learn subjects in their mother tongue as well, for example, then perhaps they are being disadvantaged by their own education system. However, if this new English curriculum proves to be a viable alternative, then this issue is irrelevant. Another question is to what extent the model for secondary education should be developed for the benefit of ongoing university students, a noticeable minority of the student population.
We all wish to thank the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia and his team for a wonderful opportunity and productive discussion. It was truly an honour to meet you all today.
We focus now on the day ahead of us. Tomorrow is the culmination of our learning journey and investigations – the central goal of this project. I sincerely hope we can provide a stimulating, engaging and accessible forum for all in attendance. Fingers crossed!
Farhan
Today is the day that we have all been looking forward to despite the forum tomorrow. The opportunity that we will be getting today is not something most students get. Having that golden opportunity to speak in person and ask questions with our own education minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyidin Yassin we certainly had utilised the opportunity optimally and had managed to get new and brilliant inputs coming from the Minister of Education himself. Prior to the interview, the team had done some discussions with Stephen in prompting a good discussion with the minister later, and prepared a set of talking points that could be used later resulting in us having five main headlines and topics for the minister. Upon arriving there and waiting for the presence of the minister, we negotiated with the officials in the Parliament house about the topics of discussion with the minister, and due to time constrains, we were only allowed to touch on only two topics, which of course I personally feel those are the hottest potatoes of all hence would certainly be an exuberant discussion.
Upon the arrival of our distinguished guest, the minister of education, Tan Sri Muhyidin Yassin himself, after shaking hands and introducing ourselves, each of the panels, we moved straight to the questions after Duncan had explained the course of learning journey we have been going through in the past two weeks. Judging by the minister’s reaction in his response and the way he speaks, I would certainly say that he is a friendly person and was down-to-earth in answering our questions in the best manner possible. It is profoundly sad that we had only 30 minutes of his time as we had a lot more ideas to share and questions to ask. Regardless, we made full use of the time and started the discussion on the PPSMI issue. The first response to Duncan’s question to give two most persuasive arguments for and against for the abolition of PPSMI was quite lengthy and had took up most of the time. The ideas given by the minister for the abolition is about the rural area students who could not cope in the learning of Maths and Science in English and would understand and perform better if they were thought in their mother tongue and the concept and understanding of Maths and Science is what that should be taken into consideration. In response to my question on the time that had been given about whether PPSMI is a sufficient way to measure the effectiveness of the policy after having only been given 7 years? The minister’s idea on that is that it would only increase the gap between the students from the urban and rural areas and I find it quite true. Along the line of the discussion of PPSMI, he talked about how the implementation of the new policy which is ‘To Uphold the Malay Language and Strengthening the English Language’ would be set to work, finding native speakers of English overseas to teach the students in the rural communities.
Talking about our national assessment being too exam oriented, it seems that he himself acknowledges the fact and is trying to make it less oriented by proposing the idea of changing the way of assessment of exam papers and reducing the weight age of PMR and UPSR or might just take one of them away. I think that is a very good idea indeed and a constant evaluation of topics in school would be a good idea as well and to focus more on school based assessment. The tuition phenomenon could actually decrease when the problems of exam orientation is overcome. Sadly, the thirty minutes time went in just a blink of an eye and we had to wrap up the conversation then. All in all, we were honoured to be given the opportunity to speak in person with our very own Minister of Education. Looking forward to tomorrows forum!
Sunshine
Today was a very good day. We went to the Australian High Commission early early morning, and we were kindly given full use of the meeting room where we ran through our questions for the DPM again and then worked on the sequence of events happening at the Forum. Everyone was really actively participating and we managed to do wonders with our work.
We then had a break before leaving getting dressed in our smart, formal clothes for the interview. At Parliament we were briefed on the relevant questions we could discuss with the Minister. We decided on PPSMA and Exam-Based Assessments, two very rich topics in terms of substance, so that was good.
Our interview with Tan Sri Muhiyiddin Yassin went very well. I was very happy he took us seriously and answered our questions in depth and with plenty of detail. He acknowledged the problems that occur as a result of too much focus on exams such as the tuition phenomenon and the neglect of sports in schools. Both of these problems he raised himself without our input and this left us feeling satisfied. I must say he answered our questions well and diplomatically. The interview ended precisely half an hour after it began and though it was short, it was certainly very very very sweet.
Later, we had a nice long break where we filmed stuff for the forum video. Chinese dinner followed right after, and we came back early and agreed on an early night. I’m very happy and thankful things worked out for the best today especially concerning the interview with the DPM, and I'm looking forward to the Forum tomorrow morning! Can't believe our Learning Journey is drawing to an end so quickly. Excited about tomorrow!
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