Duncan
Big day number 2. Today’s forum at the High Commission was the culmination of our investigations. I am very pleased to report that it was a huge success. We promoted great discussion on a range of issues and provided an entertaining interaction between ourselves, the audience and the guests. I’d like to take an opportunity to personally thank our guests – Louise McSorley from the High Commission, Shanon Shah and Nina Disney. They were all such great people to talk to and presented several fresh perspectives that made the discussion even more interesting. I hope all who attended found the morning to be productive and stimulating. We really appreciated the impressive audience – many of whom travelled hours to be there. Our mission depends on the support of these students and serves as a true inspiration for our investigation. I sincerely hope we gave you all a rewarding experience in return.
The forum kicked off with an official opening from Mr Craig Chittick, the Acting High Commissioner. A following four-minute DVD of the team’s adventures provided an entertaining and slightly embarrassing (particularly when your attempts to act out a Malaysian martial arts routine are shown on a large screen) segue into the proceedings. Emily, Sunshine, Farhan and I briefly talked about our experiences and the highlights of our investigations. After the guests were invited onto stage, we discussed major issues such as PPSMI, streaming, sister school relationships and exam-based assessment in impressive depth. Shanon and Nina were both of the view that problems like streaming and rigid assessment were reflective of a broader social concern – the straight A mentality. The most resounding discovery of the forum was that the Malaysian education system is too geared towards results, rather than understanding. An Albert Einstein quotation used by Nina was particularly significant for me: “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything one learned in school.” This is the surely something that our governments need to bear in mind. The notion of holistic education at that point for me became so much more important. Like many Malaysian students, I’ve grown up focused on a results-based education. This sort of tendency, I think, is natural. The challenging question is how we change this mentality. Perhaps a greater role for school assessment, perhaps a greater role for analysis-based questions, perhaps a greater role for co-curricular activities like public speaking or volunteering? The idea of determining success in education is something that I hope we bring to our Australian forum and to which we find a convincing solution.
Louise commented that sister school relationships must be student-run and otherwise run the risk of collapsing. We hope that the close interaction between Emily and her sister school, Melacca High School, will initiate a more intense student-based relationship and yield rewards in the future. When discussion opened to questions from the audience, considerable attention was drawn to science and arts streaming. This seems to be an incredibly popular talking point amongst students who feel they are restricted by being placed into a category. I began to think about how I would fit into the streaming system. I did English (compulsory), three maths/science subjects and three arts subjects. I quite literally fall in the middle ground. I would be incompatible. It made me really appreciate the frustration of students who wanted to pursue history, drama or economics but could not for want of the more prestigious science stream. I have little doubt that if I had the grades to do science, then I would do it. I would be a completely person to how I am now had I chosen this educational pathway. Interesting discussion about how to assess performance in particularly subjective arts subjects like visual arts or theatre closed the forum. It suggested to me that because maths and science subjects are inherently easier to mark, perhaps the government feels less concerned with placing greater emphasis on them. Clearly, if the streaming issue is to be resolved, then a notable administrative make-over will have to take place. The re-designing of the Malaysian secondary education curriculum is at stake.
Following the forum, we made our visit to the office of Marina Mahathir, the eldest daughter of former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohammad. She has an impressive record of work with non-governmental organisationsnwhich target AIDS and women’s rights within Islam. I really enjoyed our discussion in this interview for its focus on the role of Islam in education. It was quite simply a civilised chat about religion in Malaysia today. It was one of the most delightful conversations of the trip. Together we examined some controversies that arise out of opposing interpretations of the Qur’an and how the understanding and teaching of this document is paramount in secondary schools. She also discussed the benefits of some all-women tertiary institutions which empower, educate and inspire those in an environment which allows the approval of their parents. Above all, however, our underlying discovery was that nowhere near enough emphasis is placed on third-agenda issues like AIDS, poverty or climate change within the Malaysian school curriculum. Perhaps the amount of discussion about significant causes is the prerogative of the schools themselves. As a result, this issue has seen much neglect in recent years so as to allow more attention on academic results. This needs to be addressed. Hopefully a greater consciousness of global issues will be fostered within Australian secondary school students too. This is a particularly interesting policy issue which I will take to Canberra with much concern.
All in all – what a trip! I have had an absolute ball. I’ve seen some extraordinary things, met some great people, and gained a real appreciation of the role of education in our society. My spirits were lifted every time I talked to a passionate student or looked out at the magnificent, breathtaking Malaysian landscape. And I’ve got to say – love the food. What a location and what an opportunity! Thanks so much to everyone who made this project a huge success – particularly to Project Manager Stephen Cutting and Louise McSorley from the Australian High Commission. I can’t wait to see the Malaysian students in Australia and make the trip to Canberra together as a team striving for better educational policies and outcomes. Bring it on!
Emily
The team knuckled down for some research at the High Commission before the forum this morning. We read up on our panel guests; I was particularly excited to meet Shanon Shah, a successful, well-respected pursuer of the arts; in light of all the feedback we had received about arts students as “lesser academics”, I felt like I needed some inspiration to believe in Malaysian holistic values. I was also looking forward to the different perspective that could be put forward by Nina Adlan Disney, who is the editorial advisor for education publication, and even more topically, a mother of three children going through the secondary school system. And of course, Louise McSorely, from the High Commission, who had helped us so much with the program, so much so that another opportunity for a discussion with her was really comfortable and pleasant, and a time to really value.
The forum room was buzzing; students who we’d visited and students who’d applied for the program made up the audience, and kept up a constant flow of questions and really engaged with our panel. Shanon Shah spoke of his involvement with the science and arts stream at school, and admitted that he had studied as a science student for the sake of being socially accepted, but found his passion in joining a theatre group, which opened up his career spectrum to involve writing and studying music. I’m sure this resonated with some of the kids in the room, I’d even spoken to some lovely kids who’d said that they had a real interest in drama and literature but weren’t given the opportunity to take the dream any further. I sincerely hope that things will get easier for these kids, and that their belief in themselves can win over the oppressive streaming system. I spoke a little about my own experience with this, when my theatrical ambitions came up in conversation, I was snubbed! But knowing the social climate like I do now, it was probably uncomfortable for anyone surrounded by this to respond positively when everything they know is based on a system that discourages arts.
As had become standard in the TBC team, we discussed PPSMI, and everyone had an opinion. Nina’s response was so diplomatic; it reminded me of the DPM’s! She said that understanding of content had to be established, medium of instruction is just an extraneous factor that should only be used as an enhancement for another subject if it can be done without compromising a student’s learning of any area. Shanon said that if anything, he would support the initiative of humanities subjects such as history, geography and civics being taught in English. Our own opinions regarding this topic have changed through understanding; personally I think that PPSMI should be given more time. I think Shanon’s suggestion makes a lot of sense, but that students should be given consistency in the way that they are taught. From the amount of students who said that learning English was important to them, we can assume that with the right education for teachers and enough time, the initiative has the potential to finally bridge the gap between urban and rural schools.
The students on the floor had lots of questions about Australia’s exam assessment process, and Duncan brought a university (so secondary-school reflective) focus to the question. The idea of school based assessment used to assess a quarter of a student’s achievement was accepted as a good way to move away from the pressure associated with exams, but also adds a whole new list of complications, like subjective marking and teacher qualifications. The students were really interested in the analytic, expressive-type exams that Australians are used to, and one student was curious as to how visual arts subjects were assessed. Maybe this is something we can explore whilst in Australia, because although the focus is expressive intention, I have friends who complain that is so hard to do well in arts subjects, and I guess some of the assessment is subjective, and even biased.
It was good to see some students representing Malaca at the forum, and have a talk to Louise about continuing the Sister School project. The best thing that can be done to build connections is exactly what we have done; make a visit to the school and meet the students and teachers. Starting at the end of April, the Australian High Commission is sending a representative teacher from each Australia-Malaysia pair to their sister school, and they will begin to build the program around a relationship between firstly the students and themselves, and then use online resources to connect students to each other. Maybe we could use a tried and tested format from our past Bridge Program with an Indonesian school, in which my Indonesian class wrote emails in Bahasa to have them corrected and the Indonesian students wrote theirs in English for us to correct. I suggested using Skype, but Malaca has a limited internet access, and this may be too much. Anyway, we’ll start with emails and see if we can send photos and videos over Facebook. I want to be kept up to date with the cak lempong performance group who played for us!
I’ve set up a discussion on the Facebook page for Malaca students, but I doubt I’ll ever get that kind of chance to talk with them in person again. I think the relaxed energy of the forum encouraged everyone to ask any questions they may have had, and I think that was why it worked so well; the guests were eager to share their knowledge with us, and we were happy to relay all the amazing stories we have to tell! Everyone was happy and engaged and just wanted to find out what they could, and I think that is a good summary of our whole experience.
Sunshine
This was The Day! We woke up bright and early with butterflies in our tummies. Although we had prepared for this already, it was impossible not to feel nervous. We arrived at the Australian High Commission at 9.15 am and already there were parents, teachers, and students waiting eagerly in the foyer. It was really great to see my friends from school as well as the others who participated in the workshop back in December and my parents again. We were taken to the little conference room in the office where Amy had already prepared short bio-data’s of the thee guests we would be talking to; Shannon Shah, Nina Adlan and Louise McSorely.
After going through our discussion points and reading the profile’s we made our way to the auditorium, and it was packed! The video put together by Lucie and Steve of our Learning Journey was awesome. I’m really thankful they took out most of the embarrassing bits. Steve mediated the discussion , so I think that made me feel a lot more comfortable on stage. We started off with describing our most profound experiences from this trip. The majority of us said our trip to Sik was without a doubt the best. That brought up the comparison between learning with our hearts, or heads. Louise pointed out something interesting, she said that no matter what you choose to study, hard work(and brains) will always be involved, but that’s where your heart, and the passion you have for what you study comes in to motivate and inspire you. We carried on the discussion grilling our guests on the topics we’ve been particularly investigating. On the topic of streaming, Shannon made a comparison between Malaysia and Australia and how Australia is able to produce Academy Award winning actors and actresses, world class athletes as well as Nobel Prize winners when the country’s population is far less than Malaysia’s. Students from the audience also got to ask questions and share their thoughts and opinions on what we discussed. There were many very interesting questions like how can we assess something as intricate as creativity and the lack of creative outlets in our school system. Shannon, someone both creative and academic (he studied chemical engineering!) was happy to comment on these questions. In the end, I think most of us could agree on the fact that our current education system is far too exam focused. This brought us round to discuss the teaching profession in the country. Nina, was super cool with her quotes. My particular favourite quote of hers was “ A teacher should not be a sage on the stage, but a guide on the side”, when how teachers have to deal with so much extra work in school that little by little, teaching in class has been neglected. Another fascinating thing she said was how Malaysian schools can produce first class students when they are being taught by third grade teachers. Although this was just a generalization, it was definitely food for thought.
And with that, the discussion ended, and we headed out for pictures and every Malaysian’s favourite part of any event, food! We had the chance to mingle around with the other students as well as the panellists which was good. Even Craig Chittick joined us and we got to talk to him about his experience working in Malaysia and other Asian countries.
Although the forum had ended, we still had one more interview with Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir. Personally, I was very tired after the long day, but I began to realize that this was definitely one of our better interviews. Steve encouraged us to probe her on other topics aside from our usual PPSMI and School Based Assessment stuff. Instead, we asked her a lot on her involvement in Sisters of Islam and of the challenges she faces running something so unusual. My interest lay along the lines of the amount of education and awareness(or the lack of it) being brought to the youth of today about sex and HIV, as she is known for her involvement in organizing campaigns and programs to raise such awareness. She acknowledged that nowadays, teachers in school would rather not deal with addressing these yucky issues and would rather sweep it under the rug.
What was really funny was that after the interview, she mentioned how she was in Australia the week before and was having lunch with her friend KC Boey who mentioned my participation in this project to her. I dropped my pen at that because KC Boey is my mother’s cousin and my very close uncle. We also later found out that Puan Noorlida and Datin went to the same secondary school! Evidently the world keeps getting smaller and smaller.
We raced back to the hotel and got ready to go for dinner at Farhan’s house and then karaoke later. Both of which were extremely fun! Truly the best way to wrap up the Malaysian leg of this project.
I must say this project has opened my eyes to many many many new things and experiences. I’ve learnt so much and I’m really thankful for this. My teacher, Puan Anne and I, are planning on starting a Talkback Classroom in school to with the purpose of exposing more students to things like this. In the mean time, I’m so looking forward to Australia!
Farhan
Final day - today marks the end of the 1st half of the learning journey and is certainly a culmination after countless of discussions and endless debates and arguments on the topics that we have investigated related to the education system in Malaysia. Despite the unprecedented reception we received just about everywhere we went, the term ‘globalization’ and ‘civilization’ became fully adhered to us which at the end of the day, even after the forum we find it hard to disassociate ourselves with.
Upon arriving at the Australian High Commission, it was clear that this forum had managed to attract students from all over the country allowing them to cross the barriers and borders of their own state, let it be from Kuala Lumpur itself to the school in north peninsular Malaysia, in the state of Terengganu. Basically, they were all highly expecting a rather good forum worth the distance travelled. Working under the pressure to meet all expectations, I was obviously nervous to begin with.
The forum then commenced at around 10am, starting with an opening speech by Mr. Craig Chittik, acting Australian High Commissioner prior to an introductory speech by Mr. Stephen Cutting himself on the learning journey we have been experiencing for more than a week. After the briefing, a video presentation was shown to the audience, images of us during the learning journey resulting in us blushing in embarrassment and the audience laughing due to our hilarious acts in the footage, mainly during our ‘silat dance’. After the short video presentation, basically to give the audience a bit of an idea of what we have been doing throughout our learning journey, we were then called up on the stage as panellists for the forum. We were asked to explain further in our own terms the learning experience that we have managed to gain and highlighting the occasions which we found to be the most profound experience throughout the whole course. Something we would never forget and should be shared by many.
The guests for the forum were the best part. Shanon Shah and Nina Adler made a massive contribution in sustaining the liveliness and excitement that built up in the hall as the forum commenced. Their hilarious remarks and opinions in response to the questions posted by either Steve or one of us panellists never failed to capture the audience’s interest and attention. Not forgetting Louise McSorley, without whom the forum would never take place, with her being one of the guests simply added more to the fun of the forum. We had the chance to discuss the issues we’ve investigated with them in front of the audience and there were definitely lots of brilliant ideas and input from the guests, especially Shanon Shah and Nina Ahmad.
The forum then ended at around 12.45pm to give way for the presentations of certificates to the participants of Talkback Classroom Australia Malaysia forum 2010. All in all I personally feel I was satisfied with the outcome of the forum and thought we, the student panellists, consisting of me, Duncan, Emily and sunshine did a rather good job in handling the forum. It was definitely a culmination of what we have been going through, not only for the past week, but months before when we started to investigate issues pertaining education, gaining from zero to abundant knowledge on issues of Malaysia’s education system. I am now looking forward to investigate issues on the other half of the project, which is on the case of the Australian education system later.
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