It's folio season for SPM and Pendidikan Moral is also one of the subjects with kerja kursus. We're supposed to move towards school assessment and MOE has come up with all these coursework and PEKA (for the pure sciences). For Pendidikan Moral I think the kerja kursus is made up of 8 tugasan, 4 of which must be kerja amal to be substantiated with photos (correct me if I'm wrong). The students have to compile a folio at the end of it. Sounds good so far?
So at this time of the year, students will go on a photo shoot frenzy, ... doing chores at home, community service, etc cos they have to stick those photos as proof that they have done something. Very much like the documentation frenzy that schools go into these days to proof that they've done something. All the beautiful files etc.
Like all the other subjects Pendidikan Moral also integrates other skills - ICT, Critical and Creative Thinking, Social Skills, Future Studies, etc...
Here's my take on how the skills have been learned by the students.
ICT Skills - First it gives its learners a chance to learn photography; and some modelling work, so to say. Give all those model wannabes a chance to hog the camera! Only these subjects hold the brooms, mops... Welcome to the world of pretense. Lights! Action! Shoot! LOL! My own boy is no exception. One night he held up the mop, vacuum cleaner and broom to pose for photos. Bah humbug thingy! Bollywood! Here we come! They not only get marks for 'good works' but also learn the use of digital cameras, printers, computers in enhancing (or digitally 'doctoring') their photos for their assignments... truly an integration of skills as laid down in the syllabus. Not forgetting too how they 'menjana ekonomi' in the process. Photos need to be printed - ink, kedai foto, electricity....
As for social skills, students learn the art of crapping... fine tuned to sing praises about themselves (from here our pool of politicians will come).
Then there is Kemahiran Mengkaji Masa Depan... many of the students feel that Pendidikan Moral is a useless subject... However, due to the importance of as-many-A(s) in our A-crazy society, they study hard.... mahir mengkaji masa depan sendiri. Cos if you want to apply for JPA scholarship, an 'A' in Pendidikan Moral is a must. Kemahiran Mengkaji Masa Depan fully comprehended! LOL!
Creative thinking skills?? There are lots of opportunities to hone it.. you've got to be creative in your assignments and exams to get the grade you desire. A lot of 'crapping' takes place and this requires your creativity to function at its best. Of crap, crapping, crapology, crapologist... Pendidikan Moral encourages it, it even trains you in it. You become an expert crapologist!
And then there are the nilai-nilai murni one must memorize.. the definition as well as give examples to support each of the 'noble' values. It is not surprising to see students cook up glossy tales of good deeds while not practising them themselves... We are in the business of encouraging hypocrisy, I think. I'm not sure but it looks like it.
Then there are also allegations teachers have been told not to fail students. Hence even if a student is found to have copied his assignments lock, stock and barrel... he still gets a B.... for copying, I guess. So much for making them understand that in life there's such a thing as bearing the consequences of your own actions! They have no comprendo where this is concerned! And just think! How reliable do you think our school base assessment is with all these 'kesian' thingy going on?
And finally the content of the subject. Moral values would be better if inculcated through the other subjects... it's supposed to cut across the curriculum. But nah! We deem it better to teach it in its rawest form and hope that our students become better out of it. It's a sheer waste of time, spewing out the definition of 36 nilai. Memorize, memorize and memorize... then hope they stay in the recesses of their brains long enough for them to come out intact; then after they're done - buang! Moral Studies... where are our morals?
We pride ourselves in offering such a ridiculous subject in SPM. Would be better if we offer Philosophy, Drama, Arts or something along that line.... even the long 'dead' Geography would be a better choice than Pendidikan Moral! But the ails of Pendidikan Moral are not exclusive; they plague the other subjects as well.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Broken?
Education in doldrums... An already broken education system given a really hard whack by Covid-19. I used to read about pandemics, that a b...
-
3 years ago, they initiated steps to ban corporal punishments. Now they say they want to bring back caning to curb indiscipline. For once, ...
-
A little more about my alma mater, ACS Sitiawan. I am sure we often think of our school friends. After all, friends from our age of innocenc...
-
For some reason, the English equivalent of the term slips my mind and seems no where near grasp. It's Sukantara season now. For the unin...
9 comments:
Hi there, my friends have been bugging me to blog about things that need to be made right in our education system. I think I'll tell them to read yours instead. You took the words right out of my mouth. Keep going Amelia!
Hi Noora... thx for dropping by. Writing is a way of getting my pent-up frustration with whatever that is goin on out of my system... and hopefully someday.. things changes for the better.
pendidikan moral - maybe that's the m'sian replacement for philosophy studies, which actually requires in-depth knowledge of cultural, political, scientific and religious systems as well as great reasoning and debating skills!
so probably pendidikan moral is better for m'sia as it's easier (if anything is easy these days) to get an "A" - wot u think?
PP... you have me in stitches! On the contrary, it's hard to score in PM. You actually have to memorize the definition word for word... lari sikit oso you lose marks, it seems. There was one time where you'll find scoring 1A (equivalent to our A1 in those old days) except for PM. And because of that, they were denied scholarships; grounds were got others with straight 1As... something like that-lah.
So, true oso, what you say, it requires an in depth knowledge. Really deep ones... 8( Poor sods!
Random Shots, 2 add another 2 sen to what u have rightly stated and stressed, the SPM Moral Paper is another issue. The answers have to be so tailored, structured, adjusted, worded, penned,formatted etc (short of adjectives) that students have to go for tuition from teachers (LOL) who benefited from exposure to such rigid formatting and wording of answers as demanded in the Marking . As u have hit the nail on its head the answer cannot "lari sikit pun.". "Mesti ngam-ngam punya." "Lama-lama pelajar-pelajar jadi mesin fotostat macam dengan folio yang dibuat."
isn't it called Peniliain Moral? Or they changed it again?
anyway, to me it's all about memorizing those 16 main nilais and the 64 sub-nilais. Not to mention understanding the 'formula'
1 main nilai + 2 sub-nilais + 2 contoh! LOL
aiyoh, so sad one.... it doesn't sound like an examination of knowledge but of ability to memorise!
Athena: It's now called Pendidikan Moral. It's been a compulsory subject for SPM for upteen years already... but definitely not during my time. We were spared of this silliness, thankfully.
PP.. our edu system has evolved since you left-lah.. It's memang the world of memorize and memorize... The best memorizer takes it all.
We learn something because we don't understand the subject. Since many people don't have "moral", the Ministry of Education is kind enough to create the "Pendidikan Moral" subject. Therefore we should applaud MoE for creating many low quality photocopier that can only print out the moral values on the SPM question paper.
Post a Comment