At this point of my life, my kids are still school-going, I think like most, I'd like them to do well in their studies. Doing well seems so important these days.
I've a couple of students in one of my Upper Form classes. They cannot read or write well. Academic curriculum seems wasted on them. The only reason they are in Upper Secondary is they managed to meet the minimum requirements. All it takes is just one pass in PMR; and that is quite easily achieved.
There are 60 objective questions in a paper, all he needs to do is just mark all 60 questions either all A, B, C or D. Assuming at least 15 questions will be either one of the 4, you will still get anywhere from 23 to 27 marks. And I think our current low standards would mean that he passes. And on he moves to Form 4.
These are kids with serious learning problems. They do not comprehend much. And some of them are small in size. They are more often than never, subjected to being bullied. These are kids more suited for skill studies but there doesn't seem to be any avenue for them. So, they become the teachers' problem. Our policy of making education available to all till the age of 17 is like the "No Child Left Behind" policy in the US is actually not serving the interest of this group. Parents prefer to leave their kids under our watch. But actually they don't learn much. And even in the US, educators are questioning the wisdom of this policy. Once upon a time, because there was no choice, they were thrusted into the job market. And somehow they survived.... some even doing really well.
It is a nightmare teaching in a class with a handful of students like this cos in the end, you will still have to just ignore them as the rest of the class will be able to handle more than them.
Teachers become flustered as they will appear to have 2 standards for one class. Students are often quick to capitalized on such situations. Chasing the students to complete an exercise thus become an exercise of futility because you know those students will not be able to complete them unless you sit beside each one of them individually... and that is just not possible. One could just go to the counsellors but they'll give you a whole list of psychological assessment jargons and we're no better than before that.
If we are not able to provide some form of skills training for such students, I feel it is better that they enter the job market and be trained in the skills of their own choice. Life sometimes is a better teacher than this institutionalized form of instruction.
One of the worse decisions the MOE made I think is the decision to kill of vocational schools as we knew it almost a decade ago.
5 comments:
Random Shots, your problem was (past tense stressed) most familiar to me and I fully emphasize with you. I dealt with bunches and bunches who cursed n swore more in their mother tongue than speak English. For my physique, I was enthused with the worst lot. Lessons had to be watered down, honey coated,joke and fun injected just to make them listened for that miserable (both for the teacher and students) 40 minutes. So, "The Lotus Eater" was "Chiak Kua Chi Man" (Melon seed eater)etc etc. U can see them now at Sentosa trying to sell u " choi Hui" / second ranger cellphones or pirated DVDs. Somehow they etch out a living. Lately, I met onw with the weirdest hair, half mohawk and half crew with one side blue and the other side blonde. He seemed so glad to see and " Ah Sir... Ah Sir .." me from afar. Shamefully, Yours Sincerely was embarassed in the midst of a big CNY crowd at Pacific Mall, but then he acknowledged his old "Ah Sir." The moral of the story is don't expect too much from them. De adult and contemporary. Both parties are happy.
Soldier on Random Shots, U have quite some more years.
LOL! Comforting!... Basically I do not expect much from such kids. I think it's suicidal! 8) It's the futility of the effort that I mind. We just have to accept that some kids do not have even the slightest bit of academics in them. And they should not be in school. School does not help them much beyond a certain limit. They will be able to etch out a living, like you said. There is no doubt about that. The whole silly thing now drags down those who can be salvaged... kerana setitik nila rosak satu belanga susu... something like that.
All for the vocational - pick up a skill/s and they will be happier, more socially adjusted human beings too. In their own way, they are the contributors to society.
maybe the past problem was that the vocational schools failed to teach the kids any vocational skills????
PP... cannot remember ade-lah. But I think those days, vocational students sat for SPVM. And there were those who just learned skills and did not sit for the exam. These days, they have a vocational subject in most schools... (landscape, domestic wiring, catering) but the students still have to take the 6 core academic subjects. Most of them do okay in the vocational subject as it is more towards practical but still flunk the core subjects.
Keats... yup. It's best for them to pick up skills but policy makers seem to feel that they must take History, Maths, Science, Pendidikan Islam/Moral, English and BM too. History is almost a foregone conclusion most of the time..
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