Friday, July 23, 2010

How We Incapacitate Our Students...

I never knew that so many students get biasiswa (scholarships) until I started teaching. When I was schooling, we hardly heard of our friends getting scholarships let alone bantuan kewangan (financial aid).

These days, we have so many to give from... Biasiswa Kecil Persekutuan, Biasiswa Negeri, etc, etc plus all the other aids (such as Bantuan KWAM) for those who come from poor families. The idea of financial aid to assist the needy students is a good thing but I'm seeing scholarships given without accountability these days.

Why do we give out financial aid? Is it to help the families or to make sure the kids come to school and study? Aid with no accountability? Cos we don't seem to demand that from the students. I've students who get aid up to RM800 a year and when they start to miss school, no action is taken to warn them and they miss at whims. There is also no accountability in making sure their grades are maintained. If this is not helping to create subsidy mentality, then what is? There seem to be this reluctance to withdraw the scholarships with such kind of irresponsible actions. We have a high rate of MARA loan defaulters. Ever wonder where they got the idea that they're not accountable?

Driving without license. It is an open secret that many students drive to school without a valid license. The school can do so much to educate but we make excuses for them why they should be allowed to break the law.... and we wonder why Mat Rempits are so audacious. The feeling that one is able to get a one-up with the law is imprinted at an impressionable age. I remember how at school, the school would have spot checks to check if students had a valid driving license.... and there would be actions. Those kind were affirmative actions of a different kind. It turned us into law abiding citizens....

So you see, we have affirmative actions everywhere, and they very often affirmatively incapacitates stealthily.... teaching them that it's alright to bend to suit them.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Scholarships one too many are dished out - deserving students will definitely make good use of them.
As for driving without a license, when tragedy (at its worst scenario) strikes, it's too late for tears.

Sia Mooi said...

we or rather d gahmen are very tolerant people....there is a fellow colleague whose name is still on the staff list but has been MIA for more than a year. appeared in school once or twice for the year n disappear for the rest of the year.

AJ7 said...

The MIA still drawing his salary??? If he is, then that is our kesian culture at work. I once had a colleague who had been bumped from one school to another.. he'd come to school and go in and out as he pleases... and he was one lousy teacher, that went on till he retired.

Thomas C B Chua said...

AJ7, due to the small minority of Malay enrolment in the "zoo" where I used to work, the "biasiswa" went lock, stock and barrel to almost every "Ali, Ahmad and Amin" and some not only did not know how to hold a pen but were absent more than present. What a waste !

MIA is a sore point. There used to be one in the same " zoo" where I used to work. And the easy way out taken by a useless boss was to sweep the "garbage" to another school. ( Btw, this one might have been swept to your "zoo." LOL)

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...