Somethin’ Amusing Yet Worrisome

I was partly Amused, yet Troubled, to read the news in The Star today, with some key points exerpted from page 3, headlined:

Complaints over easy PMR
Teachers and students disappointed with the lack of challenge

PETALING JAYA: The buzz among students who have just completed their PMR exam and Form Three teachers is that it has been an easy exam.
Many teachers are of the opinion that compared with previous years, the standard of this year’s PMR (which had its last paper on Tuesday) is lower, particularly for the Science and English Language papers.
A Mathematics and Science teacher from Seremban said her students were “disappointed” with the Science paper as the questions were “too easy.”
“Science was easy and English was closer to the UPSR exam,” said a Form Three English teacher in a Kuala Lumpur school.
Malaysian Examination Syndicate director Dr Salleh Hassan, however, begged to differ.
He said the level of difficulty was about the same for every examination – including this year's – so the syndicate could chart and compare students’ performance over the years.
“Every examination has a combination of six levels of difficulty – understanding, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
Earlier this year, Education Director-General Datuk Dr Ahamad Sipon said his ministry's survey of this year’s PMR candidates, who are the first batch to learn Maths and Science in English from Form One, revealed that students were having a tough time coping with the two subjects.
After his comments in the press in April, as well as a trial run in July in which students fared poorly, teachers were already speculating on easier PMR Maths and Science papers for this year.
But an English teacher at a rural school in Sarawak said that his students did not find the PMR exam easy at all.
“They are still struggling with English, and find subjects taught in the language difficult to pick up, unlike their counterparts in urban schools,” he said. (ends The Star’s extract)

DESIDERATA is amused because I am inclined to agree with the two points I highlighted, particularly quoting the English language teacher: “Science was easy and English was closer to the UPSR exam.”I tend to give this teacher the benefit of being a “befitting assessor” as she teaches the subject, English, herself, and she knows what the UPSR standard is all about, as this exam precedes the PMR by four years, which I believe she also has enough experience and basis to compare and contrast the two public exams.

Nevertheless the Exams Syndicate spokesman had also given his view points, but it does not mean being a higher official, he speaks the gospel truth.

I too sympathise with the rural school students’ plight as reported by a teacher in Sarawak. But the issue in this urban-rural divide is a permanent feature, and is recurrent and therefore not unique to the present issue under discussion. (I support any initiative to improve the rural schools condition in a comprehensive manner, but this may require any Post, later, Insya-Allah.)

The present dilemma is whether the present exams’ standards in the two subjects for THIS YEAR had been compromised to serve other than educational objectives. That’s Desi’s worry.

DESIDERATA also would now reprise an associated item pertaining to Education standards in the country which definitely did not amuse; it caused Alarm, GreAt Alarm, yes, ALARM with a capital A, Alarm of the “A” Grade when I first read it. I had filed the issue for an appropriate time to discuss it. Today is just that appropriate time. It sprang into the public domain because a ConcernedStudent cared enough for the country’s future to write to a local newspaper, from which I with gratitude extract, because many readers could have missed it (yes, I subscribe to it, and did miss it!):

The Star Thursday October 6, 2005
Shame on the lecturers
I am a student of a prominent private university in The Intelligent City of Cyberjaya. Recently, I sat for my final exam.
I could not help but note down the atrocious grammar/structural mistakes in the question paper. Although it is not an English language paper, the lecturers should ensure that the paper is at least free of grammatical errors. (NOTE: emphasis is Desi's)
I wonder what the international students think of the calibre of our lecturers when the latter cannot even construct simple sentences without getting the singular/plural properties mixed up. And to think we are paying so much to study here ... sigh. – Ashamed Cyberian

I had the mispleasure of reading the examination paper referred to – I would not like to know one of our Universities has the residence of a lecturer whose English wouldn’t pass standard six in the old days – grammar mistakes appearing in almost every sentence! Normally I am kind to my students studying English. To so-called lecturers who should know better – though it’s not an English paper, the questions were indeed still worded in English, and if the questions don’t make sense, the candidates should just stay at the starting line. The word I have in mind is Boy= or Girl-cott. In this world of sophistication and gender equality, I don’t really care if the lecturer concerned was male or female…

Malaysia is promoting itself as a Regional Centre of Academic Excellence. There have been just too many reported cases of “offences and Deviants” among the promoters and practitioners, and the latest “scandal” should not escape some firm action, more for the sake of the students, the YoungOnes like Ashamed Cyberian.

Those who wish to know in detail please visit fellow blogger skthew.com’s entry plus comments. I ain’t gonna pamper my EsteemedReaders by covering all bases, also not am I going to get credit where it’s due to others. Fair is my third name-lah, tendering me to join that “ever-changing” gender as ascribed to Miss mOOn,no, not my opinion, feelow blogger YAN from Sibu, no more Catsville, because she loves the former more, though Desi finds Kuching more romantic, for most of the residents there have more than one lifeEven more than SE7EN! Oh, I DIGRESS, what luxury, and a soother from day's worries, and sometimes I forget today is not Sundae, but the streak of MCPism remains, that’s Da Truth.
If I seem to be speaking in tongue, please re-visit my crazy banter with three mGf under “Is the Moon Tired?”, I can't remember what day-lah, this month is no more September!

Just an aside, okay? NOT a digression; What is another matter of concern in The Star item today is a sidebox requesting Response from Readers via SMS.
Send to 66222 (Digi users only)

The concern is that all too often telcos (that's telecommunications companies in bizlingo, which is business reporting language in journalese...)and certain business partners have been known to use this method of “seeking response” to ring up their cash registers. This matter has been dealt with at other Blogs, and I won’t go into detail except raise the question: Is this an ethical way to add on to the corporations’ coffers?

This question of Ethics, and also that of Integrity, have been explored by fellow Bloggers, such as Sabrina Tan (http://sabrinawstan.blogsome.com)and Mei especially, as her case refers to an educational institution, "Integrity at the workplace"(www.scarfer.net), and Desi too, and definitely such an important civilsociety subject falls within the ambit of Education, IMHO.
If teachers spend more time in honing their own skills, and imparting the “truly educational skills as promoted by the foundation skills of the THREE R’s of “Reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic > Reading, Writing and Arithmetic for those I.Cows who still need to know how the 3Rs comes about…), maybe our YoungPersons would turn out to form a newer generation of responsible, adult citizens.

I had blogged earlier about teachers encouraging teir students preparing for public exams to "memorise" essays or compositins to "score", and I lamented that this is a negative method to use. The students would not be origional or critical in their thniking. Worse yet, maybe in college or university, they might "progress" to plagiarism, which is an unforgivable offence in academia!

Just a little update from Other News&Views in The Star today, page 27, UTUSAN MALAYSIA was the source of the following that was quoted in its recent frontpage: "*Temerloh MP Datuk Mohd Sarit Yusoh (was reported) as saying that about 100,000 pupils in Years Two to Six could not read, write or count.
The figure is almost 3% of the total number of primary school pupils.*"

I applaud Sarit for bringing it to the attention of the public, as he lamented that "There was no point in the country achieving developed nation status if there were still students who were illiterate".
There must be something very wrong if someone who is supposed to train undergraduates could not himself write credibly. It's reflective of the standards the country's academic standing has dropped when University level examinations featured OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS. Lols, for a moment I thought I was looking at Secondary 3 or 5 (the highest) exam papers! Please go figure what Desi's talking about. Do some homework, it's thy job as a Good&Obedient citizen!

Are we adult enough to reform the system when the faults and glitches are staring at our faces; or we wsih to behave like the proverbial ostriches? I'd better rest my musings.

'nuff for a day. Maybe I'd hand the mike to my PoorReaders (including some teAchers out there, I'd gladly like to 'ear from thee! Is Zorro reading this, mate?), getting a mouthful and handful this blessed hot afternoon.