The proof of true education arises from writing from memory, based on all the readings, for connecting the dots!
Commentary And Analysis . . . The Sarawak government wants the Year 6 UPSR and Year 9 PT3 examinations revived on the grounds that standards had fallen in schools and that SPM results have seen better days. UPSR and PT3 were replaced, not so long ago, by school-based assessments. The proof of true education arises from writing from memory, based on all the readings, for connecting the dots. True education begins with habitual reading early in life. There’s more on this later.
There’s science that IQ Tests, confined by comprehension and counting skills, were not about measuring intelligence. It’s settled theory that intelligence was the ability for learning from mistakes. Let’s not go too much there as the Debate may enter incorrigibility, delusion, demon, and forms of mental illness and insanity.
SPM, in fact, can be replaced by university entrance examination — it’s in fact IQ Test — after the school leaving certificate. The SPM may be somewhat outdated. It does not prepare school leavers for the content in undergraduate programmes.
Entry into the Open University Malaysia, for example, was based on university entrance examination. The Form 5 school leaving certificate was the pre-requisite.
The four-in-one entry exam, a 45 minutes computerised test, covers English comprehension, Bahasa Malaysia comprehension and simple mathematics/statistics.
The Pass or Fail results are displayed on the computer screen immediately after the submit button was pressed.
Bahasa Malaysia and the English language can be explained.
The 20K word Bahasa Melayu (Johor Rhio Lingga version) was rendered redundant as Bahasa Kebangsaan (national language) by 1969 when the 40K Bahasa Malaysia emerged.
English remains Asean’s only official language.
True Education
Again, SPM must be scrapped and English speaking skills enhanced. If students can speak English, the rest will fall in place, and that means not only the language.
English language tuition classes, run free for between four months and six months, will help colleges recruit students.
If many people remain cursed by broken English, it’s because they are bogged down and/or plagued by the sounds of the English.
English, which has no form of writing, has 42 sounds but makes do with the 26 sounds in the Roman letters.
English isn’t written as spoken. Many students in Malaysia can’t read. They have difficulties in putting together letters for forming sounds. There’s more on this later.
Forget broken English. It cannot be corrected.
Start fresh.
Work on training the ears on listening skills.
We had formula during British days.
Catch the news on radio (no TV) for ten minutes daily. Make it lifelong habit.
After two years, look at the rules of grammar and do the exercises.
Grammar rules are like traffic rules. They help prevent accidents.
The sounds of the English language trump the rules of grammar.
There are many exceptions in the English language. English, coming from French and German sources which are not on the same page, remains language which often breaks its own rules.
Proof Of True Education
Those against UPSR and PT3 argue that these examinations, abolished in 2022, had degenerated into memorisation and rote learning in the race for 7As. There can be reforms i.e. doing away with memorisation and rote learning, among others, for proof of true education.
Standards, under memorisation and rote learning, remain low even among those who get 7As. The great majority don’t get 7As. The marking system remains state secret but has been exposed by school-based Trial exams.
Malaysia, based on recent media reports, will unveil new education blueprint in 2026.
We have blueprint, curriculum, syllabus, text, topics modules and exams coming out of the ears.
Education should be approached holistically. There have been suggestions that the depoliticisation of education may be idea whose time has come. This would mean scrapping the Education Ministry in favour of Education Commission at the Federal level, followed by the present system of Education Department at the state level and Education Office in the districts.
The main issue that arises in educational reforms: helping students do well viz. before university and during tertiary studies. If students do well, colleges won’t fail, deny salaries, and close down. Word will get around when students do well. The proof of the pudding lies in the eating.
Briefly, the lifelong Teaching Permit from MQA (Malaysian Qualifications Agency) isn’t so much about this subject, or that subject, but about being subject matter expert on public examination techniques. Generally, MQA looks at the CV (curriculum vitae) before issuing the lifelong Teaching Permit.
Subject matter expert on public examination techniques can advise lecturers/tutors on preparing lecture/tutorial notes which will be reflected in multiple testing areas viz. assignment, related presentation, Quiz, project, related presentation, and final examination.
Students will get A in all testing areas provided the same subject matter experts who prepare lecture and tutorial notes based on skills for the workplace, prepare and mark all testing areas based on MQA criteria and distribute the marks. MQA and the Internal Examination Board would go along.
The students can learn the art of writing within three months. The editing down approach can be used for keeping “similarity of content” below 30 per cent. The students should include feedback by plagiarism checker and grammar checker in assignments.
MQA and MoE (Ministry of Education) will expect compliance on Bloom’s Taxonomy, Table of Specifications (ToS), marking criteria, and distribution of marks. Students would not do well if the above are not tweaked. The Internal Examination Board must support reforms in the form of tweaking.
Bloom’s Taxonomy, Table of Specifications (ToS), marking criteria, and distribution of marks may, in fact, be biased if they fall back on objective tests, memorisation and rote learning. There’s case for subjective questions based on the essay-style format. Objective tests, convenient and economical for those who mark answer scripts, don’t benefit the students left behind by the memorisation and rote learning approaches.
Reading Difficulties
The government, before looking at public examinations, should focus on the reality that many students in Malaysia can’t read and write or count.
Writing and counting can be taught.
Teaching reading remains the hardest thing in the world.
There’s formula, based on great patience, on teaching reading. Even dyslexia and autism children can be taught reading within reasonable duration.
In taking the cue from the link, the following steps can be followed:
- sing ABC song for two weeks
- two weeks ABC song while looking at alphabets on the wall.
- two weeks reciting the alphabets at random.
- phonics for three weeks.
- graded reader 1 until graded reader 7.
- learn numbers 1 to 9 and 0
- addition — single, double, triple, four digits.
- subtraction — single, double, triple, four digits.
Kindergarten kids should learn multiplication tables, 2 until 12, in two weeks.
Generally, speak English by age five, learn counting by age five, buy at a loss and sell at a profit by age 15 i.e. before school leaving age, read out aloud for 10 minutes daily, catch the news on radio for 10 mins daily, and remain Iifelong habitual reader.
Habitual Reading
True education begins with habitual reading early in life.
The proof of true education arises from writing from memory, based on all the readings, for connecting the dots.
There’s originality of thought and original thinking.
There’s also orginality of thought and original thinking if the editing down approach was used for connecting the dots in keeping “similarity of content” below 30 per cent.
The plagiarism checker can be used.
The grammar checker may not be more than 60 per cent accurate. — NMH
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Longtime Borneo watcher Joe Fernandez has been writing for many years on both sides of the Southeast Asia Sea. He should not be mistaken for a namesake formerly with the Daily Express in Kota Kinabalu. JF keeps a Blog under FernzTheGreat on the nature of human relationships.
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