EVERY half year, Chinese primary schools will hand out a full list of books needed by the students.
The list contains about 30 items and the costs will amount to RM150 – RM200. This means, at least RM300 will have to be spent on books – or ‘assessment’ books – every year. Students are expected to finish more than 60 types of assessment books.
Is it really necessary for a primary school student to finish 60 such books every year?
A friend of me whined his child, who is in Primary Six this year, had a full basket of assessment books.
His child buzzes through the day, doing his homework, and sadly, spends his holidays within his load of assessment books too.
It is a fact that Chinese primary school students have a never-ending stream of daily homework. Some parents just choose to ignore it, some just feel helpless while some expect a star to rise from the pile of homework.
But has anyone ever tried asking the child if these assessment exercises actually benefit it.
On Nov 12, we finally saw parents voicing out their grievances.
The parents of SJK (C) Sungai Chua held protest signs high and demonstrated in front of the Education Bureau against the school for forcing them to buy assessment books.
When the news spread, we witnessed some aligning with the parent’s opinions and some – the so-called loyal defenders of Chinese education – questioning the protesters if they would only be satisfied after the demise of Chinese education.
I am puzzled. How is it wrong for those to stand up and defend the interest of parents? How is it wrong to question the Ministry of Education for its ‘mandatory’ request to purchase ‘assessment’ books?
Moreover, for a school that views education as a source of revenue, its own-published assessment books will definitely be more expensive than those in the market.
If this is the case, wouldn’t this be a ‘definite win’ business? If a school has 1,000 pupils and each pupil needs to come up with RM300 every year, this will add up to a considerable amount – RM300,000.
Of course, if paying this price will actually bring forth results to the child, then it is understandable, but the problem here is an exercise book is very often not completed, let alone 60.
Doing assessment exercises are defined as a part of teaching but it is definitely not the whole part of education.
The system needs to be evaluated. Is it designed to expand the students’ knowledge as well as strengthen their skills so that they can observe and research to develop their creativity?
But in many Chinese primary schools, we see never-ending loads of assessment exercises, students being forced to spend their holidays doing homework, and what is even more outrageous is that parents often only receive evaluated exercise books after the end of an exam.
This is not fulfilling its purpose and unfortunately leads to another bad impression – that the system is a ‘money-making tool.’ Please do not consider parents as cash cows! (From Oriental Daily)