SIBU: Sarawak Teachers’ Union (STU) is urgently calling on the planning unit of the Ministry of Education (MOE) to restudy and redesign the teaching policy and its implementation.
This was because education was about imparting knowledge to students rather than just carrying out the policy, said its president William Ghani Bina.
In this regard, stakeholders such as STU, school and even parent-teacher associations (PTAs) could come together for a discussion with the ministry, he suggested.
Ghani also suggested that the system be tailored to follow the education level of students and not their age.
Among others, he called on teachers to remain calm following a report in thesundaypost, claiming that the number of primary school pupils in the country who could not read and write was expected to surge this year.
“Teachers are worried and tearing their hair out trying to complete teaching the syllabus in time. They are worried that if the syllabus was not completed, students may not be able to answer some questions in their public examinations.
“And if they rush for it, weaker students would be hard pressed to cope with others. So you see, they are in a dilemma,” Ghani told The Borneo Post in a telephone interview yesterday.
He was responding to the comment by a teacher in thesundaypost, which among others, claimed that the number of pupils in the country, who could not read or write was expected to quadruple this year.
It also claimed that slow learners were often not getting enough attention mostly due to over crowded classes.
Ghani argued that as people judged school by its result, he suggested that the education system be tailored to meet the needs of every child. Citing an example, he said: “If a Form One student left school due to unforeseen circumstances, he must be placed at the same level if he returns say, two years later.
“But under the current system, he is allowed to enter Form Three. I think this is not fair as education should be about educating and not about following the age.
“Besides, missing out from school for a certain period of time, he would have missed out on a lot of things,” he argued.
Ghani figured some pupils could not read and write properly was due to classes being too big.
He disclosed among others, the syllabus was too compact, compelling teachers to rush to complete teaching them.
The president later revealed that he was bombarded with calls from teachers, voicing their dissatisfaction over the report in thesundaypost.
“I have asked them (teachers) to stay calm. As for the figure published today (yesterday), we are not sure from where she obtained it.”
He, however, said MOE had taken a very positive step some three years ago, in ensuring pupils could read and write properly after Primary Three.
“The ministry ought to be given a pat on their back as teachers have to ensure pupils could read and write in the first three years in primary school,” he noted.
He thus opined that with such positive approach, the number of pupils, who could not read or write would be very much reduced.