Illiteracy issue raises hard questions

With all the political chest thumping about our education programmes, how come so many cannot read and write despite attending school?

COMMENT

Through the years, we have heard so much political hype about “progress” in Malaysian education that many of us have come to believe that it would be inexcusable for any child to remain illiterate after some years of basic schooling.

But it turns out that illiteracy among youngsters is a real problem. Just last month, it was revealed that out of a batch of 11,000 students chosen to undergo National Service training, 1,000 were illiterate.

Last month too, three students from SK Bandar Bintangor in Sarawak were barred from taking their Primary School Assessment Test (UPSR) because, as their teachers claimed, they were too weak academically.

If they were indeed weak, how come nothing was done to help them? Where were the teachers when these students performed miserably in their school examinations?

Instead, the school took the easy way out by dumping all blame on the pupils, fearing that their bad performance would affect the school’s overall performance. So much for helping shape the future of a child!

Clearly, the school did not find it worthwhile to determine what was causing the three students to lag behind in their studies. This case and that of the illiterate NS youngsters do raise a host of questions.

According to the National Education Blueprint 2006-2010, 4.4% of primary students and 0.8% of secondary students had not mastered the 3Rs and the dropout rate for secondary schools was 9.3% in urban areas and 16.7% in rural areas.

Does this mean that in the typical Malaysian way of acting only when matters get worse, nothing was done to deal with the issue of illiteracy?

Did the six years of compulsory primary schooling fail these youngsters or are there other factors that the schools never looked into, such as the issue of dyslexia?

Address illiteracy ASAP

The National Union of Teaching Profession believes that illiteracy should be addressed early in a child’s education.

Reacting to the news about NS illiterates, union secretary Lok Yim Pheng dismissed the notion that all students who cannot read and write are lazy. She said some of the students might have mental disabilities or were simply slow learners.

“In the case of the 1,000 NS trainees who were found to be illiterate, maybe some of them are dropouts,” she was quoted as saying.

But then the question of whether they were dropouts or illiterate became irrelevant when, after a mere 30 credit hours of learning, the 1,000 became able to read and write.

Lok proposed an in-depth study to examine the root of the problem. As for the illiterate NS trainees, she said they could be put through vocational programmes to prepare them to enter the workforce.

Looking at the case of the NS trainees, isn’t it fair to say that the Education Ministry has failed to fulfil its responsibility of making sure that students master the 3Rs at the primary school level?

What has gone wrong?

The National-Parent Teacher Association Collaborative Council has pointed out that there are indeed literacy programmes at the primary school level.

Council president Mohd Ali Hassan cited the Early Intervention Reading and Writing Class (KIA2M), Basic Skills for Reading, Writing and Counting Programme (PROTIM) and the Literary and Numeracy Programme (Linus).

“We must make sure that these programmes really work,” he said. “They should help the students in mastering their 3Rs before moving to secondary school.”

He lauded the National Service Training Department’s effort to help the illiterate trainees, but said remedial measures at that stage were a tad too late.

The council is urging the government to monitor any student who fails to master the 3Rs and take appropriate remedial measures.
“We must also emphasise on students’ proficiency of the English language,” Mohd Ali said. “The teaching methods may need to be revamped.”

Still, despite the programmes mentioned by Mohd Ali, the education system has been unable to arrest the problem of illiteracy among schoolchildren. Why?

Through the National Education Blueprint, it has been revealed that 10% of primary schools and 1.4% of secondary schools do not have a 24-hour electricity, 20% of primary schools and 3.4% of secondary schools do not enjoy piped water, and 78% of primary schools and 42% of secondary schools are more than 30 years old and need refurbishing.

Where to start?

Teachers have long been complaining that they are burdened with administrative work that eats into their teaching time. Is this work overload one of the reasons for their failure to detect students with learning disabilities? Or are they finding it too cumbersome to divide their attention between the bright and poor students?

Would giving teachers additional incentives to hold extra classes for weak students, as Mohd Ali has suggested, help improve matters?

There is nothing to be ashamed of in acknowledging that Malaysia has not successfully tackled the issue of learning disabilities, but it will take much dedication to eradicate illiteracy among youths and to ensure literacy in youngsters between the ages of 15 and 24, as envisioned by the United Nations in its Millennium Development Goals.

If all it took were 30 credit hours to help the illiterate NS trainees, what happened during their years in school? How did their poor performance in examinations like the Primary School Assessment Test escape the attention of their schools?

The intention here is not to mock the work that the Education Department is doing, but to suggest that it take a respite from its “fast-forward steps” to look into the question of why attendance at school does not ensure literacy among some children.

The Education Ministry under Minister Muhyiddin Yassin does have a lot of introspection to do. It must make sure it does not compromise on the future of Malaysian children while rushing to make Malaysia a saleable education hub for foreigners.

Jeswan Kaur is a freelance writer and a FMT columnist