Weak students 3 years behind peers in Malaysia, say education groups

Teach for Malaysia co-founder Dzameer Dzulkifli says teachers are unable to give weaker students the extra attention they need because of pressures outside the classroom, such as administrative work and instructions to complete class syllabus. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Wan Amirul Asraf Wan Omar, June 7, 2014.

Many secondary school students in low-performing classes in problem schools in Malaysia are on average two to three years behind their peers in the better-performing classes, say educationists.

Some of these weak students have only the ability level of primary school pupils, one group has found. 

There are fears that the non-performing students could lead to a social crisis in later years as they would not be able to land better-paying jobs.

Teach for Malaysia (TFM), which recruits young professionals and fresh graduates, for two-year full-time stints in secondary schools, found that many of the students who are behind in their grades come from low-income families.

At the same time, their teachers are unable to give them the extra attention they need because of pressures outside the classroom, such as administrative work and instructions to complete class syllabus.

TFM's findings dovetail with what other education groups have said about why and how the school system has failed to ensure that every child is able to receive a good education regardless whether they come from a rich or poor family.

Primary schooling is compulsory in Malaysia, which provides free education.

As an example, said TFM co-founder Dzameer Dzulkifli, a student from a working-class family in Segambut, Kuala Lumpur, would most probably be three years behind a student from a rich family in Bangsar.

“The kid from Bangsar will probably have parents who will send them to tuition classes and motivational school-holiday camps.

“This gives the Bangsar kid a leg up in his classes, while the weak kids get left behind,” said Dzammer at TFM’s office in Kuala Lumpur.

But family background was not an impediment to getting low-performing students to excel, said Dzameer, as dedicated teachers can make a real difference.

TFM’s fellows – as the group’s recruits are called – have repeatedly proved that.

In a Negri Sembilan school, one of the fellows taught a Form Five class of boys, who had all failed their English subject in Form Four.

“But after the fellow poured his energies into that class, 12 out of the 18 students managed to pass their SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia) English. So the possibility is there,” said Dzameer.

Since it started in 2012, TFM has sent 169 fellows to 49 schools in seven states. All of those schools, called “high-need schools” are in the bottom rungs of the national school system in terms of student achievement.

Fellows are placed in the schools as teachers and get paid the same salary as other teachers.

“On the whole, the other teachers we have met are very supportive of our fellows.

“The problem is not the teachers, as we have found that 99% of them really are there because they want to teach and make a difference,” said Dzameer.

The problem lies in the structure of the system where teachers are burdened with administrative work while, at the same time, pressured to produce rosy statistics for the Education Ministry.

As they have so much work to do outside the classroom, teachers tend to concentrate on the better-performing kids because they were easier to teach, said Dzameer.  

Also because different students learn at a difference pace, teachers are unable to give extra attention to the slower students who may have trouble with the syllabus.

“It’s also up to the principal. Some principals allow teachers to go slow and teach the basics to weak students. But some want teachers to finish the syllabus first.”

Another group, Teach for the Needs (TFTN), echoed this observation, saying that the pressure to meet their key performance indicators (KPI) often drove teachers to spend more time with smart kids than the weaker ones.

“But we cannot just blame the teachers. In our experience, the teachers themselves know which kids are weak and they want to help them,” said Norziati Mohd Rosman, who is TFTN’s chief operating officer.

And it’s always the teachers who will seek help with TFTN to train their weaker students.

“When the teachers have tried everything and still can’t get their student to respond, they call us in and because we are outsiders, the students see us differently and respond better.”

TFTN’s volunteers would then hold small groups tutoring those students.

TFTN currently has more than 500 volunteers who hold small-scale tutor programmes in four states for weak students.

Many of its volunteers teach children in orphanages where the lack of adult guidance and supervision has dampened their motivation to learn.

“Some of these kids are in Primary Six yet they can’t even read the ABCs.

“Some orphanages have 50 children and only two adults to look after them. The kids come home from school and throw their books around and play.

“When that happens, there is no reinforcement of the importance of learning,” she said.

- TMI