Minister denies teachers to blame for failure of KBAT

PADANG TERAP: Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid has denied allegations that teachers were the reason why students were failing to master Higher Order Thinking Skills (KBAT).

He said a statement by his deputy P Kamalanathan had been misinterpreted by a news portal, making it seem that the incompetency of teachers was the root cause of the failure of KBAT.

“When I looked back at the statement and read what he (Kamalanathan) said, he did not say the failure was due to teachers, as what has happened involves society as a whole.

“Even the sentence was somewhat incorrect. So I would like to correct it a little, whereby we want to get closer to the community, not only school students, but also parents and all parties, including NGOs so that they understand what KBAT is all about,” he told reporters after witnessing the Padang Terap Parliamentary Football Cup final at SMK Kuala Nerang here, today.

He was commenting on Kamalanathan’s statement that was misinterpreted by the news portal, and which led to several parties blaming the ministry over the issue.

Mahdzir said KBAT was part of an education transformation plan introduced three years ago, and that teachers were trained periodically to adapt to new changes. -FMT