How kids from poor homes fare in school

Many students who come from poor families have not had a change of uniforms for several years. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: Some of the older students at SMK Segambut wear clothes that are so ill fitting that it’s obvious they outgrew them years ago.

Indeed, according to headmistress Tengku Norlin Majid, the school has many students who come from such poor families that they have not had a change of uniforms for several years. Some of her Form Five pupils have been wearing the same sets since they were in Form One, she said.

The school is among several in the city where most of the students come from the growing ranks of the urban poor. Their families belong to the Bottom 40 income group.

Thankfully, said Tengku Norlin, the government provides textbooks to these children, but only if they are Malaysian citizens.

Her school has 12 poor pupils who are not citizens and several of them don’t own a single textbook.

Tengku Norlin Majid.

Despite their deprivation, SMK Segambut’s students are not known to have been involved in major disciplinary problems, at least not in the vicinity of the school.

However, many of them do tend to waste their time loitering after school hours, according to Tengku Norlin.

They should be able to get home within 30 minutes after school, but they rarely do, she said.

Most of their parents work full time as labourers or run petty businesses. “So even though they should be back home by a certain time, they would rather loiter because they know their parents are not back yet.”

A few would remain within the school compound until their parents were home from work at 5 or 6 in the afternoon. Some would be doing their homework, but others would “be wasting their time chatting away,” Tengku Norlin said.

She is not too impressed by her students’ academic performance although 80% of those who sat for the SPM last year managed to qualify for the certificate.

“No one gets outstanding achievements in exams,” she said. “In last year’s PT3 examinations, for example, only one got seven As and a few got four As.”

Referring to her pupils’ performance in English, she said the younger ones would have difficulty with it but would improve by the time they would have to sit for the SPM.

She told FMT she believed students needed to be fluent in the language regardless of their future decisions. “The kids need it if they decide to go for further education. They also need it if they decide to work because many jobs require it.”

The school has taken several initiatives to improve English among its students. It has, for example, established a speaker’s corner to encourage public speaking and adopted the government’s “highly immersive programme” or HIP.

Schools taking part in HIP may conduct extra programmes during formal lessons and run out-of-classroom activities to encourage their students to improve their English.

Tengku Norlin said she wished her students’ parents would get more involved with their children’s education, but she added that poor families tended to be less so, as shown in a Universiti Malaya study in 2011.

“Teachers can only care for children during school hours,” she said.

“If parents can spend some time with their children and tell them they need to be serious about their school work and what they should or should not do inside and outside school, their academic performance can improve. They can even excel.”

She spoke of Technical and Vocational Education and Training as a good alternative for her students.

However, she noted some issues with its implementation. “There are different collaborative initiatives with different industries and different colleges. I think that makes it a bit unregulated.”

SMK Segambut offers training in Beauty and Aesthetics Skills (BAS) and 14 students enrolled for the course in 2017.

Tengku Norlin said her school was recently given the right to award the level of certification known as Sijil Kemahiran Malaysia 2 (SKM2). BAS Students who earn their SKM2 can work at beauty salons. - FMT