Time to learn from your past mistakes, MOE

When I was in Year 6, my English teacher taught me cursive writing. We were given lots of exercises in the class as well as homework to master the skill.

She advised us not to feel discouraged if we found it difficult, instead to keep on practising cursive writing whenever we could. So I started applying the new skill I’ve learned in other subjects as well.

However, my Bahasa Melayu teacher Cikgu Dayah, obviously had a big issue with it –she claimed my cursive writing looked like a bunch a cacings (worms)!.

“Ini karangan ataupun lukisan mesyuarat agung cacing-cacing sedunia? (Is this an essay or a global meeting of worms?)” she criticised my cursive writing before throwing my karangan (essay) exercise book out of the second floor of our school building.

Everyone in my class laughed hysterically. I felt so disappointed and embarrassed. But I was determined not to give up.

Sadly, even before I could master cursive writing, my English teacher who was very eager to introduce us to cursive writing in the beginning, had moved on to a new chapter and demanded us to focus on our new lessons. And ironically, she too ended up requesting me to stop practising cursive writings during English lessons.

“Do it at home. Practise on your own. We need to focus on other things during the English lesson,” she said.

I suppose she too wasn’t so fond of my ‘cacings’.

Soon, what I so passionately wanted to learn became obsolete. Having to learn new things in school and catching up with homework, I had no time left to learn cursive writing on my own. And when I went on to Form One, I continued writing like I always did.

Like me, my children too were introduced to new things in school – lessons claimed to be good for them but made no difference in their lives.

When my daughter was in Year 1, the Education Ministry introduced the abacus system in their primary school mathematics syllabus. Teachers were sent for courses during school days and parents were made to purchase the abacus calculating tool.

Being the first batch of students in Malaysia to learn abacus at school, my daughter was excited to learn it and to be honest, so was I – after all, the abacus teaching method was proven to help strengthen mathematical skills.

However, after only a few lessons, my daughter’s mathematics teacher moved on to new chapters according to the syllabus even though the students were still unable to master the abacus system.

When I made an appointment to seek clarification from the teacher, I was told that abacus was merely part of the lesson plan and focusing on abacus until the students are well acquainted with the system will only eat up the lesson time for other chapters.

Soon after my daughter, it was my son’s turn to learn abacus. I wasn’t so excited about it, knowing too well he wasn’t going to learn anything much. I merely passed him his sister’s old abacus calculating tool and got him a new exercise book for the lesson.

And guess what - the calculating tool and the book were never touched!

Apparently, my son’s mathematics teacher told the class it was a waste of time to learn abacus hence decided to focus on other challenging chapters in the syllabus.

Like my cursive writing lesson, my children’s abacus lesson also ended without making much difference in their lives.

The introduction of khat

When I heard about the Education Ministry’s plans to introduce khat, a form of Malay-Arabic calligraphy, as part of the Year 4 Bahasa Melayu subject syllabus, I had to face-palm.

“How would learning khat enrich a student’s knowledge?” I asked myself.

Having linguists and educationists who are engaged by the ministry, support for this initiative does not refute the fact that adding khat lessons to our Bahasa Melayu syllabus does not add any value nor does it empower a student in any way.

Most likely, as in the case of my cursive writing lessons and my children’s abacus lessons, our students will move on to learning new chapters in their Bahasa Melayu syllabus even without mastering the skills needed to engage in khat. And the few lessons introducing our students to the art of khat will most likely not leave any mark in their lives.

An integral part of our identity?

Khat may be claimed as an integral part of Malaysia’s identity by our linguists and educationists, but learning khat will not make any Malaysians more patriotic than others.

Why then is our Education Ministry so anal-retentive on introducing it as part of Bahasa Melayu syllabus?

In my honest opinion, Bahasa Melayu is a very important subject for our students especially for those at the primary level. It is a widely known fact that children at early age bracket of 5 to 12 years need to be well-taught as their ability to learn and absorb knowledge is the highest at this age. Why then are we introducing lessons such as khatwhich does not benefit them intellectually?

Would it not be better to make full use of the Bahasa Melayu syllabus to ensure our primary school students master the national language before entering the secondary level?

As it is today, we are facing a dilemma having secondary students who cannot express themselves well in Bahasa Melayu. And to make things even worse, there are also secondary students who struggle to write in proper Bahasa Melayu.

Should we not make full use of the Bahasa Melayu syllabus to encourage our students to learn lessons which could improve their command of the language, hence mastering it?

After all, Bahasa Melayu as our national language is an integral part of Malaysian identity. The art of khat is not.

If only the Education Ministry during my time had included basic literature in Year 6 English lessons instead of cursive writings, I would definitely have benefited from it.

Likewise, if my children’s teachers were not absent from their classes due to the ministry’s decision to send them for abacus courses during school semesters, my children and their classmates would have benefited from it.

The Malaysian Education Ministry has continuously made mistakes in providing the best for our students. I really hope this time around, they don’t repeat it.

While education ministers in our neighbouring countries are planning to introduce computer programming language (coding) to their young students, let us not rub cow manure on our faces by introducing khat. Please. - (by Fa Abdul) Mkini