MP worried about students self-learning under school rotation system

Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching has expressed concern about the government's plan to allow some students to engage in self-learning under a school rotation system.

The school rotation system is intended to control the number of students in school as a measure against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Under the system, half of the students will attend school while the other half will learn at home, to be rotated on a weekly basis.

"I support the Education Ministry's effort to reopen schools but is self home-based learning the best method?" asked Teo, who was a former deputy education minister.

She noted that students were already under pressure when they engaged in guided home-based learning.

She cited an Education Ministry survey which found that 51.2 percent of the students said they felt pressured while learning at home.

Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching

Of those, 48.9 percent said it was due to limited interaction with a teacher, 55 percent cited a lack of interaction with peers and 53.4 percent complained about a lack of guidance.

"When home-based learning becomes self-home-based learning, then the interaction between students and teacher, students and their peers as well as guidance will be even less," she said.

Teo said the Education Ministry's survey had also shown that only 57.5 percent of students complete their homework during home-based learning, and only 36 percent were capable of learning on their own based on the materials provided.

"It is clear from the Education Ministry's findings that self home-based learning is not very effective, so why was it proposed?

"Did Education Minister (Mohd Radzi Md Jidin) read his own ministry's findings?" she said.

Previously, teachers could guide students through home-based online learning as schools were closed.

However, with schools reopening, there are not enough teachers to teach half of the students in school and the other half at home.

Schools, which reopened this month, are operating at 50 percent capacity to limit the spread of Covid-19. - Mkini