No need to experiment with children's future

 

YOURSAY | “Looks like some children will be left out of the system.”

Year 1 at age 6: 'Two-tier idea would create stigma, caste system' - Muar MP

Year 1 at age 6: Hishammuddin urges Fadhlina for more details

Apanama is back: The issue with the six-year-old admission in Year One is that it is an option.

That is why MPs such as Hishammuddin Hussein and Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman are raising concerns about the lack of sufficient places and discrimination faced by students and parents.

If the Education Ministry plans to bring down the age for Year One from seven to six, it should be no issue.

My personal opinion is that it should be six years old for Year One, say, from 2030.

Therefore, the ministry has four years to upgrade and ensure that all pre-schools can prepare students for Year One admission.

Either you do it at a compulsory age or forget it, not as an option, because the minister is grossly incompetent.

The minister may U-turn and go back to age seven.

Only Malaysia is introducing flexibility for six-year-olds to enter Year One if ready, alongside the standard seven-year entry.

Those countries, such as France, Germany, Russia, and Spain, typically have a primary school (Year One/Grade One) starting age of six, while others, like the UK and India, start slightly younger at five, but have Year One for ages five to six. Singapore fix at age seven.

The rule is fix it, not being flexible. Why do they need to experiment?

JWKK: This option to start going to school at age six, and the implementation so quickly, is creating more questions and even confusion that can all be easily avoided had more foresight been given.

Again, the competency of the Education Minister, Fadhlina Sidek, is appalling, and the same can also be said about Prime Minister Awar Ibrahim.

Parents have not gotten used to the idea yet.

Then there is now the option for parents to start their children at age six or the usual seven. What is the smart idea for this?

Has there been an urgent nagging problem all these years for children to start as usual at seven?

What information or guidelines does the Education Ministry have? If there is, where is it, or where and when will they be made available?

Why the rush to launch this optional age next year?

Can the education minister and prime minister explain that carefully instead of merely giving soundbites?

Unbelievable incompetence.

PurpleRabbit4431: Fadhlina, as usual, provided a lot of useless and nonsensical ideas.

She should spend time coming up with a better proposal on how to motivate teachers to teach better, improve the standard of teaching methods, ways to promote racial harmony among pupils from different racial groups and how to integrate better sports subjects in school.

Don't just come out with ideas to burden the school to generate more and more useless data, and so on.

Just look at the Year Three Assessment programme implemented in the past, it was a complete failure because it burdened teachers and all supporting staff to initiate data, collect data, upload data into computers, compile reports and so on.

At the end of the day, nobody reads and makes use of the information generated.

Wasting time and money. We need to have a more competent person to lead and head the Education Ministry.

GrayWhale9636: I sometimes have nothing but pity for the education minister. It's almost as if her boss just draws up something in his study and throws it at her to plan it.

What are we actually chasing here with the proposal to start going to school at six years old?

Is it to be on par with developed nations? Care to share their teaching methods?

Is it limited to pencils, books, a desk and a chair?

GP2025: What Fadhlina and her hero, the prime minister, don’t seem to know is that the Madani standard of doing things may not be up to professional standards.

Former education minister Hishammuddin’s queries are legitimate.

If these new initiatives are started and fumbling follows, the students will suffer, and the fault will lie entirely on the government.

RKR: Starting school at the age of six is fine. This is done in most developed countries.

But the real change this government should look at is the quality of subjects taught in schools.

Please go and learn from Singapore. They have world-class education, and that has brought the country on par or above the most developed nations.

With the kind of subjects taught in our public schools, we are racing to the bottom!

WhitePony9855: What unfair opportunity? Syed Saddiq should look back at our education system to a time when he was not even born.

Back in the 60s, our education system already had such an option. Bright Year Three students were promoted directly to Year Five, bypassing Year Four.

Nowadays, many children are already attending kindergarten at age four. Giving parents the option to enrol their child at Year One at age six is most welcome for brighter students.

Mechi: Sometimes, I feel that there is too much heat on the current education minister.

The previous education ministers, including Hishammuddin, were in hibernation for the last 60-plus years.

What were their achievements as the education minister?

Without a good foundation, Fadhlina (not helped by Little Napoleons) is perplexed.

VioletQuokka1493: The government is using psychometric testing to screen children before admission to Year One.

If they fail the test, they will not be attending school. So when do they attend school?

Looks like some children will be left out of the system. Now there will be even more incentive to enrol in a vernacular school. - Mkini