Parents want to know what’s in store this year

As I write, Form Five students are sitting for the all-important Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) national examinations, which started with Malay and English language oral assessments in December amid the torrential rains that caused floods not experienced in a long time.

While there were calls for the oral examinations to be postponed to accommodate the badly affected students, the Ministry of Education (MoE) went ahead, with the close collaboration of the armed forces, and announced that they were a success. We will never really know if they were. The students themselves would be able to say if it was so, except that they may be too embarrassed to admit they failed. Or the MoE may just pass all oral assessments.

These are the students who were in Form One in 2020 at the height of Covid-19. The results due in May will indicate if the MoE really managed “learning loss”, or will the results be “bumped up” to show yet another record-breaking year?

METMalaysia has announced that the second wave of endless rain has ended, with no more disruptions expected. This will be a relief to teachers, parents and especially the SPM candidates.

For the rest of the schoolgoing children, rain, floods and closed schools are a seasonal water festival. The state government of Kelantan, which thinks that floods destructive to livelihoods can become a tourist attraction, needs its head examined. The Ministry of Health’s announcement that there were 10,272 recorded cases of waterborne diseases at temporary relief centres in six flood-hit states should have put a stop to such a ludicrous idea. Public hospitals have more than enough to deal with.

“So what’s in store for 2025?” parents ask the minister of education.

With MoE receiving a mammoth allocation of RM64.1 billion in Budget 2025, there will definitely be a rush to clinch as many contracts as possible or the largest, such as for the building of new schools and repair of dilapidated ones. It is public knowledge that almost 75% of the education budget will be spent on salaries and wages. The question is how the balance of RM16 billion, which is still substantial, will be spent.

Contractors are reminded that the auditor-general has been allocated RM200 million to “follow the public money”, where companies and entities will have to undergo a thorough audit. Remember that the 8,300 school toilets that have been repaired still need to be maintained.

Our focus has never wavered from the teaching of English, the language of knowledge; the teaching of mathematics and the sciences in the English language; science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education; the quality of teachers desired to achieve excellence in these fields, and the quality of education overall.

Sarawak is well underway to achieving the above with a solid plan that is in line with the provisions in the Malaysia Agreement 1963, by demanding improvements in the UPSR (Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah) and PT3 (Pentaksiran Tingkatan Tiga), and insisting on the Dual Language Programme (DLP). Sabah has been bolder of late, albeit unconvincingly and with less gusto, but is adamant nonetheless.

Parents in the peninsula are bewildered over how Sarawak and Sabah are able to disagree with Putrajaya’s decisions on education, whereas progressive parents who want DLP for their children are instead confronted by the police and Special Branch on the instruction of school principals. We should establish a diverse Malaysian identity rather than allowing Putrajaya to impose one dominant culture on us. We are, after all, Malaysians and diversity is our strength.

Parents want to know how the English Language Teaching Centre, which is responsible for English language proficiency, will be conducting its many ongoing initiatives, namely the Highly Immersive Programme, DLP, Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), pre-school, Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESL), continuing professional development (CPD), upskilling, teacher improvement, pedagogy and leadership, which require a substantial amount of funding.

Parents want to know specifically how DLP will be expanded in terms of the number of schools, new schools, number of students and number of classes. The minister herself has guaranteed that there will be an adequate number of science and mathematics teachers to teach these subjects in English.

Parents at SK Bukit Jelutong are aghast that the number of DLP classes has been reduced when there is a demand for more to open. These are young, progressive parents who are attracted by its status as a high-performance school but are disappointed with its backward attitude. School leaders of high-performance schools cannot be complacent but instead should exhibit dynamism with vision and purpose. The carrot should be scholarships for Oxbridge and Ivy League universities, which are not impossible to attain.

Parents want to know how the RM1 million budgeted for a scientist outreach programme called STI 100³ will sustain and cultivate an interest in STEM education. All science laboratories must be functioning by the time the new academic year begins.

Parents want to know what changes are being made at the teacher-training level and CPD in light of recent recommendations by the World Bank. Or will it be “same old, same old”, yet expecting a different outcome?

In light of the public outcry over the abolishment of UPSR and PT3, and since the minister is adamant that its earlier decisions to abolish these exams remain, what changes can parents expect in terms of teacher competency to assess students?

Parents are openly questioning why the passing mark from Year One to Form Three has now fallen drastically to a mere 20%. Or are parents totally missing the point about the purpose of competency levels (tahap pentaksiran)? Teachers appear to be struggling to ensure that students obtain grades of at least 40% at upper secondary level in order to be able to pass the SPM. Parents are demanding answers. And the minister needs to give them now.

Parents with children in technical secondary schools want to know what to expect as they enrol for fields in electric vehicles, aerospace, artifical intelligence and MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) as suggested in the budget. Isn’t English language proficiency vital to learn technical terms?

Exciting times lie ahead in 2025 following the budget, and this year will be most crucial as the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 takes a final bow.

The Edge