we interacted........have a look incase u missed it....
Mahmood said
Tax payers money also funded a lot of unemployable Bumiputra students by the way. I have no problem with SRJK mainly because it is good to learn another language and my kids reap the rewards now. They can speak Bahasa Melayu, English and Mandarin fluently as well as read and write. It is just plain economic sense. I want my kids to be globalized. (Syed Akbar Ali pointed it out in one of his articles...why most Bumi graduates from local universities have difficulty securing a job while their non-bumi counterpart can secure jobs not just in Malaysia but Singapore, UK, China, Australia etc.) The Government spending for SRJK is minuscule compare to SRK. It is a fact. The only moolah you hear donated is during election. The fund allocated for SRJK is also prone to abuse by Government officers that dengki them like you. I know because my kids attend Chinese school. They have fund raising every year just to meet the school expenses. Teachers are kiasu but in a good way. They send quarterly report on my children progress. Examination schedules are printed 2 months in advance and sent through post to Parents. Any slight changes in my children progress are reported to me. All parents have teachers mobile numbers to keep in touch. I can't say the same for SRK. For normal SRK. Where plebian Melayu like me would have their kids to school. Maklumlah I can't afford International Schools, Private School and goodness know what school for those elite Bumiputras. If you are a parent, you would know what is my concern. Good quality education. Which is very hard to come by these days in Malaysia.
Yang merendahkan martabat Bahasa Melayu itu ialah Melayu sendiri. Mesti diingatkan bahawa untuk lulus SPM, seseorang mesti lulus BM. Tetapi seperaka ini tidak diwajibkan untuk Bahasa Inggeris. Hakikatnya, kita dengar berita yang sama setiap tahun. Graduan (pinjaman BI) tidak dapat kerja, kena dilatih semula. Kenapa ini berlaku? Apakah kelemahan yang tidak diperbaiki tahun demi tahun? Siapa yang rugi? Melayu juga. Polisi untuk mermartabatkan BM selalunya merugikan Melayu yang tinggal di kampung, di pedalaman dan yang miskin di Bandar. Banyak buku-buku yang tidak ditranslasikan (pinjaman BI) ke BM. Perlu juga fasih dan faham BI jika ingin menimba ilmu. Jangan membandingkan kita dengan Korea Selatan, Jepun, Germany dan negara-negara di mana Bahasa Kebangsaannya bukan BI. Untuk pengetahuan anda, graduan Korea Selatan yang fasih berbahasa English mendapat gaji yang lebih tinggi berbanding mereka yang tidak. Sama seperti di China dan Jepun. Penduduk Jerman kebanyakannya fasih sekurang-kurangnya 3 jenis bahasa (Jerman, English, French dan sbg) Banyak negara Eropah begitu. Di sini? Nak belajar BI pun susah
My Response
Dear Mahmood
Thank you for your comment.
I personally think the whole education system is a mess and will continue to get messier once UPSR is abolished. If your observations represent the current state of perception towards SRK, why can’t the Government act on these issues. Why can’t the Govt undertake a comprehensive analysis of the current state of our Primary Education system? Why can’t the “positive” methods employed in the SRJKs be adopted into the SRKs?
The issue is the medium of instruction. If your concerns are about your child having the ability to speak multiple languages, then that should be tackled via dedicated language classes and NOT having the whole curriculum in a foreign language. Are you implying that language classes are not enough for a child to learn a 3rd language besides bahasa and english?
Martabat bahasa hanya boleh di pantau dengan pengunaan yang lebih menyeluruh selain dari perhubungan antar Kerajaan dengan masyarakat. Saya sendiri mengangap bahawa Bahasa Melayu telah gagal untuk memenuhi tugasnya sebagai bahasa kebangsaan sila rujuk di sini
Kita harus memikirkan dengan lebih jauh lagi saudara, 2015 hanya tinggal beberapa tahun lagi, AEC (Asean Economic Community) akan membuka peluang untuk tenaga kerja asing untuk datang ke Malaysia tanpa sebarang hambatan, ini semua sudah di setujui oleh barisan pemimpin ASEAN. Coba kita bandingkan tenaga kerja kita dengan Filipina yang amat fasih dengan Bahasa Inggris? Atau coba saudara bandingkan kita dengan Thailand? Apakah tenaga kerja kita bisa untuk menembusi hambatan bahasa Thai untuk bersaing dengan tenaga kerja local? Lihat aja tenaga kerja asing di Malaysia, dalam beberapa bulan sahaja mereka sudah mampu untuk bertutur dengan fasih bahasa kebangsaan kita….bandingkan itu dengan “rakyat” kita yang sudah bertahun-tahun tinggal di Malaysia.
Untuk pengetahuan anda, saya sudah bekerja dan tinggal di South Korea selama 4 tahun, perbedaan gaji tidak banyak dan situasi itu sama di semua negara di mana tenaga kerja yang bisa bertutur bahasa asing akan di bayar dengan gaji yang lebih lumayan terutamanya mereka yang berhadapan dengan perusahaan asing. Di South Korea juga sewaktu MicroSoft mulai mau masuk, mereka minta agar ‘Operating System’ harus di dalam bahasa Korea, jadi sekiranya seseorang asing yang tidak bisa bertutur bahasa korea maka amatlah susah untuk maju di dalam kariernya di Korea.
Mahmood responded
Saya terima pendapat satD.
Again I would say I have no problem with Chinese school until the day the Government changes it education policies. Chinese schools work towards a lot of Malays benefits. Attending language classes outside school hours is, currently, a burden for the children. The only reason why the Chinese chauvinists are flourishing is because the Malay Government allows them to. A lot of Chinese parents I spoke to shared my sentiments and more. If national schools can be as good, they would have no qualms enrolling their children in. And also make learning Mandarin compulsory. Again this is because they see it as opening more opportunities for their children with China's growth. I agree with them. It is an eye opening experience seeing how freely my children mingle with other races. They learn from each other. My children helps improve the Chinese and Indians their grasp of Bahasa while the Chinese kids teach and correct my children's mandarin. They all learn. My wife speaks English to the kids, I speak Bahasa. And I found out most of the Chinese parents do the same with their children. They speak BM and English at home. Yes, surprise. They speak BM.
Another major obstacle why it is difficult to get Chinese and Indians into national schools these days is because of proselytizing of Islam to these non Muslims. Yes, it is our duty to spread Islam but definitely not by cakap tapi tak sama bikin. A non muslim parent asked me once how long does it take for a Muslim to pray. I asked her why. She told me her eldest daughter (currently form 3 in SMK)'s Maths teacher is always coming in to class late citing prayers. In the morning at around 9 ish! A lot things done in name of Islam in national school these days just further alienates the Non-Muslims. It is not too much for me to say that SRK these days are turning into sekolah agama. What is the government doing about this? And here we wonder why all these celaka kafirs tak nak masuk sekolah kebangsaan.
As for 'rakyat' Malaysia yang tak fasih bertutur Bahasa Melayu, it all boils down to education policies and commercialism. From my observation, even Melayu themselves are guilty of this. A lot of middle class Malays in the city speak English more than Bahasa. No? Based on your experience in South Korea, I must say I salute the South Korean. Made Microsoft translate the Operating System. Unfortunately, how many translators do we have? How many books have been translated to BM? Why not? (Again Syed Akbar pointed it out) Time is essence. Especially with technology related matters. Kalau nak ambil sampai setahun baru boleh translasi satu buku tu, maklumat sudah lemau. Also, stop borrowing from BI. Debat? We have perbahasan. Informasi. What is wrong with maklumat. Sometimes reading a BM book is like a BI baku versi...opps version. Macam mana nak mermartabatkan BM?
I know you are a strong advocate of Satu Sekolah. I will believe that when our politicians send their kids to such schools. As in the whole 6 years in primary Satu Sekolah, 5 years of secondary Satu Sekolah. Don't be another case of cakap tak sama bikin. The children should NOT be guinea pigs just to satisfy certain quarters. Our leaders should know that actions speak louder than words. Currently their children are either overseas or in private schools. I wonder why? I thought our SRK and SMK are good enough? No? Again, no offense to you satD. This is directed to our politicians.
Read some of the comments here. All I can say, the small dicks still holds the economic wealth in this country. Is it because, we, the big dicks are too preoccupied with sex (I think so, with every 'technology', 'research' we churned out is about improving our sex drive), chasing skirts and accumulating filthy wealth (with cheap/non-halal turn halal money, look at our politicians) . We have a Malay Government and yet we are still far behind. Blaming is easy. Oh those celaka Chinese. Those pendatangs. But have we do anything with ourselves? What should we do with our Ali Babas brothers? The ones that get contracts but rather sell them? Anybody?
But I do share your annoyance with Donald Lim. MCA is a party that has passed it expiry date. Donald should explain himself. If not, get out.
We should start our Jihad now. Within ourselves. And I don't want to be part of Indonesia.
My response
mahmood
the Satu Sekolah that I support has to offer good quality of education to our kids, staffed with dedicated teaching staff (who are well paid). I also believe that Religious education should be treated separately from the main curriculum and be handled at different hours (you may refer to the case of Johor, whereby Kids go to an afternoon school after their normal classes for Islamic studies funded by the state).
Look at the current proposal at Satu Sekolah Initiative, its near term primary goal is to have a comprehensive study be undertaken by independent experts and provide the necessary recommendations. We need to understand the issue and its impact to our young ones.
As for the current state of preference, anyone with enough money would want to send their kids to the best of schools be it locally or internationally, this is not an issue in Malaysia but more of a global phenomena. The challenge to our policy makers is how we can offer high quality education on par with the Private Educators (very large number of foreign students <12 years old are in KL now , attending Primary education either UK or IB curriculum in KL) ask why? We are the cheapest in the Region...
The resources are there.....just need to figure out how best to sort things out for the future of our kids..and most importantly we need Policy makers who can think constructively instead of mau jaga political base and solicit race specific support...
Mahmood responded further
SatD,
I support your vision of Satu Sekolah. But right now, I focus on the best education that I can give my children on what is presently available. Without burning a hole in my pocket.
Perhaps I would suggest, you should start small. Small changes in policies are more palatable with the masses. If PPSMI caused such a big uproar, imagine an initiative as big as Satu Sekolah will cause? I would suggest start with giving more emphasis to English without neglecting the importance of BM right now. BM, by the way, gets harder every year while English is going to the opposite direction. Children are fast learner (and they learn faster if their parents are attentive to their progress. Sometimes for children to progress is all about love. You need to show you care). Once they master both languages, more often than not they will be able to comprehend and translate the information easily regardless of where they obtain those information. Make learning a third language compulsory. Every small step make will eventually reach your Satu Sekolah.
The resistance does not come from just non-Malays. Your Satu Sekolah will bound to meet a lot of resistance from educators/government servants as well. PPSMI failed because majority of the educators are not fluent in BI. We need teachers who are bilingual and better yet trilingual.
Improving present English standard by increasing the number of hours teaching it...start with grammar and enhance the teaching methods. Story telling, watching Discovery or History channel, listening to songs (not the X rated ones la) etc. Then as they move up the ladder, introduce literature like Bronte, Dickens, Alcott, Ingalls, etc. Heck even Harry Potter if you want to. You don't need to announce to the whole nation you increase the English teaching hours. Boleh implement terus. Tak payah politicize it. Tak payah papar kat Utusan, The Star.
And yes, be like Johor. Keep religious education out of main curriculum. Let the children mingle freely. You will see the enrollment for non-Malays will slowly increase in national schools. Stop the Islamization of the national curriculum. Baca doa for a perhimpunan opening is not something every non-Muslims are comfortable about. We don't need holier than thous, my religion is better than you kafirs.
The Chinese to sum up, don't need anything from us. They just want to ensure their rice bowl is secure. And they pay taxes they expect it to be use fairly (isn't that just same as us Malays?) Not duit masuk kocek Samy, Nazri, Wee, Ng etc. Talk to your every day Chinese folks not those politicians. You will see their aspirations are not different from ours. The problem is how do Malays like us reach out to them without some kind of political interference. We have much to learn from each others. If we insist on they vs us, doubt we will go anywhere in Malaysia. Your Satu Sekolah is a good start but in Malaysia, we need to start small so those bloody politicians will not interfere to cari publisiti murah.I believe there are so many Mahmoods out there who may have so many version or visions of what Satu Sekolah should be.....
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