komponen sastera in Bahasa Melayu subject

Making Malay literature (kesusasteraan Melayu) a component in the Bahasa Melayu subject may not necessarily increase the level of interest among students. Students are learning KOMSAS (komponen sastera) just for the sake of exam and do not show genuine appreciation for Malay literature. They may have read about cerita jenaka like Lebai Malang or Pak Kaduk, but try ask them if they have read about Pak Pandir, you'll be surprised that some of them may never even heard about the silly character before. Anyway, I don't suggest for Pak Pandir to be included in the syllabus though.

Sometimes I wonder if the ministry of education knows how to choose the right reading material to be used as textbooks. Maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps the problem lies in the children of today. They have no heart and soul for the poor or even tragic characters in their anthologies and novels. Many times when students were asked to read the novel Meniti Kaca, they will laugh about the character Mahyun, the mother of Nazar (the main character), because she had this penyakit nanar and who was later sent to Hospital Bahagia (so now you know why they laugh about it). When the mother was found dead under a coconut tree by the river, some students may even find that plot funny. Not only that, the majority of city kids can't relate to the story because the latar tempat and latar masyarakat in the novel were something they can't imagine of.

In a similar setting in Hadiah Hari Guru, a boy named Ramli was so poor he had to give ulam pucuk janggus as a present to his favourite teacher, Cikgu Fatimah. In reality, especially in this 21st century, a touching storyline using poverty and simplicity won't leave much impact on our students like the way it used to work on students in the 70s or 80s. Poverty still exists but this common kampung setting which keeps repeated in the school syllabus just won't work anymore especially in convincing the modern kids on how lucky they are. Perhaps we should have more short stories like Tina and Tangan Kanan, Kiri atau Kedua-duanya which are better readings for students because they emphasized on family values. I simply love the fact that the authors of the two short stories like to over use the teknik plot imbas kembali (flash back) and gaya bahasa hiperbola (exaggeration) respectively.

There are a lot of good puisi (whether tradisional or moden), prosa and drama in the anthologies used by students. Even the novels are good. However, it is not enough. In my humble opinion, students shouldn't just limit themselves to the textbooks. They must read more than what they were asked to do. There are a lot of good books that worth reading such as Syair Siti Zubaidah, Hikayat Malim Deman and Sayang Si Tina just to name a few. Sayang Si Tina, by Ali Majod is one of my all time favourite. The story is about a student called Tina who was involved in an accident and left her paralysed. The touching story is about the acceptance of oneself as well as the acceptance of others.

On the other hand, teachers must be creative in teaching KOMSAS in order to increase the level of interest among students. Instead of just asking students to read from the textbooks or give tonnes of notes on sinopsis, plot, gaya bahasa or nilai dan pengajaran, why not guide your students and start asking them to write their own piece of sajak, pantun or drama? I always believe that the opportunity to write and being guided will unearth someone's talent in literature.

Since most students never believe they could write a sajak (because teachers rarely ask them to do so), I'll share some tips on sajak writing in the coming post. I'll also let you see my first sajak published by Dewan Siswa when I was in Form 5.

when languages become excuses

Blaming employers for hiring people with proficiency in Mandarin is not the right way to tackle unemployment issue in this country.

Instead of labelling Mandarin requirement as discriminatory, our politicians should take action and encourage the learning of the most widely-spoken language in the world.

I truly agree that we should prioritize Malay language and English. However, Malaysia, after gaining independence for almost 49 years and all races living under one roof, we are still not learning each other languages. How many Chinese know how to speak Tamil? How many Indian able to speak Mandarin? And how many Malay know how to speak Mandarin and Tamil? How about Chinese and Indian who can speak fluent Malay language?

How can we talk about globalisation, peace and harmony when we are making excuses of not learning each other languages?

surname Ma

If you speak Cantonese or Mandarin, you will definitely find a comment on Sunday Star's Education pullout rather hilarious. A reader commented on the accuracy of a History book on Let's Hear It: Books should give accurate facts

"The book seems to assume that people with the surname Ma were all Muslims and that the surname Ma derived from Muslim names such as Muhammad."

If you are a Chinese you know what it means. If we do not want Malays know that we are talking about them, we refer them as "sing Ma" (which the word sing means surname) instead of calling them "Malay yan" (Malay people). Those with surname Ma might not be necessarily Muslims in China but in Malaysia, "sing Ma" are definitely Muslims.

If you still do not understand, please don't misunderstand. This is not a joke on the Malays or their religion.

declining standard of Bahasa Malaysia or improvement in English?

In the recent PMR results, we are already witnessing the decreased of passes in Bahasa Melayu. Compared to 2004, the percentage of passing rate dropped 0.9% to 92.3% in 2005. As for English subject, the percentage increased by 3.7% to 73.8% this year.

However, the statistics is not convincing enough to prove the declining standard of Bahasa Malaysia or improvement in English language. This is because 73% of students still answered Mathematics exam questions in Bahasa Malaysia while 67% did so for Science. It is not a surprise because this batch of students has strong foundation in Bahasa Malaysia.

On the other hand, I foresee that the quality of Bahasa Malaysia among the primary students, especially non-native speakers, will continue to decline in the near future. This batch of students has no exposure to Science and Mathematics in Bahasa Malaysia in both primary and secondary levels. Hence, this is a disadvantage to them especially when it comes to understanding and writing science-related topics.

Like any other languages, students need continuous exposure and practices to improve their skills in Bahasa Malaysia, too. Therefore, parents need to encourage their children to read more, constantly monitor their progresses and seek help if their children are weak in the subject.

Related post: non-Malay students must take bahasa Melayu seriously

Maths and Science in English

I'm not sure if our government finally realised the importance of Mandarin and Tamil or is this their agenda to achieve their 'dream school' the Vision School. There are no doubts that the Chinese and Indian students always have the advantage in terms of language skills. Ask an interviewer, he would prefer a candidate with advantage in speaking Mandarin over another candidate who doesn't speak any extra languages besides Malay and English.

Since the implementation of Science and Mathematics with English as its medium, we are moving towards another drastic change. Mandarin and Tamil will no longer be the alien subjects. The good news is there will be no minimum number of students to open a class. As usual the initial problem would be the lack of qualified teachers.

Whatever the problems are, let's hope this will be a long term implementation. Remember we have history in abandoning a lot of educational programmes when challenges occurs. I'm glad that the government take such step despite disgreement from certain parties. It's a good move to build a society whereby we can learn from each other. And this is the true meaning of education.