Malaysia Education

Najib: M’sian education system must change

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:13:00 +0000

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian students are too passive and the education system must change to challenge and encourage them to be more curious, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that Malaysian minds were just not inquisitive and challenged enough.

“Our education system must change. Our children are just not curious enough. They must be curious about the world. They must ask questions,” he said.

“Malaysians are very good at rote learning. They spend hours learning,” he said, adding that society too was often passive sometimes out of a sense of respect for the other especially if he or she was more senior.

Najib pointed out that every society that is open to learning and knowledge flourished while those that closed up went into decay.

He, therefore, called for an intellectual renaissance in the country and wanted this to start at universities where the minds of students could be opened up and liberated.

He said Malaysian universities had beautiful physical infrastructure and excellent communications centres that were huge and rather expensive to maintain.

However, he noted that the “intellectual infrastructure” was lacking.

He said that more openness and a greater infusion of knowledge would create a stronger society.

“The whole paradigm shift must start in schools,” he said, adding that schools should make students curious and inquisitive.

Touching on an example, he said, he was struck by a question at his daughter’s university that asked if the Cold War had ended, a question which even he would have difficulty answering.

“You can’t find the answer in text books. There is no right or wrong. It depends on your power of reasoning and how you articulate your ideas. This is the (thinking) younger generation that we must propagate,” he said in his opening speech at the Seminar on Creating a Blue Ocean in Education and Training Sectors.

He said Malaysians should look at where they were today, where they would like to be in the future and find a way to get there.

“That to me is our challenge. I’m optimistic we will get there,” he added.

At another function on early education and ‘Each Child is a Gem of the Nation’ (Permata), Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the government had recently approved the Permata curriculum and programme for children ages four and below and there would be a national roll out of the programme next year.

He said RM200mil had been set aside under the 2009 Budget for child early education (from age one to six), adding that the Permata curriculum would be made mandatory for private centres.

Najib said there were 8,814 kindergartens in the country, most of which were privately run.

He also noted that as of 2007, only 10% or 3.1mil children in that age group attended day care centres, which was far below the 80% in developed countries.

He said the government recognised that the first four years of a child’s life were formative years and that 90% of rapid brain development happened during these early years and hence there was a need for a holistic type of early education.

Najib’s wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor is the chairman of the Permata committee.

In her speech, Rosmah said, over the last 18 months, they had set up 14 Permata centres all over the country for a total of 380 children with 80 teachers, all with a minimum of a diploma education.

She said Permata was planning to set up another centre in an Indian majority area with the help of Wanita MIC.

She was also in favour of Najib’s suggestion that parents sending their kids to the Permata centre should sign a Aku Janji (I Promise) letter that they would at least spend four hours a month participating in the child’s early education.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/11/13/nation/20081113182638&sec=nation

Post young teachers to rural schools

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:33:00 +0000

IT IS good that the Education Ministry is thinking about making it compulsory for teachers to serve a stint of two or three years in rural areas. It is even better if this is implemented quickly without much ado. There is no point in mulling over for two or three years something which has proven beneficial for the country and something which can be implemented without much cost involved. All the ministry needs to do is to post as many new teachers who will be completing their teacher training soon to the rural areas.

Or if the ministry fears protests from the new teachers because they were not forewarned, it could do the next best thing: tell the new intakes for the teacher training colleges and university graduates applying to do their diplomas-in-education that they could be posted to the rural areas.

This was what it used to be until it was decided that teachers teach better when they are happy and they are happy when they are posted to schools in or near their hometowns or villages.

Making rural posting compulsory means all teachers will have to serve in villages like those in the upper reaches of the Pahang or Kinabatangan rivers. There are many benefits the schools and teachers can derive from this policy. Most importantly it will solve the problems of the shortage of teachers in rural schools. The presence of young teachers from the cities could also help improve the teaching of English and even of Bahasa Malaysia especially in dialect-bound communities.

It would be a whole new experience for the young teachers who have probably spent all of their lives in cities and towns and they should, therefore, welcome the move. Living in a rural setting might even kindle in them the love of the outdoors and adventure. And should they give in to this love, their total experience may even toughen them up. While their pupils learn from them, the teachers themselves could learn a lot from their pupils and the community in which they live.

A young Indian posted to teach in rural Sabah several years ago still speaks the rarest of the Malaysian languages, the language of the Rungus community among whom he lived for three years as an English language teacher.

Should the government implement this next year the young teachers and their parents should no longer feel anxious about being posted to Bangar or Bukok as the billions that the government has spent on rural development, especially on roads and electricity, have reduced the number of places that can be considered truly remote and isolated.

Article Source : The Sun

How To Learn Bahasa Malaysia?

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:07:00 +0000

Or rather, how to learn Bahasa Malaysia as a standard language instead of being contented speaking the very easy Creole Malay?

The first step is to assess your motive. While it is not my business to query the purity of your motive, bear in mind that purer motive is the more powerful motivation in learning a language. For example, a desire to communicate Malay-speaking people is a motivation that lasts longer than...flirting.

Next, work on your qualities as a learner:

Adaptability--Learning Bahasa Malaysia implies learning the Malay and Malaysian culture which is not synonymous with monetary gain, prestige and super power. Do you have an open mind? Are you willing to show interest in the food, music and life-style of the Malaysians? can you accept them just the way they are?

Humility--Children have no problem with this quality. For an adult, this may be a challenge as the book How to Learn a Foreign Language points out:"When you are new to the language, you must be willing to speak like-and in the respects, be treated like a child...You have to shed some of your own self-
importance and your worries about dignity if you really want to make progress ."

That includes facing the inevitable prospect of other people laughing at your mistakes...just laugh along with them.

Reasonableness--Set reasonable goals for yourself. Don't compare your progress with that of others. Don't force yourself to read books claiming to teach Bahasa Malaysia but bore you stiff or you can never understand with your great IQ. If you don't have the potential to pass for a native speaker, concentrate on communicating clearly.

Patience--It can take a long time to learn Bahasa Malaysia. Adult learners have to put aside time from their busy schedules to study only to notice a lot of inconsistencies. Well, look at it this way, scholars are still sorting things out and everyone is still waiting.

Now, we can talk about the basic learning methods:

Set aside time to study-The good news is regular short periods of time to study is more effective than irregular large chunks of time. Take word lists with you and have a look a them whenever you have a few minutes to spare or paste the list on your bathroom door.

Practise, practise, practise--You cannot learn to swim just by reading, you have to get into the water. So it is with learning Bahasa Malaysia. Interact with people whenever you can.

Put yourself in Malaysia-The best place to absorb the flavour of language, if your circumstances allow you to do so. If not, try to get radio, TV and video programmes in Bahasa Malaysia.

Caution: At times you maybe struggling along at the same level without much improvement. Don't give up. Reflect on your goals, progress and expectations. Don't be shy to ask friends to help and speak to you in Bahasa Malaysia on a regular basis.

When you reach a stage where you can understand Malaysian jokes, you will know it's worth the effort.

Wan is an ordinary Malaysian who observes idiosyncrasies in Bahasa Malaysia and is currently uploading them to http://www.bahasa-malaysia-simple-fun.com where you can learn Bahasa Malaysia free online, please visit http://www.bahasa-malaysia-simple-fun.com/malaysia_today.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wan_Yee

Finding the Right College

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:32:00 +0000

Finding the right college is very difficult for many people. They are not sure whether they should choose a school because their friends are going to it, or because it is closer to home. However, all of these reasons are pointless! Here are a few reasons that make sense on which university is better for you.

The first reason that you should pick one school over another is if it has a lower cost of tuition. If the college is willing to give you more financial aid, you should take it. However, if they are not giving you an equal educational experience as another place, you may want to reconsider taking them up on their offer.

The second reason you should consider one college over another is if it is closer to home. For people who live close to a college, it can be much cheaper to live at home instead of at the school. Room and board can cost as much as twelve thousand dollars or more depending upon the school. Living at home is free, at least to you. You will also not be paying student loans on food that you ate twenty years ago!

The third reason you should consider going to one school instead of another is if it specializes in your major. There is something to be said for attending a university that specializes in your major. They may be able to open up more doors and give you further information than another school would.

Finding the right college is not easy, so make sure that you take your time and look at all of your options. Do not worry if the school is not love at first sight, some schools may take a while to get used to.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Todd_Day

How to Save More Money in College

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:47:00 +0000

Saving money in college is extremely important. You want to make sure that you are able to keep your money for as long as possible, to pay food and books. There are a few tips that you can use to save the most money possible in your college experience.

The first step to avoid paying out for your college experience is to eat at the dorm. Most people live there, you probably do too! Take advantage of the food that you paid for and do not spend your hard earned dollars on eating out at McDonald's or another fast food establishment. Sure, they might be convenient, but the money does add up!

The second step to avoid paying out for your college experience is to buy your books online. A number of college freshman go into the college bookstore and purchase the required books off the shelf. You do not have to do this! Simply find the books that you need online and purchase them at about half of the cost of new versions.

Financial aid can be one of the best things that you can get. It is most often free money that you will never have to pay back. Do not forget to apply for the FASFA or additional scholarships that could give you more money. Only apply for scholarships that you have a good chance at winning, as there are thousands of scholarships you could apply for.

Avoiding eating out, buying your books online and applying for financial aid can save you a boat load of money in college. Do not forget to take advantage of as many of these tips as you can!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Todd_Day

Malaysia - An Open Destination For Foreign Students

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:32:00 +0000

There are many countries that are offering academic programs to international students. Countries like the United States, Australia, France, Spain and many other developed nations are not exerting much effort to lure foreign students to study in their universities, but apparently, more foreign students decide to enrol in them.

Some other countries are even making initiatives to lure and convince foreign students into enrolling in their universities. These countries hope to make the activity a form of indirect boost to tourism figures and revenues. Thinking about this, foreign students are still tourists in their own way. They still have allowances to spend and they relay the beauty they observe in their host country to friends and families they have in their homelands.

Malaysia is one of the countries that aim to convince more foreign students to enrol in their universities. The country promotes the advantage of getting college and masters degrees at its academic institutions. Malaysia openly invites foreign students to try out enrolling and studying locally.

There are many reasons why studying in Malaysia is attractive to foreign students. The government of Malaysia claims that most universities are public, meaning the institutions can be considered as research universities. There are also private universities, but Malaysia ensures that the quality of education offered in public institutions is as good.

Many foreign students enrolling in Malaysia come from the Middle East. As such, it is said that these foreign students do not see significant differences in the culture because being a Muslim country Malaysia is similar in most respects. A third reason is that the country is considered as a safe nation to be in because there is not much of a terrorist threat.

Ultimately, studying in Malaysia is affordable. Tuition fees are cheaper and practical compared to matriculation fees charged by universities in other countries.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Sanders

Garden International School Malaysia

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:05:00 +0000

Bringing Out the Best in Our Children
Garden International School is Malaysia’s largest private international school, with more than 50 years of history providing British-style education to the expatriate community in Malaysia. Catering for children from nursery level (age 3+) all the way up to A Levels (age 18+), GIS has a main campus in Kuala Lumpur and a small campus in Kuantan with a total of over 1,700 students that hail from 58 different countries.

Known for its high standards of education and stringent operational practices, GIS is one of the 200 international schools worldwide who have received full accreditation by the Council of International Schools (CIS) (formerly known as the European Council of International Schools/ECIS). GIS has also been awarded the international standard of ISO 9001:2000.

The School bases its curriculum on the National Curriculum of England with modifications made to meet local requirements. The English system provides a broad education and enables pupils to move to any other English-speaking country without suffering any educational disadvantage. Indeed, their education should be enhanced by the time spent in Malaysia's multi-cultural environment.

The curriculum is divided into several major stages:

The Foundation Programme provided by the Early Years Department
Key stage 1 (Year 1 to 2)
Key stage 2 (Year 3 to 6)
Key stage 3 (Year 7 to 9)
Key Stage 4 (Year 10 to 11)
The Sixth Form (Year 12 to 13)

Key Stages 1 and 2 are provided in the Primary School and Key Stages 3, 4 and the Sixth Form by the Secondary School. Over the years, GIS has kept an excellent record of academic success with impressive numbers of straight A’s achieved each year. These results have enabled GIS students to gain entry into top universities throughout the world, including Oxford and Cambridge.

The fully qualified and highly experienced teaching staff teach subjects which incorporate skills that students can apply in dealing with real life situations such as tackling mathematical and scientific concepts through problem solving, questioning, experimenting and observing.

GIS students are well prepared for future academic and working environment. From kindergarten level, they are taught to use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) hardware and software confidently. They are trained to use ICT facilities purposefully to communicate and handle information, which supports problem solving, recording and expressive work. The main campus at Bukit Kiara has 500 networked computers with Internet facilities and projection display facilities.

The school places emphasis on the Arts as well as the more traditional curriculum and has just completed the construction of an Arts Centre with outstanding facilities for Art, Music, Drama and Modern Languages. Specialist rooms are also used for teaching different subjects in different faculties.

All primary and secondary students are encouraged to partake in some of the 100 school co-curricular activities such as Sport Activities, Debating, Model Construction, Ten Pin Bowling, Majorette Dance, Horse Riding and Golf to name a few. Besides a football field, an indoor Sports Hall, a Gymnasium and two Covered All-purpose Court, an all-weather court provides additional facilities for tennis and basketball.

Students of the school take part in both Malaysian based and overseas sporting, artistic, cultural and exchange activities such as FOBISSEA (Federation of British International Schools in South and East Asia) Games, ISAKL (International Schools Association of Kuala Lumpur) events, Model United Nations, The International Award, Interact and school exchanges.

GIS also offers a comprehensive English as Additional Language (EAL) programme with specialist classes for students who are learning English. Students on the EAL programme not only have classes in English but also have lessons in all other subject areas.

For more information on Garden International School, visit the website at www.gardenschool.edu.my or for enquiries, contact the school at:

Address: 16 Jalan Kiara 3, Off Jalan Bukit Kiara, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Telephone: 603-6209 6888

Fax: 603-6201 2468

E-mail: admissions@gardenschool.edu.my

Malaysia's Education System Not Supportive Of Science - Scientist

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:30:00 +0000

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 (Bernama) -- While science and technology are critical to produce creative thinkers to attain the country's goal of becoming a developed nation by 2020, the education system is not supportive.

Newly-conferred Professor Emeritus Datuk Mohamed Abdul Majid noted that Malaysia still lagged behind developed countries in science and technology.

As a result, he said, the education and higher education ministries should study the school curriculum to raise the quality of education.

"In science, we are below the world average, meaning that we are, in no way, catching up with the advanced countries.

"We have to develop, if we are indeed to become a fully-developed nation by 2020," he told Bernama in an interview.

The 61-year-old scientist and educator for the past 35 years was conferred Professor Emeritus by Universiti Malaya yesterday.

"At the moment, our education system is not supporting the development of science and technology".

"When you are talking about science and technology, you are talking about people who can think, people who have intellectual power, logical thinking, critical thinking and creativity," said Mohamed, who is now attached to the Science Faculty of Brunei Darussalam University.

He said students must have the courage and freedom to acquire more knowledge and not just rely on local textbooks.

"We have got workbooks where you have to answer exactly, the answer that is given by the teacher on the book," he said, adding that the school curriculum must allow students to think and express themselves.

"This is what is happening in many other countries like Singapore, United States, South Korea, which allow the students to have freedom of expression, so there is a lot of creativity among the students (there)," said Mohamed.

He also suggested that teachers be well paid so that they could give the best to their students.

"We want teachers who are very well-qualified, only then can we expect to get very good students".

"I am suggesting that they have better salary scale, promotion prospects and better status," he said.

Education minister wants 1 Malaysia camp for students

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:31:00 +0000

Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin plans to introduce an annual 1 Malaysia camp for students to instil a sense of unity in them.

The deputy prime minister and education minister said 1 Malaysia was one of his four key performance indicators (KPI) for the Education Ministry.

“In this camp, I hope that the eight values of 1 Malaysia will be learned and planted in all the participants and therefore help push the concept of 1 Malaysia and the national education philosophy,” he told the audience at a workshop on the Education Development Master Plan (PIPP).

Muhyiddin also stressed the importance of producing quality teachers and school heads.

“A policy to place teachers who are responsive to the needs of society is a priority. School heads must also be people who are smart in interpreting, understanding the tasks given, committed and able to increase their knowledge so they can translate the education policy to daily tasks and be able to give the best education to their students,” he said.

Muhyiddin wants the education system to continue producing knowledgeable human capital who are productive, creative and innovative.

“Priority must be given to efforts to produce students who are proficient in both Malay and English language. Therefore, PIPP must realise that education is the key to achieving a Malaysian society that has integrity, morality and ethics,” he said.

He explained that it was important for the government to continue providing the necessary infrastructure because there are still remote schools which did not have electricity and clean water.

Muhyiddin said the education system must be able to produce quality students who are capable of mastering the three Qs — intellectual quotient, emotional quotient and spiritual quotient.

“This has to be the minimum requirement which is in line with the spirit of the national education philosophy,” he said.

Reform Education System to Foster Unity among Young Malaysians

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:12:00 +0000

HOPE TO SEE MULTIRACIAL STUDENTS SIT TOGETHER IN ONE SCHOOL

We Malaysian are predominantly divided by politics and education. Although there are a lot of factors we can assume as threat to our unity, but in my opinion education and politics are the most influential aspect. Before this, I have written before about politics, but this time I’m going to elaborate how education divided us and how education can bond the Malaysian as one again.

Let me start from primary education, the role of vernacular schools are undeniable, however the schools are not relevant for current and future Malaysia. As we know the gaps between races are far more worrying. We must bring one system which only with national schools. Vernacular schools abolished and the Tamil and Mandarin must made compulsory. This will make our education system become competent.

All races combined in National schools striving towards one direction and vision. Schools students won’t think about the difference of race when they still in the primary school when they mix together in one surrounding as BANGSA MALAYSIA. So the style will continue to secondary schools, Universities and so in their life. Now what’s happening in school? The majority of the students from vernacular schools continue their relation only with their friends that they have from primary schools. And even the new buddy they approach also among same race. Similar things happen in universities and even in working environments.

UNITY CAN BE ACHIEVED THROUGH REFORMATION OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

Since independent, we are witnessing, there are a lot of NGOs, individual and nevertheless party politics are claiming that they are championing the vernacular schools. In our nation, a lot of struggles to develop these vernacular schools and some politician even politicking this issue for their personal benefit. They have forgotten that it’s their responsibility to upgrade the schools. I think we don’t need such politicians to defend our schools, they fooling the people and the people also being cheated again and again in many occasions.

Rather than struggling for nothing and finally we lost everything. We must ready to change and to be changed. Please be brave enough to make some reformation in our nation. If we carry on with the same school system, we not only lost national unity but also our Tamil language and Tamil schools. Lets we do some calculation. Currently, Tamil school students in Malaysia is more than 110 000, the number of schools is 523. In 10 years time the number of students will increase tremendously may be around 150 000. Just calculate in 20 years time, we will have around 200 000 pupils with only 523 schools.

Tamil school’s condition not allows such number of students. Even now also we are facing massive problems such as lack of classrooms, basic amenities and some schools even no roof to protect the students from sun and rain. Although these upsetting situations continue to pressure Tamil schools from continuously in defending Tamil, but it doesn’t work effectively. Most of the parents want their children to study in conducive environments.

And even some of the parents couldn’t send their children since the nearest Tamil school packed with students and closed for registration. Following the national school doesn’t mean minorities in Malaysia has given up their effort. Malaysian Indians right not under threat if we tolerate in this matter, in the other hand equal rights of receiving educational facilities guaranteed. And the most significant thing is unity and relationship among our new generation improved definitely. We educated to be liberal minded since no prejudice among all group of people. We learn a lot regarding others culture and have better understanding between each other.

Some Tamil and Mandarin pundits worrying that growth of the languages under risk if vernacular schools removed, I believe with the one National schools system, Tamil and Mandarin will grow much more promisingly. As we know there are moral classes for non-Muslim students during religious class for Malays. The moral should be replaced with Tamil and Mandarin language subjects. In the other point of view, the Tamil learning students motivated to learn Tamil when Chinese students learning Mandarin by giving full commitment. Tamil learning students definitely will take their initiative too to emulate the Chinese after witnessing their spirit to learn the language.

Back to the relationship within the ethnic, role of education is really important. So lets we together give up own agenda and change our mindset to emphasis on National agenda. There are always solutions behind each problem. Don’t use the same approach to solve the same problem again and again, it won’t works. As the result, finally we get nothing for our struggle, try to accept the fact that we need to strive together upon national agenda to get equal rights and opportunity. Please brave enough to change or to be changed!

I hope no street demonstrations, no other ISA arrests, no tears, no hurts, no politics, no discrimination, and no marginalization, nothing after this. Please think smart, think for our future Malaysia, unity we can achieve through the reform of education system.

Education success puts Malaysia 45th in UN index

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:41:00 +0000

Efforts to bridge the education gap between urban and rural areas have borne fruit and this is reflected in Malaysia's 45th placing among 129 countries in Unesco's Education-For-All Development Index.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the Education-For-All Global Monitoring Report 2009 of which the world body is the coordinator has put Malaysia on par with several developed nations for its success in closing this education gap.

The commendable efforts are in line with Unesco's objectives, said Muhyiddin, who is also the education minister, at the opening of the fourth review conference of the national development master plan 2006-2010.

"This means that all aspects of the country's education such as access, equities and quality are at a very good level. Despite this, efforts must be doubled to enhance the level of accessibility, especially for students in rural areas and the interiors."

This is because there are about 125,000 children who still do not attend school.

"Most of them are living in outlying areas and the interior. Therefore, efforts should be intensified to ensure that these children also receive similar opportunity and are provided with equal capabilities so that they can gain access to education."

The present education sector policy should not be confined only to improving digital access but all aspects of education.

"There is nothing more sincere than working extra hard to ensure that these children get access to education," he said.

Muhyiddin called for emphasis to be given to the prime minister's vision of "1Malaysia, people first, performance now" and expanding the access for quality education.

"The 1Malaysia vision is a continuity of the Razak Report which is to make national education a vision to produce a united and knowledgeable society.

"I hope the thrust to build one nation based on 1Malaysia will continue to be given emphasis in our education planning."

Through the education system, he said an individual should at least be able to master three quotients -- intellectual, emotional and spiritual.

In producing quality teachers, Muhyiddin suggested a responsive teacher placement policy be introduced.

"Besides teachers, the quality of school leaders must also be looked into. The time has come for school leaders to be chosen not just based on seniority but also talent, dynamic leadership and quality."

Such leaders must be able to translate the national education policy in their daily routine.

He proposed extra attention be given to producing holistic students with strong proficiency in both Bahasa Malaysia and English.

He said 1Malaysia camps should be held every year.

"Through these camps, it is my hope that the eight values in 1Malaysia could be understood by participants."

Under the 2006-2010 masterplan, the ministry had targeted to implement 13,014 rural projects at a cost of RM25.2 billion. Up to December last year, 6,386 projects had been completed.

Muhyiddin said 2,348 pre-school classes had been made available for Orang Asli and Penan children.

More than 2,250 computer laboratories and 3,600 access centres will be built to benefit over 2.8 million students in rural areas.

British education, right in Malaysia

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:31:00 +0000

NOTHING beats a good British education. And there’s little doubt that universities in Britain are clearly among the world’s best.

The fact that no less than 400,000 Malaysians have obtained degrees in Britain goes to show the popularity of British education among those back home.

Indeed, international students – including some 12,000 Malaysians – contribute over £2.5bil l(RM14.4bil) in tuition fees alone to the British economy each year.

A staggering figure, you may say.

Then there are those who yearn for the prestige of a British degree but cannot afford to study in Britain.

For them, it is an elusive dream – no thanks to rising tuition fees and stiff upfront payments under the Tier Four (students) points-based visa system.

However, British universities are increasingly expanding abroad and tapping the huge offshore student market, which accounted for nearly £270mil (RM1.5bil) in fees last year.

So, it’s perhaps time to look at a new kind of educational collaboration where – apart from British universities – British-style boarding schools can be brought to Malaysia. This would allow our students to have a British education without leaving our shores.

So far, Cardiff University, Manchester University and University of Reading are said to be eyeing Malaysia while boarding schools like Marlborough College, Wellington College and Epsom College have expressed interest too.

Even the prestigious Cheltenham Ladies College and Roedean All-Girls College are reportedly keen in jumping on the bandwagon.

For the record, Nottingham University already has a branch campus in Semenyih and Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia’s (NUMed) campus in Nusajaya, Johor, is scheduled to open in 2011.

Brain drain

British-Malaysia Society chairman Datuk Neville Green expressed confidence that it was economically and financially viable to set up British-style boarding schools in Malaysia.

He said they could cater to the expatriate children of foreign investors and Asean nationals as well as Malaysians who could not afford to send their children to boarding schools in Britain.

Green said he knew that a number of British public schools were interested in expanding to Malaysia but they were being held back by the global economic downturn.

“The timing is just not right,” he said, adding that it was the right time to start thinking (about expanding to Malaysia) although not the opportune time to make a decision.

He said Wellington College, for instance, was looking at Selangor while Epsom College was eyeing the Kuala Lumpur Education City.

Wellington College, he said, had held talks with its Malaysian counterparts, and it was keen on Selangor because a number of its former students were from that state.

“There is also a need for boarding schools for girls and Cheltenham Ladies College and Roedean College have expressed interest in Malaysia,” he noted.

Green said once the opportunity was ripe, they might take the next step in finding business partners to develop the sites and finance the projects.

Bringing quality British education to Malaysia, he added, would help to reverse the brain drain as parents no longer needed to send their children to study in Britain.

Emerging trend

Malaysian High Commissioner to Britain Datuk Abdul Aziz Mohamad said it was time Malaysians moved away from the mindset of pursuing higher education in Britain.

He said the number of Malaysian students coming to Britain had been declining over the years, with a lot of diversions to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.

“We’re now all over the place, with Australia and New Zealand getting about 32,000 Malaysian students,” he said, adding that many had also gone to Ukraine, Germany and France.

Abdul Aziz said some British universities were trying to capture a slice of the Malaysian market through collaborations with their local counterparts.

He spoke of an emerging trend where British institutions set up boarding schools and campuses in Malaysia.

For instance, he said, Marlborough College, Cardiff University and Manchester University had expressed interest in venturing into Malaysia.

“There are a few more but nothing is concrete yet. It’s still at an exploratory stage,” he added.

Iskandar Investment Bhd’s senior vice-president (education & healthcare) Khairil Anwar Ahmad said talks were under way to bring British-style boarding schools and tertiary institutions to Malaysia.

He said besides NUMed, they hoped to attract eight other universities and several boarding schools to set up branch campuses at Iskandar Malaysia’s EduCity in Nusajaya and other nearby sites.

Other countries in Europe, and Australia and the US have shown interest in establishing branch campuses at Iskandar Malaysia’s EduCity.

“EduCity will be developed into a fully integrated education hub comprising best-in-class faculties of reputable universities,” he added.

And for foreign investors and expatriates who wish to do business or set up a second home in Malaysia, Iskandar Malaysia is offering what may be seen as the ultimate work-live-play environment.

Najib: Malaysia will ensure world-class education

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:16:00 +0000

KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 – While Malaysia practises an open door policy on partnerships involving local and foreign education institutions, it also strives to ensure the quality of education adheres to world-class standards.

In line with this, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak has encouraged local institutions to forge partnerships with reputable education institutions overseas.

“We have to make sure that we put in place, the necessary regulatory functions to ensure the standards, and also to ensure the agency responsible will facilitate the approval of world-class or outstanding institutions that want to establish their branch campus here.

“We have an open door policy and there are very active discussions (about it) now, I know one particular institution (that would like to set up its branch campus) in the Iskandar Development Region in the near future,” he told reporters after opening the 17th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre here today.

He was responding to a question on efforts taken to boost Malaysia’s position as an education hub.

To a question on encouraging other stakeholders to play a role in the Malaysian education system, Najib said the government had always believed that education was the responsibility of all its citizens.

“It has always been predicated on the public and private sector, from the primary schools to the universities.

“We have incorporated the civil society in the running of our public schools by getting the support of our parent-teacher associations.

“As for the involvement of non-governmental organisations, we have the teachers and their unions that we engage with,” he said.

Besides that, he said, political parties were part of the stakeholders who partook in the development of education.

Experts to jointly review Malaysia’s education system

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:55:00 +0000

Malaysia and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) experts will jointly review the national education system in line with global changes.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the move would provide a more balanced assessment of the country’s education system.

Warm welcome: Matsuura (right) welcoming Muhyiddin at the Unesco headquarters in Paris yesterday.

He stressed that the review would cover only the implementation process and not policy which had been accepted by the people.

“We will draw up the terms of reference for the review and, hopefully, it can start this year,” he told Malaysian journalists after meeting Unesco director-general Koichiro Matsuura at the organisation’s headquarters yesterday.

Muhyiddin arrived here earlier for a three-day working visit.

This is his first working visit overseas as deputy premier and Education Minister.

Muhyiddin said education must move in tandem with, if possible ahead of, what’s happening around the world.

“We’re looking at the bigger picture. We want our education quality to be on par with world standards,” he said, citing the progress in the fields of technology, science, ICT and knowledge,

He said Malaysia would benefit from the experience and expertise of Unesco in helping to improve the system to achieve the national education objectives.

“They can provide us with a third person’s perspective on how to further raise our education standards to a higher level,” he added.

Muhyiddin, however, said the review did not mean there were weaknesses in the education system which had achieved success over the years.

Muhyiddin said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has been invited to address the 35th Unesco General Conference’s first plenary session on Oct 6.

This would be the first time in Malaysia’s 51-year history with Unesco that its Prime Minister would address the world body’s opening plenary session as such invitations are usually reserved for heads of states.

He said it was a historic milestone for Malaysia as Unesco has never invited a head of government to give a keynote speech at its first plenary session.

“This will provide an opportunity for our Prime Minister to present his vision and mission in addressing issues of global interests,” he said after presenting Najib’s acceptance letter to Matsuura.

Muhyiddin met Elysee Palace secretary-general Claude Gueant and French Education Minister Luc Chatel before attending a dinner with the Malaysian community in France.

Malaysia to move away from exam-centric education system

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:02:00 +0000

KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 — There will be a shift towards continuous assessment of students instead of assessment purely on centralised exams in two years' time.

The proposal to introduce other methods of assessment has been on trial for two years, it was revealed today, and is aimed at addressing what parliamentarians called the "A syndrome" where people are obsessed simply with scoring as many As as possible for exams.

This trend has resulted in difficulty on the government's part to justify the awarding of public scholarships as it claims it has to balance academic and non-academic qualifications.

The new system, called the National Education Assessment System (SPPK), will see five assessments being introduced; school, central, psychometric, physical activity and co-curriculum, as well as central exams.

Deputy Education Minister Datuk Wee Ka Siong told Parliament today that a pilot project has already been rolled out in 50 last year and 500 schools this year respectively, although it had no set date to roll out the system.

He said this in reply to a question by Salahuddin Ayub (PAS-Kubang Kerian) who said that the current reliance on central exams has created an "A syndrome" where teachers and parents focus solely on racking up distinctions.

Wee, acknowledging that the trend has become a community-wide obsession, said that the new policy would allow "schools to evaluate students independently" based on certain guidelines set out by the ministry.

By 2011, the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM), the national pre-university course, will shift towards a "modular" system from the current "terminal" one.

"This means that each semester you will be tested only on what you learnt that semester," Wee told reporters later.

However, he said that a final exam would still be conducted and this would make up 70 to 80 per cent of the final marks with the exams module taking up the rest.

Later on, the ministry is proposing that the primary school-leaving Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah exam allow for 70 per cent grading outside a central exam.

The lower secondary evaluation Penilaian Menengah Rendah would be split evenly, while the crucial school-leaving Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia would have 70 per cent weightage for a final central exam.

Wee explained that the ascending scale of importance for central exams was due to a need for a streamlined assessment prior to government allocations for public university places and scholarships.

Such a system would also make non-exam evaluation crucial at an early age, build soft skills earlier and set up the right foundations for students to have what Wee called "educability, trainability, employability and marketability."

Never ending JPA scholarship 'controversies'

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:00:00 +0000

The latest JPA scholarship results have been announced and not surprisingly, it has been met with howls of protests among the usual quarters, starting with the MCA.

Here are a few links to some newspaper reports that document these protests as well as the JPA's response to these protests. You can access them here, here and here.

Protests and appeals should not be surprising given the limited number of scholarships and the higher number of 'deserving' candidates. But the JPA is not helpless in trying to quell some of these protests.

What the JPA needs to do is the following:

(i) Clarify the objectives of the JPA scholarship

- Is it to give an opportunity for academically excellent Malaysian students to study abroad?
- Is it to create a pool of talented workers who would come back to serve the country in the civil service?
- Is it to reward students from academically disadvantaged backgrounds e.g. from rural areas, from lower class families, from Sabah and Sarawak etc... an opportunity to study abroad?
- Does awarding the local versus the foreign JPA scholarship fulfill different objectives e.g. are those who are academically more gifted awarded the foreign JPA scholarship?
- How important is the racial 'quota' in determining who ultimately gets this scholarship?

Right now, my impression is that the JPA is trying to be all things to all people and trying to fulfill too many fast changing objectives with the awarding of these scholarships.

(ii) Make the criterion for obtaining these scholarships transparent to the public

- Hopefully what this will do is to quell some of the protests. At least if the public knows what these criterion are e.g. to reward students from rural areas, they will understand even if they might not agree with these criteria.

I always feel that more information and transparency is better.

(iii) Have some sort of tracking mechanism to see if these objectives have been met

- For example, JPA could easily track the statistics of different scholarship recipients e.g. % of scholars obtaining places to study in the top universities in the UK or US, graduation rates of scholars with different academic abilities based on their SPM results, % of scholars who return to Malaysia after graduation, % of scholars who return to Malaysia and work for the civil service, etc...
- Using these statistics, the JPA as well as their political masters can decide on whether their objectives have been fulfilled and if not, how the criteria for selection needs to be changed to fulfill these objectives

Right now, most JPA scholars who go abroad either don't come back to Malaysia or if they do, end up working in the private sector which is what they would have done anyways, without the JPA scholarship. Hence, it is a waste of taxpayers money.

My sense is that for this year's JPA scholarship, many more students who did not achieve academically stellar SPM results and who were from rural areas were awarded a disproportionate share of the scholarships while many students who were more academically superior but who are from the urban areas were rejected.

We've blogged about the JPA scholarships many, many times in this blog. I will summarize some of the recommendations which have been put forth here:

(i) Award these scholarships only after these students have applied to and obtained places in foreign universities
(ii) Give priority to those students who have obtained places in some of the top schools in foreign universities based on a pre-approved list of universities
(iii) Bond these students so that they have to return to Malaysia to serve in the civil service

If I were advising the Malaysian government on this matter, I would recommend the following steps:

(i) Refer to the JPA foreign scholarships as the JPA scholarships. Call the local scholarships something else since most of the attention is paid to the places for foreign universities.
(ii) Restrict the number of JPA foreign scholarships so that you can be more selective about who you pick to received these scholarships.
(iii) Create an administrative layer within the civil service that is specifically in charge of 'taking in' these JPA scholars as civil servants so that their skills and expertise can be utilized for the public good
(iv) Allow other GLCs to recruit these JPA scholars but with the caveat that these GLCs have to pay back a certain value of the scholarships (but with a discount) so that the taxpayers' money is accounted for

I would make it absolutely clear that the JPA foreign scholarships will be awarded to the best and the brightest who are willing to come back to serve their country. This way, the JPA scholarships will have a focus instead of trying to be all things to all people.

And hopefully, end some of these always occurring 'controversies' about who is or is not deserving of a JPA foreign scholarship.

Malaysia, Education & Tuition

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:13:00 +0000

This guide is written to help those who are not familiar with Malaysia understand better the articles posted on this website. Many of the articles assume, on the part of the readers, a comfortable level of knowledge in educational and societal norms of this country. For these and also other country-specific references found elsewhere on this site, an introduction will be helpful for foreigners. If you are a Malaysian, you might want to skip this guide and go straight on to the collection of education & tuition articles or go to our main site. Whenever possible, equivalent popular terms will be provided in the Malay Language (Bahasa Melayu, Bahasa Malaysia) in italicized font.

Malaysia
To begin with, Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy consisting of 13 states (negeri) and 3 federal territories (wilayah persekutuan). The country is geographically separated into two regions, West Malaysia (Malaysia Barat) and East Malaysia (Malaysia Timur), by the South China Sea (Laut China Selatan). East Malaysia forms part of the Borneo island and consists of 2 states, Sabah and Sarawak, and the Federal Territory of Labuan (Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan). West Malaysia, which is also known as Peninsular Malaysia (Semenanjung Malaysia) hosts the remaining 11 states, the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur), and the Federal Territory of Putrajaya (Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya). The capital (ibu negara) of Malaysia is the City of Kuala Lumpur (Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur) - usually abbreviated as KL; while Putrajaya is referred to as the country's administrative capital. On the other hand, Labuan is a free port and also an offshore financial center. Following lists all the states and their respective state capitals:

*State (Negeri) - State Capital (Ibu Negeri)*
Johor (Johor) - Johor Bahru, or JB (Johor Baru) Kedah (Kedah) - Alor Star (Alor Setar) Kelantan (Kelantan) - Kota Bharu (Kota Bharu) Melaka (Melaka) - City of Malacca (Bandaraya Melaka) Negeri Sembilan (Negeri Sembilan) - Seremban (Seremban) Pahang (Pahang) - Kuantan (Kuantan) Perak (Perak) - Ipoh (Ipoh)	Perlis (Perlis) - Kangar (Kangar) Pulau Pinang (Pulau Pinang) - George Town (Georgetown) Sabah (Sabah) - Kota Kinabalu, or KK (Kota Kinabalu) Sarawak (Sarawak) - Kuching (Kuching) Selangor (Selangor) - Shah Alam (Shah Alam) Terengganu (Terengganu) - Kuala Terengganu (Kuala Terengganu)

The Malaysian people is a multi ethnic society made up of three major races; the Malays and the Indigenous Peoples (Melayu & Bumiputera, or Bumiputra); the Chinese (Cina); and the Indians (India). By and large, the west coast (pantai barat) of Peninsular Malaysia is dominantly populated by the Malays, while the east coast (pantai timur) reflect a more heterogenous mixture of ethnicity. The most extensive co-minglings occur in urban areas like the Klang Valley (Lembah Kelang, or Lembah Klang); specifically in places such as Kuala Lumpur (KL), Petaling Jaya (PJ), Subang Jaya (SJ), Cheras, Bangsar, Brickfields, Ampang, Damansara, Shah Alam, Sri Hartamas, Selayang, Kepong, Kelana Jaya, Gombak, Rawang, USJ, Sri Petaling, Puchong, Sunway etc. The national language (bahasa kebangsaan) is the Malay Language (Bahasa Melayu, or Bahasa Malaysia, or BM), although English (Bahasa Inggeris, or BI) is spoken extensively as a second language. Among the various ethnic groups, their mother tongues (bahasa ibunda) are also used, such as Mandarin (Bahasa Mandarin, or Bahasa Cina), Cantonese (Bahasa Kantonis), Tamil (Bahasa Tamil), Punjabi (Bahasa Punjabi) & etc. The national currency is the Malaysian Ringgit (Ringgit Malaysia, or RM).

Kindergarten
Kindergarten or pre-schooling is compulsory for 6-year old children in Malaysia. Pre-school (pra-sekolah, prasekolah) institutions of this country are often known as Tadika (Taman didikan kanak-kanak), Tabika (Taman bimbingan kanak-kanak), Taska (Taman asuhan kanak-kanak), Nursery, Kindergarten etc. They all follow the National Pre-school Curriculum (Kurikulum Prasekolah Kebangsaan). Subjects taught under this curriculum include:

*National Preschool Curiculum (Kurikulum Prasekolah Kebangsaan)*
Malay Language (Bahasa Melayu) English Language (Bahasa Inggeris) Chinese Language (Bahasa Cina); or Tamil Language (Bahasa Tamil) Science (Sains) Mathematics (Matematik)	Islamic Education (Pendidikan Islam); or Moral Education (Pendidikan Moral) Socio-emotional Education (Pendidikan Sosioemosi) Physical Education (Pendidikan Jasmani) Arts, Music & Creative Movement (Pendidikan Seni, Muzik & Pergerakan Kreatif)

Primary School
At age 7, children begin their formal education (pendidikan) in primary schools (sekolah rendah). Primary schooling lasts 6 years altogether. Pupils advance from Tahun 1 (Darjah 1, Primary 1, Standard 1, Year 1) through Tahun 2 (Darjah 2, Primary 2, Standard 2, Year 2), Tahun 3 (Darjah 3, Primary 3, Standard 3, Year 3), Tahun 4 (Darjah 4, Primary 4, Standard 4, Year 4), Tahun 5 (Darjah 5, Primary 5, Standard 5, Year 5) & Tahun 6 (Darjah 6, Primary 6, Standard 6, Year 6). Primary schools can usually be recognised by the prefixes in their names, such as SK - Sekolah Kebangsaan; SJK - Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan; SJK(C) - Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina; SJK(T) - Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil; SRJK - Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan; SRJK(C) - Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina; SRJK(T) - Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil; and SA - Sekolah Agama. The multitudes of variations is due to the fact that schools use different ethnic languages as their medium of instruction. However, they all subscribe to the same national curriculum known as KBSR (Kurikulum Baru Sekolah Rendah / Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Rendah), or New Curriculum for Primary School / Integrated Curriculum for Primary School. Using this scheme, primary schooling is separated into Level I (Tahap I) and Level II (Tahap II). Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 are grouped as Level I; while Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 are grouped as Level II. The academic subjects (matapelajaran, mata pelajaran) taught under KBSR are listed below:

*Subjects in Level I - Years 1, 2 & 3 (Subjek dalam Tahap I - Tahun 1, 2 & 3)*
Malay Language (Bahasa Melayu) English Language (Bahasa Inggeris) Chinese Language (Bahasa Cina) Tamil Language (Bahasa Tamil) Science (Sains) Mathematics (Matematik)	Music Education (Pendidikan Muzik) Visual Arts Education (Pendidikan Seni Visual) Physical Education (Pendidikan Jasmani) Health Education (Pendidikan Kesihatan) Moral Education (Pendidikan Moral) Islamic Education (Pendidikan Islam)

*Subjects in Level II - Years 4, 5 & 6 (Subjek dalam Tahap II - Tahun 4, 5 & 6)*
Malay Language (Bahasa Melayu) English Language (Bahasa Inggeris) Chinese Language (Bahasa Cina) Tamil Language (Bahasa Tamil) Science (Sains) Mathematics (Matematik) Local Studies (Kajian Tempatan)	Integrated Living Skills (Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu) Music Education (Pendidikan Muzik) Visual Arts Education (Pendidikan Seni Visual) Physical Education (Pendidikan Jasmani) Health Education (Pendidikan Kesihatan) Moral Education (Pendidikan Moral) Islamic Education (Pendidikan Islam)

Secondary School
After primary schooling, pupils will move on to secondary schooling. However, those from ethnic primary schools who wish to enter national schools will undergo a year in a remove class / remove form (kelas peralihan / tingkatan peralihan). Secondary schooling takes 5 years altogether. Students advance from Form1 (Tingkatan 1) through Form 2 (Tingkatan 2), Form 3 (Tingkatan 3), Form 4 (Tingkatan 4) & Form 5 (Tingkatan 5). Similar to primary schools, secondary schools can usually be recognised by the prefixes in their names, such as SMK - Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan; SMJK - Sekolah Menengah Jenis Kebangsaan; SMJK(C) - Sekolah Menengah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina; SMJK(T) - Sekolah Menengah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil; SMB - Sekolah Menengah Bantuan; and SMA - Sekolah Menengah Agama. However, they all subscribe to the same national curriculum known as KBSM (Kurikulum Baru Sekolah Menengah / Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Menengah), or New Curriculum for Secondary School / Integrated Curriculum for Secondary School. Using this scheme, secondary schooling is separated into Lower Secondary School (Sekolah Menengah Rendah - SMR) and Upper Secondary School (Sekolah Menengah Atas - SMA). Form 1, Form 2 and Form 3 are grouped as SMR; while Form 4 and Form 5 are grouped as SMA. The academic subjects (mata pelajaran) taught under KBSM are listed below:

Subjects in Lower Secondary School - Forms 1, 2 & 3 (Subjek dalam Sekolah Menengah Rendah - Tingkatan 1, 2 & 3)
Malay Language (Bahasa Melayu) English Language (Bahasa Inggeris) Chinese Language (Bahasa Cina) Tamil Language (Bahasa Tamil) Science (Sains) Mathematics (Matematik) Geography (Geografi) History (Sejarah)	Integrated Living Skills (Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu) Music Education (Pendidikan Muzik) Visual Arts Education (Pendidikan Seni Visual) Physical Education (Pendidikan Jasmani) Health Education (Pendidikan Kesihatan) Moral Education (Pendidikan Moral) Islamic Education (Pendidikan Islam) Malay Language Practice (Amalan Bahasa Melayu) - for Remove Class (Kelas Peralihan) only

Subjects in Upper Secondary School - Forms 4 & 5
(Subjek dalam Sekolah Menengah Atas - Tingkatan 4 & 5)

Apart from the subjects listed above, Form 4 and Form 5 students in vocational (vokasional, vokesyenal) schools can also select the following subjects:

Subjects in Vocational School - Forms 4 & 5
(Subjek dalam Sekolah Vokasional - Tingkatan 4 & 5)

Domestic Construction (Pembinaan Domestik)
Furniture Making (Membuat Perabot)
Signage Design (Seni Reka Tanda)
Food Planting (Tanaman Makanan)
Facial Care and Hairdressing (Penjagaan Muka dan Dandanan Rambut)
Domestic Electrical Appliances Servicing (Menservis Peralatan Elektrik Domestik)
Clothing Design and Sewing (Rekaan dan Jahitan Pakaian)
Catering and Serving (Katering dan Penyajian)
Landscape and Nursery (Lanskap dan Nurseri)

Aquaculture and Recreational Animals (Akuakultur dan Haiwan Rekreasi)
Cooling and Air-Conditioning Equipment Servicing (Menservis Peralatan Penyejukan dan Penyamanan Udara)
Basic Interior Design (Hiasan Dalaman Asas)
Early Childhood Education and Care (Asuhan dan Pendidikan Awal Kanak-Kanak)
Multimedia Production (Produksi Multimedia)
Computer Graphics (Grafik Berkomputer)
Food Processing (Pemprosesan Makanan)
Domestic Wiring (Pendawaian Domestik)
Automobile Servicing (Menservis Automobil)

In addition to Forms 1 to 5, there is also a Form 6 (Tingkatan 6) which serves as a pre-university (pra-universiti) level. Form 6 students comprise of two stages - Lower 6 (Tingkatan 6 Bawah) and Upper 6 (Tingkatan 6 Atas). Students in Form 6 are usually aiming to enter one of the several local universities in Malaysia. In order to achieve that, they will have to do well in the STPM examination. The subjects available in Form 6 will be covered in the section on STPM below.

UPSR
UPSR, short for Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah or Primary School Achievement Test is a compulsory national examination (peperiksaan kebangsaan) for Year 6 primary school students. These pupils will sit for the exam at the end of their academic year. Not all subjects that are taught in school will be tested though. Only selected subjects considered as important are covered in the UPSR. These subjects are:

Subjects in Primary School Achievement Test, UPSR - Year 6 (Subjek dalam Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah, UPSR - Tahun 6)
Malay Language - Comprehension (Bahasa Melayu - Pemahaman) Malay Language - Composition (Bahasa Melayu - Penulisan) English Language (Bahasa Inggeris) Mathematics (Matematik) Science (Sains)	Chinese Language - Comprehension (Bahasa Cina - Pemahaman) Chinese Language - Composition (Bahasa Cina - Penulisan) Tamil Language - Comprehension (Bahasa Tamil - Pemahaman) Tamil Language - Composition (Bahasa Tamil - Penulisan)

PMR
PMR, short for Penilainan Menengah Rendah or Lower Secondary Assessment is a compulsory national examination (peperiksaan kebangsaan) for Form 3 secondary school students. These pupils will sit for the exam at the end of their academic year. Not all subjects that are taught in school will be tested though. Only selected subjects considered as important are covered in the PMR. These subjects are:

Subjects in Lower Secondary Assessment, PMR - Form 3 (Subjek dalam Penilaian Menengah Rendah, PMR - Tingkatan 3)
Malay Language (Bahasa Melayu) English Language (Bahasa Inggeris) Chinese Language (Bahasa Cina) Tamil Language (Bahasa Tamil) Arabic Language - Communication (Bahasa Arab - Komunikasi) Punjabi Language (Bahasa Punjabi)	Mathematics (Matematik) Science (Sains) History (Sejarah) Geography (Geografi) Islamic Education (Pendidikan Islam) Integrated Living Skills (Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu) Iban Language (Bahasa Iban)

SPM / SPMV
SPM, short for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia or Malaysian Certificate of Education is a compulsory national examination (peperiksaan kebangsaan) for Form 5 secondary school students. These pupils will sit for the exam at the end of their academic year. For vocational schools, the equivalent examination will be SPM(V), short for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (Vokasional) or Malaysian Certificate of Education (Vocational). Subjects offered in the SPM / SPVM are:

Subjects in Malaysian Certificate of Education, SPM / SPMV - Form 5
(Subjek dalam Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia, SPM / SPMV - Tingkatan 5)

Malay Language (Bahasa Melayu)
English Language (Bahasa Inggeris)
Islamic Education (Pendidikan Islam)
Moral Education (Pendidikan Moral)
History (Sejarah)
Mathematics (Matematik)
Science (Sains)
English Literature (Kesusasteraan Bahasa Inggeris)
Malay Literature (Kesusasteraan Melayu)
Geography (Geografi)
Advanced Arabic Language (Bahasa Arab Tinggi)
Arts Education (Pendidikan Seni)
Music Education (Pendidikan Muzik)
Additional Mathematics (Matematik Tambahan)
Agricultural Science (Sains Pertanian)
Commerce (Perdagangan)
Accounting Principles (Prinsip Akaun)
Basic Economics (Ekonomi Asas)
Household Economics (Ekonomi Rumah Tangga)
Engineering Drawing (Lukisan Kejuruteraan)
Mechanical Engineering Studies (Pengajian Kejuruteraan Jentera)
Civil Engineering Studies (Pengajian Kejuruteraan Awam)
Electrical and Electronic Engineering Study (Pengajian Kejuruteraan Elektrik dan Elektronik)
Design (Reka Cipta)
Engineering Technology (Teknologi Kejuruteraan)
Information Technology (Teknologi Maklumat)
Physics (Fizik)
Chemistry (Kimia)
Biology (Biologi)
Additional Science (Sains Tambahan)
Sports Science Knowledge (Pengetahuan Sains Sukan)
Islamic Tasawwur (Tasawwur Islam)
Al-Quran and As-Sunnah Education (Pendidikan Al-Quran dan As-Sunnah)
Syariah Islamiah Education (Pendidikan Syariah Islamiah)
Chinese Language (Bahasa Cina)
Tamil Language (Bahasa Tamil)
Arabic Language - Communication (Bahasa Arab - Komunikasi)
Machine Workshop Technology (Teknologi Bengkel Mesin)
Grinding and Machining Work (Kerja Menggegas dan Memesin)
Machine and Geometrical Drawing (Lukisan Geometri dan Mesin)
Building Construction Technology (Teknologi Binaan Bangunan)
Wood and Brick Work (Kerja Kayu dan Bata)
Building Construction and Geometrical Drawing (Lukisan Geometri dan Binaan Bangunan)

Electrical Technology (Teknologi Elektrik)
Electrical Control and Installation (Pemasangan dan Kawalan Elektrik)
Electrical and Geometrical Drawing (Lukisan Geometri dan Elektrik)
Electronics Technology (Teknologi Elektronik)
TV and Radio Servicing (Menservis Radio dan TV)
Electronics and Geometrical Drawing (Lukisan Geometri dan Elektronik)
Metal Fabrication and Welding Technology (Teknologi Kimpalan dan Fabrikasi Logam)
Welding Work (Kerja Kimpalan)
Metal Fabrication and Geometrical Drawing (Lukisan Geometri dan Fabrikasi Logam)
Automotive Technology (Teknologi Automotif)
Vehicle Repair and Servicing (Menservis dan Membaiki Kenderaan)
Automotive and Geometrical Drawing (Lukisan Geometri dan Automotif)
Air-Conditioning and Cooling Technology (Teknologi Penyejukan dan Penyamanan Udara)
Air-Conditioning and Cooling Work (Kerja Penyejukan dan Penyamanan Udara)
Air-Conditioning and Geometrical Drawing (Lukisan Geometri dan Penyamanan Udara)
Basic Information Processing (Asas Pemprosesan Maklumat)
Catering Technology (Teknologi Katering)
Food Preparation and Service (Penyediaan dan Perkhidmatan Makanan)
Clothes Making and Fashion Design Technology (Teknologi Rekaan Fesyen dan Membuat Pakaian)
Clothes Making and Fashion Design (Rekaan Fesyen dan Membuat Pakaian)
Cosmetics Technology (Teknologi Seni Kecantikan)
Make-Up and Hairdressing (Persolekan dan Mendandan Rambut)
Confectionery and Bakery Technology (Teknologi Bakeri dan Konfeksioneri)
Patisserie and Bread Making (Membuat Roti dan Patisserie)
Child Care (Asuhan Kanak-Kanak)
Minding and Caring for Children (Mengasuh dan Membimbing Kanak-kanak)
Plants Production (Pengeluaran Tanaman)
Poultry Production (Pengeluaran Ternakan)
Decorative Horticulture and Landscaping (Hortikultur Hiasan dan Landskap)
Farming Machines (Kejenteraan Ladang)
Farm Management (Pengurusan Ladang)
Chinese Literature (Kesusasteraan Cina)
Tamil Literature (Kesusasteraan Tamil)
Bible Knowledge (Pengetahuan Kitab Injil)
French Language (Bahasa Perancis)
Punjabi Language (Bahasa Punjabi)

The large number of subjects on offer is due to the existence of multiple streams (aliran) of study. Choosing a certain combination of subjects constitues a 'package' (pakej). Among the 'packages' are Pure Science (Sains Tulen / Sains Tulin), Professional Arts (Sastera Ikhtisas), Islamic Studies (Pengajian Islam), Humanities (Kemanusiaan), Vocational (Vokasional / Vokesyenal), Additional Science (Sains Tambahan), Information Technology (Teknologi Maklumat) & etc.

STPM / STAM
STPM, short for Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia or Malaysian Higher School Certificate is a pre-university (pra-universiti) national examination (peperiksaan kebangsaan) for Form 6 students. These pupils will sit for the exam at the end of their academic year. Subjects offered in the STPM are:

Subjects in Malaysian Higher School Certificate, STPM - Form 6 (Subjek dalam Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia, STPM - Tingkatan 6)
General Studies (Pengajian Am) Malay Language (Bahasa Melayu) Chinese Language (Bahasa Cina) Tamil Language (Bahasa Tamil) Arabic Language (Bahasa Arab) Syariah (Syariah) Usuluddin (Usuluddin) History (Sejarah) Geography (Geografi) Economics (Ekonomi) Accounting (Perakaunan)	Literature In English (Kesusateraan Bahasa Inggeris) Malay Literature (Kesusasteraan Melayu) Business Studies (Pengajian Perniagaan) Mathematics S (Matematik S) Mathematics T (Matematik T) Further Mathematics T (Matematik Lanjutan T) Computing (Perkomputeran) Physics (Fizik) Chemistry (Kimia) Biology (Biologi) Visual Arts (Seni Visual)

Students from Islamic Secondary Schools (Sekolah Menengah Agama - SMA) will sit for the STAM, short for Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia or Malaysian Higher Religious Certificate to secure admission into Islamic universities. Subjects offered in the STAM are:

Subjects in Malaysian Higher Religious Certificate, STAM - Islamic Pre University (Subjek dalam Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia, STAM - Pra Universiti Agama)
Hifz Al-Quran & Tajwid Fiqh Tauhid Tafsir & Ulumuhu Hadith & Mustolah Mantiq	Nahu Sarf Insya' Adab & Nusus Mutala'ah Arud & Qafiyah Balaghah

All pre-university students are also required to sit for the Malaysian University English Test - MUET (Ujian Bahasa Inggeris Universiti Malaysia). Not only STPM students, but Matriculation (Matrikulasi) and Diploma (Diploma) students who wish to enter a local university have to take MUET. The test is intended to assess the achievement and proficiency level of these students in the English language.

University & College
After sitting for their STPM or SPM, Malaysian students who wish to acquire tertiary education (pendidikan tertiari) will enrol in colleges (kolej) or universities (universiti) of choice. Between the two, enrollment into a public university is the more coveted due to its limited admittance and the stiff competition. Almost all STPM candidates aspire to gain admittance into these public universities. Compared to earning a degree (ijazah) in an overseas university, public universities offer unparalled savings in tuition and education costs. Examples of these public institutions of higher learning (IPTA - Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Awam, Institusi Pendidikan Tinggi Awam) are Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (UIAM), Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI), Kolej Universiti Islam Malaysia (KUIM), Kolej Universiti Sains & Teknologi Malaysia (KUSTEM), Kolej Universiti Teknikal Kebangsaan Malaysia (KUTKM), Kolej Universiti Kejuruteraan & Teknologi Malaysia (KUKTEM), Kolej Universiti Kejuruteraan Utara Malaysia (KUKUM) and Kolej Universiti Teknologi Tun Hussein Onn (KUiTTHO). The establishment of university colleges (kolej universiti) is a relatively recent development in Malaysia. While not enjoying the full status of a university, university colleges seek to combine the best of academic degree programs from universities with the best of practical diploma / certificate programs from colleges.

Apart from IPTA, there are also private institutions of higher learning (IPTS - Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Swasta, Institusi Pendidikan Tinggi Swasta) offering quality tertiary education in Malaysia. Some of the more better-known IPTS are Multimedia University (MMU), Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP), Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), Open University Malaysia (OUM) - Universiti Terbuka Malaysia, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR), Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Malaysian University of Science & Technology (MUST), University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Curtin University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Monash University Malaysia Campus, International Medical University (IMU), Asian Institute of Medicine, Science & Technology (AIMST), Kolej Universiti Teknologi & Pengurusan Malaysia (KUTPM) - University College of Technology & Management Malaysia and Limkokwing University College of Creative Technology. The private institutions of learning (IPS - Institusi Pengajian Swasta, Institusi Pendidikan Swasta) in Malaysia also include many colleges and institutes that offer programs lower than degree level. Examples are Kolej Damansara Utama (KDU), Sunway College, Nilai International College, Taylor's College, Sedaya College, INTI College, Metropolitan College, Asia-Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT), IPG College, KBU International College, Informatics and PRIME College.

Internal Degree Programs (Program Ijazah Dalaman) are offered by universities and university colleges either of the IPTA or IPTS variety. The available levels of study span from Undergraduate Level (Tahap Prasiswazah) such as Bachelor's Degree, First Degree (Ijazah Sarjana Muda, Ijazah Pertama) to Postgraduate or Higher Degree Level (Tahap Pascasiswazah, Ijazah Lanjutan) such as Master's Degree (Ijazah Sarjana) and Ph.D / Doctorate Degree (Ijazah Doktor Falsafah, Kedoktoran). Graduate studies (pengajian siswazah) in Malaysian universities are accredited and recognized by the international academic community. On the other hand, Advanced Diploma, Diploma and Certificate programs are offered by university colleges, colleges and institutes of private learning (IPS). Some IPTS and IPS also conduct collaborative programs with overseas universities; for example: Twinning Programs (Program Berkembar), Credit Transfer Programs (Program Pemindahan Kredit), Advanced Standing Programs, External Degree Programs (Program Ijazah Luaran) and Distance Learning Programs (Program Pengajian Jarak Jauh,Program Pedidikan Jarak Jauh). Tutorial programs that prepare students for popular examinations are also available, such as for pre-university courses and for professional courses (kursus profesional). Examples of popular preuniversity exams are GCE 'A' Level (UK), SAM (Australia), OSSD (Canada), WATEE (Australia) and LCCI (UK). Examples of professional exams are AIA, AAT, ABE, CIM, ACCA, CLP, MACPA and IBBM.

Tuition
Malaysians use the word "tuition" in a different way from Americans. In the USA, tuition is what you pay to a college (kolej) or a university (universiti). In this country, tuition (tuisyen) means supplementary academic coaching. Pupils attend tuition classes on their own volition and pay for the tutoring service. It is a service operated by the private sector (sektor swasta), and is therefore a type of profit-oriented education. Tuition can best be described as the shadow education system of Malaysia. It has "shadowy" characteristics because tuition has never been part of the government sanctioned public schooling system; yet it is as widespread as the official one. Tuition is also shadowy in other ways as well. Its existence is solely reliant on the continuation of the schooling system in its current form. The emphasis on examination in Malaysian education both gives birth to and sustains the tuition industry. The range of subjects offered in tuition mimics those in schools. Teaching techniques are geared towards helping pupils do well in the national exams. The slightest change in syllabus (silabus, sukatan pelajaran) or exam formats will be met with the swiftest of response by the tuition industry, often even capitalising on the situation. No matter what, tuition shadows the schools without fail.

There are two types of tuition - institutional tuition (tuisyen institusi) and private tuition (tuisyen peribadi, tuisyen persendirian, tuisyen perseorangan). Institutional tuition refers to tutoring that takes place in a dedicated establishment. These institutions are variously known as Tuition Centers (Pusat Tuisyen), Guidance Centers (Pusat Bimbingan) & Learning Centres (Pusat Pembelajaran). In the 1980's tuition centres began mushrooming in Malaysia. The tuition 'boom' was so sudden that many of these early operators had to pioneer the assimilation of the word "tuition" into the Malay Language. Hence several non-standard variants were adopted, such as "tiusyen" and "tusyen". Since then, however, the proper term has come into usage. The second type, known as private / personal tuition occurs on a smaller scale. A tutor (pengajar) or tuition teacher (guru tuisyen, cikgu tuisyen) will guide a small group of students or even a single student only. In the latter case, it is known as 1-to-1 tuition (one-to-one tuition). In the former case, it is called group tuition (tuisyen berkumpulan). Regardless of which, private tuition usually takes place at the tutor's home or the student's. Therefore, private tuition are sometimes referred to as home tuition (tuisyen di rumah). Home tutors and their students are usually matched by tuition agents (agen tuisyen) or tuition agencies / agency (agensi tuisyen). The popularity of personal / private tuition is on the rise. Together with institutional tuition, they are both evidence that tuition is here to stay in Malaysia.

Educational strategies

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:13:00 +0000

Change your teaching style. Make blogs, iPods, and video games part of your pedagogy. . . . A new generation of students has arrived-and sorry, but they might not want to hear your lecture for an hour.1

Do you know who Digital Natives are? Are you a Digital Immigrant? Probably so. Do you know what the Digital Divide is? The Internet has changed the focus and learning styles of a generation we call Millennials or Generation Y. Classroom education has changed as the needs, interests, and learning styles adjust to the Digital Natives.2 Recognizing differences in learning styles is usually the first step in designing effective educational programs, whether for students, professionals, the public, or patients. But how often have we considered generational learning styles as we develop our patient and family education?

Digital Natives is a term applied to students who have spent their lives learning with computers, listening to music on iPods, playing video games, and networking or socializing on cell phones or with instant messaging.2 Some refer to this generation as Millennials or Generation Y. Born after 1982, they have grown up with computers and their knowledge of digital equipment seems almost innate. Their education has included access to instant information via the Internet resulting in very different learning styles and interests. This difference in education will soon cause many of us to make adjustments in our teaching styles because Digital Natives are not limited to students. Hospitalized patients, transplant recipients, clinic patients, and our younger healthcare providers: physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and social workers can be Digitial Natives.

Those of us born before 1982 are considered Digital Immigrants because we have become fascinated by and adopted aspects of the new technology.2 Some of us have transitioned to the digital era for professional survival. Most of the literature about Generation Y learning styles is directed at students in classrooms.3-5 However, an understanding of these changes in learning styles needs to be applied to hospital and clinic settings for patient education to be effective. We may find that our current educational tools may limit how our younger patients access information to learn.

Generational Learning Styles

The several generations from the 20th Century have varied learning styles.6 Those born before 1944 are referred to as the Silent Generation. This group learns from books and respectful listening in a classroom setting. Baby boomers are those born between 1945 and 1960 and continue to learn through books, although television and movies have influenced their learning styles. Generation X refers to individuals born between 1961 and 1981. Their learning style began to include more demonstrations and interactive learning. Books were still part of learning with this group but styles were beginning to change. Now, Digital Natives, or Generation Y, challenge us to relook at our styles of teaching, for their styles of learning are quite different. If we continue to provide slide presentations and books to supplement and complement the presentations, we may be missing our target goals.

When educating patients, the public, or professional colleagues we should continue to evaluate learning styles but we should also be prepared to design and vary our educational programs with consideration to the generation. Setting up a video for patients to watch has never seemed an effective or personal way of providing education. And Millennials would be "like, totally bored." Give them an interactive video game on transplantation and you will find an enthusiastic response. Make the interactive video game available on the handheld computer and you may have a patient who understands the risks and benefits of transplantation, the role of immunosuppression, and the need to call you when a fever sets in.

The Digital Generation

It has been noted that children today take technology for granted. By the age of 7, most children have used a cell phone, mastered TV-on-demand and played computer games.3 By 13, they are surfing the Internet for educational purposes as well as not such educational endeavors. The library is becoming a meeting place rather than an educational resource. The fast paced learning style of Generation Y has caused some analysts to express concern over attention deficits in this population. However, those who have studied this group find them to be smart but impatient with an expectation of immediate results.1 Many come to a transplant center for their initial visit with a plethora of information they have downloaded from the Internet. This generation has mastered the art of multitasking through life with an arsenal of electronic devices.1 Our challenge is to provide them with accurate information in a format that will grab their attention.

Bridging the Digital Divide

The Digital Divide is a term that refers to disparities in access to information technology.4 Economics certainly are a consideration in access to tools for continuing patient education. Some socioeconomic groups do not have computers or digital tools. For this group, the written word, slides, and reinforcement of education with each clinic visit or phone call will continue to be the best method for providing education. The term Digital Divide also may be applied to the gap between learning styles of Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants as well as being applied to our adult transplant clinic waiting areas and the pédiatrie or adolescent transplant programs. The Digital Divide may be found in the way Digital Immigrants educate Digital Natives. The term is actually quite versatile.

It could be that our waiting rooms in hospitals and clinics may become media labs in the very near future to meet educational needs of the digitally savvy. The September 2006 issue of Progress in Transplantation will focus on transitioning adolescents to the adult transplant team. In surveying several authors and colleagues about how their educational approaches are changing with the digital generation appearing in transplant settings, one coordinator noted their adult waiting rooms needed updating to support the needs of this group. It seems our pediatric colleagues have already assessed the learning needs of Generation Y and have placed computerized programs and tools in their waiting areas. As the adolescents transition into the adult transplant programs, they are bored when finding no computers or digital education in the waiting areas. Other colleagues reported using more variations in their educational programs. Print materials are transformed into CD-ROM while educational information is now Web-based for easy access and reinforcement.

The limiting factors for most hospitals seem to be cost and time involved in developing or transforming waiting rooms and educational materials. Transplant coordinators are committed to patient education of transplant candidates, recipients, and their families. With most of us being Digital Immigrants we must ensure that we are competent in developing educational resources for our Digital Natives and digitally savvy patient population. Working with your IT department may prove to be an effective approach to increasing the availability of Web-based information that can be downloaded to digital tools. The ability to develop patient education programs is a gift that most transplant coordinators possess innately. Although we are labeled as mere Digital Immigrants, I know we can master the digital world; it is just not innate for us.

Malaysia Higher Education

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:04:00 +0000

FROM Africa to the Middle East and China, the foreign student population in Malaysia is steadily growing from day to day. With three more years to 2010 - the end of the five-year Ninth Malaysia Plan - Malaysia has surpassed the half-way mark of seeing itself as a global education hub inhabited by 100,000 students from overseas.

More than 55,000 foreign students from over 100 countries are currently pursuing their pre-tertiary and tertiary studies at various educational institutions in Malaysia.

To date, Malaysia boasts over 17 public educational institutions, an International Islamic University, 21 private universities, five foreign university branch campuses, over 500 private colleges, as well as 32 international schools and 14 expatriate schools for local as well as international academic needs.

Reputable universities from the United Kingdom and Australia have set up branch campuses in Malaysia, while their counterparts from the United States, Canada, France and Germany are offering external, twinning as well as franchised degree programmes in collaboration with local institutions. Their selling point is none other than to provide an affordable alternative for local (or overseas) students to acquire prestigious university qualifications with lower living expenses.

According to StudyMalaysia.com, the cost of living is in the RM800 to RM1,000 per month range or RM9,600 to RM12,000 per year for a student. This, however, depends on the student's lifestyle as well as the cost of living that varies from one location to another (the cost of living in the city is about 10% higher).

For international students, it is estimated that completing a three-year degree programme would require about RM60,000 to RM90,000 to cover their tuition fees and living expenses. Apart from the affordable living cost and tuition fee, international students can also study one degree programme in a Malaysian university and earn two degree qualifications upon graduation - one from the Malaysian university and the other from a reputable foreign university.

DIRECT COST

Starting way back in the early 1980s, Malaysia has been acknowledged as one of the regional pioneers in the development and promotion of transnational Bachelor's Degree programmes, collaborating with reputable universities from countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, France, New Zealand, Germany and Australia.

A hallmark of "Study in Malaysia", the "2+1" undergraduate twinning degree programme has helped many local and international students save substantial costs in their pursuit of internationally recognised Bachelor's Degree programmes.

According to StudyMalaysia, enrolling in a "3+1" twinning degree engineering programme in Malaysia can save a student a staggering A$60,000 (RM117,940) in tuition fees and living costs compared to doing the entire four-year degree course in Australia.

An extension of a twinning programme, a "3+0" Bachelor's Degree programme from leading foreign universities also entails big cost savings. For example, the tuition fee for a three-year UK Engineering Degree in Malaysia is about US$13,100 (RM45,313) compared to US$16,500 (RM57,060) per year in the UK.

(Under the "3+0" arrangement, Bachelor's Degree programmes from foreign leading universities are conducted in their entirety by private higher educational institutions in Malaysia.)

Closely related to the "3+0" programme is the offering of courses by foreign universities in Malaysia. Since 1998, five international universities, including Australia's Monash University and UK's University of Nottingham, have set up their branch campuses in Malaysia, offering exactly the same degrees as their main campus abroad.

In terms of cost comparison, the tuition fee of a three-year UK Engineering Degree is priced at about US$7,600 (RM26,277) per year in the Malaysian branch campus as opposed to US$22,300 (RM77,100) per year in the UK main campus.

Nutrition Education In Preschools In Malaysia

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:09:00 +0000

INTRODUCTION

Health has been the ultimate agenda to be acquired by most regions in the world for the coming millennium as emphasised in the "Alma Ata Declaration" that health should be accessible to all by year 2000. This declaration has strongly influenced the Malaysian government in her aims to promote health education and healthy lifestyle among the people. In line with this agenda, Malaysian Ministry of Health with the co-operation of both the private sector and public organization has conducted series of healthy lifestyle campaigns. In a survey reported in local newspaper (Berita Harian, 12 Oct.2000), in 1995, 21% of the Malaysian population are found to be overweight and 6.2% are obese. Overall, the urban population tends to be more overweight (17.5%) compared to the rural population (15.5 %) of Malaysia. In 1996 another survey was conducted, and out of the 80,000 people surveyed, it was found that 16.6% were overweight, and up to 4.4% reached the level of obeity, while 25.2% were reported to be under weight. Though the percentage in overweight and obesity cases have shown a decrease, the fact remains that health messages or campaigns has not yet reached the Malaysian population effectively, especially, the younger generation.

Food is actually very closely related to our social and cultural lives. It forms an integral part of our family, religions and cultural celebrations. Many aspects of food are culturally determined: such as what parents think is appropriate to be eaten; how we eat (with fingers, spoon and forks, or chopsticks); with whom we eat, and when we eat throughout the whole day. Children, in particular, rely on their parents' and caregivers' attitude and behaviour in terms of providing the appropriate healthy choices of food, environment and living conditions. Teaching children to make healthy choices in the food they select is certainly a worthwhile goal and one that will affect their lives through adulthood.

Children are building their bodies that are to last them a life-time, therefore they must know that the food they eat has a direct relationship to the quality of their health. They must be informed that consuming processed foods or foods high in sugar, salt and fat are physically detrimental. An intervention program in preschools is necessary to instill in children a positive attitude towards food.

This paper, based on a research currently undertaken at the University of Science Malaysia (USM) funded by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment Malaysia, aims to promote healthy lifestyle among Malaysian children. This research is part of a bigger study conducted nationwide, in colaboration with the School of Medicine, USM. The study focuses on nutrition education in preschool children as we believe that children have much to learn about food and nutrition. Reaching children at this age is important because it is easier to encourage healthy habits during initial behaviour development than to alter existing behaviour (Vance, 1973). Moreover, nutrition education is essential for preschool children because the quality of their nutrition has a direct impact on their growth and development as well as their nutritional status throughout life. This paper will describe how the nutrition education in preschool in Malaysia is being implemented and how the children perceived the importance of foods and good eating habits.

RESEARCH PROBLEM

A survey conducted by the Malaysian Ministry of Health in 1991 showed that most of Malaysian preschool children suffered from iron deficiency and malnutrition (Khairuddin, 1991), especially those in the rural areas. Due to the poor nutritional state, combined with frequent episodes of infections and intestinal parasitism, resulted in high rates of absenteesm in rural schools (Kandiah, 1991). However, the state of health has increased rapidly lately due to the great development in the health sector and in the economic achievement, increasing the quality of life, both in the urban and rural areas in Malaysia.

The changing eating habits due to introduction of fast foods and the affluent lifestyle has given wide variety of selection of foods to children. A lot more choices are available and this causes children to be picky when it comes to food. Moreover, nowadays it is more difficult to remain aware of nutritional values of food because of prepackaging, vending machines and fast-food restaurants. More often than not, "formulated", fabricated, fake food are displacing wholesome foods in the diet, especially children's foods and snacks. Parents also wrongfully teach their children by using rewards to encourage their children to eat. Remarks such as "eat your rice and after that you can have your ice-cream" encourages children to want to eat more sweet and sugary foods. This indicates the lack of awareness and knowledge among children (and adults) regarding what is good food for healthy growth.

The latest Trent among families in Malaysia is to have meals outside because working mothers do not have time to prepare home-cooked food. This "eating out" lifestyle further agravate the problems of unhealthy eating and unbalance diets. We find now, more and more children are eating foods bought from stalls along roadsides or from fast food restaurants. Hence, there is a real great need to educate children (as well as parents) on the importamce of good nutrition for healthy growth and for prevention of illness.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The main purpose of this study is to design a program, which helps children develop important concepts, attitudes and behaviour toward food. Nutrition education should take place through the child's actual experiences and be focused on attitudes and feelings as well as development of concepts. Children should be educated to be able to make wise choices about food on their own from the variety of foods available around them and to practice orderly meals and good eating habits.

METHODOLOGY

4.1 The Conceptual Framework

Healthy lifestyle means positive health, and is defined as an above average status regarding the physiological, mental and social abilities as a human (WHO, 1990). According to WHO, "health is the status of full mental, physical and social well being and not merely an absence of illness and/or infirmaity". Therefore it is necessary to apply substantial effort to assure the full realization of the potential in all children, in order to develop them further through all available means. Healthy lifestyle in this study is defined as having correct knowledge, attitude and practices about food and eating habits.

The theoretical basis for behaviour modification and attitude changing in this study comes from "Orem Advanced Nursing Theories". This theory encompasses three sub theories, which explains people's attitudes of making healthy choices for themselves. This is followed by the demand of taking the right action in making choices and eventually the forces, which would drive them to take actions for practicing healthy choices throughout life. In the case of young children, they do not personally perform all action requirements within their therapeutic self-care demand, because parents and teachers are expected to provide the necessary structure and supervision so that the child's therapeutic self-care demand is met. Children need to be fostered in order to develop their self-care agency through the design of health education program that enables them to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy choices.

Orem has theorized that self-care agency development is dependent upon three underlying components (Orem, 1995): foundational capabilities and dispositions (as "pre-action" capacities that influence the perception of health), and judgement about the need to take action. This development process according to the cognitive development theory is the learning process, which apprently goes through several stages: i.e., perception, attention, exercise or work, memory and learning. Taking this point into consideration, the intervention program designed in this study is made into an instructional mode with the integration of cognitive strategies in order to promote long term healthy behaviors and to guide lifestyle choices.

Research Design

The study used a pretest/posttest quazi-experimental design in which six preschools were involved. All of the 6 preschools were from the urban area in Penang and they participated voluntarily in this project.

Sample

Altogether 200 children age 5 to 6 year are involved and all of them are from averange income groups (SES) families. One hundred of them were in the experimental group and the other one hundred made up the control group.

4.4 The Intervention Program: The Nutrition Education

The following conceptual framework is used for the development of intervention program on nutrition education in this study. Part of the concepts was adopted from the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans (1995).

Nutrition is a process by which food and other substances eaten to make the child grow, be healthy and to get energy to work and play.
Many kinds and combination of food can lead to a well-balanced diet
No food by itself has all the nutrients needed for full growth and health.
Eat plenty of grains products, vegetables and fruits.
Choose diet low in fat
Choose diet moderate in sugar and salt
Drink a lot of water and milk
The effects of unhealthy eating patterns include under nutrition, iron deficiency anemia and overweight and obesity.

Nine modules were developed and used in this study:

Module 1: Eat a wide variety of foods

Module 2: Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables

Module 3: Importance of grain products

Module 4: Drink a lot of water

Module 5: Food Guide Pyramid for a balanced diet

Module 6: Preparing and cooking our food

Module 7: Choose Healthy Snacks

Module 8: Milk for healthy and strong bones

Module 9: What is good eating habits?

These modules aims to

To provide knowledge and understanding on the importance of eating variety of foods.
To create positive attitude towards food
To instill good eating habits and regular mealtime.
To create awereness in the children to drink a lot of water, instead of sugary and carbonated drinks.
To provide understanding on the importance of a balance-diet, and eating the amount according to the food guide pyramid
To raise awereness among the children on the needs to drink milk for healthy development of bones, teeth and hair.
To provide understanding on the importance of eating a lot of fruits and vegetables
To instill awareness on the bad effects of junk-food

The intervention was administered over seven month's period. During this time teachers were regularly trained to teach these modules as lessons to be taught on a schedule, as well as to integrate throughout the day and made a part of many activities. The integrated activities include listening to stories, singing, hands-on activities, game and play activities. In line with the modules, teachers were also asked to provide nutritious snacks, controling the amount of sugar in drinks, and reducing the amount of salt used in food cooked at the centers. They were also encouraged to include a lot of vegetables (fibers) in the children's afternoon meals, and teaching them good manners during eating time. Teachers were to stress the importance of cleanliness in staying healthy and teaching them to brush their teeth after eating. Children in the experimental groups were always reminded of the problems related to nutrition including tooth decay, obesity, weak and tired, unable to play and hypersensitivity to foods through the activities conducted.

Test Instruments (KAP Questionnaires)

Three sets of tests were developed to measure knowledge (K), attitude (A) and practices (P) of children on their dietry habits, namely (i) The Children's Questionnaire, (ii) The Teacher's Inventory, and (iii) The Parents Inventory. The Children's Questionnaire was conducted using an interview method. A 15 minutes interview was conducted with each child over several consecutive days. The data from Parents' and Teachers' Inventories would be used to substantiate the children's questionnaire.

INITIAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Pretest results show that the level of understanding of children about the concept of 'food' is indeed very superficial and simplistic. Children perceived eating as a way to ward off "hunger", "not get hungry", "not get stomach ache", "to be healthy", "not to be sick", or "not to die" . Only a very small percentage of children understood that eating is for "growth" and "to give energy for play" (Table 1, 2, and 3 in Appendix A). From this analysis, we can interprete that children still do not possess a clear grasp of the concept of 'eating'. To them, eating is only a spontaneous reaction to hunger.

Table 4, and 5 show that majority of children (91%) indicated that they do like eating vegetables, however unclear of the reason why. Table 6 and 7 shows various answers given by children when asked why they need to eat a variety of foods. Regarding their favorite drink, 53% of the children says they like to drink Milo or milk (Table 8) but again they are not sure of why they have to drink a lot of water.

These are some of the data from the pretest which show that the children do not yet comprehend the concept of nutrition. It is expected that after the intervention program, the children will develop a better understanding of the concept, acquire a positive attitude towards eating and able to incorporate this habit into their lifestyle.

It is hoped that through the modules children would learn to eat a variety of foods, increasing their awereness of reasons for selecting certain foods, and helping them develop positive attitude about food. Children's fear of a certain food, example green vegetable, can be reduced by simply increasing exposure to the food. Early experiences of preparing, tasting and eating nutritious foods can have an impact on their long-term eating preferences and habit. To help children learn to appreciate food, we involved them in cooking experience as part of the intervention program. They were taught to prepare simple sandwiches: cut tomatoes and cucumber, spread butter on the bread and put a layer of tuna or sardine, or prepare fruit salad: cut fruits, squeeze salad dressing onto the salad and mixing the salad.

CONCLUSION

Good nutrition is essential to proper growth during childhood. To grow up healthy, with vitality and energy, children need adequate nutrition. Their early experiences of eating nutritious food can have an impact on their long term eating preferences and habits (Cosgrove, 1991). This study seeks to prove that we can instill in children healthy eating habits through good nutrition education, that would hopefully be continued through their lives. Many other similar studies have been conducted, in particular, in the USA (Smith, 1976; Karsch, 1977, Essa, Read and Haney-Clark, 1988; Birch et al., 1994) all show that they successfully promoted food and nutrition education to the preschool children. We hope to be able to produce a blueprint of Nutrition Education Curriculum for the preschoolers in Malaysia as a result of this study.

English Language Education at Malaysia

noreply@blogger.com (jeng_llot) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 03:49:00 +0000

English language education in Malaysia is again in the focus of attention. It is a good thing that there is great concern for Malaysians to be proficient in the English language. Even as the government is considering whether mathematics and science should continue to be taught in English, the Minister of Education was reported in the local media of considering making “English Literature” a single paper at the primary school level. This news would have now sent alarm bells to another group of primary school teachers. There is already much concern about how the mathematics and science teachers are coping with their teaching in English! And now another surprise for primary school teachers.

I strongly advocate the teaching of literature. I am glad that we have a literature component in the language paper at both the primary and secondary school levels. Teachers seem to be getting comfortable with the idea of teaching literary texts in the language classroom. However, we have not seen of any findings from research conducted by the Ministry of Education on the implementation of the literature programmes at both the primary and secondary school levels. There have been some piecemeal researches done by university academics and graduate students which seem to suggest that teachers generally feel less threatened to teach literature now. They seem to have become comfortable teaching the prescribed texts and preparing students based on the present examination format. I dread to think how they will react when the next cycle of texts is announced and should there be any changes in the examination format.

I am sceptical about the call to make literature a single subject in the primary school curriculum, as reported by a local news agency. There are so many complaints about our students being overburdened at school. Do they need yet another subject? I don’t think so. The crux of our concern is the students’ proficiency in the English language. To help our students improve in their language ability, I think we need to look at the English language teacher and English language teaching.

What we could think of is on how to make English language teaching more effective. There is a need to look at English language teaching in both primary and secondary school levels and go to the cause of the problem. Introducing new programmes or subjects may not be the way forward.

I would like to highlight some of my concerns regarding the teaching of English in Malaysia. Although it will be wrong to blame teachers as the cause of the poor standards of English, I believe they have to take the bulk of this blame. First, we need to consider the English language proficiency of the English language teachers themselves. There is no denying that we have many teachers who are competent and proficient in the English language. However, there are many other English language teachers who need to improve their standard of English. There are teachers who have neither the competence nor the confidence to teach English.

Over the years to meet the need for English language teachers, we have had to lower our requirements and standards and accept people into the profession who are not equipped to teach the language. We need to work with these teachers. If we want our English language programmes to succeed, we need teacher who can speak, read and write well in English.

There are many English language teachers who are not trained to be English teachers but due to various circumstances have found themselves teaching English, many reluctantly and others for the lack of other options. These teachers lack pedagogical skills and often have low language proficiency too. They too need to be dealt with.

The effectiveness and the ability of numerous English language teachers who have been produced through “conversion” programmes have to be researched into. How effective are one-year programmes that attempt to produce English language teachers? There are already so many challenges with teachers that we produce in our four-year programmes, one can only imagine what these quick-fix teachers will face. The candidates chosen for these one-year programmes opt to teaching often not for the love of the language or teaching but as a last recourse to find a job. We need more teachers who see the profession as a vocation not a convenience.

Introducing literature in English as a subject in the primary school, I believe will only cause more problems than help to raise the standard of English among our students. Let us improve the existing literature component in the language programme. Let us even give more time to reading appropriate literary materials in the language classroom. But more importantly, let’s have teachers who are truly competent and proficient in the English language.