Happenings lately......

Busy times are catching up with me. Stupid Human Factors now needs me to do some utterly useless research for some debate which make no sense. Why should someone ever debate on a fact? Hence a waste of valuable learning capacity doing something for the dumb(the lecturers) for no reason.



While fuzzing through all these dismay, I manage to stump upon an interesting topic from our government



Decision on medium for teaching Science and Maths after analysis


PETALING JAYA: The Education Ministry will carry out an in-depth analysis of the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) results before presenting its findings at a roundtable discussion.


Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said he would present the recommendations from the roundtable and results from other studies conducted by the ministry to the Cabinet.


“Only then will a final decision be made on whether to continue teaching Science and Mathematics in English or go back to Bahasa Malaysia.


“The UPSR results are not the only factor which will be used to decide as we need to look at other studies as well as the views of stakeholders expressed earlier,” he said in a statement. The policy of teaching Science and Mathematics in English was implemented in phases, beginning with Year One, Form One and Lower Six students in 2003.


The 518,616 pupils who sat for the UPSR this year were the first group to have started studying the two subjects in English since the policy was introduced. Education director-general Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom said he would chair the roundtable discussion early next month.


“Stakeholders who attended earlier roundtable discussions will be invited to attend,” he told The

Star.


Alimuddin also dispelled rumours that some schoolchildren who wou-ld be starting Year One next year had received Science and Mathematics textbooks in Bahasa Malaysia. “That’s not possible, and I want anyone who has received such books to write to me personally,” he said.
He added that schools would only distribute textbooks for next year one week before classes were to start.



Decision to return teaching in Malay? It would be absolutely foolish for anyone to take such acts. It will turn the country in to its own ice age, isolated from the rest of the world. Anyone who has taken the SPM in Malay know that they will have to do some catch up when they enter universities as modules are all taught in English. To make the matter worse, many foreign universities DO NOT recognise our qualification based on merely the fact that the teaching medium is in Malay Language. The government had already put enough Malaysians in trouble before they even enter tertiary education and finally decided to alleviate our grieves by changing certain subjects back into English, Now they want to revert back? Those who has the slightest thought of supporting this act will kill the country.

Even with such subjects like maths and science taught in English, it is still not sufficient to justify the standard of our paper qualification. I propose and entire revamp of the system. Look what have Singapore done. They have stuck ed to the roots of education by retaining the Cambridge GCE 'O' Levels in it's system, and thus understanding the essence of recognisable qualification which lies in the origin of the subjects itself. During the good old days where our forefathers took the MCE(malaysian certificate of examination), only a handful can score and A, and during then Malayan university was one of the top ranking in the world, why? Its because it was based on the cambridge system and hence gained world wide recognition.

Its time we return to the time where our education system supersedes those in the other parts of asia. Start changing it back into and entirely english education system and slowly progressing towards GCE recognition. Make Malaysians proud by giving us a chance to receive world class education, and with that a world wide recognition. Its time to reconcile, Minister of Education. We are too far behind, and you have failed miserably in your duty. Give us what we want and not what you feel we should have.

Life in Reality

It has been a little more than a week since I posted anything. Life goes on as usual for me however the contents within it has changed tremendously. Only just 3 weeks ago I was enjoying a great holiday that was due for over a year and now all that looks displaced in a distant memory. First there was the start of my last semester in Singapore Polytechnic which turned out to be the most challenging ever, then came the assignments and finally the icing on the cake, Final Year Project.



For my menu of disasters, first the entree- the modules. Nothing surprising, instead nothing inspiring. Firstly let me do the derivation of my course- Diploma in Aeronautical Engineering. Sounds fun eh, nope nothing further from it that the reality. Then came with it the modules that suck big time. Human Factors, have you ever heard of such module? A module that teaches about human nature and the environment. Its already boring enough with its contents and it gets worse when a sick lecturer is stirred into this concoction of shit. Here are the breakdown of what such sick person expects of a common sense module.

Human Factors
-Debate+Formal Report of 1500 words
-Answering questions with no correct answer(ambiguous)
-Exam
And finally, only 1 % of the students get A
Officially this guy needs the mental ward in the hospital.

Then there is another module that complements the above- Aero Materials
-Assignment=build something after intense research and write a 5000 word report on it
-Test and examination that is designed to fail every student.

Not forgetting another 5 modules to be added to this.
What have my fellow Aero Engineering friends and I done to deserve such treatment!!!
Well as I said this is the reality to be embraced, and what a harsh reality it is.