LETTER | Primary school teacher Mohd Fadli Mohamed Salleh’s complaints made headlines recently in mainstream media and social media and the latest news indicates that he is no longer in danger of losing his job.
To recap, Fadli’s (above) complaints are mainly about heavy school bags, too many students in a class, a syllabus that is unsuitable, too many subjects and too little time for core subjects as well as “little Napolean” culture in the Education Ministry.
However, Fadli’s complaints remain and I’m here to give suggestions to the incoming education minister to solve them.
Below are my suggestions:
Establish a digital school concept where learning will be a blend of online and traditional methods. Many students are already familiar with online learning having used this method during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a digital school, every student from Standard 1 to Form 5 will be given a quality tablet to be financed by the government. According to my calculations, it will cost the government about RM3.5 billion.
Every textbook is to be digitised and made available to be downloaded into the tablet. This will solve the problem of heavy school bags once and for all.
With the implementation of online learning and traditional learning, the timetable of the school can be made flexible allowing only a certain number of students to attend at a given time. Thus, it can solve the problem of too many students in a class.
The syllabus is to be revamped according to age by referring to the best syllabus from education systems around the world, like Europe, Japan, South Korea and even Singapore.
Video-based learning. It is said that the human brain process video faster than words. Teachers and content makers are encouraged to produce quality learning videos for students. Teachers only have to record their best video once and this redefines their roles as facilitators in the learning process.
YouTube-based learning. YouTube is currently the largest video library in the world and students can access it with their tablets to learn a variety of subjects like Science, Geography, History and also various skills.
App-based learning with virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Creative Malaysians can produce interactive apps to make learning more engaging, and rewarding with game-like features and future-ready.
Assessment to be made flexible. The fact is every student has a different learning ability. Some can learn faster while others are average and some need time to learn. Thus, assessment can be made flexible according to student learning ability instead of all students having to take the same exam at the same time. This means some students can finish their schooling faster.
Incoming education minister to be more responsive to feedback from teachers, parents and students through a variety of communication channels to prevent “Little Napolean” culture.
It is my sincere wish that the incoming education minister and also the prime minister will be someone who will reform the Malaysian education system for the better.
Ultimately it is my sincerest hope that our education system can move into the age of the 4th Industrial revolution for the benefit of all races.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
