Changes in the education system?

I was browsing through The Star Online and came across this news article.

...Education Minister Datuk Seri Hisham­muddin Tun Hussein said the new curriculum would replace the existing primary school integrated curriculum (KBSR), which was first introduced in 1983 and subsequently reviewed in 2000.

“The new curriculum will be based on six key areas to produce holistic individuals,” he told reporters after releasing the third report card based on the National Education Blueprint 2006-2010.

The six areas were: communication; spiritual attitude and values; humanitarianism; science and technology literacy; physical and aesthetics; and personal development….

Correct me if I’m wrong but shouldn’t spiritual attitude and values of a student be coached by their own families instead of the school? Everyone is entitled to their own believes of spiritualism. Personally, I don’t think it is something that should be forced on the students, especially at such a young age.

I do agree with the less examination-oriented part of education and though I applaud the Government for finally realising that there should be a change in the norm of education that has lasted over the last 50 years, I still think that there should be more research and understanding done on the quality of education and the end results that one desires for the future of our generation before anything concrete is set on stone.

…Elaborating further, Education director-general Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom told The Star that Year One pupils in 50 schools nationwide have been using the new curriculum under a pilot project.

He said the pupils were being assessed using several approaches, including psychometric tests, school-based assessments and achievements in extra-curricular activities and sports….

There are a lot of emphasis placed on a student’s achievements in extra-curricular activities and sports. But what I think the Government should bear in mind is the fact that NOT ALL students gravitate around extra-curricular activities and sports. How are the teachers going to assessed this criteria properly? If a student shows great potential in other areas but fail miserably in this particular area, does that mean he or she is a poor student? I hate to stereotype and divide growing up children or students into groups but at the end of the day, there are jocks and bookworms who may excel in their own categories but do not do well in other categories no matter how hard you push them to.

I don’t care if I’m making any sense here. Education is something I feel strongly about. It is something that the bf and I have debated on many, many times – trying to think of a rational way the Government can look into to revamped the education system to be more relevant to the real world instead of a world of theories, hypotheticals and regurgitation. It’s not an easy task, that I admit. I just hope that this new curriculum for primary school students is not something the Government just whipped out out of the blue without proper study and understanding. Remember how chaotic things were for students who had to do study Science and Math both in Malay and English?

A dose of vanity, shock and God’s graciousness

I know I haven’t been blogging regularly again. Truth be told, I was working on a few pieces of entries – most of them were inspired by recent news – but find myself struggling to finish the entries. Thus, the lack of postings.

I find myself having very short attention span these days. And my mind has been wandering around a lot. The lack of discipline in thoughts is a tad annoying and that inadvertently affects my will power to make some lifestyle changes.

My body is full of flab these days and I’ve been talking about taking up yoga for the longest time. I have the Power Yoga VCD at home and tried it out for the very first time 2 weekends ago. That and 2-3 more times over the last two weeks! I promised myself that I will wake up early every morning to do yoga before I go to work but have failed miserably just because the mind and body refused to co-operate and wake up when the alarm goes off! I need more motivation and I need friends who will push me to do it. Hehe…I am already thinking of one or two friends who can be my moral supporters at the moment. Still, I think the best strategy in getting myself to start working out is for someone to challenge me. Yeah, I need a challenge!

A lot of things had happened in this month of September. A friend passed away in early September and we only found out 2 days after she’s gone. Nobody truly knows what happened to her even though the post mortem said she died of a heart attack. Then again, that’s what the hospitals always say when they can’t figure out the real COD (cause of death – I’m using the acronym to sound more CSI-like. Is it working? Hehe!). And you know what’s the worst part of it all? She was alone when she passed away on a weekend. Her brother only found her body the next morning when he came home which means that she may have been dead for nearly 24 hours before anybody knew. I was shocked to find that she has passed away but finding out that she was all alone just saddens me greatly. Nobody deserves to die alone, even if it is the most evil and brutal of all human beings alive.

I may not have known dear Sassa Lyn well or long. Yet, she’s made a slight impact on my life. She listens to me vent about my ex-manager, gave me advices on work problems before and best of all, after I left my previous company, she feed me with the juiciest gossip on my ex-manager which immediately lifted my day! I may not understand her sometimes but at the bottom of her heart laid a sweet young lady who was smart and witty. She may have left us all now but I will always remember her as the Evil Bunny who loves her carrot.

Finding out about a friend’s passing is shock enough. Finding out about a really close friend having cancer is more than enough to cause me numbness all over. E, has been having problems with her sinus and asthma. When she told me that she’s scheduled for an operation, I was under the impression that it’s to fix her sinus and that it will not be a high-risk operation. Until the night before her surgery. I was on the phone with her, wanting to lift her spirits up a little before the dreaded surgery. We were talking and laughing about a few things and I ask her the occassional question about her surgery and recovery period to understand better what she will have to go through. It was during my questioning session that she casually drop her nose cancer shock on me.

I was shell shocked. It rendered me speechless for a full 3 seconds before I could utter something, anything. All I can remember at that moment was myself repeating the following over and over and over again. “OMG! Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

E filled me in with the details and answer my queries patiently. Me? I was amazed at how calm she was! The whole situation felt so unreal to me then. It feels like the twilight zone for a tad. I cannot believe that sweet, sweet E has cancer. I told E that if she had told me about her real situation earlier, I think I would be able to handle it better. But to find out the night before her surgery, I was just…numb. I don’t know what to say. I don’t how I should react. And for the first time in a long, long time, I was so scared of losing such a great person that has caused such a big impact in my life.

We talked for a long time over the phone after her revelation. All I could do was to crack stupid jokes just to hear her laugh and try to make her forget about the surgery and her problems for a little while. I’m not sure if it’s the best thing to do then but that was all I could muster.

E had her surgery and it was successful! Thank God for that because only God will know how long I need to recover if I ever lose her. She’s back in her hometown now to recuperate and I really wish her a speedy recovery. E has been such a wonderful friend. She’s a great moral support and more importantly, she’s one of the handful people I know who has such great faith in me and my abilities. I do hope and pray that God will grant her good health and bring happiness to her soon.

Protected: Insecurities, doubts and heartaches

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