Monday, March 22, 2010

Pengaruh Teladan - The Influence of Examples

Salam Bahagia...

Manusia hidup bermasyarakat dan masyarakat itu dipimpin oleh seorang pemimpin atau sekumpulan pemimpin, maka segala gerak geri pemimpin menjadi ikutan masyarakat itu. Kadang-kadang ada kekeliruan yang timbul di antara istilah  ketua dan istilah pemimpin. Seorang ketua tidak semestinya menjadi pemimpin, tetapi seorang pemimpin boleh menjadi ketua. Bagi menjadikan kita sebagai seorang pemimpin, maka telah digariskan amalan-amalan positifnya dalam Tonggak 12. Di antaranya ialah:

1.   Sentiasa berkelakuan baik
2.   Tidak tamak kepada harta dan kedudukan
3.   Bermoral dan berakhlak tinggi
4.   Tertib dan beradab sepanjang masa
5.   Rajin dan kuat bekerja
6.   Amanah dan bertanggungjawab
7.   Jujur dan ikhlas dalam setiap usaha
8.   Mengutamakan masyarakat lebih daripada diri sendiri
9.   Berpandangan jauh
10. Berdisiplin dalam semua tindakan
11. Sanggup berkorban setiap ketika
12. Bekerjasama untuk kebaikan
13. Sederhana dalam tindakan dan tutur kata
14. Berani mempertahankan kebaikan dan kebenaran
15. Berbudi mulia serta merendah diri
16. Gemar dan cintakan ilmu yang bermanfaat
17. Bersih hati dan fikiran

Manakala sifat-sifat negatif yang perlu dihindari ialah:

1.   Buruk perangai dan tingkahlaku
2.   Jahil dan tidak suka membaca
3.   Hasad dengki dan buruk sangka
4.   Mempersendakan agama
5.   Kedekut dan bakhil
6.   Suka mencari helah untuk mengelak tanggungjawab
7.   Suka mengumpat dan mengadudomba
8.   Terlalu sensitif dan cepat marah
9.   Tidak kenal budaya sendiri
10. Hipokrit serta berpura-pura
11. Tidak berpandangan jauh

Sumber: Intan Malaysia, 1992

Monday, March 15, 2010

STPM 2009

Salam bahagia...

The result is out. Those days, when talking about STPM..it was something great. Entering Form 6 is great and then sitting for STPM is even greater. Why? Because the values that Form 6 carries. The work market, then..still look up upon STPM holders. You can easily apply for a job with STPM qualification. And to enter our public universities, it was a tough competition since we have limited Universities those days. Forget about Universities if we just optains 3 weak Principals. No use att all.
As for my career, if you have STPM, then, your salary scheme is higher than your SPM scheme. It was during C1 and C2 in 1990s. I entered with SPM qualification...which was categorized as C2, starting pay RM575 (1990), and we can upgrade to C1, if we have STPM qualification, starting pay RM8++.00. So, I sat twice as private candidate (1991 & 1992) to obtain that level. I did in 1992 but the scheme has changed to DG6, means that all who possess SPM, STPM and Diplomas qualifications will be in one scheme (DG6) with different starting level (T) dan stage (P). They considered my STPM and gave me HPG (Hadiah Pergerakan Gaji), I thanked Allah. Now..Im teaching MUET for the Form 6. My wife, the Form 6 senior assistant revealed many things about Form 6 and STPM (and also about the lecturers of Form 6). I got to know how the results are graded. Its not just the Principals and Subsidiaries as it used to be. It now possesses points and Average Point Values and things like that. Do you believe that the points of 3 solid Principals can be higher than those 5 Ps? Yes..believe it. Time changed. We have over 20 of public universities. As the motto of AirAsia, "Now Everyone Can Fly", "Now Everyone Can Enter Universities" will be our national motto for Form 6 leavers.
Universities offering various kinds of courses ( the ones that I never heard before during my time). "We have to coop with the changes, with the demand, the market field, globalisation, social obligations, etc. etc.." they say. But some portions of the intakes for the courses are low achievers with minimum qualifications. We understand that one of the criteria to achieve Vision 2020 would be a comparison of the level of education of Malaysians. The higher their education level, it will be shown very significantly when comes to 2020. So, the strategy is, now, let everyone enter universities (eventhough they are not that qualified?).
In many parts in our education system, the quality of our education has been degraded rather than being upgraded (as they claimed ). Results of public examinations showing 'flying-colour' results. Each and every year... "The results showing great performance and achievements"...they claim and, of course as one of the fanatic supporters of my ministry, and a loyal government/public servant, I agree. But I have my dissatisfaction too. I cant hide. Numbers and figures can be manipulative but what about the quality of our students? There so many things that I wanted to say to the policy makers. About our curriculum, the implementation, the material, etc..but "Who am I?" Who can really arise this matter?

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Memperkukuh Bahasa Inggeris

Salam bahagia...

It's quite some time since I've posted my last piece of writing. well..I'm back now. So many things in my mind.
I would start with MBI. It stands for "Memperkukuhkan Bahasa Inggeris" - a national agenda as a continuition of ETEMS. One of the reasons (according to them) why ETEMS should be abolished is that (some...) English language teachers possessed little proficiency and little pedagogy in English language. I'm not really sure how to relate this to ETEMS. These teachers would be those non-optionists as well as fresh teachers especially those who have gone the KPLI intake. For the non-optionists, their proficiency level is low, they need enrichment, language based courses and so on. For the KPLI freshies, they need more exposure in pedagogy since their 1 year course in IPGs definitely cant cover everything. So, they came out with MBM (Memperkasa Bahasa Melayu) and MBI (Memperkukuh Bahasa Inggeris). Some of us..the English language optionist - the decendent of ETEMS JUs were selected to be trained as the JUs (Jurulatih Utama). The IPGs were given the task to run the course. Modules were prepared by ELTEC and selected IPGs, but we were given softcopies. We went through the modules. Not bad, similar to BSS. Some of the trainers were arguing about the pedagogical parts; not clear it seems, Im not sure. Our goverment/ministry/our system has a habit of having adhoc kind implementation of certain programmes, this might be one of it.
Sometimes I wonder, if one of the blames is on English language teachers who are not proficient enough, which system was they adhere before?