This is something that have been bothering me for a while now and I feel it is only right if I speak my mind out on this matter. It's about the question of patriotism and being 'grateful'.
A lot of Malaysians seem to get the idea of patriotism wrongly. To them, if you go against your government, it means that you're not patriotic. Please do understand the difference between your country and your government. I serve my country, not my government. I'm tied to my country, not my government.
Another thing which really irks me is people who labelled those who disagree with the government's decision as 'ungrateful'. In my opinion, the grateful one should be the government because of the PEOPLE who elected them to govern. It is their duty to serve the people as well as they can, should they fail, there is always a thing called GENERAL ELECTIONS where we can vote a different government.
Have you ever seen people who say "if you don't like the government, go to a different country! So ungrateful". I would say that these people actually know nothing. Personally I love my country. And I visualize and picture my country in a different way from what it is today. Maybe you guys are happy with the current state of Malaysia is in. Truth is, I'm not. I want a better Malaysia.
Let's assume Malaysia is a little child who has so much potential. Everyone sees the sparkle in the child that one day, the child would grow up to be a very successful person. But it did not happen because the child took the wrong path which he/she ended up being just an average person. To me, this little child reflects the state of Malaysia today.
So the next time anyone label you as 'ungrateful' because you want a better Malaysia, ask them to read this. If it does not change their mind, they probably don't have one.
Showing posts with label Opinion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Opinion. Show all posts
Sunday, 3 March 2013
Friday, 1 March 2013
My perspective of 'judging'
Hello people! I have been away from blogging for the past few months because blogging isn't really my thing as I already have Twitter which is a microblogging site. Plus we all have short attention spans after all. But I do want to share with you guys my point of view about receiving criticism and being judged (mostly online)
Personally I run an account on Twitter which barely replies people's tweet although there are times I use my personal account to do so because I feel there is a need to. And I guess it is only fair that I offer an explanation for not replying anyone's tweet. The reason I don't reply tweet is because I made this account to be an account where people would come and read my tweets instead of having to read replies.
But that's when people take advantage of it, they would assume that I don't read tweets and they will tweet me nasty remarks. I would be lying if I say that these tweets do not bother me because at times they do but everyone has their own right to speak out on Twitter if they are not happy with my tweets.
Being judged is VERY COMMON because I even judge people upon meeting them for the first time. I mean that's where first impression of a person comes from. Being a 'victim' of subtweet isn't something new either because it is very likely that somebody will tweet about you regardless whether you are fat, skinny, pretty, ugly, bitchy, nice etc. Everyone is guilty of subtweeting another person but is it actually wrong? No because you have your rights to comment on a person but if your intentions are just to hurt another person and start a war, then YES, it is wrong.
At the end of the day, we will always be judged for every action we make, every tweet we tweet and every fart we fart. It's how you take in the perspective of others about you. For example, instead of replying something nasty a person who says "hey, you are never going to make it", why not take it as a drive to make you want to be successful even more?
I'll just say that the longer an argument gets, the more pointless it'll become. Be happy if someone judges you because you actually managed to get their attention. And not every time people who criticise you are haters. So stop saying "haters are going to hate" when you actually don't hate any hater to begin with. If you are wrong, be the first to admit that you are wrong.
I would love to write a longer post to explain myself but I'm aware that we have very short attention span as I mentioned in the introduction. I mean most of the time I have to tweet as short as I can because some people would ignore reading the full tweet at first glance. Plus I'm really not a very good blogger.
Saturday, 22 December 2012
Are we heading backwards in education?
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) has released their latest result. They conduct a assessment on fourth and eighth grade students (equivalent to Standard
Four and Form Two students in Malaysia) over 63 countries in four
international benchmarks since 1995. The average score is 500.
I've uploaded a picture which shows the score of our country compared to Singapore and Thailand as they are our neighbours therefore a comparison with them is fair. (picture might be a little unclear) but here's the link if you want to see the scores of other countries as well). Since the picture is unclear I'll just type out Malaysia's score from 1999 to 2011. Maths has been dropping from 519-508-474-440 and while Science 492-510-471-426
We are consistently sliding down and to a point where Thailand is performing better than us in Science. And we are nowhere near Singapore's standard as they are consistently in the Top 3 (a few times number 1). And though it pains some Malaysians when we are compared to Singapore, it does not hurt me at all because I have already accepted the fact that no matter what we do, we will always be compared to them and forever under their shadows.
Science and Maths has been taught in English since 2003 until 2012 where it has reverted back to BM. Within 10 years, we have switched from BM-English-BM. Poor students are being a guinea pig in the education system.
Notice the huge drop from 2003 in 2007, where we dropped 34 points in Maths and 39 points in Science. It is notable that in 2003, Form 2 students were still learning in BM while in 2007, it was English. So is English the main cause of the huge drop in scores? In my opinion, yes and no.
Yes, because the syllabus has gotten way easier since the switch from BM to English and the poor command of English by teachers and students as well. No, because it's not English fault. It's the system that is poorly executed. I could give my suggestion on how to improve the subject but what's the point when the decision to abolish PPSMI has been made.
Personally I've been through BM and English in Science and Maths. When I was in primary school, I learnt Science and Maths in BM while in secondary school it's was English.
I found that most of the teachers could not speak fluent English or shall I say, too shy to speak in English due to the fear of being wrong and judged by students who are younger than them. Whilst the government says that the decision to revert back Science and Maths back to Bahasa Malaysia is because the grades of the students did not improve. My point is, it is unfair to shift all the blame to the teachers and students.
I would blame the government for this because they did not prepared the teachers well enough when BM was switched to English in 2003. Had the teachers were given the proper training to adapt to the changes, our grades would have at least maintained if not better. Students are required to answer examination in English while they are being taught in BM by their school teachers. That is the major flaw in the system.
Government’s plan in the New Education Blueprint to benchmark Malaysian examinations to TIMSS, and reach a top third ranking by 2025. This is very laughable in my opinion, we are sliding down the order and without any real changes, can we really believe that we will be in the top 3?
Enough with the bullshits, if you really want our education to be world class. First, remove all political influence in the education system which also means only people are from the academic background e.g top teachers or professors. When you have power greedy politicians running the education system, it won't be a good sign.
Second, remove race-based quota in our education system. Race-based quota has more negative than positive in my view. When we are speaking of education, we want a fair and healthy competition among the students. Not by giving handicap to some while others have to work double or triple the effort to close up the game. (That is why many students opt to study and work overseas as they feel their contribution to the country is not fully appreciated.) We will also definitely see an improvement in grades by students as each student will have to up their game.
Our education system will continue to go down, unless someone puts a stop to it. Maybe it's time to change the government and see how things will go from there because I see no future in our education system as long it is led by a "I'm a Malay-first" man.
ps. I would have write this way longer but I know I'm not a famous writer so nobody will give a shit if I write 20 paragraphs.
I've uploaded a picture which shows the score of our country compared to Singapore and Thailand as they are our neighbours therefore a comparison with them is fair. (picture might be a little unclear) but here's the link if you want to see the scores of other countries as well). Since the picture is unclear I'll just type out Malaysia's score from 1999 to 2011. Maths has been dropping from 519-508-474-440 and while Science 492-510-471-426
We are consistently sliding down and to a point where Thailand is performing better than us in Science. And we are nowhere near Singapore's standard as they are consistently in the Top 3 (a few times number 1). And though it pains some Malaysians when we are compared to Singapore, it does not hurt me at all because I have already accepted the fact that no matter what we do, we will always be compared to them and forever under their shadows.
Science and Maths has been taught in English since 2003 until 2012 where it has reverted back to BM. Within 10 years, we have switched from BM-English-BM. Poor students are being a guinea pig in the education system.
Notice the huge drop from 2003 in 2007, where we dropped 34 points in Maths and 39 points in Science. It is notable that in 2003, Form 2 students were still learning in BM while in 2007, it was English. So is English the main cause of the huge drop in scores? In my opinion, yes and no.
Yes, because the syllabus has gotten way easier since the switch from BM to English and the poor command of English by teachers and students as well. No, because it's not English fault. It's the system that is poorly executed. I could give my suggestion on how to improve the subject but what's the point when the decision to abolish PPSMI has been made.
Personally I've been through BM and English in Science and Maths. When I was in primary school, I learnt Science and Maths in BM while in secondary school it's was English.
I found that most of the teachers could not speak fluent English or shall I say, too shy to speak in English due to the fear of being wrong and judged by students who are younger than them. Whilst the government says that the decision to revert back Science and Maths back to Bahasa Malaysia is because the grades of the students did not improve. My point is, it is unfair to shift all the blame to the teachers and students.
I would blame the government for this because they did not prepared the teachers well enough when BM was switched to English in 2003. Had the teachers were given the proper training to adapt to the changes, our grades would have at least maintained if not better. Students are required to answer examination in English while they are being taught in BM by their school teachers. That is the major flaw in the system.
Government’s plan in the New Education Blueprint to benchmark Malaysian examinations to TIMSS, and reach a top third ranking by 2025. This is very laughable in my opinion, we are sliding down the order and without any real changes, can we really believe that we will be in the top 3?
Enough with the bullshits, if you really want our education to be world class. First, remove all political influence in the education system which also means only people are from the academic background e.g top teachers or professors. When you have power greedy politicians running the education system, it won't be a good sign.
Second, remove race-based quota in our education system. Race-based quota has more negative than positive in my view. When we are speaking of education, we want a fair and healthy competition among the students. Not by giving handicap to some while others have to work double or triple the effort to close up the game. (That is why many students opt to study and work overseas as they feel their contribution to the country is not fully appreciated.) We will also definitely see an improvement in grades by students as each student will have to up their game.
Our education system will continue to go down, unless someone puts a stop to it. Maybe it's time to change the government and see how things will go from there because I see no future in our education system as long it is led by a "I'm a Malay-first" man.
ps. I would have write this way longer but I know I'm not a famous writer so nobody will give a shit if I write 20 paragraphs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)