APPALLING REALITIES



1.       It has been quite some time since my last posting. Some might say that this blog has gone inactive. There was a comment from a viewer suggesting that I make updates on this blog .I ‘ve never thought this blog would capture attention from anyone at all.  I just believe that on this blog , I write my humble thoughts and ideas. Truly, I don’t expect people to follow them.

2.       During this “inactive” period, I occupied myself with programs and activities which I hoped would benefit people. During my small campaign for UMNO Divisional Election a year ago, I spoke of the elected committee should not sit idly on their titles but to strive and create activities that would benefit the communities. I also said that I was sick and tired of countless hours sitting at Mamak Restaurant lamenting about this, about that and what UMNO should do and finally ended up doing nothing! This is called the NATO culture (No Action Talk Only) and seemingly this culture has rooted deeply in UMNO.

3.       Despite the financial constraints, my bureau and I had managed to stage 3 programs so far for UMNO Seremban. One of the programs worth mentioning is the 2014 SPM Revision programs for students whose parents could not afford to send their children for tuition. I am all aware that this is not something new. I have heard encouraging stories that back in 70’s , teachers in UMNO volunteered giving free tuitions to Malay students. I don’t really know the real reasons were but this honourable effort suddenly stopped. Was it because of the money? Perhaps so because honestly I have been forking out money from my pocket to get this program going. Or perhaps UMNO people nowadays incline in retiring at Mamak restaurant attending the “NATO” Conference rather than volunteering for a good cause.


2014 SPM REVISION PROGRAM

4.       Nowadays we are able to check our children’s report card via on line portal created by the Education Ministry. Through this portal I checked the participants’ progress and achievements. Some were good, some were moderate and some were very weak. Something stroked me when I looked upon the results of the weak students. Although they were weak in the sense that they failed all the core subjects yet there were others in their school that were worse than them. I would like to show an example as below:-


5.        It can be seen that this student (name withheld) failed all his core subjects and he would not get any certificate if his SPM result looks like this. Nevertheless with this result he ranked number 32 out of 43 in his class and number 252 out of 327 in his batch. This means there were 11 others in his class whose achievement were a lot worse and 75 others were a lot worse in his batch. I presumed that the others were also Malays as the students for that school are 98% Malays. If these students get similar results for their SPM, what would be their fate in the real “after-school” world?  They do not have any certificate and they do not have qualifications. Could they find a decent job?  Would they fare well or would they succumb to their inadequacies and fall into world of crimes and vices?

6.       I find this so appalling. What would be the real reasons these students lag far below the academic standard? Adding to my surprise the school teacher informed that some of the weak students are in fact illiterates and they do not know how to read or write. How are they going to sit for SPM if they do not know how to read and write? Why wouldn’t there be an intervention at earlier stages to remedy this sad situation. We have a great EDUCATION PLAN and NATIONAL LITERACY PLAN in this country yet these appalling realities still exist. WHY and WHAT WENT WRONG?


7.       One thing for sure. I will not go NATO on this. I am sure something needs to be done and something can be done. I definitely don’t want to see my race to be like in this newspaper cutting.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tugu Peringatan Sg Lui?

KETUANAN MELAYU DI NEGARA INI HENDAK DITAMATKAN?

Mengkorporatkan UMNO Perhubungan Negeri…..Perlu ke atau saje POYO?