I hope this entry isn’t to late for me to highlight the recent announcement about the end of Teaching Mathematics and Science in English or famously known as PPSMI.

Even the name ‘PPSMI’ is in Malay acronym, so I would rather say it’s well expected the death of PPSMI.

So 5 years has gone, now we’ve move on and starting another chapter of Malaysian Education ‘try & error’ which Bahasa Melayu will be back as the main language of teaching.

What do we learn out of PPSMI?

It’s nothing wrong with teaching both subject in Bahasa Melayu, however there’s nothing bad also if it will continue in English. Policy may change, execution is still the same – budget and allocation money will flow for other different direction.

From now on, teachers in rural area will start smiling because they need no more to screw up his/her mother tongue to explain the complicated process of Photosynthesis which how the plants never give up generating Oxygen for human race even though human always has a way to destroy them.

In Chinese school, one teacher with his/her mother tongue will fluently explaining on how sperms have to fight each other to swim inside the ovary looking for the ovum – just for sake of a better humanity – at the end the human will kill the plant too;

What a cliche..

They said – a main reason of why the Ministry put a stop on PPSMI is the lack of English language skill amongst our teacher;

Excuses or facts?

The solution; more English subject such as literature and grammar will be introduce to improve level of English amongst student, and this without extra schools hours;

Posibble?

How many English teacher will the Ministry sent to all this school and capable to execute the task of changing the tickness of our mother tongue – either Melayu, Cina atau Tamil?

Now or in the next 5 years?

Can the Ministry get all the English mastery ready by 2012?

Some how for me, the new solution is great but it just a solution that’s fluent to shut some mouth; give them (the Language people) some reason to have a new plan for the next 5 years.

So if I’ve a child at age 12 years old (who has been facing 5 years of PPSMI), he/she will finished his/her school in the next 5 years with another round of policy testing;

I wish they would just make PPSMI as it is, and teach the new graduate teacher on how to master their English in the next 2 years instead;

Lucky me, I’ve no kids and ain’t no TPM.. n no Kit Siang too;

Quite sometimes I didn’t post something which really current but recently… I’ve been getting a lot of traffic to my blog (which is good) from people who so call researching (which is bad) about PPSMI.

Didn’t know what is PPSMI? It’s policy of teaching English for Math and Science.

Today I read a news (repeat again reading a news) – which hardly I do – since you knowlah!

From The Star: Teachers going mad teaching subjects in English, claims rep

Does you guys see the ‘L’ shape sign on my forehead now?

You political bitches angels out there, stop politicalise the issues. PPSMI is only about teaching Math & Science – not about eliminate BM as our mother tongue; if you own freaking child itself didn’t appreciate your mother tongue, why blame the implementation to improve the second language.

I’ve being with teachers during PPSMI training for almost 3 years, yeah – some of them are really struggling with English – first of all most of them have being in the teaching line for almost 20 years; it’s difficult to catch up with the young graduate teachers! But they tried their best and what counts to me is the effort.

Tuhan bagi pahala pada setiap kerja kita lakukan bermula dari niat, berkali ganda lagi bila kita berusaha mengerjakannya. Untuk kerja itu diterima tuhan, lain cerita. Ini, baru nak berusaha 5 tahun, dah komplain pinggang sakitlah, bont*t pijarlah – ikut ajaran Islam totoklah ni!

I think what they didn’t understand; we should moving forward - encourage the new batches of teachers to be English literate - create new policy to make sure they have proper English classes before sent them for posting – my younger bother and his wife is a teacher – she’ve better English than me! Why waste?

To my humble opinion, from a guy who wrote his English’s SPM paper by reshuffle the question as the answer – Please, remain the PPSMI policy for now and stop barging your little smelly armpit to the Istana Negara.

What can you do really? Showing off your anger towards the Sultan?

Yeah right! What do you get all of you Malays who shout from behind.

A manja posse on local malay daily newspaper with a banner in English ‘STOP PPSMI!’.

Shame on you!

A big thank you to all teachers of 1st session PPSMI VI, as a gratitude everybody received a token of appreciation, a controversial kuih raya hamper….

Cikgu S. Sathiyanatham of SJK (T) Ladang Bukit Kcedek

Cikgu Norizan of SK Datuk Abdullah

Cikgu Lai Kah Voon of SJK (C) Kg Baru Gemas

Cikgu Robiah of SK Dr Sulaiman

Cikgu Maizion of SK (F) Jelai 2

Cikgu Mahalatchumi of SJK (T) Ladang Sg Kelamah

Cikgu Norhayati of SK Datuk Abdullah

Cikgu Siti Zubaidah of SMRA Repah

Cikgu Noraini of SK Datuk Abdullah

Cikgu Idahyunizah of SK (F) Bukit Rokan Utara 

Cikgu Shufarahaziah of SK (F) Pasir Besar

 
Cikgu Azian of SMK Tunku Abdul Rahman

Cikgu Sabtuyah of SK Bukit Jalor

Cikgu Tuan Badrul Hisyam of SK Kampong Ladang

Cikgu Siti Norhaida of SK (F) Pasir Besar

Cikgu LilyAzwa of SK (F) Jelai 1

Cikgu Firdaus of SK Sungai Jerneh

Cikgu Nafsiah of SMRA Repah

Cikgu Hizam Hadi of SK Sungai Jerneh

Cikgu Yeap Shiau Theng of SK Tampin

Cikgu Ong Choo Keng of SK Tampin 

(Some teachers photos are missing since the camera didn’t function properly)

For 5 selected mentors, they received another certificate;

Cikgu Ong

Cikgu Idahyunizah

Cikgu Robiah

Cikgu Ahmad Zaki of SK Sg Dua

Cikgu Siti Zubaidah

Cikgu Maizion as the best presenter

A big thank you to Encik Razib for giving out all the hamper

Pn Aini of SK Tunku Besar for providing us with great venue

On the day 4, the 2nd session started with another 30 + 4 teachers and thing get a little bit nasty… when the kej come crawling and the hamper is become of the controversial issues.

I don’t really understand with JPN!

…to be continue…

So many things happen in past few days – this entry kind of delayed – but I was so impress with the outcome of the 3 days training.

On the third day, this is the last day for 1st batch of teachers attending the PPSMI training.

In the morning, we started with Ms Office 2007 environment introduction. Teachers were so impress with the user friendly of the software compared the previous version they use before.

Cikgu Ong play around with MS PowerPoint using SmartDraw graphics

Guiding one of teachers where to save her files

All teachers concentrating on their laptop

Cikgu Maizion aka Cikgu Stress – doing her presentation – she was so deep in her notebook screen

Cikgu Nafsiah, Cikgu (will recall her name later) and Cikgu LilyAzwa can’t take her eyes of the screen. – I’ve really bad short term memory to remember some of the teachers name – so my apology.

They learn MS Word and MS PowerPoint for preparation on the presentation material.

With a little skill they get from SmartDraw, I kind of scared they would not have enough time to prepare a solid presentation.

But my perception was so wrong. They work so hard to explore many more other features I could not have time shared with them.

With MS Learning Essential topics and the template provided by MOE, all teachers so grateful. Next time they would able to standardise all their teaching materials throughout the whole years.

I’m explaining about the MS Learning Essential shortcut function

All teachers not even planning to go lunch although I’m insist they should have an hour break

Cikgu Ong and Cikgu Yeap trying to integrate MS Learning Essential template with MS PowerPoint

Most of teachers stay on their sits to finish the presentation.

Cikgu Zaki, Cikgu Hazim & Cikgu Sathi doing an animation and slide transition; they manages to do some interesting effect to add some exciting features

Zubir come handy when many teachers keep raising their hand for extra help

Cikgu Lai goes extra miles by using MS Excel to integrate her Bar Chart’s presentation

I was so handful trying to explain the MS Learning Essential advantages

Cikgu Azian looking at many of the templates given by the MOE inside the Resources CD.

After lunch, teachers starts to do their presentation;

Cikgu Yeap & Cikgu Ong come first – they explains how they use SmartDraw in the presentation

On group of teachers having a little difficulty with their connection to the projector

Cikgu Saravanan explaining about his Pie Chart creation using SmartDraw

Two of teachers showing their graphics made using SmartDraw

And this two teachers use the Shape & Space topic in their presentation

One group have some difficulty too with the AV system;

Cikgu Badrul and Cikgu A showing their presentation about Animal topics

The food pyramid created by one of the group – all made by SmartDraw

Cikgu Siti Zubaidah, Cikgu Nafsiah & Cikgu LilyAzwa introduces themselves before started their presentation

And they used English as the topics of the presentation

Cikgu Azian ending the presentation session with her Foods topics planning to use on her Pendidikan Khas classes

One teacher who one of the braves enough to come out alone was Cikgu Maizion – our Cikgu Stress!

At the beginning she having a little difficulty connecting the projector port;

Once she starts her presentation – I was impressed – she do a very impressive graphics of Floor Plan using SmartDraw

She explain how students may identify part of the house plan she have created

And she explain too how she created the floor plan from a basic Floor Plan using SmartDraw symbol

Next, she explain how she use Texture Fill features to create a different type of floor

And everybody voted her presentation as the best presentation that day but to me everybody was impressively outstanding when you look back at the beginning of the first day.

I’m puzzle! Every year, the same issues arise; English is PPSMI (Program Pembelajaran Sains & Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris) main purposes but English was never its main objective…

… to some of the trainers.

This would be the fifth year of PPSMI and my second year as a trainer.

Although it was supposedly my third times as a trainer but since last year schedule pack like a sardines, I had to skip it.

This year, I’m back; hoping it will provide a change which I’ve loudly spoken out 3 years ago.

Why pick a trainer who can’t speak a bit of English when the main objective of the programmes was to enhance the use of English.

My hope was dash in the glamorous of the Palace of Golden Horses.

Most of the trainer attended, I would say 60% of them not even planning to do training in English. Some of them were excellent in Soft Skill / Public Speaking but hardly of them wants to try English as a medium.

Not a little bit.

As usual, excuses are the first thing come out from some of them.

I’ll be training in rural area which most of the teachers not even use English as their first language.

As a trainer, you’re the person who delivering the message so stops giving that lames excuses. PPSMI is not just providing a computer skill training its also providing the effort to convey teachers to use English as spoken language during their Mathematic and Science classes.

No wonder, nobody is in favour of PPSMI and try to revert back to PPSMM…

I was really angry by the end of 3 days training. Bunch of selected best trainer is “Malay” spoken person too… and every year it’s the same.

I’m not saying my English is good, but at least I’ve tried!

This is why I’m so racist against my own race!

UPDATED [140908]

To Malaysian out there who still complaining about should or not PPSMI stayed and also to all the Malay NGOs what-so-ever who still ice-tongue-fight about the effectiveness of the program; please, please stop being silly; you guys got to much shit inside your brain!

Ucap tama by the Ministry representative – also in Malay

Pn Siti – our master trainer – she speaks English most of the times

Khomizal, who will be training in Perak

Shuba of Sepakat & Mathilda Lee of Simple Advantage

Trainer from Class 3

Trainer from Class 3

Trainer from Class 3

Class 3 with JrJ boss (2nd from right) and Pn. Siti (5 from left)

During class break

Mathilda & Nida of Simple Advantage

Theatrette of the Palace of Golden Horses

Simple Advantage back bone, Nida & husband

Simple Advantage Trainer – front from left – Eny, Ms X, Shivon, Zairol, Nida, Shuhaila – back from left – Mathilda, Me, Shuba of Sepakat, Amelia, Fendi & Ashraf

We’re the only group who stand to be different!

But the credit have to go to KUB, Mimos & JrJ for a succesfull TTT and without any big controversy except for opening speech about Bumiputera.

UPDATED [030908]
Manage to speaks with my sis & my ybro regarding the notebook’s OS their schools got it for PPSMI IV – Windows Vista – so En. Nasrul what we should do if the syllabus is already wrong?

A quote by the American novelist remind me a day we celebrate teachers. Most of us would have forgotten this day except if we’re in an educational profession.

Some of us would try our best not to remember how we grew up and same goes with me.

I can’t remember why I would feel so uncomfortable talking about school year. Is it the thing that I do in school or maybe the year it was, puzzle me all the time. But, one thing I would remember and cherish every time I see myself now – a person who shape yourself when you’re in school uniform, all of us call them – teachers.

In my life, there are many teachers I remembered who gives me memories about laugh, smile, cry, serious face, spank on my butt or even public canning. Even three of my siblings also work as teachers.

However there is 2 teachers, I would say have the greatest impact on my life.

STORY ONE

Back in primary schools in year 1980′s, in small kampung, what a boy would remembers the most?

Indefinitely crying inside the rooms full of classmate. It was a toughest year for me, growing up with a big family of 8, you wouldn’t have any privilege different from any of your siblings.

You only be able to get one shoe, once a year, a blue uniform short, once a year and maybe a pair of white uniform shirt. In tropical weathers we live in, would you imagine how much weather would impact your daily life, especially during old time.

One day, it was rain heavily, I got myself in a big trouble when my shoes soaks while walking back home a couple of miles from school. It would not just dry on the next day.

So what would you do when you’ve one pair of shoes only? You wear a red selipar jepun.

That was my desperate measure.

The next day in school, this teacher would ask me why? I told the truth. And she ask me back, why I didn’t have another pair. By then, how could I answer that. My family is poor and my parent could not afford to buy another shoes. I’m to naive to think that kind of answer back then.

So I would just cried my heart off.

She as politely, close to my ears and said.

She have notices the poor condition of the shoes couple a week before and already got me a new one in her room for me!

Is that sweet?

To Cikgu Siti Sarah, I know you’ve retired. Happy Teacher’s Day…

STORY TWO

The another teacher, have slightly much bigger impact on me.

I can feel his energy till today. While writing this, I guess his spirit does running in my guts. We have nothing more than just a connection between a student and a teachers. Some people might think, I’m weird, but the greatest thing he do for me, is just noticing me.

Earlier in the secondary schools, he would be the teachers who I would see running around the school chasing the bad boys, and me a nerd in the rooms full of classmate in the religious boys school watching him pass by and get scared with his army face.

As I grew up, living with 5 sisters before me. I kind of choke in what do you see yourself 5 years, 10 years or even 15 years from now. You’re dying in need of a mentor. You can’t compare what your sister do, and your dad was in a way not the person you want to see yourself to be (my dad would say this to me, he send me to school because he don’t want me to be like him, poor and uneducated. I’m proud of him for saying that to me).

You would stuck in the world which there is a lot of new thing come to you and a family who just started to explore beyond the kampung life. (At that time my eldest sister just got a colored TV, a car and a husband)

And I see myself as a long ranger, without guidance of a person who have experience as a ’1990′s man’ in life.

Then, one day you realise you had a potential. Same with me, act fast and leverage on it.

When you know all your sister could write, some are good and some are really good. And what you do? Get their help writing your first poem!

‘Tiba-tiba nama itu hilang di dada pantai‘ was born. My first pieces of writing, maybe much a lot of word there was from my sister.

In school, it was a ‘Sastera Week‘ and there is one competition of Deklamasi Sajak. All my classmate push me to enter into this competition and every class have to represent one and bluntly I say YES.

And without notices, he was the judge.

After my turn, I was so out of the world. Either I was shock with the clapping or amuse I could do that kind of thing really good.

Before announcing the winner, he come to me and said..

“You’re really good”

And end up, I won the 1st place defeating his class, the higher class, which he taught how to write the poem… so that was the first impression I get from him.

(the teacher in the above photos is not him)

After that, I kept bumping into him either in teachers room or across the school corridor, and every time he would remember who you are even he didn’t yet teach any of your classes. So, I was kind of building this kind bond unnoticed where you would see him as a person you like to be at later stage of your life, at the same age he was that time.

Which is my age now.

Some call me crazy in love with him, I just ignore.

However, I would say I had a crush to a person I admire his uniqueness as person who would able to shape me without be next or close to me. On the second first impression, when he start teaching me Bahasa Melayu, he wrote a mark for one of my exercise book.

He said while returning this book in end of classes,

“One day you’ll write a good story and share with people. You’ll touch so many people heart with your truthfulness”

Cikgu Jile’, if I may say so now,

“You’ve taught me, beyond just a school subject. You taught me the life in simplest way – never give up hope whenever and wherever you’re, because education is what remains when one has forgotten everything he learned in school”

For Cikgu Ahmad Ghazilan Ngah, Selamat Hari Guru!

Like what Henry Brooks Adams would said…

“A teacher affects eternity… he can never tell, where his influence stops”