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Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah

KUCHING: All nursery and kindergarten teachers are required to hold at least a diploma qualification in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) by next year.

Minister for Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah said this was her ministry’s target as it strives to provide quality teachers and high value early childhood education for all children.

“At present, in terms of qualification, 3,676 out of 5,823 teachers do not have a diploma in ECCE. That is approximately 63 per cent of them.

“So, we need to work very hard and we have directed Sedidik nursery and kindergarten (run by the state) to have all its teachers acquire at least a diploma in ECCE by 2021,” she said at the Sidma College Sarawak 6th Convocation Ceremony held at Kompleks Islam Sarawak hall today.

She added that National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN) assistance is difficult to obtain nowadays so the ministry is currently discussing with Yayasan Sarawak to provide loans for the teachers to pursue diploma in ECCE.

She said this is because these teachers play important role in education as they build a child’s foundation from the start.

She added that the Sarawak government recognises the importance of early childhood education and care by creating Early Childhood Development Division under the ministry, gazetted in May 2017 and approved post in June 28, 2018.

As such, the state government has been investing in grants and working to put a support system in place to provide quality ECCE, she said.

“The state government does this because it recognises that it is in pre-schools that the children with the help of the teachers learn and further develop their vocabularies and language skills, counting and numeracy skills, interaction and social skills outside their family circle.

“We have a commitment to ensure that everyone, practitioners or providers in this field, feel that they are as important as other teachers in primary school, in secondary school or in universities. This is the stand taken by the state government,” she said.

As of November last year, there are 258 registered nurseries in the state with 4,239 classes and 906 children.

For registered kindergartens, there are 2,904 institutions with 5,175 classes and 81,104 children.

Read more @ https://www.theborneopost.com/2020/01/30/fatimah-nursery-kindergarten-teachers-required-to-have-diploma-in-ecce-by-2021/

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is temporarily suspending all scheduled and chartered flights from China with immediate effect, says Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Christine Liew.

She said the decision was made during Wednesday’s (Jan 29) state cabinet meeting in the interest of the people’s welfare.

“This is only a temporary suspension and business operations are expected to resume once the situation returns to normal,” she said in a statement on Thursday (Jan 30).

Liew said although the suspension would have repercussions on Sabah’s tourism industry, the government was placing the health and welfare of Sabahans first.

“We want to avoid the risk of exposing our people to any possible carriers of the 2019-nCoV (coronavirus) infection,” she said adding this travel ban was a very difficult decision to make.

“This might not be well-received by tourism players but we cannot jeopardise the well-being of the people, given the uncertainty of how the coronavirus epidemic is developing,” said Liew, who is also the state Tourism, Culture and Environment minister.

Liew said the state secretary’s office would inform all airlines operating China-KK routes of the decision.

“This means that all flights from China will be halted, and there will be no entry for all travellers from the various Chinese cities to Kota Kinabalu during the suspension period,” she said.

She also noted that the Chinese government had already banned its citizens in Wuhan, Xi’an, Beijing, Tianjin and Guangzhou from travelling abroad.

Meanwhile, Liew assured the public that the state government was closely monitoring the situation.

“The government is constantly being updated by the State Health Department,” she said.

She said while there are no identified cases yet in Sabah, everyone had to be alert and practise good personal hygiene habits and keep themselves abreast of correct information from reliable sources.

“Please refrain from spreading fake or unverified news,” Liew advised.

By STEPHANIE LEE,

Read more @ https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/01/30/coronavirus-sabah-suspends-all-incoming-flights-from-china

MOST Malaysians are passionate about education. Parents want what’s best for their children; educators want to see their students grow intellectually; students want to make lifelong friends and gain employment for a better life.

Ultimately, we all hope that an educated society will lead to greater prosperity, peace, development, and happiness.

The challenge therein, lies in the policies and pathways that lead us there.

With new (acting) Education Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, what would your education wish-list be? Here are five which come to mind:

1) Sekolah Wawasan 2.0

Having started in the early 2000s, the Sekolah Wawasan (Vision School) was aimed at bringing the three types of school streams (national, and Chinese and Indian vernaculars) within one compound.

By having the students eat and play sports together, share a library (and more), the hope was that this would foster unity as students of different backgrounds would share collective growth experiences.

Despite having been less-prioritised in recent years (necessitating Dr Mahathir to call for its revival), I believe the concept should be expanded and improved – let’s call it Sekolah Wawasan 2.0.

Students can be grouped in sports-houses across the streams; teachers can do co-teaching; and parent-teacher associations (PTAs) can collectively support (and fund) the school as a whole – yes, make the parents play nice too.

It might be worthwhile getting private institutions or boarding schools set up within it (my secondary school, Victoria Institution, was a day-school but also had a hostel), and encourage industry to support the school (and local community) with CSR (corporate social responsibility) projects.

Sekolah Wawasan 2.0 can also be the expansion ground for the teaching of math and science in English and a compulsory third or fourth language, since diverse teaching resources would be present.

Short of having a homogenous-single-national school system, which by now has become a political lightning-rod, this model could be powerful in its own right.

Sekolah Wawasan has the powerful potential of striking a balance between maintaining our nation’s unique multi-stream education system while addressing the existing race-relations gap. Unlike other education systems in predominantly homogenous societies, we must embrace the strengths within our diversity.

2) Reintroduce a Higher Education Ministry with an additional portfolio

I had the privilege to serve both the Education Ministry (2014-2015) and Higher Education Ministry (when it was split in 2015 until 2018).

When merged, it was a humongous ministry – both in size and expectation. I recall the school directors and higher education directors jostling for the-then minister’s attention in meetings. Both had distinct challenges and objectives.

The split actually brought a lot of relief and focus.

Between 2004 and 2014, the higher education space grew by leaps and bound. According to the Higher Education Blueprint, total enrolment increased by 70%, international student numbers doubled, bachelor’s degree enrolment increased sixfold and masters by 10 times.

We now have 20 public universities, over 400 private institutions, 36 polytechnics, and 100 community colleges.

In short, the higher education space has taken a life of its own.

However, I feel it should stand with a different portfolio – maybe with science, research, or technology, or even lifelong learning, the reason being that around the world, scientific research coordination, essentially the brains of a nation, needs to be done systematically.

And with technology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s relentless march, it could merit its own ministerial oversight.

This will also balance off the need for more autonomy, which is a dire issue for both public and private universities (from the appointment of top leadership to financial management and student empowerment), and this means less top-down regulation to encourage innovation, growth and progress.

An inter-ministerial committee can be formed to ensure that the schools and higher education sectors coordinate for seamless “cradle-to-grave” policy impact.

3) Use the Education and Higher Education Blueprints as the foundation to take stock and measure progress

It was an exciting time in 2013 when the School Blueprint was launched. Back then I was still in legal practice and like many Malaysians, highly interested in its potential game-changing prospects.

The reality, however, was that the 11 “shifts” stated in the School Blueprint weren’t exactly earth-shattering.

However, having joined the Education Ministry a year later, I came to realise that the Blueprint brought stability and clarity. The 11 shifts, from providing equal access to transforming the teaching profession to empowering parents, identified gaps and measurable targets.

Similarly, when the Higher Education Blueprint was launched in 2015, the 10 shifts it identified, from creating entrepreneurial graduates to prioritising TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) and growing endowment and Waqf, also had a clear purpose.

It made me realise that policy-making does not have to be sensational but more common-sensical. It is about taking many little steps forward.

An example: Our nation’s Pisa (Programme for International Students Assessment) results, albeit still below the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) average, has actually improved for a third assessment in a row (after 2015 and 2018).

After the wake-up call from our abysmal 2012 Pisa results, the Blueprint identified this as one of the areas that must be measured, tracked and improved upon. Simple, yet vital – assessment, evaluation and betterment.

Once our foundations are clear, then more ambitious goals, such as Sekolah Wawasan 2.0 and more, can be pursued in tandem.

4) Policy consistency

The “Education for All” campaign initiated by the former education minister was successful in its own ways; from zero rejections for displaced children and more opportunities for special-needs children, many parents felt its positive impact.

Prior to this, the higher education minister – before the change in government – championed the “Redesigning Higher Education” campaign. That too was successful with its “Soaring Upwards” chant that saw greater industry participation in higher education, continuous improvement in university rankings, and increased graduate employability numbers.

As with all Malaysians, policy flip-flops especially in education is a great fear. It takes many years for policies to bear positive outcomes, and consistency is thus key.

In this regard, the hope is that the Education Minister (and future ministers), will make the time to listen to Education Ministry officials, teachers, researchers, and students. Engage with civil society organisation and social enterprises, such as Teach for Malaysia, Arus Academy, Dignity for Children Foundation, Global School Leaders etc. Take advice from the National Education Advisory Council (NEAC), which has many experienced members.

5) Empower educators

The final point goes without saying, but I’ll reiterate it anyway – our educators are our education system’s lifeline.

We need to reduce their administrative burdens, reward them better, give them professional development opportunities, and have faith in their ability to educate our nation’s future.

Conclusion

Whether interim or permanent, there will always be someone helming the Education Ministry. And as Malaysians and education stakeholders, I believe it’s important to share our views and speak up.

So, what’s on your education wish-list?

By Danial Rahman.

Read more @ https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/columnists/whats-your-status/2020/01/28/a-wish-list-for-education?itm_source=parsely-api

Hence, a high-performing school system is crucial for transforming Malaysia into a high-income and sustainable economy. We also need to empower and “future proof” young Malaysians to thrive in the rapidly changing and disruptive workplace of the future that will be the result of the fourth industrial revolution.

We don’t need foreign experts to tell us what ails our school system and how to go about transforming it. What we need is to face stark reality, learn from our past shortcomings, and to muster the political will to institute much needed education reforms. We have sacrificed meritocracy and quality teaching for mediocrity, politics and an overdose of social re-engineering. Failure to transform our school system based upon systemic and brutal change will erode our nation’s global competitiveness, organisational productivity and individual well-being.

The fact that our school system needs immediate and drastic transformation is clearly evident. In the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, Malaysia (Form Two students) scored merely 465 in Mathematics and 471 in Science as compared to Singapore that scored 621 and 597 respectively. According to the Programme for International Students Assessment 2015 report, Malaysian students ranked 50th out of 72 countries in terms of reading proficiency, 45th in Mathematics and 47th position for Science, all below the corresponding OECD mean scores. Malaysia’s quality of school education even lags behind that of Vietnam (a lower-income nation) by a wide margin.

English proficiency has also deteriorated over time and this is one of the causes of the unemployment (besides a lack of soft skills and the required technical competence) of more than 200,000 Malaysian graduates.

Another area of grave concern is teacher quality: 46pc of principals report a lack of qualified teaching staff as a constraint in enhancing teaching quality. In 2011, researchers from Akademi Kepimpinan Pengajian Tinggi observed 125 lessons in 41 schools across Malaysia. They found that 50pc of the lessons were delivered unsatisfactorily with a focus on passive and surface learning rather than on active and deep learning, which are necessary to cultivate higher order thinking skills in students.

In short, the products of our school system are generally ill-prepared either for higher education or work. Our students lack critical and creative thinking skills because our education system promotes conformity and uniformity. Worse still, they have been “conditioned” to be spoon-fed.

The first step in transforming our school system is to determine the desired outcomes of Malaysian education: “What kind of knowledge, skills, values and personal traits should students have to enable them to thrive in a dynamic workplace and to function productively in society as ethical citizens?” To my mind, Malaysian students should possess adequate disciplinary knowledge (conceptual understanding); be self-confident and achievement-oriented; persuasive and effective communicators; demonstrate integrity and a strong work ethic; be fast, self-directed, self-reflective and lifelong learners; be resilient; demonstrate good interpersonal and teamwork skills; be good problem solvers with analytical and creative minds; be computer and information literate; and be productive and responsible citizens with inter-cultural tolerance.

Towards this end, schools should provide a high quality, broad-based and holistic education with emphasis on cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence, moral intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and physical well-being.

Learning in Malaysian schools should shift from rote learning to conceptual understanding (deep learning) and real-world applications (authentic learning); from classroom learning to lifelong learning; from students as passive learners to active learners; from one-size fits all to customized learning; and from lower-order thinking to higher-order thinking. In the 21st century school, teachers need to function primarily as facilitators of learning and mentors and not merely as dispensers of knowledge.

Second, we need to recruit teachers based strictly on meritocracy and certain core attributes such as willingness to learn, strong communication and interpersonal skills, and being passionate about teaching. Hiring proper candidates into the teaching profession is extremely important as teacher quality is the most significant school-based factor in determining student outcomes.

Research findings show that over 30pc of the variance of school student achievement resulted from professional characteristics of teachers, teaching skills and classroom climate. Indeed, students placed with high-performing teachers are likely to progress three times faster as those placed with low-performing teachers. Simply put, the quality of a system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.

In this regard, the world’s top-performing school systems recruit teachers from the top third of their academic cohort, pay good starting salaries, and undertake high quality teacher professional development programmes to ensure effective instruction in the classroom. Take heed that poor selection decisions can result in up to 40 years of poor teaching.

Third, we must ensure effective school leadership as the quality of school leaders is the second biggest school-based factor in determining student outcomes, after teacher quality. Effective school leaders can raise student outcomes by as much as 20pc to 25pc. Transformational school leaders have a strong focus on instructional leadership and are visionary, inspirational, change-adept and, more importantly, they nurture a high-performance school culture which brings out the best in others.

Fourth, it is important to adopt an integrated and systemic approach – and not take a piece-meal approach – towards transforming schools. School transformation efforts must encompass clear student outcomes; a broad-based and holistic curriculum; competent teacher recruitment and development; effective school governance; varied and student-centric instructional strategies; optimisation of e-learning, appropriate assessment and feedback, and a high-performance school culture committed to excellence and continuous improvement.

Fifth and finally, both the Education Ministry and schools must ensure that there is a constructive alignment between learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities, and the assessment tasks.

To conclude, our nation’s future and the wellbeing of its citizens are greatly dependent on high quality education in our schools. Take heed that no amount of education reforms will bring about the desired outcomes without first having quality and dedicated teachers, high-performing school leaders, and a nurturing school climate that brings out the best in both students and teachers.

By: Dr Ranjit Singh Malhi.

Read more @ http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/read/3468/having-quality-teachers-crucial/

SOOK: About 14,999 child marriage cases have been recorded throughout Malaysia where Sabah is ranked among the top three together with Sarawak and Kelantan.

Sabah Democratic Action Party (DAP) Women Chief Clare Taunek said an awareness campaign is important to end child marriage for the future of the children and nation.

She said that child marriage affects all races, ethnicity, religion and gender and that it occurs in other communities, particularly in rural areas.

She said this during the Stop Child Marriage Talk campaign, held at SK Nandangan Sook recently.

Taunek said Sabah DAP Women is committed in organising the campaign at all districts.

She said the tentative programme include awareness talks with students and parents and forums between non-governmental organisations (NGO) and government departments.

There will also be study sessions in selected district based on the high number of child marriage cases, she said.

“Let’s break this tradition and I call upon parents and teachers to join us in making this campaign a success. We want to ensure the future of our children, especially our girls, so that they can have better future for themselves.

“Many in our society are still lack of awareness that children under the age of 18 have the right to education and to marry them off is a crime,” she said.

She, meanwhile, commended the school community’s efforts in raising motivated pupils.

Also present at the event were school principal Puan Safiah, PIBG head Puan Suana, village chief KK Raulin, teachers, parents and pupils.

Read more @ http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news/146677/child-marriages-sabah-among-top-states/

TAMBUNAN: Sekolah Kebangsaan Monsok Tengah maintained its 100 per cent excellent performance in the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) for seven consecutive years, thus contributing to the overall achievement for the examination in the district here.

School Headmaster, Raphael Yahyo attributed the school’s achievement to the efforts and cooperation of all parties, especially teachers, parents and pupils.

He said based on level one of the Evaluation Assessment in Classroom (PBD), language proficiency is a staggering 90 per cent.

“The successful UPSR results has helped Tambunan secure first place in Sabah, with SK Monsok Tengah contributing 100 per cent to the success,” he said during the school’s Jasamu di Kenang and Orientation Transition closing ceremony, here, recently.

He said the three-week orientation programme aimed to get first-year pupils comfortable in the class in addition to building relationship with teachers, pupils and parents.

He said the programme was also to gather ideas from parents on how to further develop the school’s academic development, as well as explain on the roles of the Parent Teachers Association.

He said strong collaboration can maintain the schools’ performance, thus the reason each year they have programmes which can stimulate pupils’ learning and Parent Teachers Association towards success.

The programme also saw recognition given to two teachers, Vincent Tiun and Pius Kiob who will be retiring soon.

By: Yayasan Dalimpos.

Read more @ http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news/146695/tambunan-school-maintains-100pc-upsr-pass/