Skip to main content

Home/ Malaysian Teachers & Education/ Group items tagged malaysian news

Rss Feed Group items tagged

izz aty

Wahab et al 2010 Transformational of Malaysian's Polytechnic into University College in... - 0 views

  •  
    Proceedings of the 1stUPI International Conference on Technical and Vocational Education and Training Bandung, Indonesia, 10-11 November 2010 570 Transformational of Malaysian's Polytechnic into University College in 2015: Issues and Challenges for Malaysian Technical and Vocational Education Sahul Hamed Abd. Wahab1 , Mohd Amin Zakaria2 , Mohd Ali Jasmi3 Politeknik Johor Bahru 81700 Pasir Gudang Johor Malaysia. sahul@polijb.edu.my, mohd_amin_zakaria@yahoo.com, matali_jasmie@yahoo.com Abstract Malaysian Polytechnic has been operated for almost 41 years. It was established by the Ministry of Education with the help of UNESCO in 1969. The amount of RM24.5 million is used to fund the pioneer of Politeknik Ungku Omar located in Ipoh, Perak from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). At present, Malaysia have developed 27 polytechnic at all over states in engineering, agriculture, commerce, hospitality and design courses with 60,840 students in 2009 to 87,440 students in 2012. The Department of Polytechnic Education is committed to provide quality, efficient and customer-friendly services to the highest level of objectivity, confidentiality, integrity and professionalism. Their main purpose is to breaking boundaries for the creation of transformative and creative learning environment for an innovation-led economy and to be Malaysia's number one provider of innovative human capital through transformational education and training for the global workforce by 2015. The objective of this paper is to analyze the issues related on transformational of conventional polytechnic towards students, lecturers, stakeholders, communities, and workforce and skill development in lifelong learning. In addition, to study new courses aligned with development of new technology and currents trend of employment has take into consideration. Finally, a basic frame work of a new dimension for University College based on technical and vocational training is discussed at the end of this p
izz aty

File-sharing sites blocked in Malaysia | e27 - 0 views

  •  
    In the two-page document (you can see here), the MCMC requested that Malaysian ISPs block access to ten file-hosting and sharing URLs, including Megaupload, Fileserve, and The Pirate Bay. It cited Section 268 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, which states that ISPs (licensees) must try their best to prevent its network from being used for activities that contravenes with Malaysian law.
izz aty

Study: Malaysia has best English language speakers in Asia - Nation | The Star Online - 0 views

  • Malaysia apparently has the best English language speakers in Asia, beating out Singapore, India, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, China and Kazakhstan - according to a Singapore-based English Language school.
  • The school, Education First, which released the findings of their English Proficiency Index on their website Wednesday, ranked Malaysia as having the highest level of English proficiency out of 13 countries in Asia.
  • On the global scale, Malaysia was ranked 11th out of 60 countries, with four of the top five slots going to Scandinavian countries, with Sweden and Norway taking the top two spots and Malaysia outperforming Singapore, Belgium, Germany, Latvia and Switzerland - countries which took the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th spots respectively.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • "China has also improved, although less dramatically. Japan and South Korea, despite enormous private investment, have declined slightly.
  • Across the board, English language skills are improving in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). "This year, India and Russia have moved ahead of China, and Brazil is closing in fast," said Education First.
  • The school went on to say that their Index found the Middle East and North Africa to be the regions with the weakest English proficiency.
  • On the mechanics of the Index, the school said the Index calculated a country's average adult English skill level using data from two Education First tests.
  • The second is a 70-question online placement test used by EF during the enrolment process before students start an English course. Both include grammar, vocabulary, reading, and listening sections
  • One test is open to any Internet user for free
  • The open online test is a 30-question adaptive exam, so each test-taker’s questions are adjusted in difficulty according to his or her previous correct and incorrect answers
izz aty

Malaysia's English language crisis - The Nation - 0 views

  • when the ministry recently announced that from 2016 onwards, students in Form Five - the equivalent of a GCE O-level class in Singapore - must pass English before they can obtain their school-leaving certificates, it set tongues wagging. After all, last year, almost a quarter of 470,000 Form Five students failed English, and only 16 per cent of them scored highly in the language.
  • The ministry is now working overtime to re-train thousands of English teachers around the country to try and meet the 2016 deadline.
  • "It is an ambitious goal, but we cannot tolerate students not being able to communicate in English any more," Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim, head of a new agency within the ministry, told The Straits Times in a recent interview. "Something needs to be done."
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • During the British colonial era, schools used English as the medium of instruction. This continued after independence in 1957 and many English teachers either came from the United Kingdom or were trained there. "In the 1960s, one of the books read and discussed in English classes by sixteen-year-olds was George Orwell's "Animal Farm", recalled Andrew Yip, 60, a shopkeeper in Ipoh, Perak. In 1970, the Malaysian government began requiring all state-funded schools to use Malay to teach, to build nationalism; though English remained a compulsory subject. Many English teachers were phased out. Over the years, students' academic performances declined.
  •  
    "IN PERAK on the northern Peninsular Malaysia, an English teacher uses textbooks meant for seven-year-olds to teach her Form One class of students, mostly aged 13. "When I first taught them, they could not even tell the difference between 'when' and 'what'," the teacher, who wants to be known only as Yee, told The Straits Times recently. "I had to put my planned lessons aside and start with the basics." It is the type of story many English teachers in Malaysia share, but are reluctant to speak openly about because they worry about being sanctioned by the education ministry. And so, when the ministry recently announced that from 2016 onwards, students in Form Five - the equivalent of a GCE O-level class in Singapore - must pass English before they can obtain their school-leaving certificates, it set tongues wagging. After all, last year, almost a quarter of 470,000 Form Five students failed English, and only 16 per cent of them scored highly in the language."
izz aty

Mohd Jelas 2010 Learner Diversity and Inclusive Education: A New Paradigm for Teacher E... - 0 views

  • The separate teacher education programs for regular and special education do not equip teachers with an integrated knowledge of the expected roles, functions and responsibilities to meet the diversity of learning needs in the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to argue for a new paradigm for the preparation of teachers particularly in the Malaysian context. The discussion will focus on the need for teacher educators of regular and special education at all levels of teacher education to develop a “whole-faculty approach” in facilitating an inclusive pre-service teacher education curriculum embedded across all discipline areas.
izz aty

What to Expect as a Malaysian Student Overseas - 0 views

  • Anda orang Malaysia? Flying overseas to study for the first time? This blog tells you just what to expect.
  • This blog is written primarily for first-time undergraduate students from Malaysia, regardless of their academic pursuits and funding, who are flying off to study in any of the following countries:New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom, Ireland, United States, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia (and Europe etc.), Japan, South Korea and ChinaI am a Malaysian who has returned home after four years of studying in New Zealand. I was sponsored by a government agency. But nobody had told me the things I should expect before I arrived. I wish someone had written something like this when I was a student.
izz aty

Inclusive Education In Malaysia Education Essay - 0 views

  • Inclusive education in Malaysia originated from the ‘special education’ agenda as defined in the Education Act 1996 (1998) and its approach is referred to this tradition.
  • These mandates are intended to promote equal rights and access to education for persons with disabilities. The ‘educability’ criterion assumes that there are children who are uneducable within the public school system and thus these children are catered to within community-based rehabilitation (CBR) settings (MOE, 2006). CBR programmes are government-initiated, centre-based programmes at the community level aimed to provide education that emphasises therapy and rehabilitation to children with learning disabilities (Kuno, 2007). CBR programmes are quite detached from the mainstream school system. However, in practice, the division between both provisions is less definite, and students who should benefit from them become victims of bureaucratic procedures (Adnan & Hafiz, 2001).
  • Malaysia embarked on the first stage when the first school for the blind was opened in 1929, followed by a school for the deaf very much later in 1954
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • These schools were initiated under the programs of the Ministry of Social Welfare with the help of religious missionaries. Malaysia entered its second stage when professional preparation programs for special education were formally established by the Ministry of Education in 1961. Lacking its own expertise and technology, Malaysia entered its third stage when it began importing knowledge and expertise by sending its education professionals abroad for research degrees and in-service attachments in special needs education in the 1980s and 1990s, and attempting to customize what was learned to its national conditions. Malaysia’s participation in international workshops and activities of the UN and UNESCO and subsequent reforms as reflected in the Education Act (1998) describes the active development of policy and changes in practices during this period. In 1993, the first preservice teacher preparation leading to a Bachelor of Education degree program in special needs education was initiated in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The program was developed alongside a collaborative project in curriculum development with three universities in the United Kingdom, namely, the Universities of Manchester, Birmingham and Cambridge (Jelas, 1996; 1999).
  • The terms ‘special needs’ introduced in the Education Act 1996 (1998) are defined as follows: “Pupils with special needs’ means pupils with visual impairment or hearing impairment or with learning disabilities” And ‘inclusive education’ is introduced as part of the continuum of services available for children with special needs: “Special education programme” means – A programme which is provided in special schools for pupils with visual impairment or hearing impairment; An integrated programme in general schools for pupils with visual impairment or hearing impairment or with learning disabilities; and An inclusive education programme for pupils with special needs and who are able to attend normal classes together with normal pupils” (Education Act 1996, 1998, p. 341)
  • However, the eligibility for special education placement is based on the ‘educability’ of children as assessed by a team of professionals. This is documented in the Act, which states: “(1) For government and government-aided schools, pupils with special needs who are educable are eligible to attend the special education programme except for the following pupils: physically handicapped pupils with the mental ability to learn like normal pupils; and pupils with multiple disabilities or with profound physical handicap or severe mental retardation. A pupil with special needs is educable if he is able to manage himself without help and is confirmed by a panel consisting of a medical practitioner, an officer from the MOE and an officer from the Welfare Department of the MWFCD, as capable of undergoing the national educational programme” (Education Act 1996, 1998, p. 342) The eligibility dilemma
  • While the current public policy for children with special educational needs, particularly those categories of children classified as experiencing ‘learning disabilities’ have access to regular schools as stated in the Act, the ‘educability’ criteria contradicts the goals of providing equal education opportunities as stipulated in the United Nation’s Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (1993), The Salamanca Statement (1994) and the Biwako Millenium Framework for Action (UNESCAP, 2002).
  • Foreign experts are initially relied upon to provide the knowledge and to encourage its development prior to the emergence of a profession within a country. The first professionals to provide services are usually trained abroad. The second stage followed this first stage, in which colleges and universities established programs and departments to teach the discipline and prepare the professionals. The second stage leads to the third stage, in which colleges and universities import developed from abroad to achieve standards that characterised the discipline in more developed nations. During this stage, the concepts, theories and models of implementation found in the more developed countries are taught, applied and tested; some of which may transfer more successfully than others.
  • Before special programmes were available, students with special needs were described by their characteristics and by the instructional challenges they presented to teachers. When the education system began to respond to the needs of each emerging group of special needs students, services were established and eligibility criteria determined. From that point on, a child was identified (for school and placement purposes) as having or experiencing a ‘special educational need’ and if he or she is “able to manage him or herself without help” (Education Act 1996, 1998), the child will be eligible for a given programme or service. This process was repeated as each new group of special needs students emerged – for example, children with visual and hearing impairments in the 1960s, children with mild intellectual in the 1980s and 1990s, and more recently, children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorders and children with dyslexia.
  • in the Education Act 1996 (1998) that the perspectives of professionals (“a medical practitioner, an officer from the MOE and an officer from the Welfare Department of the MWFCD” p. 342) have the most power in determining the way children are categorised and whether these children are “capable of undergoing the national educational programme” (Education Act 1996, 1998)
  • policy makers and professionals continue to see special schools and classes as well as categories as having an important place in provisions. Responses at the Ministerial level revealed an emphasis on diversity and acceptance of human characteristics as problematic and that learning difficulties are technical problems that require specialised discipline knowledge that cannot be dealt with in the “normal classes with normal children” (Education Act 1996, 1998 p. 341).
  • The National Report on the development of education states: Inclusion in Malaysia subscribed to the concept of placing SEN students into mainstream classes to be educated alongside their peers, either with or without additional support, and within the present school system. This concept of IE (inclusive education) might not be in line with the ideal concept based on “acceptance, belonging and about providing school settings in which all disadvantaged children can be valued equally and be provided with equal educational opportunities … (MOE, 2004, p. 28),
  • Even though inclusive education was implemented at the policy level more than 10 years ago and school participation has rapidly increased quantitatively, Malaysia is far from reaching its goal of providing “a responsive education path for every child and youth with SEN” (MOE, 2004)
  • The emphasis on the ability “to cope with mainstream learning” seemed consistent with the integration models that came about in the 1980s. Integration models mainly focused on placing students with mild disabilities, identified and “diagnosed” as having special needs in mainstream schools. In such models, students must adapt to the norms, expectations, styles, routines and practices of the education system instead of the education system adapting to the learner (UNESCO, 2008). The integrated programme is the dominant format for delivering services to special needs students in Malaysia, then and now.
  • Once placed, few special education students returned to the regular education class on full-time basis. Although the special classroom and special schools continued as options, integrated programmes (placement in regular classrooms) for students with visual and hearing impairments are available with support from the resource teacher
  • Historically, the disenchantment of many special educators and the concern of the efficacy of the prevailing approach (Ainscow, 1994; Meyen & Skrtic, 1995; Sorrells, Rieth & Sindelar, 2004; Stainback & Stainback, 1992) raised questions about how best to assure a quality and equitable education for students with disabilities and spawned the push for a more inclusive approach to special education programming. While these reforms were mandated in the United Nations Declarations and UNESCO’s Framework of Actions on special needs education of which Malaysia’s policy on inclusive education subscribes to, the focus on diagnosis, prescription, and intervention continued to be central to determining eligibility and making placement decisions. Thus, although special education practices had changed, the grounding assumptions of human pathology and organisational rationality (Biklen, 2000; Oliver, 1996; Skrtic, 1991) have not been critically examined. In this context, special education is used to maintain and legitimise exclusion of students with disabilities within a school culture and system characterised by competition and selection (Skrtic, 1995; Corbett, 1999; Slee, 2001; Kearney & Kane, 2006).
  • While the philosophical basis of including SEN students into mainstream schools is accepted as a policy, the continued legitimization of paradigms that exclude SEN students is also acknowledged by rationalising between the “ideal” and the “not-so-ideal” concept of inclusive education. This ambivalence is reinforced by the following statements: Prior to inclusion, especially in the early part of their formal education, SEN students are equipped with relevant basic skills and knowledge to enable them to cope with mainstream learning. Only those who are diagnosed capable to cope with mainstream learning would be included fully or partially. (MOE, 2004, p. 29)
  • In principle, Malaysia is committed to providing education for all with the implementation of compulsory education in 2003 as evident by a high participation rate of 98.49 per cent (MOE, 2004). This statement of intent towards compulsory education for all which was an amendment of the Education Act 1996, however, did not include children with disabilities
  • The radical perspective that leads to a reconceptualisation of special educational needs have been well documented for the past twenty years (Barton, 1988; Lipsky & Gartner, 1989; Ainscow, 1991; Fuchs & Fuchs, 1994; Clark et. al., 1998; Donoghue, 2003) and critiques argued and showed evidence how the education system creates rather than remediate disabilities (Skrtic, 1991; Corbett, 1999; Vlachou, 2004; Carrington & Robinson, 2006). The new perspective on special educational needs is based on the view that the way forward must be to reform schools in ways that will make them respond positively to pupil diversity, seeing individual differences as something to be nurtured. But, as cautioned by Ainscow (1994): This kind of approach is only possible in schools where there exist a respect for individuality and a culture of collaboration that encourages and supports problem-solving. Such cultures are likely to facilitate the learning of all pupils and, alongside them, the professional learning of all teachers. Ultimately, therefore, this line of argument makes the case that increasing equity is the key to improvements in schooling for all. (Ainscow, 1994, p12)
  • Education in Malaysia is driven largely by an examination–oriented system characterised by curriculum rigidity and rote learning rather than critical and independent thinking. Like schools in Singapore and Hong Kong (Poon-McBrayer, 2004), school leadership are in great pressure to compete for the best examination results in terms of the percentages of passes and the number of A’s acquired by students in public school examinations
  • The culture of elitism compels parents to prepare their children to be accepted into high ranking or fully residential schools which usually achieve high scores in examination results.
  • Although the ‘intertwining of the standards and inclusion agenda’ can lead to positive consequences (Ainscow et al, 2006), the emphasis on the preparation and drill for the public examinations therefore, left little or no time for teachers to accommodate individual learning needs of students in general. Media reports on schools’ and students’ performance intensify competition and further marginalise SEN students, who, to a large extent are not expected to compete. Competing priorities make it more difficult for schools to fully include children with SEN.
  • Continued advancement of special needs education in Malaysia will require bifocal perspectives. One focus has an international perspective and requires Malaysians’ awareness of the international body of literature and trends in practice that enables them to take advantage of the knowledge and experience gained by those in other countries. Malaysia may also profit especially from knowledge provided by its Asian neighbours namely Japan, India and China, or other countries that seems to be struggling with many of the same issues.
  • effective special needs education services require awareness of social and educational traditions, social philosophies that manifest in schooling and school culture and ways of resolving conflict that may be unique to one country and the impact these qualities have on general and special needs education services (Peters, 2003).
izz aty

Malaysia's Education Minister calls for a third language for students, AsiaOne Educatio... - 0 views

  • Muhyiddin, who is Education Minister, proposed the creation of jobs for 30,000 new language teachers in national schools to facilitate teaching of a third language as an elective subject.
  • He said mastering a third language could help the Malay, Chinese and Indian students understand each other better.
  • Muhyiddin said the third language policy was already included in the schooling system. "But too few took up (the third language course)," he added.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • He also emphasised the need to enhance command of the Malay language to promote national unity. This, he said, was important as studies have shown that some students could not even speak the national language. "I have given a directive to improve the curriculum and quality of teachers teaching Bahasa Melayu in national schools," he added.
  • Muhyiddin also noted that 121 of the 638 resolutions presented at the Umno general assembly were related to education issues.
  • Muhyiddin announced the setting-up of Parents Teachers Association Foundation with a start-up fund of RM200mil. "We will get more government-linked companies and the private sector to contribute towards the Foundation," he added.
izz aty

Muhyiddin: English a compulsory pass subject as early as 2016 - Nation | The Star Online - 0 views

  • Muhyiddin, who is also the Education Minister, said training English teachers was under the first wave of the National Education Development Plan (2013-2025).
  • "The second wave will start in 2016 and that is when we propose to implement the pass in English ruling," he said, adding that his ministry will again solicit feedback from stakeholders first, such as Parent Teacher Associations, before implementing this.
  • Muhyiddin said the command of English amongst students had also improved since the Government began promoting the use of the language several years ago."I am told that based on the existing SPM curriculum, only 20% students fail English every year."We are confident that we will be able to reduce this figure by then," he said.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • "Our target is for them to bilingually proficient in Bahasa Malaysia and English," he said.
  • "Since English is widely used internationally, we have little choice but to encourage our children to be proficient.
  •  
    "The proposal to make English a compulsory pass subject in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination could be implemented as early as 2016, Deputy Prime MInister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said Friday. Students who fail English will not receive their full certificate but will have the opportunity to re-sit the paper in July the following year, soon after the SPM results are released. Muhyiddin said in preparation for this, the Education Ministry had started training 61,000 English teachers to be more proficient in the language."
izz aty

Inclusive education - a focus on Malaysia - 0 views

  •  
    DEPUTY Education Minister I, Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching highlighted Malaysia's delivery of education services to children with disabilities, at the IDPP Multi-stakeholder Roundtable on Inclusive Education Policy. She said though the Education Ministry's Special Education Department holds the primary responsibility to provide education for children with disabilities in Malaysia, the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU) in the Prime Minister's Department is tasked to oversee the implementation and to assess its progress in relation to the policies on education of this category of children.
izz aty

Master a third language, Idris Jusoh advises students | Malaysia | Malay Mail Online - 0 views

  • In his winding-up speech at the Umno General Assembly 2014 last Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also Education Minister, said the ministry was considering making the third language an elective subject. Muhyiddin made the announcement in response to a proposal by Wanita Umno head Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil at the assembly that learning a third language like Arabic, Mandarin or Tamil as an elective subject would make it a crucial communication tool towards fostering unity. “This (mastery of language) is not a new thing as in European countries, they master four languages such as English, French, German and Italian,” said Idris. He said four national schools in Besut would begin teaching Mandarin to Malay students, beginning next year
izz aty

Autistic children can be the nation's assets - Nation | The Star Online - 0 views

  • The Director of the Special Education Division under the Education Ministry, Bong Muk Shin, said children under the Special Education Programme are those who have difficulty learning in the mainstream environment. The special education stream is divided into three based on the difficulties in learning, hearing and seeing.
  • Autistic children are classified under those with learning difficulties. This is based on the general characteristics of autism such as the difficulties in focusing, communicating and socialising. Autistic children also tend to be hyperactive or prone to sudden aggression, which can at times harm themselves or others.
  • Bong advocates early intervention programmes for autistic children. He said such programmes could help them immensely in preparing and adjusting to the schooling environment.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Early intervention also allows them to enter the special education programme. Bong said the children would learn to become self-sufficient and independent through the programme.
  • Until March this year, 3,264 children have registered as disabled people at 925 schools nationwide. Of the figure, five percent are autistic children.
  • Bong said the ministry was aiming for 75 percent of mainstream schools to be implementing the integration programme by 2025.
  • The integration programme has been implemented at selected schools for three years now and has shown to affect the disabled children positively, he said. Bong said autistic children had every right to an education as other children and it was the parents and teachers' responsibility to help them attain it.
izz aty

Mohd Yusof et al 2011 Teachers' Perceptions on the Blended Learning Environment for Spe... - 1 views

  •  
    Challenges: several factors shown in the model that defined challenges in learning environment according to the teachers' perceptions. They had shared that, they have limited content on ICT based materials to apply and implement in the learning environment. These also included the lack of digital resources suitable for special needs learners, the non-digitalized assessment and tasks. Moreover, the elements of interactivity are limited in the learning environment. In terms of connection, the space and the facilities for special education is still limited. Moreover, it has been assumed that the special needs learners had limited confidence to use the ICT facilities and to operate it. The teachers felt that they could not the ICT facilities in learning because they lacked the skill and experience to operate the ICT facilities. "Although access to ICT is not a problem; teachers felt they lack the necessary skills to integrate ICT"(Ngah & Masood, 2006, p. 238). The government has provided the facilities, however, the teachers are unable to utilise it. Benefits In term of benefits of a blended learning environment, the teachers felt that ICT will give them the opportunity to enhance their computer literacy skills. They might only know what it is, but they can learn and use it in their teaching. Moreover, it wills build-up teacher creativity to build their own learning environment that suits the students. For example, the animation project helped the special needs students to learn a new skill and enhance their attention and motivation (Yusof & Aziz, 2010; Yusof & Song, 2010). According to previous research by Mayer & Moreno (2002), Mayer's principle had shown the benefit of using the multimedia as the tool help enhance student engagement. He also stated the guideline to ensure the suitable elements in the multimedia content (Mayer & Moreno, 2002; Yusof & Aziz, 2010). The use of ICT helps them to minimize the use of paper, and the activities on a computer ca
1 - 16 of 16
Showing 20 items per page