Parents and School

I have been observing at least  three schools in Alor Setar which I  termed 'Ailing Schools' by the performance of the Public Examination. For over several years they fared badly and maintain their positions at the bottom of the list. These are town schools, not far away from the District Education Office.

School's Head changed from time to time. There were improvements made to infrastructure. Yet the educational achievements remain the same. One has to look into the administration of the school, the teachers' attitudes, the students and the parent's involvement in their children's education.

THE ADMINISTRATOR ( THE HEAD MASTER )
Today the Principals of secondary schools are all graduates but not all are having the same views and philosophies. No two heads are running the same style of management. The character of the schools depend much on the character of the manager. Among the many there are a few who hunt for promotions, rewards and recognition and will resort to any mean to achieve the ambition. They dance to the music of the bosses. More often than not the students and the school are left to the Senior Assistant. Rarely we find principal who are more interested in politics. Several are of business minded.

The contemplation on the students are less. They do not show interest in knowing more of the student's problems and to think how to overcome the problems. There are problems of indiscipline, poverty, splitting of the parents, drugs abuse, criminals and prostitution, illiteracy even after 7 years of primary education and fail to achieve the grades.

On the other hand there are school Principals who could remember hundreds of their student's names, teach s many classes as possible, checking the exercise books and the homework at random. The total focus on academic made the students show respect and appreciate the leader. Adult students controlled their undesirable habits and behavior just to please the school but not because of fear.

Bad heads do not know how to manage the school's financial allocation, leaving to the clerk and store keepers to administer the school's expenditure. There has always been conflict with the teachers over the money issue. Many schools spend more then the allocations given.

It was reported that there had been a school Principal who would talk about Mahathir almost every assembly, praising the Minister like a god.

Education is not merely class teaching. The environment has to be conducive. The classroom must have aesthetic scene. Trees, a little forest within the garden, beautiful flowers, beautifully design tables and chairs and artistic arts and sculptures are all vital. While some Principals are aware of it's important, others may totally neglect or found it irrelevant.

If the school's head can't see the relationship between aesthetic and emotional development and discipline and learning then it is a bad omen for the school. The Principals in the low performance institutions always blame the Education Department for sending poor student, the students who could not read and write at the entry point and the parents who do are disinterested in their kids schooling.

THE TEACHERS
Being a teacher is not easy. There are tons of non-teaching jobs. They have to look after text books,  discipline, sports and games, clubs and activities, school corporative, managing tests and other appraisals, processing students and staffs data to be sent to the Ministry, organizing annual events for the school, district, state and even at Federal level.

On the curriculum side there are various projects to be fulfilled. The current is called the TOV which demand a lot of non-teaching tasks. It is time consuming and in my assessment it is ineffective. Book corrections by languages and mathematic teachers consume a lot of time. Before completion they have to set question papers for the next monthly test, marking the papers and process the result.

Not ever teacher can cope with the jobs and all teachers want to cope with them. Those who burnt the candle, who plan and arrange extra classes for weak students, and fulfilling all their duties are termed as good and dedicated teachers. They never labeled their students as weak or stupid, never blame the parents. They tried their best to make good and responsible  students.

It is important to define what is a high performance school. It is fair to take into account the input-output quality of the students. The input is the quality of the student at the entry level. The feeder to the secondary school may not be good schools at all. After six years of education the school fail to produce students who can read, write and multiply, and the students with deficient amount of knowledge. It is expected these students are identified. With the poor input we don't expect a lustrous output. If rocks are polished into stones and stones into a low quality diamond then the school is a successful and well performed institution.

It does not have to be at the top of the list and it has to classified under different category.

Teachers who work hard to improve their students of different ability are excellent and worthy of respects.

There are untold stories of very bad teachers. It is shocking and disturbing to know what they do. It is a lost to the country and a burden to the community. Big salaries are paid for nothing. The parents should not be alarmed because there are not many of them. Wherever they are such staffs the school can brace for trouble.

STUDENTS
Generally both good and bad schools have disciplinary problem, may it be SM Sains, SM Agama or SMK Seberang Perak. Smoking was considered a major offence in the '60s when students could be expelled. Today they smoke in the school compound particularly in the toilets.

Drugs were pushed and distributed among hostelite. Random urine test had found more than 20 students were drug positive. Truancy, vandalism, bullying, extortion and gang fight are among some of the crimes involving students. Several were arrested for house breaking and assault.

Whenever a student is found to create a disciplinary problem the parents would side their kids and threatened to sue the school and the teachers. The Ministry issue a guideline which the teachers found it weak and ineffective. Rais Yatim warned that 'discipline and morality is the work of the parents'. Teachers find it better to ignore the problem ones. It is difficult to find a teacher to stop his student smoking outside the school.

When the students play truant, do not do their home work and sleep in the classroom the teachers choose not to administer any punishment.

Urbanization, development, technology and the growth of wealth are factors that influence and shape the student's behaviors. At least 20 percents of the students ride motorbikes to school. On the bad the motors further create multiple problems.

I can't explain why the boarding schools attain better result and topped the day schools.

Successful schools generally have their own ways dealing with discipline. Parents usually agree with the optimum punishment and giving permission to use cane. The transformed the non-hard core from the bad to the better, from better to good and responsible. There were moral build up making the students feeling proud of the school. It is vital to boost their morale.

Creative teachers can build team building and self esteem. A good teacher-student relationship could bring wonders and like magic the school performance can be enhanced.

PARENTS
Direct parent involvement in a school is within the PTA framework. Parents in the rural areas seem to be more active and always made themselves present during the PTA meeting as compared to town schools. I observed mothers are more than the fathers at the city school's PTA.

Generally the parents and the school work well together and were willing to sacrifice some money to run tuition and extra classes. Many parents agree at the corporal punishment and any other form of penalization with benevolent intent. Residential Malay schools and Chinese educational institutions were almost free of parental attack.

In one school a parent trespass into the compound and physically assaulted a teacher. For a couple years after the incidence the school fared the lowest in the public examination. No teacher would want to take care of the students. They taught and gave homework. Whether the homework were submitted or not nobody cared.

With such a stalemate, the parents have no choice but to resort to tuition and supervise their own kids.

I found the Chinese parents show utmost concern for their kids. Calling them to school to discuss their children's disciplinary problem and education had not been any problem. Some were shocked to discover their kid's playing truant. They did not side their kids.

THE THREE SCHOOLS
What really happened to the three schools that I had been observing ? I think the morale of the teachers are low. The PTA must get organized once again and have a very comprehensive discussion covering the disciplinary action in cases of truancy and gangsterism.

I know of a school which has a symbolic ceremony where parents present a cane each to the school giving permission to the teachers to discipline their children. Parents who do not agree with it were not forced to attend the ceremony. Almost similar thing was attempted at the school that a parent hit a teacher but drew a negative response from the teachers.

The problem of the feeder schools was discussed. The primary schools can't afford to fail even a student. By the second month of year one student every child must know how to read and write.

Even if the new students are weak and problematic the school must first start to identify each one of them, classifying them for special action like start with the ABC again, the special class on moral and religion and the building up of self-confidence. I am sure there are teachers who are willing to volunteer these special tasks.

In the United States there are days where parents would come to school to give talk to the students or run a certain project with the kids. I don't see why it cannot be done here. PTA is not merely an annual meeting but it is an ongoing activity. And even a simple story by a parent is good enough. We may not get 100% of the parents who are free, but a 70% target would be ample.

STATE EDUCATION OFFICE SHOULD NOT PUSH THE SCHOOL
Presuming a school with almost perfect Principal and teachers, the teachers are never having a good time. There are much work to be done and they are very taxing. Schools are not merely place to deliver knowledge and education but much more than that.

The corporate bodies make fortunes out of the schools; selling text books, uniforms, computer programs, insurance etc. External body like National Corporative push parliament to pass law to make it mandatory for the school to be member of  national corporative. It has the power to take action on the school for disobeying this law. Politicians put their men to run food business, various school projects. All those put additional pressures on the teachers who have to take charge of them.

Schools are also experimental fields of a certain theory either coming from the Ministry of Education or the State Education Office. There was a Green Project, the TOV project and projects directly to do with curriculum. Teachers who had not training in a certain subject has to carry the work of teaching such a subject.

Data processing and submission changes from period to period. Imagine after a change the amount of data have to be keyed in again and again. Time for the core job were stolen away by the jobs given by the education offices and the Ministry.

PARENT'S LIMITATION
A complete involvement in children's schooling is almost impossible. In the days of competitive economy and emancipation there is less and less home maker. Women inclusive of mothers left for work together with the husbands. Toddlers are left to the baby sitters or house maids. The bigger ones are sent to child centers or kindergartens.

Children came home at about 2.30 pm but the parents at 6.00 pm. The family can be together only at about night time.

Secondly the new curriculum contents are totally different from what the parents learn before during their school days. They would not be able to teach or help their kids in their homework. Some parents may be able to help in English or Bahasa Malaysia in grammar. Many school subjects are Greek to the parents.

These deficiencies lead to the lack of cohesiveness and direct parent's involvement in helping the children in the school's work. The traditional morality and ethics are hardly transmitted to the younger generations who form a new culture shaped by modern environment; the hip-hop, the drugs, the gang unity and daily eyeball of the chat room mate.

NEW SCHOOL HOURS

to be cont.