Association urges MoE to brief teachers on new Year 4 assessment

KUCHING (March 15): The Ministry of Education (MoE) is urged to provide briefings for teachers to prepare for the Year 4 assessment.

This call was one of the resolutions adopted by the Association of the Boards of Management for Aided Chinese Primary Schools (SJKCs) in Kuching, Samarahan and Serian during its annual general meeting on Saturday.

The association said teachers should be enlightened on the latest education policies to conduct lessons more effectively.

“Teachers must be aware of the objectives of the assessment to meet its purposes, rather than eventually seeing the assessment turn into another report briefing,” it said.

The new assessment for Year 4 pupils was announced earlier this year, covering four subjects, namely Bahasa Malaysia, English, Science and Mathematics.

Another resolution called upon the MoE to carry out roundtable discussions with the various stakeholders before introducing and implementing new education policies.

It believed that having roundtables prior to implementation should help avoid U-turns.

“Many U-turns have happened regarding MoE’s policies, and this has eroded parents’ and educational bodies’ confidence in the ministry.”

The association also called on the ministry to be fully prepared for enrolling six-year-old children in Year 1 starting next year, including ensuring there will be sufficient teachers and classrooms.

It said MoE’s unexpected announcement on enrolling six-year-olds as Year 1 pupils from next year has posed various challenges to schools and teachers.

“A rushed decision may have a negative impact on the overall development of the primary level education,” it warned.

Another resolution urged the MoE to ensure that all SJKCs have their respective headmasters or headmistresses to manage the schools.

According to the association, quite a number of SJKCs in Sarawak are presently without a headmaster or headmistress because the former ones have retired.

“The MoE has not filled these vacancies. All schools need a headmaster or headmistress to oversee the overall management of the school,” it said.

The association also resolved to urge Putrajaya to devolve education autonomy to the state government to enable Sarawak to formulate policies that meet the local demands and global aspirations.

It opined that Sarawak would be able to manage its education sector in a more effective and efficient manner after being fully empowered to deal with education matters.

In another resolution, the association appealed to the ministry to supply enough educators to teach Chinese subject in government secondary schools.

“This serves to ensure that our students, despite attending government secondary schools, are not deprived of the opportunity to study the subject.

“In recent years, many government secondary schools have faced Chinese language teacher shortages, resulting in some schools being unable to run Chinese language classes,” it explained.

The association added that students’ rights to study their mother tongue should be guaranteed in line with promoting multi-ethnicity across the nation.