Friday 9 January 2009

GOOD! LET'S LOOK AT THE EDUCATION POLICY BASED ON "FACTS, FIGURES AND ABSENCE OF EMOTION."


The late Tun Razak, the second Prime Minister of Malaysia, pioneered the Education policy, and happened to be the current education minister's uncle.

Friday January 9, 2009
Hisham: Ministry in no hurry to make decision


PUTRAJAYA: There is no rush to make a decision on whether the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English should continue or revert to Bahasa Malaysia.

Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said any change could only be implemented next year.

“We are nearly at the tail-end of looking at all the details gathered,” he told reporters after delivering his New Year message to his ministry’s staff.

What was more important, he added, was that the ministry was satisfied with the views, suggestions and ideas from all parties before a decision was made.

The teaching of Mathematics and Science in English policy was implemented in phases, starting with Year One, Form One and Lower Six in 2003.

Hishammuddin had said earlier that it was time to look at the policy after six years ‘’based on facts, figures and an absence of emotion’’.

He said the Cabinet would make the final decision.

On another matter, Hishammuddin said students, teachers and ministry staff would be encouraged to participate in a mass movement against the violence in Palestine.

“They are citizens of the world and it is important for them to realise that things that happen outside our shores will have a direct impact on them too,” he said.

Hishammuddin later launched a guidebook on the educational aid available from the ministry.

For 2009, he said the Government was allocating RM3.6bil as additional aid for students, adding that the guidebook listed the 19 types of aid provided including the Poor Students’ Provident Trust Fund, tuition voucher scheme, sports scholarship scheme, students with special needs’ allowance and pre-school food aid.(The Star Online, 9 January 2009)

Comment:
Well, the Rakyat has already got the answer from the Minister of Education, with regard to the use of English in Scince and Mathematics. A standard answer from a politician, who is divorced of the so-called language emotion and national sentiments. I believe what he won't be saying is something like, "I know what is best for the country in terms of education. The rakyat should understand. For the sake of our 'anak bangsa' I am well aware of the importance of English, based on my educational experience overseas."

If the majority of the Malays love their mother tongue and that the language is enshrined in the Constitution as our national language and the language of education, so what rubbish is he talking about that the people are being emotional. Wake-up Sir! Malaya got her independence from the British through political struggle based on emotions and sentments.At that emotionally-charged situation where were you, Sir. Oh Sorry! You were not born yet, Sir, but one of the members of your family did join the struggle and in fact was one of the front-runners. Oh, then again Sir, you are from of the later, younger and present generation, who might not know well enough of the emotional meaning of this word "struggle-lah".
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MALAYSIAN LEADERS GAZEBO

SO THEY SAY...

SO THEY SAY...

"A.F.Yassin dalam cerpenya "Dendam" berjaya menghidupkan ceritanya dalam bahasa yang berjiwa; sesuai dengan pertentangan-pertentangan yang dialami oleh Salim atau oleh Yanti sendiri. "Plotnya bersifat sorot pergi sebagai satu gaya untuk mengembangkan kisah pada satu detik tetapi menghimbau kisah itu kepada kisah lampau dan juga kisah akan datang. Latarnya di Indonesia. Cerpen ini hidup kerana tidak dibiar berkisar di luar persoalan. Olahan cerpen bepusar keseluruhannya pada watak Yanti..." (Dato' Shahnon Ahmad, Mingguan Malaysia, 14 November 1976.)



" The former editor of a publishing house, A.F.Yassin, recently put out Sembang Sastera: Bersama Orang Persuratan (Fajar Bakti, 1998,310 pages), in which he talks to 64 Malay writers and literary activists of varying stature, who muse on their lives and what they have been up to. Chatty. Frank, nostalgic, irreverent, these conversations are light, in response to A.F.Yassin’s equally casual probing. His target is largely a small and shrinking group of people aged around 60 and above, loyal supporters of the Jawi-scripted Utusan Zaman, in which most of these Sembang-Sembang first appeared.



"Now that these Sembang-Sembang have been romanised, and packed in a handsome hardcover book, more readers , especially literary researchers, local and foreign, can be expected to benefit from them. Of course, the information ranges from the revealing to the trivial, but the book is pertinent as it provides insight on what went on in the world of Malay letters.



"…Sembang Satera is invaluable, especially to students of contemporary Malay literature, because it provides a cauldron of tidbits, with which to spice up the perennially long-overdue assignment.” - (Zakaria Ali, "Notes on Local Literature, fortnightly with Zakaria Ali, New Straits Times, 27 January, 1999."



"Yassin merupakan penulis yang berilmu dalam dua bidang dan seterusnya melibatkan diri dalam tiga dimensi. Bidang-bidang keilmuan dan keahliannya ialah komunikasi dan sastera, sementara kegiatannya dalam bidang penulisan kreatif dan deskriptif dan serentak dengan itu, turut kreatif dalam penghasilan dan penerbitan buku sesuai dengan profesion terkininya." (Asri Affandi, Mingguan Malaysia, 27 Disember 1987.)



"A.F.Yassin dalam bukunya Etika dan Wartawan berpendapat, pemberitaan akhbar di negara ini boleh dikatakan hanya berpandu kepada etika sejagat dan norma serta kebiasaan hidup masyarakat majmuk. Ketiadaan kod etika kewartawanan juga seperti yang ditekan oleh A. Samad Said telah menjadikan akhbar mengamalkan dasar swaying with the wind, bukan merupakan agent of change, serta cenderung menyuarakan dasar dan strategi pihak penerbit suratkabar itu sendiri." (Harakah, 31 Mei 1993.)

Tidak tahu kenapa dia meninggalkan lapangan guru dalam tahun 1962 kemudian sanggup pula menjadi seorang Juruteknik di sebuah kilang tekstil di Johor Bahru. Apakah dia memikirkan kurangnya anak Bumiputra berminat dalam lapangan teknikal atau kerana mula nampak bintangnya lebih mengerdip jika dia meninggalkan lapangan guru?

Yang ternyata sewaktu berada di Textile Corporation of Malaya Berhad Johor Bahru, dia telah dapat mengikuti latihan teknikal di Nagoya, Jepun selama enam bulan dalam tahun 1969. Di Jepun dia baru dapat melihat perbezaan zikap dan tingkah laku manusia pekerja Jepun dengan bangsanya sendiri. Setelah menimba pengalaman di Jepun, tercetus pula keinginannya untuk menulis rencana bersirinya di Utusan Malaysia, Utusan Zaman dan Mingguan Malaysia. Semuanya menceritakan pengalamannya di Jepun.

Kemampuan menulis telah meransangnya menapak ke bidang kerja yang lain. Dia menjadi Penyunting Berita Harian dalam tahun 1971. Semasa di New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd., dia banyak pula menghasilkan cerpen. Dia terus melanjutkan penulisan fiksyen apabila dilantik menjadi Penolong Editor dan kemudiannya meningkat sebagai Editor majalah Dewan Masyarakat.

Melihat kemampuannya menulis artikel dan cerpen di tengah-tengah kesibukannya sebagi seorang Editor, jelaslah kepada kita bahawa seorang editor yang sibuk tidak semestinya tidak boleh menulis. Pokoknya dia tidak mengenal erti kelelahan dan kesibukan bila dia diransang untuk menulis. ("Karyawan Bulan Ini", Dewan Sastera, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kuala Lumpur, Mac 1983).