2nd Draft Kesidang
2nd Draft Kesidang
2nd Draft Kesidang
DO WE CHANGE?
Abstract
This study aims to review the changes that have been made in public school education as well
as the teachers' perspectives on the changes. It is aimed to give an in-depth understanding of
the changes made from the teachers’ perspective as they are the executor of Malaysian
education system and involve directly in this sector. This study involved five educators who
are directly involved in education in public schools in Melaka, Malaysia. The data are collected
through interview as the research tool. The results show that significant changes have been
made especially after the recent change in government leadership in Malaysia. Therefore, the
changes that have been implemented are expected to have a positive impact as well as improve
quality education for future generations.
Keywords: education, changes in education in Malaysia, 21st century, education in the 21st
century, education reform
Abstrak
Kajian ini bertujuan untuk meninjau perubahan yang telah dilaksanakan dalam pendidikan di
sekolah awam serta perspektif guru-guru tentang perubahan tersebut. Kajian ini bertujuan
memberikan pemahaman yang lebih jelas akan perubahan yang dijalankan dari perspektif guru
kerana mereka merupakan pelaksana sistem pendidikan Malaysia dan terlibat secara langsung
di dalam sektor ini. Kajian ini melibatkan lima orang pendidik yang terlibat secara langsung
dalam pendidikan di sekolah awam di Melaka, Malaysia; dengan menggunakan temubual
sebagai alat kajian. Hasil kajian menunjukkan terdapat perubahan ketara yang telah
dilaksanakan lebih-lebih lagi setelah perubahan tampuk pimpinan kerajaan yang baru di
Malaysia. Justeru, perubahan yang telah dilaksanakan diharap agar dapat memberikan kesan
yang positif sekaligus peningkatan pendidikan yang berkualiti untuk generasi masa hadapan.
Kata kunci: pendidikan, perubahan dalam pendidikan di Malaysia, alaf ke 21, PAK21
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Education, through the public school system, is an essential element of any nation in its
quest for economic, political, and social development. The school system is not only meant to
educate the public, it is also a channel for the people to gain values in buiding their identity and
characters to develop themselves.
According to Jacobs and Toh-Heng (2013), the world has seen a worldwide paradigm shift,
which has affected various perspectives of society over the centuries. Additionally, this
worldview move remains ongoing, and its affect has shifted in various parts of the world. With
the widespread technology and globalization nowadays human beings have to follow the rapid
pace along with the latest technological advances.The national education system has undergone
significant evolution in line with the development and capabilities of the nation.
21st Century learning is highly encouraged today in the Malaysian public education system.
It is well known that there are two effects of implementing this system on classroom learning
and teaching. The first benefit is that it will interest students to further explore their existing
knowledge. This is different from the old education system that is more affiliated to textbooks
alone. With this system students will be able to find information that will sharpen their thinking
and enhance their existing knowledge. In fact, smart schools in Malaysia encouraged the use
of ICT in teaching. As a result, students can explore more information using the internet and
other printed materials. The Ministry of Education has provided the necessary infrastructure
and facilities to ensure that the teaching and learning process runs smoothly. The students in
the 21st century have grown up in a fast paced digital world, and easily tune out of the
traditional lecture based classroom (Boholano, 2017). The advancement of the internet at the
fingertips makes it easy for students to access a wide range of information only through the
internet and the same learning environment in Malaysia.
In addition, the learning and teaching process will be more interesting as today's students
are well prepared and well-informed. Learning will be more focused on students and teachers
as facilitators. Information technology-based learning systems attract students to explore new
information. Another positive effect of the teaching and learning process in the classroom is
the continuous and systematic assignment of the task force to the teacher in the search for a
variety of materials and to start teaching and learning. A student's readiness to begin the lesson
well will enhance the motivation of the teacher to make teaching and learning work smoothly.
Teachers need to practice cooperative techniques to facilitate students to discuss with each
other on the topic. The teaching and learning process will be more structured and engaging. All
students will learn and master the learning process.
Today’s learners must engage actively and autonomously in the learning process
(Bransford and Cocking, 2000). In the current education system, students are also exposed to
various tasks. The structured assignments provided by the teacher will make it easier for
students to focus on the teaching and learning process. This will make the students more
independent and complete various tasks at the same time. They master skills, acquire
knowledge and knowledge together as they complete a task. Additionally, learners find the
learning process more meaningful when topics are relevant to their lives, needs, and interests,
and when they are actively engaged in creating, understanding, and connecting to knowledge
(McCombs and Whistler, 1997). In this context the teacher’s role is to facilitate activities that
will guide the learner into developing meaningful concepts (Peters and Stout, 2006 in Anagun
2018).
Structured management emphasizes on the adequacy of the teaching resources to ease and
facilitate the teacher's role in the teaching and learning process. Students will also be more
likely to receive effective teacher inputs. Teachers will also always provide the best input
during this teaching and learning process. This can make the process work better. The next
advantage of today's learning system is that all students regardless of their ability to learn
according to their needs, abilities, and learning styles.
Therefore, this study attempts to give the researcher in-depth understanding of the public
school education and what are the other changes implemented in Malaysian public school
education system. The researchers attempt to gain insights from teachers who are directly
involved in the public education system in Malaysia. Researchers also want to get feedback
on the teachers' feedback on the changes. Are the changes being made that have a positive
impact on the public education system in Malaysia? The feedback will be gained from the
probes of the research question. Therefore, there is a research question guided this research:
1) What are the changes implemented in Malaysian public school education system?
Education is an important thing in a country not only at this time but is an aspired goal.
Quality human resources can only be realized with quality education. Quality education is an
education that can develop positive potential that is embedded in students. With quality
education, education produces high potential young people who are willing to compete in the
world community. Education is a systematic process to improve human dignity. The function
of education for advancing children’s human rights has acquired growing interest in regulations
and studies, internationally and within nations (Brantefors & Quennerstedt, 2016).
Education can affect human development in all aspects of their personality, influence
dynamically in preparing their life in the future, develop something they have the most
potential, the development of individual potential highest in physical, intellectual, emotional,
social and spiritual, according to the developmental stages and characteristics of the physical
environment and the socio-cultural environment in which they live (Agus Taufiq, 2011). In
fact, education will holistically develop a person in life. In addition, education plays an
essential role in attaining quality of life because education is one of the most crucial signs of
the quality of human lifestyles (Thomas, 2016). Education has a close relationship with
knowledge, and knowledge is recognized as an 'end result' element (McCowan, 2010).
Education enables individuals to build their level of self-esteem to deal with their world,
experience the benefits that they have got of their surroundings and apprehend themselves.
Individuals with high degrees of education have a tendency to experience low levels of physical
disturbance and pressure. An excellent standard of living offers an individual a direction to
self-improvement, relying on how the knowledge is structured and invested in education.
In creating a future leader, education plays an important role for a country. Besides
economics growth, education helps a country become well known as a developed nation
fulfilling in Vision 2020 by the current Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. With
better knowledge and better education system, a country can become strong in any field it
desire. As stated by Molly (1999), the education system has an important role to play in
supplying human resources for ecominc growth. Therefore, for any changes in education it is
important to be discuss and analyse in order to avoid misunderstanding. In addition, to avoid
problems in the future, education offices were established at district level and these offices
were staffed with officers responsible for handling pupils and teachers.
In Malaysia NPE have been used as one of the based in educational plans. According
to Chang and et al. (2018) over the past years, there have been many reports, policies and
legislations that shaped the Malaysian educational system. Among the notable ones include:
the Barnes Report (1951); Fenn-Wu Report (1951); Razak Report (1956); Rahman Talib
Report (1960); Education Act 1961 (and subsequent revisions); Universities and University
Colleges Act 1971 (and subsequent revisions); the New Economic Policy (1971); and Private
Higher Education Institutions Act 1996 (Act 555). Over the period of independence, education
has been systematically assimilated, by stages, with government's emerging goals of national
development (Martin, 1977). Education field require many planning and future studies in order
to produce a good education system. Furthermore, Martin (1977) stated that Malaysia needs to
improve its effectiveness at both the policy formulation and the implementation levels.
The Ministry of Education have launched the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025
(MEB). The MEB plan covers education from pre-school to post-secondary school. There are
five system aspirations – access, quality, equity, unity and efficiency – and six student
aspirations – knowledge, bilingual proficiency, thinking skill, ethics and spirituality, leadership
skill and national identity according to Chang and et.al (2018). With the new transformation in
the education system, Malaysian citizens will able to develop new pool of knowledge and
create Malaysia as a developed country as in the Vision 2020.
3.0 METHOD
Basically this study is an attempt to explore the views on public school education in
Malaysia. As it is to answer what are the changes implemented and things that have no changes
in Malaysian public school education system, a case study is an appropriate mode because it
allows the researcher with the responsibility of conducting an in-depth analysis of a case.
Merriam claimed that a case study is an in-depth description and analysis of a bounded system.
A bounded system is a choice of what is to studied (Smith, 1978), a single entity, a unit around
which there are boundaries. For this study, the educators chosen are a bounded system which
makes this study as a case study. It is congruent with Cresswell’s (2007) definition of a case
study as investigators explores a bounded system over time, through detailed, in-depth data
collection involving multiple sources of information.
The data collected were coded to build description and themes as follow.
Respondent Statement
A Ya...aaa silibus pun berbeza … dia lebih tinggi… Pada apa yang kita
dapati dia punya silibus tu lebih tinggi…
B Haa.. kami juga perlu memberi penekanan kepada pendidikan yang
berteraskan nilai. Sepertimana kita dah maklum sekarang ni, semua subjek
pun sebenarnya diminta untuk urm, menekankan aspek pendidikan sivik.
Urm, sekurang-kurangnya satu minggu.
C Err... dari segi silibus, memang ada perubahan content. Urm… pelajar-
pelajar… Since dah start KSSM tu, err… Silibus tingkatan 1 dah seperti
silibus tingkatan 4.
E Tetapi kalau kita tengok pendidikan sekarang, berdasarkan kepada
penggunaan I Think, KBAT, PAK 21, pelajar diberi atau dicungkil minat
mereka dan mereka sebenarnya diberi sedikit, bukan sedikit, banyaklah...
kebebasan untuk menyuarakan pendapat mereka, kemahiran dia. Itu
sangat penting sebab kita mesti melahirkan pelajar yang boleh
berkomunikasi aa... berdasarkan ilmu-ilmu yang ada sekarang berdasarkan
teknologi maklumat, berdasarkan kepada kepentingan IT.
Table 1: Data on Content and Syllabus Changes
4.2 Annulment of examinations
Among the notable changes is the annulment of examinations. Primary school students
in particular now no longer need to sit for exams like mid-year and mid-year exams. Students
are now assessed with classroom-based assessment, task-based assessment, and demonstrated
values and soft skills. The statements on the abolition of the examination are derived from the
statement of each respondent as shown in Table 2.
Respondent Statement
A …untuk sekolah arab pula mereka yang peperiksaan tingkatan 4 tu telah
dimansuhkan. Kalau dulu pelajar sekolah menegah arab mereka ada
peperiksaan dari tingkatan 2, kita namakan SMRA. Pun telah dihapuskan.
Ha manakala mereka tingkatan 4 mereka ada ambil peperiksaan kita
namakan SMA, Sijil Menengah Agama, pun telah dihapuskan.
B Kita dapati urm... dari situ dari rentetan dari itu peperiksaan urm... Yang
kita buat untuk pelajar daripada, murid daripada darjah satu, dua dan juga
tiga, kita hapuskan dan kita gantikan dengan ha pentaksiran berasaskan
da berasaskan bilik darjah… Haa dah takde lagi dah peperiksaan-
peperiksaan yang macam biasa.
D Kini, aa.. dengan pemansuhan peperiksaan, kita diketengahkan dengan
PBD[pentaksiran bilik darjah].
Table 2: Data on Annulment of Examinations
4.3 Teachers’ workload
Once the examination has been abolished, the burden of the teacher has increased. Now,
teachers need to provide learning that provides classroom-based assessment and teachers need
to evaluate students by reporting performance for each student. The burden on teachers is
increasing and teachers also need to key in the assessment data based on the classroom-based
assessment in the system. Everything needs to be recorded and on average teachers have trouble
recording their data online due to poor internet connection. The statements on teachers’
workload are derived from the statement of each respondent as shown in Table 3.
Respondent Statement
B … kami kadang-kadang rasa terbeban sedikit lah sebab memanglah
pelaksanaan urm.. apa? Yang pentaksiran berdasarkan bilik darjah tu, tapi
dia akan membawa kepada darjah 1, kepada darjah 2, kepada sampai
darjah 6. Semua tu kita sistemkan. Semua kita kena sistemkan, dan urm..
maksudnya guru-guru ni banyak juga kerjanya.
C …Kemudian, bebanan kerja guru makin bertambah-tambah. Haa….
macam bila peperiksaan ni takde, kerja guru ni bertambah lah.
Saya rasa guru-guru terbeban dengan PBD [pentaksiran bilik darjah]
D
sebabnya pelajar dinilai setiap orang.
E Sangat makan masa jadi saya rasa sebenarnya kementeraian boleh
mengecilkan sedikit saiz untuk memudahkan guru untuk melaksakan
PBD [Pentaksiran Bilik Darjah]. KBSM [Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah
Menengah] dulu kata nak satu kelas mesti tiga puluh saya rasa patut
dilaksanakan. Sebab sekolah baru saya tak da. Terlalu ramai.
Table 3: Data on Teachers’ Workload
4.4 Positive impacts on the changes
The changes implemented in public education in Malaysia are undeniably positive. The
emphasis on teaching the aspects of values and civics to students is a good endeavor. Teaching
and assessment based on the classroom is also a positive endeavor of the ministry of education
as students can incorporate soft skills and other skills for further development in the future.The
statement on positive impacts on the changes as shown in table 4.
Respondent Statement
A Ok, secara generalnya, keberkesanan urm … kita yakin usaha ini
merupakan satu usaha yang akan membuahkan hasil positif yang lumayan
pada negara dan juga kepada agama terutamanya.
B … ini adalah perkara positif lah, manakala penekanan kepada yang urm..
apa tu, yang sivik tu.. urm, penekanan kepada subjek-subjek yang urm, nilai
sivik yang dalam urm, semua subjek tu, ha itu juga merupakan perkara yang
positif… sebenarnya perubahan ini merupakan suatu yang positiflah, eh.
E Tetapi kalau kita tengok pendidikan sekarang, berdasarkan kepada
penggunaan I Think, KBAT, PAK 21, pelajar diberi atau dicungkil minat
mereka dan mereka sebenarnya diberi sedikit, bukan sedikit, banyaklah...
kebebasan untuk menyuarakan pendapat mereka, kemahiran dia. Itu sangat
penting sebab kita mesti melahirkan pelajar yang boleh berkomunikasi
aa... berdasarkan ilmu-ilmu yang ada sekarang berdasarkan teknologi
maklumat, berdasarkan kepada kepentingan IT.
Table 4: Data on Positive Impacts on the Changes
4.5 Negative impacts on the changes
Among the responses that came from the interviews was the negative impacts of the
changes that have taken place. For example, as a result of significant content changes and no
streaming classes recently, there is a gap between students who are too smart and too weak.
When students are no longer classed by proficiency, teachers are having problems in teaching.
This is because students who are too smart quickly get bored when the teachers focus on
teaching the low proficiency students. When teachers want to focus on high proficiency
students, the low proficiency students will not adapt to the teaching and will no longer be
interested in learning.The statement on negative impacts on the changes are shown in table 5.
Respondent Statement
B Yang pandai tu kadang-kadang dah bosan. Tengah belajar dah tidur lah
apa lah semua. Yang tak pandai ni ya Allah, puas lah kita nak mengajar tak
reti-reti. Yang main, yang nakal. Yelah, tak pandai lepas tu nakal sebab dia
tak boleh ikut jadi macam susah kita nak balance kan teknik kita nak
gunakan tu semua bersesuaian dengan semua level tu.
C Dari segi pelajar, itulah… yang saya cakap tadi. Pelajar kesan dia jurang
yang sangat besar. Ada pelajar yang boleh... follow... ada pelajar yang
sangat lemah. Jurang tu… sangat besarlah antara pelajar yang boleh dan
yang tidak boleh. Hmm…
Hmm.. bagi saya.. hmm.. perubahan yang dilaksanakan ini mungkin adalah
yang positif, tetapi urm.. macam lebih banyak kepada kesan yang
sebaliknya. Bagi saya lah.. Ini pendapat peribadi saya sebagai seorang
guru. Err.. entahlah ya. Secara overallnya, perubahan yang cuba
dilaksanakan ini tidak membuahkan hasil yang cantik. Itu je yang dapat
saya cakapkan tentangnya.
Table 5: Data on Negative Impacts on the Changes
CONCLUSION
This study has showed the changes implemented and the impacts from the teachers’
perspective. From the results, there are positive and negative impacts on the changes
implemented. Therefore, it is highlighted that the negative impacts on the changes need to be
reviewed and revised in the future. Changes and reformation will always occur in the field of
education to ensure it is in line with the development and capabilities of the nation.
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