Foul!

As published in Malay Mail today HARESH SAYS By Haresh Deol SOME have described them as “lazy” and “set in their ways”. Others say they are a contented lot, happy with their traditional way of life and cannot be changed. A former school teacher, who taught in a primary school in Gerik, shared her tales of dealing with the community. “It’s not easy dealing with orang asli children. Most of them are not eager to learn and often skip school. However, the school does not take action as we want to encourage them to stay in school,” she said, requesting anonymity. “Some of them come to school in slippers, sometimes without uniforms. During examinations, we will coach them to ensure they score the bare minimum. This is the reality no one speaks about.” The Education Ministry, or at least those administrating schools in the outskirts, know this. When seven children from SK Pos Tohoi in Gua Musang went missing on Aug 23, the horror tales emerged. Many earlie...

As published in Malay Mail today. KUALA LUMPUR — Teachers, students, parents, tutors and even Examination Syndicate personnel could face stiff penalties under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) 1972 following the leak of the UPSR Science paper scheduled for today. Police said at least one report was lodged in Putrajaya and were verifying if more reports were lodged in other states following the fiasco involving Year 6 pupils nationwide. “We will investigate the matter under OSA,” said Bukit Aman assistant chief of Inspector-General of Police secretariat ACP Datin Asmawati Ahmad. “Please give us time to verify the details and investigate this thoroughly.” While preliminary investigations by the Education Syndicate revealed the 018, 028 and 038 papers were circulated over social media, it is learnt questions and answers for other papers were also circulated through instant messaging WhatsApp. There were also claims the primary school students had also obtained answe...

HARESH SAYS, as published in Malay Mail today. TEACHERS in the country are a confused lot. But I pity them for they have been placed in a very confusing situation. I spent several hours with a group of teachers on Monday as they spoke about “clerical work”, waking up at 3am to submit data online and the PT3 which started yesterday. Here is a gist of our conversation. The school teachers I spoke to teach in three different schools in Kuala Lumpur. Their real names cannot be revealed for obvious reasons. Haresh Deol (HD): How’s the education scene? Abu: Messy! Lim: Concentrate on my tuition centre better Muthu: Saya menurut perintah. HD: According to the Teaching and Learning International Survey 2013, Malaysian teachers spend an average of 29 per cent on administrative tasks. What’s that all about? Abu: Much have changed since we left school. Now there’s E-Operasi, E-Pangkat, E-this, E-that… Lim: Fed up lah. Muthu: Let me explain. E-Operasi is ...

UPDATE (Nov 3; 12.01am) : OCM president Tunku Imran Tuanku Jaafar, who is also a member of the Negri Sembilan royal family, expresses shock and asks to cut the red-tape. ----- Can you name me a primary school in Malaysia with a swimming pool? It is not some fancy private school but there is one at SRJK (C) Chan Wa in Seremban. The pool has been around for more than 20 years and it was built thanks to the donations of well wishers. For the past two decades the school has conducted swimming as part of Physical Education (PE). This has paid handsomely as the school has been the overall primary school champion in Negeri Sembilan for 16 years. One fine day the headmaster decides to get a written acknowledgement from the state education department on conducting swimming during PE. The department said NO! Apparently basic aquatics is only restricted to Year 1 students as part of the Education Ministry's syllabus. And there has not been any PE lessons in the pool since. From the Sidelines...

What would you do if your son came home with a badly bruised face and missing four of his front teeth? That was the situation faced by a Malaysian Hockey Federation office bearer after his son, who turned 14 a day earlier, had allege he was ganged up by several fifth formers for they had thought he had snitched on them. The police report lodged by the Form 2 lad stated he was whacked because: "...he was suspected of leading the school warden (in this case a school teacher) to raid their hostel rooms to find syabu and the warden had referred the matter to the Malaysian Anti-Drug Agency." Drugs among school athletes? Read the full report in today's Mailsport . HD says: Sigh!