Education related news reports/articles

[idolfan]

Feel free to add on news reports or articles.. issues pertaining to articles can be discussed by starting new threads.


Ministry looking for outstanding schools
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/N...le/indexb_html


RM10m for school repairs, priority to those deemed ‘dangerous’
National-type and missionary schools will undergo immediate repairs and upgrading following the death of a teacher at SJK (C) Keat Hwa in Alor Star last week.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/N...le/indexb_html
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...425&sec=nation

Penang school buildings in disrepair
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...344&sec=nation


All have role in education
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...820&sec=nation

[idolfan]

Pre-varsity exams not of low standard
Assessment of matriculation exams should not be questioned as the papers are marked by local university academicians, said Deputy Education Minister Datuk Mahadzir Mohd Khir.
He said this in response to public feedback that the assessment should be made transparent, like for the Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM) examination.
Mahadzir said many people continued to be negative about matriculation programmes even though many moves had been made to improve them, including opening the programmes to non-bumiputras.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...552&sec=nation





‘Review higher education policy’
Too many colleges have been upgraded to university and university college status, a prominent educationist said today.
The first director of then Institut Teknologi Mara (now Universiti Teknologi Mara, or UiTM), Tan Sri Arshad Ayub, said: "We are not doing it properly.

"A college should remain at college level first. Only the best should be universities."

"We are so concerned with expanding enrolment at our public and private institutions of higher learning that we fail to ask whether some of these students are ready to pursue degrees," the UiTM pro-chancellor said at a lecture organised by the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, in Malaysia Alumni Club.

"Should they be pursuing diplomas instead? I think a quarter or even half of the existing number of students pursuing degrees should be doing diplomas. Perhaps this is why we now have a problem of unemployable graduates."

Arshad said as such, there was an urgent need to review the country’s higher education policy. He felt a commission should be established to chart its direction.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/N...le/indexb_html

[idolfan]

‘Overly bureaucratic education system’
The Government’s "facilities-centred" approach is hampering efforts to revolutionise the national education system, says former Education director-general Tan Sri Murad Mohd Noor.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/N...le/indexb_html



Higher education in Malaysia, beset by numerous problems, is set for a major review.

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/N...le/indexb_html

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...433&sec=nation

[idolfan]

Dual-language exam papers for PMR students
Form Three students sitting for their Penilaian Menengah Rendah examinations next week will have dual-language exam papers.
They have also been provided with a 100-page glossary to help them understand the different terms before they sit for the examination.

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/N...le/indexb_html

[idolfan]

Feeling impact of absent teachers
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...553&sec=nation


Hisham hopes teachers get a chunk.. budget2006
“There is no point in having computers and smart schools if teachers are not of the right calibre.”

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...113&sec=nation

[idolfan]

‘Overly bureaucratic education system’

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/...cle/indexb_html

The Government’s "facilities-centred" approach is hampering efforts to revolutionise the national education system, says former Education director-general Tan Sri Murad Mohd Noor.
Noting the many changes to the education system introduced over the years, he said such efforts did not address bureaucracy and the examination-oriented culture.
"Our students know only how to follow what’s in their textbooks," he said.
"Because we are frozen in the way we think, we are overly bureaucratic," Murad said in a lecture on "Revolutionising the Education System" at the Higher Education Ministry today.
"When the Government wants to promote IT literacy, they go about it by spending millions on building computer labs.
"Actually, what would make students IT-literate is content, what books they read, what is taught to them, the quality of their teachers, their ability to think.
"The Government should change from a facility-centred approach to an internally-centred approach."
Murad, 75, chairman of the Board of Governors of Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris in Perak, was Education director-general from 1976 to 1985.
He said "something is wrong" with the education system if there were thousands of unemployed graduates each year while Malaysian industries continued to depend on foreign labour.
"Revolutionising the education system", he said, had to involve a comprehensive approach, including "empowering" teachers and allowing them to "partner" with students in gaining knowledge.