My Longkang

Benghui’s Chinese homework-character recognition. You can hear him reading fluently in the background.

I have been going crazy. Benghui has been bringing his home work home. He goes to a Chinese language tuition school which charges Rm300 every three months. He enjoys the tuition classes. There are about fifteen students in each class and they read in unison. The work is graded from Book 1 to maybe 20 I am not sure. I only wish he practices his piano just as diligently.
Read more »

Mrs Bengbeng has been very upset because Benghui has been spending too much time on the computer. She has bought a set of specially recommended reading material which Benghui finds boring. All her ranting and scolding just doesn’t seem to move or motivate Benghui at all. He will sit there with the book and look busy and stop thinking.
Read more »

If you are living in my house, you will be pleasantly surprised and perhaps raise your eyebrows. Benghui can be seen reading Chinese and he reads it aloud. Surprisingly he reads it quite accurately as he mimics his teacher well. Mandarin has now become his favorite subject.
Read more »

Give tuition teachers a breather says SUPP Youth

I was out on Wednesday night with Xing Min. He was moaning the fact that his children are now without tuition teachers. These next few months are crucial for his children’s future. One is in Form 3 and the other in Form 5.

He explained that the tuition teacher called to explain the situation to him. The tuition teacher even offered to pay back back half a month being the balance for lessons yet to be given. According to the teacher, the school requires most teachers to give free lessons in school after school hours. This means the tuition teacher has no flexibility at all to give tuition.
Read more »

Pic courtesy of the Borneo Post

It is all over. The soaking incident has been settled amicably. Warden Wee Yim Pien hugged SRDC Councillor Evelyn Collin Holly signifying the crisis in SMK Bawang Assan is over. The parents present displayed no animosity. Most considered it a non issue blown up by the press. They have lived in hostels before too. They understand the problems faced by the school . En bloc they gave their support to the school.
Read more »

Sarawak State education director Rabiah Johari clarified that Wee Yim Pien, has not gone on leave, as reported.

“She is not on leave, she is back teaching at the school. A police report has not been lodged. For disciplinary cases involving teachers, we have certain procedures which we will follow in deciding what action to take,” she added.”

She further added,

“We don’t want teachers to not discipline students as this will lead to social problems. In a case like this, we do not look only at the teacher’s actions but also whether she was feeling pressured or stressed. After all, according to reports she had been trying for three years to get the students to dispose sanitary pads properly and not clog the toilets. So maybe she felt stressed by the situation.”

There has been a subtle shift in opinion about the students allegedly being asked to soak in a pond for supposedly an hour. In Bawang Assan, Sungai Sedit, Sungai Bidut and in Sungai Maaw, the tides have changed. Even in Sibu, the older generation especially have started revising their views on this issue. The truth is starting to emerge after the initial uproar caused by an article in a local newspaper reproduced in the NST which caused an uproar in the country.
Read more »

Jimmy Kiu is defiant and insists his conscience is clear. He said what he did was for the benefit of the students. He insists he has no personal vendetta against the teacher or the principal. Perhaps he felt he had to make this clarification.
Read more »

When Mrs Bengbeng pointed out this front page article, schoolgirls ordered into fishpond for an hour over sanitary towel in toilet bowl in The Borneo Post to me, I was stunned.

A single lady warden could force 200 boarders against their will to
squat in murky water for over an hour with their heads just above the water. There was supposed to be lightning too at that time.
Read more »

The topic for today is the school and society. The school has not disappointed society and society has not disappointed the schools in Sibu. Traditionally the public has always been been very supportive of the measures taken by schools.

There was an outburst initially at the beginning of this year when every student of a certain school was asked to make a compulsory donation of RM100 for development of computer facilities. One parent was heard saying that her whole month’s pay was gone as there were other school fees too and she had 4 children in that school. Based on my calculation she had to pay about RM800 in all not including school uniforms, shoes, school bus fares, exercise books and text books.

This week, Sibu parents are in a dilemma. The Sibu Division Education Officer, Charles Tiong has decreed that this Saturday, the14th of April, 2007 be declared Hari Permuafakatan Keluarga. The objectives are good i.e. to foster better relations between the schools and the parents.

Some headmasters and principals have taken it upon themselves to make this day a smashing success. They threaten to hold back the students’ report card if parents don’t turn up on that day to ‘force them’ to come.

This form of bullying from schools should not be condoned. To punish the students for their parents inability to get leave should not be encouraged too. Their parents’ jobs are their rice-bowls. Should society accept : I am headmaster/principal/Division Education officer. You have to follow what I say or else.

Using threats or holding back of a student’s property is not the best way to foster better relations. Are there not better ways to achieve this goal?

Do the schools have the moral and legal credibility to force parents to come to school for a few minutes and these few minutes will drag into hours as every one has to take a turn to meet the teachers while the principal delivers speeches blowing his own trumpet and other accompanying items thought up to enhance the occasion and recorded somewhere and which will be dredged up by the same officers when performance appraisal time comes.

Do all parents have to play the games dictated by these officers? Have we come to the stage where the education department is so bankrupt of ideas?

Enhance cooperation not confrontation. Spare a thought for the families of the students. Have Hari Permuafakatan Keluarga by all means but leave out the threats.