KUCHING: The new Secondary School Standards-based Curriculum (KSSM) has been described as a ‘soft-landing’ approach by the Ministry of Education (MoE) which must be thoroughly reviewed.
A lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak’s Faculty of Language and Communication Chuah Kee Man, said the ministry needs to consider issues such as the availability of trained teachers, number of classrooms and parents’ expectations.
“It is good to know that MoE realises that the total abolishment of streaming system cannot be done based on current resources,” he told New Sarawak Tribune when contacted yesterday.
Chuah said the idea to ‘de-streamline’ by offering students to select a package with various options for elective subjects is a good approach as it gives freedom to students to choose more elective subjects.
Viewing this as paving the way for flexibility, he admitted that the approach was brilliant.
“I kind of like this though, at least the ‘rebranding’ process lets the students acknowledge their own path of study,” he lauded.
He believed that once the schools are used to the system, more elective subjects will be added into the package for students to choose from.
“It’s like ‘testing the water’, if it flows smoothly, then the so-called ‘package’ will change its offer.
“Just like Astro lah! You need to select the package with different combos!” he pointed out.
In fact, Chuah said the approach was nothing new.
“I, myself was in science stream for SPM. But I took literature subject too for SPM, on my own,” he explained.
“I’m looking forward to see how the students, teachers and parent react on this matter,” he said.
However, Chuah is concerned about the scarcity of well-trained teachers.
“The problem now is resources. More students’ enrolment on particular subject means more well-trained teachers are needed to be placed at the school.
“It cannot be implemented in a rush, just for the sake of novelty.
“Because we need to realise that we are risking our children, the future leaders of our country.
“Don’t put our children at risk by experimenting on so many things. We cannot afford to lose all resources including teacher’s motivation,” he added.
