Activists Say There’s No Need for Students to Repeat the School Year

The Covid-19 pandemic has put a strain on school children’s education for well over a year now with the constant flip-flop of opening and closing schools. 

Many individuals believe that students should not have to repeat the school year to make up for the loss of learning due to the pandemic. Instead, all resources available should be used to revise the curriculum to “trim the fat” according to panellists at a forum on August 26.

Image via Free Malaysia Today

During the “Our Education System: Overview of Challenges and Solutions” forum organised by G25 Malaysia, Edunity Foundation, and BFM, Teach for Malaysia’s chief executive officer Chan Soon Seng said that many had recommended against repeating the school year. 

He said, “The issue should not be on getting children to where they were before, but on what children actually need to move forward. One extra year of school is not going to get them back on track. Also, it will cost the government too much and will be extremely inefficient.”

He instead suggested that there be a relaxation of the need for teachers to finish syllabuses so that they could have more freedom to teach, based on their students’ needs.

He also suggested that the education ministry partners with NGOs to bring in different resources to support teachers, much like the UK which had allocated specific funding for tutoring.

Noor Azimah Abdul Rah of the Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) added that resources should go towards drawing up a new school curriculum, stating that “it should not go back to what it was before. We should cut the fat (in the syllabus), trim it down and make it lean. Only give what is necessary to students.” 

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