A Personal Critical Review on KSSR/KBSR

It never strike me even once that being a teacher especially an English Language teacher would require more inner strength than I imagined. I embraced the idea of being an English Language teacher with simple concept. Speak and master the language and that would be enough for me to survive in this profession. The moment of truth hits me when I actually immersed myself to be a good English Language teacher by learning by heart to be one. The period of preparation is actually a dramatic one for me because of the transition from Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Rendah (KBSR) to Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR) for the elementary school. All I need to do is to actually understand the concept and objectives of KSSR so that I would be able to teach the students accordingly.

            First of all, what is the drastic change between KBSR and KSSR other than the different acronyms? KBSR being the pioneer for many trials that the National Education Board wanted to perform on Malaysian students. KBSR was more about integrating all the skills especially in English Language Teaching (ELT) classrooms where the language skills such as Speaking, Writing, Listening and Reading are emphasized at a very basic level. I, myself experienced the curriculum where it practically more about working on ‘language across curriculum’ objective. This refers to having the national language, Malay Language used as the medium of instruction for all the subjects except English Language subject. As a future English Language teacher, I’m going to touch on KBSR and KSSR in the aspect of English Language alone.  KBSR focuses on how to prepare students with basic language skills that can be used in daily life communication meanwhile KSSR focuses on improvising the already basic learned skills to a better and effectively communication accordingly. Being this as the aim for KSSR, it was implemented in early 2011 with new-to-Malaysian’s approach, the Modular based syllabus. For primary school, the syllabus of English Language is divided into two main components, Level 1 compromising Year One, Year Two and Year Three and Level 2 compromising Year Four, Year Five and Year Six. Four modules such as Listening and Speaking (Module 1), Reading (Module Two), Writing (Module Three) and Language Arts (Module Four) will be taught in Level 1 whereas grammar will be added to these four modules in Level 2. To be honest, I wondered what kind of grammar is being introduced to students at later years. Is it advanced or is it only from Year Four onwards the grammar is actually being taught properly? If it’s the later one, I believe it’s really hard to produce young learners who can master the language as what the government wants, being the communicate user of the language. As what I learned in another subject named Child Development, children at their very young age tend to pick up on languages so efficiently if they are taught appropriately. I believe this is when the educators in primary schools should focus on building a very strong foundation in English Language grammar so that the students will be able to remember the rules and it will be natural for them to construct words in their mind before communicating using the right grammar and vocabulary.

            Both curriculums use textbook as their primary source of knowledge guidance in classrooms as it provides the standard content and learning for the students. The method of English Language teaching might be slightly different but attractive and at the same time, interactive for the students. Since Language Arts is introduced to this curriculum, I believe it provides an alternative for the teachers to actually come up with various ideas to convey a meaningful lesson in a way which all the students enjoy. This leads to student-centered lessons where activities such as forum, debate, role-play and even some language games for example Scrabble and Boggle for the students to learn the language by heart. I personally experienced a very radical increase in learning English Language when my teacher actually used all the methods above to provide an efficient lesson for us. This is why I believe with a curriculum like KSSR, it will help the students to actually learn the language as natural as it can be and also for enjoyment purpose. The noticeable change would be the elevation from 3M as in Mengira (Arithmetic), Membaca (Reading) and Menulis (Writing) to 4M by maintaining the 3M but adding one more, Menaakul (Reflection) to it. I honestly believe that this extra component actually helps to build a positive minded student since he or she can reflect on the potentials and works on it to be successful. This is a good thing because not everyone has the chance to realize their potentials and end up making more wrong decisions than they actually should.

            The revolutionary change in KSSR from KBSR is the assessment and the amount of exposure one student gets out from their syllabus. KBSR is very much exam-oriented approach where the students are assessed formatively according to their academic performance in examinations meanwhile KSSR is a combination of both formative and summative assessment where the teacher will assess more on development of skills and it is done more individually. This is a great feature of KSSR, I would say. Throughout my twelve and half years in school, I was judged based on my results. As harsh as reality could be, I couldn’t pursue my dreams because of the results and has to opt to my second option as I’m doing what I’m good at, teaching. I believe with KSSR being implemented students will have more chances to succeed as they can develop many skills and assessed accordingly to land themselves in a satisfaction side of life.  The amount of exposure I meant here was the themes that are integrated in lessons such as Science, Technology and Humanity for a better understanding. Based on what I learned in English Teaching Methods, this part of the curriculum is more or less like the Content-Based Approach where the teacher focuses on the target language and how it is used effectively to convey the lesson using the bigger scale content. For example, during my Form 4 and 5 I have to take on the English in Science and Technology subject where I have to learn the scientific terms and how they are used in academic writing and at the same time, being exposed to a completely different field of study.

            To put it in a nutshell, as a future educator who is going to teach the students according to KSSR, I believe that KSSR is a practical solution than KBSR in order to produce all-rounders that excel in various fields without much hassle. Dreams will be more realistic and the curriculum itself will help to drill the students to prepare themselves to achieve their dreams.

REFERENCES :-

Online Sites

1.    Nanthini Vayapuri. January,16,2012. Implementation of Five Classic Creative Methods in Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR). Retrieved on December,11,2012, from http://www.anthrajae.blogspot.com/2012/01/implementation-of-five-classic-creative.html

2.    Cynthia C. James. October,13,2011. KSSR and the Modular Approach. Retrieved on December,11,2012, from http://cindyjbj79.blogspot.com/2011/10/kssr-and-modular-approach.html

3.    Maryannie Iskandar. April, 7, 2011. KBSR vs KSSR. Retrieved on December,11,2012 from http://langlitmaryannie.blogspot.com/2011/04/kbsr-vs-kssr.html

Academic Books

1.    John W. Santrock. (2011). Child Development (Thirteenth Edition). Mc-Graw Hills Humanities/Social Sciences/ Languages.

2.    Diane Larsen-Freeman. (2000). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press.

[Sociology of Education] Sociology of Education in Malaysia's National Education Philosophy

Malaysian education system revolves around the National Education Philosophy where it aims to produce a loyal, and united Malaysian nation, produce faithful, well-mannered, knowledgeable, competent and prosperous individuals, produces the nation’s human resource for development needs and to provide educational opportunities for all Malaysians.

Functional theory (Emile Durkheim) explains how the society and institutions work interdependently for the betterment of the society. This can be seen in Malaysian school systems where it is compulsory for children at the age of seven to begin their primary education which shows the importance of education because eventually educated individuals will contribute back to the society. Conflict theory (Max Webber) is not encouraged in Malaysian schools as it will be quiet controversial since Malaysia is made of various ethnicity and cultures. But as for the dominating groups getting the best education can actually be noticed through those elite and international schools where only those affordable for the cost of education supplied gets the better exposure and education compared to national schools. The tension in the society can be seen when students from national schools have to compete with those from elite schools in order to be employed or getting the best tertiary education in nation. Malaysian schools are basically practice open system approach where it functions with the help of the five fundamental elements such as inputs, transformation process, outputs, feedback and environment. Malaysian government provides sufficient inputs such as human, financial, information and physical resources. The transformation process is the teaching-learning process and outputs are the accomplishment of the goals through the achievements and examination results. The feedbacks are given by the society that consists of parents of the students, politicians and administrators. The environment refers to the political, social and economic status that affects the learning and administration of the school.

In order to bring up our National Education Philosophy, certain issues in sociology need to be considered. These issues are the role of education and the ‘process of stratification’ in the society, stratification and equality of educational opportunity concerning on class, race and gender and ability grouping and teacher expectations as well. Stratification is necessary for a society to function efficiently which enables it to reach its full potential economically and socially, in line with their view that society is a set of interconnected parts which work together to form a whole. Moving on further to equality of educational opportunity (EEO) which was conducted based on the schools in the United States of America; it is defined as equality of results, given the same individual input (Coleman, 1968, p. 14). Everyone deserves education opportunity in their life. According to Ballantine (2001), equal opportunity means equal results among students from different social backgrounds. In short equality means to all people having an equal chance of achieving a high socioeconomic status in society, regardless of sex, race or class and as it relates to school, the concerns are on facilities, financing and availability. Education benefits the society in producing all Malaysian citizens who are knowledgeable and competent for the betterment of the society. This can only happen if all the Malaysian citizens are given equal opportunity in education. It is believed that, demographic factors such as gender, race and family status still affect the individual’s chance to receive an equal education. This can be seen in vernacular schools in Malaysia where the students are segregated based on the races and having schools based on gender such as same sex schools. Meanwhile, individuals from rich and affordable families have the upper hand to study in international schools. This clearly shows that status of individuals plays an important role on whom getting the best education out there. Individuals can be grouped according to their abilities regardless their demographic factors. No one should be discriminated since everyone is deserved to be treated equally. Students can be grouped according to their performance which is fair to all. If you score well, you are placed in better class. If you performed badly then you are placed in class that suits your ability where you can perform your talent well. Individuals who are grouped according to their abilities developed more because they can cope with something that suits their talent. Slow learners should not be placed among the fast learners because they would not be able to catch up the learning process in the class. However, if they are placed among individuals who have the same abilities as them, educators must make sure that the learning process is appropriate with their developmental level where this group of students can achieve something even they are slow. Hence, they are not held back in that particular group because they can communicate as much as they want without feeling being compared, insecure and introvert.

There are schools in Malaysia like this where they placed individuals according to their abilities and disabilities. Students with special needs are not placed among normal students because they need more individual and undivided attention than the normal students. Even, they are not placed with normal students; they still can succeed in their life. There are 160 blind but degree holders and 10 blinds with PhD. Dato’ Mah Hassan Omar’s biggest achievement is being called to the Bar and became the First Blind Lawyer in Malaysia. Now Dato Mah Hassan is a practicing lawyer and an OKU and white cane activist had played a major role in the PWD Act 2009. PWD being People with Disabilities as known internationally unlike OKU only understood in for many good things to come for you and all OKU in general and Malaysia. What does this proves? Education is for all. There is another common issue that is always being raised up which is the negative expectation of teachers for the low expectation of students. This can be normally seen in most of the schools since we experienced similar situations throughout our 12 years of both primary and secondary schools. The perception of the teachers towards the low expectation students and high expectation students differ all the time. Lower expectation students are discriminated, criticized and looked down whereas high expectation students are praised and given special treatment till it discourages the low expectation students. Instead of being motivated, they are being compared and discouraged where they will often lose their self-confidence to achieve in their life. The perception of this kind of society need to be changed since there is always a room for improvement. According to the goals of the school system, Malaysian schools belong to the homogenous society where all the schools has uniform curricula and materials and also the functionalists emphasize that the ultimate goal for each and every school is to function smoothly and practice the National Education Philosophy and for it not be leaning towards the Conflict Theory, the school goals should not promote stratification.

In order to achieve our National Education Philosophy objectives, these kinds of issues need to be overcome. Malaysian Education Board revised several issues such as upgrading KBSR to KSSR in order to help needs of the government is met and this should be a stepping stone in accomplishing the aims of National Education Philosophy.

                        

Implementation of Five Classic Creative Methods in Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR)

Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR) is an evolution of the prior syllabus, Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Rendah (KBSR). The syllabus of KBSR has been improved incrementally with new ideas branched out from the previous ideas into KSSR. It was made in that way to improve teaching would be conducted in a proper and structured manner. The example for this is weakness in KLSR leads to KBSR and now to KSSR. This whole evolutionary process involved refining the syllabus for a better one. The synthesis method can be noticed when the new syllabus combined the ideas of studying and having fun together in classroom. Since KSSR is more modular, subjects will be taught based on themes and more activity based and therefore, it will help the students to understand a particular subject better. Revolution in KSSR is when one completely different idea is implemented in order to increase student’s academic performance and at the same time to be a holistic student. For example KSSR is more emphasized on 4M (Membaca, Menulis, Mengira dan Menaakul) instead of 3M (Membaca, Menulis dan Mengira) in KBSR. The menaakul (reflect) is the revolutionary component that will help the student to reflect on himself and understand his capability even better. Reapplication is indeed the word for this curriculum. This brand new improvised syllabus is meant to look at something old as in the teaching methods in Malaysia in a new way. Parents and teachers came to an understanding that with ICT used as a component in classroom, it will help the students to understand better and also assessing a student’s performance just based on the examination will not produce a holistic individual. KSSR also removes the prejudices that exam-oriented education and textbook based learning are the only way to educate student. For example, from times where students have to depend solely on the textbooks and exercises based on the syllabus, students now can experience the new syllabus that is more modular and interactive to be less dependent on textbooks. Finally, the changing direction method was used when KSSR is aimed to solve the problems that are faced by students and not implement a particular solution. Students are facing problems in academic such as slow learning, complicated syllabus and inexperienced teachers. In order to solve this problem, KSSR intended to apply a few solutions such as changing teaching methods from textbooks to modular based education system. This will reduce the problems overall from students playing truancy and ineffective lessons.