Some of you may wonder what the PBS stands for and what it means. Well, the PBS is some kind of school based evaluation system where the students will be evaluated by the teachers after every topic that they learn. This system of evaluation will be implemented in stages beginning this year with the form 1 students and the next year with the form 2 students and so on. As all the teachers and students know, this system of education has brought a lot of chaos to the schools. Why chaos? Because it is implemented without proper planning. Because teachers are made to do the impossible. When the teachers were sent for courses (in the earlier part of the year) they were asked to prepare test questions for classroom evaluation. The truth about these questions is, you can open any reference book and simply pick any of the activities in it and you'll find that it is much better than the ones prepared by the teachers. Luckily, we don't have to use those questions if we don't want to as we can always design our own questions based on the students' level. Just how valid are the questions prepared by the teachers? I would really like to know. Well, the students are given 3 attempts for each test before the teachers could fail them. For those students in the good classes the teachers can give them more difficult questions but for those in the weaker classes the teachers would have to give them easier questions for the same test so that they could afford to pass. Do you think it is fair this way?

Needless to say, due to lack of preparation, we started late this year (some time in April or May but going full time in the second semester) but were told that we have to key in all the results by the 31st October 2012. As a consequence, the teachers have to spend all the time chasing after the students to sit for the tests instead of teaching. Chasing after the students is a herculean task especially in the weaker classes. I hope that my readers would be able to give me some ideas how to chase after students who don't want to sit for the tests and who are chronic absentees to sit for each test three times when they are not allowed to come out of their classes during other lessons. During my English lessons, there is always a new test to sit for after each topic that I teach and I find it almost impossible to make them sit for the tests that were already over a long time ago. Remember, there are more than 30 students in each class. If there were only 6 students in each class or 4 teachers in each class it would be a different story altogether.

One of my former colleagues used to say that the students in the weak classes didn't even want to copy the answers that she has written for them on the whiteboard during an exam. When she asked the students to copy the answers, they told her to write for them. That's why the teachers are having great problems chasing after the students to do the tests after each topic. Why? This is because they don't want to do it. When I went for the PMR and SPM invigilations, I found many students sleeping in the exam hall during the exam. We were told to wake them up each time they sleep and the poor invigilators had to walk around to wake the students up. Many of them wanted to leave the exam hall even before they finish the paper but they were not allowed to do so and that was why they slept through the exam. If they don't want to do anything during such an important exam, do you think that they will want to sit for the informal tests prepared by the teachers? In a way, the PBS system is encouraging the students to be irresponsible people. Why is it so? They don't have to bother about the tests as it is the teachers' responsibility to chase after them to make them do the tests. Those who have been chasing after the students would know how hateful their "tidak apa" attitude is. What is even worse is we are not encouraged to fail them. This would mean that the teachers must somehow make the students who don't want to sit for the tests to pass the tests by hook or by crook.

Let me share my plight with you. I was given 3 form 1 classes in the beginning of the year namely 1A, 1D, and 1E. But in the second semester, just after the students sat for an English test, they had to go to different classes based on their results (streaming). The problem is they only change classes during the English lessons but go back to their original classes for other subjects. (Why so much fuss changing classes during the English lessons? If English is so important, why abolish the PPSMI in the first place?) What happens each time the students change classes? Do you think that they will walk quietly to the other classes? Well, they disappeared and the teachers have to go and look for them. One student disappeared from June onwards and reappeared again in October and no one knows where he went during the English lessons throughout those four months. (I was the one who did the streaming and based on his diagnostic test results, I put him in 1G. When he reappeared again in October, the 1G English teacher did not want to accept him. I had no choice but to ask the 1F English treacher to accept him as he is originally from 1F.) Since 1A, 1B and 1C must have English lessons at the same time on Thursday and Friday whilst 1D, 1E, 1F, and 1G must have English lessons at the same time on Monday and Wednesday, I had to give away one of my form 1 classes to another teacher. Why must the good classes have English lessons at the same on Thurrsdays and Fridays and the weak classes have English lessons at the same time on Mondays and Wednesdays? Does it mean that the students' English will improve if all the classes have English lessons at the same time? Whose stupid idea is this? Now, the problem is I have to chase after the students whom I am no longer teaching to sit for the tests they have not completed. Please teach me how to do that - remember they can't come out of their classes because their teachers would not let them. Everyone is chasing after the students to complete the tests. The next problem is, I cannot key in the results for the students whom I am teaching now (1A and IE) because they are not the original 1A and 1E students. I have to give their marks to the English teachers who are teaching 1B, 1C, 1D, 1F, and 1G depending on which class they originally come from and get the marks of the original 1A and 1E students from these teachers. Remember they change classes only during the English lessons and therefore still belong to their original classes. When we key in the marks, we have to key in according to their classes. One more problem is there is not enough English teachers to teach the form one and form two English classes next year since every English teacher can only take two classes of form one (10 periods) and two classes of form two (10 periods) because of the streaming. We normally have five classes of English but next year we can only afford to take four classes of English and teach others subjects to fill up the 25 periods. What stupid nonsense. Already we do not have enough teachers! If the ministry doesn't send more English teachers to the schools, the non English optionists would have to teach English next year whilst the English optionists would have to teach the subjects that they do not know anything about. If I were to teach PJK, I'll just ask the students to play what they want to play during the PJK lessons cos I really don't know anything about PJK. Just give the boys a ball and they will know what to do. As for the girls, just ask them to bring their badminton rackets and let's hope that they will bring! What would the PJK teacher do then? Teach English in Bahasa!

Another problem with streaming is the keying in of the nilam (reading) records. I will never be able to record the number of books that my original 1A and 1E students have read because I don't get to see them at all. Experience have taught me that I can't rely on the other English teachers to record the number of books that my original 1A and 1E students (who are in their classes) have read. It took them so long and there was so much problems chasing after them to force them to give me the PBS results of my original 1A and 1E students. How can I expect them to give me the nilam records every month? So what did I do with the nilam records? I had no choice but to play the "Toto" game when filling in the nilam records. Other teachers are also doing the same thing because the librarian told us to "pandai-pandai" key-in. How "pandai-pandai" is "pandai-pandai' is up to the teachers. I am wondering how I am going to play the "Toto" game next year. This year, at least, I have been with my original 1A and 1E students for 6 months and I can guess how many books they should have read. Next year, streaming will begin in January and I will never get to see the "original students" of whichever classes I may be teaching next year. How can I play the "Toto" game then? Chasing after the other English teachers for the PBS results of my original 1A and 1E students is another herculean task. One of them did not give me the results until the last day of school and if it wasn't so difficult to key in the results online I would have assumed that all the original 1E students whom this particular English teacher is teaching have passed up to band 4 and keyed in up to band 4! (I have been updating this article from time to time whenever there is new information about the PBS) When it comes to streaming like this, playing the "Toto" game is inevitable. For instance, the PLBS (oral) forms of the original 1A and 1E students are still with me as my ketua panitia suggested that each English teacher should keep and fill up the PLBS forms of their original students as it would be very problematical to distribute these forms to the teachers who are actually teaching them now. This means that although I am not teaching the original 1A and 1E students, I still have to assess them for their oral test. The consequence is, of course, another "Toto" game. Is this what is meant by the beauty of PLBS (Pentaksiran Lisan Berasaskan Sekolah)? But what about next year? How can I grade the students whom I have never seen if streaming begins early in January? At least this year I can make some wild guesses and assumptions based on what I know about the students but how am I going to guess or assume anything about the students whom I don't know next year? One more thing is - it would be impossible for me to key in the PBS results every month since the other English teachers only give me the results for the whole year once a year at the end of the year (perhaps on the last day of school). Chasing after the other teachers for the PBS results is a "mission impossible" and they don't normally entertain me until the last minute. This is what is happening in other schools as well.

Every student has a file and the tests that the students have completed must be put in their files. This is another big problem. I have to keep two files for each class - one for the 1A and 1E classes that I am teaching now and one for the original 1A and 1E classes. I cannot put the testpapers of the students whom I am teaching now in their files before they are not the original 1A and 1E students. I have to give their testpapers to the teachers who are teaching in 1B, 1C, 1D, 1F, and 1G depending on where they originally come from and get the testpapers of the original 1A and 1E students from these teachers. The files are arranged according to the original classes in different cupboards that are securely locked. So it seems that the teachers are always busy sorting out the testpapers and putting them in the files all the time as though they have nothing to do. If what the teachers are suffering now is beneficial to the students, it doesn't matter but the truth is they can't even teach a proper lesson because all the time is spent chasing after the students and making them do the tests.

Here I have a silly joke to share with my readers. Silly though it may sound, it's the truth and nothing but the truth. One of my friends who is teaching in another school told me that she had no choice but to photostat many sets of the completed tests belonging to a good student and gave them to the students who have not completed the tests to take home and copy. She really couldn't afford to chase after these students due to lack of time. The problem is, many of these weak students not only did not copy the tests given to them but also lost the samples that they took home to copy. As we all know, it is not easy to make the students do their schoolwork and the PBS is just like some kind of schoolwork to them. The difference is, when the students do not want to do their schoolwork, the teachers can still proceed with the lessons. However, with the PBS, the teachers have to chase after the students to do their "schoolwork" not just once, but twice or even three times for the same topic if they don't do well. Making the weak students do the tests once is enough problem and doing them 3 times is like attempting the impossible. How can one teacher chase after 30 or 40 students in every class given such limited time? Another question is: How can the teachers chase after the students who are no longer in their class (the students changed class in the second semester) to do the tests when they can't see them anymore? If the teachsers couldn't make them do the tests when these students were still in their class, how could they make them do the tests now?

Would this kind of assessment be recognized world wide? Just how valid is the PBS? The tests for each topic differs according to the teachers who set them taking into account the level of the students. If I were still a student, I would definitely want to be in a weak class as the tests would be easier to pass. One of my friends in SMK D told me that since it is most unlikely that the teachers in her school would be able to key in the results of the first few bands by 30 September 2012 and finish all the tests by 31st Oct 2012 (there are so many students to manage with so little time), they have decided to key in the results first assuming that all the students have passed the tests and then only let the students do the tests. This would mean that the students would pass the tests even before they sit for them. Is this what we mean by "Malaysia Boleh?"

The PBS is a very subjective thing and most of the teachers would not want to fail their students no matter how weak they are. Why? Because if they fail the tests, it would mean that the passing rate of the school would fall and no one would like to answer for that. Already Harvard is not accepting our students this year - I heard that none of our students could get into Harvard this year even though our As are so overwhelming and can even drown the whole world. If the PBS were to proceed, what will happen to our education system in the future? What our students need is a valid education system that would enable them to compete globally and the PBS will not be able to help them to do so. On the contrary, the PBS will only become the laughing-stock of the world due to the stupid way in which it is being carried out!

Gone were the good old days when even the young housewives and taxi drivers could speak good English. The truth is most of our young graduates of today cannot speak good English even after so much have been done to improve the level of English in this country. Can we say that our education system is better than before? With the PBS, the situation is even worse. The teachers can't even teach as they are always busy chasing after the students who don't want to do the tests and make them do the tests. When the tests are so easy to pass, do you think that our students can really learn anything at all? Do you know that many teachers are asking their students to just copy something from their friends or give them something to copy and pass up just for the sake of passing the exam? This has been happening all the time for the subjects that require the students to do 'folio' or whatever it is. The same thing can happen to the PBS. Being school based, we cannot avoid these flaws since teachers are humans too.

Winners in the Olympics are given a lifetime pension and great financial rewards by the Malaysian Government. Why is it that those who won the inter-school or inter-state matches are not given such rewards? We want our 1Malaysia nation to be able to compete globally and not only amongst people of our level. Similarly, if our students can score straight As for the O-levels or A-levels, then they are really good. Perhaps it's time for the policy makers to reconsider this option instead of lowering the standard of our education system to suit the needs of the students who don't want to learn. Why is it that the PPSMI is a failure? Because it doesn't matter whether the teachers or the students want to learn English or not. If the teachers were not given their annual increment if they couldn't master English, then, I bet you, they will learn in no time. If English is made a compulsory subject that every student must pass if they want to pass the PMR or SPM examination, then no doubt everyone can speak good English!

I am writing this article to give feedback to the Ministry as a responsible citizen who is concerned with the future of our education system . It is no use asking the teachers to answer 'yes-no' questions about their readiness for the PBS. The truth cannot be discovered this way. For instance, does the Ministry know that the teachers are trying to avoid teaching the PBS classes and pushing it to those not so influential ones because these not so influential teachers have no right to say anything other than to accept what is given to them? Even the ketua bidang and ketua panitia of many schools are pushing the PBS classes to other teachers and even to non-optionists just because they don't want to get involved with the PBS. This is the ultimate truth about the PBS whcih the yes-no answers cannot reveal.

Theory is different from practice. The PBS may sound ideal theoretically but is practically useless or at least it is not suitable for a Malaysian classroom. As a PhD student, I have done a lot of research in this area (how to upgrade our education system) and I hope that my forthcoming PhD thesis would be able to contribute towards a better education system for our 1Malaysia nation. It is not my intention to criticize. As a veteran teacher, I want the best for my students. Are we giving them the best? During these last few days of school, every teacher is busy forcing the students to simply copy something just for the sake of completing the tests and passing them. Is this what we call quality education? I will be following the PBS as a participant observer and continue to provide the Government with the necessary feedback from time to time so that the Ministry will know what is actually happening in the schools and take the necessary steps to upgrade our education system.

This post has been edited by pivoine: Nov 13 2012, 12:26 AM

I think they expected the teachers to cooperate and help each other out. From TS's post, it sounds like they don't even talk to each other.

this is the american system. teachers are directly responsible not just to the students' achievements, but also what they actually learn. it shifts the burden of teaching to the teachers, meaning they are no longer drones who teach based purely on syllabi given by the policy makers.

this is also the common practice in universities. if lecturers who have absolutely no training in teaching or education in general can do it, teachers can too.

i think the problem here is the interpretation of the implementation by the schools. i dont think your school is doing it right. or perhaps the mindset of doing it is probably not right. in the american system, also in our local university system, students enroll on subjects that they need, not what the school or the government tells them they need. of course, in this case, they have a preset subjects that they need to cover, but u are given the flexibility of the level of studies, like the english class example.

in a university, each subject has different sections. lets say section 1 is for the top students, section 9 for the weakest. teaching methodology and pedagogy differs. top students can be given more freedom to do individual assignments, while the weaker should engage on more peer learning with guided tutorship.

if PBS is a laughing stock in the world, then i'm sure we wont have any problem hiding behind the shadow of the united states.

As far as I know, the university students are very much on their own where learning is concerned. And we all know that we can't rely on the lecturers. In fact, many university students would agree that they should be thankful if the lecturers don't plagiarize their work. Contrary to the situation in the schools, it is the students who are going after their lecturers because they are difficult to find! The situation of the schools in America is different. Here in Malaysia, we have more than 30 or sometimes 40 students in each class. How many students are there in a typical American classroom?

This post has been edited by pivoine: Sep 28 2012, 11:39 PM

Depends on how much you pay.

Low class one's have more than 250 people in a class (yes, kinda like lectures , in a huge hall)

But if you pay lots, you can get 1 to 1.

needs must be established before money is spent on something.

we NEED to revitalize the current education for primary and secondary schools. so they shifted the policy into something that's more open ended, less exam oriented, and more importantly, shifting the burden of learning to the students rather than the teachers. then whatever needs that comes with it, be it more schools, more teachers etc.

the government have been spending on stuffs they dont need (in relation to education) because they thought it might help. but without proper plan, most of the things arent being utilized fully. now there's a new policy. there is a new NEED. so if it calls for smaller class sizes, they would need to hire more teachers, provide more classes, and possibly more schools.

u cant change something in a day.

btw, are u aware of the educational approach that the government are adopting now?

Good students do not need the PBS. The PBS is intended for the weak students. However, the problem is the weak students do no not care about the PBS.

that's one assumption.

In the good old days, our good students did well in the MCE/SPM and HSC/STPM without the 3M and PBS. Our As were really much treasured by the world then. In actual fact, the PBS is killing their intelligence. Please take a look at the new English literature syllabus and you will know what I mean. Many of our form one or even year 6 students are already reading the unabridged versions of Harry Potter and some other novels. Do you think their English will improve by studying the present literary text? The housewife next door who is in her fifties can speak fluent English even though she did not even pass form 5. What about this former colleague of mine (a young teacher) who did her TESL in the UK with a scholarship who cannot speak English? Each time someone speaks to her in English, she will respond in Bahasa. What was so effective in the old education system? In those days, there were no tuition claases at school, no 3M and of course no PBS.

This post has been edited by pivoine: Sep 29 2012, 12:51 PM

then u should come to my school and take a look at the last class of form 5. they cant even read and understand that "Peter and Jane" kindergarten storybook.

That's why I am wondering what was so effective with the old education system. The taxi driver in his 50s can speak good English but many of our straight A students nowadays can't do that!

This post has been edited by pivoine: Sep 29 2012, 10:27 PM

I guess the hardship of life last time really meant something for them. They value education more than today's generation.

Plus, most teachers 50 years back are Britons. So like it or not, they gotta learn it, or they're gonna be left out. As for now, the students will said "Ala cikgu cakap Melei la. Tak faham." So the whole PnP that were supposed to be in English, turned into a translation class.

Language learning is slightly different. Most people who learn to speak any language, do not usually do it in school. They do it by "absorption". The way a baby learns. School can speed things along. But by itself, English classes will rarely be able to teach you to speak English.

How did I learn Malay? I learnt it the "natural" way. A bit older than normal, but basically the same way. By immersion. Age 7, I was left in a school where all the other kids only speak Malay. I learnt the language very quickly. Faster than what was being taught by the teacher in BM class. In any case, the BM class was structured differently. It was mostly aim at teaching you how to read and write, assuming that you already know how to listen/speak the language.

How did I learn English? English classes in school helped here (although by itself, it wouldn't have worked. If you don't believe me, I have many classmates from back then who today do not speak English). After a few years, I learnt enough to read English books. Then I hit the library, and read as many book as I could. This brought up my reading skills. Listening skills, I learnt from watching TV. Lots of cartoons, plus English and American shows. All of them had subtitles in Malay.

I did not speak any English though. If anyone speak to me in English, I would reply in Malay. And of course, the other person will switch to Malay as well. I was stuck at this point for a while. I believe this is where pivoine's friend is stuck at. As an adult, she might find it harder to get unstuck. I was only 12, and when I moved from primary to secondary schoold, made a deliberate decision to start speaking English then. How long was she in the UK? How could she be there all that time and not speak the language.

The problem is many English teachers are finding excuses to teach English in Malay. What are their excuses? The students are very weak. They don't understand English. So the English lessons become Malay lessons with a few English words here and there! The PBS cannot change this situation so what's the use of it?

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Added on September 29, 2012, 10:48 pmMaybe she was there for one or two years under some kind of twinning program. I am not so sure about the exact length of time. Learning English has got nothing to do with where she is. She may be in the UK but what if she only mixed around with her own race as is the usual case? Much would depend on herself and whether she wants to master the language or not. Some time back there was an article about Asian students speaking broken English even after they graduated from the western universities. Did you read it? I have a friend who graduated from a university in the US. When she wrote her masters thesis, she asked me to help her. Why me? I am only a local product. Made in Malaysia!

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Added on September 30, 2012, 9:51 amWe can't blame the teachers for not allowing the students to go out during their lessons to sit for the tests because everyone is chasing after the students to sit for the tests. I wouldn't let the students go out during my lessons either because I want them to do my tests first. When the teachers happen to see the chronic absentees, it's like a great blessing to them and everyone will be chasing after these students and make them do the tests. This is also one reason why these students are afraid to come to school.

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Added on September 30, 2012, 1:56 pmWhat I mean is the number of students in a typical secondary school classroom and not a lecture hall. Needless to say, the schools in America have fewer students per class compared to Malaysia.

This post has been edited by pivoine: Sep 30 2012, 01:56 PM

In my school. We stopped streaming the students. Its close to the ond of the school term, so the students are asked to stay in their own respective classes during English period so as to allow their default teacher to complete the PBS assessment. Even I don't actually follow the assessment in order of each Band due to the reasons tou mentioned. Say if I've completed one assessment for Band 3, there will be several students missing out onthe assessment due to MC, absence, etc. moving on to BNd 4 assessment, I will still conduct the assessment on all students inclusing those who haven't finish out their Band 3 assessment. Why? Because its a waste of lesson period if I were to try and finish up all the student's assessment before moving on to the next level. Having 1 teacher to manage 40 students (yes, I have 40 students in my class) and trying to conduct several PBS assessment in 2/3 periods is impossible. Its possible if you're willing to close one eye and just ask the students to plagliarize other students work or simply copy the answers from the board.

PBS isn't exactly new. Its been done before. It failed the first year because of so much materials needed to be printed and photosated (incurring high cost to school and/or teacher) and spoonfeeding the students with answers. I'm not saying its a bad concept, but the implementation is very poor and 80% of the teachers have no clue to how to properly assess the class.

Supposeably, the PBS was meant so that good students will make an exta effort to raise their proficiency while helping the weaker students. But as it turns out, its the teachers who are more concern of the students and having to chase those lazy students into completing their tasks. Already i have one studens who never pass Band 2 because of frequent absence in class. It will be me who will have to asnwer to the school as to why I allow my students score poorly in PBS.

What im saying is, the number of people in a classroom depends on how much you are willing to pay.

If you pay as much as malaysians are paying, even if you pay 3x what malaysians are paying, you will probably only get 250-300 people in a class.

If you are willing to pay USD 40,000 for primary school, then MAYBE you will get 10~15 people in a class.

I dont know if they are better or not.

I tried doing the way you did when I started band 4 with my weak class. I said to myself that I had to proceed with my lessons somehow. Just couldn't afford the time to chase the students who did not complete the tests due to various reasons. It ended up with so many of them not having completed the tests in this band. As you know, there are many absentees in those weak classes. I had to spend 3 periods just chasing after them to finish their tests today. It was like starting with band 4 all over again. Yet there are those who still haven't completed the tests. Not only band 4 alone but bands 1,2, and 3 as well. How am I going to teach like this? If I don't chase them to do the tests, then I have to fail them. Oh my God! What should I do? Just chasing, chasing, and chasing with minimal teaching - this is the meaning of PBS!

dude, 250 people is call a lecture. 1on 1, 1 on 5 or smaller groups is called tutorials.
All Unis have it regardless of your fees. Cant say the same bout local Unis though.

This post has been edited by babyrabies: Oct 2 2012, 12:51 AM

no one is talking about university.

Left handers were punished too......and the instances of questioning teachers were frown upon then.

I think we must understand that the concept of education has changed over the years. Current circumstances require new solutions.