Ministry's PBS system confuses teachers
By Jack Wong, Ipoh
Teachers are still confused over the School-Based Assessment or Pentaksiran Berasaskan Sekolah (PBS) while students have become the victims.
The idea of the PBS is good and there are successful examples abroad. However, why is it a problem for us?
Even education officers and school heads are confused since the implementation of PBS, not to mention teachers and students. They wonder whether school examinations should be retained.
Therefore, different practices can be found in different schools.
Some have abolished the monthly tests and end-of-term examinations, some have retained internal end-of-term examinations while others retain the end-of-year examinations.
The abolition of examinations is one thing but the bigger problem is the workload has been greatly increased due to inadequate training, vague instructions and burdensome paperwork.
Under the PBS, teachers cannot concentrate on teaching and, as a result, they do things gingerly and are worried about the outcome.
All education reforms should be student-centred. Unfortunately, the lack of promotion and preparation has caused students to lose the goal of studying hard once they are not required to sit for examinations.
Initially, the PBS should stress on the process of learning.
Various deviations in enforcement, however, have caused teachers to fail to cope with the system and, as a result, the quality of teaching has dropped.
Also, as they no longer face examination pressure along the learning process, students have lost the driving force to study and their enthusiasm in learning has also declined.
Education reforms are always composed by a few experts and hastily finalised by the Education Ministry.
They seem to have been simply changing the policy without giving teachers, who are directly involved, an opportunity to participate or even express their views.
Instead, they can only obediently follow the instructions given by the authorities.
No matter how we change it, it will always involve teachers and students.
If all reforms bring only suffering to teachers and cause regression instead of improvement to students, it is better not to change than to change it blindly.
Teachers are still confused over the School-Based Assessment or Pentaksiran Berasaskan Sekolah (PBS) while students have become the victims.
The idea of the PBS is good and there are successful examples abroad. However, why is it a problem for us?
Even education officers and school heads are confused since the implementation of PBS, not to mention teachers and students. They wonder whether school examinations should be retained.
Therefore, different practices can be found in different schools.
Some have abolished the monthly tests and end-of-term examinations, some have retained internal end-of-term examinations while others retain the end-of-year examinations.
The abolition of examinations is one thing but the bigger problem is the workload has been greatly increased due to inadequate training, vague instructions and burdensome paperwork.
Under the PBS, teachers cannot concentrate on teaching and, as a result, they do things gingerly and are worried about the outcome.
All education reforms should be student-centred. Unfortunately, the lack of promotion and preparation has caused students to lose the goal of studying hard once they are not required to sit for examinations.
Initially, the PBS should stress on the process of learning.
Various deviations in enforcement, however, have caused teachers to fail to cope with the system and, as a result, the quality of teaching has dropped.
Also, as they no longer face examination pressure along the learning process, students have lost the driving force to study and their enthusiasm in learning has also declined.
Education reforms are always composed by a few experts and hastily finalised by the Education Ministry.
They seem to have been simply changing the policy without giving teachers, who are directly involved, an opportunity to participate or even express their views.
Instead, they can only obediently follow the instructions given by the authorities.
No matter how we change it, it will always involve teachers and students.
If all reforms bring only suffering to teachers and cause regression instead of improvement to students, it is better not to change than to change it blindly.
