Thursday, 27 December 2012

Idea In Context-Week 4,5


Problem that facing in Malaysia-Education

PBS System System Penilaian Berasaskan Sekolah )

What is PBS?
1.       What is PBS?
          Answer : PBS is a holistic form of assessment which assesses the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains encompassing intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical aspects. Thus PBS is in tandem with the Primary School Standard Curriculum as well as the National Education Philosophy.PBS covers both academic and non-academic fields.PBS is carried out continuously in schools by teachers during the teaching and learning
process.There are 4 components in the PBS:
(i) Central Assessment
(ii) School Assessment
(iii) Assessment of Sports and Co-curricular activities
(iv) Psychometric Assessment
         
2.       Is the PBS concept new?
          Answer : No, the PBS concept is not new. Homework, quizzes, question and answer sessions are all examples of PBS activities. However, there are two new features in the improved PBS. Firstly the concept of Standard Referenced Assessment in which learner’s achievements are measured against a Performance Standard which determines what learner’s are expected to achieve. Secondly is the introduction of SPPBS or PBS Management System which will make it easier for teachers to record and store data concerning learners’ achievement.
         
3.       Why is PBS being introduced now?
          Answer : PBS is being introduced as part of the National Transformation Program to produce worldclass
human capital.
         
4.       When will PBS be implemented?
          Answer : PBS began in Year One 2011 and will result in the refurbished UPSR in 2016. PBS will be carried out in Form One from 2012 and PMR beginning 2014 will be entirely school-based.
         
5.       What is the difference between PBS and the present assessment?
          Answer : PBS is more holistic and emphasizes all aspects including physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual. The present assessment focuses on learners’ achievement through examination results. PBS assesses both the learning outcome as well as the learning process. Therefore both formative and summative assessment which encompass assessment for learning and assessment of learning are employed. Presently the focus is mainly on assessment of learning at the end of the learning process which is largely summative in nature.In an effort to make the present assessment better, Standard Referenced Assessment is introduced to track the growth and development of each pupil through his/her performance. In the process it is possible to find out what each pupil know (tahu), understand (faham) and can apply (boleh buat) or have mastered what has been learnt based on the Performance Standards which is mapped from the Standard Curriculum.Furthermore, Standard Referenced Assessment does not compare a pupil’s achievement with his/her peers instead it reports each pupil’s growth and development by comparing his/her performance against a statement of standards.PBS gives autonomy and due recognition to teachers to carry out formative and summative school-based assessment at their discretion. In this manner teachers’ integrity and credibility will be enhanced. Teachers are most suitable to assess their pupils because they :
- Can continuously monitor their pupils’ growth
- Can provide constructive feedback to help improve pupils’ learning abilities
- Better understand the context and environment most conducive to assess pupils
- Appraise and provide feedback based on the Performance Standards
         
6.       What is Performance Standard?
          Answer :
Performance Standard is a set of statements detailing the achievement and mastery of an individual within a certain discipline, in a specific period of study based on an identified benchmark. The Performance Standard will help inform the appraiser on the best and most suitable way to assess individuals fairly in a focused manner based on the predetermined set of standards.
         
7.       What is the quality assurance of PBS?
          Answer :
Quality assurance of the PBS is determined through:- Mentoring
- Standardization
- Monitoring
- DetectionMentoring is the process of assisting, facilitating and guiding teachers to carry out PBS according to the correct procedures and principles of PBS.Monitoring ensures that the correct procedures have been adhered to ensure the reliability and credibility of the assessment outcome.Standardization ensures uniformity of scores with reference to the Performance Standards based on the rubrics of an assignment.
Detection is the process that evaluates the strength, weaknesses and effectiveness of assessment tool us ed to carry out PBS.
         
8.       How will parents obtain feedback on their child’s performance?
          Answer :
A descriptive and formative report can be generated using the SPPBS whenever needed. The system also acts as a life-time data base and stores all information pertaining to pupils’ progress from Year 1 to Form 5.
         
9.       What value is the assessment result to pupils?
          Answer :
Feedback based on the Performance Standards can help students identify his/her strength and weaknesses, common errors made and areas that need more attention as well as steps to take in order to improve.Constructive and meaningful feedback can help pupils focus on their learning progress. Hence pupils will be more motivated to work harder and perform better in the future.
         
10.     What is the impact of PBS on UPSR and PMR?
          Answer :
UPSR and PMR are still important modes of assessment, however they will no longer be deemed as high stake events since PBS is a continuous process and also more holistic.
         
11.     How reliable are assessment results conducted by teachers?
          Answer :
Assessment scores produced by teachers are reliable because they:- Can continuously monitor their pupils’ growth
- Can provide constructive feedback to help improve pupils’ learning abilities
- Better understand the context and environment most conducive to assess pupils
- Appraise and provide feedback based on the Performance Standards
         
12.     Are teachers ready for PBS?
          Answer :
All teachers are qualified and trained in teacher education. In addition they are given refresher courses to help them manage the PBS.
Is the changing is improve the education?
The answer is NO
I found a lot of article that prove that why the PBS system is not improving but degenerate

NUTP: Students learn less under PBS system
KUALA LUMPUR: Students are losing out under the new school-based assessment (PBS) system as many teachers are forced to skip topics, said the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP).
Its president Hashim Adnan said many teachers are concentrating only on certain topics that will be assessed under the system.
“For example, if there are 10 topics in History, but only five are assessed, some teachers take a shortcut and focus on the five to save time. In the end, the students lose out because they learn less.
“This happens because there is no communication between the Curriculum Development Division and the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate under the Education Ministry,” said Hashim, after a meeting with NUTP exco members at a hotel here yesterday.
He said the union was calling for a meeting to discuss how to improve the PBS system.
The PBS was introduced last year in primary schools, and this year in secondary schools.
It is a holistic form of assessment and incorporates both school and centralised assessment.
On another matter, the NUTP said the Perak Education Department's decision to organise a statewide gotong-royong during the school holidays on short notice was unprofessional.
“We understand that some teachers in Perak were only informed a day before that they were required to take part in the gotong-royong today and that attendance is compulsory,” said NUTP secretary-general Lok Yim Pheng.
“Teachers are currently on holiday, and some are in east Malaysia or overseas. It is not fair to compel them to attend a half-day event at such short notice,” she said.
PBS system worrying
I AM a parent of a Form One child. Last year, my son got 5A’s in the UPSR exam and being in a streamed secondary school, he is now in the first class with those with the same results as him.
The Education Ministry started the PBS (Penilaian Berasaskan Sekolah) early this year and parents were briefed on the process of teaching and learning using the PBS.
Students will be assessed from time to time for all subjects and will be given grades according to Band One to Band Six throughout the year.
I was told that students in Form One will not be sitting for any exams up to Form Three. The problem is, parents need to know his or her child’s progress in school.
Under the old system, parents would be called to the school at least twice a year, after the mid-year exam and also after the final exam.
Parents of children in the other forms can check their children’s progress through the SAPS but not the Form One students.
Having no year-end exam under the PBS system has made many of the children unproductive and the PBS has created a non-challenging environment among them.
I am not against the PBS system, but can we do away with having no exams at all?
I thought the PBS system is an ongoing process where the children will be graded into the bands after each topic or each syllabus has been completed and the grades will be accumulated into 60% of the child’s performance for the year.The other 40% would be taken from the exams in school. This way, no child will be left out.
I checked out a few schools and to my dismay, some schools
are having exams just like before and some schools, as I was told, are following the directive of the ministry and there are no exams for Form One.
I asked a senior assistant in a school and he said that if they had the exams it meant they were not following the ministry’s orders. This means that the school is going against the ministry’s directive.
I just wonder how the system is like in Sekolah Berasrama Penuh (SBP) – fully residential schools – or in MRSM; I bet they have their own exams unlike the children in government schools.
Most international schools have the system that I have mentioned.
I understand that the Education Ministry is coming up with many plans under the Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia (PPPM).
Upon checking my son’s schoolwork, I found there was no homework and there were not many exercises done in class.
I understand that teachers spend a lot of time doing the PBS exercises in class and updating the student’s grades, the grades which are unknown to the parents.
What is the rationale of not having a standardised exam but giving students a standardised set of PBS worksheet/tests/quiz, and so forth.
If a good student can complete a task easily and the other students can’t, then they are given time to complete the work.
What then will happen to the good student?
Is he or she allowed to go to the next band?
I can’t imagine they are going to be in this situation for two more years up till Form Three.
Principals and teachers could not explain what is to become of Form One students when they are in Form Three, when there will be no exams.
If there is no PMR, how would the students be chosen for SBP or MRSM.
How are the students being streamed into Science, Arts or Technical classes?
There are so many unanswered questions.
But in the meantime, please have the 60% and 40% system as the good students need to explore their potential and the slower ones will not be left out.
WORRIED PARENT
Ipoh

 The Falling Standard of Education in Malaysia, 
Penilaian Berasaskan Sekolah (PBS)
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.

Chinese News also got a lot of article that saying that PBS system is not improving our education
Beside that our education in Malaysia very funny
changing the Science and math Language to English, and now is changing back to Malay
Why this is happen? 

Base from the problem I have doing some photography artworks
Artworks:





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