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'Teachers not teaching students properly in scientific fields'
KUALA LUMPUR, June 6:
Parent Action Group for Education (Page) Malaysia chairman Datin Noor Azimah today said Malaysia already had the facilities needed to excite students in the wonders of science, but they were being under utilised.
“The perfect place is the science museum (National Science Centre) and Petrosains Centre,” she said, adding students needed to get out of classrooms more to experience these places.
“The best way to teach science is by it being inquiry-based. This is how it should be taught, but that’s not how it’s taught in schools.
“Sometimes they go to the lab, but they don’t know what’s in the lab. They just sit there while the teachers teach,” said Azimah.
She said while parents played an important role in nurturing children, teachers themselves were not teaching students properly in scientific fields.
“We can’t teach our kids how to score in exams. That’s the role of a teacher.”
National Union Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary-general Loke Yim Pheng echoed the Prime Minister’s sentiments that students had the mindset that things should come easy to them.
“They don’t want to go through difficulties. To children, they want everything easy. They don’t want to choose difficult subjects,” she said.
She blamed the problem on technology today, saying that chat applications and social sites made things too simplified.
Loke added the shift in education policies, particularly policies on the teaching of science and mathematics in English, had also affected children.
“They use one policy for 10 years, then change policy again and again. Students can’t cope with the changes.”
Loke added both parents and teachers needed to play a more active role in guiding their children properly on tackling these subjects.
“Children should be well guided earlier and made to have an open mind. This is lacking and we must build confidence in them.”
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today put a spotlight on the performance of students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, saying that many were performing poorly in them.
Speaking at the launch of a camp at the Felda Mara Junior Science College, Najib said children had the perception that these were difficult subjects and less interesting to delve into.
“Overall, our students are poor performers in science and mathematics, going by comparative studies on achievement in the two disciplines at the international level.”
This prompted the launch of the camp, which will cover four subjects in the hope of raising awareness in these fields among some 200 students of Forms 1 to 3.