Fatimah: Teachers key to better command of English

18/06/2010

By VANES DEVINDRAN

KUCHING: The percentage of students achieving a minimum grade C in English in UPSR (Primary Level Assessment) is still low in Sarawak.

Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Datin Fatimah Abdul-lah expressed concern that the overall performance of Sarawak schools and pupils would be affected.

“Last year, the percentage of UPSR students in national schools who did not score the minimum grade was 36.2%,” she said.

“This is an increase from 2008, when the percentage was 30.1%,” she added when opening the 19th Malaysian English Language Tea-ching Association (Melta) Interna-tional Conference 2010 here yesterday.

Fatimah said while the Govern-ment was striving to rectify the situation by implementing policies like “Enhancing Bahasa Malaysia, Strengthening English Language”, teachers needed to empower themselves too.

She said teachers should possess four basic characteristics — knowledge of subject area, sound pedagogical and communication skills, passion for teaching and, a love for children.

“Similarly, teachers must have a good command of the language and be able to make every lesson interesting and lively even if the subject matter is dull,” she said.

Melta president Dr Ganaku-maran Subramaniam said the conference was held to support English language teaching development in Malaysia.

He said the association had appealed to the people to donate books so that it could channel them to needy schools.

The event also saw SK Gita No. 2 here receiving books, educational toys and board games through Melta’s “Melt-A-Heart” project.

Melta’s Hyacinth Gaudart award went to Lye Mei Yin who teaches at SMK St Joseph. Lye has 27 years of experience as an English teacher.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/18/nation/6491635&sec=nation

2,500 Tabika dalam tiga tahun

15/06/2010

Oleh Mohd Feroz Abu Bakar

Kementerian Kemajuan Luar Bandar dan Wilayah terima dana RM500j

TANJUNG MALIM: Kementerian Kemajuan Luar Bandar dan Wilayah akan membina 2,500 Tabika dalam tempoh tiga tahun bermula tahun ini bagi meningkatkan kemasukan kanak-kanak berusia lima dan enam tahun ke sekolah.

Menterinya, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, berkata kementerian itu menerima dana hampir RM500 juta menerusi Bidang Keberhasilan Utama Nasional (NKRA) untuk tujuan berkenaan. Beliau berkata, peruntukan RM98 juta sudah diterima untuk mewujudkan 500 Tabika tahun ini. “Bakinya sebanyak RM200 juta untuk membina 1,000 Tabika pada tahun depan dan jumlah yang sama pada 2012,” katanya kepada pemberita selepas menyampaikan hadiah Hari Potensi Tabika Kemas Peringkat Kebangsaan 2010 di Behrang, dekat sini, semalam.

Mohd Shafie berkata, kebanyakan Tabika baru berkenaan akan dibina di luar bandar dan pinggir bandar, terutama di kawasan yang belum ada tadika swasta dan prasekolah di sekolah kebangsaan.

Katanya, kini ada 8,500 Tabika Kemas di seluruh negara dengan 190,000 kanak-kanak.

Beliau berkata, pembinaan 2,500 Tabika baru itu akan membuka kira-kira 5,000 peluang pekerjaan sebagai guru pendidikan awal kanak-kanak.
“Mereka yang berminat untuk memohon sebagai guru Tabika Kemas perlu mempunyai lima kredit dalam Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM).

“Guru akan diberi latihan untuk mendapat Diploma Perguruan Malaysia ,” katanya.

Mohd Shafie berkata, seramai 256 guru Tabika Kemas lulusan Diploma Perguruan Malaysia sudah dilantik ke Gred S27.

Katanya, seramai 257 lagi guru akan tamat diploma masing-masing hujung bulan ini.

http://www.bharian.com.my/bharian/articles/2_500Tabikadalamtigatahun/Article/index_html

More than 82% gain entry to universities

18/06/2010

By TAN SHIOW CHIN

PUTRAJAYA: Over 82% of qualified applicants with STPM (Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia) or equivalent qualifications have obtained places in the country’s public universities for the 2010/2011 academic session.

All 2,088 applicants with a CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) of 4.0 were offered undergraduate courses, although not all received their first choice.

Said Higher Education Depart-ment director-general Datuk Dr Radin Umar Radin Sohadi: “Their co-curriculum marks also affected their applications, so maybe they received their second, third or fourth choice instead.”

He added that the meritocratic system was “very sensitive” to the candidates’ choices, with competition being much higher for popular courses and universities in the Klang Valley.

Around 64.5% of bumiputra candidates were successful in their university applications, along with 78% of Chinese applicants, and 50.7% of Indians and other races combined.

However, when the number of successful applications was compared with the number of qualified applicants, the percentages increased to 78.8% for bumiputras, 92.1% for Chinese, and 92.2% for Indians and other races.

Dr Radin Umar told reporters yesterday that he felt the latter method was a more realistic indicator of university entry.

“Overall, we are quite happy that 82.3% of qualified applicants made it into university this year,” he said, adding that this was an increase of 0.35% compared with last year.

Candidates can check whether they made it into a public university starting from noon today. They can do this by calling 03-8883 5858 or 03-8883 5848, logging onto http://jpt.uum.edu.my, http://www.jpt.utm.myor http://upu.mohe.gov.my, or sending an SMS to 15888 with the message UPU RESULT .

Universities will begin issuing official offer letters to students from tomorrow. All candidates must confirm their acceptance by Thursday.

Applicants who failed to obtain places can submit their appeals online athttp://upu.mohe.gov.my from noon today until June 28.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/18/nation/6498081&sec=nation

Muhyiddin: UKM proves Malay language works

18/06/2010

By KAREN CHAPMAN

BANGI: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s (UKM) contribution to the national education system proves that Bahasa Malaysia can be used in higher education, said the Deputy Prime Minister.

Set up on May 18, 1970, it is the third local public university, but the first to use Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction.

The founders of UKM had provided the confidence that Malay was a modern language of knowledge, capable of discussing complex scientific, technological, spiritual and humanitarian issues, said Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

“Much work has been produced in the Malay language, thanks to the efforts of the UKM lecturers, researchers, professors and the students for the past 40 years,” he said at the UKM alumni dinner held at Dewan Canselor Tun Abdul Razak.

Muhyiddin, also the Education Minister, said these included academic papers, books and doctoral theses written in the Malay language.

“We are proud of UKM’s achievements of being recognised as a research university which has been given self-accreditation status,” he said.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin announced last month that UKM was one of eight higher education institutions given the status.

As such, it can now accredit its own programmes without going through the Malay-sian Qualifications Agency.

Muhyddin said the ethos and philosophy of UKM were based on the people’s struggle.

“This is the soul of UKM,” he said.

The university has produced 132,000 graduates to date.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/18/nation/6497884&sec=nation

MSU bantu kerajaan didik pelajar laksana Model Baru Ekonomi

18/06/2010

CADANGAN pembentukan Model Baru Ekonomi (MBE) memang tepat pada masanya bagi menjamin masa depan ekonomi yang lebih mantap serta menaikkan taraf hidup rakyat daripada sebuah negara berpendapatan sederhana kepada berpendapatan tinggi.

Untuk mencapai hasrat anjakan itu, tentu sekali ia bergantung penuh kepada tenaga pekerja tempatan. Di manakah kedudukan negara dalam soal tenaga pekerja yang bakal menjadi tonggak pelaksana MBE itu? 

MSU bantu kerajaan didik pelajar laksana Model Baru Ekonomi

 

2010/06/18

CADANGAN pembentukan Model Baru Ekonomi (MBE) memang tepat pada masanya bagi menjamin masa depan ekonomi yang lebih mantap serta menaikkan taraf hidup rakyat daripada sebuah negara berpendapatan sederhana kepada berpendapatan tinggi.

Untuk mencapai hasrat anjakan itu, tentu sekali ia bergantung penuh kepada tenaga pekerja tempatan. Di manakah kedudukan negara dalam soal tenaga pekerja yang bakal menjadi tonggak pelaksana MBE itu? Aset utama sesebuah negara adalah penduduknya dan atas dasar itulah negara yang tidak mempunyai sumber alam seperti Jepun mampu berdaya saing di tahap tertinggi kerana melaksanakan sistem pendidikan yang menghasilkan modal insan kreatif dan inovatif. Persoalannya apakah corak persediaan di sekolah dan institusi pengajian tinggi (IPT) bagi pelajar yang bakal menjadi tenaga pekerja untuk struktur ekonomi baru ini? Apakah sistem pendidikan kita mampu menampung kehendak ekonomi masa depan ini?

Presiden Management & Science University (MSU), Prof Datuk Wira Mohd Shukri Ab Yajid, berkata menjadi tanggungjawab IPT dan lebih utama pelajar sendiri memastikan negara dapat membangun, memelihara dan menarik bakat untuk bersaing pada skala serantau dan global.

Katanya, asas bakat negara berdasarkan pengetahuan dan kemahiran tinggi perlu ditingkatkan menerusi sistem pendidikan yang mampu melahirkan pekerja mahir, bersifat ingin tahu dan inovatif untuk terus mendorong produktiviti sebagai asas pertumbuhan ekonomi mapan.

http://www.bharian.com.my/bharian/articles/MSUbantukerajaandidikpelajarlaksanaModelBaruEkonomi/Article