New books: English teachers must know what to teach, says PAGE

Parents' group says ministry must explain if teachers not given adequate guidance on how to use new imported English textbooks.

PETALING JAYA: The Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) has urged the education ministry to ensure all necessary guidance is given for English teachers to use the new imported textbooks.

Speaking to FMT, PAGE chairperson Noor Azimah Rahim said she is currently puzzled as to whether teachers know how to teach the new syllabus.

“We do not know if the teachers are being guided or not.

“But we hope the ministry would be accountable for ensuring teachers are capable of guiding students to use these new textbooks.

“I am sure in selecting these books, there must have been some kind of consultation.

“The fact that the ministry allowed the books to be distributed to schools means they have to get the green light from the English teachers too.”

She asked the education ministry to ensure teachers were provided with all the help they needed.

DAP Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari had revealed another glaring error in the education ministry’s handling of the imported textbooks issue, claiming it had failed to provide teachers the necessary guidance on how to use them.

Referring the ministry’s website, Zairil said there did not seem to be a teaching curriculum or reference guide, called DSKP, made available to help teachers plan their lessons and set exam questions.

He said for secondary schools, the website showed there is no DSKP for the teaching of English Language for Form 1 and Form 2, which will use the new Pulse 2 textbooks from next year.

He said for primary schools, the DSKP is only available for Year 1 English Language while the DSKP for Year 2 appears to be missing.

Zairil, who is also the DAP parliamentary spokesman for education, science and technology, had previously said that the Super Minds book by Cambridge University Press and Pulse 2 by Macmillan, were designed specifically for Spanish students.

He said this was clear from the contents of the book, which he said also contained European references that were irrelevant to Malaysian children.

“The local publisher hired by the education ministry to adapt the books for local use forgot to remove the Spanish links.”

Last week, Melaka Action Group for Parents (Magpie) chairman Mak Chee Kin said only one teacher from each school was sent to attend a course on the imported textbooks’ syllabus.

“The reason given was budget constraints,” he said, adding that the teachers who attended the course were required to train other English teachers at their schools.

UCSI University professor Mohd Tajuddin Rasdi, who has a different stance on the issue, said there should be no problem even if teachers are not provided with guidance to teach using the new English textbooks.

“The only problem is teachers who teach English but do not even like reading books in English. There is your main problem.

“I am not sure of how much training they need to implement this sort of books. It should be based on reading and everything else will follow.

“For me, the five most important practices in learning a language is to do lots of reading, frequent speaking, joyful singing, some writing and then a bit of grammar drill,” he told FMT.

He sees no problem in studying any English book, whatever the level, even without guidance.

He said from his own experience of teaching children from the low-income community that they were capable of picking up English quickly and adapting well.

He said teachers need to have lots of patience and time to teach their students to expect good results.

“The key is getting children to read.” -FMT