Bridging Rural and Urban Gap in Malaysian Schools Opportunities and Challenges Lok Yim Pheng Secretary General NUTP

Common Problems  Lack of infrastructure  No proper buildings  No proper roads to schools  Lack of electricity  Lack of teachers / students quarters

Unfair distribution in the Fully aided and Partially aided schools (govt. policy)  Teachers sharing tables and chairs  Congested staff rooms and class rooms  Pupils paying RM perchair

30 % attend Pre-school education Curriculum in Pre-schools must be standardised

PIPP has many new visions but we want the government to implement it fairly  Rural schools given priority  Hasten the delivery of Educational materials in the rural areas  Lack of critical subject Teachers in remote areas  Mismatch in option  Teachers shortage specially in vernacular schools and remote areas  Lack of transportation

Challenges  Examination oriented system  Teaching of Science and Maths in English ( Teachers Centre not Pupils centre ) Survey on PPSMI Respondance  Science, Maths and English teachers must undergo the English proficiency test  Lack of “specialist teachers” are the main cause of non-efective teaching 68.8 % agree % agree

 There is a gap between rural and urban teachers teaching Science and Maths in English  The Ministry of Education must provide enough and comprehensive sets of teaching aids to teachers  Pupils understand the subject better (science and maths) using English language 54.7 % agree % agree 40 % agree  Under enrolment schools  High maintenance cost specially ICT  Social problems  Information and financial divide

Challenges  Integrity  Education opportunities for children  Drop out problems  Low performance students  Mentally drop out children  Role of PTA  Cluster schools

Suggestions - Pupils  Target needy children  Pool of Teachers handling drop out in rural schools  Dissimination of information  Easy access to educational materials  Special schools for special group of children -Vocational schools -Character building schools  Students exchange programme  More remedial classes in schools  Parents must be penalised – indicipline children

Suggestions - Pupils  Education must be non-political  Condusive environment in schools  Healthy recreation centre for children  Children’s health ( food / time management and motivation )  Financial aids to poor students  Provide transportation to schools  Reduce the number of pupil in the schools  School base examination  Build more hostel for students

Suggestions – Teachers eradicate the culture of adhoc  Improve teaching method in schools  Trained teachers locally and oversea  Reward teachers who can change low performance to high performance  Teachers covered by insurance  Revamp the Teachers Training Curriculum  High quality and worthiness course for teachers

Government had channel financial aids to improve school infrastructure  To much of unneccessary bureaucarcy  Can lead to corruption  Low quality work  No proper projection But

 We want to have thinking children not robots  We want high morale teachers  To achive all these the managers must go down to the ground and understand the problems