Islamic teaching in rural schools, Bian expresses concern

16 Nov 2011

KUCHING: Sarawak parents are concerned over subtle attempts at imparting Islamic teachings and practices to children in pre-schools in the rural areas, said Baru Bian, Ba’Kelalan state assemblyman.

Debating the 2012 budget, Bian, who is Sarawak PKR chief said: “Many rural areas are predominantly Christian, and there is a very real problem of subtle attempts at imparting Islamic teachings and practices in pre-schools.

“There are reports from parents of school children that their children come home from school and recite the Islamic ways of praying at home.

“From my own constituency of Ba’Kelalan, I have personally received reports of such incidents that happened to children from two families,” he said.

According to news reports, the KEMAS director general Datuk Abdul Puhat Mat Nayan said that beginning 2010, KEMAS established 539 new pre-school classes and will open another 2,000 new ones.

Last year, KEMAS opened 150 kindergartens in the state and for this year, they have set up 300 more to increase the accessibility to early childhood education.

Bian said that the people are concerned that these pre-schools are staffed by teachers from outside the local community and worst if they come from Peninsular Malaysia, the majority of whom are Muslims.

“Added to this concern is the news that KEMAS schools will be taking on the PERMATA syllabus, as announced in Sabah in July this year by National PERMATA programme patron Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.

“I was informed that one of the subjects in the PERMATA curriculum is Islamic teachings in class.

“Can we be guaranteed that all non-Muslim children be exempted from these classes or lessons?

“What are the steps taken by the state government to ensure that teachers of different faiths do not impart or teach their beliefs to the children of different faiths or beliefs in these Tadika or Pra-Sekolah in the state?” asked Bian.

He said: “I propose that local teachers from the local community be recruited to teach in these Tadika or pra-sekolah to avoid any conflict of religious beliefs.

“Secondly, I propose that allocations should be made to NGOs and religious organisations to start or support their own Tadika or pre-schools to reflect our support of imparting knowledge to all notwithstanding their racial or religious backgrounds,” Bian said.

On the teaching of mother tongue, Bian asked the government that there be an official budget every year allocated for the teaching of languages of all the different races in Sarawak from pre-school to Primary Six level.

“The loss of our people’s mother tongue is a serious threat and the precursor to the loss of our culture and identity. The preservation of our languages must be given priority or our people will slowly lose their unique and distinct cultures.

“With the common incidences of inter-marriage between different races in Sarawak, this request needs immediate implementation, “ said Bian, pointing out that it is viable that funds, which are allocated to KEMAS or Permata, can be used to train teachers to teach their local languages or dialects.

Baru Bian calls for referendum

KUCHING: A Sarawak PKR leader today supported a call for a referendum to find out how many federal ministers and those involved in education policy-making are sending their children overseas to study English.

“There is a suggestion by certain quarters that there should be a referendum among the federal ministers where and which schools they are sending their children to.

“I support this suggestion so that we know where they send their children to. Are they sending their children overseas to learn English?” asked state PKR Chief Baru Bian.

He was reacting to the announcement made by Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin that starting from next year all schools will start using Bahasa Malaysia to teach mathematics and science.

“With this referendum, then we can see whether these ministers are sincere or they just want to make it (using Bahasa Malaysia to teach mathematics and science) just a political issue,” he said.

Bian, who is the Ba’Kelalan assemblyman said: “As a father and a PKR leader, we would like to make a stand regarding the change of education policy as announced by the Minister of Education that the teaching of mathematics and science should be changed back to the use of Bahasa Malaysia.

“An earlier indication from the school was that that they were given option. But now the use of Bahasa Malaysia to teach mathematics and science is absolute and without any option.

“Looking at the history of ministers of education, each one of them would come with a different kind of policy when he took over the ministry, resulting in very inconsistent educational policies.

“Our stand is that you should stick to one policy only as changing it mid-term is really making it worse for our people,” said Bian, pointing out that the government had not learnt from the past.

“Secondly, we must understand we are now moving in the global village as it were that English is one of the common languages used to communicate to day in the pursuit of knowledge of science and global issues,” he said.

As the country is approaching the 13^th general election, he said: “It is irresistible conclusion, as a lawyer would say that the minister is using it as a political issue to gain political mileage.

“As a minister for all races, he should not use it as a political issue. It is not fair to other people,” he said.

Commenting on the same issue, Sarawak DAP leader Chong Chieng Jen described the change of teaching mathematics and science from English back to Bahasa Malaysia as a step backward.

“We are all concerned as this is a step backward,” said Chong who is the state DAP secretary, pointing out that “it is a great burden for our students who have to study mathematics and science in Bahasa Malaysia from Form One right to Form Five, and then to English in Lower and Upper Six.

“It would be better for the students in secondary schools to be taught in English in mathematics and science as we are laying the foundation for them to go to colleges and universalities.

“All research materials for engineering, medicine and science subjects are in English. It will be a great burden for our students,” he said.

Chong, who is the MP for Bandar Kuching, accused certain ministers of overzealous over the importance of Bahasa Malaysia.

“Bahasa Malaysia is our national language. It is important, but we have to understand that the country is not an island. We are playing in global fields,” he said, pointing out that the government has to be more practical about this issue.

“If our economy is strong, not only our people will start to learn Bahasa Malaysia, foreigners will also start learning the language.

“Just like China now where a lot of foreigners are learning Mandarin because her economy is strong. But when the economy is weak, you cannot be overzealous about Bahasa Malaysia.,” he said.

Chong also expressed his deep disappointment that starting next near all government departments and agencies must use Bahasa Malaysia as their official communication.

“For Sarawak that is a stupid move,” he said, pointing out that in Sarawak, Bahasa Malaysia, English and native languages can be used alongside each other.

“This is written in our Malaysian agreement,” he said.

A sad story of Iban primary students

According to The Borneo Post story today (19 June), primary school students from four longhouses in Sungai Pak about a 45 minute drive from Sibu go to school before dawn, walking through narrow jungle paths to reach their school before day break.

Accompanied by their elders, mostly their parents and grandparents, and armed with torch lights, they climb rugged terrains in their thick undergrowth and walk on poles across streams to reach SK Nanga Pak.

Each day the children wake up at 4.00 am to prepare themselves, and in half an hour they are off on the rugged paths with school bags on their backs, even in heavy downpour.

Dudong assemblyman Yap Hoi Liang, who has been visiting them for three years, has been making appeals in newspapers on their behalf.

Now that he has been elected their representative, he told the Sunday Post that he would be marching into the state assembly with their pleas.

He said he wanted the plight of these children heard, and he wanted immediate action taken to improve the infrastructure for the longhouse folk.

These children, who number more than 20, are from four longhouses built closely together in Sungai Pak – Rumah Shandom Ajang, Rumah Janang, Rumah Sebastian Igom and Rumah Iweng.

A primary three boy, who only identified himself as Austin from Rumah Shandom Ajang, said his grandfather walked him to school but after school the children would gather themselves and walk back by themselves.

“I am used to it already,” he said but added that it was troublesome when it rained.

“We have to walk through mud when it is wet, and worse the path at the foot of the hills is always flooded, and we have to wade through the water, even at 4.30 am.

It is cold,” he said.

Austin said that they also encountered wild animals such as snakes and wild boars

Parents of these children are grateful that the school allows their children to stay in the teachers’ quarters when floods pose danger to the children.

Yap said that there used to be a gravel road through the jungle to the school, but it was never maintained.

“It became a jungle path again. I am disappointed with the neglect of these people,” he said, pointing out that these people had also lacked ‘water and electricity supplies’.

“They drink from the murky water in the drains beside the road,” the DAP elected representative said.

Questions need answers

(1) What happens to the slogan ‘1Malaysia People first Performance now’ as espoused by the Prime Minister?

(2) What has the BN elected representative been doing all this while?

(3) What are the authorities doing about it?

(4) What are our Dayak leaders doing about it?

(5) Don’t you think that it is a good idea that we elected Opposition members to highlight our problems when BN leaders are trying to sweep such problems under the carpet?

This sad story to me is a tip of the iceberg, and there are many more such stories that need to be exposed for the betterment of our rural community.

Education funds for rural schools

The RM3.9 billion under the 9MP as recently announced by the Prime Minister in order to provide 24-hour supply of electricity and water to rural schools in Sarawak and RM1 billion for rural students as announced by the Education Minister should help to raise the standard and quality of education in the rural areas.

We all know that there are many disadvantages for rural schools: communication problems, lack of accommodation, poor study environment, poor facilities and equipment, shortage of text books and lack of discipline to name a few.

Adding to the woes of the rural schools is that low-grade teachers and even untrained ones are sent to rural schools. It is not uncommon for some teachers to resign as they cannot adapt themselves to conditions in the rural areas. Communications to schools in Ulu Baram, Ulu Batang Rajang and Ulu Katibas, for example, often take days and even weeks passing through dangerous rapids.

Replacements for such teachers are difficult to get, resulting in many classes without teachers for weeks.

As a result of these problems, the performances of the students in rural schools cannot expect to be better, even if there are bright students. Nor can they compete with students who study in urban schools where there are plenty of good facilities like libraries, laboratories, computers as well as having experienced and specialist teachers.

Thousands of students from rural schools each year cannot further their education and are forced to drop-out because of their poor performances in public examinations. It is not their faults, nor the faults of their parents. But it is more on the faults of the government.

It is interesting to note that the Federal Government especially the Ministry of Education has given top priority to solve these problems that have been plaguing almost all primary and secondary schools in the rural areas of Sarawak and Sabah by providing RM3.9 billion and RM1 billion for rural students.

We agree with the government that urgent steps must be taken now to solve these problems. Failure to do this may see an influx of youths migrating from the countryside to the bright lights of urban centres. Armed with little skills, these youths could pose juvenile problems like the use of ecstasy pills, taking drugs, “lepak” and “bohsia”. Indeed these semi-illiterate youngsters are not only a waste of manpower, but can also become a “time bomb” in our society.