Wanted: More help for Malay pupils in Singapore

Wanted: More help for Malay pupils in Singapore
GUEST COLUMNISTS
Thursday, 31 December 2009 admin-s
When Mendaki staff asked parents why they did not want to enrol their children, some said their children were busy on weekends. Others said they took pity on their children, who already had a tough time in school.
By Zakir Hussain (The Straits Times)
Forty years ago, six-year-old Zuraidah Abdullah came home from school with her mid-year exam result for mathematics inked in red in her report book: 20 marks out of 100.
Fortunately, her mother, who juggled various jobs to help top up her bus driver husband's income, knew where to get help even though she had not been to school.
She asked around for someone who could do maths, and found an older student in their Ulu Pandan kampung to help her daughter.
The young man instructed the young Zuraidah to buy a pack of peanuts and borrow a pack of playing cards.
Over several sessions, the Primary 1 pupil learnt how to add, subtract, multiply and divide, and each time she answered a question right, she got a peanut.
The next semester, she aced her exam and scored 80 marks out of 100.
Fast forward 12 years, when Zuraidah was an undergraduate at the then-Nanyang Technological Institute. Her mother roped her in to tutor young neighbours and relatives in their Clementi HDB estate.
She agreed, on one condition: they had to turn up for all her sessions. Like the young Zuraidah, they too managed to pass their maths exams.
She leaves Mendaki tomorrow after serving as chief executive officer for three years with the strong conviction that having more such help on the ground will lift Malay students' grades which have dipped, especially in mathematics.
The self-help group is working out how to encourage more people to come forward to help weaker students, on top of existing community schemes, she says.
Last week, an Education Ministry report on how different ethnic groups fared in national examinations showed that the proportion of Malay pupils who passed maths in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) dipped from 63.4 per cent in 1999 to 56.3 per cent last year. Nationally, passes average 83.1 per cent.
The downtrend was flagged earlier in the month by Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim.
Zuraidah is under no illusion that doing well in maths takes hard work and practice. But it is also important for children to get a sound grounding in basic skills from an early age.
This, she explains, was why Mendaki introduced a programme called Tiga M in 2004 to give kindergarten-age children and their parents a head start in understanding maths concepts, like how her neighbour helped her with the cards.
But Zuraidah says the effort will take time to yield results, as only 2,000 children have participated in the past five years. Community groups are working to enrol more families.
She outlines a host of other efforts being made by Mendaki and community groups to tackle stagnating maths grades. The majority of pupils who take part in these projects have seen their grades rise.
Since 2006, a one-day seminar has been held to motivate Primary 6 pupils and introduce them to exam strategies. Over 2,700 pupils took part this year and Mendaki plans to target 5,000 next year.
Maths workshops were held for Primary 5 students from 2007, and intensive PSLE maths sessions were started last year to help a select group of weak pupils.
This is where the usually calm CEO begins to lament the attitudes of some parents.
There are some 8,000 Malay pupils in an average Primary 1 cohort, she notes, but this year only about 400 enrolled in Mendaki's tuition scheme and another 300 attended classes where Mendaki paid part of the fees.
This low participation is barely enough to make an impact on the overall pass rate, she says with disappointment.
When Mendaki staff asked parents why they did not want to enrol their children, some said their children were busy on weekends. Others said they took pity on their children, who already had a tough time in school.
And when Mendaki invited 200 pupils who failed a pre-tuition test to join intensive maths classes for free, only 39 accepted. Out came excuses from those who turned down the offer: they felt sorry for their children, the children were tired.
“They have to prioritise,” Zuraidah says with exasperation. “They are depriving the child of opportunities!”
A similar sense of irritation was expressed by Yaacob, who is also Mendaki's chairman, when he lamented the plight of dysfunctional families in the community earlier this month.
There are an estimated 7,500 dysfunctional families in Singapore with no skills and jobs. One parent is often absent too, and a disproportionately large number of these families are Malay.
Zuraidah says her time at the helm of Mendaki has made her more convinced that the key strategy to help troubled families lies in making sure the children stay in school and enjoy learning.
“I thought I'd seen everything,” she says, referring to her 22 years with the police. “But every time I go on the ground, I'm surprised,” she adds, referring to the occasional visits Mendaki staff and volunteers make to areas where many needy Malay-Muslim families live to make sure no one falls through the cracks.
She speaks of homes with huge television sets but the family is unable to hold down a job and the children skip school.
What gives her hope is that there are also homes where the living room is stripped of furniture but young children are doing their homework on the floor while their single parents are out at work.
She believes there is no quick fix for broken families, and persistence is key.
Zuraidah reveals that when Mendaki and various community groups came up with a system to identify troubled families and provide them with comprehensive help two years ago, she thought the families could get back on their feet within three years.
After all, volunteer befrienders would visit them to offer support, and alert family service centres should issues arise.
But social workers told her the deep- seated nature of the problems facing such families meant it would take at least four to seven years before they could get back on their feet.
“I've come to realise that you cannot deal with one family the same way you deal with another,” she says.
Mendaki alone cannot do everything, she stresses. “We must work with others, and we do better by working with others. This is where we leverage on national resources, work with other agencies to get families all the help they need.”
It will take time, she says. But what if the family refuses to be helped?
Then it is high time that others step in and intervene, she replies matter-of-factly.
She relates how a school principal rang her in desperation last year as she was at her wits' end over a student who failed to turn up for classes.
For a whole month, the boy's teacher had been going to his flat to accompany him to school. On the 31st day, he assumed the boy would know what to do. But he did not show up for class.
The teacher turned up at his door at 9.30am, and the boy's parents were watching TV with him. They told the teacher he did not want to go to school, and they could not do anything about it.
“The teacher was disappointed, the principal threw in the towel. I said: You have already done a lot, let us try to help the family,” recalls Zuraidah.
She got two Mendaki officers to visit the boy's home right away. They gave the parents a shelling.
“The teacher was not Malay, but because we were a self-help group, our staff lectured the parents and told them off for not doing their duty.
“The parents were bo chap (Hokkien for couldn't care less),” she says.
Later the boy came up to the Mendaki staff and thanked them, saying he now realised his teacher just wanted him to succeed. The next day, he went to school.
That episode, Zuraidah says, shows that if parents refuse to be helped, the community has a duty to reach out to the child and empower him or her.
“If I am the neighbour or the relative, I should be the one hectoring the parents. Can we have more of that kind of pressure or persuasion?” she asks.
She also feels that the community needs to provide mentors for such children “because most of the time, the kids cannot rely on their parents”.
“They need a role model,” she says. She points to a five-year-old community programme, Youth-in-Action, in which volunteers organise activities for teenagers who are in danger of quitting school and mentor them to stay on and excel.
While many see them as youth at risk, Zuraidah prefers to call them youth on the brink of success, a term some agencies in the United States adopt.
The term makes a world of difference to the confidence of youth, she says, as they feel they are part of the community and want to make a contribution.
Mendaki is training volunteers to help youths by nurturing their strengths.
It has also started an empowerment programme to build the confidence of secondary Normal stream students by getting them to interact and even shadow Malay-Muslim women professionals.
Citing the growing pool of young professionals in the community as a plus, Zuraidah says Mendaki has invited some 80 of them from various fields to brainstorm ways to improve students' grades and tackle the problem of dysfunctional families.
The price of inaction could not seem less stark as the police officer in her takes over: “If you don't help them, they get in trouble with the law down the road.”

Comments (15)
...written by popuri, January 04, 2010 08:39:59
Singapore, my salutations to you. This is what I call educationist. What we have here are brainwashers.
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...written by strifus, December 31, 2009 18:06:20
The situation really hasnt changed since I was in Malaysia over 20 years ago. I was in a fairly prestigeous school in Penang, Getting in was no mean feat. Everyone there, except for a percentage of Malay students who were boarding there, had to score very well in their, at the time Standard 5 (i dont know what they call it now), test. In the 3 years that I was there, one main observation is definately obvious, and that is that the bulk of Malays score at the bottom half of the population of any year. Of course my friends in school were a mixture of Malay, Chinese and Indian boys. When someone asked a question of me about something, I would answer or in this case, teach/tutor. Now what amazes me is that of the Malays, of which there are only a handful, the ones that do well are the ones who have educated parents (ones that have been overseas to study). I myself studied in Australia and I know that most Malays who come here are actually good students. So, to say that any Malay child you might see in Malaysia isnt capable of doing better for themself is definately false. So, what is the main difference between say the Chinese student (who generally scores well in exams) and the Malay student? I think the answer is clear enough just by reading the article above. After 50+ years of spoonfeeding, it is the Malays who are still lagging behind in terms of education. I know that there are more educated Malays out there right now but if this article is to be believed, thimgs are just the same as they were 20+ years ago. I mean, Malaysia isnt like Australia or the UK, where a child can either live with his parents or not. Most children here start working for an income as early as 14-15 years old. Some, like the students from cattle stations, spend most of the year away from their families but yet still do well enough to get themselves into the university course of their choice or trade of their choice. One main thing is clear. If things are to change for the better for more Malays, they have to look towards the future. They cant just hide their heads in the ground and expect that the governement will always be there to dig them out of a spot. I learnt that the hard way. Its time that the Malays learn it too.
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...written by temenggong, December 31, 2009 17:07:49
A dedication to academic excellence is not (yet) a part of malay culture, as in the case of all muslim countries generally. This weakness contributes to general weakness in all areas leading to mediocrity. A pre-requisite for excellence is a free society and a culture of free enquiry, which is constricted by islam. That is the barrier to academic excellence. The problem will continue until all yokes are abandoned. Once they are able to question their religion and prophet, and seek answers elsewhere, the ascension to academic excellence would have begun. It is not happening as of now.
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...written by Navigator, December 31, 2009 15:56:26
This shows the Singapore government is more earnest about helping the Malays than the Malaysian Government. Why did our government not discover this weakness in the link? After all, they claim to be helping the Malays to make it. I think the government wants to have the constant excuse for the poor performance of the Malays. They only pay lip service to helping their community. All they really want is to make money out of them.
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...written by CoolMama54, December 31, 2009 15:30:04
Vertigo Cure, You take one excerpt and just turn it into a racist comment. Are you looking forward to the downfall of the Malays? What is your objective in saying those things? Was it supposed to inspire change and hundreds of thousands of Malays will suddenly wake up, especially with that tone and attitude? What if the Malays, who are actually against racism, suddenly wake up and realize that when they actually make it on their own, idiots like you will never ever give them any credit, and instead will be vengeful? Does that make you feel better? You do realize that the article is not about racism, but like Amzek said "good community spirit", right? Or is your poor command of English still failing you? I thought I told you to get some good English lessons...
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...written by Vertigo Cure, December 31, 2009 14:29:24
when Mendaki invited 200 pupils who failed a pre-tuition test to join intensive maths classes for free, only 39 accepted. Out came excuses from those who turned down the offer: they felt sorry for their children, the children were tired.
This sums up the attitude of many Malays in general. Of course, not all Malays are not progressive but as you can see only about 20% are more serious about doing well in schools. I can bet you that if that is offered to the Chinese, at least 80% will take up the classes. Not only the Chinese are serious about education, the other Asian nations like the Koreans and the Japanese are probably even more serious about education. And the results show... When statistics show that Malays are not doing well in education as compared with the other races, those idiot ultra Malays in Bolehland will start screaming that Malays are marginalized in Singapore. They are just like the parents in the above article watching TV with the child rather than sending him to school. If you are non progressive and expect free lunches, then don't blame others for your own failures. Worst still, the boleh gomen is using this weakness and other discriminatory racist policies to advance their political agenda. The sad thing is that there are too many ultra Malays, stupid and corrupted Non Malays in Bolehland to support the BN/Umno agenda.
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...written by sydput, December 31, 2009 14:20:08
Malays don't need maths to be succesful. All they need is a guitar and a drum set. Unfortunately, the talibans ban them from performing live and music is not a curriculum in the ducation system, so they cannot make a living in music. End of the day, race motorcycles as no surf beach in the country. If they were born in UK, they would be millionaires in music or football.
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...written by Amzek, December 31, 2009 12:38:24
This article is from a Singapore paper la....not NST! sheesh...dont ppl even read and understand the articles first before commenting?
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...written by bambooman, December 31, 2009 11:56:12
well the govt has made up its mind.....they ( umno and its NGOs ) have decided to keep to its bahasa melayu in science and maths.........so that they can keep their malays at bay!!!!......let them be happy then.......we look elsewhere for development!!!!!........keep it simple and smart!!!!
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...written by wongnoball, December 31, 2009 11:53:13
NSTP...UTUSAN..BErita...Nanyang...STAR...Seng Chiew.....All Jambanlist first and foremost...I am beginning to get weary of their Psychological War Games they are playing on Malaysian. This is how I expose them... #1 Start with Heart wrenching story (that is to hook you in) #2 Then Focus on the Racist Race in question to show how hapless, weak, dumb, stupid, tidak apa (this is to tell you more MORE MORE help is needed and only UMNO racist can deliver...ala NEP Forever) #3 Then another good example of Islam linked to this Hapless race and Wah-lah ...success cometh when religion linked to race and the whole Lembu episode, Hina Islam, Ketuanan and their No shame -No Maruah claim of their stolen bumiputera status from Orang Asli come to play like Magic. #4 Then start their Social Justice Crap in Pakatan states that people are Neglected and they regim Ganas Kejam UMNO-BN are the ones to look after ALL. That is why if there is Fireworks near their Printing Sites and there is smoke......Malaysian will not be worst off.. All MS write and report Jambanlist material......all thinks 2010 is like 1910......think again...disrupt disrupt disrupt all UMNO Tolls....Be a great Mat Kilau!!
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...written by Amzek, December 31, 2009 11:52:09
Dont read the article as about the Malays in SIngapore. It is actually about good community spirit. This scenario exists everywhere - Malaysia, India, Europe even USA. I would like to imagine that the same spirit is alive and perpetuating everywhere in Malaysia.
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...written by rpk020608, December 31, 2009 11:32:28
A tale of 2 countries. Started at the same time One country – did not care about race and wanting to an individual to success not based on religion, race and social economic standing. With the full backing of their education minister and Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs En Yaacob Ibrahim. The other we all know too well as a Malaysian. The final results has shown itself and proven ... with the education we leave our children with will be determine the future and success of the country. I have known many smart Malaysian at the age of 15 years old (given ASEAN scholarships to go Singapore) and never came back to Malaysia … that was 20 years ago. today most of them are top CEO, Managers in the world. Still not too late to change how we educate our children in Malaysia.
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...written by SiHangChai, December 31, 2009 11:24:53
Dear Zakir, STOP propanganda such education issue to fish sympathy for Malays. This is happening globally. What Spore did is a matter of survival for its citizens. Unlikely Malaysia who is still spoon feeding and spoiling with free and subsidies to Malays, do you think the rich Malays especially in UMNO in Malaysia really care about the poor Malays? When will the mentality of our people going to change on relying self-dependency than govt 100%? I hope our Malay friends dont be like katak di bawah tempurung and still at their comfort zone. The western investors are going to eaten us up soon under poor Najib's administration. You want to fight, fight strategically and not 100% on govt assistance.
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...written by Ken Liew, December 31, 2009 11:16:06
Study hard... u will get the mark in return. You must work for your effort to show good marks. It is an era of BRAIN POWER... Previously u can use your strength to work. Now, u need a BRAIN. While Malaysia education is going backwards. Have not EVOLVE at all. As some of the mini-sir, you dont need a good brain to sit the seat. Ya, They want the future generation to be as stupid as themselves are. so that they wont be out-clever then the young people.
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...written by batsman, December 31, 2009 10:49:57
It is a multi-facetted problem - even in Britain, it has been found that working class families have little or no chance of social mobility even after many generations. Such a problem cannot be solved by giving bumiputra privileges. In fact bumiputra privileges will tend to sabotage the hard core poor even as it gives excessive and wasteful opportunities to middle class families. All this is a waste of human and financial resources of the country. The problem of social mobility is a long term problem and corruption and waste will only make it worse.