MOE’s release of educational performance of students from 2005-2014 reveal some alarming trends for Malay students, especially at PSLE level.
The gaps between Malay students and other communities at PSLE is *widening*, for Science, Maths and English. There is a discernible trend of *worsening* performance year on year. And this is despite at least 3 decades of intervention through Mendaki.
Only 60% of Malay students pass Maths (compared to 85.3% for the national benchmark). In other words, we have not progressed since 2005 (59.7%)
And for Science, only 70% of Malay students pass, compared to 90% for the national benchmark). This figure of 70% is worse than 2005 (76.8%)
What’s worrying are the trend lines of worsening performance, especially in Science.
I had raised this point 3 years ago. Our community-based educational intervention program to Mendaki does NOT work. The results speak for themselves.
We need to take a national approach towards addressing educational gaps. A holistic and aggressive approach target at lower socio-economic income groups (where Malay families are over-represented). We want all communities to do well.
Why perpetuate a model that has clearly not yielded results – despite millions of dollars of community funding through MBMF?
We simply cannot afford to let the slide continue or worsen.
Lest we become more marginalized.
Sampai bila?
Source: Nizam Ismail in Suara Melayu Singapura.
