Streaming, not the internet kind, is a hot
topic among LH’s parents recently. I have received reliable information that
the top 25% to 30% students will be placed in elite academic classes starting
2015 affecting standards 6, 5 and possibly 4.
Parents Academic Research Team (PART) are
hard at work again getting feedback from parents, teachers and ex LH students
on the pros and cons of streaming.
Conventional Proponents of streaming say:
- Having students of similar academic ability facilitates teaching, be it contents or speed of delivery, hence better efficiency in terms of completing the syllabus and preparing for exams. It allows an opportunity for the school to explore beyond the prescribed syllabus.
- It encourages students to compete with a bigger pool of students within a close proximity thus promoting academic excellence.
- It provides a controlled environment for the school to achieve its academic KPI by directing resources to targeted areas; best teachers for the high achievers, lower teacher-pupil ratio for the less gifted to allow for more personal attention etc
The Opponents of Streaming say:
1.
It creates different classes of
“citizens “within the school compound by virtue of one’s academic ability. This
will inadvertently label the success or failure of the children by their
inclusion in or exclusion from the elite classes- resulting in different
treatment by the school.
2.
Teachers may be less motivated
to give their best to the lower ranked classes because of the perception of
weaker academic ability and the corollary is children will feel the academic
glass ceiling, they will not give their best perceiving that their best may not
be good enough to be considered as excellent within the ranking system.
3.
Streaming is a form of
segregation which is against the order of nature; children develop at different
pace and will benefit from interacting with other children of different
academic ability. Those who are more academically inclined will help those who
are weaker hence creating a more conducive cooperating spirit as opposed to the
win at all cost attitude. Too much emphasis on academic achievement at an early
age stifles the natural development of children making them less versatile or
adaptable in the future.
Irrespective of whether you support,
against or like to put forward alternatives, we invite you to comment and take
part in our survey.
(answer polls: top right of this page, add comments at bottom of this page)****
(answer polls: top right of this page, add comments at bottom of this page)****
Once we have a fair sample of say 400 participants, we will publish the results and see how we can move forward.
Please take part and have your say
Happy parenting
Ken Koo
YDP PIBG LICK HUNG
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Parents Academic Research Team
29 comments:
Prefer not to stream them up. They need to live in Common environment.
Not agreed. Children should studying in fair environment.
Let students mix with a broad section of people which is a better reflection of the real world. If LH believe in giving the best to each child based on the needs of the child, how about streaming for tuition classes? Tuition is optional so parents and teachers can jointly decide what is the most suitable level for the tuition class.
i am ex parent , just share my comment.
If a teacher handling whole class with weak students , everyday facing problems, unless she is very caring teacher, she will be very stressed up. If ex hm 朱校长 can maintain good results for 20yrs, i dont see why her method fail now..unless school has changed their method and admin.
May be streaming can improve results of minority students , but which is more important ? minority academic results or majority students' learning environment ? This is purely my own personal view. I have 3 children in lick hung for 12 year.. i am so happy with no streaming system and continue to support this. In fact , if my elder son is under streaming system , i am not sure if he would giv up his study . He is studying in one good university in London now. Sincerely thank to ex HM Choo's hard work in setting up good foundation for the school.
Comments received from email:
Francis: "This will discriminate the poor result and slow leaner kids."
Paul: "I sincerely think that streaming won't work well as it will create unnecessary stress and pressure amongst top students as well as creating "people looked down on me" feeling amongst weaker students. Students, whoever they are should be in the same class as this will help to bring up unity, understanding and caring among one another."
The nature of life and the purpose we as a parents to sent kids to school, not only hope them can pick up the knowledge, but also how they should see this world. So we should provide them a fair and good study environment. Not to push them into stress and how we should categoriez the people. Just let them mixed around and see the world... :)
I agreed with streaming. No matter how, we still need to face the reality i.e.: no competition no advancements. One of the reason parents send their kids to LH is due to the school reputations and excellent performance in the past.
Looking from different angle, there always some top students and week students within any class, there is no truly fair environments be it macro/micro. I see fair environment as top students complete to top students, the same for week students. If worry about teacher laziness or careless then we should address this human issues separately. Focus always create better results. By nature, it is just difficult to talk to different level of people with same tones. If student is weak, then parent shall pay more attention and efforts to help instead of rely on school all the time.
Just my 2 cents.
Streaming to promote excellence is a commendable idea. The challenge is ,do we put more resources to help those who need help the most or put our best to push the good students to excel ? A truly great society or organization is judged by the treatment given to the most vulnerable section of the society and not the special treatment to the top echelon. If LH is driven by academic excellence to the exclusion of everything else, we should consider entrance exam and special counseling for the less gifted with a message for them to go elsewhere. That would be utopia for some .
I suppose that is the real world.
I do not agree with streaming at such young age. This is the critical stage to shape the children in terms of moral and attitude. There is really no need to put extra pressure on their academic. No doubt many of you think foundation is very important. However, have you ever stopped and think about what would happen if they couldn't take the pressure? At such young age...What will happen? I strongly think sufficient education is enough at this stage but not blindly push for straight As. A +ve mindset on learning will eventually help them excel in the future. If they started to have -ve mind n fear towards education, that will be even more difficult to deal with in future.
One more to add, for those that are below average or poor learner I suggest extra school tuition to help them.
Let me share about my niece who is studying in the elite class in chong kwok gong xue （中国公学）. Indeed she has the capability to learn. Teachers who teach in the elite classes are so proud and push harder so that they can continue to uphold the standard of the class. As the result, they want to teach the students more, give them more homework so that they have more practices than the normal class. The elite students are not allowed to make any mistakes. 1 or 2 mistakes in dictation invites 3 times corrections, 5 times corrections and 10 times corrections. Coz everyone believes practice makes perfect. All teachers do the same for elite class. My niece has to attend afternoon school tuition, which gives another set of homework. Once she reaches home, homework time! All the way till midnight. Sometimes pass midnight. Her mother talked to the teachers. no use. coz she dare not interfere too much lest her daughter should get more punishment. I advised her to pull the daughter to normal class. but she is worried that the daughter might have the sense of pride of being selected to the elite class. if pull her down to normal class, she might feel "different". Her father, a doctor, finally has had enough: a growing teenager should have enough rest to grow healthily, physically and psychologically. Finally, they pull her out from Chinese school to international school. Her first term starts early next year.
what is the objective of streaming? what is the objective of getting a formal education in school? are we training As-striking robots? or are we teaching them to be a person? By looking at the trend of streaming in A schools, the objective is clear: teach faster, teach more and score. Where is "learning"? don't fall into the trap of 揠苗助长。The effect is for long term.
I come from non-streaming schools. The buddy system my teachers create works wonder. it creates lots of "teachers' assistants" to guide friends who are weak. What are we learning apart from academic? to lead, to communicate. A successful P&P (pengajaran dan pembelajaran) is where "two-ways-communication" takes place.
If we cannot change the decision of the school management, then I propose that we reward teachers who teach the last few classes and show improvement, rather than giving incentives to the elite class.
The students who can score, can always score, with or without teachers. But the students who excel from E to B need good and caring teachers. these teachers need recognition more than the elite teachers. I am proud when my students score from D to A+ in SPM add maths. But I never take credits when my smart students score A+. Any teachers who teach elite students sure see A star result.
Comments received from email:
Tsen wrote: "There will be so pressure for those weak / slow picker students. This will
effect their willing TO GAIN KNOWLEDGE. Hope the school understands that, score is NOT important, but to gain knowledge. If possible, hope the teachers will emphasis more for GOOD ATTITUDE to build up HEALTHY society"
Grandmom Janet: "Children benefit more with a mixed ability grouping as they will have a
wide range of abilities around them. With streaming, the blind will be leading the blind n in the worst sceanario may lose interest in their studies and may be future drop outs."
Comments received from email:
Tan wrote: "Weaker students are the ones need more attention,wish everyone can see beyond academic performance,all kids deserve 'equal' right to good education.Which one do your prefer? A rude A+ student or a weak but polite student?i pick the latter."
I think streaming system should be the way to go if we were to achieve high performance, be it academically or morally. People just bias towards the negative instead of exploring the possibilities and the potential of the system. It all boils down on how good we implement it, otherwise either system will create problems. I believe if we implement it carefully, it will benefit both weak and strong students. The point is, whatever negative/bias descriptions mentioned in this forum also happen in mix environment. A weak student most likely found to be rude, and that in fact polite student mostly found to be academy well, both exist in stream/mix environments. We can't deny the fact that most parents with kids in good stream will continue support the system, on the other hand, parents with kids in lower stream oppose it and think that the system is not good, but in actual fact it was most likely due to mismanagement and human errors. As one of the former suggest, teachers in low streams should not be demotivated, instead we can reward teachers who focus and teach the last few classes and show improvement.
Just my 2 cents.
I do not agreed with streaming. I was happy for my child when I found out that LH do not practice that during the 4yrs he is in.
In my school days.My school practice it.Students in weaker class always feel less important and this effect the self esteem of the person while growing up.
Every child had his own potential and should be given equal right of treatment.
Teacher play an important role in education.A caring teacher will made a big impact in the child growing up.
Though I agreed as parent we do need to play our part too.
My hope is the school would consider all the feed back before coming to a decision for the good of the student.
Comments received from email:
Yap wrote: "School is provided good environment for students for learning, why must score to distinguish between children's ablility to learn?"
Goh wrote: "反对到底"
Chua wrote: "Streaming programme is NOT suitable to be done in Primary school. School is to gain knowledge not to compare between clever or not. Hope school will consider more about this....."
Margaret wrote: "Consider the kids feeling. No to streaming."
Children should receive fair treatment. Being a human, definitely teachers will put less effort in teaching ther poor classes because they believe that no matters how hard they teach, the poor students are unable to pickup.
I strongly disagreed. Headmaster! Please thinks twice before you implement streaming!!!!!!
It depends on how school implements the streaming. If their objective is to help the better ones to be the best, which mayb top 100 and neglecting he remaining 300 is truely unfair. From experience and observations, the student's in elite class will be pushed very hard. Thus not necessary every individual can take it. Those that can take the pressure will excel further while those that cant will collapse. We better think carefully regarding this matter as it concerns our children's future.
Streaming for children at primary school level? Is it really that necessary? Are there not any other method to a win win situation?
Here’s a suggestion to seriously to be considered.
Assign these good students to be leaders to each group/team of more challenged students. They can be assistants to their teacher. Moreover, they will learn leadership & responsibility by managing a group/team with the guidance of their teacher. Each team leader will want their own team to excel. It will promote healthy competition for these team leaders. Other students sees this, they too will want to follow through some day by working hard for it and want to be team leader too. It will boost their morale at the same time boost the school’s KPI. Of course, there must be a reward system for these leaders in class e.g. "Best Leader in Class" or “Best Team in Class”. A recognition always does help even for adults in any environment be it in office or at home for a job well done.
If we have a method like the above mentioned, it will bring the best out of students first (as an individual), then to the teacher who manages his/her own team leaders (as a leader) and resulting in best of the school’s achievement (as achieved KPI). Definitely positive in all ways, for the students, for the teachers, for the HM and the school. A domino effect.
Now, seriously consider once again before implementation of streaming in primary school level. I will understand if streaming is for higher learning.
Why streaming is not good / causes harm
- Success is not about academic achievement alone. There are many great leaders who did not perform well academically yet they have the charisma, they are creative thinkers who think out of the box, passionate, genuine love for people/their needs and who have the ability to live interdependently in order to achieve greater results for a greater good.
- Each individual has specific/different gifts/talents.. interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily kinestetic, visual spatial, logical/mathematical, linguists, etc. By streaming what are we teaching these young ones? That they are not good enough/special to contribute/be recognized/treated as second class if they do not perform well academically? Sometimes doing well academically may mean memorizing and rewriting memorized facts/theories. Does it mean the student has the ability to communicate effectively, love & lead him/herself & others, take on meaningful responsibilities, think creatively in coming up with new ideas/problem solving, work interdependently well with others to achieve not just individual success but team success, etc? And the list goes on.. the essential/crucial life skills in order for a all-round success/achievement ability when they grow up.
- And to those in the 'top' stream - is the message studying and academic achievement will get you noticed/be good enough? How about other students who are talented in other areas? They are not in the same 'class' as you? Reality is that we need to mix and work well with a variety of different personalities with different talents in order to live a selfless life that adds value to many around us.
- Lack of confidence/esteem is as dangerous as being proud/arrogant. Streaming may cause both 'classes' of students. Be very careful as to creating either. Every child/human has a unique/special purpose in life, of which they will flourish with their own special gifts if their belief is not taken from them or misguided that academic is the only gift. Then only can we start to truly move on to a progressive, united society made up of people who are dynamic, creative, interdependent, value adders, movers/shakers for a better/greater good/world.
Streaming is an opportunity for LH to prove why it is the best amongst the good . In a normal class, teachers have to consider the best and the worst students when they teach , so compromise is the norm. Once the top 10% and the bottom 10 % have been separated , those gifted will have the chance to excel while the bottom 10% will have a learning environment more suited to their ability. If this was implemented, I would like to see lower student- teacher ratio for the bottom 10% as they need for help and they have more room to improve . There should also be an option to opt out if parents feel their children should not be placed in academically designated classes.
根据消息，家协主席已于昨日与校方联系以了解关于"精英班分班制"的事项。但是校方表示未曾讨论过在明年实行“精英班分班制”的事项。
Malaysia will ONLY be ABLE to MAKE the LEAP from BEING a MIDDLE income NATION to a HIGH income NATION when THERE is EQUAL OPPORTUNITY for ALL.- The above statement from MR PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA-
This system should apply to ALL nation, it is not a matter of academic success (IQ), the most important is a WHOLE BRAND NEW of a CARING, EQUALITY, EQ intelligence SYSTEM!
WE 'GENERATION YOUNG' is the ROLE MODEL to the Youngster...for THE BETTER OF TOMORROW!
Pls vote for EQUAL OPPORTUNITY! We need LOVES for the WEAKEN student!!! Don't isolate them, they have boundless potential to grow... the BEST student Wil NATURALLY EXCEL!
To quote an English educator's comment: In today's competitive climate, more and more schools are caught up in local turf wars, trying to win their share of high-achieving pupils."
It's a global issue, not just in Malaysia and it's done at our children's expense.
Streaming primary school pupils labels them for life.
I'm against the proposal for "Streaming in Lick Hung Primary School". By academically streaming students, exam smart students are given the all credit and told to be actually smart, and this in effect demoralizes students who have been streamed into a lower caste. Most of the time, these students that have been put into a lower class are not stupid or dumb, they just think in a different manner and they have not mastered rote learning. These students may even be thinking in a more creative manner and may be able to see things more creatively than their exam smart counterparts, which may have been neglected. Academic streaming only ends up throwing these otherwise equally intelligent students to one side, effectively sending the message that they are worthless. On the opposite, the exam smart students are encouraged to continue "photocopying" whatever they have learnt, thus restricting their capacity to think out of the box. This in turn affects their ability to survive in the workforce as they only have their theory knowledge but not a good set of survivor skill. Do we really want that for our children?
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