Friday 27 March 2015

Admission to Secondary Schools

We will be doing a series of articles to explore the options for LH and other SJKC in Petaling Perdana Districe  standard 6 school leavers .  We will start with the destination where 80% + of the SJKC  school leavers will end up-SMK Sekolah Menegah Kebangasaan and most will be within the Pusat Pendidikkan Daerah (PPD) Petaling Perdana-district . As usual we will start with a FAQ (we will be writing in the first person as if the students were asking the questions ) -

1.     1. Do I have a choice ? Can I pick my favourite SMK?
Unfortunately NO-you do NOT have a choice –you will be “sent” to a school within the PPD district where LH is the feeder school . The schools within the Subang zone are SMK Utama ,USJ 4, USJ8, USJ12, USJ13, USJ17 and the most likely designated schools are SMK Utama and SMK USJ 4
While you are still in LH , you may (this is yet to be confirmed ) be given a form to complete and select your preferred school out of a list of up 3 schools HOWEVER you may not even end up in one of the 3 schools .

       2 . If you do not get your favourite choice , what can you do ?
            You will be notified of your designated school before the start of the term . The first thing and the most crucial action you must take is to report to the designated school even if you have no intention of going there or you have decided to go to a private  or independent school. The fact that you have reported allows you to re-enroll back to the national schooling system at a later time. Failing to report will deny you the opportunity to join  the national school system in future.
3.I want to apply for a transfer .

Your designated school will have a list of schools which you can apply for transfer  . These are called in zone schools . The list will also show schools with additional admission criteria –Sekolah Kawalan (for eg Catholic , must have a minimum of 5As , etc ) . The application for transfer will be processed by your designated school . You may be asked to supply additional information to improve your chances of selection such as sports  and  extra curricular activities during  your primary school years. You can only pick 1 school .

You may also apply for a school out-side your zone but the chances of admission to that school (if it is a popular school) will be low because you do not come from a feeder school .

4.      What are the considerations for Transfer –
Assuming that your transfer has been correctly processed (which cannot be automatically assumed !!) , you application will be based on your address, presence of sibling in that school and OTHER  unspecified admission criteria of your target school. The admission  criteria for some schools apart from academic can also include quotas for (race or  gender) preference for sports etc

5.      If I do not get admitted to your preferred choice , can I appeal? Yes, normally you are given one right of appeal.
6.      After the appeal , If I still do not get into my preferred school , what can I do ? Sorry , you cannot  do anything for the time being and must wait for the next transfer window which is normally the start of the next academic year .

                          Next topics
            Independent and Private Schools
            Life in SMK, Independent and Private Schools .

We invite Ex LH students and parents to contribute articles (can be in English , BM and Chinese) sharing their learning experiences in secondary schools and how their primary years in LH have helped (or hindered as the case may be ) their journey towards higher education .

Thursday 12 March 2015

Letters from Parents

After the PIBG AGM, I've received many emails/messages, with the permission of the senders, I decided to share a few of them


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Dear Mr Chairman

It is not very often in Malaysia one man can actually do so much to change a bad system. Like many cynical parents in Lick Hung , I thought this was another scandal where nothing will be done . Kudos to your persistence . I have been in this school for 10 years and I agree with you totally that the school never followed the rules . The fact that we now have a parent acting as  treasurer shows that our ex HM Mr Tan lied to us for many years . Please help us make sure the new people will follow the rules .

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Dear Mr Koo
I am a relatively new parent with 2 years in LICK HUNG . This was my second AGM . Thank you for restoring some semblance of order . Having read your speech ( I could only hear part of it and interchanging between languages half way did not help as well), I now have a better appreciation of what you were trying to do- to restore peace by high-lighting the positive of everyone including your opponents . While that was admirable, why did you not take the opportunity  to present the evidence to the participants ? We want to see the unauthorised accounts ?  Who were the signatories ? There was  one lady  who asked you a similar question but you appeared to downplay the seriousness of the issue .

I find it strange that the “revelation “ was so widely publicised and yet there was nothing given out during the meeting ? Is that the end of it ??  Did you really mean that you want to forget everything and move on . From what I heard , you had a terrible time with the school .  Why Was the old Headmaster transferred  so suddenly and there was no official announcement from the school ? He appeared to be a friendly person and my son says he was very good to the children.

I also  find it odd that having achieved what you promised –greater transparency  -Parent treasurer and having one PIBG bank account , you suddenly announced you did not want to participate anymore. A few of the parents sitting next to me were absolutely stunt .  

I hope you have not lost interest in PIBG because we need people like you , outspoken and willing to take on the administration of the school . I find some of the teachers in the school very intimating and rude but I am too scared to say anything . Unfortunately , it is very common for teachers to single out your child if you dare to complain .  Talking to other parents , I heard  this school is one of the worst. Hopefully the new Headmistress will be able to control some of these teachers .

I hope you can continue to help us to conduct our PIBG meeting , you are very firm and decisive and very clear with the explanation and fair to everyone. I still do not understand an elderly man trying to say about the lari amal account . With my limited Mandarin , he did not appear to say if we still have money ? There was also one man  who shouted and screaming . Please be polite especially in front of the children .

The meeting was too long so I did not know what was discussed after the election . I hope you can continue to provide regular updates because the school does not appear to tell us anything other than some flyers which my son simply throws away.


Thank you

Monday 9 March 2015

                                     Congratulations to the new AJK members
                                                              AND
                                                     Goodbye from me

The 2015 AGM   started at around 2.45 and completed smoothly  around 6.30pm .
Thanks to all the 330+ parents who attended plus the teaching staff of 107 . There were VIPs from JPS as well as representatives from the  Board of Governors  .

Congratulations  to all the winners of the election. From my personal point of view , it was an excellent outcome  because the new PIBG committee members including the Advisor (HM) are all NEW.

I urge parents to give them space and time for them to work . With the caliber of the new members and their personal pledges given to the members during the AGM , I am certain the  2015 PIBG will go down in history as one of the most successful PIBGs

I take this opportunity to thank the  readers of this blog and other parents who have contributed  tremendously for the betterment of our society . Likewise , I like to apologize to anyone who has been adversely  affected or offended by the contents of my articles for I meant no malice .


As usual HAPPY PARENTING
Ken Koo

09/03/2015

2015 PIBG AGM Chairman’s Speech


 2015  PIBG AGM  Chairman’s  Speech

This year, I have broken the tradition of the Chairman making  the opening speech. By inviting our new Headmistress to make the opening speech  , she sets the tone and that is the tone I wish to echo. Let us move forward, together for the greater good of LICK HUNG.

The themes for 2015 are Reconcile, Rebuild and Reaching for greater Heights. Before I move further , I wish to thank my fellow committee members both parents and teachers for their contributions in somewhat trying circumstances . Irrespective of their views and positions taken in the past, I believe and accept they acted with the best intentions and always for the benefit of the Children which is the primary objective of PIBG.

It is also crucial for us to acknowledge the great contributions of Mr Tan our immediate past HM . Under his leadership for the past 10 years , LICK HUNG became one of the few High Performance Schools in Malaysia turning out exceptional all rounded talents , many obtained Asean scholarships and some went on to become captains of industry in their chosen fields. We must  also pay tribute to the individual and collective contributions of the entire Teaching staff for without them LICK HUNG would not have achieved these accolades .

Over the past 9 months many of you especially a number of the  teaching staff have come under tremendous stress brought upon by my revelation of  3 unauthorised  PIBG accounts . Previous PIBG meetings  had likewise been tense because many parents were not satisfied with the financial disclosure  and the level of transparency  .  We spent more time in financial matters than anything else  when we should be focusing on how to improve our children’s welfare.We wasted time and effort to discredit each other resulting in parents losing interest in PIBG .

WHILE many of us want to know   why these accounts existed and operated outside the norm,  but Today I believe they should not be our main focus anymore .    It is time to leave   this unfortunate episode behind us so that we can move forward.

Parents, I say this because the school administration and I have agreed on many steps  to improve on the level of financial transparency , the most important  change  being –effective  within the next hour so –parent’s representative will hold the post of Treasurer .  Parents you will elect your own treasurer instead of being appointed by the school administrators  which was a long held practice of Lick Hung. In addition , the school had  closed all the unauthorised accounts and we now have ONE official account in full compliance with PIBG regulations.

Teachers AJK candidates will be approved by the parents .We will also have more regular dialog sessions between parents and school administrators.

Full credit must be given to our new Headmistress , Mdm Lee for acting so constructively and decisively so we can end the conflict between parents and school administrators .
I would like to give the benefit of the doubts to those who were inadvertently involved and with it my apology if you were affected by the negative publicity .

It is so easy to apportion blame or to criticise without knowing the full picture.  But  I must acknowledge that some parents and past AJK members and in particular 2013 parent AJK members  were deeply  hurt and traumatised by allegations  made against them and unfair actions taken against their children for their only fault was to get involved in PIBG . It is impossible to operate any entity let alone an educational institution when the stakeholders are at opposite ends; the only possible outcome is FAILURE .

Today I would like to appeal to all parents to leave the unfortunate part of our history behind us and give our full and unconditional support to our Headmistress and her staff .

To our Teachers , I hope you will welcome parents with open arms for the sake for our children . I hope we can Reconcile our past differences and if  required one day , I would like to see  a committee set up to examine the grievances of all parties . Knowing the truth enables us  to understand , with understanding we can forgive , and with forgiveness we can reconcile and finally moving on without the baggage of the past .  But at this present moment  we should focus on rebuilding/repairing  –our physical infrastructures (grounds, drains doors , fans , toilets ) , training and providing support  to our teaching staff, setting up appropriate channels to facilitate communications between teachers and parents , inviting , allowing and encouraging  parents to participate in events such as sports day, seminars  and educational tours involving the children .

To my detractors and strong supporters of our immediate past HM, I also appeal to you to work with our new HM  for the sake of the children and  more importantly to protect the legacy of Mr Tan . We will have the benefit of a better tomorrow because we were well served yesterday.
In conclusion – have I achieved what I stood for ? –namely for Greater financial transparency of PIBG LICK HUNG ?

Parents and teachers, I Believe  I Have.   And with the ending ,  I will NOT participate in this Election .

I DO admit to one failure which was providing filtered drinking water for the children
I am sure the incoming committee will fix that immediately. .

I bid farewell to PIBG –THANK YOU VERY MUCH 

Ken Koo



Thursday 5 March 2015

DAWN OF A NEW BEGINNING

 A Chinese proverb says –a day starts from dawn  , a year starts from Spring. Today is the 15th day and also the last day of the traditional celebration of Chinese New year . I write this with much hope and excitement- because tomorrow we welcome our new Headmistress -Mdm Lee , who will be serving her last day at YuK Chyun Jalan Klang today .

I have had the privilege of talking to the PIBG and BOG representatives of Yuk Chyun and they only have kind and encouraging words for her . She is a meticulous and hard -working educationist whose main mission is to impart the highest standard of  education in a holistic manner .

Mdm Lee brings with her 6 years of experience as Headmistress of Yuk Chyun. I am certain that most parents and teachers will look forward to working with our new Headmistress .

Hope springs eternal –no matter how bad things have been , they will always get better

In LICK HUNG tomorrow will definitely be a better day .

From Ken Koo

YDP PIBG LICK HUNG

AGM LICK HUNG Persatuan Ibu Bapa dan Guru –Guru


 Parent Teacher Association      7 March 2015 2.30pm

This is part 3 of our AGM series – USUL-  USUL  MATTERS ARISING
Our previous  article provided some brief information on accounts (part1) and election process (part 2)
This article we will discuss the type of issues which you can raise during PIBG AGM.  We will start with some basic FAQ again
1.     Must we submit our Penyataan Usul by the stipulated date which is 27 February 2015 – In theory , any members can ask any question on the day but the Chairman has the right to reject the question unless the question has already been recorded as a question/issue on the Agenda. The current AJK (committee) is supposed to vet all the incoming USUL and make a list for discussions . Given the limited time on the day, it is most unlikely that all will be discussed . Those which have not been discussed will be referred to the AJK for deliberation.
If  a member wants to raise an USUL  which is not on the agenda and the Chairman refuses to accept the USUL, the only way to force the issue is to get a vote from the floor to override the Chairman’s ruling  .

2.     Are members entitled to raise any USUL regarding their children ?- PIBG has  very limited functions and powers and these functions must be clearly separated from the Administrative powers of the School . Please refer to our first article on the objectives of PIBG – it  is not a forum for parents to settle any disagreement with the school teaching staff or administrator . All issues relating to teachers’ conduct, children’s discipline , quality of teaching , method of delivery should be referred directly to the school or if necessary to the district office (PPD) or the state education department  (JPS).
3.     What USUL –USUL are relevant ? The single most important function of PIBG is to empower or provide a conduit for the school administrator to raise funds for the benefit of the children. In this respect PIBG will need to approve all fee-paying activities to be conducted by the school such as co-curriculum activities or any fund raising projects in order to  improve the physical  infrastructure or human resources of the school.   All issues relating to the expenditure of these funds are relevant topics for AGM discussion .

Please find attached PPD’s response in relation to tuition and other fee paying classes “ attach PPD ‘s reply “ 1. Segala aktiviti yang berkaitan dengan kutipan dan pembayaran kelas tambahan sekolah perlu mandat dari ibubapa melalui mesyuarat Agong 2015 (semasa) dan mendapat persetujuan Guru Besar."

The rational of this requirement is simple- Fully aided SJKC schools such as LH is supposed to be “ free” since the teachers , administrative and support staff (cleaners, guards etc)  are fully paid by the government and the school receives a capital grant (per pupil of around RM125 a year) to cover the operating expenses. If a school requires additional funds from parents , it is only natural that parents must give their consent for any fund raising activities.

                           A BRIEF HISTORY OF PAST USUL-USUL
1.     Lack of financial transparency  in PIBG accounts –This has been by far the most contentious issue/ dispute in the past  PIBG meetings .  Unfortunately , AGM is the only venue where you can raise this issue, so the only way for members to ask financial questions  is during AGM. Please attend and ask the questions you have been dying to ask !!
2.     Why is there no water dispenser for children? -This topic had been raised on many occasions since 2012, unfortunately since this solely  relates to children welfare , it has been very difficult to obtain unanimous approval from the school administrator . During 2014, YDP did extensive research and  obtained vendors to quote on the supply of 5 water dispensers  at the rate of 130 per unit per month, inclusive of maintenance and parts ( the dispenser can provide 44L per hour or around 200 L for 5 units ) but it ran into opposition because some teachers felt it was not the function of the school to provide drinking water for the children and  the inability of the AJK to allocate funding .
By way of further information, the water filtration system for the staff room is paid by PIBG and  teachers’ children have access to the water source.  
3.     Why can’t we provide air-conditioning for afternoon tuition classes?
Existing infrastructure cannot support the load of the additional power consumption. Some Teachers also commented it is not necessary as the cooler environment may cause the children to snooze in class!!
4.     Why are the school bags so heavy? –This has been an on –going issue partly contributed by additional books for tuition classes as well as lack of planning and coordination of  teachers and school administrators on what to bring to school. Anyway , this has been partly resolved now that it is a single session school where children can leave part of the books in class  even though it is not very secure .
5.     Why are the toilets so poorly maintained? –poor flushing system, the  need to educate on toilet etiquettes, more inspection, cleaning  and supervision.
6.     The canteen food is greasy and unhealthy, too much junk food, cases of food poisoning  –parents need to constantly check on the quality of food and provide “FEEDBACK”
7.     Poor traffic management –Volunteers needed to help with the traffic flow . In 2013 , PIBG started to employ Rela but it was strongly opposed by teachers AJK because it cost too much and it affected/duplicated  the performance of the guards employed by the school.
8.     Poor ground and building maintenance –This is the function of the Board of Governors but PIBG do from time to time raise funds for BOG . Recently there were accidents involving children falling on sharp and uneven surfaces and thus suffering cuts and bruises. During the first few days of school, several classes had power cut. Parents have also complained of broken doors, light  fittings and fans in poor condition and the list goes on ….


Next Episode- Activities undertaken by Parents


Parents Academic Research Team

Tuesday 3 March 2015

2016 New Students Registration

Registration for new students:

2016  Standard one

Time: 8:30am -12:30pm (Monday to Friday)
Place : Bilik Sains (Block A)


School Address:
Jalan SS19/6
47600 Subang Jaya,
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Tel: 03 56351333


Document required: (please refer to MOE web  http://apps.moe.gov.my/esppsel/ )
2015 document requirements


Duration for registration: from 1 March - 31 March every year. (please call school to confirm hours during school holiday from March 14-22)  Results will be out in August.


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We had a seminar for std one students in 2015: 
here is the link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/254755982/Ken-LH-New-Parents-Guide-PPT-R1

The materials are prepared by  group of parents:
Ken Khoo (2014/15 PIBG Chairman), Ken Choo, Sydney Mak . Ellen Chong ,Dr Yew Mee Ong 
Janet Tan, Tiew Guan Huat, Tan Huey Huey, Josephine Ng , Wong, Apple Yew          

(Some of the information in the parent-guide R1 maybe outdated, use with discretion)