Learning is more than passing exams with flying colours, says Deputy Education Minister Datuk Chong Sin Wòon. 

MANY parents went on radio talkshows last week, heaving a sigh of relief.

One of the reasons is that their Chinese primary school-going children will not be bogged down by workbooks when school opens in January next year.

The Education Ministry has ordered that schools can only use the stipulated list of books by the ministry.

Lugging heavy school bags stuffed with workbooks decided by their respective school has been a long-standing issue.

Each bag weighs an average of 6kg-8kg. Some health experts said a child should not carry a bag that is more than 10% of their weight.

Stories of children struggling to complete the exercises in the workbooks are just too common.

Parents are in a dilemma though they have been made to believe that “the more workbooks, the better for their children”.

The business of churning out workbooks for Chinese primary schools is estimated to be worth some RM100mil a year, with parents having to fork out an average of RM200 per child for the workbooks.

But all this is history.

Deputy Education Minister Datuk Chong Sin Woon says education must evolve with development and that the days of racing to do exercises in workbooks in order to score in exams is over.

“Parents and teachers should spend more time to interact with the children; make learning enjoyable, reading together and story telling.

“Struggling to complete workbook after workbook is not the right way,” he said in no uncertain terms.

Known to say what he means, and means what he says, Chong points out that rote learning is a thing of the past.

He notes that transformation in education is no longer an option in this increasingly competitive and borderless landscape.

He is happy that parents and the general public have responded well to the “heavy school bag” solution.

A good education, he adds, is among the basic needs of the people.

He also lists cost of living, house ownership, public transportation and national security as areas of concern to the people, and that these matters are being addressed by the Government in stages.

While there are unresolved issues or controversies, he hopes the people can give recognition when recognition is due, and also give their support to efforts which can make life better for them.

Citing examples, he says better connectivity via a good public transportation system like the MRT, LRT and house ownership are set to complement each other.

“People can stay in Nilai (Seremban) and work in KL using public transportation. This gives us a choice of where to stay or bring up our family. Cost of living and property prices are certainly higher in the big cities,” he says.

On national security, Chong says the threats by extremists are real, and he credits the police for their vigilance and doing a good job.

While it cannot be denied that GST (Goods and Services Tax) has added to the cost of living in some ways, he says the revenue has enabled the Government to take care of the B40, referring to the bottom 40% of the households with monthly income of RM3,900 and below.

Households with less than RM3,000 monthly income gets RM1,200 a year under the Government’s Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia or BRIM starting this year.

BRIM started in 2012 and the payout was RM500 then before it was increased in stages over the years.

“This is a social safety net,” Chong says, pointing out that it means a lot to people who struggle to put food on the table.

- The Star -