City Report and Action Plan

Kuantan

Mr. Saudi Lakim
Headmaster of the School, St. Thomas Primary School,
District Education of Kuantan
State Education
Malaysia

CITY REPORT

Education System

Education is free and compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 16, and an additional two years of free education are optional. Parents may choose between Bahasa Melayu, Chinese, or Tamil as the language of instruction for their primary-school children. Bahasa Melayu is the primary language of instruction in all secondary schools, although continued learning in Chinese and Tamil is available and English is a compulsory second language.

Compulsory education at the primary level is a law that requires parents, as citizens of Malaysia and residing in Malaysia, to register their children at primary schools upon reaching the age of six years on the first day of the current school year.

The financing of all schools in Malaysia is by the Federal Government through the Ministry of Education.

Current States and Challenges

The National Education Program (NEP) has been geared towards achieving the nation's vision to prepare children to become knowledgeable, trained and skilled individuals to meet the growing needs of the millennium. It is envisaged that this can be achieved by emphasizing science and technology, use of information technology, and inculcating good moral and work ethics suitable for the Information Age. The school curriculum is designed to achieve the intended learning outcomes for different ability levels.

The underlying theoretical principle of national curriculum formulation is that of general education, using an integrated approach in curriculum planning. The curriculum comprises content and skills, with emphasis on the development of basic skills, the acquisition of knowledge and thinking skills. Each subject must also incorporate the inculcation of moral values and attitudes and the correct use of Malay and other languages, such as English, Chinese and Tamil. The integrated approach is the main focus in the design of the Integrated Curriculum for Primary School and Integrated Curriculum for Secondary School. The elements of knowledge, skills and values are incorporated so as to bring the integrated development of the intellectual, spiritual, emotional and physical aspects of the individual.

All students must have text books that are selected by the Text Book Division of the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education of Malaysia has a scheme to help the students from lower income group of less than RM2000 a month. The textbook loan scheme lending text and activity books, providing that they are returned in good condition by the end of the year have been implemented.

At the age of 12, the students have to sit for the Assessment for Primary Schools which is a standardized test set by the Examination Unit. The performance of schools or districts is judged by the percentage of students acquiring at least the minimum grade 'C' in 5 (National schools) / 7 (National-Type schools) subjects.

We are adopting the concept of collaboration, participation & ownership in achieving our goal where all parties involved in the school; parents, teachers, local society, government agencies and non-government agencies inclusive of members of corporate/corporations collaborate, participate and claim ownership to produce excellent output of all students in all fields, irrespective of social status.

Problems and constraints (in terms of budgetary, personnel and financial resources as well as administrative procedures and political commitment):

• We cannot get 100 percent genuine data on the parents' income, especially those without pay slip. They manipulate their income in order to get aid.
• We do not have full time teachers to monitor their attendance during the extra classes for tuition and do the diagnosis of their academic development.

Some challenges and lessons learnt include the fact that some parents do not play their parts in their children's education and solely rely on the schools and teachers. The total number of the age group between 0-14 years old is project to decrease by year 2010 to 113,146 people if compared to 126,150 people in year 2000. This is due to the declining fertility rate.

ACTION PLAN

Goals

• To produce excellence in individuals by acquiring all knowledge, ambitions, high moral standards and competence.
• To maximize integrated and effective use of sources
• To synchronize all actions at all level of educational organizations, community heads, NGOs, collaboratively, participatively and consistently

Objective

1. To increase enrollment to 100 percent
2. To ensure the poor get all the necessary aids provided by the government
3. To ensure excellent curriculum and co-curriculum
4. To ensure effective and conducive school environment
5. To improve teaching technique

General Strategies

1. Target Setting
2. Take-off Value (TOV)
3. Problem Solving
   Identify the problem through diagnosis of data.

e.g) Knowledge Management

Monitoring and Evaluation

Monitoring

Check with the list

Confirmation of registration
--> Tally with the enrollment
     If not tally, contact the parents by telephone, letters or eventually visit them.
--> To find the problem
--> Issue the course letter why action could not be taken to them
--> Finally find the answer.

Evaluations: Set up "Complaint Box."

Committee Member of Aid Allocation at School Level

1. Headmaster (Chairman)
2. Senior Assistant of Student Affairs (Vice Chairman)
3. Counselor-teacher (Secretary)
4. Members
   1) Student Affair Teachers
   2) Member of Parent-Teacher Association of the school