Alarm bells as number of science pupils skydive

first published The Malaysian Insight 

https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/219585

Alarm bells as number of science pupils skydive

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 Sheridan Mahavera Updated 3 days ago · Published on 17 Feb 2020 7:00AM · 1 Comments

 

THIS year, Malaysia is supposed to have a million scientists, researchers and technicians, according to the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM).
But the reality is that the target won’t be met because, since 2012, the number of pupils taking up science subjects has declined by about 6,000 per year.

Pakatan Harapan and Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is acting education minister, want to arrest this decline and increase the ratio of science to arts pupils by 60:40.

This target is not new, educationists, former teachers and academics told The Malaysian Insight, as the former Barisan Nasional government had poured vast resources and effort into achieving the ratio.

“Despite conscious efforts to promote the study of science and technology, only 29% of pupils entering form four opt to study science, and only 40% of those entering tertiary education opt for science and related programmes,” the ASM said in its 2015 science outlook.

For PH to do better than BN, it needs to realise how well-meaning policies have been undermined.

One reason is that school administrators and district education officers are more interested in keeping up the appearance of good exam results, said one former teacher from Selangor.

“Pupils whose grades were not up to mark were dissuaded from going into the science stream or taking up science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects because if they failed, they would bring down the school’s overall grades,” said the teacher, who requested anonymity.

ASM said ad hoc changes in policies also affected pupils’ performance and interest levels.

“When the language of instruction for science and mathematics in schools was changed from Bahasa Malaysia to English in 2003, the performance of Malaysian pupils in these two subjects dropped in both international and local assessments.”

ASM also said the way STEM subjects are taught in schools make them look irrelevant or impractical to daily life.

“It was found that the teaching and learning process did not contribute to the development of higher-order thinking skills or critical and analytical thinking skills, hence failing to inculcate science process and manipulative skills,” it said.

“This could also mean an absence of interaction outside of the classroom, with no practical value or application of the theory taught.”

Also, parents’ expectations towards their children’s school performance and the prospects of science-based careers have changed, said STEM educator Ramesh Pillai.

“Parents are telling their children that if certain subjects are too hard, then it’s best not to bother with them,” said Ramesh, who runs a non-profit STEM promotion centre called STEM4ALL Makerspace.

“But is this the correct attitude to have? Because your mind gets sharper by pushing it and STEM teaches you to be analytical and to solve problems.”
 

Don’t do things the hard way 
The 60:40 science to arts proportion was created in 1986 as part of the government’s long-term plans to create more professionals to turn Malaysia into an industrialised nation.

In 1989, science was made a compulsory subject from standard one and government scholarships were awarded for secondary school pupils to pursue degrees overseas and in public universities.

Yet by 2017, data from the Education Ministry showed less than half of form four pupils enter the science or technical, vocational and technical stream.

“STEM stream enrolment has been declining from 48.15% in 2012 to 45.74% in 2017,” the ASM said in its 2017 outlook.

“This is despite efforts to introduce new learning approaches and an enhanced curriculum to sharpen the skills and abilities of teachers.”

On the ground, school principals and senior teachers are also under pressure by district education officers to produce good exam results, the former teacher said.

“Since subjects, such as chemistry, biology and additional mathematics, are ‘hard’, pupils were discouraged to take them because bad grades would pull down the school’s overall performance.

“Also, it was becoming harder to find teachers competent enough to teach these challenging subjects,” said the ex-educator.

Ramesh, meanwhile, said good teachers are often transferred out of their schools and placed in the district education office (PPD).

“PPDs act like ‘little Napoleons’ and are often obstacles for schools and principals who want to try creative ways to increase STEM enrolment,” said Ramesh, who had headed a parent-teacher group in Cheras.

But the shifting attitudes of parents towards science-based careers for their children have helped the decline and seen more pupils joining the arts and business streams, said Ramesh.

“Now, there are more choices in terms of what subjects you can take. There are subjects like accounts, economics and entrepreneurship. These subjects are seen as more practical rather than slogging through chemistry.” – February 17, 2020.

Assistants, more lab work to revive interest in science

First published: The Malaysian Insight 

https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/219624

Sheridan Mahavera Updated 3 days ago · Published on 17 Feb 2020 

ASSISTANTS for science teachers and reviving laboratory work are among some of the ways that the new education minister must explore to spur interest in science and maths among schoolchildren.

The administration also needs to increase the number of competent science and maths teachers to arrest the nationwide decline in pupils taking up science, technology, engineering and maths subjects.

Educationists and academics added that a greater awareness of the benefits of STEM and TVET-based education needs to be promoted among parents and pupils so that they see a future in pursuing this stream.

These proposals are among those shared with the administration as it tries to arrest the decline of pupils pursuing the science stream, which now stands at about 6,000 a year.

The decline has occurred despite the vast resources and efforts by the former Barisan Nasional government over the past 30 years to reach the 60:40 science to arts pupil ratio in schools.

“Much of the improvements we can make are about human resources and human capital. Like how to upgrade teacher competency and helping them impart lessons better in class,” said STEM educator Ramesh Pillai.

“Because teachers can make or break a student. If they don’t teach their subjects well, no one in the class will be interested in learning them,” said Ramesh who runs non-profit STEM learning centre, STEM4All Makerspace.

Ramesh told The Malaysian Insight that it was not even a question of funding as previous administrations have spent hundreds of millions to push STEM in schools.

For instance in 2017, the government spent RM570 million to repair 120 schools and to upgrade 1,800 science laboratories, according to the 2017 science outlook published by the Academy of Sciences.

“The money is there but if you don’t spend it right, in the right areas, then it goes to waste.”

Extra skills 

Acting Education Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he wants more time in schools to be spent on STEM subjects and English as too much time is being allocated to religious classes.

Experts told The Malaysian Insight that the low enrolment in STEM is because of several inter-related reasons, including:
* School principals and teachers who dissuade pupils from taking up science and additional maths for fear that bad grades will pull down the school’s overall exam scores.
* Parents who also want their children to take “easier” subjects so as to improve their chances of getting as many As, thus increasing their chances of getting scholarships.

Ramesh admits that science and additional maths can be challenging to teach and that they require truly competent teachers.

“Besides making sure teachers are competent, they should be given assistants in class to help with paperwork. These assistants could be trainee teachers,” said Ramesh.

“This will free up the actual teachers to teach and coach pupils because science subjects are hard.”

Another idea is to bring back more lab work for science pupils so that they get a hands-on experience to apply what they learned, said academic Prof Dr Halimaton Hamdan of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

Starting in the early 2000s, science subjects that were once taught in laboratories, such as chemistry and physics, were moved out to regular classrooms, said Halimaton one of the researchers who authored the ASM in 2017 science outlook.

“So pupils and teachers would learn science through the textbook instead of practising the theories in a lab,” she said.

Parents must also be confident in their children’s interest in a science-based career and its benefits, said Ramesh.

“It isn’t just about whether your child was to be an engineer or a doctor. Other science careers pay well and you can branch out to many specialties.”

The rigorous training that science subjects require will also make pupils better analysts and problem-solvers, which are critical skills in the workplace.

“Even if you have a science degree, you can still go into business. But unlike your typical business graduate, you will be a businessperson with extra skills and knowledge.” – February 17, 2020.

One year later, GST successful but still unpopular

First published 14 March 2016 in the now defunct Malaysian Insider

BY SHERIDAN MAHAVERA

The goods and services tax (GST) has been as successful as it is unpopular, say analysts, nearly a year after the consumption tax’s introduction.

But at its core, the tax is also about the nation’s priorities – whether it cares more about foreign investors or its most vulnerable people.

It is successful, say analysts, because it is a much more stable source of revenue for the government given the collapse of oil prices.

The first nine months of GST gave Putrajaya RM27 billion, said Customs Department deputy director Datuk Subromaniam Tholasy. For the full 12 months, it is expected to yield RM36 billion in revenue.

Next year, the GST was expected to contribute RM39 billion to the government, said Subromaniam.

The GST has also forced businesses which have avoided paying taxes to register themselves.

The tax is still unpopular as seen in the constant brickbats hurled at ministers who defend it and how the poor and vulnerable are now made to also pay taxes.

This was why the tax was more than just about government revenue, said Institut Rakyat’s Ginie Lim.

The tax was pushed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and adopting it improved the country’s international credit ratings.

A country’s credit rating determined whether a country could access global banks which loaned to governments, said Lim, who is the think-tank’s assistant research director.

“So by having GST the government seems more interested in pleasing the lenders instead of focusing on socio-economic justice, such as helping the poor and vulnerable, who have trouble coping with this extra tax burden,” she said.

Benefits

One reason the tax is popular with international investors is that it is a transparent system compared with income and corporate tax regimes, says Alan Chung of tax consulting firm Grant Thorton.

Multinational corporations today considered corporate tax as an additional cost to their operations when deciding where to invest and open a branch, said Chung, who is Grant Thorton executive director.

“Moving from a focus on corporate tax to a broad-based consumption tax makes the country more attractive,” Chung told The Malaysian Insider.

“Investors also like countries with cleaner and more transparent tax systems,” he said, as they want certainty and no hidden taxes.

Recent government data, said another Grant Thorton senior official Lorraine Parkin, showed that foreign direct investment in 2015 remained robust.

“Research by the IMF indicates that a country which moves towards a GST or consumption tax regime, it drives growth for that country,” said Parkin, who is Grant Thorton indirect tax division chief for Asia-Pacific.

GST also forced companies avoiding paying taxes on their earnings, or known as the “hidden market”, to register with Putrajaya and this added another source of income, said Chung.

Subromaniam said in the past year, about 300,000 companies which had never filed taxes registered with Putrajaya.

The GST’s efficiency is another reason it is popular with governments. Instead of using huge resources going out to collect taxes from the public, the task was passed on to businesses, said Chung.

“Which is why the government spends less money collecting RM1 in GST compared with collecting RM1 in income tax,” said Chung.

Costs   

The flip side was that the GST was an admission that the government has failed to make income tax collection more efficient, said Lim.

“It also reflects a failure to manage the country’s finances during the good times as seen in the wastage in the auditor-general’s reports.”

Institut Rakyat’s research into the impact of GST throughout the past year challenges Putrajaya’s oft-repeated mantra that the tax would not burden the poor because items, such as food, were zero-rated.

Statistics Department data showed that the inflation rate for those earning below RM3,000 a month was higher than the national average, said Lim.

In August last year, the inflation rate for those earning below RM3,000 a month was 3.2% compared with the national rate of 3.1%. In January, it was 3.6% for the under-RM3,000 and 3.5% nationally.

“The GST, along with the drop in the ringgit and profiteering, has contributed to a rise in the cost of living,” said Lim.

The impact on the working class could be due to the fact that the small businesses from where they tended to shop have had to increase prices because they themselves were being charged GST.

“But these small businesses don’t make enough in annual turnover to claim the tax back from the government. So they get taxed by their bigger suppliers, who can claim GST refunds from the government but they can’t pass on the tax to consumers.”

As consumers struggle with this new tax, their confidence to spend decreases and this starts a vicious cycle.

“Consumers spend less, so businesses get less income. Businesses are forced to cut back on expansion and this leads to their workers not getting salary raises, which also makes them spend less,” said Lim.

So while Putrajaya may achieve its aim of creating another source of revenue through the GST, the tax is dampening another goal – to make private consumption a big driver of the economy.

All of this could have been avoided had the government been prudent in the first place, said Lim.

“The question is if the government had improved income tax collection and had practised good governance in the past, would we need the GST?” – March 14, 2016.