SARAWAK TEACHERS' UNION KUCHING BRANCH

THE LINK

                

     4/97              FOR MEMBERS ONLY               August/September

FROM THE EDITOR

Schools in Malaysia seem to be examination-oriented as a series of examinations are held for primary school and secondary school students. Primary school students have to sit for PTS (Penilaian Tahap Satu) and UPSR (Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah) whereas the secondary students have to sit for the PMR (Penilaian Menengah Rendah), SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia)and STPM (Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia). Because of these examinations, teachers tend to emphasize more on the importance of passing the examinations rather than the need to impart knowledge and technical know-how to students.

Are these exam-oriented students capable of coping with the challenges of the 21st century which seems to be more information technology oriented?

The Deputy Minister of Education Malaysia, Dato Dr Fong Chin Onn has said that the government will not abolish the public examinations after the launching of smart schools which encourage the students to progress with their studies based on their own pace of learning. The students' progress and achievement will be supervised and assessed by the schools through the use of computers. The Education Ministry expected that there would be 90 smart schools in the nation in 1999 and by the year 2010 all primary and secondary schools would become smart schools.

Since quite a number of schools in Sarawak neither have electricity supply nor computers, are the schools and teachers here ready to implement the concept of smart schools?

The STU Kuching Branch has already initiated two computer programmes, i.e. a Computer Word Processing class and two seminars regarding the Internet & World Wide Web for its members. However, more effort has to be taken if we want some more of our members to be computer and internet literate because the number of participants is still very small taking into concern the number of members STU Kuching Branch has. Towards this end, STU Kuching Branch sincerely requests more participation from members in its activities. It also invites members to forward ideas for future programmes.

By K.C.Chai

**EDITORIAL BOARD**
Advisors: Tay Jik Kaw Ong Kheng Syn BBS Editor: Chai Kian Chun Sub-editor: Mary Ting Co-ordinator: Richard Liaw Homepage: http://stu.cdc.net.my Email: stukg@po.jaring.my