LINUS Way To Promote BM and Maths??

Ian told me last Friday while on the way back after school that he and all his classmates had to take turn and go one at a time to his BM teacher's office to read a short passage in BM. Prior to that, they had to sit for an essay paper which my boy told me he did not know how to do most of the questions. There was a question with a picture of a boy and a plate of fish and he wrote, "Dia makan ikan". He told me in an upset tone,"There was still few empty lines which I don't know what to write worr, mommy". Hmmm..I first thought it was just an informal test to test their BM level as they will not have their Penulisan exam until 2nd term.

I read a discussion on FB today and some of the mothers lamented that apart from reading passages in BM, their kids were made to answer some difficult questions to test their level of understanding in line of the MOE's implementation of LINUS programme starting this year.

I didn't know a bit about this LINUS programme nor did I get any information from the school. It was published in major newspapers but god knows for how long I have not been reading papers. Hahaha... Call me a busy or lazy mama..

My boy can read quite well in both English and BM but I don't think he understands most of the words especially BM where he is weaker. He had learned phonic sounds in English and suku kata in BM while in kindie and it wasn't surprising he knows how to read . His BM vocabulary is very limited and there are still plenty of room for improvement. It freaks me out everytime when I read from other blogger mommies that their kids did not do well in their penulisan (essay) part in BM. Luckily, primary one need not sit for penulisan this term and I still have time to prepare him for his 2nd term which is two months away. Stress... stress.... stress....

Below are the extracts on LINUS programme from The Star Online dated 29 Jan 2010.

ALL Malaysian children without learning disabilities should be able to read and write Bahasa Malaysia, and do basic mathematics by Year Four.

To achieve this ambitious target, the Education Ministry has developed the Literacy and Numeracy (LINUS) programme.

Beginning this year, all Year One pupils will be screened three times a year – in March, June and September – to identify those who do not meet the required reading, writing and counting standards.

Those found to be lacking will be placed in the LINUS programme, or into a special education programme if they have a learning disability.

While the LINUS remedial modules for Year One have been completed, those for Years Two and Three are currently being developed.

According to the GTP Roadmap, close to 17,000 teachers are to be trained to deliver the LINUS modules in a four-month period beginning last November.

These teachers will also be assisted by expert facilitators who are experienced teachers attached to district education departments.

The facilitators will also help tailor strategies to address each institution’s specific literacy and numeracy issues.

In addition, the lowest performing 10% of schools will receive intensive monitoring and supervision by the state and district education departments, the School Inspectorate and the ministry’s Quality Assurance division.

Reports on the results of this monitoring are expected to be produced twice this year to track the progress of children in the programme.

According to the Roadmap, fewer than 30 countries have a 100% literacy rate% but the target was critical as the lack of these skills contributes to the early drop-out of students as failure is “cumulative”.

And below are extracts from The Star Online today after the LINUS test being conducted on Year One pupils:

Sin Chew reported that many Year One pupils in Chinese primary schools performed poorly in the newly-introduced Bahasa Malaysia test under Literacy and Numeracy programme (Linus).

Some even cried because they failed to answer difficult questions in the paper.

All Chinese and Tamil primary school pupils took the same test together with primary school (SK) students.

A parent complained the test, set for Year One pupils after two months in school, was too tough.

“This could have killed a pupil’s interest in studies,” said the parent.