Sunday, October 19, 2008

Why not incorporate Sejarah in the teaching of other subjects ?

Our Malaysian curriculum has good and extensive contents for most of the subjects and we are already tight with the time factor. Why is there this newly announced introduction of Sejarah as an additional subject in Primary Schools? The number of periods in school per week is fixed and we cannot possibly increase the number of periods to accommodate another new subject like Sejarah . Sivik and Kenegaraan at Standard 4 to 6 is already a new subject at the sacrifice of the other subjects.

There is already the thought of implementing school based assessment in primary schools soon to lessen the stress on our younger generation . So why pressurise young children at their tender age to study an additional subject and therefore an additional responsiblility to the new subject? Young children should perceive their early years of education as meaningful and enjoyable. If we keep on increasing the number of subjects , we are actually moving towards a state of no cognitive focus ! Let us have a generation of pupils with good basic foundation for the numerous subjects which are being taught now.

This does not mean that we are not teaching Sejarah to our young children. We can identify the keypoints in Sejarah and then to incorporate them across the curricular subjects. This approach has been very effective when we incorporate Science and Mathematics in the teaching of English ! The pupils learn English with the contents from Science and Mathematics. Similarly, we can incorporate Sejarah in the teaching of subjects like Sivik and Kenegaraan, Bahasa Inggeris , Bahasa Malaysia , Pendidikan Moral and all the rest.

This move will certainly meet the needs of everyone. The happy faces of the young children must be ensured for better success !

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