‘Ministry not ending streaming soon’
PONTIAN: The Education Ministry is not rushing to end the streaming of subjects for Form Four students next year until consultation with stakeholders and a proper review of the proposal are conducted, said Dr Maszlee Malik (pic).
The Education Minister said an official announcement on the matter would be made in due course.
“The ministry is not in a hurry as we are reviewing all aspects of the matter,” he told the media after officiating the Jom Sekolah 2020 programme at SMK Teluk Kerang here yesterday.
He said that what he had mentioned during a working visit in Germany recently was not a policy announcement but an intention to ensure that students were not burdened by streaming in the future.
“However, from reports, it seemed like the ministry already announced it as a policy.
“We will only make the necessary announcement when the time is right,” he added.
The Simpang Renggam MP said the ministry was accepting input from stakeholders to improve the present education system including to end streaming, a move that is part of a report made by the policy study committee set up by the Cabinet as directed by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
“The current global education trend is geared towards cross-streaming education because in 10 to 30 years, there will be many cross-streaming jobs.
“For example, agro-technology will require farmers to be tech-savvy or use robotics, requiring digital literacy,” he said.
In the last five years, said Maszlee, few students qualified for the science stream, though some showed interest in biology.
“We are going to allow students from the arts stream to take subjects under the science stream and we know there are science students who are good at arts but our present system does not allow that.
“Cross-streaming is the way of the future; whether we want it or not, we must be prepared for it,” he added.
Earlier this month, Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching told a vernacular daily that Form Four students would no longer be separated into science and art streams from 2020.
“The schools will arrange these classes based on the subjects chosen by the students,” she reportedly said.
Maszlee elaborated on the pioneering move when he was addressing a meet-and-greet session with the Malaysian community in Frankfurt.
During the event on Oct 14, the minister said he would push for the end of streaming next year after the students got their Form Three Assessment (PT3) results.
The video recording of his speech was widely shared online.
Maszlee also noted then that although his officer was saying that the move could not be executed on time, he was pushing for the ministry to start next year.
Source: TheStar
