Magpie concerned over move to end streaming

PETALING JAYA: Abolishing the science and arts streams for upper secondary students is a good move but the Education Ministry has to make sure it is fully ready to roll out the plan to avoid problems when implementing it.

Melaka Action Group for Parents in Education (Magpie) chairman Mak Chee Kin said there were concerns about the sudden announcement with implementation to begin next year.

“As it is, many affected teachers, parents and students are very worried about this sudden move because there is no concrete information so far,” he said.

Mak was commenting on Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik’s announcement that starting next year, science and philosophy students can take subjects according to their preference for Form Four.

He was reported to have said that the current basis for a student to enter a particular stream was flawed.

Mak pointed out that next year would also see the start of the new Form Four curriculum – Secondary School Standards-Based Curriculum – and this latest announcement caused stakeholders to feel even more stressed.

He also questioned whether there would still be compulsory subjects and if there were any limitation or fixed combination of subjects that could be taken.

Mak also wanted to know what would happen if there were insufficient teachers for a certain subject.

“Will non-option teachers be made to teach?” he asked.

Educationist Datuk N. Siva Subramaniam said it was a good move to abolish the streaming process.

“Students can choose what they want to study based on the subjects they are good at,” he said.

He also said this would reduce parents’ headache when they want to change their child’s chosen subject stream.

Changing streams could only happen if the school head agreed to it, he said, adding that there were requests to change from science to arts, and vice versa.

Last Friday, it was reported that Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching said 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 said.

Subjects would be chosen based on advice from school counsellors and the Form Three Assessment (PT3) results, added the Kulai MP.

The efforts to abolish these streams are part of the government’s effort to further improve Malaysia’s education system.