My kid is still a toddler and already we’ve been asked this question so many times that we are forced to think about it. Of course, a lot of people have been ‘advising’ us that Chinese school is the better option since my son will be able to learn to read and write Mandarin, unlike his ‘banana’ (yellow on the outside but white on the inside – term used to describe Chinese who is proficient in English but not Chinese) parents.
Even before he was born, I was so certain that I’d want my children to study in Chinese school for the sake of the extra language and also due to my own experiences of being called banana one time too many. Besides, it is darn humiliating to go all blank and blurry eyed when somebody come up to me and start blabbering full speed in Mandarin and I’d struggle to make sense of whatever that person said.
However…I am not so sure now.
Education is all about learning and becoming wiser and gaining knowledge. And from all those horror stories I’ve heard about some of the Chinese schools here, learning, wisdom and knowledge is far from the main priority there. It is all about strict discipline and homework, homework, homework and more homework. Any studying that is done is all about memorising and regurgitating what you’ve memorised.
The only thinking allowed is when you are forced to do millions of math problems. Every single day.
Now, I am not against strict discipline. It is good but not to the extent of beating the student because the student could not understand something and had dared to ask a question. Now, that is not discipline. That is discouraging the student from learning through inquisitiveness.
Also, discipline is not about beating the student for not being able to do his homework because he did not understand it.
It is not about forcing a student to stand outside the class for not being able to answer a question correctly in class.
Discipline is needed only when the students misbehave, like placing a live snake on the teacher’s chair or throwing tables at the teacher. Or puncturing the tyres of the teacher’s car. Or fighting in class.
Also, don’t forget the tonnes and tonnes of homework they like to heap onto their students every day. To the point that young Std One kids need to take tuition classes just to complete their homework.
Shouldn’t learning be made fun instead of a tiring chore to finish day in day out? And how could homework be construed as real learning when all it ever does is to force the students to memorise everything he wrote.
Now, I am not saying all Chinese schools are like this. Only some are like this but it is enough to cast doubts in my mind about the way they teach in these schools, although the Kebangsaan schools are not much better…
I guess it all boils down to our poor education system. It has way too much memorising and “A is for Apple because I said so and don’t ask me why!” sorta way of teaching subjects. All subjects. It is all about being spoon-fed and told the facts that we should memorise. No questions asked, no opinion wanted.
Which I think is highly flawed as we should be taught to form our own opinions and voice out, to question and really learn, to think outside of the box and be creative, to break out and be our own person instead of a monotonous robot they are trying to mould all of us into.
I guess, they must be too afraid of having too many Malaysians, especially young ones, who could formulate their own opinions, think of solutions, question injustices and strike out on their own because it could mean a future full of Malaysians who knows what to do with liars, fakes, cheaters and parasites who tries to be funny with them.
Yep, it is definitely safer to bring up generations of spoon fed Malaysians, bred and taught to listen and obey to their elders no matter what. Too bad, the widening of knowledge through other mediums are slowly changing their spoon fed, complacent mentality.
Hmm..so, should I send him to Chinese school or Kebangsaan school?
Sigh, I guess the other option is private schools like Sri Cempaka. They’re quite progressive, using laptops in classes. But I guess way expensive. Or international schools like Alice Smith, which is even MORE expensive.
I have some more examples for you…
A child forgets to bring his workbook, he suggests doing his work on a piece of paper but he is punished anyway.
A child is told to colour a car yellow. He colours the wheels black. He gets a wrong. He was supposed to colour yellow!
Children are required to copy pages and pages from their textbooks as homework.
Kids “memorise” their essays and karangan word for word.
A Std One girl was crying outside of the school gates afraid to go in because she had not completed her homework. Other parents had to encourage her and tell her “Don’t worry, still got time to do. Still got time!”
A child was sick and skipped school for several days. His homework had accumulated so much that his mother had to do complete it for him.
Oh and this one I saw when I was at a Chinese school while searching for a school for my child.
4 teachers were standing around a little girl of about 8-9. One of the teachers was carrying a cane. The little girl was crying “I didn’t do it! I didn’t do it!” Well, I don’t know if she did it or what it was that she did, but the teachers looked awfully intimidating to me. If I was the girl, I would have admitted to my crime even if I didn’t do it.
I’m not against Chinese schools at all, and I think discipline is good but definitely not rote learning and drilling altho that everyone keeps on telling me that that is the only way to learn Chinese and achieve excellence. I am told that by the time the child reaches Std 3 onwards, PE and Art classes are replaced by academic classes.
All this worries me but stories on the other side are no better either… bullying in school, teachers going on endless ceramahs and hardly in class, marking correct for obviously wrong answers etc….
So which do you choose? The devil or the deep blue sea?
Sorry so long comment. But this subject is close to my heart because I have a 2 week deadline to decide. lol.
Unfortunately chinese schools are the only choice unless you can afford private or if you are married to a foreigner. BUt it seem you made your choice, but just don’t want your kids growing up to be robots. Well I guess that part we will have to manage at home.
I send mine to Chinese School not because of the language but because of quality … they are more discipline and able to have lively & thoughtout discussion
aw: Too bad, I don’t print money lor…so private or international school is out!
mumsgather: sigh…aren’t we all in the same dilemma? We don’t have much of a choice. It is either the devil or the deep blue sea. No third option. (unless we are rich la, then can escape to private schools but then hor, we will have problem of our children growing up too stuck up from mixing with too many rich kids…) Good luck with your decision making.
ducky: robots is one thing, mentality is another thing. And it is often the people they meet outside that influences them most especially in school during their teenage years.
hamzah: maybe u are lucky to find a good one. You’d be horrified to hear the horror stories I hear about certain chinese schools, like the one mumsgather related above.
Foong, if like me you sent your kid/s to SK type school then you can ‘enjoy life’ like me lor ….
* kids no need tuition( ok ok maybe minimum) , so save money and mommy don’t have to driver here and there so got more time to lepak, go gym, shopping, sleeping etc…..
* no need to give ‘big big’ donations to school, save money some more.No/minimum fund raising activities.
* kids got minimum homework so mommy no need to ‘help out’ in this area sampai midnight
* kids get to mix with others from different race.Grow up less racist and know that other races also got smart kids not Chinese only are smart smart.
* save money already and kids also got more time so can send them to music classes or other activities which are fun and not academic type only.
My friend very beh tahan … they say I so free one, can go here and there anytime. I tell them it’s because my kid in sekolah kebangsaan mah!My 2 elder children ‘graduated’ from SK one …. now working already and doing well also.Now I have only 1 kid studying in SK (secondary).
PS: My kids are bananas but they can speak good English and are not so stressed. Of course I have been questioned by relatives and friends about my choice (btw my husband from Chinese school one).They say, then how to do business with China?? etc… I tell them … “Hello? China people are learning English what!And if everyone want to do business with China then better for my kids because more share in the English speaking market.” Make sense or not?? Anyway, me and my kids not too keen to do business with China people lar.
Another thing/think ….. when go to college/university what is the medium of instructions there?? Not Mandarin right?So how kids going to cope with the sudden change?College/university got tuition or not?? So how kids going to cope when they have to study on their own??
So, some more with all the horror (and true) stories around, you still want to send your kid to be ‘slaughtered’? Yam koong lor!! Later have to spend more money on therapy.
Momo: “have to spend more money on therapy” LOL. That’s funny. I guess I could always enrol him in chinese classes if there’s any need in future.
Hi Foonf, I hav the same problem like you and just wish to share my experience with u. I graduated from SJK Cina..then entered private secondary school which I really experienced “Freedom” school life which you never see in ay govt school. I hv a daugther and she speaks only English, so I decided to send her to SJK(C)..but what I did was to send her to a small size school where the total of students from std 1-6 are only abt 80 pax. Both the Headmistress and the teachers are very dedicated, I pay tuition fees of RM32/month (only parents affordable are asked to pay)and my girl school hour is fm 7.40am-3.30pm.The school might not use any latest equipment such as laptop to teach the students but in term of attention, love and care given by each teachers to the students, and from senior students to junior students, I am glad I made the right choice. At least the Headmistress always stress that children should be growing up healthy and happy, not reslt oriented. Of course I considered abt sending her to Sri Pinang…but I don’t want to pamper her with luxurious life as I think she is too young and need to learn to grow up with people from all level.
I know many govt schools especailly the chinese school always focus on academic result, but I am sure if you search slowly, you will find a suitable one for yurr kid.
Good luck!
bliss: thanks!
To: Bliss
which chinese school do you send your children to where you said the class size is very small? Thank you