School Hours Should Be Extended

SCHOOL HOURS SHOULD BE EXTENDED The National Education Philosophy states that, I quote “ Education in Malaysia is an on going effort towards further developing the potential of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner so as to produce individuals who are intellectually,spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced . In other words promoting wholesome individuals” MOH, The key towards moulding a wholesome well being where all aspects of the individuals – physical, emotional,social and intellectual are promoted needs time . Time is the essence. Even the simple 1,2, 3and 3 or that matter A,B,and C need time to learnt. Such simple matters need to be drilled and drummed into our brains. What more subjects like physics,music and mathematic. Not only that learning has to be done through drills and exercises to make them sink into our memory. Furthermore an element of compulsion and supervision must be there. If given the freedom follow or not to follow the learning drills a student would be glad not to do so. There is no alternative to learning but practice and practice. And practice needs time. MOH, The present hours of study can only develop a partial growth of our potential, thus falling short of our national education philosophy. Extending schools hours can do wonders to promote wholesome growth of our potentials. Firstly in his academic pursuit, subjects such as Physics,Chemistry and Biology can ideally be taught with proper preparation and with interesting Audio and Visual support. Preparing powerpoint slide with added sound needs time. Not like the chalk and talk as at present.. The teacher does not rush through the syllabus, the touch and go affair. Remember Practice makes perfect. By extending school hours, more exercises and enrichment exercises can be given to reinforce learning. Tou don’t need tuitionanymore. The reason why tuition centers spring up like mushrooms is because of inadequate quality of teaching. Not only that the teacher can now advise, supervise and revise with the students at their own pace, thus acoomodating quck and slow learners. ……..

There is no haphazard learning Neither the skimming and scanning over of marking homework. MOH, The school is a microcosm of society. The groundwork and foundation of learning for a modern and sophisticated society comes from the school. The elementary knowledge of becoming a heart surgeon, a brain surgeon or eye specialist starts to be learnt in school. Without a thorough grounding your ills can never be healed and your will can never be fulfilled. By restricting study time when time is available is only fooling ourselves. We have held time constant . Learn what you can in the time available. Yes, some bright, hardworking students can do reasonably well. Everyone else from the typical students to the dropout – runs into trouble. Time is our learning warden. Our time bound mentality has fooled us all into believing that schools can educate all of the people all of the time in a

school year of 180 –six hour days. The consequences of our self deception has been to ask the impossible of our students.