'Bahasa Melayu made dizzy' for primary school students?

Bahasa Melayu is traditionally considered one of the most difficult subjects in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination as students are assessed on their knowledge of various branches and grammar rules in their final year of school.

Now, it seems that the difficulties experienced by Form 5 students also apply to children in their first year of school, causing many parents to worry that they are losing interest in learning the local language.

Parents and teachers have approached MalaysiaNow to talk about how the Bahasa Melayu curriculum for primary school is riddled with topics that are too advanced for the age of the students, after an earlier report blamed the maths and science curriculum for causing children to lose interest in the subjects.

Zamri Mahamod, an expert on the teaching of the national language, questioned the inclusion of poetry in the Year 1 Bahasa Melayu syllabus.

"How are they supposed to construct a pantun empat rangkap (quatrain)? They hardly know anything about the structure of a poem, such as the rhythm or the number of words in a line," said Zamri, a professor at the Faculty of Education at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

"Can the student explain the meaning of four-line pantun?" he asked, referring to a genre of poems in Malay literature.

"It's too high level and the language is not suitable for Year 1 students," he told MalaysiaNow.

A quick look at the primary school textbooks for Bahasa Melayu shows that terms such as "implicit" and "explicit" have been included in the syllabus for Year 1 to 3 students.

Zamri wondered how students at this age were able to grasp such concepts.

He said Bahasa Melayu rules such as "simpulan bahasa" (idioms) and "penjodoh bilangan" (collective noun) should not be taught to Year 1 students.

Similarly, it is too early to teach the passive voice to Year 2 students, he said.

Year 1 students are also taught how to edit texts.

The same concerns also apply to textbooks for national-type schools.

"If a non-Malay student is not interested in learning Malay, it will be difficult for him to follow the lessons even if the level of the syllabus is lower than that of the national schools," he said.

Contexts

One problem highlighted by Zamri is the use of contexts that do not fit the students' experiences.

As an example, he cited a scene at the airport included in the Year 1 Bahasa Melayu textbook.

Other problems were also noted in the Year 6 Bahasa Melayu textbook.

In one instance, a campaign on neighbourhood safety in Langkawi was shown, but students have difficulty understanding what is being conveyed.

As a result, many struggle to answer an accompanying question about the meaning of the campaign.

"Students are asked to look at the image and state the implicit and explicit meanings.

"The same applies when a picnic is shown. Not all students have experience of picnics.

"In the end, the teacher has to be creative and talk about the message of unity that is conveyed," he said.

In 2013, the Higher Order Thinking Skills, or KBAT, was introduced, while the Standard Primary School Curriculum (KSSR) was revised in 2017.

KSSR aims to emphasise KBAT with a more comprehensive and compact curriculum.

However, critics say it has not achieved its goal.

Academic writer Asmah Alias said students ended up depressed and many dropped out.

Asmah, a former teacher herself, gave examples of Year 3 activities and topics in which students learn poetry, idioms and dialogues, as well as how to form sentences using idioms and imperatives and how to paraphrase.

She said topics such as economics and agriculture are also covered in the Year 3 Bahasa Melayu textbook.

"Primary school students should be given a solid understanding of the basics. Mastering 3M is the most important thing and difficult topics should be introduced gradually instead of imposing them randomly without considering their abilities," said Asmah.

She compared this to the education system in developed countries, where she said basic skills are prioritised before the gradual development of students' EQ and IQ.

Asmah, who has more than a decade of experience writing academic textbooks, said she stopped writing because she could not cope with the demands of KBAT.

"Why bother when you can impart knowledge in a simple way?"