JOHOR BARU: The current hiatus in the school term due to the Covid-19 pandemic and Movement Control Order (MCO) has thrown teaching and learning schedules out of kilter.
Teachers are daunted by the prospect of completing the syllabus for their students who will sit for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM).
Because schools were closed for the first term school break from March 13-21, teachers and students will have missed classes for almost a month when schooling presumably resumes on April 15.
Teachers in SPM and STPM examination classes now have a compressed time slot to complete the syllabus. Under normal circumstances, teachers would be able to complete the syllabus by August.
Rosleen Salleh, who teaches the Malaysian University English Test (MUET) to Lower and Upper Six students at SMK Tinggi, Kluang, said: “With the compressed time slot, it is not going to be easy for teachers to follow up on what students are doing during the lockdown and that doesn't bode well for their exam scores.”
She said despite many students having access to online learning, it is not easy to do online marking as it requires a longer time especially if one has many students to teach.
Rosleen, however, agrees that the atmosphere is definitely different when there is no face-to-face interaction.
She said teachers have set up a Telegram group for them to interact with their students, but they cannot be sure whether the students have completed their tasks on their own.
“Without face-to-face interaction, it is difficult to say if the learning process via Telegram is effective for the students to attain good results in their exams," she stressed.
Dr Nor Fadzleen Sa’don, a teacher at SMK Bandar Baru UDA, said it is vital to bear in mind that pedagogy is to learning what nursing is to medicine.
“Teachers still need to plan their teaching, set learning objectives and outcomes and identify ways to assess effectively,” said Nor Fadzleen who teaches Fifth Formers.
However, she said teachers need to be mindful of the disparities between families in terms of economic background, non-cognitive skills of parents as well as students’ acceptance of online learning.
She agrees there are plenty of matters that need to be done when school reopens to ensure no student is left behind.
Anuar Saaban, who teaches Economics to Fourth and Fifth formers at SMK Puteri Wangsa, said students and teachers will struggle to catch up with the syllabus after the MCO ends.
“There is plenty of revision and catching up that needs to be done,” he said, adding the shorter time to finish the syllabus will add pressure on teachers and students.
“During this MCO, I use WhatsApp and Google Classroom to communicate with my students and send them information to revise, but just 50 to 70 per cent of students participate in these online methods.”
He lamented that he was unable to monitor students who fail to give any feedback while others are missing in action from the WhatsApp group.
Another teacher who teaches Sixth Formers said in order to catch up with the syllabus, extra classes and reducing subsequent semester breaks are needed.
The same teacher, who declined to be named, said there is a need to delay exam dates by two to three weeks.
Some teachers mooted a suggestion to replace time slots for non-academic activities with academic lessons in order to finish off the syllabus.
On March 28, the Education Ministry said it was postponing this year’s SPM for more than a month following the extension of the MCO.
The initial dates for the SPM were originally Oct 5 - Oct 14 (First phase) and Nov 2 - 19 (second phase). However those dates are now pushed forward to Nov 16 till Dec 7.
The same announcement also said the STPM (Semester Two) was rescheduled to Nov 18, 19, 23 and 24.